***************************************************************** 11/04/07 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 15.259 ***************************************************************** 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: Brattleboro Reformer: Energy workshop was more important than pr 2 BDC: Meek and Butterfield: Tackling global warming, we can't afford 3 US: MySA.com: Whistleblowers claim contractor fraud ignored 4 BBC NEWS: Musharraf targets key opponents 5 BBC NEWS: Musharraf takes on Pakistan's judges 6 The Observer: 'Desperate' Musharraf declares martial law 7 Reuters: Facts about Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf NUCLEAR REACTORS 8 Middle East racing to nuclear power 9 Economic Times: N-deal in interest of India, US - Kissinger 10 US: Farley Plant’s response to nuke panel disturbing 11 Shanghai Daily: Nuclear power: China has US$60b plan -- 12 Bangkok Post: Egat chief says nuclear power necessary 13 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Meet the would-be N-power king 14 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Clean power 15 Xinhua: China to increase nuclear power capacity by 23 mln kilowatts 16 US: Wisconsin Radio Network: Doyle hesitant on new nuclear reactors 17 US: Reuters: Arizona nuclear plant normal after pipe bomb event 18 US: BDC: Moore: Seven reasons that more nukes aren't the answer 19 UPI: China eyeing additional nuclear power - 20 US: TheDay.com: Millstone Permit Gets A Time Out 21 US: AFP: US nuclear plant sealed off after bomb found - 22 US: Deseret Morning News: Pros, cons of nuclear power debated NUCLEAR SECURITY 23 US: Guardian Unlimited: Pipe Bomb Locks Down Ariz. Nuclear Plant 24 thewest.com.au: Man charged for drink driving three times in 24 hour NUCLEAR SAFETY 25 US: Salt Lake Tribune: 'Exposed' lays bare atomic pain, grief 26 US: KOB.com: Military personnel to be tested for uranium 27 US: Gazette: Vets exposed to atomic tests scoff at federal offer 28 US: The Herald: Well water near nuclear plant safe to drink, DHEC de NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 29 US: [NYTr] Arabs Propose Uranium Alliance 30 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: A new tone in Congress 31 Las Vegas SUN: Letter: Consolidating nuclear waste seems safer 32 US: courier-journal: Court clears way for suit over uranium plant 33 US: San Bernardino County Sun: Perchlorate battle costs 34 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Moab uranium waste: Tailings tab heads closer 35 US: UCS: Dozens of Organizations Ask Congress To Eliminate Funding F 36 US: Gallup: Independent: Hardrock mining reform passes 37 US: Bradenton.com: Tallevast residents want cleanup stalled PEACE 38 [southnews] Australia abstains from nuclear vote 39 US: Madsen: AF personnel ordered to keep mum on suspicious deaths 40 US: www.kansascity.com: Galloway: This is the beat of scary drummers 41 US: Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Nuclear insecurity 42 US: Sunday Times: Attlee feared atom bomb Armageddon - 43 US: Times Union: Bush, Cheney don't know when to stop -- 44 AU ABC: Greens 'appalled' at nuclear vote abstention - US DEPT. OF ENERGY 45 Carlsbad Current-Argus: Double jeopardy unfair for DOE 46 BDC: 200 years of science: Boulder labs hold celebration 47 Boulder Daily Camera: 'Dew of death' found at refuge ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Brattleboro Reformer: Energy workshop was more important than presented Letter Box Saturday, November 3 Editor of the Reformer: I enthusiastically attended last Monday's "workshop" in Springfield on Vermont's Energy Future. This well-attended workshop series was hosted by the Vt. Dept of Public Service (DPS). Vermonters from Windham and Windsor County, and well beyond filled the room. In the Reformer's mid-week report on Monday's workshop, one participant is quoted as feeling that some Entergy forums "seem like dog and pony shows when the (NRC) shows up." In observing some nuances of Monday's workshop -- even without the NRC, that same dog and pony show criteria applied to Monday's workshop which was run by the N.Y.-based marketing consultant Raab Associates. The scent of the nuclear power lobby was present. Misrepresentations in the official presentation referred to the environmental impact of nuclear power as low; One polling question option referred to "reducing" radioactive waste (the option of eliminating it was not provided); On at least one occasion our discussion group's "facilitator" from Raab Associates enthusiastically referred to the reliability of nuclear power. The effectiveness of participation in this workshop was further undermined by the following facts: Demographic information gathered included political party alignment. This question should never have been asked, all workshop data that was gathered is now subject to partisan political analysis; Workshop polling was conducted via an electronic keypad system that promised participants no more verification of their polling input than a Diebold electronic voting machine or a TV game show; The results of each question were posted in advance of the next question, biasing the room's subsequent answers. If anyone still has a shred of confidence in this "workshop" process, consider how the DPS was quick to caution in comments to the Reformer that at Monday's workshop "attendees were likely not representative of state residents at large." Also consider DPS spokesman Stephen Wark's comments to the Reformer regarding participants in regional workshops: "They tend to be people who are self-selecting." I interpret the comments of both of these DPS officials as an apparent bureau-speak dismissal of the importance of workshop input from the very public that their state agency represents. Andrew Smith Bellows Falls, Nov. 1 What did the DPS expect? Editor of the Reformer: Did the Department of Public Service fail to get the answers it wanted in the regional energy workshops? Why else would DPS spokesman Wark insult the participants -- who each gave five hours of their time -- by calling them "self-selecting?" The corrective is said to be the department's "deliberative polling" of 200 more Vermonters. How were they selected? Police round-up? A jury draw? I do know one person who was asked to participate. He declined -- selected himself out. So that is not a pure process either. Nothing in a democracy is. We self-select when we vote, or not, when we attend meetings, or not, when we pay attention, or not. The thing to pay attention to here is the answers Vermonters are giving their representatives. We don't want VY. (It was after the first of these meetings that Yankee began its panicked push-polling.) We do want clean renewable energy, and we want to produce a lot of it here. We understand that negawatts trump megawatts -- the cleanest watt of all is the one you don't need to generate. VY doesn't want to hear this, and neither does the Douglas Administration. They and other players will subvert this process if they can. If you care -- and you probably do -- self-select for vigilance. Jessie Haas Westminster, Nov. 1 Spitting is not cool Editor of the Reformer: A response to the letter to the editor of the Brattleboro Reformer of Nov. 1, written by Susan Joy. I, too, am disgusted at watching the spitting on TV by sports players. Only because it has carried on to the younger generation who do it all the time all around you because they think it's cool. It is not cool -- it's downright rude and disgusting to those around. Good manners start at home. Nita S. Lowery Brattleboro, Nov. 1 No nukes Editor of the Reformer: I wonder how many people understand that the process of "enrichment of uranium" does not lead directly to the production of nuclear weapons. In fact, it may not lead there at all. It is the process by which fuel rods for our nuclear reactors are produced, without which Vermont Yankee and all the others would have to shut down. The enrichment process does produce radioactive material that is used by the U.S. military as "depleted uranium" (still 60 percent radioactive), which, because of its denseness is used to coat artillery shells and protect tanks, and which, when it explodes, spreads radioactive material into the air, the water, the dirt, the children, and the lungs of anyone unfortunate enough to be wherever we have been fighting wars since 1991 ... But enrichment does not necessarily lead to nuclear bombs. Nuclear bombs, among other materials, requires plutonium, which is found, along with other deadly products, in the spent fuel rods, or the tons of toxic waste for which there is no safe storage. So, when we are told that Iran is "enriching uranium" and therefore is sure to be making bombs, it is just part of the lies and the attempts to frighten us into believing that we must bomb one more country that has never threatened us but possesses large amounts of oil. I ask, who are we to take the moral high ground when it comes to anything nuclear? We have dozens of dangerous old nuclear power plants; we are planning to build new ones, and we are selling nuclear power to chosen countries like India. We are the only country that has used atomic bombs. With waste from nuclear reactors and weapons that spread radioactive dust all over, we are making the world a radioactive wasteland for our children for untold generations to come, and, in bunkers all over the world, in the oceans in submarines, and maybe by now in space, we have 10,000 nuclear warheads, with 6,000 of them ready to go. Any country that dared to launch a nuclear weapon at the U.S. would be immediately turned into dust. On the other hand, any country that we threaten with military action, would surely be driven toward having a nuclear weapon of their own, since having one seems to be the only way to keep the United States from attacking them and causing untold death and destruction. Someone said that splitting the atom was the worst thing that man has ever done. The United States, (with madmen at the helm), not Iran or North Korea, and, in my opinion, not God, is leading the world down the path toward complete destruction. I am sick at heart for the children. Jane Newton Londonderry, Oct. 26 Focus on real Internet issues Editor of the Reformer: John Curran's Oct. 22 front-page article, "Vt. Web Site Lists Suspected Teachers" has further confirmed the Reformer's news priorities. Such an article belongs under civil rights issues rather than a special story about a list of educator "degenerates." Curran's title alone evokes the Orwellian Big Brother -- all too currently prevalent. Curran's "disreputable teacher" raises the question: Are educators the only public servants who might interact with public networks? Are educators the single professionals who might unintentionally (or sadly) intentionally access pornography? The Internet has no international or national surveillance. No Interpol, FBI, or other enforcement agency can censor computer use -- whether for research or pornography. The massive numbers of invasive advertisements that arise on the computer screen outwit every "Spyware." Yet Mr. Curran's article targets the state's, and, therefore, the Reformer's concern with educators who might abuse the Internet. His "list" of miscreant teachers appalls anyone in its singling out this already much maligned profession. The Reformer's choosing a "teacher's rogue gallery" as front-page news underlines its priorities. Mr. Curran might better have addressed the problem of rampant pornography, rather than headlining "suspended teachers." Pornography is a cancer now overwhelming the Internet along with film, text and advertisement. It victimizes all of society, not merely a small number in one of the many public service arenas; a profession whose majority of members do everything they can do help children, not damage them. Anne Montgomery Williamsville, Oct. 23 ***************************************************************** 2 BDC: Meek and Butterfield: Tackling global warming, we can't afford hot air Guest Opinions : Boulder Daily Camera By Ivan Meek and Anne B. Butterfield Saturday, November 3, 2007 As voters and consumers, we need to be more savvy about how we make, buy and consume energy. Both our national security and our climate depend on it. As more attention is paid to energy, however, more opinions appear in the Camera that do not have research to support the verbiage. This is alarming and disappointing. The climate is warm enough, we don't need any more hot air posing as energy solutions. In mid September, Ralph Shnelvar offered an opinion titled "Free trade is actually good for greenies" that attempted to eviscerate the value of solar photovoltaics. He quoted Don Lancaster whose views were as vague as they were inflammatory: "Not one net watt hour of conventional silicon photovoltaic energy has ever been generated. Nor is any net energy ever likely to be when one properly computes the full burden on the total systems level. The entire industry is a scam..." The critique is based on the concept of paybacks, an assessment of energy put in versus energy coming out, over time. "Paybacks started as a bogus concept," says David Johnston, internationally renowned expert in sustainability who consulted to the Department of Energy under the Carter Administration. "It was introduced by coal, oil and gas to blunt the rapid development for solar. It was part of a disinformation campaign to create skepticism." The payback story nonetheless has been pursued with scientific rigor, and solar has come out a winner. In 2006 researchers Fthenakis and Kim of Brookhaven National Labs found that the various types of PV solar had payback times falling between 1.5 and 2.6 years, and their life-cycle impacts were drastically lower than those earlier reported and are less than fossil fuels' by many orders of magnitude. It's irresistible to surmise that the life-cycle impacts for coal and uranium are so terrible, with their mining and transport which are extremely power-intensive, that the metric of paybacks was imposed onto renewables specifically as a smoke-screen to hide fossil fuels' terrible values. Another opinion on energy appeared in the Camera on Oct. 21, by Bruce Briegleb. He presented his credentials as a climate scientist to conclude that it's, "Time to get over our fear of nukes." In over a thousand words, he never gave a reason to get over that fear which he summarily dismissed as "irrational." But we know from a string of nuclear accidents the fear is rational and probably sufficient to rule out nuclear energy. This fall, the New York Times reported that Swedish babies who were in utero when winds were blowing from Chernobyl now have significantly worse school outcomes than other Swedish children. Radiation's ability to do harm over large distances is serious but still dwarfed by its power to convey harms over great expanses of time, providing our heirs ad infinitum with the gift of poisonous waste and security challenges. There is still no feasible means of disposal or storage for the waste. Nevada's Yucca Mountain, the proposed location for storing our nuclear waste, isn't as impregnable as claimed: Cesium-137 from the 1950s bomb testing has been detected in the cavern. It leaks. Charles Benjamin, Nevada director of Western Resource Advocates, gives voice to his state's defiance: "The days of Nevada being the nation's sacrifice zone are over." Aside from the waste, nuclear power plants vent radioactive tritium and Xenon-135. Mining, refining and enriching uranium are quite energy intensive; indeed, enriching uranium for the bomb used in World War II summoned 6 percent of our nation's electrical capacity, and nuclear power plants require cooling with water, another resource we need to track more carefully in today's warming climate. Illogically, people want nukes to solve the crisis of global warming, even though nuclear power plants require longer permitting and building time than any type of plant, and they cannot be insured, while renewable energy is widely known as the fastest to install. As more environmental pains like sea-ice loss, extreme drought and radiation effects are felt, we expect ourselves to take more complete responsibility for our energy choices. This value gains viability as we open our minds and pocketbooks to market-ready, truly clean energies such as solar and wind. But Briegleb belittled these modes of energy with prejudice and ignorance: "Given the track record of renewables to date, does anyone really believe they can replace all fossil fuel consumption for electricity by mid-century?" NREL's Chuck Kutscher asserts exactly that in his executive summary of "Tackling Climate Change," a 200-page road map for transferring our energy system to very low emissions by 2030 through efficiency and renewable energy. This report is being weighed by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission and can be downloaded at www.ases.org/climatechange. There are orders of magnitude more available solar and wind energy than the total U.S. energy consumption. Recent calculations indicate rooftop photovoltaic and wind energy to be as cheap as new coal plants when all factors are included. And the cost of sun hasn't gone up in the past 4.3 billion years, including delivery to your home. With the V2G — Vehicle-to-Grid — concept as one of many ways that are ready to store electricity from these renewable sources, people griping about intermittency will soon be sounding like secretaries hugging their Selectric Typewriters. Xcel will soon be