***************************************************************** 12/04/07 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 15.274 ***************************************************************** 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: Salt Lake Tribune: Utah could produce power for 1.4 billion peop 2 US: CJOnline: Government is subsidizing nuclear disaster 3 US: NAM: Sen. Domenici on Dominion, Nuclear Power 4 US: ENS: States Sue EPA Over Public Access to Toxics Info 5 DW: Energy Expert: Don't Expect Much From Bali Conference | NUCLEAR REACTORS 6 US: MiamiHerald.com: Environmentalists: Delay vote on nuclear reacto 7 US: Charlotte Observer: NC responds in legal feud with SC over water 8 BBC NEWS: Nuclear power protesters moved on 9 US: Platts: B&W forms commercial nuclear power subsidiary 10 US: Examiner.com: Critics: Intimidation alive at nuke plant - 11 Greenpeace UK: An expensive white, radioactive elephant | 12 US: Asbury Park Press: N.J. firm seeks OK to build nuclear plants | 13 Reuters: EDF, Suez disagree on new French EPR reactor -report | 14 US: New West Network: The Nuclear Power Industry is Desperate 15 US: NBC 17: Dropping Lake Levels Affect Shearon Harris - 16 US: Newsday.com: State attorney general opposes new licenses for Ind NUCLEAR SECURITY 17 US: Bradenton.com: Explanations unacceptable to Tallevast residents 18 Guardian Unlimited: Slovak police seize 'dirty bomb' uranium 19 US: antiwar.com: Deck the Malls With Dirty Nukes - by Gordon Prather 20 The Herald Online: Nuclear regulator admits that it has a security c NUCLEAR SAFETY 21 BBC NEWS: Date set for beach radiation test 22 BBC NEWS: Families discuss body parts probe 23 Common Ground: Canada's role in depleted uranium weapons worldwide 24 Engineer Live!; Experts ponder implications of nuclear plant earthqu 25 TheCheers: Nuclear reactor workers at dramatically higher risk of ca 26 Saskatoon Star Phoenix: Town calls for action on uranium exposure 27 US: WTEN: Albany: Study: Local Uranium Traces Exist Long After Expos 28 US: SFNM: Unfulfilled promises: Former nuclear workers battle federa 29 National Post: Uranium contamination in a small town - 30 US: GE: Applications for nuclear plants raise safety, oversight conc NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 31 US: Star-Telegram.com: Fight over nuclear waste 32 Las Vegas SUN: YUCCA'S CROSSROADS 33 US: Belfast Telegraph: Energy Minister refuses licence to mine urani 34 This is London: Organs of miscarried babies 'were used in Sellafield 35 US: 9NEWS: Judge rules Cotter Corp. cannot accept radioactive waste 36 US: The Coloradoan: Council to take up debate on uranium mine 37 US: The Enquirer: Waste from Fernald plant at heart of clash 38 US: Carlsbad Current-Argus: DOE seeks changes in WIPP permit 39 Salt Lake Tribune: Italian nuke waste becomes hot potato for EnergyS 40 CBC News: Canada won't become nuclear waste dumping ground, minister 41 US: Reuters: USEC says ITC favors company's position on uranium impo 42 US: Knoxville News Sentinel: Erwin nuke facility allowed to store mo 43 US: ED: National Academy Of Sciences Says No-Go On GNEP 44 US: The Tribune: More legislators hear uranium concerns 45 US: Danville Register Bee: Group criticizes uranium proposal 46 CWN: Canada won't be dumping ground for nuclear waste, government sa 47 ReviewJournal.com: Yucca plans draw public's ire 48 US: The Roanoke Times: Keep the state ban on uranium mining - PEACE 49 [southnews] Iran has no nuke program, U.S. intel says 50 A Miracle: Honest Intel on Iran Nukes 51 ICH: U.S. Report: Iran Halted Nuke Work In 2003 52 US: U.S. Report Stating Iran Halted Nuke Program Finally Released 53 Us Intelligence On Iran's Nuclear Programme Should Spur Talks, Says 54 NY Times: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal Vexed Nixon US DEPT. OF ENERGY 55 Hanford News: Hanford topics voiced 56 Hanford News: Tax relief bill set for 2008 session 57 Hanford News: Waste site fined for 'mislabeled' barrel from INL: Err 58 Tri-City Herald: Initiative 297 goes another round in 9th Circuit Co 59 Guardian Unlimited: GAO Wants More Oversight of Nuclear Labs 60 Albuquerque Tribune: National labs need tougher oversight of safety, 61 Amarillo.com: DOE set to unveil plan ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Salt Lake Tribune: Utah could produce power for 1.4 billion people, say clean energy experts Article Last Updated: 11/30/2007 08:03:38 PM MST Posted: 7:47 PM- Utah has the potential to be a major exporter of clean energy. Make that mega major. Energy experts who have calculated the state's renewable energy potential figure there are enough geothermal and wind resources to supply 9.9 million people at today's national consumption levels. If Utah's potential with a newer solar technology also is considered, there could be enough power for an additional 1.4 billion people. With the nation increasingly experiencing energy difficulties and in the face of global warming science, focusing on renewable energy that minimizes carbon dioxide emissions is crucial, according to a geothermal Power boost? Utah's geothermal, wind and solar energy potential could be enough to supply more than a billion people in the foreseeable future. Here's the breakdown: -- Geothermal: 850 megawatts, 2.5 million people. -- Wind: 2,449 megawatts, 7.3 million people. -- Concentrating solar: 456,147 megawatts, 1.4 billion people. energy industry representative and two federal scientists. Speaking Friday during a governor's energy forum at the Capitol, the experts talked up renewables and what development could mean for the state's residents and economy. They also noted that the industry can't move forward without more federal and state incentives such as tax credits and regulatory reform and planning and zoning changes at the local level. Larry Flowers, a wind-power specialist with the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, said that with Utah and adjacent Western states in the climate-change bull's-eye, wind energy has become more attractive when compared with building new coal-fired or natural-gas power plants. Already, wind supplies 13,000 megawatts of power in the United States and 80,000 megawatts around the world. The goal for 2030 is around 325 gigawatts of generated power, triple the total national consumption today. With natural gas supplies and prices fluctuating, liquefied natural gas has been identified as a future energy source. But that would only continue the nation's dependence on foreign suppliers, Flowers said. Steadily escalating prices for copper, concrete and steel has made new wind power development cheaper than new coal. But it is still more expensive than old coal plants, Flowers said. More problems: There aren't enough transmission lines in the right places, the existing power grid is deteriorating, where to put the lines is hugely contentious and up-front costs are prohibitive without more state and federal incentives. Traditional fossil fuels and nuclear energy already receive billions of dollars in subsidies. Thomas Mancini, a solar power expert for the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, said utility-scale concentrating solar technology is 10 years behind wind technology. But already contracts have been signed to develop 3 gigawatts of concentrating solar capacity in the Southwest and up to 5 gigawatts elsewhere. Combined, those projects could supply 24 million people. Sandia calculated that Utah's large-scale solar potential is 456,147 megawatts, enough for nearly 1.4 billion people at today's national consumption levels. One megawatt is enough for about 750 homes, or 3,000 people. A 350 megawatt plant has been operating in California's Mojave Desert for a decade, Mancini said. That power costs about 12 cents to 16 cents per kilowatt hours, about three times what Utah residents pay for PacifiCorp electricity. PacifiCorp's mix is about 65 percent coal-fired, the dirtiest type of power contributing to global warming. Besides its initial cost, solar power has been limited by its daytime-only generation. But a new technology that uses molten salt can store energy-producing heat for seven and a half hours, Mancini said. Geothermal, however, could stand in for traditional base-load energy because it is available around the clock, said Paul Thomsen, spokesman for Ormat Technologies. The Reno, Nevada, company develops, builds, owns and operates geothermal and recovered energy generation power plants in the United States, Guatemala, Kenya and Nicaragua. Utah's current geothermal output is minimal, yielding only about 37 megawatts. By comparison, Nevada's state renewable energy standard has helped spur development of about 200 megawatts of geothermal energy. In the absence of any federal program, 25 states have adopted renewable energy standards that are giving renewables a boost. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. is pushing for a renewable energy standard that could mean 20 percent of the state's total would come from alternative sources. Those sources likely will be more expensive than traditional energy in the near term. But Utah Clean Energy executive director Sarah Wright, who is helping Huntsman achieve his conservation goal of 20 percent, pointed out that households saving that much would completely offset any renewable energy-related cost increases. Ormat's 100 megawatt plant in Nevada represented a $350 million investment and netted the state $2 million in taxes in 2006, Thomsen said. Mancini said that if 1,000 megawatts of concentrating solar energy were developed in Utah, that would mean $2 billion to $4 billion in private investment. The investment would create 3,000 to 4,000 construction jobs, 250 permanent solar plant jobs mostly in rural areas and bring $1 billion in state taxes. ***************************************************************** 2 CJOnline: Government is subsidizing nuclear disaster By Jim Hightower Minutemanmedia.org Published Friday, November 30, 2007 Like some B-movie space alien. "The Thing" is back, and it is coming at us with an insatiable appetite. After the Three Mile Island meltdown in 1979, nuke power finally seemed to be dead in America. The fission plants were too expensive to build, the multibillion-dollar taxpayer subsidies they devoured were ridiculous, the potential for atomic catastrophe was chilling, and the unresolved question of where to put the tons of radioactive waste was damning. Yet, like a grotesque phoenix, here it comes again. Why? One word: BushCheney. The big utilities, along with such powerhouse nuclear equipment makers as General Electric, were generous funders of George W's run for the White House — and their payback was the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which has resuscitated the beast. How? By pumping it full of new government subsidies. This bloated bill offers $125 million in tax breaks for each new nuclear plant and provides loan guarantees of 80 percent of a plant's cost (including cost overruns). Utilities also are given exemptions from legal liability in case of such catastrophic incidents as meltdowns. Meanwhile, these profitable corporations are not made responsible for the disposal of the nuclear waste that their reactors generate. All of the old problems that shut down the industry remain, but government money has revived The Thing. As one candid utility executive says, the new subsidies are "the whole reason we started down this path. If it were not for the nuclear provisions in [the bill], we would not have even started developing this plan." Instead of subsidizing a future disaster just to fatten the profits of the nuclear industry, our tax dollars should be invested in safe, clean, renewable energy and conservation. For more information on Jim Hightower's work — and to subscribe to his award-winning monthly newsletter, The Hightower Lowdown, visit www.jimhightower.com. ***************************************************************** 3 NAM: Sen. Domenici on Dominion, Nuclear Power National Assoc of Manufacturers November 29, 2007 Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) on Dominion's application for a third reactor unit at the North Anna nuclear power station in Virginia. The project includes Bechtel Corporation (hey, a redesigned website!) and General Electric-Hitachi (a relatively recent alliance) in the Combined Operating License application. The unit would operate a next-generation General Electric reactor, which would provide enough energy to power 375,000 homes in Virginia“It is clear that momentum for nuclear energy in America is continuing to grow. After 30 years with no action, we have now seen three applications to build new plants in the last three months, with even more possible in the near future. This is an exciting time for nuclear, and for those that want cleaner energy in our nation,” Domenici said. “It has been obvious to me for quite some time that any serious effort to address global climate change must have nuclear energy as its centerpiece. Nuclear power is clean, safe, and efficient. As we work on policies that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we must continue to support nuclear energy just as other nations have done,” he continued. Domenici takes rightful pride in his leadership in helping pass the 2005 Energy Policy Act, a forward-looking piece of legislation that encouraged development of domestic energy supplies. Compared to ....(We don't know what the "compromise" energy bill looks like yet. Any attention to domestic oil, natural gas, coal or nuclear power? Hope so. Yep. Lots of hopes. Hopeful...) Domenici's full release is in the extended entry portion below. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: MATT LETOURNEAU NOVEMBER 28, 2007 (202) 224-6977 DOMENICI APPLAUDS LATEST NUCLEAR PLANT APPLICATION Momentum for Nuclear Energy Continues as Third COL is Filed ALBUQUERQUE – U.S. Senator Pete Domenici today said that momentum for nuclear energy in America is continuing to grow, as evidenced by the filing of the third formal application to build a new nuclear power plant in the last three months. Domenici, the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Senate’s leading expert and proponent of nuclear energy, today applauded news that Dominion Generation has filed a Combined Operating License (COL) application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Dominion seeks to add a third reactor unit to the North Anna Power Station, located northwest of Richmond near Louisa, VA. “It is clear that momentum for nuclear energy in America is continuing to grow. After 30 years with no action, we have now seen three applications to build new plants in the last three months, with even more possible in the near future. This is an exciting time for nuclear, and for those that want cleaner energy in our nation,” Domenici said. “It has been obvious to me for quite some time that any serious effort to address global climate change must have nuclear energy as its centerpiece. Nuclear power is clean, safe, and efficient. As we work on policies that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we must continue to support nuclear energy just as other nations have done,” he continued. An Early Site Permit (ESP) was issued to Dominion for North Anna on November 20 by the NRC, clearing the way for the project to proceed. The ESP was issued following a cost-sharing agreement between Dominion and the U.S. Department of Energy. Dominion is partnering with Bechtel Corporation and General Electric-Hitachi on the COL application. The unit would operate a next-generation General Electric reactor, which would provide enough energy to power 375,000 homes in Virginia. If the application is approved, the new unit could be online as soon as 2015. Most analysts have credited the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which was shepherded through Congress by Domenici, for spurring the current round of applications. Domenici is the author of “A Brighter Tomorrow: Fulfilling the Promise of Nuclear Energy,” which was published in 2004. --30-- Posted by Carter Wood at November 29, 2007 8:19 AM Send to a 2007 National Assocation of Manufacturers 1331 Pennslyvania Ave., NW Washington, DC 20004-1790 Phone: (202) 637-3000 Fax: (202) 637-3182 E-mail: manufacturing@nam.org The NAM does not release customer information to third parties except in conjunction with NAM-sponsored programs. ***************************************************************** 4 ENS: States Sue EPA Over Public Access to Toxics Info Environment News Service (ENS) NEW YORK, New York New York and 11 other states are suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, over new regulations denying the public access to information about toxic chemicals in their communities. The EPA will allow thousands of companies to avoid disclosing information to the public about the toxic chemicals they use, store, and release into the environment by rolling back chemical reporting requirements. Filed Wednesday in federal court in New York, the states' lawsuit seeks to overturn the weakened reporting requirements and provide the public with the access they had in the past. "The EPA's new regulations rob New Yorkers - and people across the country - of their right to know about toxic dangers in their own backyards," said Attorney General Cuomo. "Along with 11 other states throughout the nation, we will restore the public's right to information about chemical hazards, despite the Bush administration's best attempts to hide it." Wastes containing the toxic chemical arsenic (Photo courtesy U.S. EPA) The other states or state agencies joining New York in the suit are - Arizona, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. The changes to reporting requirements affect the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory, TRI, program, the only comprehensive, publicly-available database of toxic chemical use, storage, and release in the United States. Under the TRI, companies are required to provide the EPA and the states in which the company's facilities are located with information critical to public health and safety, and the environment. This information includes the types and amounts of toxic chemicals stored at the company's facilities and the quantities they release into the environment. The new regulations, which took effect in January 2007, weakened the TRI by reducing the amount of information companies must report for most of the toxic chemicals covered by the program. For many chemicals, the new regulations increased by 10-fold the quantity of chemical waste a facility can generate without providing detailed TRI reports. The EPA also weakened TRI reporting requirements for the majority of the most dangerous toxic chemicals - those that are persistent and bioaccumulative - including chemicals such as lead and mercury. As a result, thousands of companies can now avoid filing a complete report on harmful chemicals. California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. said, "The EPA is subverting a key public safety measure that helps communities protect themselves from toxic chemicals. The federal government should require more, not less, disclosure of the toxic substances that the threaten public health and safety." Under the new rules, approximately 5,300 facilities nationally could be permitted to conceal vital safety information from the EPA about toxic chemical levels and management of toxic waste. The new regulations increase by 10-fold the quantity of chemical waste that a facility can generate without providing detailed reports. Brown says that the EPA's adoption of the new rule violates the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, a law which requires the federal agency to collect information on toxic chemicals. The law was passed under President Ronald Reagan after a cloud of methyl isocyanate killed thousands of people in Bhopal, India and then a similar chemical release occurred at a sister plant in West Virginia. Facilities covered by the Right-to-Know Act must disclose their releases of 650 toxic chemicals as well as the quantities of chemicals they recycle, treat, burn, or otherwise dispose of on-site and off-site. The information in the database has been used by citizen groups, state and local governments and labor organizations to protect workers and monitor toxic chemicals. "For two decades, the Toxics Release Inventory has been a vital and powerful tool to help workers and citizens identify and push for reductions in toxic chemical releases in workplaces and communities," said Peg Seminario, safety and health director of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, AFL-CIO. "But instead of strengthening protections, the Bush administration put the interests of big chemical companies before worker and public health, and allowed companies to withhold important information about the extent of their toxic pollution." Tom Natan, research director for the National Environmental Trust, said, "EPA's rollback means that more than 10 percent of communities will lose all data on releases of toxic chemicals to the environment. EPA claims this is insignificant. But by filing this suit, New York and other states are standing up for those communities and helping preserve useful public health data for everyone." "These new regulations put our communities at risk," said Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard. "In Arizona, we've seen fires involving toxic chemicals, and knowing what chemicals are involved help firefighters and public safety personnel take the necessary precautions to protect themselves as well as the surrounding neighborhoods. Without this information, our public safety personnel and our neighborhoods are at much greater risk of being exposed to unknown hazards during a fire or chemical spill." The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and will be heard by District Judge Barbara Jones and Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman. Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2007. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 5 DW: Energy Expert: Don't Expect Much From Bali Conference | Deutsche Welle | 01.12.2007 Reforestation is a cheap way to help save the earth, said Scheer As the UN Climate Conference gets underway on Bali, energy expert Hermann Scheer told DW-WORLD.DE not to get hopes up. The Alternative Nobel Prize winner suggested a few other ways of protecting the earth. Hermann Scheer is a Social Democratic member of the German parliament. He is president of the EUROSOLAR organization for renewable energy and general chairman of the World Council for Renewable Energy. DW-WORLD.DE: What do you expect to come out of the negotiations on Bali? Hermann Scheer: That a decision will be made to hold another conference. There are lots of good intentions and appeals, but nothing concrete. Too many expectations have been projected on this conference, which makes the disappointment afterward even bigger. For many governments, these meetings take the place of doing something, according to the unwritten motto: "Speak globally, delay nationally." Everything is put off until the conference, even though they know that no real break-through decisions will happen there. The question has to be asked: Is this the right level to be solving these problems at? Why are you so skeptical? There's a lot of pressure for the participating countries to reach an agreement. Bildunterschrift: Scheer is General Chairman of the World Council for Renewable Energy All of these conferences depend on reaching a consensus. But the principle of consensus contradicts the necessity of speeding things us. And we desperately need to speed up the fight against climate change. It's time to think about not making these conferences a standard for everything that further decisions are based on. Do UN climate conferences have any value at all? These conferences do have significance, which is why they should be held -- that is, raising awareness of the problem and creating public pressure on the countries to act. Their value is in keeping the topic up high on the political agenda. But you can't expect the necessary, practical solutions here. Action has to happen later, in the individual countries themselves. What topics should be discussed on Bali? An initiative for increased dismantling of nuclear power plants will be on the table on Bali. But you can't fall into the trap of thinking that nuclear power is the solution to the climate problem. Let's just think about the problematic effects of nuclear energy, the costs associated with it, and the risks that result. It needs to be critically discussed that the allegedly CO2-free power plants lead to a dead end. This approach isn't so much in the foreground because there's supposed to be a guarantee of survival for the large power plants. Why does CO2 refinement lead to a dead end? The concept of refining and storing CO2 can't be successful. It can't be released from the earth ever again. It's comparable to the atomic waste problem. And it will be incredibly expensive. Everything will be swept to the side. It would be much better to get away from the big power plant structure and replace them with decentralized energy supplies. And, internationally, we finally have to come to the realization that fighting climate change won't bring economic damage. In fact, the opposite is true: Increasing energy efficiency and switching to renewable energy sources means a huge economic benefit and is an investment in the future. What should the central points be in the successor treaty to Kyoto? Bildunterschrift: Scheer sees little future for nuclear power The cheapest method of relieving the climate situation should be put in the foreground -- that is, a worldwide reforestation program that would considerably reduce the excess CO2 in the atmosphere. It would also be groundbreaking to organize a transfer of technology to developing and emerging nations. One proposal is to set up an international agency for renewable energy, but there's too much resistant to it on Bali. I've been following this idea for 17 years and since then it's even been approved by the German government. With the UN consensus process, it probably wouldn't be possible. The agency would have to be founded by the countries that want to participate as a government organization. Are there other ways to include the developing and emerging nations? We'd have to talk about how we can give existing institutions more capacity and financial power to assist the countries. That would be a topic that should be focused on at these kinds of conferences. That's true for UNESCO, when it's a matter of training specialists. It's also true for UNIDO, the UN organization for industrial development that is there to support renewable energies in emerging nations. And it applies to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which helps countries establish bio-energy structures in order to get away from energy imports. Interview: Torsten Schäfer (kjb) German Architects Design Self-Sufficient "Energy Tower" An architecture firm in Dortmund has designed an entirely self-sufficient building that produces all the energy it needs with solar panels, mirrors and wind turbines. (27.11.2007) * Climate Change: A Planet at Risk Click on DW's interactive map to explore the effects of climate change across the world. (23.11.2007) * Climate Change as Frightening as Science Fiction Movie Proof of humans' impact on warming the earth's atmosphere is unequivocal, and the world faces a moral obligation to fight climate change, according to the final report by the United Nations' leading climate council. (17.11.2007) 2007 Deutsche Welle ***************************************************************** 6 MiamiHerald.com: Environmentalists: Delay vote on nuclear reactors - 12/03/2007 - TURKEY POINT Managers of the national park that abuts Turkey Point power plant want Miami-Dade County to pause before a vote on approving two more nuclear reactors. BY CURTIS MORGAN cmorgan@MiamiHerald.com TIM CHAPMAN/MIAMI HERALD STAFF Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant in South Miami-Dade County. Biscayne National Park managers and environmentalists want Miami-Dade County commissioners to postpone a Dec. 20 zoning vote that would allow the building of two new nuclear reactors at Turkey Point, arguing there are too many unanswered questions about impacts on the water supply, coastal wetlands and marine life. The two biggest ones: Where will Florida Power & Light get up to 90 million additional gallons of water a day to cool the proposed reactors, which would join two operating there for decades, and what will it do with the steaming discharge water? ''They don't know if they'll use salt water or fresh water. They're even looking at recycled wastewater,'' said Elsa Alvear, the park's chief of resource management. ``These are the kinds of questions that really need to be answered.'' FPL and county managers agree, but insist getting answers now isn't essential for a zoning application that is one early step in a review that will take years and require approvals from an array of state and federal regulators. Mayco Villafana, an FPL spokesman, said the company was still deciding between two types of advanced light-water reactors and would study all possible options to cool them -- the bay, the ocean, existing cooling canals, deep underground aquifers and treated wastewater. ''We're just beginning this process. To presuppose one or the other, there is no answer,'' he said. ``At every step along the way, the environmental groups will have an opportunity to say what their concerns are.'' The county's Development Impact Committee, made up of department heads, last week rejected requests to defer its vote by the park and environmental groups, including The National Parks Conservation Association, Clean Water Action and the Sierra Club. The committee signed off on FPL's ''unusual-use'' permit, sending it to the County Commission for a final decision at a public hearing. Carlos Espinosa, director of the Department of Environmental Resource Management, said the permit includes 19 ''conditions'' that will assure continued county oversight once FPL decides on its designs. BISCAYNE AQUIFER One forbids tapping the Biscayne Aquifer, the shallow underground reservoir that supplies most of the county's drinking water. Another requires FPL to use reclaimed water, or treated sewage, to the ''maximum extent possible,'' a position demanded by the South Florida Water Management District in a new long-term water-use permit. Another asks FPL to show that drawing more water from the deep underground Floridan aquifer, which supplies up to 14 million gallons a day to two existing reactors, won't hurt communities now tapping it. A fourth demands the utility submit a plan for discharging cooling water that conforms to county environmental regulations. DERM also refused FPL's initial requests to mine the site for fill, saying rock pits could harm surrounding wetlands and worsen salt water intrusion. The utility withdrew its mining request but could refile later. `HUGE FACILITY' ''This is a huge facility. They need to look at multiple options and not all those answers are there yet,'' Espinosa said. ``We have anticipated all the possible scenarios.'' Turkey Point is already home to Florida's two oldest nuclear reactors, units cooled by a closed network of canals dug because of concerns about dumping hot water into the shallow bay. Park managers and activists say without more details, it is impossible to evaluate potential impacts from additional reactors or whether permit conditions are tough enough. In a series of letters to county agencies, Biscayne Superintendent Mark Lewis, whose headquarters sits a few miles from the FPL plant, listed a number of concerns. COOLING CANALS Among them: Drawing water from the bay or Atlantic could affect manatees, shrimp and an array of marine life. The effects of heat and steam from cooling towers have not been analyzed. Delivering treated wastewater could require a pipeline through the bay or park lands. There are also concerns about tapping the existing cooling canals, which have become the prime breeding grounds for crocodiles in South Florida, helping get the reptiles off the endangered species list. Pumping more hot water into them or digging more canals in the coastal wetlands could potentially have negative impacts on the crocodiles. And, Lewis wrote, with projected rises in sea levels in coming decades, ``The park questions whether it is desirable to place nuclear facilities in a location that will likely turn into an island in the bay.'' TIMING OF VOTE Dawn Shirreffs, an organizer for Clean Water Action, called the zoning permit the county's best shot at controlling what goes on at Turkey Point. She questioned why, when it will be years before state and federal regulators complete reviews, the county should consider a key decision at a public hearing five days before Christmas. ''What the DIC should have done and what the commission should do is defer this vote,'' she said. ``There is no reason to do this now.'' Villafana said FPL filed its application more than six months ago, and had no say in the timing of the vote. The utility, according to county records, has employed 15 lobbyists to work on zoning and permit issues at Turkey Point, a site that county planning documents say is the most logical location for expansion because of the existing nuclear facility. ''If we do not have the expertise, we hire outside consultants to provide it and help us,'' Villafana said. ``We felt that is part of providing public officials or the public the right answers.'' Villafana said FPL was following standard protocol when building or expanding a power facility, which frequently draws concern from nearby communities. The utility said that it needs to produce more power to meet projected demands. ''Building this kind of nuclear power plant is going to take 10 to 12 years,'' Villafana said. * Copyright 1996-2007 The Miami Herald Media Company| ***************************************************************** 7 Charlotte Observer: NC responds in legal feud with SC over water from shared river 11/30/2007 | The Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. -- The water needs of North Carolina pose no imminent threat to South Carolina's interest in the Catawba River, which provides drinking water and electricity to both, the state said Friday in response to a lawsuit filed by its neighbor to the south. South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster filed a lawsuit in June opposing plans by the North Carolina cities of Concord and Kannapolis to pump up to 10 million gallons a day from the river. McMaster said a 1991 North Carolina law allowing such a water transfer violates the U.S. Constitution because it prevents the states from equitably sharing the river. In a filing with the U.S. Supreme Court, which has not yet agreed to hear the case, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper argued that any lack of Catawba River water stems not from such a transfer, but from a severe drought that has affected water supplies across the Southeast. "South Carolina has failed to allege that it has been deprived of the reasonable use of the waters of the Catawba River, and, even if it has been so deprived, has failed to allege that any actions by North Carolina so deprived it," the complaint states. Concord and Kannapolis - two growing suburbs of Charlotte, the largest city in the two states - are not currently taking any water from the Catawba River while a permit allowing the transfer is under review by an administrative law judge. The permit would allow the two cities to draw water from the river and return treated wastewater to a river basin that is closer to their communities than the Catawba. The cities have said returning the water to its source river basin would be too expensive. The Catawba River winds 225 miles through the Carolinas, providing drinking water to 1.3 million people and electricity to at least a million people. Duke Energy Corp. owns and operates the river's reservoirs, hydrostations and power plants. Cooper told the court that a pending federal license review of Duke's operations would set minimum water flow restrictions to benefit South Carolina, so "the matter is not yet ripe for decision and should be dismissed." North Carolina also said the lawsuit should be dismissed for several other reasons, including a failure to name the United States as a defendant. Cooper said that was required since federally regulated national parks and nuclear plants use water in the region. Should the Supreme Court hear the case, McMaster expects they would appoint a special judge to conduct hearings. McMaster's ultimate goal is to force North Carolina to enter an interstate compact with South Carolina over water issues. * About Charlotte.com | ***************************************************************** 8 BBC NEWS: Nuclear power protesters moved on Last Updated: Saturday, 1 December 2007, 15:53 GMT Protesters chained themselves together to block an entrance Protesters blocking the entrance road to a nuclear power station at Sizewell in Suffolk have been moved away. Police said three women and a man had "locked" themselves into place outside the power station using concrete. Officers said a small group also gathered at the site to offer the protesters support, and people arriving for work had found the way in blocked. If Gordon Brown wants to expand the nuclear industry he should realise that he will face an awful lot of opposition Mell Harrison A police spokesman said: "A group of four people locked themselves down using concrete around their arms. "No-one has been hurt, no arrests were made and after negotiations the people unlocked themselves." A spokesman for the protesters said various groups opposed to nuclear power and the development of Sizewell had been involved. "The protest is being staged because British Energy suggested last week they aim to build four nuclear power stations at their sites in the UK," he said. "We want to show them that it isn't going to be quite as simple as that." Explore alternatives A Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament spokeswoman said the group wanted to spell out the dangers of nuclear expansion to Prime Minister Gordon Brown. "We were lying across the road for 15 minutes fastened together before the security guards came," said campaigner Mell Harrison, 36, of Bungay, Suffolk. "We were 200 metres from the reactor, if that. If we can do it so can terrorists. Imagine that. We didn't get inside the fence. But protesters have done that before. "If Gordon Brown wants to expand the nuclear industry he should realise that he will face an awful lot of opposition. All the old problems with nuclear power have not gone away. "The Government will discover that an awful lot of people have concerns and people will protest. The answer isn't nuclear power. We must explore alternatives." * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 9 Platts: B&W forms commercial nuclear power subsidiary 2007-11-27 Washington (Platts)--27Nov2007 B&W has formed a commercial nuclear power subsidiary, the company announced November 27. The subsidiary, Babcock & Wilcox Nuclear Power Generation Group Inc., is headquartered in Lynchburg, Virginia. The subsidiary's president is Richard Reimels, former president of Babcock & Wilcox Canada Ltd. The subsidiary is staffed "primarily" by employees moved from B&W's other operating units, said spokesman Steve Stultz. The subsidiary's offerings include manufacture of pressure vessels, engineering expertise, and fuel service inspection and repairs. The company has also changed its name from The Babcock & Wilcox Companies to The Babcock & Wilcox Company. It also renamed other major operating units: the former Babcock & Wilcox Company is now Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group Inc.; BWXT Services Inc is now Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Group Inc.; and BWX Technologies Nuclear Operations Division is now Babcock & Wilcox Nuclear Operations Group Inc. The four groups have a workforce of about 22,000, Stultz said. In a statement, B&W CEO John Fees said, "Moving forward, we will be better able to leverage our product and service offerings, particularly in the expanding nuclear power sector, and to pool our vast resources to play a major role in this growing market." Copyright 2007 - Platts, All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 10 Examiner.com: Critics: Intimidation alive at nuke plant - Dec 4, 2007 12:00 AM (22 hrs ago) by Matthew Santoni, The Examiner BALTIMORE (Map, News) -Federal investigators aren’t addressing the fear of reprisal that discouraged employees from reporting sleeping guards at Peach Bottom nuclear plant, six miles from Harford in Pennsylvania, critics say. “Multiple people had to be aware of this, but none of these people felt compelled to say, ‘Hey, I’m raising a red flag here,’ ” said John Jasinski, a former Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station security director who worked with security guard Kerry Beal to bring the sleeping guards to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s attention. “Are people afraid to report these types of incidents?” he asked. “They don’t know how to report?” Reports of sleeping guards had not gotten past shift supervisors — and at least one supervisor discouraged reports, plant manager Joseph Grimes said at a public hearing Monday at the Peach Bottom Inn in Delta near the plant. ***************************************************************** 11 Greenpeace UK: An expensive white, radioactive elephant | Posted by jamie on 29 November 2007. Ever since the government started ranting about the joy of new nuclear power stations, a central plank of their shaky argument has been that the billions required will be covered by industry and not the taxpayer. But despite these bold claims, legislation and loopholes have been carefully engineered so that public money will inevitably subsidise the industry. Hardly surprising, given there hasn't been a single civil nuclear project that hasn't required huge sums of public dosh. Back in May 2006, the then industry secretary Alistair Darling said: "it would be for the private sector to initiate, fund, construct and operate new nuclear plants and cover the costs of decommissioning and their full share of long term waste management costs." Long before he uttered those words, the Energy Act 2004 gave the Secretary of State powers to bail out any company which couldn't meet its obligations to deal with nuclear waste. What are the chances of some future incumbent having to dig deep, given that the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (created to oversee the radioactive waste problem) reckons it will cost (wait for it) £73 billion just to clean up the existing mess. Pretty high, I'd say. Further more, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBERR) won't say what that "full share" actually means. No one knows. Will companies have to pay the "full" cost of waste clean up, or only a smaller "share"? We suspect it will be the latter, and that means taxpayers will have to foot a hefty slice of the bill to clean up radioactive waste from new reactors. And, on top of this, companies won't have to provide any assurance that they'll be able to meet decommissioning costs, unlike (bizarrely) those setting up wind farms. Don't forget, not one public nuclear project anywhere in the world has been built, operated and decommissioned through private funds alone. Just thought it was worth mentioning again. Fans of the privately-funded fantasy point to Finland and the US for examples of where it can work. Except it doesn't. Finland's Olkiluoto plant currently being built is hundreds of millions of pounds over budget and about two years behind schedule. Even though the construction project only started two years ago. Meanwhile on the other side of the pond, a US government programme set up in 2002 to reinvigorate their nuclear power industry is all about providing state subsidies to entice private investment. Even so, it hasn't been enough to tickle the fancy of company board-members as no orders for new plants have yet been placed. Back home, all this financial juggling shows that the government doesn't have the confidence to stand by its own grandiose claims. If you want to delve further, try our new briefing, The New Rush for Nuclear: An Expensive White Elephant, but if government has to keep bailing out nuclear projects which are sinking faster than a South Pacific island, how much will be left to provide the real solution to climate change? ***************************************************************** 12 Asbury Park Press: N.J. firm seeks OK to build nuclear plants | APP.com | ? December 1, 2007 PRINCETON — An application by a New Jersey energy company to build two new nuclear plants in southeastern Texas is accepted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. NRG Energy Inc., Princeton, says the application is the first the NRC's accepted in 29 years. NRG says its license application could be approved in time to start building in 2010 at the South Texas Project nuclear power station site, with the plants ready to operate in 2014 and 2015. The site is in Matagorda County, southwest of Houston. The Associated Press Copyright 2007 Asbury Park Press. All rights reserved. Users of ***************************************************************** 13 Reuters: EDF, Suez disagree on new French EPR reactor -report | Fri Nov 30, 2007 2:05am EST PARIS, Nov 30 (Reuters) - French power group EDF (EDF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) and utility Suez (LYOE.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) do not agree on the need to build a second European pressurised nuclear reactor (EPR) in France, French daily Les Echos reported on Friday. EDF estimates that the future Flamanville reactor, which is under construction, will meet power needs until 2020, the paper said. But Suez believes that there is room for a least one aditional plant, it said. Suez and EDF could not be immediately reached for comment. (Reporting by Dominique Vidalon) Reuters2007All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 14 New West Network: The Nuclear Power Industry is Desperate Guest Opinion by John Weber By John Weber, 12-03-07 The nuclear industry is pushing for a so-called Nuclear Renaissance, which they hope will assure a future when nuclear power dominates energy production. Why are these businesses spending millions of dollars on advertising now? Quite simple: the nuclear power industry is desperate to get the nuclear fuel cycle and new plant construction started before people get informed, and the booming renewable energies make them obsolete. Wind and solar power generation is growing at about 40% a year compounded. This outpaces new nuclear generation by far, despite the current higher cost of generation. The only thing limiting the growth is the current lack of supply which, along with new investment, is coming on quickly. Renewable generation companies are some of the hottest issues on Wall Street today. Insiders say the cost of renewable generation will drop to a competitive level within the next three to seven years, through much more supply coming online and with new technological advances. The people overwhelmingly are demanding wind and solar power as their preferred source of electricity generation, even in Idaho, according to a BSU statewide survey. Both systems can also be used at homes and businesses and tied directly to the grid without loosing significant power in transmission lines. A study from Oxford University shows that intermittent renewables with combined heat and power can dependably provide most of a Britains electricity. It states it puts renewables ahead of nuclear power. This strategy can be applied to other areas of the world as well. The smart or distributive grid is the future and is more secure than the centralized grid. The nuclear industry spin, better known as Green washing is trying to put a green spin on something that is not green. Everyone knows green sells! The industrys advertising tactics say that nuclear produces no greenhouse gases, but they dont tell you many greenhouse gases are produced in the mining, milling, and enriching of the uranium fuel used to power the plants. They dont tell you of all the non-green problems that come with the activities used to get the fuel. The industry does not have a long term solution for the radioactive waste it produces. They are asking the federal government to pay for it. This industry is very highly subsidized by our tax dollars and without the subsidies cannot compete with other sources of generation. Nuclear power is a very centralized generation source, making outages more serious. The few jobs, in comparison to renewable generation, are located in one area. Renewable jobs are distributed over all geographic areas. The profits from renewable generation are spent in the communities they service, not kept in the hands of a few shareholders likely living a long ways away. If we, the people, allow the nuclear industry to rebuild, they will grow in size and power. With this increased power they will lobby to reduce the little funding for renewable energy generation even further. This would lead to taking away these renewable or democratic sources of generating power and robbing us of our independence. Ultimately this will all increase the cost of the electricity which we purchase. Maximizing the use of renewables is clearly the best choice for Idaho families. Publishers note: John Weber, not to be confused with NewWest founder Jonathan Weber, lives in Boise. By John Weber, 12-03-07 | comments (17) | email story | print story 2007 NewWest, All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 15 NBC 17: Dropping Lake Levels Affect Shearon Harris - Thursday, Nov 29, 2007 - 10:19 PM Updated: 11:47 PM By Steve Sbraccia General Assignment Reporter WNCN-TV NEW HILL, N.C.--- The drought is raising some surprising concerns about the power supply in our area. That’s because the dry conditions are causing levels at Harris Lake to slowly drop. And the Shearon Harris nuclear power plant relies on that lake for cooling water for the reactor there. As a result, water experts are watching the lake’s level closely. “The lake's pretty low,” said Syd Miller, the water resources manager for the Triangle Council of Governments. His agency recently briefed municipal leaders from around central North Carolina about the current drought situation. He says unlike Falls and Jordan Lakes, Harris Lake is in a more critical state because of the drought. “By volume, Harris Lake is one of the largest lakes in the region, but it has a very small watershed,” he said. That small watershed means it's difficult for the lake to refill. When at capacity, the lake is considered full when it’s level reaches 220 feet above sea level. Currently, Progress Energy says the lake is at 217.8 feet. Spokesman Scott Sutton says the utility is licensed to operate the nuclear reactor until the lake level drops to 215 feet. “If it falls below that level, Shearon Harris nuclear facility has to shut down,” said Miller. He explained that at 215 feet, “it becomes a potentially dangerous situation because they don't necessarily have stuffiness cooling water to operate the plant.” Progress Energy spokesman Scott Sutton said the utility is believes it is a long way from reaching 215 feet, but is "closely monitoring" the lake and the drought. He told NBC-17 that Progress Energy believes the cooler temperatures will reduce evaporation from the lake, helping to slow the loss from it if the low rainfalls continue. Read Steve's blog, "Between the Lines." WNCN - NBC17 ***************************************************************** 16 Newsday.com: State attorney general opposes new licenses for Indian Point -- By JIM FITZGERALD | Associated Press Writer 5:30 PM EST, December 3, 2007 WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - Longtime critics of the Indian Point nuclear power plant gathered Monday for what they hoped would be a "tipping point" in the battle to shut the plant's two reactors _ announcement of the state's opposition to new 20-year licenses. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said the state had filed papers with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission listing 32 reasons the licenses should be refused, including that the reactors are susceptible to terrorist attack, that the area around them cannot be safely evacuated and that their aging structures increase the chance of a radioactive leak. He called Indian Point, which is 35 miles north of midtown Manhattan in Buchanan, "a catastrophe waiting to happen." The attorney general was joined at a crowded news conference by members of Congress, state legislators, Lt. Gov. David Paterson, most of the Westchester County Legislature, County Executive Andrew Spano and citizen activist groups. While no new arguments were presented, several speakers' anti-nuclear statements were applauded. Assemblyman Richard Brodsky called the event "historic." The plant's owner, Entergy Nuclear, and several industry groups counterattacked with news releases and a teleconference to put forward their own oft-expressed arguments _ that the two reactors are safe, that they keep energy prices down and that shutting them would be a blow to the region's environment and economy. "When you consider that the New York City subways and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Metro-North trains are among just a few of the key governmental facilities that depend on power from Indian Point, the importance of a reliable, lower-cost supply of electricity becomes clear," Entergy said. Many of the issues raised by Cuomo and other speakers may be irrelevant to the relicensing process. The NRC, which has never denied a relicensing application, has made clear that such issues as terrorism and evacuation will not be considered, under the existing rules. Efforts are under way in court and in Congress to force the NRC to expand its review. Alex Matthiessen, president of the environmental group Riverkeeper, said the NRC is "corrupt" and said the energy industry has "had them in their back pockets for decades." NRC spokeswoman Diane Screnci said, "We have regulations that we enforce, and all of our work is done very openly and honestly." Cuomo said he was aware of the NRC's requirements but was sure that some of the state's contentions would be deemed worthy of a hearing, even if the terrorism and evacuation issue were not. Though Cuomo said he supported an immediate shutdown of Indian Point, he and other opponents were clearly focused on the license applications as a more realistic opportunity to close the plant. Cuomo said he envisioned "a protracted legal battle," and he added, "I think today is a tipping point. We have a critical mass today." He and others insisted that Indian Point's power could be replaced with conservation and energy alternatives including natural gas, wind and hydropower. Rep. Nita Lowey said she hoped the 2008 elections would produce a president who could change the NRC and a Congress more likely to oppose big energy companies. Screnci, the NRC spokeswoman, said the commission's Atomic Safety Licensing Board would grant a hearing on any issues that it considered relevant. She said "it could be a couple of months" before a decision is reached on the state's papers. A decision on the licenses, which would allow the two reactors to run until 2033 and 2035, is more than a year away. Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material ***************************************************************** 17 Bradenton.com: Explanations unacceptable to Tallevast residents | 11/30/2007 | TIFFANY TOMPKINS-CONDIE Robert Smith, Tallevast resident for all 79 years of his life, sits in the Mt. Tabor Church during a community meeting with officials from the Department of Environmental Protection.--photo by Tiffany Tompkins-Condie/ttompkins@bradenton.com * SLIDESHOW | Explanations unacceptable to Tallevast By DONNA WRIGHT and BETH BURGER Herald Staff Writers TALLEVAST -- The Tallevast plume cleanup is right on track, state environmentalists and Lockheed Martin Corp. said Thursday night. But that track is far too long for many residents who are afraid living atop the toxins has compromised their health. A crowd of about 150 people filled Mount Tabor Missionary Baptist Church to hear presentations from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Lockheed, the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Environmental Justice and the community's independent technical consultants. It was the first community meeting hosted by DEP and Lockheed since December of 2005, despite repeated requests from FOCUS, a resident advocacy group. Deborah Getzoff, DEP's regional director and Bill Kutash, the agency's point man on the Tallevast cleanup said Lockheed will be held to strict deadlines to produce a final cleanup plan by Sept. 1 or face fines of $1,000 a day. That wasn't enough for some in the crowd, though. "A billion-dollar company isn't going to worry about $1,000-a-day fine," said Beverly Bradley, who lives across from the old beryllium plant that is the source of the toxic spill. "Lockheed is going to keep requesting more and more time and we are still going to be here, listening to the same thing over and over." In September, Lockheed requested a year extension on a looming deadline to submit revisions that addressed weaknesses DEP identified in the company's cleanup plan, many of them related to uncertainty about how the pollutants will move underground over time. As the former owner of the plant when the spill was discovered in 2000, Lockheed is responsible for cleaning up the pollution. DEP granted the extension, but built in deadlines for progress reports Lockheed must meet to ensure the final plan is filed by Sept. 1. "We intend to keep Lockheed to that schedule," Getzoff said. But Getzoff's promise wasn't enough for Brenda Pinkney, who lives near the plant. "We appreciate your promise and we applaud your coming here tonight, but we have had extensions for years. . . . What about relocation? Our being here impedes the cleanup. When are you going to move us out of here or are we still going to be here 20 years from now?" Lewis Pryor, a longtime Tallevast resident said the community has lost patience. "We are exasperated in our concerns. We are looking for a resolution that will get us away from what is harming us, but no one is addressing that concern. We need you to take the lead to address this problem with other agencies to help us." Getzoff listened, but had no answers. "I can't address relocation because we have no jurisdiction in that area," Getzoff said. But she did offer her sympathy. "We would not be here tonight and we would not be working at hard as we are working if we did not care," she said. Over the next 10 months, Lockheed will drill more monitoring wells and conduct more sampling, said Paul Calligan, project manager. Arcadis BBL, the company drilling the wells, is conducting continuous air-monitoring tests to see if harmful vapors are being released. In response to a request from FOCUS, Lockheed has agreed to fund independent air testing conducted by James L. Poole and Hilda Williams of Environ International Corp. of Tampa. Poole and Williams began their side-by-side air tests with Arcadis one week ago. But for residents who shared their personal experiences with the contamination at Thursday's meetings, the answers from Lockheed, DEP, EPA or Manatee County officials weren't enough. "It's the same old response. 'We're not sure.' 'We don't know.' 