converting six Ford SUV hybrids to V2G for testing, and Google has installed solar carports at their facility to empower a fleet of plug-in employee cars, and there are many other demonstration projects. Renewable-energy technologies are dependable: photovoltaic solar has 99-plus percent reliability, wind turbines 98 percent, and hydro, 91 percent. An average coal fired plant's uptime is only 85 percent; nuclear is worst at 73 percent. (Source: NERC, Generating Availability Report 1990-1994.) Briegleb's and Shnelvar's writing explores no information that supports renewable energy, even though both seem intent on a huge influx of new power generation for the sake of our climate stability. The rancor and shallowness of their claims stem most likely from carelessness, but may also stem from buying in to propaganda on talk radio and blogs. Books such as "the Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming" offer deliberately disingenuous arguments with standards that shift midway through analyses. Civilization was founded on trustworthy measures and standards, and through this turning point in our civilization, we need careful, honest thinking in how we review energy modes. The Camera can also help — by insisting that opinion pieces about energy technology offer a whole lot more than hot air. Ivan Meek is a retired electrical engineer who lives in Lafayette. Anne B. Butterfield tracks energy and climate issues and is a member of the Camera's editorial advisory board. Scripps Newspaper Group — Online Privacy Policy | User Agreement Camera & dailycamera.com | 1048 Pearl Street, Boulder, CO 80302 | ***************************************************************** 3 MySA.com: Whistleblowers claim contractor fraud ignored Web Posted: 11/04/2007 12:56 AM CDT Guillermo Contreras Express-News Barrington "Barry" Godfrey of Houston tried to get mega-contractor KBR to quit overcharging the government for thousands of troops he said the company never fed. He alleges he was forced out for raising the issue, and that the Justice Department tried unsuccessfully to keep his allegations secret and then refused to join him in a whistleblower suit. Iowa businesswoman Beth A. Hanken says she sounded the alarm more than a year ago about the military's principal food distributor in Kuwait, Public Warehousing Co., over allegations it was taking kickbacks from a subcontractor that helped it inflate prices of food for U.S. troops. A Defense Department official, she claims, responded by forwarding her allegations to Public Warehousing, touching off legal threats that she believes were meant to silence her. The Justice Department this year declined to join a whistleblower lawsuit she filed. The companies deny any wrongdoing, but Godfrey and Hanken are among a growing list of people who contend they were abandoned by the government when they stuck their necks out to protect taxpayers footing the bill for the war in Iraq. Alan M. Grayson, who represents Hanken, Godfrey and a handful of other whistleblowers in lawsuits about contracting fraud in Iraq, says the department is thwarting whistleblowers of helping them. More coverage * Talk Back: What do you think should be done to protect whistleblowers on corruption or waste? He argues that the Bush administration sweeps many cases under the rug, obtains court orders to keep details from the public and that Justice Department lawyers threaten whistleblowers with dismissal of their cases or contempt of court simply for telling people what they know. Grayson knows of a dozen whistleblower lawsuits that recently were unsealed after the Justice Department refused to join them; he represents the whistleblowers in five of them. "In every one of those cases, the Bush administration has taken no action to punish the war profiteers, or recover the money stolen from the taxpayers," Grayson said. Others argue the Justice Department lacks the resources to go up against contractors with scores of corporate lawyers who can thwart any meaningful government intervention or probe. A former U.S. attorney in San Antonio, John Clark, said whistleblowers with deep pockets to take on the contractors are essential to the government. Beyond these complexities is another problem: a loophole in the False Claims Act, the country's best weapon against corporate fraud. The law requires that false claims be "presented" to a government employee in order to be a violation. The technicality sidelined one of the most notable whistleblower cases recently. Issues such as these permit an environment that allows graft and corruption to breed, according to critics, whistleblower advocacy groups and other observers. The corruption, fraud, waste and abuse in Iraq have been so bad that Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota described it as an "orgy of greed." The case of Fort Sam Houston-based Army Maj. John L. Cockerham — the largest U.S. bribe investigation to come out of the war — emerged from this environment. The Army contracting officer is jailed in San Antonio awaiting trial on charges that, while stationed in a Kuwait contracting office, he steered several lucrative military service and supply contracts to companies that agreed to kick $15 million back to him. Although Cockerham, his wife and his sister were indicted, none of the companies alleged to have bribed him has been charged or even publicly identified by the U.S. government. Critics complain this secrecy will eventually enable the government to dodge any real pursuit of the contractors, and the Justice Department will focus instead on easier targets — individuals. The Justice Department says the investigation is ongoing, and defends its track record in all fraud-related cases. In addition, it says it has helped recover millions already in war-related fraud cases. Watchdogs aren't so sure. "In the case of these fraud cases, it's taxpayers' interests that are on the line," said Charlie Cray, director of the Center for Corporate Policy in Washington, D.C. "Given how much they're willing to spend on the war and priorities of the administration in general, I see no evidence that they are willing to protect the interests of taxpayers when it comes to corporate fraud." Triple damages The False Claims Act is a law forged by President Lincoln during the Civil War to punish war profiteers. Examples of fraud abounded, such as the Army ordering gunpowder and getting crates of sawdust instead. The law stood for more than 100 years before Congress modernized it in 1986. In the 20 years since, thousands of cases have been brought to the government's attention, largely under a litigation weapon called a "qui tam" lawsuit. The term comes from a Latin phrase that means "He who sues on behalf of the king as well as for himself." The whistleblower, also known as the "relator," can file a qui tam lawsuit against the offending company. The suit generally remains sealed — outside of public view — for 60 days, giving the Justice Department time to investigate the allegations and decide whether to join the suit. When the department joins, it generally takes the lead from the whistleblower. Successful qui tam cases can result in contractors having to pay back three times what they stole, overcharged or defrauded from the government. The companies could also be banned from doing business with the government, a death knell for some. The whistleblowers get a bounty — about 15 to 30 percent — of any settlement or verdict against the contractor. Even when the Justice Department doesn't join and the whistleblower forces a settlement or a verdict, the government gets the bulk of what is recovered. The most prominent example of that in contracting cases was a whistleblower lawsuit Grayson filed against Custer Battles, a private security contractor. After a trial, jurors hit the company with a $10 million verdict after determining it had committed more than 40 examples of fraud and abuse in Iraq. The presiding judge overturned the verdict after determining the False Claims Act didn't apply because no fraudulent claims were ever presented to a government agency. Custer Battles was paid by the Coalition Provisional Authority, a hybrid entity that received billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to rebuild Iraq. "It's still the (U.S.) taxpayer being ripped off, and there should be a way to close that loophole," said David Colapinto, general counsel for the National Whistleblower Center, an advocacy group in Washington. In September, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and other lawmakers introduced a bill that aims to tighten the False Claims Act and address the technicality. Lawmakers also have been asked to include provisions that would speed up the qui tam process. A report in 2005 by the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, shows that cases in which the Justice Department intervened took a median of 38 months to resolve. Some took as little as four months, or as long as 187, the report said. The vast majority of the cases end before trial. Since 1986, the Justice Department has recovered more than $15 billion from all cases filed under the False Claims Act. Of that, $10.7 billion were from qui tam cases where the government intervened, according to Justice Department records. Whistleblowers who took on the contractors on their own — after the U.S. government refused to join in the qui tam lawsuits — helped recover another $412 million during the same period. Recovered money Patrick Burns, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Taxpayers Against Fraud, said the Justice Department does few qui tam cases, but said that is because it has few resources. "It's a small collection of lawyers working very hard in opposition to a rising and unlimited army of corporate lawyers paid for by companies," Burns said. He said Congress needs to appropriate more money so the Justice Department can match the muscle of corporations and more vigorously pursue corruption. Others also observe that sometimes the Justice Department doesn't have willing clients. "Federal agencies (which) have responsibility for administering a particular program don't always see their roles the same way that another federal agency, for example, the Department of Justice, might see them," said former U.S. attorney Clark, who now represents whistleblowers. "If an agency doesn't view a case the same way the Department of Justice does, that would make it difficult, if not impossible, for the department to prosecute it." Burns takes it further, saying the Defense Department, for instance, may try to work out its own deal with a contractor so as not to lose funding for a contract, even a fraud-plagued one. The department might not want a contractor penalized because the money gained in a qui tam goes into the general U.S. treasury, and the agency might have to fight to get that money the following year, Burns said. The Justice Department, in a lengthy statement, defended its enforcement and gave four examples of whistleblower cases alleging fraud in Iraq that it joined. The suits were settled, resulting in $14 million being recovered. The department also said it has an undisclosed number of cases under investigation and denies that it has turned down cases for political or reasons other than their merit. It acknowledged it has joined fewer than 25 percent of the qui tam cases in those 20 years, but views that as a good thing. "This means that 75 percent of the cases have not warranted our intervention, and the dollar recoveries are evidence that our decisions have been sound ones," Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller said in an e-mail. "Simply because some cases alleging fraud in Iraq have been declined does not mean that there is fraud that has been ignored, nor does it mean that there are not other matters that contain meritorious allegations that are being investigated and pursued." Public Warehousing Two whistleblowers didn't find a receptive government when they tried to use the False Claims Act. Beth Hanken, president of Iowa-based Midwest Ventures, which sells meat products, filed suit in federal court in Philadelphia in January 2006. The suit names Public Warehousing Co. and Richmond Wholesale Meat Co. of Richmond, Calif., which served as consolidator for Public Warehousing. Public Warehousing had won two consecutive contracts, including a $67 million contract in 2004 to supply food to 150,000 to 160,000 U.S. troops in the gulf region, according to court documents. Hanken alleges in her suit that Public Warehousing "received kickbacks from Richmond in exchange for retaining Richmond and allowing Richmond to charge higher prices than other potential subcontractors." The suit said Midwest and other subcontractors were pushed aside even though they offered Public Warehousing lower prices than Richmond. A procurement manager for Public Warehousing, the suit said, told Hanken that Richmond was being overpaid. Hanken said she reported the alleged wrongdoing to the Defense Supply Center-Philadelphia, or DSCP. Instead of investigating the complaint, the suit said, an official with the center sent the allegation to Public Warehousing. Hanken then received a letter from the company's lawyers telling her to stop making allegations the company argued were wrong and defamatory. "In sum, PWC, in a coordinated effort with Richmond Wholesale, eliminated Midwest as a supplier to DSCP," the suit said. Public Warehousing denies any wrongdoing, and plans to issue its response in court. Richmond claimed the matter stems from events in 2005, when Richmond determined meat products Hanken sent to Richmond for delivery to Public Warehousing did not meet military specifications. Richmond said it shared the concerns with Public Warehousing, which rejected Midwest's product. "We have always operated within the rules and regulations required by government contractors," Richmond President Werner Doellstadt said. "We have done nothing illegal, and, to the contrary, continue to maintain the highest legal and ethical standards in dealing with our customers." The Justice Department's Miller said Hanken's case was rejected in March after the agency and investigators from the Defense Department found her evidence fell short. That the government pulled away after a year left Hanken feeling abandoned and frustrated. She said she may not be able to carry on without the government's help. "I'm all alone now," Hanken said. "It costs an enormous amount of money to pursue these cases." Two months before deciding not to join Hanken's suit, the Defense Department issued subpoenas in a separate criminal investigation of Public Warehousing, now based on allegations that the firm got improper payments from U.S. food companies, the Wall Street Journal first reported in October. It may have begun after a former Army contracting officer in Kuwait — who later was found dead under mysterious circumstances — had blown the whistle, according to the paper. In response to the investigation, Public Warehousing, now known as Agility Logistics, says it is reliable and cost-effective in providing its services. "The company has always cooperated with the reviews, inspections, audits and inquiries necessary to ensure taxpayer dollars are being spent appropriately," it said. The KBR Case Barry Godfrey feels Hanken's frustration. The former KBR employee filed a suit in Virginia alleging KBR inflated the number of military personnel it claimed to have served and ignored massive labor markups of its subcontractors. The suit gives several examples of unauthorized and excessive markups, which Godfrey claims he tried to stop. The suit said he was met with resistance within KBR. Godfrey, a senior contract administrator, said that during 2004, a subcontracted dining facility near Mosul, Iraq, was serving about 2,500 people a day but billing as if there were 5,000. "At three meals a day, this was billing for almost 10,000 meals a day that were not served," the suit said. In other examples, Godfrey found double-billing that KBR employees authorized for subcontract work that was not done or kitchen equipment that was never obtained. Godfrey said he made repeated attempts to force the subcontractors to reduce the bills, but that others within KBR blocked his attempts. In December 2004, he went on vacation. When he came back, his cell phone and computer, which contained documentation in connection with the allegations of fraud, had been stolen, the suit said. Also, one of the subcontractors complained to a KBR contract chief that Godfrey was treating the subcontractor unfairly. Godfrey was suspended for 10 days and told by another KBR executive, "We can't have subcontractor CEO's complaining about subcontract administrators," the suit said. "They told me I was out of my lane," Godfrey said. Godfrey said KBR remained complacent and did nothing because it holds so-called "cost-plus" contracts. "The more they spend the more they make," Godfrey said. Eventually, his suit said, his workplace was so hostile that he decided to leave KBR. In a statement, KBR said it could not comment on pending litigation, but denied it has defrauded the government. "Our work serving the troops in Iraq is unmatched," KBR said in a statement. "Despite the challenges of war, KBR has met the demands of our customer, the U.S. Army, often within very short deadlines, and has provided excellent service." Godfrey, who said he went to Iraq because he felt a sense of patriotism to help U.S. forces, feels disillusioned with the way the government responded after he filed his whistleblower suit. He waited for the Justice Department to join his suit for two years. In January, the department asked a judge to continue to keep it sealed. The judge refused and unsealed it; the Justice Department bailed out. "They did nothing," Godfrey said. "People just tend to ignore this and continue to reward the same contractor ... with more contracts and more business." gcontreras@express-news.net About Us: MySanAntonio.com | Express-News | KENS 5 Portions © 2007 KENS 5 and the San Antonio Express-News. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 4 BBC NEWS: Musharraf targets key opponents Last Updated: Sunday, 4 November 2007, 12:32 GMT Armed police have been deployed on the streets of Islamabad Pakistani opposition leaders and activists have been detained in the wake of President Pervez Musharraf's decision to declare emergency rule. The acting head of the party of exiled former PM Nawaz Sharif was arrested, senior lawyers have been detained and the country's chief justice sacked. PM Shaukat Aziz said that hundreds of people had been held, and the emergency would last "as long as is necessary". But no decision had been made over the date of any election, he added, insisting the government remained committed to the democratic process. Speaking late on Saturday, Gen Musharraf defended his decision, saying he could not allow the country to "commit suicide". He said Pakistan was in a crisis caused by militant violence and a judiciary which had paralysed the government. The moves came as the Supreme Court was due to rule on the legality of Gen Musharraf's October election victory. Threat of force Police and paramilitaries manned checkpoints around the parliament and presidential palace in the capital, Islamabad, on Sunday morning. After a calm start, a few dozen people staged a brief protest near the parliament building before police moved in to break up the gathering. West faces new dilemma Several people were dragged away and arrested, reports the BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan, in the city. More protests are expected throughout the rest of the day, he adds, with police appearing ready to use force against unauthorised demonstrations. Tough new media restrictions are controlling the news available throughout Pakistan: all non-state TV stations and some radio channels, including international services such as BBC World TV, have been taken off air. Independent newspapers have been allowed to continue publishing, but Gen Musharraf's decree severely limits what they can report. Local newspapers and key opposition leader Benazir Bhutto accused Gen Musharraf of bringing in martial law without formally declaring it. But Pakistan's attorney general said the prime minister and parliament remained in place and the civilian government would continue to function. Opposition anger Speaking at a news conference, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said there had been 400 to 500 "preventative arrests" since the emergency was declared. Before he was taken away by police in the central city of Multan, Javed Hashmi, of Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League, said Gen Musharraf would pay a price for his decision to restrict freedoms. "Musharraf's days are numbered. Time has come to end the political role of the army," he said. EMERGENCY RESTRICTIONS In pictures: Emergency rule Declaration: Full text Ms Bhutto, who recently returned to Pakistan from self-imposed exile, flew back to Karachi from a trip abroad upon hearing news of Gen Musharraf's decision. She confirmed that troops were not surrounding her Karachi home, contrary to some earlier reports, and laid out her demands for the holding free and fair elections. "We the political parties are calling for the restoration of the constitution, and for the holding of the elections under an independent election commission," she told the BBC. There is no word yet whether she plans to enter dialogue with the president or to lead opposition to his rule. President defiant In a TV address on Saturday evening, Gen Musharraf explained his decision, saying the current situation had forced him into making "some very painful decisions". Reaction in quotes Pakistan has been engulfed in political upheaval in recent months, and the security forces have suffered a series of blows from pro-Taleban militants opposed to Gen Musharraf's support for the US-led "war on terror". "Extremists are roaming around freely in the country, and they are not scared of law-enforcement agencies," the president said. "Inaction at this moment is suicide for Pakistan and I cannot allow this country to commit suicide." Court issue Following the announcement of emergency rule, the country's chief justice was replaced and the Supreme Court surrounded by troops. Gen Musharraf moved quickly to appoint a new chief justice Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and eight other judges refused to endorse the emergency order, declaring it unconstitutional, resulting in Mr Chaudhry's dismissal. The Supreme Court was to decide whether Gen Musharraf was eligible to run for re-election last month while remaining army chief. Fears were growing in the government that the court could rule against Gen Musharraf. Pakistani lawyers announced they would strike on Monday in protest at the president's decision. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 5 BBC NEWS: Musharraf takes on Pakistan's judges Last Updated: Sunday, 4 November 2007, 12:25 GMT By M Ilyas Khan BBC News, Karachi Activists angry at the emergency measures have been arrested The proclamation of emergency in Pakistan has made one big difference. All the nearly 30 TV news channels have gone off the air. And with them has gone all the cacophony about the political, judicial and military crisis in the country. Pakistan's military ruler, Gen Pervez Musharraf, suspended the constitution and proclaimed emergency rule in a televised address on Saturday evening. Soon afterwards, TV cable operators said they were asked by the government to stop beaming all local and foreign news channels, except the official Pakistan Television Corp (PTV). West faces new dilemma Declaration: Full text This blackout forced many people to step out of their homes on Sunday morning to get hold of a morning newspaper. For one woman, this was a welcome change. "Its strangely quiet and peaceful today, although I thought emergency was a bad thing," she said. But there is no mistaking the sense of uncertainty that has gripped the nation. Front pages of all the national newspapers are splashed with the news of emergency rule, and there are side stories and analysis pieces. Papers also feature the new media law, which prohibits coverage of militants' activities, their statements, and any comment that may contain sectarian, ethnic or racial undertones. Judges consider next move Meanwhile, resentment is brewing among the judges of the higher judiciary. More than 60 judges, out of a total of 97, have declined to take oath under the new Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO). Their homes have been placed under strict security, presumably to prevent them from going to the courts on Monday, as some of them plan to do. Chief Justice Chaudhry (centre) has once again been ousted In a hurriedly-called sitting on Saturday evening, seven Supreme Court judges issued an order barring the government from proclaiming emergency rule, and advising the state functionaries not to carry out emergency orders, if issued. This order is likely to be used by the leaders of the lawyers' movement to mobilise agitation against the government. An act of defiance by the judges could further exacerbate the situation. The lawyers' movement emerged in March when Gen Musharraf tried to remove the country's Chief Justice, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, from his post. Gen Musharraf will be looking to the same two factors of support that helped him survive in office despite the earlier row over the chief justice Supported by civil rights groups and political parties, the movement was instrumental in isolating and denting the credibility of Gen Musharraf's government. Chief Justice Chaudhry was reinstated by the Supreme Court in July, and the government has since been living in constant fear of a court decision that would term Gen Musharraf's rule illegal. The court has been hearing a case to determine whether Gen Musharraf had legal grounds to contest for another presidential term, which he won in an election last month. Analysts believe the fear of an adverse judgement forced him to impose emergency rule. Bhutto's role The emergency, and defiance by the judges, have brought the lawyers' movement back into focus. Lawyers were jubilant when the chief justice was reinstated in July Chief Justice Chaudhry has been replaced. Anticipating trouble, the government has placed most lawyer leaders, opposition politicians and some civil rights activists under house arrest. But those still free are planning to call news conferences, while lawyers as well as several political groups have issued strike calls for Monday. And there is much fuel that can be added to this renewed fire. For one, Gen Musharraf's move is largely viewed by lawyers and politicians as another attempt to subjugate the judiciary. Gen Musharraf's popularity hit the rock bottom during the row over the chief justice earlier this year. In addition, analysts interpret the move to impose emergency as an admission by Gen Musharraf that the political system he put together in 2002 has failed to deliver. Besides, a vast majority of the public suspect that the militant threat, which has been cited as one of the reasons for emergency rule, is being somehow engineered by the state itself. With such a crisis of credibility, Gen Musharraf will be looking to the same two factors of support that helped him survive in office despite the earlier row over the chief justice. The first factor is Western, particularly American, support. The reaction from Western capitals has been cautious and mixed, stopping short of a total rejection of what some analysts call "the second coup" by Gen Musharraf. The second is former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which has recently broken ranks with the generally anti-US opposition in favour of an understanding with the government, thereby helping to partly restore its legitimacy. Last night, she cut short a visit to Dubai, flying back to Karachi to condemn the proclamation of emergency as "a fresh assault on judiciary" and the act of an individual for "self-preservation". Will the PPP go all out to oppose the emergency, or will it tolerate it as a "necessary evil" provided elections are held as originally planned some time in January and a level playing field is provided to all contenders? * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 6 The Observer: 'Desperate' Musharraf declares martial law Declan Walsh in Islamabad Sunday November 4, 2007 Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule last night, plunging the nuclear power into crisis and triggering condemnation from leaders around the world. The action to reassert his flagging authority was, he said, a response to Islamic militancy and to the 'paralysis of government by judicial interference'. He said that his country's sovereignty was at stake. Judges and lawyers were arrested, troops poured on to city streets and television and radio stations were taken off the air. Musharraf also suspended the constitution and fired the chief justice, Muhammad Iftikhar Chaudhry, who spearheaded a powerful mass movement against him earlier this year. Last night police arrested opposition politicians and senior lawyers including the chief justice's lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, and Imran Khan. 'Musharraf is acting like a spoiled child, holding the whole country hostage. These are the last days of Pervez Musharraf,' said Ahsan as he was escorted from his home into a police van. Ahsan, who leads the Supreme Court Bar Association, said that lawyers would launch a series of nationwide protests tomorrow. Soldiers entered the Supreme Court in the late afternoon where Chaudhry and six other judges said Musharraf's declaration that he would rule under a provisional constitutional order was illegal. Chaudhry was reportedly under house arrest last night. Police sealed off the main street in central Islamabad and soldiers entered the state television and radio buildings. Private news networks went off the air and mobile phone coverage was intermittent. Shots were heard in several neighbourhoods of Karachi, where there is strong support for former Prime Minister and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, who had gone to Dubai on Thursday on a personal visit. She arrived back in Pakistan to a rapturous welcome last night and immediately decried Musharraf's move as tantamount to dictatorship. 'Unless General Musharraf reverses the course, it will be very difficult to have fair elections,' she said. The United States, which sees Musharraf as a crucial ally against al-Qaeda, had urged him to avoid taking authoritarian measures and called the move 'very disappointing'. Late last night Musharraf addressed the nation on state television. He said he decided to impose a state of emergency in response to a rise in extremism and to interference from the courts and judges in the business of government. Pakistan's internal security has deteriorated in recent months with a wave of suicide attacks by al-Qaeda-inspired militants, including one that killed 139 people. There had been increasing speculation that Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup, might declare an emergency rather than run the risk the Supreme Court would rule against his re-election as president. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she was 'deeply dismayed' by the move and Whitehall expressed 'grave concern'. In a statement last night, the Pentagon said the emergency declaration by Musharraf did not impact the US military support of Pakistan or its efforts in the war on terror. Spokesman Geoff Morrell said: 'Pakistan is a very important ally in the war on terror and he [US Defence Secretary Robert Gates] is monitoring the situation there.' Britons of Pakistani origin were also urged to use their contacts to press home the message by the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband. 'All friends of Pakistan will be concerned by the turn of events today,' he said. 'We recognise the threat to peace and security faced by the country, but its future rests on harnessing the power of democracy and the rule of law.' Musharraf had promised to resign as army chief by 15 November, with general elections due by mid-January. Those elections are now in doubt, as is a power-sharing deal with Bhutto. 'She is waiting to see if she is going to be arrested or deported,' Wajid Hasan, her spokesman, said. Musharraf has faced numerous crises over the past year, including protests, court challenges and spiralling Islamist violence. Last week troops mounted a major assault on an Islamist cleric who has declared his own Islamic mini-state in Swat, a previously peaceful area popular with tourists. But the greatest threat to Musharraf's power was the Supreme Court, which was due to rule in the coming weeks on the legality of his controversial 8 October re-election as president. As the result of an opposition boycott, he received 98 per cent of the votes. The legal challenge has now been quashed, but emergency rule raises a range of new problems including the possibility of widespread public protest and a further breakdown of Pakistan's battered state institutions. Hardliners in Musharraf's political party, PML-Q have been urging him to impose emergency rule for months. But others have opposed yesterday's move. One senior PML-Q official, who declined to be named, told The Observer that the move was a disaster and predicted it would eventually spell 'the end for Musharraf'. Human Rights Watch condemned yesterday's move as 'a brazen attempt at muzzling the judiciary'. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 7 Reuters: Facts about Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf Sun 4 Nov 2007 | 21:00 EST Nov 4 (Reuters) - Police detained hundreds of Pakistani opposition figures and lawyers on Sunday as military ruler President Pervez Musharraf tried to stifle the outcry over the imposition of emergency powers. Here are some facts about Musharraf: * EARLY LIFE: -- The second of three brothers, Musharraf was born into a middle class Muslim family in India in August 1943. His family moved to the newly created majority-Muslim state of Pakistan following India's independence and partition in 1947. -- He spent seven years in Turkey, during his civil servant father's posting to Ankara. In 1956 the family settled in Karachi. * MILITARY CAREER: -- Entering the Pakistan Military Academy in 1961, the keen sportsman first saw action in the 1965 war against India and was decorated for gallantry. He had to endure the army's humiliating defeat by India in the 1971 war and served for seven years in Pakistan's special service commando group. * BLOODLESS COUP: -- Promoted to the rank of general and named army chief in October 1998, Musharraf seized power from then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999 in a bloodless coup. He first led the country as chief executive and then won a five-year presidential term in a 2002 referendum critics say was rigged. -- One of President George W. Bush's most important non-NATO allies in Washington's war on terrorism, supporters painted Musharraf as a strong leader who can save Pakistan's moderate Muslim majority from militant, religious extremism. -- However, a bloody army assault on Islamabad's Red Mosque in July, during which at least 105 people were killed, led to a rise in attacks by Islamist militants that have killed at least 800 people. * NEW ELECTIONS & STATE OF EMERGENCY: -- Musharraf won most votes in presidential elections on Oct 6, but was waiting for the Supreme Court to confirm the legality of his re-election. The court met on Nov. 2 and the next day Musharraf imposed emergency rule. -- Musharraf said he acted in response to rising Islamist militancy in nuclear-armed Pakistan and what he called a paralysis of government by judicial interference. -- Most Pakistanis and foreign diplomats however believe his main motive was to prevent the Supreme Court invalidating his re-election while still army chief. Source: Reuters/ www.presidentofpakistan.gov.pk ***************************************************************** 8 Middle East racing to nuclear power Date: Sun, 4 Nov 2007 06:42:14 -0600 (CST) http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1101/p01s03-wome.html Middle East racing to nuclear power Shiite Iran's ambitions have spurred 13 Sunni states to declare atomic energy aims this year. By Dan Murphy | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor Cairo This week Egypt became the 13th Middle Eastern country in the past year to say it wants nuclear power, intensifying an atomic race spurred largely by Iran's nuclear agenda, which many in the region and the West claim is cover for a weapons program. Experts say the nuclear ambitions of majority Sunni Muslim states such as Libya, Jordan, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia are reactions to Shiite Iran's high-profile nuclear bid, seen as linked with Tehran's campaign for greater influence and prestige throughout the Middle East. "To have 13 states in the region say they're interested in nuclear power over the course of a year certainly catches the eye," says Mark Fitzpatrick, a former senior nonproliferation official in the US State Department who is now a fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. "The Iranian angle is the reason." But economics are also behind this new push to explore nuclear power, at least for some of the aspirants. Egypt's oil reserves are dwindling, Jordan has no natural resources to speak of at all, and power from oil and gas has grown much more expensive for everyone. Though the day has not arrived, it's conceivable that nuclear power will be a cheaper option than traditional plants. But analysts say the driver is Iran, which appears to be moving ahead with its nuclear program despite sanctions and threats of possible military action by the US. The Gulf Cooperation Council, a group of Saudi Arabia and the five Arab states that border the Persian Gulf, reversed a longstanding opposition to nuclear power last year. As the closest US allies in the region and sitting on vast oil wealth, these states had said they saw no need for nuclear energy. But Fitzpatrick, as well as other analysts, say these countries now see their own declarations of nuclear intent as a way to contain Iran's influence. At least, experts say, it signals to the US how alarmed they are by a nuclear Iran. "The rules have changed on the nuclear subject throughout the whole region," Jordan's King Abdullah, another US ally, told Israel's Haaretz newspaper early this year. "Where I think Jordan was saying, 'We'd like to have a nuclear-free zone in the area,' [now] everybody's going for nuclear programs." Though the US has been vociferous in its opposition to Iran's nuclear bid, particularly since the country says it's determined to establish its own nuclear fuel cycle, which would dramatically increase its ability to build a nuclear bomb, it has generally been tolerant of the nuclear ambitions of its friends in the region. "Those states that want to pursue peaceful nuclear energy [are] not a problem for us," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in response to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's announcement on Monday. Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center in Washington and a former Defense Department official focused on containing the spread of nuclear weapons, says he finds that hands-off approach of the Bush administration alarming. "I think we're trying to put out a fire of proliferation with a bucket of kerosene," he says. He said he recently spoke with a senior administration official on the matter, who argued that it was better for the US to cooperate with Egypt and other countries since, in the official's view, nuclear power in these countries is "inevitable" and it's better to be in a position to influence their choices and monitor the process. Egypt has had an on-again, off-again nuclear program since the 1950s. In the 1960s, Egypt threatened to develop a bomb largely out of anger over Israel's nuclear pursuit. Under Mr. Mubarak, who has ruled since 1981, the country has been consistent in saying it does not want nuclear weapons, and Egypt has been at the forefront of diplomatic efforts to declare the region a nuclear-weapons-free zone a strategy it uses to target Israel's nuclear weapons. Today, the country has a 22-megawatt research reactor north of Cairo that was built by an Argentine company and completed in 1997. A drive to develop a power plant in the 1980s stalled after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Russia. In a nationally televised speech Monday, Mubarak said nuclear power is an "integral part of Egypt's national security" while also promising that the country would not seek the bomb. Other Egyptian officials say the country is planning on having a working reactor within a decade, though analysts say that's an optimistic time line. Egypt's nuclear plans have been reinvigorated in recent years, with Mubarak's son, Gamal, widely seen in Egypt as his father's favored successor, calling for the building of a reactor. Mubarak discussed nuclear power cooperation on state visits to Russia and China last year. "They feel politically threatened by Iran's nuclear program, they've pointed out rightly that Israel [hasn't been] a member of [nonproliferation] treaties for many years," says Jon Wolfsthal, a nonproliferation expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "Of course there is economic logic: If they can sell whatever oil they have for $93 a barrel instead of using it, that's attractive but it shouldn't be assumed that it's all benign." For Egypt, the allure of nuclear power is apparent. Its oil consumption is growing and electricity demand is growing at about 7 percent a year. "Egypt can absolutely make a legitimate case for nuclear energy," says Mr. Fitzpatrick. "Its reserves are dwindling, it needs the oil and gas for export, and it needs to diversify its energy resources." Even major oil producers such as Saudi Arabia are, along with Iran, arguing that they need nuclear power. They say it's better to sell their oil than to burn it at home. But some analysts argue that nuclear power remains an economic loser. Mr. Sokolski says that when state subsidies to nuclear power are removed, nuclear plants are not economically viable. "If it was, private banks would be financing nuclear plants without loan guarantees. They can't do it and make money yet." Of course whenever the topic of nuclear power comes up, particularly in the Middle East, concerns about the possible spread of nuclear weapons are not far behind. Experts who follow the nuclear weapons question say assurances of only pursuing peaceful objectives, as have been given by all the countries pursuing nuclear power, Iran included, shouldn't be taken at face value. "Although Egypt does not feel directly threatened by Iran, it does feel its own power and influence in the region threatened by a resurgent nuclear armed Iran," says Fitzpatrick. "There are a lot of countries in the region who have expressed interest in nuclear power, and I think there are good reasons to be concerned about this interest and the timing of this interest," says Mr. Wolfsthal. "Nuclear power has had economic arguments in its favor for a decade, but the fact is these programs are only coming to a head in light of the Iranian program." Wolfsthal says the key issues in the coming years will be whether Egypt contracts a turn-key plant from a foreign company which would minimize the amount of skill and technology transferred to Egyptian engineers or if it will pursue nuclear partnerships that broaden its knowledge and skills bases. Will they pursue their own nuclear fuel cycle, which, he says, would make little economic sense and would be a clear "red flag" of intent to develop a weapon, or will they buy nuclear fuel from abroad? "If you are interested in having the capability of building a nuclear weapon, the best way to start is by building up your nuclear power infrastructure," he says. "The same people that help you design and build nuclear reactors have many of the skill sets you will need if you are going to build a nuclear weapon." Fitzpatrick agrees that if Egypt promises not to develop a nuclear fuel cycle and would agree to more intrusive inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency, there would be little reason for concern, though he doubts those commitments will be made. "Egypt won't take those steps because it says its hands can't be bound anymore while Israel's hands are unbound. They already resent the nuclear asymmetry with Israel, and a nuclear armed Iran on top of that adds too much for them. ***************************************************************** 9 Economic Times: N-deal in interest of India, US - Kissinger 4 Nov, 2007, 0051 hrs IST, TNN KOLKATA: Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger is clearly a man with a mission. While he's officially in India to talk foreign policy with various economic and political groups, his strategic interactions seem to suggest that his real agenda to try and push through the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal. A deal which he is "optimistic" about. "I am optimistic some solution will be found to the ongoing crisis over the nuke deal," he said. He was speaking here at an interactive session organised by CII on "The Asian Century: Where will India be." Mr Kissinger said the deal was in the interest of both US and India, two nations which he believes "are poised to take the world ahead in the years to come." While the CII meet was his official reason to be in Kolkata, his meeting with West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on the sidelines is what got everyone's attention. The two leaders met at Writers' Buildings for about forty minutes, after which both refused to divulge any details. The official reason for wanting to come to Kolkata was that he wanted to see how a communist government has worked successfully over the years. "Everyone goes to Bangalore or Mumbai, but I wanted to see the vitality of Bengal. A communist government dedicated to investment and development, I thought would be an interesting thing to observe and learn from," Mr Kissinger said. But political observers believe that it was track 2 diplomacy at its best with with Kissinger trying to advocate the nuke deal with the relative softliners within the Left- in the hope that he would be able to convince more vocal members like Prakash Karat and A B Bardhan. Noted for his deep understanding of international relations and foreign policy, Kissinger repeatedly underscored the new world order where the power equation had shifted from the "Atlantic" to the "Pacific and Indian ocean." He noted that for 300 years, Europe had dominated the world order, but how, in the years to come, it will have to be US-India-China-Russia coming together. In this context, Kissinger noted how during his first visits to both India and China, he could have never imagined the kind of progress these countries would achieve three to four decades later. Speaking about it, Kissinger said: "The India that I visited in 1962 and the India that I see now are completely different. The overall growth rate of the country is around 9% and economic ministers I met in Delhi tell me that they can sustain the growth rate in the coming years. The present emphasis on private enterprise in India also impressed me." He admitted: "Our government had many misunderstandings or may be correct understandings about their Indian counterpart in the sixties. For several decades the relationship was very aloof and I must admit that I had my own contribution for that. But things are different now." He also added that it was not India's democratic set up, but the country's policies which used to put off the US administration during president Nixon's time. "But now that there is no cold war and with the balance of power shifting, it is possible for India and US to focus on larger issues and work towards a common dialogue" Kissinger observed. Kissinger also admitted that he had initially supported sending of troops to Iraq but was honest enough to accept that several mistakes have been made by the US since then. Copyright © 2007 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. For ***************************************************************** 10 Farley Plant’s response to nuke panel disturbing SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2007 EDITORIAL The Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week cited the Farley Nuclear Plant near Dothan for valve failures deemed by the regulatory agency to be of “substantial safety significance.” NRC Regional Administrator William Travers said Farley, operated by Southern Nuclear Operating Co., a division of Alabama Power Co.’s parent Southern Co., failed to promptly address the valve failures that occurred in April 2006 and January of this year. The findings mean the NRC will subject Farley’s Unit 2 reactor to additional inspections. Instead of acknowledging and pledging to correct the shortcomings, Southern Nuclear disputed the NRC findings. Alison Fuqua, spokesperson for Southern Nuclear’s Birmingham office, said the company believes the valve failures were isolated incidents and do not warrant additional oversight. The Southern Nuclear reaction is irresponsible and disappointing. As our nation transitions from dependence on oil and coal to new technologies, nuclear power will play an increasingly important role. The potential dangers inherent in producing electricity from nuclear generators require operators to err on the side of caution. Southern Nuclear’s reaction — even if it genuinely disagrees with the NRC findings — should have been to welcome additional inspections and oversight, which can result only in added safety. Instead of learning from mistakes of the past, like those at Browns Ferry in the mid-’70s and ’80s, we seem doomed to repeat them THE DECATUR DAILY 201 1st Ave. SE P.O. Box 2213 Decatur, Ala. 35609 (256) 353-4612 webmaster@decaturdaily.com www.decaturdaily.com ***************************************************************** 11 Shanghai Daily: Nuclear power: China has US$60b plan -- By Fu Chenghao 2007-11-3 CHINA needs a budget of 450 billion yuan (US$60.36 billion) in the 13 years to 2020 for nuclear plants as the nation seeks alternatives to coal-generated electricity, according to a new industry plan. The development blueprint also calls for more self-sufficiency in nuclear-reactor design, equipment manufacturing and project construction and operations by introducing, absorbing and fine-tuning foreign technology. The plan, approved by the State Council, was released yesterday by the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top industry planner, on its Website. It iterated its earlier stated goal of having 40,000 megawatts of nuclear power in operation by 2020, or four percent of China's total power-generating capacity, and having 18,000MW under construction by that time. At present, nuclear power accounts for less than two percent of the total generating capacity of China. The NDRC said domestic equipment manufacturers should achieve annual capacity for nuclear power equipment of no less than 2,000MW in the five years through 2010, and have 4,000MW in capacity from 2010 onward. The domestic industry will keep cooperating high-tech foreign partners with the aim of localizing key technology in the future, the NDRC report said. The government has selected 13 coastal sites for new nuclear plants which could house a combined capacity of more than 50,000MW. New plants to meet the 2020 state target will be chosen from these sites, the NDRC said, adding that the government is considering building one plant each in Shandong and Fujian provinces and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region which now have no nuclear plants. In addition to coastal regions, China is also undertaking preparation work for building nuclear plants in inland provinces including Hubei, Jiangxi and Sichuan, it said. The report added that China will also explore domestic uranium resources on a "reasonable basis" and "actively" look for overseas resources to ensure supply of the basic fuel used in nuclear reactors. It also pledged to step up efforts in radioactive waste treatment. Shanghai Daily Home | Copyright © 2001-2007 Shanghai Daily ***************************************************************** 12 Bangkok Post: Egat chief says nuclear power necessary (BangkokPost.com) – The governor of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), Kraisri Karnasutra, has warned of a possible shortage of natural gas to produce electricity within the next three to four years. The EGAT chief admitted to concerns that the construction of a nuclear power plant in Thailand could spark future protests but insisted that the move was necessary. “We only have so much natural gas to produce electricity,” he warned. “We have noticed that supplies have dwindled and natural gas supplies could run out within 3 or 4 years.” “I guarantee that modern day technology will create a perfectly safe environment to accommodate the use of nuclear power in our country as it has already done so in other countries.” Thailand is one of 77 countries exploring nuclear energy as an alternative source of energy. According to the Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, there are currently 439 nuclear power reactors in 30 countries, which supply 15 per cent of the world's electricity. © Copyright The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. 