'We're unsure about that.' They tell us we're not in harm's way. But we have people with respiratory problems, cancers and stress," Pinkney said. "We have to deal with all these things." When Pinkney's 9-year-old son goes to play outside she worries about the direction of the wind and which part of the yard he can play in. Cassandra Brice, vice president of Tallevast Community Center, worries about the wind, too. She showed pictures of a tank with pre-treated water steaming near an after-school program at the center that hosts 52 children. Those children aren't playing outside anymore, Brice said. ***************************************************************** 18 Guardian Unlimited: Slovak police seize 'dirty bomb' uranium Three arrested in Slovakia 'had enough uranium for dirty bomb' Mark Tran and agencies Thursday November 29, 2007 Three men arrested in Slovakia for allegedly trying to sell nuclear material had uranium enriched enough for use in a "dirty bomb", Slovak police said today. According to police, the two Hungarians and a Ukrainian had just under half a kilogram (about a pound) of uranium in powder form that investigators believe came from an unspecified ex-Soviet republic. "It was possible to use it in various ways for terrorist attacks," a senior police official, Michal Kopcik, said. He said police had intelligence suggesting that the suspects - whose names were not released, but were aged 40, 49 and 51 - originally had planned to sell the material early this week. One of the Hungarians had been living in Ukraine. Police moved in when the sale did not occur as expected, he said. Kopcik said investigators were still working to determine who ultimately was trying to buy the uranium, which the trio allegedly was selling for $1m (485,000). Three other suspects - including a Slovak national identified only as Eugen K - were detained in the neighbouring Czech Republic in mid-October for allegedly trying to sell fake radioactive materials. It was unclear to what degree, if any, they played a role in the thwarted uranium sale. Police said a total of 481.4g of uranium had been stored in unspecified containers. Investigators concluded that the material consisted of 98.6% uranium-235. Uranium is considered weapons-grade if it contains at least 85% uranium-235. "According to initial findings, the material originated in the former Soviet republics," Kopcik said. Western officials have long harboured concerns over the risk of nuclear smuggling from the former Soviet Union, although US-funded safeguarding programmes have reduced the danger of nuclear trading. Slovakia's border with Ukraine is the EU's easternmost frontier, and authorities have spent millions tightening security in the past few years, amid fears of nuclear smuggling into the EU . In 2003, police in the Czech Republic, which borders Slovakia, arrested two Slovaks in a sting operation in the city of Brno after they allegedly sold undercover officers natural depleted uranium for $715,000. Slovak and Hungarian police worked together on the new case for several months, said Martin Korch, a Slovak police spokesman. He would not say how long the suspects were under surveillance, or give details about the arrests and to whom they were trying to sell the material. The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, said that last year alone there were 252 reported cases of radioactive materials that were stolen, missing, smuggled or in the possession of unauthorised individuals - a 385% increase since 2002. But the IAEA cautioned that the jump was due at least in part to better reporting and improved law enforcement efforts. Of the 252 cases, about 85 involved thefts or losses, and not all the material was suitable for use in a weapon. The US-based Nuclear Threat Initiative, an organisation dedicated to reducing the global threat from nuclear weapons, reported last year that Russia remains the principal country of concern for contraband nuclear material, given the decline in security at nuclear-related industries after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. In 2006, Georgian agents working with CIA officials set up a sting that led to the arrest of a Russian citizen who tried to sell a small amount of weapons-grade uranium that he had in a plastic bag in his jacket pocket. In 1997, seven men who officials said planned to smuggle 5kg of enriched uranium to Pakistan or China were arrested in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk. That uranium reportedly had been stolen from a plant in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan. Roughly 25kg of highly enriched uranium or plutonium is needed in most instances to make a crude nuclear device. But a tiny fraction of that is enough for a dirty bomb - a weapon designed to sow fear and chaos, rather than inflict human casualties. Guardian Unlimited Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 19 antiwar.com: Deck the Malls With Dirty Nukes - by Gordon Prather December 1, 2007 by Gordon Prather Ho-Ho-Ho. Halloween has now ushered in the year-end shopping season (formerly known as Christmas). We're supposed to deck the malls with boughs of holly. So it's a bit surprising that ABC News has picked-up (uncritically) a Associated Press "report" that Slovakian First Police Vice President Michal Kopcik has thwarted the black-market sale of what Kopcik says is about a pound of almost pure [98.6%] Uranium-235. According to AP-ABC; "Experts say roughly 55 pounds of highly enriched uranium or plutonium is needed in most instances to fashion a crude nuclear device. But they say a tiny fraction of that is enough for a dirty bomb a weapon whose main purpose would be to create fear and chaos, not human casualties." Where do you suppose mainstream-media reporters find their nuclear weapons "experts"? In order to fashion a U-235 gun-type nuke, like the one we dropped on Hiroshima, with any prospect of getting appreciable fission yield, you need two pieces of almost pure U-235 which when slammed together considerably exceed the "bare sphere critical mass" of U-235, which is about 55 kilograms, not 55 pounds. The gun-type nuke we dropped on Hiroshima contained about 120 pounds inertially "tamped" of U-235, total. Furthermore, the "bare sphere critical mass" of almost pure Plutonium-239 is only about 22 pounds, not 55 pounds. But any true nuke expert knows that it is impossible to "fashion a crude nuclear device" that is, a gun-type nuke with any prospect of getting appreciable fission yield by slamming together two near-critical mass pieces of Pu-239. The spontaneous fission rate of Pu-239 is too high. You can't slam them together fast enough, or keep them together long enough. Hence all Pu-239 nukes are explosively compressed to super-criticality and held together with inertial "tamping" as long as is physically possible. As for the ABC-AP expert's assertion that a pound of U-235 can be fashioned into a "dirty bomb," a true nuke expert would know that a pound of ordinary inert non-radioactive lead could be fashioned into a much dirtier bomb. Scroll back to June 10, 2002, when Attorney General John Ashcroft called a press conference in Moscow to announce that Abdullah Al Muhajir aka Jose Padilla had been arrested more than a month earlier at O'Hare International Airport by the FBI on a "material witness" warrant. Quoth Ashcroft: "I am pleased to announce today a significant step forward in the war on terrorism. We have captured a known terrorist who was exploring a plan to build and explode a radiological dispersion device, or "dirty bomb," in the United States. "Let me be clear: We know from multiple independent and corroborating sources that Abdullah Al Muhajir was closely associated with al-Qaida and that as an al-Qaida operative he was involved in planning future terrorist attacks on innocent American civilians in the United States. "The safety of all Americans and the national security interests of the United States require that Abdullah Al Muhajir be detained by the Defense Department as an enemy combatant." Two years later, when the legality of Padilla's detainment as an "enemy combatant" became an issue before the Supreme Court, Deputy Attorney General Comey charged that Padilla, while in Afghanistan, had suggested to his al-Qaida "handler," Abu Zubaida, that they construct a real nuke, using "plans" Padilla had found on the Internet. According to Zubaida, Padilla thought he could produce weapons-grade uranium by rapidly swinging a bucket full of ordinary uranium around his head. Zubaida didn't think much of Padilla's "P-1" centrifuge. Nor did he think Padilla or anyone in association with him could construct a real nuke, even if they had the fissile material. However, Zubaida did think they might be able to construct a "dirty bomb." According to Comey, the al-Qaida radiological dispersal device would have consisted of "uranium wrapped with explosives." Now, if uranium is actually the "radiological agent" Zubaida suggested be used, then he didn't know diddley-squat about nukes, dirty or otherwise. You see, as any nuke expert knows, uranium enriched or otherwise is only weakly radioactive, emitting principally alpha particles, which won't even penetrate surgical gloves. True, uranium is a heavy metal, as is plutonium, but unlike lead, neither are "bone seekers." In fact, if ingested in any form other than as a fine aerosol, they pass right through the system. So, you can dismiss the AP-ABC "report" about the Slovakian uranium "dirty bomb." However, two years before Comey revealed what "radiological agent" Padilla intended to use, the dirty bomb experts at the Federation of American Scientists weighed in with a real "dirty bomb" concept. The FAS dirty bomb was a "coffee jar" containing about a thousand Curies of a true radiological material such as Cobalt-60. (A thousand Curies is about the radiological source-strength of a typical medical radiotherapy unit used to irradiate cancer patients.) "A successful bomb would have to be designed with great sophistication, first to break open the 'coffee jar,' then to gradually heat the radioactive source so that it vaporized, and finally to scatter it to the winds." Sophistication? No explosion? Gradually heat the radioactive source? Scatter vapor to the winds? What's terrifying about that? The only person who would die right away would be the dolt who transported a thousand-Curie gamma-ray source minus its several hundred pound lead shielding from the cancer clinic into the mall in a coffee jar. Actually, the FAS dirty bomb scenario sounds like the 1986 Chernobyl accident. A graphite-moderated, water-cooled reactor at Chernobyl was being deliberately operated in a zone where the reactor was known to be unstable. The operators lost control, the reactor ran away, melting the core, setting the graphite moderator on fire and vaporizing the light-water coolant, splitting it into hydrogen and oxygen gases. The fire then ignited the hydrogen-oxygen gas mixture, which exploded, blowing the roof off the reactor building. About a hundred million Curies of radioactivity were spread over a wide area by invisible gases and thick black smoke. The fire burned for 10 days. Downwind, Soviet citizens could see the smoke and the sooty "fallout." But there was no terror, no panic. In fact, one of the other power plants at the Chernobyl site continued to operate throughout the entire ordeal! Many of those downwind, who were forced to evacuate, didn't want to go. And except for an increase during the first several years after 1986 of thyroid cancer in small children which is relatively easy to successfully treat there has been no significant increase in cancer incidence among the downwind population. But your average would-be terrorist can't transport a 1000MWe Soviet plutonium-producing reactor to your neighborhood mall this post-Halloween shopping season. However, there are estimated to be more than 10,000 medical radiotherapy units and 12,000 industrial radiographic units in operation worldwide. Thieves not terrorists have stolen several medical radiotherapy units, whose shielding weighs about a ton, to sell as scrap metal. In the worst incident in 1987 in Brazil the thieves removed the highly radioactive source, itself, from the stolen unit. Result? Five persons died within days and others got life-threatening doses of radiation. Hence, the FAS thousand-Curie dirty-bomb scenario results in a dead dirty-bomber and very little terror. However, Padilla might have created quite a bit of terror with his uranium (essentially non-radiological) dispersal device if he used enough plastique explosives. Especially if he detonated it in a Chicago mall during the year-end shopping season formerly known as Christmas. Physicist James Gordon Prather has served as a policy implementing official for national security-related technical matters in the Federal Energy Agency, the Energy Research and Development Administration, the Department of Energy, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Department of the Army. Dr. Prather also served as legislative assistant for national security affairs to U.S. Sen. Henry Bellmon, R-Okla. -- ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee and member of the Senate Energy Committee and Appropriations Committee. Dr. Prather had earlier worked as a nuclear weapons physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico. Copyright 2007 Antiwar.com ***************************************************************** 20 The Herald Online: Nuclear regulator admits that it has a security crisis PORT ELIZABETH Herald Correspondent in CAPE TOWN THE National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) is battling to retain employees, has fallen behind on equity targets, and risks having future requests for increased funding from the national treasury turned down because of extremely problematic underspending. According to the NNRs annual report for 2006/07 presented by the organisations chief executive Maurice Magugumela to the minerals and energy portfolio committee, security at nuclear facilities was also highlighted as a major concern. The organisation was generally happy with security arrangements, but described an armed attack on Pelindaba west of Pretoria as very worrying. The organisation ended its financial year with an operating surplus of R18,8-million, largely because of unfilled vacancies. Magugumela said the companys vacancy rate was currently at around 15% to 17%. An emergency security officer at Pelindaba was shot on November 8 when four armed men stormed the facilitys control room. It later emerged that another group of armed men had tried to enter Pelindaba at the same time, but had fled when spotted by guards. Three people were arrested the following week. In the minutes from the November 21 portfolio committee meeting, Magugumela said although Pelindabas fence was electrified and alarmed, it had still been penetrated and the alarm or camera system should have picked up the interference. In a summary of the meeting published by the Parliamentary Monitoring Group, Magugumela acknowledged that this was a high number and was unacceptable. Eleven employees had left the company during the year under scrutiny, said Magugumela, and only 10 had come into the organisation. Dominique Gilbert, acting national co-ordinator of the Coalition Against Nuclear Energy, described the NNRs annual report as horror reading. Copyright AVUSA Media Ltd ***************************************************************** 21 BBC NEWS: Date set for beach radiation test Last Updated: Thursday, 29 November 2007, 10:52 GMT The Solway Firth tests come after particles were found in Cumbria Radioactive monitoring of beaches on the Scottish side of the Solway Firth is due to start next month. It follows the discovery of radioactive particles from Sellafield on beaches in North Cumbria. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) has identified sites at Powfoot, Southerness and Kirkcudbright where the tests will be carried out. Monitoring will now begin on 12 December, after the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and Sepa agreed to share the costs. Specialist equipment, similar to that used to monitor beaches near the Dounreay plant at Caithness, will be brought in for the task. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 22 BBC NEWS: Families discuss body parts probe Last Updated: Monday, 3 December 2007, 08:30 GMT Samples were taken legally, says the British Nuclear Group Families affected by an inquiry into the removal of body tissue from nuclear workers, are holding a second meeting. Michael Redfern QC is currently looking into 65 reported cases, mainly involving staff employed at the Sellafield plant between 1962 and 1992. The support group now want to trace those from outside the nuclear industry, who may have been affected . The inquiry began in April, after the GMB union said samples were taken from up to 70 former Sellafield employees. Members of the inquiry team are due to attend the meeting in Whitehaven later. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 23 Common Ground: Canada's role in depleted uranium weapons worldwide July 2007 Alfred Lambremont Webre, JD, MEd The Government of Canada is in non-compliance with the statutes and regulations of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), prohibiting the use of Canadian uranium in depleted uranium (DU) weapons. Moreover, Canada has a bilateral nuclear co-operation agreement with the US, under which uranium exports to the US may only be used for peaceful purposes, and not in weapons. This includes “control over the high enrichment of Canadian uranium and subsequent storage and use of the highly enriched uranium,” a Foreign Affairs document states. The same rules that apply to uranium apply to depleted uranium, according to the CNSC. DU weapons are considered weapons of mass destruction under international law. Thus Canada may be complicit in the US use of weapons of mass destruction in the 1991 Iraq war I, the 1998 Balkans war, the 2001 war in Afghanistan, and the 2003 Iraq war II, where the British medical journal Lancet estimates that one million civilians have died. In each of these wars, it is likely that depleted uranium in the DU weapons used by the U.S. and the UK comes from Canadian uranium exported to the US and processed in US enrichment plants into depleted uranium and subsequently manufactured into DU weapons. Depleted uranium is the uranium by-product that remains after the removal of the isotope U-235 during the enrichment process. For every ton of enriched U-235 uranium for the nuclear weapons and nuclear power industries, seven tons of depleted uranium containing the U-238 isotope are made for the munitions, DU weapons, and military armor industries. “Depleted uranium” is a marketing term of the nuclear industry. U-238 depleted uranium was originally discovered as a poison gas weapon of mass destruction during World War II by the Manhattan Project, at the same time as the atomic bomb and Agent Orange. Because DU is pyrophoric, it bursts into high-temperature decomposition upon impact with military armour, releasing nanoparticles of ionizing radiation that contaminate all living things and the environment with deadly radiation with a half-life of 4.5 billion years. The public military excuse for the use of DU munitions, bombs and kinetic penetrators is that DU is heavy and easily penetrates military armour and other targets. The covert strategic military use of DU munitions, smart bombs, and cruise missiles is radiation contamination of terrain, and low level nuclear war against enemy troops, civilian populations, and all unprotected military troops, for purposes of depopulation. DU weapons & war crimes After 3 years of investigation by 60 expert witnesses and jurists at a cost of $1 million raised by Japanese citizens, the International Criminal Tribunal For Afghanistan at Tokyo on March 10, 2004 found President George W. Bush guilty of the war crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for the use of depleted uranium (DU) weapons by US forces in the 2001 war against Afghanistan. Experts agree that a substantial portion of the depleted uranium in the DU weapons used by the US in Afghanistan came from Canadian uranium. Had the Tokyo Tribunal been diligent, it could have found Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrtien, who resigned as Prime Minister on December 12, 2003, guilty as an accessory to genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, for failing to enforce Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission regulations, and the Canada-US Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, both of which prohibit Canadian uranium from being used in DU weapons. Dr. Gordon Edwards, president of the Montreal-based Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (CCNR) says, “Canada may have the policy, but it’s not enforced. The Canadian government is taking directions and orders from the nuclear industry… “The uranium industry has a vested interest in ensuring its depleted uranium waste makes a profit and is not just left in storage. That’s why some of Canada’s depleted uranium is ending up in weapons, Edwards says. “The Canadian government can’t even think for themselves.” Depleted uranium in Hawaii The depleted uranium that has contaminated the Hawaiian Islands with deadly radiation most probably has a Canadian uranium source. It is highly probably that the depleted uranium in DU munitions fired at bases on the Big Island and at military bases on Oahu, and in the nuclear weapons stored at Pearl Harbour is derived from Canadian uranium, exported to the US and processed into enriched uranium and DU. Public health effects of DU weapons The public health and environmental effects of the use of depleted uranium (DU) weapons can be considered per se violations of the war crime of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes under the Statute of the International Criminal Court. The demonstrated public health effects of depleted uranium (DU) weapons include: diabetes, cancer, birth defects, chronic diseases caused by neurological and neuromuscular radiation damage, mitochondrial diseases (chronic fatigue syndrome, Lou Gehrig’s, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, heart and brain disorders), global DNA damage in men’s sperm, infertility in women, learning disabilities (such as autism and dyslexia), mental illness, infant mortality and low birth weights, increase in death rates and decrease in birth rates. The Prime Minister stonewalls So far, the Conservative government and the Liberal opposition have failed to take a public position on Canada’s failure to stop the illegal use of its uranium in DU weapons. Stephen Harper refused to allow any Conservative MPs to appear on a June 13, 2007 North American radio special programme on the Canadian DU issue. Despite repeated conversations with Stephane Dion’s personal press attach and attempts to reach Liberal MP and Foreign Affairs critic Ujjal Dosanjh, the Liberal Party chose not to send a representative to the Canadian DU radio programme. Liberal MP Dr. Keith Martin, MD, a physician and former Parliamentary Secretary for the Minister of Defence in the Paul Martin Government, appeared on a radio programme on the Canadian DU issue and stated that in his opinion, there were no adverse public health consequences to the use of DU weapons. By contrast, at a May 12, 2007 Uranium-free BC Forum at the Brilliant Centre in Castlegar, BC, NDP MP Alex Atamanenko (Southern Interior) publicly stated he was opposed to the use of Canadian uranium in DU weapons. Atamanenko seeks Canadian legislation banning DU weapons, as Belgium has passed. On the June 13, 2007 Canadian DU radio programme, Atamanenko publicly committed to question the Prime Minister in the House of Commons on why Canada was not enforcing its regulations and treaty obligations against the use of its uranium in DU weapons. Connie Fogal, Leader of the Canadian Action Party, which passed a resolution in support of Canadian legislation outlawing DU weapons, committed to work against the use of Canadian DU in American weapons. Adriane Carr, Deputy Leader of the Green Party of Canada likewise committed to demand enforcement of Canada’s prohibitions against use of its uranium in DU weapons. ;What path is Canada taking? Unbeknownst to the public, the Government of Canada seems to have strayed into aiding and abetting the serious war crimes of DU-induced genocide and crimes against humanity. By contrast, British Columbia has maintained a moratorium on uranium mining since the 1970s. There is substantial community support for a permanent ban on uranium exploration and mining in BC, as the recent Uranium-free BC Forum in Castlegar suggested. The detrimental impacts of uranium exploration and mining on public health and the environment is the driving force behind the ban. Under the guise of combating climate change, the nuclear industry, led by the Bush Administration, is now promoting nuclear power plants to the tiger economies of India, China, Japan, and South Korea. Because of ionizing radiation and the nuclear waste issue, this amounts to a low level nuclear war against these populations. NASA recently reported vast uranium deposits in Khazakhstan and Afghanistan. Khazakhstan is expected to out-produce Canada (now the world’s top producer) in uranium production within 12 years. One might rationally ask: Why not ban uranium exploration and mining in BC, and organize collectively to secure a uranium exploration and mining ban in Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec? The public policy reasons for the ban on uranium exploration and mining in the rest of Canada – public heath and environment – are equally valid throughout Canada, as they are in BC. Let’s sunset our Canadian uranium industry. That is a practical way to save the health of Canadians, the environment, and innocent victims worldwide. Alfred Lambremont Webre, JD, MEd is the International Director of the Institute for Cooperation in Space (ICIS), and a Judge on the Kuala Lumpur International War Crimes Tribunal. Alfred can be reached at peace@peaceinspace.org Website at www.peaceinspace.org For nuclear info visit www.ccnr.org CommonGround.ca Copyright 1982-2006 Common Ground Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 24 Engineer Live!; Experts ponder implications of nuclear plant earthquake engineerlive.com In Our Opinion Fig,1. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant is the biggest nuclear power plant site in the world. At the request from the Government of Japan through the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), an IAEA expert mission was conducted at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant (NPP) following the strong Niigataken Chuetsu-Oki earthquake that affected the plant on 16th July 2007. This article is based on the preliminary findings of that mission, which was lead by IAEA director Philippe Jamet and included experts from Bulgaria, Sweden, Japan and Turkey. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is the biggest nuclear power plant site in the world (Fig.1) and is operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). The site has seven units with a total of 7965MW net installed capacity. Five reactors are of the boiling water reactor (BWR) type with a net installed capacity of 1067MW each. Two reactors are of the advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR) type with 1315MW net installed capacity each. The five BWR units entered commercial operation between 1985 and 1994 and the two ABWRs in 1996 and 1997 respectively. At the time of the earthquake, four reactors were in operation: units 2, 3 and 4 (BWRs) and unit 7 (ABWR). Unit 2 was in start-up condition but was not connected to the grid. The other three reactors were in shutdown conditions for planned outages: units 1 and 5 (BWRs) and unit 6 (ABWR). A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 occurred at 10.13am on 16th July with its epicentre about 16km north of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa NPP site. The earthquake caused automatic shutdown of the operating reactors, a fire in the in-house electrical transformer of unit 3, release of a very limited amount of radioactive material to the sea and the air and damage to non-nuclear structures, systems and components of the plant as well as to outdoor facilities, as reported by TEPCO on its web page. Preliminary data indicated that the design basis ground motion for the plant may have been exceeded, with possible significant effects on the behaviour of the plant systems, structures and components. On 23rd July NISA requested the IAEA that a team of international experts be sent to Japan observe the current conditions at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa NPP. The scope of the mission was limited to three subject areas: * Area 1. Seismic design basis – design basis ground motions. Preliminary investigations of the actual earthquake and its ground motions and comparison with the design basis ground motions for the plant seismic design. * Area 2. Plant behaviour – structures, systems and components. Observation of the damage that occurred as a consequence of the earthquake on the basis of the information gathered and made available by TEPCO and by performing limited but representative plant walkdowns. * Area 3. Operational safety management. Preliminary investigations of the operational safety management response and releases of radioactive material during and after the earthquake, on the basis of the examination of documents and of discussions with TEPCO. Although it appears that the Niigataken Chuetsu-Oki earthquake significantly exceeded the design basis ground motion as indicated by the response spectra comparison at the level of the foundation base mat in all units, the operating plants were automatically shutdown and all plants behaved in a safe manner, during and after the earthquake. The three fundamental safety functions of reactivity control, removal of heat from the core and confinement of radioactive materials were ensured with the exception of very minor radioactive releases that occurred shortly after the earthquake. The radioactive releases to the environment were estimated to result in an individual dose well below the authorised limits established by the regulatory authority for exposure of the public for normal operating conditions. Based on the reports from TEPCO experts and the limited in-plant walkdowns and visual observations performed by IAEA experts, safety related structures, systems and components of the plant seem to be in a general condition much better than expected for such a strong earthquake, with no visible damage. This is probably due to the conservatisms introduced at different stages of the design process. The combined effects of these conservatisms were apparently sufficient to compensate for uncertainties in the data available and the methods applied at the time of the design of the plant, which led to the underestimation of the original design basis ground motions. However, observations and conclusions relating to the behaviour of structures, systems and components require validation from the results of the ongoing investigations. Further and thorough inspections and evaluations of all critical structures, systems and components of the seven units have not been completed and important components like the reactor vessels, the core internals and the fuel elements have not yet been examined. TEPCO is accomplishing what is to be the first stage of a more comprehensive inspection plan, namely visual observations. Presently, detailed checks of the integrity and operability of all safety systems and components of the frontline and supporting safety related systems are ongoing even though no apparent damage has been sustained. All these activities should be documented. Due to proper functioning of the automatic seismic scram system, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa units that were in operation, as well as unit 2 which was in startup state, shut down safely when the earthquake occurred. In accordance with Japanese safety regulations, in order to restart plant operation TEPCO needs the permission of the regulatory authority. Furthermore, in accordance with the new seismic guidelines of the Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) (issued in September 2006) a re-evaluation of the seismic safety needs to be done taking into account the effects of the Niigataken Chuetsu-Oki earthquake. ***************************************************************** 25 TheCheers: Nuclear reactor workers at dramatically higher risk of cancer 2007-11-30 04:36:01 London, Nov 30 (ANI): A report has suggested that cancer risk for people exposed to radioactive tritium, commonly discharged in large amounts by civil and military nuclear plants around the world, may be more dangerous than previously thought. The expert report for the UK government's Health Protection Agency (HPA) concluded that the cancer risk for people exposed to tritium may be double than that was assumed earlier. The report also suggests that there needs to be a grip on the international safety standards so as to put pressure on nuclear plants to cut their emissions. One of the report's authors from Imperial College in London, Mark Little, stressed that even amongst nuclear workers with the highest exposures, the risks are still low. However, he emphasized that, the evidence that tritium causes more biological damage than assumed is "solid enough" to justify a change. Tritium - a radioactive isotope of hydrogen with a half-life of 12.3 years - is an essential component of the Hydrogen bomb and a waste product of the nuclear power industry. It is also widely used in medicine, and would help fuel future nuclear fusion reactors, if they ever become viable. Vast quantities of tritium have been released into the environment from numerous nuclear plants, including Savannah River in the US, Sellafield in the UK, Marcoule in France, and Ontario Power Generation in Canada, since the 1950s. Also at Aldermaston in England and Mayak in Russia, workers are known to have been exposed to tritium. But it has been argued by the 100-page report from the HPA's Advisory Group on Ionising Radiation, that the weighting factor used by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) in Stockholm, Sweden, to assess risks should be increased from one to two. This means that the maximum acceptable radiation doses worldwide would have to be recalculated. "Tritium is not highly radioactive, but it can become widely dispersed in the environment, and we felt a special review of the evidence was necessary," New Scientist quoted the advisory group's chairman, Bryn Bridges, as saying. The health risks of tritium were investigated in response to a recommendation in 2004 from the UK government's former Committee Examining Radiation Risks of Internal Emitters (CERRIE). According to one of the committee's members, nuclear consultant Pete Roche, the weighting factor for tritium was lowered in 1969 because of pressure from the US military. "There have been calls for it to be increased ever since," he said. He added: "In the meantime the industry can no longer assume it will be allowed to release large quantities of tritium." The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which is responsible for many of the tritium-emitting plants in the UK, promises to "consider carefully the impact of any agreed increase in radiation weighting." "We will look at this, and we will be considering it," said the ICRP's scientific secretary, Jack Valentin. (ANI) 2006 ANI Copyright 2004-2007 The Cheers magazine / Nuclear reactor workers at dramatically higher risk of cancer ***************************************************************** 26 Saskatoon Star Phoenix: Town calls for action on uranium exposure Norma Greenaway, CanWest News Service Published: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 OTTAWA -- Armed with pictures of the handsome young man he used to be, a scarred and ill Dan Rudka travelled to the nation's capital Monday to add his voice to those calling on Health Canada to fund a thorough study into whether exposure to uranium is threatening the lives of residents of the Ontario town of Port Hope. Rudka, a non-smoker who traces his lung disease, skin burns and cysts to the two years he spent handling uranium powder and pellets in the 1990s, said he feels compelled to speak out because successive federal governments have ignored the community's demands to undertake a comprehensive study into the health of Port Hope residents. Rudka, 50, told his story as New Democrat MP Nathan Cullen, the party's environment critic, called a news conference to draw attention to suspected health problems in Port Hope, a community on Lake Ontario that houses two uranium-processing refineries that make fuel for nuclear reactors. It is also the site of the largest cleanup of radioactive soil in North American history. Saskatoon-based Cameco Corp. operates a uranium conversion facility in Port Hope that produces uranium dioxide powder used to generate electricity at Canadian-based Candu reactors, according to the company's website. About half of the electricity produced in Ontario uses uranium products processed in Port Hope. Cameco also controls Zircatec Precision Industries, which manufactures nuclear fuel bundles at facilities in Port Hope and Cobourg, Ont. Between the uranium conversion facility and Zircatec, Cameco employs a total of about 640 people in the area, the Cameco website says. Cullen accused Health Canada of ignoring the human health risks posed by long-term uranium contamination, and said the Conservative government's inaction flies in the face of its promise to make accountability the cornerstone of its operations. "It's a case of see no evil, hear no evil," said Cullen, who wants the Commons natural resource committee to take up the issue. Health Canada, however, defended its stance, saying health and environmental studies carried out in Port Hope over the years do not show "any health effects" from past or present exposure to radiation. Joey Rathwell, a Health Canada spokesperson, said an an e-mail statement that department scientists have carefully reviewed the Port Hope test results, and that the concentrations of uranium found in urine obtained from nine residents fall within the normal range that would be expected for naturally occurring uranium in any Canadian community. The concentrations will not cause any adverse health effects, the statement said. Faye More, a spokesperson for the Port Hope Community Health Concerns Committee, said residents are desperate to get the attention of federal authorities, now that the group's self-financed research on a small group of residents has found evidence of uranium contamination. Their results were compared with two control subjects who lived far from Port Hope. Four of the Port Hope subjects tested positive for uranium contamination. The one test subject who was a child had uranium levels in its body that were three times the average concentration found in the control subjects, the research found, although Health Canada said even that result was within the normal range. The tests were conducted by the Uranium Medical Research Centre, a voluntary non-profit organization based in Toronto and Washington, D.C. Ted Weyman, deputy director of the centre, said three of the subjects, all retired uranium workers, had not been exposed to the uranium for more than 10 years. 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks ***************************************************************** 27 WTEN: Albany: Study: Local Uranium Traces Exist Long After Exposure A study that will come out in a scientific journal on Wednesday claims people who worked or lived near the old National Lead Industries on Central Avenue in Colonie decades ago still carry traces of depleted uranium in their urine. Anne Rabe, of a group called Community Concerned About National Lead Industries, says the findings are significant. "This study tells us that depleted uranium may have been cleaned up by the Army Corps of Engineers from the factory, but it hasn't been cleaned up from the homes and its still being found in people's bodies," she said. Rabe also says the British scientist who headed the study will be in Albany Wednesday to explain how the findings could have implications for U.S. Veterans who used weapons with depleted uranium in both the Gulf and Iraq wars. All content Copyright 2000 - 2007 WorldNow and WTEN. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 28 SFNM: Unfulfilled promises: Former nuclear workers battle federal bureaucracy - SantaFeNewMexican.com Jane Phillips/The New Mexican Photo: Gilbert Aquilar, an El Valle resident who worked at Los Alamos in the mid-1970s, gets help filing a claims petition from Michele Jacquez-Ortiz, district director for U.S. Rep. Tom Udall’s office. Jacquez-Ortiz, who has worked on the issue for several years, says many of the records coming out of Los Alamos concerning workers’ medical and work histories are ‘questionable or dubious.’ By Dennis J. Carroll | For The New Mexican 12/2/2007 Ron Chavez recently sat at a table in the backyard of his Albuquerque home sifting through stacks of radiation-exposure records, doctors reports and piles of other documents, all testimony to his struggles to prove to the government that his six years of work at the Los Alamos National Laboratory made him sick. "If nobody like me stands up," said Chavez, 52, "then everybody gets screwed." Chavez, weak and fatigued from his battle with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, is one of about 2,500 former nuclear workers at Los Alamos or their survivors who have filed claims with the Labor Department under a seven-year old law that promised compensation to workers made ill by exposure to radiation and other hazardous materials. An estimated 500,000 to 600,000 Americans in such disparate communities as Middletown, Iowa, Paducah, Ky., Golden, Colo., and Los Alamos labored for decades, often under suffocating secrecy, handling the most hazardous of materials with often lax or nonexistent safety precautions as they assembled America's stockpile of nuclear weapons. Praised as the unheralded heroes of the Cold War, many have lived a great part of their lives suffering from illnesses believed caused by the radioactive and other hazardous materials they handled. Many have died from their illnesses. The workers, their families, and the public health and elected officials who have come to their aid contend that a confusing and interminably slow process, intransigent bureaucrats and stonewalling policymakers have, in essence, conspired to deny the workers the compensation promised them in the a federal program enacted in 2000. The measure, the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program, is administered by the U.S. Department of Labor, which uses estimates of workers' likely exposure to radiation and certain other hazardous materials to determine whether workers qualify for compensation. The estimates, known as dose reconstructions, are performed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health under the Department of Health and Human Services. The White House's Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health reviews the scientific validity of NIOSH'S dose reconstructions and also recommends whether workers at particular sites should be granted "special exposure cohort" status so they can be compensated without having to endure the dose-reconstruction process. Former nuclear weapons workers who were employed at designated U.S. Department of Energy sites or worked for DOE contractors could be eligible for $150,000 and payment of medical expenses from the date a claim was filed Diseases covered include certain radiation-induced illness and chronic beryllium disease. Beryllium is a light-weight metal used in the construction of nuclear weapons. It was often machined, exposing workers to the beryllium dust, which can cause lung disease. Many of the tools used by weapons workers were made of beryllium, which does not easily cause sparks. Other benefits are possible depending on where the employees worked and what hazardous materials they were exposed to. Radiation doses Under the lengthy dose reconstruction administered by NIOSH, workers at Los Alamos and scores of former DOE nuclear weapons sites around the country have been required to demonstrate what dangerous materials they were exposed to, the doses they received and the amount of time they were exposed. That has been one of the biggest stumbling blocks for the workers and their advocates because, they say, it puts the burden of proof on the workers, many whom are elderly, in ill health and with failing memories. Chavez, an ironworker, contends the process is adversarial, and the workers suffer because it is. "The burden of proof is on me," Chavez said. He cited a litany of what he described as conflicting and inaccurate information that Los Alamos provided NIOSH to be used in determining his eligibility for compensation. And he fears he will be denied the benefits because of the bad information. "It's garbage in, garbage out," Chavez said. For example, Chavez pointed to Los Alamos radiation dose records he said conflicted with higher dosimetry readings he had been given previously covering the same time period. "Why isn't a scientific institution like Los Alamos keeping a record that is true and correct?" Chavez said. He also said the NIOSH employee assigned to review his case referred to radiation-dose readings on his chest and abdomen, but not on his face and neck, where the cancer tumors were found and surgically removed. "He was using the wrong part of my body" for the dose measurements, Chavez said. "When I see that everything's all screwed up, I say I'm going to start fighting because (the radiation-dose measurements) are the Holy Grail of what they are supposed to be going by." Chavez's problems are echoed by other workers and their advocates in New Mexico and around the country. Questionable records Michele Jacquez-Ortiz, state director for the office of U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, who has been helping former Los Alamos workers with their claims petitions, described as "questionable or dubious" the records coming out of Los Alamos concerning the workers' medical and work histories. For example, she said Los Alamos provided extensive radiation-dose records on a particular worker that covered his exposures from 1948 through 1999. However, she noted, the worker died in 1982. Jacquez-Ortiz also said some workers or their survivors told of reporting respiratory problems to Los Alamos medical personnel and having X-rays taken, but in Los Alamos' reports on the workers to NIOSH, no mention is made of either the breathing problems or the X-rays, other than the worker had reported having "a cold." "One claimant who worked around beryllium and asbestos has complained about lung problems for many years but can't find any X-ray results in his worker medical file," Jacquez-Ortiz said. "All of his hearing tests are there, but none of his X-ray results can be found." She also said many of the workers' medical records being released by Los Alamos are oddly similar, with exactly the same words being used over and over. "It's a bit like fill in the blank," she said. Some medical and radiation dose records being released don't even carry the worker's name, Jacquez-Ortiz said, leaving the workers or their survivors bewildered. In several cases, she said, dosimetry records are missing for certain dates in which claimants recall having been harmfully exposed to radiation. "Frankly," Jacquez-Ortiz said, "we've seen enough EEIOCA files that have raised red flags in terms of calling into question the credibility of the data that goes into the dose reconstruction for some of these claimants." LANL spokesman Kevin Roark said the lab is doing all it can to make the medical and work records available. "Our job is to release the records that are requested," Roark said. "That's what we do. We provide every record that's available." He said, "No one at any level pulls anything from those records." Bureaucratic ineptitude Earlier this year, the White House advisory board recommended and the Department of Health and Human Services approved the Special Exposure Cohort status for possibly hundreds of former Los Alamos workers who developed any one of 22 specified cancers after working for at least 250 days in certain parts of the lab between March 15, 1943, and Dec. 31, 1975. However, workers employed after that date were not included in the decision on the grounds there was enough credible information available to accurately estimate radiation exposure. Under dose reconstruction, workers must show they received enough radiation exposure to make it as likely as not that their disease could have been caused by radiation if they want to be eligible for compensation. Advocates for former atomic workers in other parts of the country have encountered data-reporting and collection problems similar to those in New Mexico. Workers and their advocates also point to the rejection of claims based on what they see as trivial issues and bureaucratic ineptitude. Dr. Lars Fuortes, an epidemiologist at the University of Iowa who has been helping former atomic workers there and in adjoining states with their petitions, cited a claim that was initially denied because the worker used the term "CT" scan instead of "CAT" scan. Both terms, Fuortes said, are generally accepted references to the same medical diagnostic procedure. He also cited claims that were wrongly denied because the claims processors disallowed certain diseases that are included among the program's list of qualifying cancers. Another worker was denied compensation, Fuortes said, after overwhelming evidence was presented that the claimant worked at a qualifying Kansas City area facility. However, his wage check was issued by the operator's offices in another city. That decision was eventually reversed, as were others Fuortes cited. Some workers or their surviving relatives who are forced to scavenge for decadesold records tell of those that were lost, hospitals that closed and family physicians who have long since died. Possible changes Members of Congress have heeded the calls for assistance from often elderly, confused and frustrated former nuclear weapons workers and their families as they battle an intransigent federal bureaucracy. Many of them say they view the compensation as meager and belated for the lies they were told and the dangers they were subjected to as they assembled, tested and in more recent years dismantled nuclear weapons and their components. "To get anything done, you have to have the detailed involvement of a United States senator's office," said one legislator's aide who asked not to be identified for fear of jeopardizing his role in helping the workers. Another longtime LANL worker who suffers from mercury poisoning said he had finally been approved for compensation but didn't want to talk about it until he has the check in hand. "I've been going through a lot of hell," he said. "It's not easy dealing with the Labor Department." Shelby Hallmark, who directs the Labor Department program, told a congressional committee Oct. 23 that the department has administered the program fairly and in a timely manner. "We do our best to administer the program in the best interest of the workers and survivors for which it was intended, ... and we believe the results demonstrate that the promise of the statute is being kept." He said the department has paid out more than $3.2 billion in benefits and medical reimbursements to more than 34,000 workers and survivors. Labor figures for Los Alamos show that as of Wednesday, the government has made payments on 764 claims involving 525 cases totaling $72.8 million, including compensation and medical expenses. The total of 4,542 LANL cases represents 2,500 individual workers. In the past year, several lawmakers and others have signaled that changes in the program to lessen the frustrations of former workers may be in the works. During a November 2006 House oversight subcommittee hearing, then-Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., rebuked program administrators. "This program was supposed to ensure workers that the deceit was over, and the government was finally going to do right by them," Hostettler said. "Those tasked with implementing the program have failed that purpose miserably, and they need to be exposed for what they have done." Hostettler, who lost his bid for re-election in November 2006, said program administrators had adopted a "hostile attitude" toward workers, and the "baby-sitting of these individuals must continue." U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., chaired the Oct. 23 hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, called to help determine whether the program is as "claimant friendly" as it should be. After listening to worker advocates, program administrators and the program's ombudsman, Bingaman said in a statement: "There is no doubt there are steps we can take to make this program run more smoothly. We need to take those steps as soon as possible." He said claimants' applications need to be processed more quickly, and DOL should rely more heavily on the word of applicants. Udall recently introduced legislation he said would make the ombudsman's office more an advocate for workers, not simply a place to air complaints. "From a complex bureaucracy to a highly technical burden of proof to intimidating health physics discussions, obtaining compensation for many physically and emotionally strained claimants has proven to be a particularly difficult process," Udall said. "It's time to give these claimants and their families the proper acknowledgment and assistance they deserve." Numerous complaints Loretta Valerio, head of the state Office of Nuclear Worker's Advocacy, recently created by Gov. Bill Richardson, said it is often virtually impossible for workers to prove what hazardous materials they were exposed to and when they were exposed. "If you've been retired for 20 years, you can't remember what you were exposed to," she said. Although the overall program is frustrating for former workers, especially if they are old and in poor health, Valerio said, the recent Special Exposure Cohort status should make it easier for many former workers. The exception is those who performed their jobs after 1975. "It's the best thing that happened," she said. "It's a milestone." Even after a worker has been approved for medical care, getting that care can be difficult, Valerio said. Many health care providers do not honor a medical payments card issued to workers by the DOL, thus denying the worker paid medical treatment. There are also many questions as to what illnesses and treatments are covered, Valerio said. In his testimony at the Oct. 23 Senate committee meeting, DOL program ombudsman Malcolm Nelson outlined numerous complaints and frustrations of claimants. They included: • Years of delay in processing claims: "Many of the people with whom we speak are elderly, and quite a lot of them are sick, often suffering from malignant and debilitating illnesses," Nelson said. "Claimants have been quite blunt in telling us that they fear that if they are made to wait too long, they will not be around to collect benefits." • An onerous burden of proof: Nelson said numerous claimants complained they were stymied in collecting evidence of their employment or their exposure to toxic substances because relevant records had been either lost or destroyed. "Where such claimants are ultimately denied, ... the claimants often turn to us with the same questions: 'If the government cannot find these records, how can I be expected to find them?' " Nelson said. Contact Dennis Carroll at djc825@aol.com. Copyright 2007 The New Mexican, Inc. ***************************************************************** 29 National Post: Uranium contamination in a small town - Posted: December 03, 2007, 2:08 PM by Shane Dingman An Ontario town is hopping mad that the federal government hasn't done enough to ensure that the whole place isn't contaminated from long-term exposure to uranium. The folks in Port Hope held a press conference Monday to air their grievances, you can read the full story here, but the key part is this: A recent study by the Uranium Medical Research Centre, a non-profit, voluntary organization that her group hired to conduct local testing, showed evidence of serious problems. For instance, one child from the community had uranium levels in its body that were three times the concentration that would normally be expected. An earlier study showed the town had higher than normal rates of some cancers. The citizen's group has a website, here, which gives you a better picture of their position on all this. The source of uranium is Cameco Corp., the world's largest producer of fuel for nuclear reactors. Production at its Port Hope conversion plant was halted this summer after the company discovered contaminated soil at the site. Those operating errors, along with a drop in uranium prices, pushed Cameco's stock to its lowest point in nearly two years. Our fellows over at FP Trading Desk took note of the citizen's brigade back in November, Peter Koven noted "Health Canada scientists took a look at the results, and decided that the concentrations of uranium were 'within the normal range' that would be expected in any Canadian community." "[Cameco] released a document saying the uranium concentrations were 1,000 times lower than the Ontario limit for uranium in drinking water. And the company reiterated that it conducts 'extensive monitoring" of employees to protect them.'"Of course, there is still the problem of the clean-up at Port Hope. Cameco recently said it is installing a control system to block the flow of groundwater in the area. It will also install a new groundwater monitoring system to detect contamination as quickly as possible." What exactly do they do at the conversion plant anyway? From Bloomberg: * The production of uranium hexafluoride is one of the first steps toward the transformation of uranium into nuclear fuel. The process of turning uranium oxide, or yellow cake, into the gaseous uranium hexafluoride is called "conversion." But what's the deal with uranium? Obviously good-old-fashioned nuclear fuel, or highly radioactive processed uranium, has health effects that are well known. But that stuff doesn't escape without people noticing it. However, recent research by Northern Arizona University biochemist Diane Stearns and her Navajo students (The Navajo have been exposed to yellowcake uranium since mining operations began in their territory in the 1940s) have discovered a number of alarming new facts about the damage even low-grade uranium can cause to human DNA: There has been considerable debate and little agreement concerning the possible health risks associated with yellowcake and depleted uranium. Stearns team has established that when cells are exposed to uranium, the uranium binds to DNA and the cells acquire mutations, triggering a whole slew of protein replication errors, some of which can lead to various cancers. Stearns' research, published in the journals Mutagenesis and Molecular Carcinogenesis, confirms what many have suspected for some time - that uranium can damage DNA as a heavy metal, independently of its radioactive properties. "Essentially, if you get a heavy metal stuck on DNA, you can get a mutation," Stearns explained. ***************************************************************** 30 GE: Applications for nuclear plants raise safety, oversight concerns (12/4/07) -- www.GovernmentExecutive.com By Katherine McIntire Peters kpeters@govexec.com December 4, 2007 Power companies in the last three months have applied to build three nuclear reactors in Texas, Alabama and Virginia -- the first new nuclear power plants that industry has sought to build in the United States in three decades. The long-anticipated applications for combined operating licenses to build and operate new plants are just the first of dozens expected by federal regulators during the next few years. The surge in reactor applications is eliciting mixed messages from senior government officials. Last Wednesday, Dennis Spurgeon, assistant secretary for nuclear energy at the Energy Department, issued a statement commending Dominion North Anna LLC for submitting its application to build what's called an economic simplified boiling water reactor near Mineral, Va. Dominion's application "demonstrates continued momentum for the expansion of safe, emissions-free nuclear energy in the United States," Spurgeon said. The North Anna plant application stems from Energy's Nuclear Power 2010 program, an industry-government cost-sharing program aimed at developing the next generation of reactors, expanding the role of nuclear power and demonstrating the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's untested new process for granting combined operating licenses. If the North Anna plant is approved, it will serve as a model for utilities vying to construct the same type of reactor. "Through cooperative partnerships with industry, loan guarantees and tax incentives, this administration is providing sound policy to pave the way for a nuclear renaissance that will power a secure and affordable energy future," Spurgeon said. The same day Spurgeon was hailing Dominion's move, Dale Klein, chairman of the Nuclear Energy Regulatory Commission, the independent agency that oversees commercial nuclear power, struck a more cautionary note at a conference sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "I'm not an advocate for or against commercial nuclear power," said Klein. "My job is to ensure the safety and security of U.S. nuclear power plants and materials." "There are two main concerns that persistently capture my attention," he added. "The first is whether there is sufficient quality assurance and control over myriad elements that go into building a modern nuclear reactor." The supply chain for building new reactors is global, Klein said, and he worries that not enough scrutiny is being paid to subcontractors and vendors that supply parts and materials to major manufacturers. He cited data compiled by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers that show nuclear certificates granted by the professional accrediting association fell from nearly 600 in 1980 to fewer than 200 this year. "More strikingly, the decline was due almost entirely to the loss of nuclear certificates among American companies," he said. To address the issue, Klein is pushing for more formal international cooperation and information sharing among regulators and industry. "Regulatory agencies and industry would benefit from sharing this data under normal circumstances, but it seems to me even more critical during the current worldwide push to build new plants. "Everyone involved in nuclear power has an interest in encouraging high levels of safety and strong safeguards in every country that participates in the fuel cycle," Klein said. Klein says his other major concern is the shrinking nuclear workforce -- both in government and industry -- at a time when the industry is expanding. "At the NRC, in one two-week pay period early this year, nearly 1,000 years of regulatory experience walked out of the agency due to retirements," he said. To cope with a significantly increased workload, NRC estimates it will have to hire as many as 400 people every year through 2010 to both grow its workforce and offset retirements. It's a serious challenge, especially when industry and Energy laboratories are seeking to hire many of the same highly skilled people to meet their own staffing needs. "None of our interests is going to be well-served if everyone spends time and money chasing after a limited number of candidates. Instead of bidding against each other, all of us -- industry and government alike -- must focus on an intensive nationwide effort to expand the base of qualified people," he said. "This is not a crisis yet, but it has the potential to become one." The Energy Department estimates that demand for electricity in the United States will grow 50 percent over the next three decades. If nuclear power is to maintain its share of electricity supply -- now about 20 percent -- the number of nuclear power plants would have to grow from 104 to more than 150. (C) 2007 BY NATIONAL JOURNAL GROUP, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ***************************************************************** 31 Star-Telegram.com: Fight over nuclear waste 11/30/2007 | Many oppose a plan to bury radioactive material in West Texas By SCOTT STREATER Star-Telegram staff writer Map: Andrews County Environmentalists and residents want the state to reject a proposal by a Dallas-based company to bury tons of radioactive waste in West Texas, a move some fear is the first step to making the state a dumping ground for dangerous pollution. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality issued a draft license last month to allow Waste Control Specialists to bury low-level radioactive material at its plant in Andrews County, northwest of Midland on the New Mexico border. If approved, the company will bury tons of waste, already at the site, from a long-abandoned uranium-processing plant in Fernald, Ohio, near Cincinnati. Waste Control has been trying since 2004 to get approval to bury 3,776 steel drums of uranium tailings -- finely ground contaminated sand left over from the chemical process that extracts uranium to make nuclear weapons during the Cold War. The waste is encased in concrete inside the drums, each weighing 20,000 pounds, and would be buried in sealed landfills on the 1,340-acre site. But the Sierra Club and 11 residents and families in Eunice, N.M., about four miles from the site, accuse state regulators of failing to require the company to ensure that high winds and rain won't disperse the radioactive materials into the air and the groundwater. They also complain that the company has not adequately demonstrated that a thick clay layer that's supposed to hold the waste in place for thousands of years does not have cracks or fissures. "Clearly, the agency should withdraw the draft license and force the applicant to reapply," said Ken Kramer, director of the Sierra Club's Lone Star chapter in Austin. "The application has a lot of holes in it, literally and figuratively." Waste Control officials and state regulators disagree. "This was an extremely thorough and complete license application, which included a complete geologic and site characterization, as well as environmental and safety assessments," company spokesman Chuck McDonald said. "We believe the state has been provided with more than enough information." Others, however, see a broader issue. The license would make Waste Control the only commercial disposal site in Texas authorized to dispose of radioactive waste, according to the state, meaning that more than just the Ohio waste could be buried there. "This permit opens the door for Texas to become a dumping ground for the nation's most dangerous toxic waste," said state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth. "I hope [the state] will realize this and deny the permit." Radioactive waste landfill The plan The radioactive waste would be buried in a landfill rimmed with a high-density polyethylene liner and topped with a layer of compacted clay. The landfill would also include a system to collect rainwater and prevent it from running off the site. The proposal "will meet all of the statutory and regulatory requirements and be protective of human health and the environment," said Susan Jablonski, who directs the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's radioactive materials division. The waste The waste is from an abandoned uranium-processing plant in Fernald, Ohio. The plant opened in 1951 and for four decades produced high-purity uranium metal, mostly for the manufacture of nuclear weapons. In 1991, with the end of the Cold War and demand for uranium dropping, Congress closed the plant. The Energy Department wanted to bury the waste in Nevada and Utah, but officials in both states refused. Not Texas. All the waste -- which includes high concentrations of radium 226, linked to bone and nasal cancer, and thorium, linked to lung cancer -- has been transferred to the Waste Control site, where it has sat in steel drums since June 2006, waiting to be buried. The site The West Texas site is already authorized to dispose of and store hazardous waste. General Electric Co. chose the site this month to bury tons of sediment contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a probable human cancer-causing agent. The federal Environmental Protection Agency is expected to approve disposal of the PCBs at the site. What's next The state agency's three-member board will consider whether to approve the license, probably next month. If the board approves the license, the Sierra Club said, it will file for a contested case hearing before a panel of state administrative law judges. If it loses the contested case, the group could appeal to state District Court. sstreater@star-telegram.com SCOTT STREATER, 817-390-7657 ***************************************************************** 32 Las Vegas SUN: YUCCA'S CROSSROADS December 01, 2007 What's decided in this room could change the proposed dump's fate Next step toward license hinges on good faith By Lisa Mascaro By Lisa Mascaro Las Vegas Sun Judy Treichel has been here before - not this room, per se, but this moment in history. So have many of the other players in the Yucca Mountain saga that has been running for the past 20 years. The Yucca Mountain project will reach a milestone Wednesday - the same one it hit in 2004, when the U.S. Energy Department's plans to build a nuclear waste repository about 90 miles outside of Las Vegas became seriously delayed. At that time, a three-judge panel ruled the department had not made a good-faith effort to publicly disclose millions of pages of documents supporting the waste dump proposal. It sounds like such a small hurdle compared with the engineering feat of converting Yucca Mountain into a high-tech dump to store nuclear waste for the next 1 million years. But that 2004 ruling became a critical setback that helped to stall the project until now. The law governing Yucca Mountain's development requires the documents to be posted six months before the Energy Department embarks on its next major step - submitting its application next summer to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to license the dump. No documents, no license. Now, we are at that crossroads again. On Wednesday those same three administrative judges from Washington will convene in Las Vegas to determine whether the Energy Department has complied with the law. The department says it has made publicly available 3.5 million documents - about 30 million pages of engineering reports, maps, drawings, e-mails, even scribbled notes from geologists in the field - supporting the dump proposal. Joseph R. Egan, the attorney shepherding Nevada's fight against the project, said if the document collection is rejected again, as he believes it will be, "it would be a more serious blow than last time." The stakes are even higher now. Congress has lost patience with the delays. When the Energy Department announced it would submit its license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by June 2008, many saw that as an effort to ensure it is in the approval pipeline before the Bush administration leaves office. Bush supports nuclear energy and the Nevada dump site, but every Democratic candidate for president now opposes Yucca Mountain. Even the utility companies that have long championed the dump are looking at other, temporary waste solutions. "They could really be in trouble because of a political point of view, a cost point of view, a congressional point of view," Egan said. Treichel can't help but feel deja vu. She remembers the summer day in 2004 when the Energy Department sent out a news release announcing the new Yucca Vista Web site for the online library of Yucca Mountain documents. She pointed and clicked on the site, and couldn't find a thing. The Web page looked more like an advertisement for time shares in Pahrump, she said, than the electronic database for millions of technical engineering and scientific documents about the project. She complained. Now, from her Las Vegas home that doubles as the headquarters for her nonprofit community group, the Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force, Treichel said she doesn't see much improvement in the new library. Sure, there are more documents. And the Web site is now managed by the neutral Nuclear Regulatory Commission instead of the Energy Department. But Nevada's attorneys argue that critical documents remain missing. And, Treichel says, good luck finding the document you're looking for - searches produce 300,000 hits or none. "It's actually in some ways worse than their first attempt," said Egan, the state's lawyer. "At least in the first attempt, the bungling was obvious. This time they're trying to cover it up." The hearing on Wednesday is an administrative law proceeding. On one side will be lawyers from the Energy Department and the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's main lobbying arm. On the other will be Nevada and Treichel. Each side will argue its case before the panel in a Las Vegas hearing room the Nuclear Regulatory Commission built just to handle Yucca Mountain's legal battle. The Energy Department knows the stakes for Wednesday's hearing. Its lawyers insist the department has "fully complied" with the law's requirement to make the information accessible. "Nevada's motion should be seen for what it is - a bid to delay the licensing proceeding for delay's sake," the Energy Department wrote in its legal filings. The department acknowledges that some documents remain unavailable, but argues the panel should move forward with certifying the online library as complete. "The limited amount of remaining material will promptly be made available ... when completed, and Nevada and all other potential participants will have an ample opportunity to review it," according to a department legal filing. When the panel asked the Energy Department how many documents remained outstanding, the department said there are 79 missing "pieces" - but an untold numbers of pages. Nevada argues one of those omissions is key - the Total System Performance Assessment, what one representative of the Nuclear Energy Institute calls "the mother of all codes." The document is a massive multivolume report explaining just how the repository will function over time. Because nuclear waste is planned to be buried in canisters in the mountain for 1 million years, engineers have been struggling to figure out how to prevent water from seeping in through the rock. Water could corrode the canisters, which could allow deadly nuclear waste to seep into ground water used for agriculture in the Amargosa Valley. The Energy Department declined to comment for this story. But Steven P. Kraft, senior director of used fuel management at the Nuclear Energy Institute, said Nevada is misinterpreting the law and that the document can be added when it is ready. The panel isn't expected to make a ruling on Wednesday. Either side can appeal the decision to the full Nuclear Regulatory Commission. If the Energy Department's application is approved, the department can move forward with filing its license next year, as planned. If it's denied, Yucca Mountain would again be set back. Lisa Mascaro can be reached at (202) 662-7436 or at lisa.mascaro@lasvegassun.com Yucca case leads U.S. to build courthouse of the future here By Lisa Mascaro By Lisa Mascaro Las Vegas Sun The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has built in Las Vegas one of the nation's most technologically advanced courthouses, in order to handle the next several years of legal battles expected over Yucca Mountain. Doors open Wednesday for its debut public function - a hearing on whether the Energy Department has sufficiently made its Yucca Mountain project documents available for public review. The $6.3 million building near the airport might not look like much. But it is outfitted with technology that legal experts say is on the cutting edge of judicial proceedings in the United States. This will be a paperless trial. Virtually every document used in the court proceedings, including about 30 million pages of support material for the Yucca Mountain license application, will be digitized and accessed via computers. When a witness is asked, for example, to mark the spot on a map to show where nuclear waste could spread to ground water, that annotation can be digitally captured and stored forever. If someone years later wants a printout, he can get it. Lawyers, witnesses, even judges could participate in the hearings remotely, via video connections from across the country. All the transcripts and video footage from the hearings will be available - and searchable - to the legal teams. The public can watch many of the proceedings from home, as is being done Wednesday through an arrangement with Cox cable. Professor Fred Lederer, director of the Center for Legal and Court Technology at the College of William & Mary law school in Virginia, said creating the courthouse is a responsible attempt by a public agency "to handle a case of enormous complexity." His surveys show that time in court can be shaved by 30 percent - up to 50 percent for more complex cases - by doing away with the shuffling of paper documents. Building the 200-seat facility outside the Washington Beltway, some say, protects the commission's neutral standing before Nevadans as it decides the fate of Yucca Mountain. By this time next year, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission could begin hearing the legal battles over the Yucca Mountain site. Administrative judges from the commission are expected to hear more than three years of legal challenges to the Energy Department's proposal for a waste dump. Nevada, which opposes the dump, is expected to file thousands of contentions. As far as legal proceedings go, the nation has never seen anything quite like it. Lisa Mascaro can be reached at (202) 662-7436 or at lisa.mascaro@lasvegassun.com All contents 1996 - 2007 Las Vegas Sun, Inc. ***************************************************************** 33 Belfast Telegraph: Energy Minister refuses licence to mine uranium - Ireland Sunday, December 02, 2007 The Energy Minister has refused to grant licences to two companies seeking to mine for uranium in Co. Donegal. Eamon Ryan has said his decision is part of a wider policy to prohibit any uranium that is found here being used in nuclear reactors around the world. He believes it would be hypocritical of him to allow this activity when nuclear energy is not permitted in Ireland. The Minister has also said there are significant environmental and public health concerns surrounding the radiation levels linked to uranium mining. ***************************************************************** 34 This is London: Organs of miscarried babies 'were used in Sellafield nuclear 04.12.07 The organs of miscarried and stillborn babies may have been harvested for testing by nuclear scientists, it emerged yesterday. Victims of road accidents could also have been part of the grisly programme set up to establish whether workers at Sellafield had suffered radiation poisoning. An inquiry into whether the corpses of Sellafield employees were plundered for the research is being extended. Scroll down for more... Bodies of employees at the Sellafield power plant were plundered for a research project on radiation poisoning It will look into whether scientists examined the organs and tissues of miscarried and stillborn babies - not connected to Sellafield - to use their 'normal' organs as a 'control' against which samples from those who worked at the nuclear plant could be compared. Angela Christie, whose father Malcolm Pattinson had organs removed following his death from leukaemia in 1971 aged 36, confirmed that the fate of some Cumbrian road accident victims and miscarried foetuses and their placentas are to be investigated by Michael Redfern, QC. The Governmentcalled in Mr Redfern to investigate the 1962-91 testing programme earlier this year. Mr Redfern previously conducted the inquiry into the secret removal of body parts from 850 children at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool. The nuclear inquiry will look into the medical records of 57 workers at Sellafield, six at Aldermaston in Berkshire, one at Springfields in Lancashire and one at Capenhurst in Cheshire. The latter eight had all transferred from Sellafield. It is not known whether families of the deceased were properly informed about the practice of removing organs for radiation tests during post-mortem examinations. British Nuclear Fuels, which operates Sellafield, said that in most cases the tissue was taken following a coroner's request - suggesting at least some information may have been available to families. But it said that in a handful of cases no record of consent exists. Mrs Christie, who organises a support group helping those affected by the scandal, said: "It has emerged that as well as testing organs from Sellafield workers, two control groups not connected with the nuclear industry were set up to ensure scientists could compare them and monitor any differences." She added: "We have been told samples of tissue from road accident victims and possibly stillborn or miscarried babies could have been examined. "At the moment it is only a possibility which the inquiry is looking into to ensure it is carrying out a thorough investigation." BNFL is checking medical records for up to 20,000 staff to discover the extent of the controversy. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, Evening Standard & Metro Media Group 2007 Associated Newspapers ***************************************************************** 35 9NEWS: Judge rules Cotter Corp. cannot accept radioactive waste posted by: Dan Boniface , Web Producer created: 12/1/2007 6:56:07 AM DENVER (AP) - A judge says state health officials were within their rights to block Cotter Corporation from accepting radioactive waste from New Jersey at its uranium mill in Canon City. It's not immediately clear whether Cotter will appeal. Cotter had applied for a permit to dispose of the soil at its mill site, but state health officials rejected it. Cotter sued and said the state arbitrarily rejected its permit application on grounds that it would have a negative socio-economic effect on the community. It said state health officials had no written rules for assessing socio-economic harm. A Denver judge ruled Friday that the department's decision was still reasonable. (Copyright Associated Press, All Rights Reserved) ***************************************************************** 36 The Coloradoan: Council to take up debate on uranium mine www.coloradoan.com - Ft. Collins, CO. Tuesday, December 4, 2007 Mayor says project could have economic impact on city BY JASON KOSENA JasonKosena@coloradoan.com The City Council will debate a resolution today against a proposed uranium mine east of Fort Collins. Mayor Doug Hutchinson said the mining process used in the Powertech project, which shoots high volumes of water into the ground to pull out uranium, has too many "unknown" circumstances associated with it and could have a negative effect on the city's environment and ability to attract business. "This is going to have an impact on our economic health in terms of image and our brand," Hutchinson said. "This clearly will have an impact on the people and businesses in Fort Collins." The Fort Collins City Council has shied away from resolutions on issues outside of Fort Collins, such as Glade Reservoir and the Iraq war, because council members said their action couldn't have a direct impact, but Hutchinson said the proposed uranium mine is different. "This is different because it could have an impact on our groundwater and other environmental issues, not to mention our economy," Hutchinson said. "There are too many unknowns associated with this process and those unknowns are what our concerns are over." Unknowns maybe, but a spokesman for Powertech said Monday that no one from the city of Fort Collins or the City Council has contacted the company for information on the project. "There has been absolutely no communication with us at all," said Pete Webb, a Powertech spokesman. "Our consultants even asked the city if they wanted us to come and give them a presentation on the process and the project, and we were turned down." Hutchinson said he was surprised to hear city staff had not consulted with Powertech before bringing its presentation before council today. "This is a data driven council, and we are always trying to work with real data and information," Hutchinson said. "That is a surprise for me. I am sure that this will come out in the meeting though, but it could (influence) my support of it." Copyright 2007 The Fort Collins Coloradoan. ***************************************************************** 37 The Enquirer: Waste from Fernald plant at heart of clash Last Updated: 4:31 am | Friday, November 30, 2007 Radioactive waste from the former Fernald uranium processing plant in western Hamilton County is at the center of an environmental clash in West Texas. Environmentalists and residents want Texas to reject a proposal by a Dallas-based company to bury tons of radioactive waste already at the site in concrete drums because high wind and rains may release the material and a clay under layer has not been proven to be safe, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported on Friday. Site Map: Cincinnati.Com | NKY.com | Enquirer CiN Weekly | Copyright 2007 The Enquirer. All rights reserved. Users of this ***************************************************************** 38 Carlsbad Current-Argus: DOE seeks changes in WIPP permit From the Current-Argus Article Launched: 11/28/2007 08:56:19 PM MST CARLSBAD ? The Department of Energy's Carlsbad Field Office wants to increase the scope of gases it monitors in its underground panels at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The DOE recently issued a set of proposed modifications to its hazardous waste permit for the WIPP site near Carlsbad. The state permit was first issued by the New Mexico Environment Department in 1999. The proposed modification, according to a news release, would allow the department to monitor for hydrogen and methane in underground panels used for the storage of transuranic waste until final panel closure. The class 2 proposed permit modification was issued Nov. 21. Class 2 is the middle level of proposed permit modifications. Rarer and more significant are Class 3 modifications, such as last year's state authorization for WIPP to dispose of remote handled waste. The state's jurisdiction over WIPP is related to chemical issues. "We're demonstrating that we're being safe," said Roger Nelson, chief scientist with the DOE in Carlsbad, about the Nov. 21 proposal. "We're not only going to continue to measure volatile compounds, but we're also adding methane and hydrogen." Nelson said the underground panels at the Waste Isolation Pilot plant were "designed to assume the worst," including when it came time to monitor for and address the potential risk of potentially volatile compounds. In the case of transuranic waste brought to WIPP, the potential concern was over items such as rags which had previously touched solvents. Given that assumption, 12-foot concrete blocks have been placed at the inlets and outlets of panels 1 and 2 after they've been filled. The explosion walls there are two associated with each panel cost about $1 million each. After taking thousands of measurements, Nelson said, it is clear the risks of explosive gases are minimal, if they exist at all. For Panel 3, the DOE has already received temporary permission from the state to take measurements from inside the panel, without setting up the explosion walls. The permit, Nelson explained, asks permission to monitor panels for the gases that would drive the need for the concrete blocks. If no gases are detected after years of examination, the DOE would propose that the explosion isolation walls are not needed. "We would request permission to simply barricade the access tunnels to the waste with salt and then install an elaborate sealing system in the four vertical shafts that allow access from the surface to the underground," Nelson said. "The shafts would be completely filled with a substantial set of barriers for both water and human intrusion." The DOE is asking to expand the scope of what it monitors to include methane and hydrogen, Nelson said, not because of any new perceived risk, but to increase its collection of information. As an additional precaution, there are set levels of gas intake that, if crossed, will cause the DOE to add the explosion isolation walls. "We propose to take action at 10 percent of the level needed to cause any chemical reaction," Nelson said. Additionally, a separate Class 2 permit modification request would allow WIPP's operating re-cord to be maintained in an unalterable electronic format. The hard copies of the operating re-cord, which have been converted into an electronic format, will be maintained at the WIPP Re-cords Archive facility. Comments on the proposed modifications should be sent to Steve Zappe, New Mexico Environment Department, 2905 Rodeo Park Drive, Building 1, Santa Fe, NM 87505; e-mailed to steve.zappe@state.nm.us or faxed to (505) 476-6060. Comments must be received by Jan. 21. A copy of the permit modification may also be viewed by calling Zappe. Copyright © 2007 Carlsbad Current-Argus; All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 39 Salt Lake Tribune: Italian nuke waste becomes hot potato for EnergySolutions Article Last Updated: 11/29/2007 08:26:28 PM MST Posted: 8:22 PM- EnergySolutions simply wanted to jump through the necessary hoops to do what the company has always done - deal with radioactive waste. But the Salt Lake City company's application to import waste from Italy's dismantled nuclear program is turning out to be anything but routine. In fact, there's every reason to believe that its latest application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is about to spark a national discussion about what should be done with the world's low-level radioactive waste. Congressmen from Texas and Kentucky last week began asking if plans for the Italian waste are safe or might set bad policy precedents. And, on Wednesday, two South Carolina state senators urged members of Congress to help fight EnergySolutions import request. The outcome of the debate could not only decide if EnergySolutions gets the contract for 20,000 tons of Italian waste over the next five years. It might also determine whether the United States - and Utah's West Desert, in particular - becomes a routine destination for the world's nuclear waste. "Before we let any out-of-country waste be buried in America," said South Carolina State Sen. Joel Lourie, "Congress needs to address these issues and answer those questions." EnergySolutions operates the low-level radioactive waste disposal site in Barnwell, S.C., one of just three commercial facilities of its kind nationwide. But it's unlikely waste from the Italy contract will be buried in it. The landfill closes to waste from all but three states next July 1. Another commercial disposal site, in Hanford, Wash., also won't be available for waste from Italy. Not only does the region-by-region "compact" system forbid foreign waste, but site operators agreed in 2000 not to use it for foreign waste after a flap about shipments from Spain. That leaves EnergySolutions' mile-square disposal facility 80 miles west of Salt Lake City, which is exempted from the compact restrictions applied to U.S. waste. It has served as a safety-valve for U.S. low-level radioactive waste generators since opening in 1988. According to the U.S. Energy Department, the Clive, Utah, site currently takes about 97 percent of the waste going to commercial facilities. All of it is Class A waste, radiation-tainted material largely from nuclear plants that, according to the NRC's rating system, will be only minimally contaminated within 100 years. Once the South Carolina site closes next summer, the EnergySolutions landfill in Utah will be the only option for low-level waste from 39 states. The quirky rules and business market for nuclear waste has been a boon for EnergySolutions, which has been growing exponentially in the past three years. Two weeks ago, the company raised $690 million by going public. That's a vital infusion of cash in a year that has not been good for EnergySolutions. After three years of record growth, this year the landfill reports just one-third of the volume of low-level waste it buried last year. Company papers filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last month suggest how serious this decline is for the company: the Utah landfill accounted for 44 percent of the company's revenue. " [L]oss of revenue from Clive," the papers say, "would have a disproportionate impact on our gross profit and our gross margin." The 1 million cubic feet of waste from Italy won't amount to much after it has been incinerated and recast as shielding to be sold for use in hospitals and nuclear plants. The ash left over that will come to Utah - all of it meeting the Class A radioactivity standards - will amount to about 1,600 tons, just a fraction of the roughly 267,000 tons the company might expect this year. It might not amount to much, but it is business. And, while EnergySolutions vice president Greg Hopkins said the company has no plans to import waste from other nations besides the Italy shipments, he won't rule out the possibility in the future. "If there are opportunities around the world," he said, "we are a worldwide company, and I would expect we would pursue them." According to a report by the General Accountability Office earlier this year, only ten of 18 nations surveyed had solutions for at least some of their low-level waste problems. "You can't talk about commerce in any form