2007 ***************************************************************** 13 Salt Lake Tribune: Meet the would-be N-power king Article Last Updated: 11/04/2007 01:23:13 AM MST Republicans Sen. Parley Hellewell, left, and Rep. Aaron Tilton talk in the hallway of the West Building in the Capitol Complex in 2006. He has been a vegetarian restaurateur, worked for a company that sells Viagra online, and tried to fix your kids, before moving into energy consulting. Now Rep. Aaron Tilton wants to split the atom, as he proposes the most ambitious energy project in Utah's history. The Springville Republican and father of two is CEO of Transition Power Development, LLC, a company that wants to build at least two 1,500 megawatt nuclear power plants in the state, with early signs indicating they are looking at land near the Green River in Emery County. It is the most recent incarnation for the 35-year-old self-taught businessman, whose eclectic background has just recently, and almost entirely by chance, landed him in the nuclear energy realm. "Ever since I got out of high school I never had a big desire to work for anybody," he says. He enrolled in some classes at Brigham Young University, but never attended. Instead, a friend's parents sold him their vegetarian restaurant in Provo - Govinda's Buffet & Health Bar. He hated it and bailed out three months later. He did construction work for a few years before going on a Mormon mission to Washington, D.C. He returned to create Rockberry.org, which marketed "Let's Fix Our Kids," a series of audio tapes and online and at-home coaching for parents with troubled kids. But Rockberry ran into its own trouble. Tilton says the funding dried up when the dot-com bubble burst. Rockberry folded and one creditor ended up suing for over $146,733. Tilton paid $700 to settle the complaint, records show. From there, Tilton moved in several directions. He went to work in a pharmacy business, selling automated voice-recognition systems to fill prescriptions, before ending up as director of business development for PCM Ventures I, which runs the online pharmacy KwikMed.com. KwikMed allows consumers to get a prescription and order Viagra, Cialis, Propecia or Levitra online and have it delivered to their homes, thanks to a unique deal the company struck with Utah regulators. Sen. Peter Knudson sponsored a bill last year to do away with online prescriptions, but it was defeated in the Senate; Tilton never voted on the measure. In 2002, about the same time Tilton got into the pharmacy business, a friend was looking to invest some money and Tilton's father, who had worked as a pipefitting engineer at power plants, suggested they look at the energy industry. "I said, 'What? I don't know anything about power plants,' " Tilton says, but they toyed with buying a small power plant at the defunct Geneva Steel before deciding against it. The research, however, kick-started Tilton's interest in energy. "I started looking at that and really started studying the power industry," he says. "From that project, I figured out there was [about to be] a very significant growth in power needs." He started looking for energy projects in the West that would work, and ended up consulting on a coal-power project in Sigurd, Utah, and some projects in Wyoming's Powder River Basin. Then, in 2004, disgusted with what he paid in state taxes and believing he could do better, Tilton decided to run against Rep. Calvin Bird. Beating an incumbent is a daunting challenge, but Tilton says he worked hard knocking on doors and met with delegates before he caught a break. While campaigning one evening in May, his cell phone rang and a reporter gave him the news: Bird had been arrested for soliciting sex from a prostitute and would quit the Legislature. "I stopped knocking on doors, got in my car and went home," Tilton says. Gov. Olene Walker appointed him to Bird's seat after Bird resigned. Tilton retained the seat in 2004 and was re-elected in 2006. In the Legislature, Tilton is a predictably solid conservative Utah County Republican. He has sponsored legislation to help block gay clubs in schools, prevent government from taking property for trails or recreation areas, and would have made it difficult for environmental groups to challenge energy and road projects. He is vice-chairman of the pro-industry group Americans For American Energy, which advocates domestic energy production. Tilton got a seat on the Legislature's energy advisory panel and on Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s climate-change panel, where he quietly urged his colleagues to support exploration of nuclear power. Tim Wagner, an energy advocate with the Sierra Club, served on both panels with Tilton, and was unimpressed. Tilton, he said, used his seat on the committee to demean advocates for renewable power, has been dismissive of opposing viewpoints and often doesn't bother paying attention in meetings. "If I would have to sum him up in one word, it would be 'arrogant,' " Wagner said. Through his service in the Legislature, Tilton met Rep. Mike Noel, which ultimately led to the creation of Transition Power. In 2006, Noel had backed the inclusion of nuclear power in the state's energy policy and he took a drubbing from opponents and on editorial pages. Those press clippings found their way to Tom Retson, a North Carolina energy consultant who had spent 23 years in General Electric's nuclear division. Retson contacted Noel to pat him on the back and offer his expertise, then met him on a ski trip to the state, where Noel introduced him to Tilton. "It was almost an immediate meeting of the minds," says Retson. "He has [energy] experience. It's not long-lived, but . . . he's a young man with a lot of positive energy, intelligence, a quick learner, and obviously his experience within the state government is important." After months of discussions, they formed Transition Power on Feb. 2. It was not, Retson says, a case of a company with deep pockets putting them up to pushing nuclear power. "Aaron and I are the birth fathers of this thing and that's literally true. There's no wizard behind the curtain," Retson says. Tilton says he brings to the table his management skills, self-taught through his years of business experience. "Managing this project is an art more than a skill that can be taught," he said. "If there's something I don't know, I can find somebody who knows it." Those experts include Nils Diaz, the former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and Reed Searle, director of the Intermountain Power Agency, which generates coal power, mostly for Southern California. Both are partners in Transition Power. Last month, at a legislative meeting, Tilton took the unusual step of testifying on his nuclear project before a committee on which he sits. Critics were outraged, blasting Tilton for what they viewed as a clear conflict of interest. Tilton says he didn't vote on any legislation to help his company, so he's clean under Utah's law. But the stir made headlines that he says have actually helped his company: Investors from Utah and elsewhere are lining up to give his company money. Aaron Tilton * Born: Feb. 23, 1972 * Spouse: Heather * Address: 2594 E. 700 S. Springville, UT 84663 * Phone numbers: Home, 801-491-2051; Cell, 801-361-5881 * Age: 35 * Profession: Business development, energy consulting * Education: High school * Affiliations: National Rifle Association member; National Association of Chain Drug Stores member. * Legislative service: Appointed to Utah House 2004, retained seat in 2004 election and re-elected in 2006. Vice chairman of the House Public Utilities and Technology Committee and the Retirement Committee; member, House Revenue and Taxation Committee and the Public Education budget committee. ***************************************************************** 14 Salt Lake Tribune: Clean power Public Forum Letter Article Last Updated: 11/03/2007 12:22:27 PM MDT Concerning construction of nuclear power plants in Utah, Gov. Huntsman's statement (Tribune, Oct. 25) is disingenuous: "The reason you don't take it off the table is it's a carbon-free source of energy." Nowhere does he acknowledge the well-known risks. Americans understand the hazards of nuclear accidents, nuclear-waste storage mishaps and the threat to human and animal health. Responsible governance has prevented construction of U.S. nuclear plants for two decades. Renewable energy needs government support to take its appropriate place in America's future. Germany is already at the forefront of solar power, with the U.S. gaining ground. The solar thermal plant in the Mojave Desert supplies electricity to 150,000 homes in Los Angeles. A second facility is under construction outside Las Vegas. Utah's natural environment is ideally suited for both solar and wind generators. Government incentives - already initiated in 12 states - would bring the initial expense of adding solar panels to our homes within reach. Why isn't Huntsman supporting renewable energy? Why shouldn't Utah cultivate clean power? Randy Silverman Salt Lake City ***************************************************************** 15 Xinhua: China to increase nuclear power capacity by 23 mln kilowatts in 15 years www.chinaview.cn 2007-11-03 16:58:00 Print BEIJING, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese State Council has officially approved a plan to expand the country's installed capacity of nuclear generating units by 23 million kilowatts from 2005 to 2020, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Building the newly installed generating units with a combined capacity of 23 million kilowatts will cost total investment of 450 billion yuan (about 60 billion U.S. dollars). According to the plan, submitted by NDRC, China will have an installed nuclear power capacity of 40 million kilowatts on the mainland by 2020. By then, its annual nuclear power generation capacity will reach 260-280 billion kilowatt-hours. The ratio of installed nuclear power capacity will be increased by half to account for 4 percent of China's total installed power generating capacity. Currently, nuclear power capacity on the mainland stood at 16.97 million kilowatts, with 11 nuclear generating units in operation involving a combined capacity of 9.07 million kilowatts and another eight units under construction. The country has selected 13 sites for the new nuclear plants, which are all located in coastal areas, including four in ZhejiangProvince, one in Jiangsu Province, three in Guangdong Province, two in Shandong Province and the other three in Liaoning and Fujian provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, according to the plan. The NDRC said the government is considering to build a nuclear plant respectively in Shandong, Fujian and Guangxi, where no nuclear power plants exist at present. The country is also doing research work for building nuclear plants in inland regions, including Hubei, Jiangxi and Hunan provinces. The plan said the country would design, build and operate the megawatt pressurized water reactors on its own while introducing and absorbing advanced foreign technologies. China has reached an agreement in July with the U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric Co. to build four nuclear power plants in China and transfer core technologies for third-generation AP1000 reactors. China's first third-generation pressurized water reactors adopting Westinghouse technology, built in Sanmen of east China's Zhejiang Province, will be put into commercial operation at the end of 2013. China now has 11 nuclear power reactors in operation. Among them, three use domestic technologies, two are equipped with Russian technology and four with French technologies, and two are Canadian designed. All the 11 reactors employ second-generation nuclear power technologies. China is the world's second-largest power consumer after the United States, with about 80 percent of the total generating capacity coming from coal-fired generators. Experts said the development of the clean nuclear power would relieve the nation's reliance on coal. Editor: Gao Ying ***************************************************************** 16 Wisconsin Radio Network: Doyle hesitant on new nuclear reactors WRN News Saturday, November 3, 2007, 3:50 AM By Andrew Beckett The Governor says he'll need a lot of convincing before allowing a new nuclear power plant to be built in Wisconsin. Members of the Governor's Task Force on Global Warming have mentioned lifting the state's moratorium on new nuclear reactors as a possible recommendation. However, Governor Jim Doyle says it's not likely to happen while he's in office. If any new reactors are opened, Doyle expects other states will lead the way. He says some already have current applications in and would probably start a project first. Afterwards, he says other state would be able to take a look at what a modern nuclear power plant looks like. Despite his concerns, the Governor says he'll approach the issue with an open mind. He says the issue isn't something the Task Force should leave off the table as it develops its recommendations.  AUDIO: Andrew Beckett reports (MP3 :55) Tel: 608.251.3900; Fax: 608.251.7233; Email - ©2006 Learfield Communications, Inc. ***************************************************************** 17 Reuters: Arizona nuclear plant normal after pipe bomb event Fri Nov 2, 2007 7:35pm EDT By David Schwartz PHOENIX (Reuters) - The Palo Verde nuclear power plant, the largest in the United States, was sealed off for much of Friday after security guards found a pipe bomb in a worker's pickup truck as he tried to enter the facility, officials said. The lock-down of the plant was lifted on Friday afternoon. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office said it appeared that an engineer, who tried to enter the plant with a pipe bomb in the bed of his pickup truck early Friday morning, was not planning to explode the device. The investigation into the incident continues, but it looked as if the engineer, who had worked at Palo Verde as a contractor for a year, wasn't a terrorist, said Capt. Paul Chagolla, . The engineer had access to sensitive areas of the plant and was detained Friday by the sheriff's office and his apartment was searched. The result of the search was not yet known. The pipe bomb was removed from Palo Verde, which is located about 50 miles west of Phoenix. "There is no threat to the plant," at any time Friday, said Jim McDonald, spokesman for Arizona Public Service, which operates Palo Verde. He added that the public was not in danger. Chagolla said, "Our examination and preliminary testing shows it is a viable improvised explosive device," commonly known as a pipe bomb. The plant, which has three nuclear reactors, continued to operate, APS said. McDonald said the engineer mainly worked in the administrative portion of the plant. The last time he worked in the "protected area" of the plant was October 17. APS chief nuclear officer Randy Edington said, "Our security personnel acted cautiously and appropriately and demonstrated that our security processes worked as designed." McDonald added that every time a person enters the plant, the person and vehicle undergo an "extensive" inspection. "It's not an accident they found it," said McDonald. "It's not like an inspection you go through at the airport. The security is highly trained and they are damned good at what they do and they did it today." The closest homes are less than a mile from the reactors, and have been built in the past several years. Palo Verde has been operating for more than two decades. Two of the three reactors at Palo Verde were not in operation Friday morning. One is in a refueling that will continue until the second half of December, and another was to return to the power grid as early as later today, an APS spokeswoman said. The third reactor is fully operating, she said. With a combined electricity production capacity of about 3,900 megawatts, the three reactors can make enough electricity to serve between 1.5 million to 2 million homes in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. APS, a unit of Pinnacle West Capital Corp, owns 29.1 percent of Palo Verde and gets that share of its generation, followed by the Salt River Project (17.5 percent), Edison International's Southern California Edison Co (15.8 percent), El Paso Electric Co (15.8 percent), PNM Resources