that is strictly domestic anymore," he added, referring to the globalization of the economy. EnergySolutions hasn't heard any complaints so far from Utah Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr., state lawmakers or regulators about the Italy waste plan, said Hopkins. The company's application to the NRC is a routine matter. "It's not new," he said, pointing to about 100 import-license requests to federal regulators in the past two years. "It's routine and we'll just continue to follow the NRC process going forward." Utah has no prohibition on the disposal of nuclear waste originating from foreign nations. That fact came up two years ago, when the International Uranium Corp. shipped uranium ore from Japan to its processing plant in southeastern Utah. Nor does the federal government, according to NRC spokesman David McIntyre. "There is no policy statement about importing low-level waste," he said. That leaves the staff of the NRC to review EnergySolutions' request to ensure it meets health and environmental safety standards, shipping requirements and other technical qualities. As part of the NRC review, the state of Utah will be asked to submit comments, as will the regulators overseeing the two other U.S. facilities and the U.S. State Department. U.S. Rep. Joe Barton of Texas and Ed Whitfield of Kentucky, senior Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, have given the NRC until Dec. 14 to answer their questions about the Italy contract. A GOP committee spokeswoman declined to say whether hearings are in the works. "Reps. Barton and Whitfield want to wait until the questions about the application are answered by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission before moving forward," she said. Lourie, the South Carolina state senator, hopes South Carolina's delegation to Congress will join him in opposing the EnergySolutions plan. "Italy's nuclear waste problem shouldn't be America's waste problem," he said. "The public will be outraged once they learn more about this." fahys@sltrib.com ***************************************************************** 40 CBC News: Canada won't become nuclear waste dumping ground, minister says Last Updated: Friday, November 30, 2007 | 1:04 PM ET Canada will not be taking radioactive waste from other countries after it joined an international nuclear power partnership, Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn says. Opposition parties had expressed fears Canada's membership in the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership — which proposed the idea of returning spent nuclear fuel to the country of origin for disposal — could make Canada a dumping ground for the waste. Canada is the world's top uranium exporter, meaning adoption of the proposal could have led to it being responsible for disposing of a sizable amount of waste. But in an interview with CBC News on Friday, Lunn said that a condition of signing up for the partnership was that Canada will not take nuclear waste. Instead, the minister said, Canada will share research and technology into how other countries can best deal with their own waste. Opposition parties had lobbed criticism at the government following its announcement Thursday that Canada has joined the partnership. "The government has tried to slip this one under the wire," New Democratic environment critic Nathan Cullen said following the announcement. During question period in the Commons on Friday, NDP Leader Jack Layton continued the attack on the decision, saying it should be put to a vote in the House because nuclear energy is not only expensive but dangerous. "National security should be a key part of this discussion," Layton said. The nuclear energy partnership proposes the expansion of nuclear energy worldwide through the use of an unproven breed of reactors that burn nuclear waste — a practice effectively banned in Canada and the United States since the 1970s because of security reasons. The natural resources minister, however, responded that it is "great news" that Canada has joined the group, saying the country must be at the table for international nuclear talks. "Canada should be a player. Canada can show leadership and we should show other countries," Lunn said. Seventeen other countries are members, including China, France, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. The partnership has many critics, both in the environmental movement and scientific circles. On Thursday, the federal government also announced a review of Atomic Energy Canada Limited, the Crown corporation that builds and sells nuclear reactors. "It is time to consider whether the existing structure of AECL is appropriate to the changing marketplace," Lunn said in a news release. Opposition critics said that was a sign that AECL could be privatized. With files from the Canadian Press Copyright © CBC 2007 ***************************************************************** 41 Reuters: USEC says ITC favors company's position on uranium imports Thu Nov 29, 2007 12:27pm EST Nov 29 (Reuters) - USEC Inc (USU.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said the U.S. International Trade Commission voted in favor of the company's position that terminating the antidumping duty order on imports of low enriched uranium from France would materially hurt the U.S. enrichment industry. ITC vote concludes the "sunset review," which happens every five years, of the 2002 antidumping order against French uranium imports, the energy company said in a statement. (Reporting by Jennifer Robin Raj in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier) Reuters2007All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 42 Knoxville News Sentinel: Erwin nuke facility allowed to store more uranium Company says it poses no hazards; residents not sure Associated Press Sunday, December 2, 2007 ERWIN, Tenn. - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will allow Nuclear Fuel Services to keep more uranium at its Erwin facility, a decision that makes some residents unhappy. The plant makes nuclear fuel for the U.S. Navy and converts or "downblends" surplus bomb-grade uranium into commercial reactor fuel for the Tennessee Valley Authority. Nine gallons of highly enriched uranium leaked in the NFS downblending operation March 6, 2006. Disclosing the incident more than a year later, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said only luck prevented the spill from collecting and exposing workers to a deadly dose of radiation. Barbara O'Neil, a retired U.S. Department of Defense public affairs officer who lives in Erwin, opposes additional enriched-uranium storage there. "The NRC is like a rubber stamp," O'Neil said. "This is a real slap in the face to the community. I hate to see my hometown being taken advantage of." The company says the additional storage poses no hazard to the community or the environment. "The review ... found that all necessary safeguards were in place for safe operations," NFS said in a statement. "In making the decision, the NRC found that there would be no significant increase in the potential for or consequences from radiological accidents." NFS has been under a three-year veil of secrecy because of a government policy intended to protect national security, though the NRC recently reversed the policy as too stringent. "The granting of the company's request enables NFS to be more competitive in the uranium fuel market and maintain existing high-paying jobs in Unicoi County," NFS spokesman Tony Treadway said. "The decision also enables NFS to play a greater role in helping America meet its energy needs and provide nuclear fuel for the U.S. Navy." NFS first requested an amendment to its uranium-storage license in June and received approval Nov. 23. 2007, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 43 ED: National Academy Of Sciences Says No-Go On GNEP Thursday, Dec 6, 04:30 PM EDT Thursday, Dec 06 04:30 PM EDT Monday, December 03, 2007; Posted: 05:24 PM Oct 30, 2007 (The Energy Daily/Access Intelligence via COMTEX) -- ERC | charts | news | PowerRating -- In a startlingly tough critique of the Bush administration's marquee nuclear initiative, a National Academy of Sciences panel recommended Monday that the Bush administration halt the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership and return to smaller-scale research on spent fuel reprocessing, saying the program presents "significant technical and final risks," particularly at the speed with which the Energy Department is trying to ramp up the program. "All committee members agree that the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) program should not go forward and that it should be replaced by a less aggressive research program," said the Committee on Review of DOE's Nuclear Energy Research and Development Program, which is part of the National Academy of Sciences' (NAS) National Research Council. The panel said GNEP was based on an "accelerated deployment strategy that will create significant technical and financial risks, engendered by the premature narrowing of technical options. "Moreover, there has been insufficient external input, including independent, thorough peer review of the program," said the committee. While the panel assessed all of DOE's nuclear energy research and developments (R&D) efforts--at the Bush administration's request--it singled out GNEP for by far the harshest criticism. GNEP is aimed at developing new fuel recycling technologies that the administration says can address several problems hindering the growth of nuclear power. DOE says recycling can reduce the amount of radioactive waste needing disposal because uranium and other nuclear materials can be recovered and refabricated into new fuel. The administration also says those recycling technologies can help address proliferation problems raised by growing interest among smaller nations in developing nuclear power programs. Under GNEP, supplier countries with well-developed nuclear programs--like the United States and Japan--would supply nuclear fuel services to countries that agreed to forego development of their own uranium enrichment or spent fuel processing facilities. Uranium enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing are highly sensitive because they can be used to produce weapons-usable uranium or plutonium, leading to concerns that some countries may be pursuing nuclear weapons under the guise of civilian nuclear power programs. DOE has made GNEP a key part its campaign to expand nuclear power worldwide, and agency officials fought back against the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) panel's criticism in a media call late Monday. DOE Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Dennis Spurgeon told reporters the panel's criticisms were based on "a misconception of the [GNEP] program itself." Spurgeon said DOE was considering a variety of techniques for spent fuel reprocessing--in which elements in spent nuclear fuel are recovered and manufactured into new fuel--and has not yet selected a process known as Urex +, as the committee seemed to think. "Not only could we not do that [because of legal requirements in the National Environmental Policy Act] but these are decisions that need to be made, and the pace needs to be dictated by industry's ability to [be] sufficiently confident" to invest in GNEP, Spurgeon said. Although DOE initially focused on the use of Urex+, the agency in recent months has said it is also looking at other reprocessing systems that are more commercial-ready. For instance, Spurgeon said Monday that DOE was also willing to look at reprocessing spent fuel into uranium-plutonium, or mixed oxide (MOX), fuel and burning it in light water reactors. That is a relatively old technology that has been used commercially overseas, and which DOE is using to dispose of surplus weapons plutonium through the production of MOX fuel to be burned in a Duke Energy reactor in South Carolina. He also said DOE was willing to use reprocessing technologies used by GNEP partner countries, or slightly changed versions. Many observers feel the most likely candidate is a tweaked version of a system called Coex, developed by France's Areva Group, although Spurgeon did not mention Coex by name Monday. Spurgeon rejected the panel's call for Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman to postpone a planned June 2008 decision on whether and how to proceed with GNEP. Saying research on key underlying technologies will not be sufficiently advanced to support a decision, the panel termed the June 2008 decision deadline "not credible." But Spurgeon said panel's criticism was questionable because Bodman at that time will merely make a decision on how to proceed, not where to build test facilities or anything more concrete. Spurgeon also rejected assertions by the NAS panel that DOE was over- emphasizing the launch of commercially viable reprocessing techniques at the expense of developing the technologies with adequate care. DOE seems to have "given more weight to schedule than to conservative economics and technology," says the report. But Spurgeon said GNEP was indeed committed to adequate R&D, and was merely trying to keep the research practical and well-aimed. "You do want to be focused on the end objective, which is to have commercial-scale facilities...," he said in the conference call. Spurgeon acknowledged that the NAS report will not help DOE lobbying for GNEP funding on Capitol Hill, where appropriators' support for GNEP has been spotty at best. Spurgeon suggested that private conversations he had with members of the NAS panel indicated that the panel still supports reprocessing research, and that disagreements with DOE boil down primarily to "pace and timing" of commercialization efforts. In another slap at DOE, however, the chairman of the NAS review panel said the group almost did not review GNEP because it could not get enough information out of DOE. "[T]he dominant new program, GNEP, lacked the technical documentation, program plans, and program management organization that would ordinarily form the basis of an evaluation of program content and budget priorities," wrote Robert Fri, chairman of the panel. "Despite these difficulties, the committee decided that the issues surrounding the design and technical approach of the GNEP program were sufficiently controversial that they could not be ignored in its review," said Fri. Although the entire committee majority encouraged DOE to halt commercialization of GNEP, a majority said the agency should continue reprocessing research, at a scale similar to DOE's long-running work under the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI). AFCI was DOE's relatively small research reprocessing research program that was greatly expanded when GNEP began in 2005. In a minority statement, however, two NAS panel members suggested that DOE halt entirely development of spent fuel recycling and reprocessing technologies. "[C]ommercial reprocessing and recycle will not help solve resource or waste or proliferation problems and are not sensible technical goals for the United States for the foreseeable future," wrote Victor Gilinsky, a consultant and former member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commissionm, and Allison Macfarlane, an associate professor of environmental science and policy at George Mason University. Macfarlane's views on GNEP and reprocessing may draw particular attention: she is widely believed to the choice of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to fill a Democratic vacancy at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Energy Daily, Vol. 35, No. 208 2007 The Connors Group, Inc. ***************************************************************** 44 The Tribune: More legislators hear uranium concerns Jakob Rodgers November 30, 2007 In the cold room in Nunn Town Hall, three members of the state legislature fielded heated questions from about 100 residents of Nunn and its surrounding area who are concerned about the proposed uranium mine in north Weld County. State Reps. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, and Sen. Scott Renfroe, R-Greeley, spent nearly two hours Thursday night as resident after resident stepped up to the microphone and aired their sentiments, claiming their livelihoods were at stake. The Centennial Project north of Nunn contains 5,760 acres of land, which Powertech Uranium Corp., a Canadian company, has purchased the mineral rights. The company estimates 9.7 million pounds of uranium lie beneath that land. Going into the meeting -- put on by a residents' group called Stewards of the Land -- all three lawmakers stressed that they were there merely to gain information and receive input on the issue of uranium mining, and that they had not formed an opinion. "I learned a lot more and I became more convinced that we've got to be very insistent that we not jeopardize the water or the air," Lundberg said. "I'm still, like Representative Sonnenburg said, gaining enough information to know exactly what our course needs to be, but it cannot jeopardize those permanent resources of northern Colorado." The residents focused on many issues involving Powertech's proposed in-situ mining process, which has drawn considerable ire the past few months as thousands of people across the region have joined anti-uranium mining groups, according to H. Mike Williams, the outreach chairman of Coloradoans Against Resource Development. Claiming the proposed mine will harm the underground aquifer and devalue the property and land they own, residents tried to send a strong message Thursday to lawmakers that they need to do their research before allowing the mine to be developed. After the meeting, Jay Davis, who has been heavily involved in the effort against the mine, said he wasn't sure if the meeting swayed any opinions among the lawmakers. "I think it's more an educational for them right now, too," Davis said. "I mean, if I can give them as much education as possible, that's my intent. And anything that came out of here that they take with them, that's great." Davis is the founder of the Coloradoans Against Resource Development and the Web site, www.nunnglow.com. The uranium mine has met strict opposition from residents of Nunn and its surrounding area. On Oct. 14, state Reps. Randy Fischer (D-Ft. Collins) and John Kefalas (D-Ft. Collins) announced they would announce legislation in January to update the Colorado mining safety standards, and on Nov. 13, U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar (D.-Colo) said he would contact the Environmental Protection Agency to consider the water that could possibly be affected by the mine. All contents Copyright 2007 greeleytrib.com The Greeley Publishing Co. - P.O. Box 1690 - Greeley, CO 80632 ***************************************************************** 45 Danville Register Bee: Group criticizes uranium proposal By RAY REED Media General News Service November 30, 2007 LYNCHBURG - A citizens group has criticized a proposal that Virginia officials study the safety of uranium mining. Southside Concerned Citizens said it has examined a proposal to mine uranium in Pittsylvania County and there is no way that it can be done safely. Additionally we oppose any further study of uranium mining involving the state of Virginia, as the state has consistently proven that it cannot protect its citizens or our environment from corporate harm, the citizens group said in a news release. The release quotes the groups president, Jack Dunavant of Halifax, and also one of its founding members, Eloise Nenon of Chatham, who about 25 years ago led a protest by Southside residents that played a role in Virginias current ban on uranium mining. The uranium site was discovered in the early 1980s, and studies since have indicated it is one of the largest deposits in the United States. A new proposal to study uranium mining, driven by an increase in the minerals price, is expected during the General Assembly session beginning in January in Richmond. Walter Coles of Chatham, who owns much of the land where the deposit is located, has formed a company to mine the uranium if it can be done safely, he has said in the past. Coles said Friday that he couldnt say anything in response to the citizens groups news release because his company, Virginia Uranium Inc., is in a quiet period required by stock exchange rules. Virginia Uranium is seeking to be listed on one of the stock exchanges and cant appear to be promoting itself during the weeks prior to a listing. Dunavant said in the news release that the promise of new technology to protect us from this mining venture does not exist. Nenon said, To spend many thousands of dollars in a study would be a waste of taxpayers money. Researching this topic again, 20 years after the original proposal and moratorium, makes no sense. The news release also said, Our decision is based on the general knowledge that wherever uranium mining has occurred it has contaminated the air, ground and water with radioactive material for many, many miles. Ray Reed is a staff writer for The News & Advance in Lynchburg. 2007 Media General. Part of the GatewayVA network. ***************************************************************** 46 CWN: Canada won't be dumping ground for nuclear waste, government says Mike De Souza , CanWest News Service Published: Saturday, December 01, 2007 OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government is insisting that Canada won't turn into a dumping ground for radioactive waste after it joined an exclusive club that was set up by the Bush administration to promote nuclear energy and reduce the amount of radioactive waste that is stored in the United States. "We made it unequivocally clear that we will, under no circumstances, ever accept any nuclear spent fuel back from any other country," Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn told the Commons on Friday. "So this is a good initiative and Canada should be at the table to ensure that we have a voice." Lunn announced Canada's decision to join the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership in a statement released Thursday in the midst of a media circus surrounding the appearance of Karlheinz Schreiber at a parliamentary committee. But Lunn insisted Friday that Canadian industry would benefit from the deal. "The global nuclear energy partnership that we are signing on to is a voluntary agreement to actually expand technology, to reduce nuclear spent fuel, to reduce or develop technology that is proliferation-resistant," Lunn said. "This is very important. Canada is a serious player, the largest producer of uranium of any other country in the world." Opposition parties, however, accused the government of deliberately timing its announcement to avoid serious questions about the issue and, in particular, the risks involved. They believe the deal would require a large uranium exporter such as Canada to take responsibility for disposing of the radioactive waste that is created from the nuclear material sold to other countries. Liberal Leader Stephane Dion pointed out that South Africa declined to join the global nuclear energy partnership because it was afraid of becoming a dumping ground for radioactive waste created through its nuclear exports. "The minister can always say Canada won't be obliged to recycle the waste, but it's funny that South Africa refused (to join the group) for this reason," Dion said in an interview. "So we don't really have confidence in the (Harper) government's assurances" that Canada will not become a waste dumping ground. The Bloc Quebecois and New Democrats expressed similar concerns, calling for a debate and a vote in Parliament. "Nuclear energy is prohibitively expensive," said NDP Leader Jack Layton during question period. "It takes too long to bring online. It will not stop climate change. It is dangerous because of the waste product and, furthermore, national security should be a key part of the discussion. After all, India's nuclear weapons program got started with a research reactor from Canada, so there is a great deal that must be debated." Lunn said that he would be willing to discuss the implications of joining the partnership at parliamentary hearings. He also announced a review of the role of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., Canada's Crown corporation for nuclear services and technology, which could lead to its privatization. Dion's Liberals support a review. mdesouza@canwest.com © CanWest News Service 2007 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks ***************************************************************** 47 ReviewJournal.com: Yucca plans draw public's ire NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE PROJECT: Dec. 04, 2007 Criticisms voiced in packed hearing room at Cashman Center By KEITH ROGERS REVIEW-JOURNAL FURTHER ARGUMENTS WEDNESDAY A Nuclear Regulatory Commission board will hear oral arguments Wednesday regarding Nevada's challenge to the Department of Energy's certification in October of its document collection to support a license application for the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. The board will begin the proceeding at 9 a.m. in the commission's Las Vegas Hearing Facility, Pacific Enterprise Plaza, Building 1, 3250 Pepper Lane. Attendees should allow enough time for security screening. Also Wednesday, the last in a series of public hearings on impact statements for the proposed repository and a rail line to haul spent fuel and highly radioactive defense waste to it will be held in the nation's capital. The hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time at the Marriott at Metro Center, 775 12th St., in northwest Washington, D.C. Paul Seidler, senior director for the Nuclear Energy Institute in Las Vegas, hands out information on transporting nuclear waste before Monday's hearing at Cashman Center. Photos by Ralph Fountain. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman addresses the crowd of more than 200 that turned out for Monday's Yucca Mountain hearing at Cashman Center. Southern Nevadans showed up in force Monday to voice concerns about the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, saying the transportation risks are too great, the design has too many shortcomings and the government's nuclear weapons testing track record cast doubt on the project. One speaker, Ian Zabarte of the Western Shoshone National Council, drew some of the loudest applause from the crowd of more than 200 that packed a hearing room at the Cashman Center when he accused the Energy Department of "environmental racism." "A moral people with ethical scientists cannot condone the use of such practices to the benefit of the nuclear industry," Zabarte said. He suggested that tribes along all transportation corridors "and especially those with tourism-based economies and gaming facilities must be assessed for stigma-related impacts." "Transportation of waste to Yucca Mountain would place a disproportionate burden upon the Western Shoshone nation and has not been addressed in the (supplemental impact statement). It is environmental racism," he said. Only a handful of the 53 who signed up to speak at the hearing favored the Energy Department's plans. They said the draft supplemental impact statement for surface facilities to handle nuclear waste canisters, and another analysis of building a rail line from Caliente to reach the mountain, are improvements over the final impact document issued in 2002. "The fact the SEIS (supplement) shows impacts to Nevada from transportation is small confirms what we found," said Paul Seidler, a senior director for the Nuclear Energy Institute in Las Vegas. The institute is a lobbying organization for the nuclear power industry. In all, 212 people, most from Southern Nevada, attended the hearing in addition to the two dozen Energy Department employees and consultants on hand to answer questions and explain exhibits. In comparison, Yucca Mountain hearings last month in Hawthorne, Caliente, Reno-Sparks, Amargosa Valley, Goldfield and Lone Pine, Calif., drew a combined 244 public attendees. Of those, a total of 71 spoke at the hearings, said Allen Benson, the senior Department of Energy official and spokesman at the Las Vegas hearing. "It's a tremendous turnout," he said. "I think a lot of people take this seriously. It's important that they come out and talk to us about their views." That they did, from the first speaker, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, to a former Yucca Mountain Project worker, Robin Drew, who bemoaned how project officials have opposed her in a legal battle over compensation for carpal tunnel syndrome. Goodman weighed in on the federal agency's plans for transporting nuclear waste across the nation and especially through the Las Vegas Valley, saying privately before he took the podium, "It's a disaster waiting to happen." In his public comments, Goodman said, "If the material is as safe as we're told it is, let it stay where it presently exists." He said no one can guarantee that an accident won't happen "or, God forbid, the act of a terrorist." Robert Halstead, transportation adviser for the Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency, emphasized in his remarks that spent fuel "is lethal" and that the 77,000 tons of it and highly radioactive defense waste destined for a maze of tunnels to be dug in Yucca Mountain contain far more fission products than were released by the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in World War II. Each truck cask of spent nuclear fuel would contain 350,000 curies of radioactive cesium and strontium, or about 20 to 30 times the amount of fission products released by the Hiroshima bomb, Halstead said. "Every dedicated train hauling three or four rail casks would contain more cesium-137 than the total amount released during the Chernobyl nuclear power accident," he said. Halstead noted that since the DOE's last impact statement five years ago, the residential population within a half-mile of the rail route through Las Vegas has doubled, from 45,000 to about 90,000. Irene Navis, planning manager for the Clark County Nuclear Waste Program, said the Energy Department's plans lack details, especially regarding an increased inventory of waste to be disposed that one project official has said will increase the life-cycle cost from $58 billion to $78 billion. "We don't know what's up with a second repository," Navis said. In concept, she said, there could be "twice as much waste, which means twice as many shipments for twice as many years. ... So far it's not clear. We're looking for answers." Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0308. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2007 Stephens Media, LLC Privacy Statement ***************************************************************** 48 The Roanoke Times: Keep the state ban on uranium mining - Roanoke.com Friday, November 30, 2007 Until a thorough study of health and environmental impact is conducted, the state won't know if mining can be done safely. The ban must remain. State officials say uranium mining doesn't pose a public threat in Virginia. But it might. The Southern Environmental Law Center cites alarming enough threats: groundwater and surface water contamination, along with an increased cancer risk for workers and the public. Officials should be rushing to determine how real the threat is before continuing with a process that could reopen the door to uranium mining in Virginia. They do not seem to be. Determining rock type and thickness? Those wheels are in motion. The Virginia Department of Mines and Minerals this month approved a permit for Virginia Uranium Inc. to begin taking core samples on a site near Chatham. Work is expected to begin next month. The company was formed by Walter Coles, whose Pittsylvania County farm sits on one of the largest uranium deposits in the country. The prospect of tapping a gold mine should not distract the need for study to determine the risk of health and environmental harm. Gov. Tim Kaine, in his energy plan, supported relaxing the 25-year state ban on uranium mining to help the state become more energy independent. But his support came with caution that "significant work to assess the risk from mining and need for regulatory controls must be completed before any decision can be made." It must. The law center, a nonprofit environmental organization, says most drilling for uranium deposits in the United States has been in arid, sparsely populated regions out West. In Virginia and other densely populated Eastern states, uranium mining would put more people at risk. A wetter climate increases the chance of radiation contaminating streams and groundwater, the center says. Those are legitimate concerns. Yet discussion about mining uranium, milling it and selling it to nuclear power plants continues, with only passing mention of the impact. The public is left with the message that all's well with the whole idea. Coles told The Virginian-Pilot that he and generations of his family have managed just fine in the 200-year-old house on the family's Pittsylvania County farm, made from bricks that register high levels of radioactivity. The public needs more than a wry comment from the man who stands to benefit most to assuage fears -- some of the same fears that prompted the state to issue the ban in 1982. State officials must study the impact, in depth, as the governor says. ***************************************************************** 49 [southnews] Iran has no nuke program, U.S. intel says Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 14:51:13 -0600 (CST) The US consensus view of 16 agencies is that the nation halted its weapons project in 2003 because it feared international sanctions. Iran has no nuke program, U.S. intel says The consensus view of 16 agencies is that the nation halted its weapons project in 2003 because it feared international sanctions. By Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer 10:01 AM PST, December 3, 2007 WASHINGTON -- U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the threat of international sanctions has worked in compelling the Islamic republic to back away from its pursuit of the bomb. These judgments were among the key findings of a long-awaited intelligence report in which U.S. spy agencies retreated from earlier assessments that were more hard-line in their view of Iran's nuclear ambitions and intentions. The document, and the nuanced tone it strikes toward Iran, is likely to generate fierce new debate within the U.S. government, challenging the positions of officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, who have urged taking a hard line against Tehran. The report also concludes that Iran "does not currently have a nuclear weapon," and that the country is unlikely to be capable of producing enough highly enriched uranium to make a bomb before 2009 at the earliest. The findings were included in a National Intelligence Estimate titled "Iran: Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities" that represents a consensus view of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies. "We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program," the report says. "We also assess with moderate-to-high confidence that Tehran at a minimum is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons." But the intelligence community also acknowledged that emerging evidence has forced analysts to alter their views on Iran's intentions and capabilities. The changes portray Iran as more responsive to international pressure than previously thought. "Tehran's decisions are guided by a cost-benefit approach rather than a rush to a weapon irrespective of the political, economic and military cost," the report concludes. Overall, the report notes that Iran "is less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005." greg.miller@latimes.com http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran4dec04,0,2695315.story?coll=la-home-center ***************************************************************** 50 A Miracle: Honest Intel on Iran Nukes Resent-Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 15:51:25 -0600 (CST) After a 10-month struggle, U.S. intelligence analysts pushed out an assessment of Iran's nuclear weapons program that contradicts the dire claims of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush. As former CIA analyst Ray McGovern reports, the new intelligence estimate found that Iran shut down its weapons program four years ago. To read the full story, go to http://www.consortiumnews.com. There are two easy ways you can help Consortiumnews.com continue to produce independent investigative journalism: If you buy a copy of our new book, "Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush," through the publisher's Web site, http://www.neckdeepbook.com, $5 per book will go to help pay the bills at Consortiumnews.com. Or you can help by making a tax-deductible donation either by credit card at the Web site or by sending a check to: Consortium for Independent Journalism (CIJ); 2200 Wilson Blvd.; Suite 102-231; Arlington, VA 22201. For donations of $100, we'll send you an autographed gift copy of Neck Deep in paperback; for donations of $150 or more, we'll send a gift copy of the hard-cover version. Thanks for your support. To remove yourself from this list, click here: http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/consortiumnews/unsubscribe.jsp?remove ***************************************************************** 51 ICH: U.S. Report: Iran Halted Nuke Work In 2003 Resent-Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 19:30:44 -0600 (CST) "This is, in theory, still a free country, but our politically correct, censorious times are such that many of us tremble to give vent to perfectly acceptable views for fear of condemnation. Freedom of speech is thereby imperiled, big questions go undebated, and great lies become accepted, unequivocally as great truths." -- Simon Heffer Source: Daily Mail, 7 June 2000 = "Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory." - John Kenneth Galbraith (1908- ) Canadian-born economist, Harvard professor = "You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free." -- Clarence S. Darrow- (1857-1938) === Read this newsletter online http://tinyurl.com/dy6yy === Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered Since The U.S. Invaded Iraq 1,125,128 http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html === Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America'sWar On Iraq 3,882 http://icasualties.org/oif/ The War in Iraq Costs $473,935,815,925 See the cost in your community http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182 === U.S.: Iran Halted Nuke Work In 2003 By Ray Locker and Richard Willing Iran ceased its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and has not resumed work toward building nuclear weapons, a National Intelligence Estimate released Monday said. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18825.htm === Operation Iraqi Freedom Exposed Bush Negotiates Permanent Presence in Iraq By Marjorie Cohn The revelation that Bush will sign an agreement for a permanent U.S. military presence in Iraq before his term is up confirms the real reason he invaded Iraq and changed its regime. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18820.htm === Wage Peace Where To Begin By William Sumner Scott, J.D. By change of focus from the current wars in the Middle East to this violent past, it will be possible to get the majority of Americans to understand that we have never been a peaceful people. And, if we are to become peaceful, we must begin by making peace with the American Indian. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18822.htm === Henry Thoreau and the Patrons of Virtue By Charles Sullivan Far from a government of the people, for the people and by the people, we now have a government that is the exclusive domain of the rich and powerful and has the same level of exclusivity as an expensive country club or resort. The poor and disenfranchised are barred from entry and are thus marginalized. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18826.htm === Time to Mount Up and Ride By Vincent L. Guarisco Haven't you noticed the pillars shaking, the foundation cracking, and debris falling everywhere? I certainly hope so, because the Bush administration's wrecking ball hasn't quite finished swinging yet. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18823.htm === A Manifestation of Evil or Just Plain Madness? By Alan Hart Bush became the puppet of Vice President Cheney and his neo-con associates, many of whom were, are, hardest core Zionists. I think they probably could not believe their luck when Prime Minister Blair first arrived in Washington http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18827.htm === Will Peace Cost Me My Home? By Ghada Ageel Any Mideast pact must give Palestinians the right to return home. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18824.htm === Putin is Stalin? Garry Kasparov and the Far-right Cuckoo's Nest By Mike Whitney Watching Kasparov traipse around Moscow with his basket of sour grapes and his entourage of western media-stooges is like watching "Mr. Bean's Excellent Kremlin Adventure"---a particularly lame performance in a dismal B-rated burlesque. It's painful to watch. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18821.htm === Iraq: At least 30 killed as US occupation grinds on: Six bodies were found in different areas of Baghdad in the past 24 hours, police said. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L0369479.htm === Iraq's numbers don't add up, U.S. says: Iraqi officials have been reporting far higher civilian death totals than those reported by U.S. forces, and aides to American commanders now acknowledge that the U.S. military probably had been undercounting such casualties. http://snipurl.com/1ul7x === Iraqi insurgents regrouping, says Sunni resistance leader: Iraq's main Sunni-led resistance groups have scaled back their attacks on US forces in Baghdad and parts of Anbar province in a deliberate strategy aimed at regrouping, retraining, and waiting out George Bush's "surge", a key insurgent leader has told the Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2220821,00.html === Iraqi Sunnis decry "racist" de-Baathification: An Iraqi Sunni Arab leader decried the exclusion of former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party from public life during a parliamentary hearing on Monday, calling it "racism" aimed at punishing Sunnis. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L031179.htm === US admissions of Iraqi refugees drop again despite vows to boost numbers: The United States admitted only 362 Iraqi refugees in November, almost 100 fewer than in October, and far less than half the number it needs per month to meet a goal of 12,000 by the end of this budget year http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/03/america/US-Iraq-Refugees.php === Third world warriors fight U.S. wars - for dollars a day: With U.S. forces stretched thin in Iraq, private security companies have swept in to fill the void. But abuses of third-world security workers abound. And in many cases, those helping to fight our wars can't even cross our borders. http://origin.sltrib.com/news/ci_7614726 === Fact Check on War Spending : President Bush and congressional Democrats are locked in a fight on Iraq spending, each struggling for the upper hand in public perception. http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-7123932,00.html === US intelligence aid implied in Turkish strike against PKK : United States officials have implied that Washington may have provided the Turkish army with actionable intelligence for a weekend operation into northern Iraq during which the Turkish military said it inflicted heavy casualties on Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorists, without formal confirmation. http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=90159 === PKK sets terms for renouncing violence: As a main condition, the PKK deamnded Turkey's recognition of the Kurds' identity in its constitution and of their language as a native language along with Turkish in the country's Kurdish areas. http://snipurl.com/1ul82 === US spies give shock verdict on Iran threat: The disclosure makes it harder for President George Bush and the vice-president, Dick Cheney, to make a case for a military strike against Iran next year. http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2221408,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12 === US: Iran Still Able to Develop Nukes : "Tehran's decision to halt its nuclear weapons program suggests it is less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005," says the unclassified summary of the secret report. http://snipurl.com/1ul84 === Russia finds US intelligence report on Iran''s nuclear weapons abilities : Russia on Monday found credible the content of a US intelligence report which stated that Iran won't be able to enrich enough uranium for a nuclear weapons until late 2009 and even then, is "very unlikely" to produce a nuclear bomb until the next decade. http://snipurl.com/1ul86 === China backs new sanctions against Iran, says US official : CHINA, which has long opposed sanctions against nuclear-happy Iran, is now clearly in favour of such a move after talks with the United States, said Mr Nicholas Burns, Washington's pointman on Iran. http://www.straitstimes.com/Free/Story/STIStory_183144.html === Nixon Papers Recall Concerns on Israel's Weapons : "This is one program on which the Israelis have persistently deceived us," Mr. Kissinger said, "and may even have stolen from us." http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/washington/29nixon.html === Israelis hit Syrian 'nuclear bomb plant': ISRAEL'S top-secret air raid on Syria in September destroyed a bomb factory assembling warheads fuelled by North Korean plutonium, a leading Israeli nuclear expert has told The Sunday Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article2983719.ece === Israeli occupation forces kill 4 in Gaza amid fuel fears : The attacks come as medical officials in Gaza say hospitals are beginning to run out of vital fuel supplies. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7124124.stm === Olmert holds little hope for peace deal : The Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has talked down any expectations of a peace agreement with the Palestinians by the end of 2008 that might have been generated by last week's meetings in Annapolis http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article3218048.ece === Officials: Shin Bet use emergency regulations on 17% of Gaza detainees : The Shin Bet security service has interrogated 270 detainees from Gaza since the beginning of the year, officials told the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee Sunday. In one out of six cases, or 17 percent, the Shin Bet used extraordinary measures, as permitted by emergency regulations. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/930368.html === U.S.-led occupation forces kills five suspected Afghan insurgents: U.S.-led occupation forces killed five suspected Taliban militants in an operation in southern Afghanistan targeting a commander believed to be involved in the kidnapping of an Italian journalist earlier this year, the coalition said Monday. http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/War_Terror/2007/12/03/4703624-ap.html === Taliban attack kills 3: The local Taliban killed three people and injured five others in an attack on a cockfight fare at the Shene Ghundae village in Shabqadar tehsil's Sro Kaley area on Sunday. http://www.dawn.com/2007/12/03/nat14.htm === Bomb kills 6 in Pakistani school on Afghan border : A bomb exploded in an Islamic school in a Pakistani town on the Afghan border on Monday killing six people and wounding four, officials said. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071203/ts_nm/pakistan_explosion_dc === SOS co-worker killed in the crossfire at the SOS Children's Village : One SOS co-worker was killed today and four seriously injured as a result of heavy missile bombardment in and around the SOS Children's Village Mogadishu. The village is located in occupied northern Mogadishu where many fighters opposing the government are based. http://snipurl.com/1ul8e === Congo army attacks rebel base after town falls: Congo's army attacked a stronghold of renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda on Monday, a day after his men seized a strategic town from the government and forced out thousands of civilians, U.N. officials said http://africa.reuters.com/country/CD/news/usnL03668951.html === Gates Visits US Troops in Djibouti : Gates arrived in this tiny port nation early Monday and went into meetings with national leaders and military commanders. http://snipurl.com/1ul8g === US, opposition cheer Chavez referendum defeat: THE United States, opponents and business leaders on Monday cheered Venezuela's rejection of reforms that would have opened the way for left-wing President Hugo Chavez to rule over South America's biggest oil exporter for life. http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest+News/World/STIStory_183214.html === Accepting loss gives Chavez democratic image : In gracefully accepting his first electoral defeat, Hugo Chavez is casting himself as a true democrat and deflecting charges of despotism from Washington and critics at home. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/03/america/LA-ANL-Chavez-the-Democrat. php === National Review reporter caught fabricating; where is the "liberal media"?: National Review reporter Thomas Smith has been exposed as a fabulist for plainly fictitious claims he made in two separate NR posts in September regarding Hezbollah's alleged armed threat to the Lebanese Government. http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/index.html === Monitors denounce Russia election : Foreign observers have said that Russia's parliamentary election, won by President Vladimir Putin's party, was "not fair". http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7124585.stm === US urges Russia to probe election violations: WHouse : The United States on Sunday urged Russia to investigate claims of election day violations, after partial results showed President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party had won 63.6 percent of the vote. http://snipurl.com/1ul8k === Republicans form a new plot to rig the 2008 election: Contempt for democracy is on display again. In California right now, there is a naked, out-in-the-open ploy to rig the 2008 presidential election -- and it may succeed. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/341868_rigged02.html?source=mypi === CNN: Corrupt News Network: This most recent debacle masquerading as a presidential debate raises serious questions about whether CNN is ethically or professionally suitable to play the political role the Democratic and Republican parties recently have conceded it. http://snipurl.com/1ul8p === An Old Face Resurfaces: The Bush administration has offered the former World Bank president a new public service position. http://www.newsweek.com/id/73273 === "They [were] using us like rats and dogs and animals.: Habib points finger at 'inhumane' Australia: Mr Habib today said he was beaten from the day of his arrest in Pakistan in 2001 until his final moments in 2005 at Guantanamo Bay, where he claimed he was experimented upon."People have no humanity, they have been using us for experiments," he told the court. http://snipurl.com/1ul8s === 'Clarifying' the Geneva Conventions: A Ploy to Limit US Culpability : Official US calls for "clarifying" the Geneva Conventions are part of a ploy to limit their application and enable prisoners to be treated outside the law without inviting culpability for war crimes and torture http://snipurl.com/1ul8t === 9/11 and Skepticism: How Americans are continually being asked to accept the opposite of what they know to be true. http://www.americanbuddhist.net/9-11-and-skepticism === Australian PM ratifies Kyoto Protocol: Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Monday he had ratified the Kyoto Protocol on climate change in his first official act after being sworn in as leader. http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/071203070028.36xwg9nb.html === National Debt Grows $1 Million a Minute : Like a ticking time bomb, the national debt is an explosion waiting to happen. It's expanding by about $1.4 billion a day -- or nearly $1 million a minute. http://snipurl.com/1ul8v === Recession Hits U.S. Profits; Economy Might Be Next : U.S. corporate profits are in a recession, and the entire economy may not be far behind. http://snipurl.com/1ul8x === Paulson Crafts Subprime Deal to Prevent Second Bush Recession : U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, struggling to prevent a second recession in the presidency of George W. Bush, will today discuss plans to keep troubled subprime borrowers from losing their homes. hhttp://snipurl.com/1ul8z === Moody's May Cut Ratings on $105 Billion of SIVs: Moody's Investors Service is preparing the biggest credit rating cuts since subprime mortgages contaminated the bond market, foreshadowing losses for investments that pay Florida teachers and money market funds. http://snipurl.com/1ul90 === This day in history 12/03/84: Hundreds die in Bhopal chemical accident: Hundreds of people have died from the effects of toxic gases which leaked from a chemical factory near the central Indian city of Bhopal http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/3/newsid_2698000/26 98709.stm === Let Us Work Towards Peace & Joy Tom Feeley ***************************************************************** 52 U.S. Report Stating Iran Halted Nuke Program Finally Released Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 15:28:46 -0600 (CST) Institute for Public Accuracy 915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045 (202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org ___________________________________________________ PM Monday, December 3, 2007 U.S. Report Stating Iran Halted Nuke Program Finally Released The New York Times lead headline this afternoon on its website was "U.S. Says Iran Ended Atomic Arms Work: Report Contradicts Prior Intelligence Assessment." The report in question is the National Intelligence Estimate, "Iran: Nuclear Intentions and Capablities," which is now available at: . REESE ERLICH, rerlich@pacbell.net, http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.iran28nov28,0,5197104.story Foreign correspondent and author of the new book "The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Middle East Crisis," Erlich is available for a limited number of interviews. He said today: "The NIE released today has been suppressed by the Bush Administration since February. It clearly indicates that the White House, and Vice President Cheney in particular, have been lying about the nuclear threat from Iran as part of a conscious effort to whip up public support for bombing Iran. But the 'realist' wing of the White House seems to be prevailing for the moment. The official press release emphasizes negotiations, not bombing. "Yet the U.S. continues its covert war against Iran, using Kurdish and other minority group organizations to blow up buildings, kill soldiers and civilians. All factions in the White House continue to seek the overthrow of the Iranian government, in complete violation of international law and the 1981 Algiers Accords signed by the U.S. and Iran, which prohibit political or military interference in the internal affairs of Iran." MUHAMMAD SAHIMI, moe@usc.edu Sahimi is professor of chemical engineering at the University of Southern California. His articles on U.S./Iranian relations include "The follies of Bush's Iran policy" -- at -- which he co-wrote with Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi. Also: "Norman Podhoretz's War Prayer," . Sahimi said today: "After nearly two decades of accusing Iran of having a secret nuclear weapon program, the United States is finally acknowledging that Iran does not have such a program. This is completely in line with what the Iranian government has been saying all along, that its nuclear facilities that have been declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency are the only facilities that it has, and because they are safeguarded and monitored by the IAEA, they cannot be used in illicit weapon activities. The time has come for direct negotiations between Iran and the United States to resolve the outstanding issues between the two nations, which will help the peace and stability in the Middle East." CARAH ONG, cong@armscontrolcenter.org, http://irannuclearwatch.blogspot.com Ong is Iran Policy Analyst at the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation and is writing regularly on Iran's nuclear program; her most recent piece is "Long-Awaited National Intelligence Estimate on Iran Finally Released." Ong said today: "This NIE, which represents the consensus view of all 16 American intelligence agencies, says that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains on hold. This new assessment contradicts the 2005 NIE, which assessed with 'high confidence' that Iran was determined to have a nuclear weapon and was working inexorably towards this end." For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy: Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167. _________________________________________________________________ You received this message as a subscriber on the list: public@lists.accuracy.org To be removed from the list, send any message to: public-unsubscribe@lists.accuracy.org For all list information and functions, including changing your subscription mode and options, visit the Web page: http://lists.accuracy.org/lists/info/public ***************************************************************** 53 Us Intelligence On Iran's Nuclear Programme Should Spur Talks, Says UN Official Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2007 13:00:25 -0500 US INTELLIGENCE ON IRANS NUCLEAR PROGRAMME SHOULD SPUR TALKS, SAYS UN OFFICIAL New York, Dec 4 2007 1:00PM A recently-released United States intelligence report concluding that there has been no ongoing nuclear weapons programme in Iran since the fall of 2003 tallies with the findings of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (<"http://www.iaea.org/index.html">IAEA), its Director-General said today, calling for all parties concerned to enter into negotiations. Mohamed ElBaradei said in a <"http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/PressReleases/2007/prn200722.html">statement that the National Intelligence Estimate should help to defuse the current crisis. Iran still needs to clarify some important aspects of its past and present nuclear activities, he said. The intelligence should also prompt Iran to work actively with the IAEA to clarify specific aspects of its past and present nuclear program as outlined in the work. This would allow the Agency to provide the required assurances regarding the nature of the programme. Iranian authorities have stated that their nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes, but other countries contend that it is driven by military ambitions. The countrys nuclear programme has been a matter of international concern since the discovery in 2003 that it had concealed its nuclear activities for 18 years in breach of its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). In light of the new Estimate, Mr. ElBaradei urged all parties as soon as possible to enter negotiations, which are needed to build confidence about the future direction of Irans nuclear programme and address the concerns repeatedly expressed by the Security Council. Talks are also necessary to generate a comprehensive and durable solution that would normalise the relationship between Iran and the international community, he said. Last December, the Security Council adopted a resolution banning trade with Iran in all items, materials, equipment, goods and technology which could contribute to the countrys enrichment-related, reprocessing or heavy water-related activities, or to the development of nuclear weapon delivery systems. It tightened the measures in March, banning arms sales and expanding the freeze on assets. This September, Mr. ElBaradei welcomed Irans agreement on a timeline to address all outstanding issues regarding the countrys nuclear programme. 2007-12-04 00:00:00.000 ___________________ For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news To listen to news and in-depth programmes from UN Radio go to: http://radio.un.org/ _______________________________ To change your profile or unsubscribe go to: http://www.un.org/apps/news/email/ ***************************************************************** 54 NY Times: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal Vexed Nixon By DAVID STOUT Published: November 29, 2007 WASHINGTON, Nov. 28 - In July 1969, as the world was spellbound by the Apollo 11 mission to the moon, President Richard M. Nixon and his close advisers were quietly fretting about a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Their main worry was not a potential enemy of the United States, but one of America's closest friends. Tensions over Israel's nuclear weapons cast a shadow over talks between Richard M. Nixon and Golda Meir in 1969. "The Israelis, who are one of the few peoples whose survival is genuinely threatened, are probably more likely than almost any other country to actually use their nuclear weapons," Henry A. Kissinger, the national security adviser, warned Mr. Nixon in a memorandum dated July 19, 1969 - part of a newly released trove of documents. Israel's nuclear arms program, which Israel has never officially conceded exists, was believed to have begun at least several years before, but it was causing special problems for the young Nixon administration. For one thing, the president was preparing for a visit by its prime minister, Golda Meir, who was also in her first year in office and whose toughness was already legendary. Should Washington insist that Israel rein in its development of nuclear weapons? What would the United States do if Israel refused? Perhaps the solution lay in deliberate ambiguity, or simply pretending that America did not know what Israel was up to. These were some of the options that Mr. Kissinger laid out for Mr. Nixon on that day before men first walked on the moon. The Nixon White House's concerns over Israel's weapons were detailed in documents from the Nixon Presidential Library that were released on Wednesday by the National Archives under an executive order that requires that classified documents be reviewed and possibly declassified after 25 years. The documents provide insights into America's close, but by no means problem-free, relationship with Israel. They also serve as a reminder that concerns over nuclear arms proliferation in the Middle East, now focused on Iran, are decades old. The papers also allude to a 1972 campaign by friends of W. Mark Felt, then the second-ranking F.B.I. official, to have him named director of the bureau after the death of J. Edgar Hoover in May of that year. Mr. Nixon, of course, did not take the advice, instead naming L. Patrick Gray. Mr. Felt later became the famous anonymous source "Deep Throat," whose revelations during Watergate helped topple the president. There are also snippets about Washington's desire to manipulate relations with Saudi Arabia, so that the Saudis might help to broker a Middle East peace deal; discussion of possibly supporting a Kurdish uprising in Iraq; and a 1970 clash in which four Israeli fighters shot down four Russian MIG-21s over eastern Egypt, even though the Israelis were outnumbered by two-to-one. But perhaps the most interesting material, and the most pertinent given the just-completed peace conference in Annapolis, Md., concerns Israel and its relations with its neighbors, as well as with the United States. "There is circumstantial evidence that some fissionable material available for Israel's weapons development was illegally obtained from the United States about 1965," Mr. Kissinger noted in his long memorandum. He also said that one problem with trying to persuade Israel to freeze its nuclear program was that inspections would be useless, conceding that "we could never cover all conceivable Israeli hiding places." "This is one program on which the Israelis have persistently deceived us," Mr. Kissinger said, "and may even have stolen from us." Although Israel has never publicly acknowledged possessing nuclear weapons, scientists and arms experts have no doubt that it has them, and the United States' reluctance to pressure Israel to disarm has made America vulnerable to accusations that it has a double standard when it comes to stopping the spread of weapons in the Middle East. Mr. Kissinger's memo, written barely two years after the 1967 Middle East war and while memories of the Holocaust were still vivid among the first Israelis, implicitly acknowledged Israel's right to defend itself, as subsequent American administrations have done. But Mr. Kissinger reflected at length on the quandary faced by the United States. "Israel will not take us seriously on the nuclear issue unless they believe we are prepared to withhold something they very much need," he wrote, referring to a pending sale of Phantom fighter jets to Israel. "On the other hand, if we withhold the Phantoms and they make this fact public in the United States, enormous political pressure will be mounted on us," Mr. Kissinger went on. "We will be in an indefensible position if we cannot state why we are withholding the planes. Yet if we explain our position publicly, we will be the ones to make Israel's possession of nuclear weapons public with all the international consequences this entails." One of those consequences might be to "spark a Soviet nuclear guarantee for the Arabs, tighten the Soviet hold on the Arabs and increase the danger of our involvement," Mr. Kissinger wrote at another point. After he met with Mrs. Meir at the White House in late September 1969, Mr. Nixon said: "The problems in the Mideast go back centuries. They are not susceptible to easy solution. We do not expect them to be susceptible to instant diplomacy." But Avner Cohen, the author of "Israel and the Bomb," (Columbia University Press, 1998) who is a senior fellow at the United States Institute of Peace, said on Wednesday that there was enough historical evidence to indicate that the president and the prime minister had reached a secret understanding on at least one issue: Israel would keep its nuclear devices out of sight and not test them, and the United States would tolerate the situation and not press Israel to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty that has been embraced by scores of countries around the world. "That understanding remains to this day," Mr. Cohen said. ***************************************************************** 55 Hanford News: Hanford topics voiced This story was published Wednesday, November 28th, 2007 Chris Mulick, Herald Olympia bureau SEATTLE - Strenuous objections to importing more nuclear waste to Hanford and extending cleanup deadlines were voiced at a mostly civil State of the Site meeting Tuesday night. The annual event in a downtown meeting hall drew a familiar-looking crowd of 70 citizens, government officials and even a few Hanford workers. Fewer than 10 raised their hands when asked how many were attending their first Hanford meeting. The usual scolding of DOE was tempered at times with understanding and even a few compliments during the nearly three-hour meeting. But participants by and large expressed the usual frustration about not enough progress being made to clean up wastes. "We should have 10 million shovels digging that stuff up right now. All the money should be there," said Bill McQuaid. "I feel like I'm at wit's end. There's nothing I can do. The problem is so enormous it seems there's nothing many of you can do either." Perhaps the most constructive discussion came in the final hour when DOE's Office of River Protection Manager Shirley Olinger explained the agency's plans for considering Hanford and four other sites as candidates to collect and dispose of low level and mixed nuclear wastes. A decision could be made in 2009. And there are other proposals, including President Bush's Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, that could bring more wastes to Hanford for processing. "I don't think this is for nothing," Lee Sargent said of cleanup efforts. "But if Bush thinks he's going to bring 100,000 trucks in here full of stuff there's going to be a whole lot of dissatisfaction." Olinger explained Hanford plans to send its own wastes to Tennessee, New Mexico and Nevada and that Hanford already has facilities where low level and mixed wastes are being stored. Several speakers also asked why DOE, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Ecology are negotiating changes to the legal pact governing Hanford cleanup that would extend deadlines for removing tank wastes. All sides recognize a plant to turn the most hazardous tank wastes to glass won't be completed on time under current schedules. "Delays are unacceptable," said Tim Malloy. There also were complaints the agencies don't provide adequate notification for public meetings. "Your department stinks when it comes to this," Heart of America Northwest Director Gerry Pollet said to Dave Brockman, who heads DOE's Richland's Operations office. "We deserve better." There were an array of simple questions. What happens to underground tanks after they're emptied, Malloy asked. And Valerie Shubert said someone needs to publish a glossary of terms to define technical Hanford terms and "to spell out acronyms and stuff." Brockman said local DOE officials aren't necessarily advocates for policies bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., push for but will pass on citizen complaints. "We hear them," Brockman said, responding to complaints about proposals to import more wastes. "We put them up our chains of command." © 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 56 Hanford News: Tax relief bill set for 2008 session This story was published Wednesday, November 28th, 2007 Annette Cary, Herald staff writer A measure to grant tax relief for cleanup at the Hanford nuclear reservation will be back in front of state legislators in the upcoming session. But this time the bill will be backed by the Washington Department of Revenue as the state administration sponsors the bill. If the bill is not approved, an additional $1.1 million a year would be taken from Hanford, according to a state analysis. "Do you want the Department of Energy to take money away from cleanup and put it in state coffers?" is the question Sen. Jerome Delvin is asking state leaders. "If that's not state policy, we should do something," he said. The bill would make clear that a lower business and occupation tax rate charged to Hanford contractors directly involved in cleanup activities also extends to a broader array of companies whose work supports cleanup. Although taxes are paid by Hanford contractors, DOE reimburses the expense from federal cleanup dollars. Taxes became an issue after a state Department of Revenue audit of Lockheed Martin concluded the Hanford subcontractor was not doing cleanup work and should be paying a higher tax rate. Lockheed Martin recently negotiated a settlement with the state for the years from 1998 to 2002 that will result in $7.5 million being retained by DOE for cleanup work, according to the Tri-City Development Council. Hanford contractors paid the lower rate when plutonium was being produced at the site for the nation's nuclear weapons program during the Cold War. After production stopped, the Legislature acted in 1995 to make sure cleanup work continued to receive the same tax break. That law specifies that companies doing cleanup work at Hanford pay a rate of 0.471 percent of gross income rather than 1.5 percent. The bill to be introduced in the upcoming session makes clear that the lower tax rate extends to companies supporting the performance of cleanup, such as information technology and computer support services; infrastructure services; and security, safety and health services. However, it would exclude services that would routinely be offered to any business from the lower tax rate. For instance, office janitorial services would not get the tax break, but the specialized cleaning of equipment exposed to radioactive waste would qualify. Similar legislation was introduced last year in the state House and Senate, but did not advance to a vote. Since then Department of Revenue officials have toured Hanford to learn more about operations, including how information systems support cleanup. They saw wireless technology used to monitor millions of gallons of radioactive waste held in underground tanks and communications systems used by the emergency operation center. After the October visit, TRIDEC approved a resolution in support of a bill that would extend the lower tax rate to all DOE contractors performing work on Hanford cleanup "thereby making maximum use of federally funded Hanford cleanup dollars." © 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 57 Hanford News: Waste site fined for 'mislabeled' barrel from INL: Error costs N.M. facility $110,700 This story was published Friday, November 30th, 2007 Matt Christensen, The Times-News, Twin Falls, Idaho The New Mexico Environment Department levied heavy fines against a federal waste-storage facility this week, in part because the Idaho National Laboratory sent a barrel containing liquid waste to the site thatwasn't supposed to be there. The barrel was removed from the U.S. Department of Energy's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M, and sent back to the INL in August. "The bottom line was there was a mistake made when the drum was chosen to be sent to WIPP," said Brad Bugger, a spokesman with DOE's Idaho operations. Idaho DOE officials, who oversee the INL, say the mistake happened when the barrel was mislabeled, but they declined to comment further. The barrel has since returned to Idaho, where it is scheduled to have the liquid removed. The barrel did not pose a danger to people or the environment while being shipped, said officials with Bechtel BWXT Idaho, the company contracted by the DOE to certify waste shipments from INL to WIPP, in a statement released shortly after the error was noticed. The New Mexico Environment Department agreed the mistake posed little danger, but said liquid waste in general could negatively impact the site, human health and the environment. "It was a mistake, but it was a serious mistake," said James Bearzi, chief of hazardous waste for the NMED. The barrel was sent to WIPP in June. Workers there failed to notice liquid waste inside before burying the barrel -- a violation of a permit with the NMED that bars liquid waste from being buried at WIPP. It remained underground for nearly two months, until officials at INL realized during an audit they'd mistakenly sent the barrel to the site. WIPP officials dug up the vessel and sent it back to Idaho in August after INL alerted them of the error. WIPP was fined $110,700 for burying the waste, as well as $885,520 for other, unrelated violations. The facility has "a history of noncompliance," says the NMED. Between 1998 and 2004, NMED cited WIPP at least eight times. The Bechtel contractor that made the labeling error has not faced fines from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, but the DOE in Idaho "has taken contract action to ensure appropriate management attention to correct the issues leading up to this event and to prevent recurrence," said Rick Dale, a spokesman for the company. This is the first time the company has made such a mistake, Dale said. He said the company deals with thousands of barrels a day. © 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 58 Tri-City Herald: Initiative 297 goes another round in 9th Circuit Court Published Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 ANNETTE CARY HERALD STAFF WRITER SEATTLE -- The state of Washington has the authority to craft conditions over how certain waste at Hanford is managed, even if the federal government has authority over radioactive materials, the state said Monday in arguments before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle. The court heard the latest round of legal arguments in the dispute over the constitutionality of Initiative 297 passed by voters in 2004 but never made law. The initiative, which was voted down by only Benton and Franklin counties' voters, would ban the Department of Energy from bringing more radioactive waste to the Hanford nuclear reservation through a system of permits that would require waste already at the site to be cleaned up first. The site is massively contaminated from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program. The initiative was ruled unconstitutional in 2006 in federal court after the late Judge Alan McDonald found it violated the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution by attempting to override federal authority. The state is appealing that decision. It maintains that the initiative gives the state no authority that it does not have already. Instead, it is a message from the voters that it should use its full authority to ensure Hanford is cleaned up. "It is not illogical" for voters to say that until waste is cleaned up, the state should not risk making it worse by allowing more waste to be imported by DOE for disposal, said circuit Judge M. Margaret McKeown, one of three judges who heard arguments. She suggested that the matter was a timing issue, with the state saying it would not allow any more waste now. "We're not talking about a few years," said attorney Colin Deihl, representing DOE contractor Fluor Hanford, which filed legal briefs with the U.S. Department of Justice. "It would take the rest of my lifetime." The federal government has argued that while hazardous waste mixed with radionuclides, or mixed waste, will be sent to Hanford for disposal, that's just part of a national strategy for disposing of radioactive waste. Already Hanford waste contaminated with plutonium is being shipped to a national repository in New Mexico for disposal and DOE plans to send high level radioactive waste from Hanford to a national repository in Nevada. Under the plan, waste with about 8.3 million curies of radioactivity would be sent to Hanford, while waste with about 374 million curies of radioactivity would be shipped off the site for disposal in other states, according to DOE. If Hanford waste cannot be shipped offsite, cleanup cannot be completed, barring other DOE waste from being shipped to Hanford, Deihl said. "The state has put up a stop sign at the border saying no mixed waste can come in," he said. In general, the court gives deference to the people who passed the initiative, McKeown said. The question is whether their wishes would preempt the authority given to the federal government, she said. The initiative would expand the definition of mixed waste, said attorney John Bryson, arguing for the U.S. Department of Justice. That point was decided before the constitutionality issue when the Washington State Supreme Court interpreted state issues in the initiative for the federal government in 2005. The federal government has retained for itself the power to regulate radioactive materials under the Atomic Energy Act, Bryson said. But the federal government allows states to regulate hazardous waste. In cases where waste contains hazardous chemicals and radionuclides, the state and federal government share dual authority, he said. However, the federal government has the deciding authority in any conflict in statutes dealing with the mixed wastes, said Matthew Segal, representing the Tri-City Development Council and arguing with the Department of Justice. While the state cannot stop waste from being sent to Hanford, it can make sure that disposal at Hanford is done in the best way possible, Deihl said. The concurrent authority does not seem to be working well, McKeown said. Progress has been made on cleanup at the site, Bryson said, pointing out that seven leak-prone underground tanks have been emptied of high level radioactive and hazardous chemical waste. Congress set up a careful balance of authority for the state and federal government for handling waste, said Andrew Fitz, an assistant attorney general for the state. The way the federal court has analyzed the initiative potentially changes that balance, the state believes. "The reason we are here today is because the impact of the (federal) court ruling is staggering," said attorney Michael Robinson-Dorn, representing the initiative sponsors and arguing with the state. The judges asked attorneys what recourse residents of the state might have if the initiative were not enacted. They could sue the state Department of Ecology to force it to regulate waste to its full authority or sue the federal government, attorneys said. Or they could go to the Legislature and ask it to strengthen the Hazardous Waste Management Act, the law by which the federal government allows the state to manage hazardous waste. That's how the state views the initiative, as exercising its authority under the Hazardous Waste Management Act, Fitz said. © 2007 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press & Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 59 Guardian Unlimited: GAO Wants More Oversight of Nuclear Labs Thursday November 29, 2007 3:16 AM By SUE MAJOR HOLMES Associated Press Writer ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - The nation's nuclear weapons laboratories need tougher safety oversight to fix a recent track record that includes dozens of lapses, accidents and near misses, according to a government report released Wednesday. The Government Accountability Office review of New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and Sandia National Laboratories came in response to security breaches and safety concerns at Los Alamos. The GAO, an investigative arm of Congress, said it found a lax attitude toward safety procedures, weaknesses in identifying and correcting safety problems, and inadequate oversight by the National Nuclear Security Administration, a division of the Department of Energy. The review cited nearly 60 serious accidents or near misses since 2000. The GAO recommended that the NNSA retain independent federal oversight, but said it should start making annual progress reports to Congress. The report also criticized the NNSA's heavy reliance on contractors' own safety management controls for oversight. It noted the NNSA was strengthening oversight and taking other steps, but said those efforts were still under way and it was too early to see what effect they might have. John Broehm, an NNSA spokesman in Washington, said agency officials generally agreed with the recommendations, but felt the report ``was a little misleading'' in its implication that the labs have major problems. ``A lot of it is worker safety vs. nuclear safety,'' he said. ``We take nuclear safety and worker safety very seriously. But when you look at the size and scope of what we do, we feel the numbers are pretty good,'' Broehm said. Accidents and nuclear safety violations contributed to temporary shutdowns at Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore in 2004 and 2005, but safety problems persist, the report said. Los Alamos shut down virtually all its divisions for review in the summer of 2004 after two computer disks believed to contain classified information were reported missing and an intern suffered an eye injury from a laser. The lab wasn't back into full operation until early 2005. Accidents at the labs included workers being exposed to radiation, inhaling toxic vapors and being shocked. No one was killed, but some workers were seriously injured and lab facilities were damaged, the GAO said. Among other shortcomings cited in the report: - Seven workers at a Los Alamos plutonium-processing facility received ``significant doses of radiation'' in a 2000 accident because the lab failed to correct earlier problems. - Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore violated safety rules eight times since 2000, with penalties totaling nearly $3 million for Los Alamos and $808,000 for Lawrence Livermore. Sandia has not been cited for a safety violation in that time. - Liquid chlorine dioxide formed and exploded during a 2002 experiment at Los Alamos. The experiment's two researchers noticed a rapid rise in temperature and fled the room seconds before the explosion. - A 2003 accident at a Sandia construction site seriously injured two workers. - A Los Alamos worker opened a package containing radioactive material in 2005 and unknowingly contaminated himself, his clothing and items he touched. The contamination was not discovered for 11 days and in the meantime, the worker spread it to his home, other places in Los Alamos, and relatives' homes in Colorado and Kansas. Guardian Unlimited Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 60 Albuquerque Tribune: National labs need tougher oversight of safety, report reveals Sue Major Holmes/Associated Press Thursday, November 29, 2007 The Government Accountability Office is recommending tougher oversight of safety at the nation's federal nuclear weapons laboratories, contending there have been persistent safety problems in recent years, including nearly 60 serious accidents or near misses since 2000. Republican Reps. Joe Barton of Texas and Ed Whitfield of Kentucky asked for a report 18 months ago after security breaches and safety concerns at northern New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory. The GAO also reviewed Albuquerque's Sandia National Laboratories and California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The GAO report released Wednesday blamed a lax attitude toward safety procedures, weaknesses in identifying safety problems and then correcting them; and inadequate oversight by site offices of the National Nuclear Security Administration, a Department of Energy division that oversees the labs. The GAO recommended the NNSA retain independent federal oversight and ensure that efforts to improve safety be measured by the outcome, not the process. It also recommended annual progress reports to Congress. John Broehm, an NNSA spokesman in Washington, D.C., said agency officials generally agreed with the recommendations, but felt the report "was a little misleading" in its implication that the labs have major problems. "A lot of it is worker safety versus nuclear safety," he said. "We take nuclear safety and worker safety very seriously. But when you look at the size and scope of what we do, we feel the numbers are pretty good," Broehm said. A spokesman for Los Alamos, Kevin Roark, said the lab showed significant safety and security improvements in fiscal 2007, reducing the number of incidents and injuries by 30 percent. "We feel that we've come a long way toward changing the safety culture at the lab, but we realize there's always room for improvement," he said. The GAO said it found little indication that the NNSA or contractors that manage the labs had followed a 2003 directive calling for a disciplined approach toward improvements. The report also criticized the NNSA's heavy reliance on contractors' own safety management controls for oversight. It noted the agency was strengthening oversight and taking other steps, but said those efforts were still under way and it was too early to see what effect they might have. Accidents and nuclear safety violations contributed to temporary shutdowns at both Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore in 2004 and 2005, but safety problems persist, the report said. Los Alamos shut down virtually all its divisions for review in the summer of 2004 after two computer disks believed to contain classified information were reported missing and an intern suffered an eye injury from a laser. The lab wasn't back into full operation until early 2005. Accidents at the labs included workers being exposed to radiation, inhaling toxic vapors and being shocked. The GAO said no one was killed but that some workers were seriously injured and lab facilities were damaged. Among incidents cited: • A 2000 accident in which seven workers at a Los Alamos plutonium-processing facility received "significant doses of radiation" because the lab failed to correct problems after previous incidents. • Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore being found in violation of safety rules eight times since 2000, with penalties totaling nearly $3 million for Los Alamos and $808,000 for Lawrence Livermore. Sandia has not been cited for a safety violation since before 2000. • A 2002 incident in which liquid chlorine dioxide formed during an experiment at Los Alamos and exploded. The experiment's two researchers noticed a rapid rise in temperature and fled the room seconds before the explosion. • A 2003 accident at a Sandia construction site that seriously injured two workers. • A 2005 incident in which a Los Alamos worker opened a package containing radioactive material and unknowingly contaminated himself, his clothing and items he touched. The contamination was not discovered for 11 days and in the meantime, the worker spread it to his home, other places in Los Alamos and relatives' homes in Colorado and Kansas. Scripps Newspaper Group Online 2007 The E.W. Scripps Co. ***************************************************************** 61 Amarillo.com: DOE set to unveil plan 11/30/07 Proposal to modernize nuclear weapons plants By Jim McBride jim.mcbride@amarillo.com The U.S. Department of Energy will unveil its proposed plan for a smaller, more efficient nuclear weapons complex early next month, a top National Nuclear Administration official said Thursday. The department is now preparing to roll out its long-awaited proposal to modernize nuclear weapons plants and laboratories, NNSA Administrator Tom D'Agostino said during a tour of Pantex. Pantex is one of five sites vying for a new center that would conduct plutonium research and manufacture about 125 plutonium triggers for nuclear warheads each year. Although the DOE has not formally announced its preferred site for the new plutonium production and research center, that facility is expected to be located at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Pantex, however, will take on an expanded role dismantling nuclear warheads. "We expect the preferred alternative to be announced shortly in the month of December," D'Agostino said. "When we do that, we are going to describe the type of workload, the type of improvements we think we need to see in the complex that will sustain the complex at a reasonable size, at the right type of modernization level over the many years to come." The NNSA plans to decrease the nuclear weapons stockpile by 80 percent in coming decades, which will mean more dismantlement work at Pantex. "That doesn't mean Pantex goes down by 80 percent," D'Agostino said. "On the contrary, when you decrease the size by 80 percent, you're left with a chunk of warheads you've got to do something with. Pantex touches every single one of those." U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry said key agency and legislative decisions will be made very soon that will shape the future weapons production network. "I think we are approaching a point where a lot of critical decisions need to be made for our nuclear deterrent," Thornberry said. "All of this feeds in at the same time where we are going to have to figure out the path ahead that the country will follow for decades, probably, to come." U.S. Rep. Ellen Tauscher, a California Democrat who chairs the Strategic Forces Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee, said she was impressed with cutting-edge computer technology and other innovations she saw during her Pantex tour. "There's a lot of moving parts here. I do think they have a very significantly trained work force with a very important mission," Tauscher said. "This is the best year that they've had and that's because they've got smart business programs, state-of-the-art technology and smart people. And they've done it very safely." 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