Inc's Public Service Co of New Mexico (10.2 percent), Southern California Public Power Authority (5.9 percent) and the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (5.7 percent). (Writing and additional reporting by Bernie Woodall in Los Angeles) ***************************************************************** 18 BDC: Moore: Seven reasons that more nukes aren't the answer : Guest Opinions : Boulder Daily Camera By LeRoy Moore Sunday, November 4, 2007 Bruce Briegleb's Oct. 21 op-ed says nuclear power must be revived, because it's the only solution to global warming. He's correct to insist that we must end our addiction to fossil fuel. But reviving the impaired enterprise of nuclear power is not the answer. Why? First, nuclear power can't take us to the necessary zero-carbon economy because even reactors emit some carbon dioxide, far less than coal or gas generation but decidedly more than zero. More importantly, mining, milling and enriching uranium to produce reactor fuel generate huge amounts of greenhouse gases. And reactors release large plumes of heat directly into air and water; reactors in both France and the United States have had to be shut down because they overheated adjacent rivers. Mr. Briegleb says that to replace coal power in the United States and stay at roughly equal electricity levels we'd need to build 200 reactors, at the rate of one every few months over the next 30 years (others give higher estimates). This is wholly unrealistic for several reasons. Cost: A reactor costs about $4 billion to $5 billion to build and more than double this amount to clean up. It can take 15 years to build a facility that may operate 30 to 40 years. Mr. Brieglev's 30-year project would cost perhaps $1 trillion to construct and $2 trillion to clean up. And by the time it's completed, we'd have to start a new round. A poor investment: Though nuclear power was once touted as "too cheap to meter," Wall Street investors shun it as too risky. The industry has endured only because it's been highly subsidized. And now it's back at the trough, seeking $50 billion in loan guarantees in the current energy bill. If it defaults, we the taxpayers will pick up the tab. Musicians Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and others who played an active role in stopping nuclear power 30 years ago, are at it again. For their message and to sign their petition opposing federal loan guarantees for a defunct industry, go to nukefree.org. Unsafe: Industry leaders like to say that new reactors are absolutely safe, that there'll be no repeat of Chernobyl or Three Mile Island. But they also say Chernobyl wasn't so bad after all. While they say the total Chernobyl-caused deaths will be about 4,000, Elizabeth Cardis of the International Agency for Cancer Research in Lyons, France, puts the number at 30,000 to 60,000. Charles Perrow's Normal Accidents shows that we should expect accidents in high-risk technologies. When they happen with nuclear power, the public will bear the cost both in harm to health and in providing the liability insurance. In addition, routine reactor operations release some radiation to the external environment. The National Academy of Sciences affirmed in 2006 that any exposure to ionizing radiation is potentially harmful. Since some harm results from naturally occurring radiation we should not increase the danger by adding to it. The unsolved waste problem: To build a new generation of nuclear reactors without knowing what to do with the huge quantity of radioactive waste generated by existing plants is highly irresponsible. The government has spent huge sums on its unsuccessful effort to find a suitable burial site. Putting this material in the environment seems unwise. Nuclear proliferation: As the controversy over Iran's nuclear program makes clear, the technology for nuclear power can also be used to produce weapons. Israel, India, Pakistan, South Africa, North Korea and Iraq took this route to the bomb. We'll never rid the world of nuclear weapons if we don't rid it of nuclear power. Terrorist targets: Nuclear power stations, if attacked, could disperse radioactive materials over a large area. A British specialist calls them "pre-deployed radiological weapons" within the countries terrorists would most like to hit. Efficiency: Every dollar invested in energy efficiency removes seven times more CO2 from the atmosphere than a dollar invested in nuclear power. The alternative: The Institute for Energy and Environmental Research has just completed a detailed report that shows how the United States (and other countries) can achieve the goal of zero carbon emissions within the next 30 to 50 years without reliance on nuclear power (see www.ieer.org/sdafiles/index.html and go to vol. 15, no 1). The effort entails a mix of weaning ourselves from carbon and nuclear, applying energy efficiency across the board, and determining the blend of renewables appropriate for the region where we live. Following IEER's rigorous but possible carbon-free and nuke-free path would eliminate most pollution and thus improve public health. You can begin by signing the petition opposing loan guarantees to the nuclear power industry at nukefree.org/petition. LeRoy Moore, PhD, consults for the Nuclear Nexus: Working to End the Local Hazards and Global Threat, a project of the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center. Posted by tjfoster on November 4, 2007 at 10:08 a.m. (Suggest removal) Scripps Newspaper Group — Online © 2007 The E.W. Scripps Co. Camera & dailycamera.com | 1048 Pearl Street, Boulder, CO 80302 | (303) 442-1202 | Contact Us | Staff | Site Map | Job Openings | ***************************************************************** 19 UPI: China eyeing additional nuclear power - UPI.com Published: Nov. 3, 2007 at 2:52 PM BEIJING, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- A plan to increase China's nuclear power capacity by the year 2020 has been approved by the Chinese State Council, a report said. China's official Xinhua news agency reported Saturday that the approved plan would be focused on increasing the country's capacity of nuclear generating units by a total of 23 million kilowatts by 2020. The National Development and Reform Commission plan details how such an increase would leave China with 40 million kilowatts in available nuclear power in 2020. If such lofty goals are able to be met, China would be producing 260-280 billion kilowatt-hours annually at that time. In order to make nuclear-generated power represent such annual production, effectively 4 percent of the country's total power generating capacity, several new plants would have to be created, the report said. Xinhua said 13 sites nationwide have been tabbed as possible locations for the new nuclear plants and research has already begun on an advanced plant design. © 2007 United Press International. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 20 TheDay.com: Millstone Permit Gets A Time Out [ Welcome to theday.com ] Hearing Officer Decides Process Will Continue Instead Of Starting Over By Patricia Daddona , Published on 11/3/2007 A hearing officer has disagreed with the staff at the state Department of Environmental Protection and decided on Friday to suspend instead of terminate proceedings involving a proposed water discharge permit for Millstone Power Station. Janice B. Deshais, director of the Office of Adjudications at DEP, ordered a suspension of the process that began in the summer of 2006 with a proposed renewal by the DEP of a water discharge permit for the nuclear power station. On Tuesday, DEP staff had found that the permit “must” be revised and called for Deshais to terminate the proceedings. Since the summer when the first draft of the proposed permit was written, a new court ruling that governs how to prevent the destruction of fish in the cooling systems of power plants has emerged. The ruling calls into question how federal and state regulators decide what measures to take to protect, in Millstone's case, winter flounder larvae. Suspending the proceedings instead of terminating them means that the process for renewing the permit will not move forward until DEP staff issue notice of a revised draft permit, Deshais said in her order. Once that occurs, new dates for hearings and public comment will be set, she wrote. “Suspension of this proceeding is intended to promote efficiency while honoring the intent of the DEP” to revise the permit on or around Nov. 29, she wrote. “The parties are advised that because this proceeding has not been terminated, all previous rulings ... remain in effect.” Deshais also said she took the step to suspend proceedings in part because of an objection by Nancy Burton of the Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone. Burton pointed out that state law and DEP Rules of Practice require “a single proceeding on an application.” Deshais did not address the specific argument advocated by Burton when issuing her order. The two Millstone reactors take in water from the Long Island Sound and use a grate to trap sea life and return it to the water. But the fish larvae are too small and are destroyed as they pass through the plants' cooling systems. The permit was supposed to have been renewed 10 years ago, but a previous DEP commissioner granted Millstone emergency authorization to keep using the old permit. This spring, before the DEP could hold a public hearing on its proposed permit, a federal appeals court ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state regulators need to take into account the “best technology available” when issuing permits. Such equipment could include costly cooling towers that would re-circulate water and kill fewer fish and fish larvae. In the federal court case, Riverkeeper II v. EPA, the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals also determined that using a cost-benefit analysis to determine what constitutes the best technology available is not in keeping with the tenets of the federal Clean Water Act. A number of environmental groups and states, including the state of Connecticut, were parties to the Riverkeeper case. p.daddona@theday.com Waterford Privacy Policy | Contact Us at 1 (860) 442-2200 | New London, CT | © 1998-2007 The Day Publishing Co. 101 ***************************************************************** 21 AFP: US nuclear plant sealed off after bomb found - Fri Nov 2, 10:32 PM ET PHOENIX, United States (AFP) - A nuclear power plant in Arizona was locked down Friday morning after security guards discovered a pipe bomb in a contract worker's truck, authorities said. Plant operator Arizona Public Service called the discovery an "unusual event" and sealed off the site, with no traffic entering or leaving the grounds. A bomb squad from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department declared the pipe bomb a "credible explosive device." The contract worker was entering Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station at a checkpoint for a standard security inspection at the beginning of the day shift. Guards armed with automatic rifles check identification and search under the hoods of all vehicles entering the plant. There was no danger to the plant, a spokesman for Arizona Public Service Co. said. The worker, who has not been identified by authorities, was arrested briefly and later cleared of any wrongdoing and released after authorities determined he inadvertently brought the pipe bomb into the compound. "My detectives feel he didn't know it had been placed in his truck," said Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. "We're going to try to find out if they were targeting him, if it was a disgruntled employee," who placed the bomb. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and sheriff's department are investigating the incident, officials said. Several hundred contract employees are working on improvements to the plant, which is the largest power plant in the United States. The incident raised concerns among some US lawmakers critical of safety regulations at US nuclear power plants they believe could be exploited by terrorist groups. Democratic House of Representatives member Edward Markey said the incident "raises new questions as to the screening process used for employees and contract personnel at nuclear facilities." "We know that Al-Qaeda puts nuclear power plants at the top of its terrorist target list, therefore we must ensure that the people working at these plants are always fully screened and properly trained," said the House Homeland Security Committee member. Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 22 Deseret Morning News: Pros, cons of nuclear power debated Panel probes energy issues and plans to build Utah reactors By Stephen Speckman Deseret Morning News Published: Saturday, Nov. 3, 2007 12:29 a.m. MDT About 200 people were reminded Friday night how things such as energy-hungry plasma screen televisions and super-size houses are impacting the debate about what role nuclear power should play in exploring alternative energy sources aimed at reducing dependence on fossil fuels. Arjun Makhijani, one of five panelists leading a broad discussion about nuclear energy, said people can start answering the nuclear questions by changing their values in terms of where they get their energy and how they use it. He suggested focusing more on renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. "What I'm telling you is we can do it," said Makhijani, president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. "I know that technologically it can be done." Audience members inside the Pickle Gallery in Salt Lake City were asked to consider the issue of energy use on many levels, including how to handle nuclear waste and its long-term impact on the environment. Makhijani said people don't know how to ask the right questions when it comes to figuring out how best to store the waste or where to bury it. Panelist and University of Utah engineering professor Kent Udell disagreed, saying the correct question to ask is whether it's morally right to leave untold amounts of nuclear waste for future generations to deal with. As the Utah Legislature deals with a proposal to build at least two nuclear power plants in the state, Udell, who also teaches on the subject of sustainable energy, said the state's dry climate and uncertain water supply should be considered. That's where the proposal for some inside the gallery raised a few eyebrows. Vanessa Pierce, director of Healthy Environment Alliance (HEAL) Utah, noted how the business relationships of two state lawmakers are intertwined in the proposal. Rep. Aaron Tilton, R-Springville, owns Transition Power Development, a private equity group that has signed an agreement to secure water rights to cool the nuclear fuel rods for the proposed plants. The water would come from the Kane County Water Conservancy District, whose executive director is Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab. Noel is also chairman of the Legislature's Public Utilities and Technology Committee and Tilton is vice chairman of that committee. Both lawmakers are members of the state's Public Utilities and Technology Interim Committee, which Noel co-chairs. As outsiders observe potential conflicts of interest on the part of both lawmakers, Pierce pointed out that building nuclear reactors here would "undermine" recent successful efforts to keep nuclear waste generated outside the state from being stored here. But then there's still the lure of what nuclear power can do for air quality and climate change. Former Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Peter Bradford said a nuclear reactor is less polluting to the atmosphere than a coal-fired power plant. The sobering reality, he noted, would be that to make an impact on slowing global warming, the world would need to double its nuclear capacity in the next 20 years ? and that raised the question of what to do about countries that would also use the technology to build nuclear weapons. Bradford noted that just five years ago, people weren't talking about building more costly nuclear reactors, but climate change has forced the issue. For panelist Sarah Wright, director of Utah Clean Energy, the subject of global warming has caused her to look inside individual homes for answers. She said home sizes keep increasing while consumers are buying big power users such as plasma screen televisions, which she said use about as much energy as refrigerators. "We all make individual choices," Wright said. "We just need to start using more efficient technologies." E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com deseretnews.com: Home ***************************************************************** 23 Guardian Unlimited: Pipe Bomb Locks Down Ariz. Nuclear Plant Saturday November 3, 2007 8:16 AM By CHRIS KAHN and AMANDA LEE MYERS Associated Press Writer WINTERSBURG, Ariz. (AP) - As authorities tried to understand why a contract worker would bring a pipe bomb to the nation's largest nuclear power plant, one thing was immediately clear: The security worked. Guards stopped Roger William Hurd, 61, at the entrance to the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station when they spotted the bomb. He was detained about a half mile from the containment domes where the nuclear material is stored. Officials pulled his security clearances and placed the facility on lockdown. ``The guards were attentive and alert and took the appropriate action when they identified something suspicious,'' said Victor Dricks, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which will review the incident. Doug Walters, senior director of security for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's trade group, said Palo Verde's response was exactly as it should have been. ``We have a checkpoint for this reason,'' Walters said. ``They were able to identify a suspicious item in the truck. I don't know what they could have done differently.'' The Department of Homeland Security said there was no known terrorism link to the incident at Palo Verde. Hurd, of Goodyear, Ariz., told investigators he did not know how the bomb got in his truck and was released Friday afternoon. Authorities described the device as a six-inch capped explosive made of galvanized pipe that contained suspicious residue. Tom Mangan, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said it was likely homemade. ``If this thing went off in the bed of the truck, it certainly would put a hole in it,'' Mangan said. ``It was rather crude in construction, but it could certainly injure somebody.'' Capt. Paul Chagolla with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office said the pipe was not hidden. He said Hurd normally drove a motorcycle to work but was in a truck Friday because of the cool weather. Sheriff's officials rendered the device safe. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said investigators searched Hurd's home but found nothing helpful. Hurd was not arrested, and Arpaio said he expects Hurd to help with the investigation. Nobody answered the door at Hurd's apartment in Goodyear. Messages left by The Associated Press at numbers listed for Hurd in Arizona and Hartsville, S.C., were not returned as of late Friday night. Hurd worked as a procurement engineer, responsible for evaluating equipment purchases for the plant, Palo Verde officials said. He had access to protected areas but had not been in any such area since Aug. 21, said Randy Edington, the chief nuclear officer for plant operator Arizona Public Service Co. Edington said Hurd would have had access to the reactors but officials did not know the last time he would have been near the reactors. The incident was considered an ``unusual event'' - the lowest of four emergencies the plant can declare, said Jim Melfi, an inspector with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. There was no threat to the public and the station operated normally Friday, McDonald said. McDonald wouldn't say which company employed Hurd. Like everyone who has access to the plant, Hurd submitted to a background check. Workers also must pass through two security checkpoints to get inside one of the plant's three containment domes, which house the radioactive nuclear material. One of the checkpoints includes an automated system that sniffs workers for the presence of bomb-making materials, McDonald said. Palo Verde, operated by Arizona Public Service Co., is the nation's largest nuclear power plant both in size and capacity. Located in Wintersburg about 50 miles west of downtown Phoenix, the plant supplies electricity to about 4 million customers in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and California. ^--- Associated Press Writer Chris Kahn reported from Phoenix. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 24 thewest.com.au: Man charged for drink driving three times in 24 hours 5th November 2007, 9:15 WST A Perth man has been charged with drink-driving three times in 24 hours. The 46-year-old man was first stopped by Boddington police, in the Perth hills on Saturday night, and charged with drinking under the influence and driving with a suspended licence on Saturday evening. He was spotted driving his car again a short time later and arrested for drink-driving, police said. The man’s car was impounded in the Boddington police station but early on Sunday morning, the man allegedly jumped over the fence of the police station, broke open a padlock on a back gate and drove away in his car. He was caught and arrested again three hours later and charged with three counts of driving under the influence; three counts of driving while under suspension and one charge of trespass. He’s been refused bail and will appear in the Perth Magistrates Court today. AAP thewest.com.au West Australian Newspapers Limited 2007. All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 25 Salt Lake Tribune: 'Exposed' lays bare atomic pain, grief Atomic testing The play, ending tonight, gathers downwinders' stories of death, disease Article Last Updated: 11/04/2007 12:26:39 AM MDT Actresses Joyce Cohen, left,, (who portrays Dixon) and her sister, actress Teri Cowan, right, in an emotional scene in the kitchen. They come at the end of every performance of "Exposed," Plan-B Theatre's provocative drama about the human consequences of nuclear-weapons testing. Written by Utah journalist and author Mary Dickson, the play gathers sobering personal stories from "downwinders," or people exposed to radioactive fallout from nuclear explosions at the Nevada Test Site. When "Exposed" premiered last month, the list contained 53 names of people, most of them Utahns, who died of cancers and other diseases their families believe were caused by nuclear fallout. Since then, producers of the play, which ends its sold-out run tonight at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, have invited audience members to add names to a list on the wall by the theater's entrance. As theatergoers contributed new names, director Jerry Rapier incorporated them into the play by typing them up and giving them to his actors to read at the end of the next performance. As of Friday afternoon, the list had grown to 131 names. "It's been really heartbreaking, all the stories I've been hearing. I've heard people say, 'I added both my parents,' " says Dickson, who has been hugged by sobbing theatergoers after performances. "I keep finding more and more [names]. And the sad thing is, it's just a tiny fraction of them." Dickson based "Exposed" on actual people, including herself and her sister Ann Dickson DeBirk, who died of lupus in 2001 and whose name is the last one read at the play's end. Many of Dickson's lines are lifted verbatim from government documents, interviews and personal conversations. At a time when low-level radioactive waste is being buried in Utah's west desert and Utah lawmakers are considering whether to allow the state's first nuclear power plant, "Exposed" dramatizes some 50 years of American history to probe the shadowy legacy of nuclear testing. Between 1951 and 1992, the U.S. government detonated 928 nuclear bombs in southern Nevada, sending radioactive particles into the atmosphere. In 1990, Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), which paid $50,000 to each person who contracted certain cancers and other serious diseases that might have resulted from living downwind of aboveground nuclear-weapon tests. In Utah, only residents of 10 southern counties are eligible for payments, although research suggests that radiation fallout spread widely across the state and beyond. More than 27,000 Americans have made claims under RECA. So far, almost 19,000 of them, including downwinders, uranium miners and test-site workers, have received government payments totaling $1.25 billion. Meanwhile, pressure continues in Washington to extend the fund to more people in more places. One bill in Congress would allow downwinders in Idaho and Montana to apply for payments. By speaking aloud the names of deceased downwinders at the end of "Exposed," and encouraging theatergoers to add more, the play's producers have created a living memorial to the dead not unlike an AIDS quilt or a recital of the names of 9/11 victims. As an emotional coda to the play, the list of names also connects audiences viscerally with a complex issue. "It's an invitation to make it personal, which I think is effective," said Julie Jensen, a Salt Lake City playwright who added the names of her father and two aunts - all of whom grew up in southern Utah and died of cancer - to the list after attending Thursday's performance. "It's all very palpable. On the whole, for me, it worked." Although the play ends its Salt Lake City run with tonight's performance, its influence will likely be felt beyond Utah. Rapier, Plan-B Theatre's producing director, said he has heard from theater companies in Chicago, Sacramento and the Bay Area that want to stage "Exposed." So the drama's requiem for the dead may continue to grow. griggs@sltrib.com --- * JUDY FAHYS contributed to this story. ***************************************************************** 26 KOB.com: Military personnel to be tested for uranium Posted at: 11/02/2007 07:21:03 PM By: The Associated Press SANTA FE (AP) - The state Department of Health is offering to test New Mexico veterans and active duty military personnel who may have been exposed to depleted uranium while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan or during the Persian Gulf War. Health officials will be making testing appointments in each of the state's 33 counties from November 13th to December 10th. The tests are free. Urine samples will be used to look for high concentrations of uranium. If tests reveal a high level, the department will offer a follow-up test to determine if the uranium is depleted or natural. The department says high levels of depleted uranium could cause kidney damage. (Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) ***************************************************************** 27 Gazette: Vets exposed to atomic tests scoff at federal offer David Pugliese, CanWest News Service Published: Saturday, November 03 Veterans exposed to radiation during atomic weapons tests as well as accidents at Ontario's Chalk River nuclear plant in the 1950s will be each offered up to $24,000 in compensation by the Conservative government. But the former soldiers say that paltry amount comes nowhere close to making amends for the medical problems they have faced over the decades. The veterans, some now dealing with cancer and other ailments, have been fighting for more than 20 years to get the government to acknowledge they were exposed to radiation during atomic blasts and at two major accidents. The atomic veterans were told the government would announce the package on Sept. 15, but that was scrapped after Gordon O'Connor was shuffled out of the defence portfolio and succeeded by Peter MacKay. No new date has been set for the announcement. Jim Huntley of the Canadian Atomic Veterans Association says he has been told by government officials about the proposed payments but calls the compensation package unacceptable. "We have families who have grown up without fathers because of what happened," said Huntley, 68, of Balzac, Alta. Huntley noted the U.S. government decided in the 1980s to recognize the plight of its veterans who took part in the tests. It grants a $75,000 payment to veterans who have come down with any of more than a dozen types of ailments, mainly cancers. © The Gazette (Montreal) 2007 © 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks ***************************************************************** 28 The Herald: Well water near nuclear plant safe to drink, DHEC declares Wire News Yorkcounty.com Tests show Oct. tritium leak did not contaminate Lake Wylie neighbors' wells By Adam MacInnis · Enquirer-Herald Updated 11/03/07 - 1:02 AM | Wells around the Catawba Nuclear Station are safe to drink from, the state Department of Health and Environmental Control announced Friday after testing for tritium in area wells. DHEC will hold a community meeting at 7 p.m. Dec. 6 at Crowders Creek Middle School to discuss the results of the tests with residents. Concerns about the safety of the water surfaced in mid-October after a test well at the Duke Energy-owned facility on Lake Wylie showed an elevated amount of tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen that's also a byproduct of nuclear reaction. Tritium emits a weak form of radiation that could increase the risk of cancer or cause birth defects if consumed in large quantities. Some experts have said tritium can be used to foreshadow the eventual flow of more toxic radioactive materials in groundwater. The contaminated test well at the plant was not used for drinking water and was about a half-mile inside the facility's property. As a safety precaution, DHEC tested 25 nearby residential wells. Of those, 24 showed no tritium at all, according to a press release. One registered 348 picocuries of tritium per liter, which is below the Environmental Protection Agency's safe drinking water standard of 20,000 picocuries per liter of water. That well will be tested again, the release stated. "This tells us that people living near the plant have not been drinking water contaminated with unsafe levels of tritium," said Patrick Walker, chief of DHEC's Bureau of Land and Waste Management in the release. "We hope these results will help answer concerns residents might have." Two wells at the Catawba Nuclear Station also were tested, and one registered 319 picocuries of tritium per liter. Investigation continues Duke Energy is still investigating the source of the elevated tritium -- at the time, it was 42,335 picocuries per liter of water -- by inspecting trenches, pipes and other areas, said Valerie Patterson, company spokeswoman. "We continue to monitor the well where the elevated tritium level was found and surrounding wells," Patterson said. The company also has drilled more wells near the contaminated area for monitoring. Copyright © 2006 The Herald, Rock Hill, South Carolina ***************************************************************** 29 [NYTr] Arabs Propose Uranium Alliance Date: Sat, 3 Nov 2007 04:24:38 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Arabs Propose Uranium Alliance Dubai, Nov 2 (Prensa Latina) The six states of the Persian Gulf proposed creating a consortium to guarantee enriched uranium to countries of the Middle East, including Iran, announced Saudi Arabia chancellor, Saud al Faisal. In declarations to the Middle East Economic Digest (MEED), he said that the Islamic Republic considered the proposal interesting and was studying the issue. "We hope the Iranians accept," he said. The Saudi chancellor added that talks continue with Persian authorities concerning the need to view this issue not only from an energy perspective but also regarding interests of security in the region. Al Faisal explained that the initiative foresees the construction of an atomic plant in a neutral country, Switzerland for example that would be in charge of distributing the uranium to any installation in the Middle East according to their needs. Iranian president Mahmud Ahmadineyad announced on October 24 the willingness of his government to set up consortiums with other nations to use the new installations for the production of energy. He pointed out that the project intends to supply the Islamic Republic network with 20 thousand megawatts from nuclear plants and the association could be based in the Persian state or any other part of the world. He added that during his recent visit to New York several nations expressed interest in participating. Ahmadineyad affirmed that the Republic of Islam has the technology to establish these consortium with other nations and will not permit anyone to interfere in the issue or who may "intend to eliminate the nuclear rights" of Teheran. hr/jcd/avp/mf * ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us Our main website: http://www.blythe.org List Archives: http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ Subscribe: http://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================= ***************************************************************** 30 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: A new tone in Congress Today: November 04, 2007 at 1:45:13 PDT Hearing highlights how the Yucca Mountain project is a disaster in the making One of the Bush administration's top energy goals has been to get Yucca Mountain opened as the burial site for the nation's nuclear waste. Shoving safety concerns expressed by Democrats aside and coddling the pseudoscience of government agencies were among its strategies for achieving that goal. A hearing on Yucca Mountain last week before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee was the first since Democrats gained control of Congress, and it truly showed what a difference an election can make. Even Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., gave Democrats credit for the way they handled the hearing. "It was a different tone," he told the Sun's Washington reporter, Lisa Mascaro. "The fact that the Democrats held this hearing is a very positive move in trying to get alternatives (to a Yucca repository) on the table." Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., a candidate for president, had called in July for the hearing. She expressed impatience at the Bush administration's stonewalling on the release of scientific information on safety at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Determining how much radiation from Yucca can leak into the environment without creating a health hazard is the role of the Environmental Protection Agency. A federal court in 2004 rejected the EPA's initial radiation standard. A revision released in 2005 was denounced at public hearings and placed back under review. Now, two years later, and with the project's scheduled licence application just eight months away, the agency still has not issued an updated radiation standard. Clinton's direct, no-nonsense questioning at the hearing of an EPA representative got to the heart of the matter. After 20 years of work, the EPA still cannot say when its scientific analysis of Yucca Mountain's effect on human health will be ready. The admission adds credence to Nevada's point that a "safe" radiation standard for Yucca Mountain is an impossibility. We are encouraged that all the Democratic presidential candidates are on record as opposing a repository at Yucca Mountain, and that a new tone on this issue is being heard in Congress. All contents © 1996 - 2007 Las Vegas Sun, Inc. ***************************************************************** 31 Las Vegas SUN: Letter: Consolidating nuclear waste seems safer November 03, 2007 As we approach the presidential caucus it seems that Yucca Mountain has come back into the political arena. As a topic of great concern to many Americans, this has gone on for more than 20 years. Wouldn't it be better to store nuclear waste in one spot rather than have it sit out in the open, in 108 nuclear facilities across the country? I'm not saying it should be stored in Yucca Mountain or Crawford, Texas, for that matter, as I don't know where the best site is. But surely one storage site would be better than what we have now , considering the possibility of a terrorist attack with so many targets as options for our enemies. Sam Pizzo, Henderson All contents © 1996 - 2007 Las Vegas Sun, Inc. ***************************************************************** 32 courier-journal: Court clears way for suit over uranium plant courier-journal.com > Local News Sunday, November 4, 2007 By Brett Barrouquere Associated Press A federal appeals court has ruled that a 10-year-old lawsuit alleging that water leaks from a Western Kentucky uranium enrichment plant hurt property values can go forward. The decision, issued Friday by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, reverses a decision by U.S. District Judge Joseph McKinley, who dismissed the suit, saying there was no proof that enough contamination existed to pose a health hazard. Judge Avern Cohn, writing for a unanimous three-judge panel, said McKinley erred in dismissing the suit because the homeowners who brought the case have enough evidence to warrant a jury trial. "The jury, properly instructed, must decide the outcome," Cohn wrote. The case stems from a suit filed by 16 homeowners who live near the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. The homeowners sued in 1997, claiming about 10 billion gallons of polluted groundwater had damaged 82 pieces of property. They also claimed they lost use of their property and suffered losses of plants, crops, livestock and wildlife. Aside from land devaluation, the landowners allege the plant is a nuisance and they are seeking unspecified punitive damages. Defense lawyers for former plant operators Union Carbide and Lockheed Martin denied the allegations and sought the dismissal. The case was the only one alleging land devaluation among several lawsuits filed in recent years claiming contamination. In the 1990s, the Department of Energy provided eight of the 16 properties with free municipal water, even though traces of contamination were found in wells of only four of the eight. The case has bounced around the state and federal legal systems for a decade. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had asked the Kentucky Supreme Court to clarify several aspects of state law in June. The state's high court ruled then that the landowners don't have to prove they were harmed to sue past contractors for trespassing by allowing contaminants to spread beyond the plant. Copyright 2005 The Courier-Journal. ***************************************************************** 33 San Bernardino County Sun: Perchlorate battle costs Rialto has spent $18M, mostly to lawyers or specific law firms Jason Pesick, Staff Writer Article Launched: 11/02/2007 10:00:10 PM PDT RIALTO - The city's battle against perchlorate has cost it more than $18 million in the past four years but only $3 million has been spent on cleanup. About $13.5 million, or 75 percent of the outlay, has been paid to or through lawyers, specifically five law firms that have represented the city since about 2003. The cost categories include investigations ($9.5 million), federal litigation ($2.1 million), pushing for state action ($1.9 million) public and governmental relations ($967,100) as well as administrative costs ($545,000). Last month, City Attorney Bob Owen provided City Council members Winnie Hanson and Ed Scott, both members of the council's perchlorate subcommittee, with a breakdown of the city's costs on perchlorate. Since the end of April, the city has prepared for state cleanup hearings involving three suspected polluters. The hearings were supposed to be in August but have been postponed indefinitely and may never take place. Since April, not much has been spent because the city's case had already been built, Hanson said. She put the total at less than $20 million. The City Council has also authorized a more thorough audit of all the city's perchlorate expenses. The audit is now complete and will be released shortly, Hanson said. "It doesn't look like there was anything wrong at all," she said, summarizing the audit's findings. The audit does not account for all money spent. In the letter, Owen writes that he estimates the companies Rialto suspects are responsible for the contamination have spent $50 million against the city. Owen's letter, which can be viewed online at The Sun's Web site, sbsun.com, spells out the costs to the city. The letter also lists the five law firms. Part of the reason the city has used so many different firms is that its lawyers have taken jobs at new firms since the perchlorate cleanup effort began. Rialto has been criticized by some of its own residents and some of the parties it is pursuing for how much it has spent on the effort. "We have not wavered from our focus on our goal: to secure a cleanup, restore our water storage capabilities, and guarantee the economic future of our City," Owen writes in the letter. jason.pesick@sbsun.com (909) 386-3861 ***************************************************************** 34 Salt Lake Tribune: Moab uranium waste: Tailings tab heads closer to $1 billion Project near the Colorado River has begun, but completion date now much later Article Last Updated: 11/03/2007 12:25:25 AM MDT MOAB - The cost to clean up uranium waste on the Colorado River's edge has shot up. The U.S. Energy Department said its new estimate for removing the tailings is $635 million to $835 million. "This is a more realistic estimate," said DOE's Don Metzler, who oversees the cleanup, on Friday. The Energy Department is removing 16 million tons of tailings from the site, about three miles from Moab, to stop chemicals like ammonia from seeping into the Colorado River. The river is home to several protected fish species and serves as an important water source to more than 25 million people downstream. Previously, the price tag reached $697 million. Metzler suggested to the state Radiation Control Board that a new, longer timeline boosted the price. "If you push out the project 10 years, it's more expensive," he said. The Energy Department awarded a contract for $98.4 million this spring to begin hauling the 16 million tons of uranium-mill waste 32 miles north to Crescent Junction. And construction has already started on a 250-acre landfill for the contaminated waste. "It's surprising," said Joette Langianese, a member of the Grand County Council and the radiation board. "I don't know why it has gone up so high, whether it's higher fuel costs, construction costs." The county, the state and Utah members of Congress are urging the Energy Department to step up the cleanup, bringing it back in line with a previous schedule that would have the job done by 2019 rather than the current projection of 2028. A bill in Congress seeks the quicker cleanup, but the House and Senate have yet to finalize the change. Metzler said he didn't expect there to be any short-term delays in the cleanup even if Congress fails to pass the spending bill. Working off of last year's funding schedule, plus $16 million carried over from last year, will be plenty to keep going, he told the board. Meanwhile, progress continues to be made. Metzler reported that 73 acres already has been cleaned up and 60 revegetated. Also, the Energy Department said it has pumped 100 million gallons of contaminated water from the pile. The Energy Department says this volume is comparable to 151 six-foot deep, Olympic-sized swimming pools. They have captured 449,250 pounds of ammonia and 19,000 pounds of uranium through special extraction/injection wells placed between the pile and the Colorado River. fahys@sltrib.com How it all began * Uranium operations begin next to the Colorado River outside Moab in 1956. * Atlas Minerals Corp. buys the plant in 1962 and processes uranium ore there until shutting down in 1984. * The company files for bankruptcy in 1998, and its U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission license lapses three years later. * The Energy Department, the new owner, decides to move the tailings 32 miles north to Crescent Junction to protect the river and the environment from contamination leaching from the site into the river. ***************************************************************** 35 UCS: Dozens of Organizations Ask Congress To Eliminate Funding For Dangerous Nuclear Waste Reprocessing Program Nov 02, 2007 12:00 AM EDT Letter to Congress regarding GNEP Funding National Academy of Sciences on GNEP More than 40 national and local environmental, science and national security organizations this week sent a letter to Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), urging them to eliminate funding for the Department of Energy's Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) plan for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel. The program, they wrote, "undermines U.S. nonproliferation policy, would cost taxpayers $100 billion or more, and … [would] not solve the nuclear waste problem. Sens. Dorgan and Domenici are chairman and ranking minority member, respectively, of the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Committee. The committee has tentatively approved $243 million of the $405 million the Bush administration requested for GNEP. The House already has approved $120 million. A final bill is expected sometime this fall. The Bush administration maintains that the GNEP program will curb nuclear proliferation, but, according to the letter, "the program [already] has had the opposite effect." Since the program's inception, the letter points out, "eight countries have notified the International Atomic Energy Agency that they reserve the right to pursue enrichment and reprocessing technologies" that could be used to produce nuclear weapons. Among the 47 organizations that signed the letter are the Arms Control Association, the Council for a Livable World, the Federation of American Scientists, Greenpeace, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Public Citizen, Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Union of Concerned Scientists. GNEP also has come under fire from the National Academy of Sciences. Earlier this week, it published a report recommending that Congress scale back the program because it relies on unproven technology. Contacts Reporters: Join our notification list to receive breaking news from UCS. General media inquiries can be directed to our media office line at 202-331-5420. If you are calling about a specific issue, contact the appropriate press contact below. Press Contacts: Energy, Food, Scientific Integrity MEGHAN CROSBY Assistant Press Secretary 202-331-6943 mcrosby@ucsusa.org Climate, Global Security, Vehicles, Invasives AARON HUERTAS Assistant Press Secretary 202-331-5458 ahuertas@ucsusa.org Climate, Scientific Integrity LISA NURNBERGER Press Secretary 202-331-6959 lnurnberger@ucsusa.org Energy, Food EMILY ROBINSON Press Secretary 202-331-5427 erobinson@ucsusa.org ELLIOTT NEGIN Media Director 202-331-5439 enegin@ucsusa.org © Union of Concerned Scientists ***************************************************************** 36 Gallup: Independent: Hardrock mining reform passes November 2, 2007: By Kathy Helms Diné Bureau WINDOW ROCK ? Legislation which would reform the 1892 Mining Act passed received overwhelming support by the House of Representative Thursday ? a move hailed by U.S. Rep. Tom Udall as a way to ?bring some much needed balance to the use of our public lands.? U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici assailed the House version of the bill, saying it ?would result in irreparable harm to America?s mining industry,? while U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman took a middle-of-the-road stance, saying he was ?pleased that there is renewed interest on the part of many in the industry and in the environmental community in trying to update this law.? Mining reform The Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act would reform the General Mining Act of 1872, written to encourage westward expansion and to generate the nation?s supply of minerals. The legislation passed the House by a vote of 244-166. Major hardrock minerals developed in the West include copper, silver, gold, lead, zinc, molybdenum, and uranium. ?Back in 1872, a charge of $5 an acre to mine hardrock minerals in remote areas of the undeveloped west was probably a pretty fair price. The fact that the price is still the same today is simply ludicrous,? Udall said. ?As a result, private companies, both domestic and foreign, have been able to profit handsomely by mining on public lands without the need to pay the American people any royalties or to even cleanup the messes they leave behind. ?By some estimates, the antiquated 1872 Mining Act has allowed over $245 billion dollars worth of minerals to be extracted from more than 3.4 million acres of public lands without returning to the American people, the owners of those lands, a single cent in royalties. Today, we took a necessary step toward bringing this policy into the modern era,? Udall said. H.R. 2262, introduced by Rep. Nick Rahall, chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, requires mining companies to pay royalties to the government for the minerals they mine from public lands and to properly reclaim lands damaged by mining. It also allows for the prohibition of mining on environmentally sensitive lands and creates a fund to begin the cleanup of nearly a half million abandoned mine sites. With more than 375,000 mining claims spread throughout the rapidly developing West, Udall said, ?some of our last pieces of unspoiled lands are threatened. According to the New York Times, many of those 375,000 claims are within 5 miles of 11 major national parks, including Death Valley and the Grand Canyon.? More than 89,000 claims were staked in 2006 ? 2,000 alone in New Mexico ? largely due to renewed interest in nuclear energy and an accompanying increase in the price of uranium. ?Many New Mexicans, most particularly members of the Navajo Nation, have already suffered devastating injuries from uranium mining in the past. H.R. 2262 will bring some much needed balance to the use of our public lands and, in so doing, help protect the health of our citizens,? Udall said. There is broad support for changes to the 135-year-old law signed by President Ulysses S. Grant, according to Matt LeTourneau of the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee. New requirements The reform act of 2007 would put in place new royalty and environmental requirements and would give local communities and Indian tribes an increased role in federal land management decisions. Laura Watchempino of the Haaku Water Office at the Pueblo of Acoma said Thursday that if the reform act gets through the House and Senate and past a presidential veto, ?maybe there will be some hope for some real reform and these permits won?t be just automatically granted, because right now, that?s what they?ve been relying on ? this 1872 mining law.? ?The Forest Service and everybody has been saying, ?OK, we have to let them explore because this is the law.? Acoma and the 19 pueblos, Hopi, as well as the Navajo Nation have been saying, ?Wait a minute. You have to consult with us under Section 106 of the Historic Preservation Act.? ? Watchempino is hopeful the reform act will provide a measure of protection for Mount Taylor, near Grants, a sacred site to the pueblos, Navajo and Hopi. Mount Taylor lies within the Acoma Cultural Province. On Dec. 15, 2006, by a vote of 19-0, the All Indian Pueblo Council passed a resolution of support for the protection of Mount Taylor and all sacred sites and cultural properties related to the pueblos in New Mexico. The resolution states that the issuance of uranium and coal exploration, development and processing permits within the Pueblos of Acoma and Laguna?s cultural territory threatens irreparable degradation and impairment to the natural and cultural resources of the 19 pueblos. ?Affording the greatest protection to our watersheds and the public health is tied to the protection of the sacredness of significant cultural landscapes which serve as common places of worship and spiritual landmarks for all 19 pueblos,? the resolution states. Underground mining Jonathan Goldstein, director of the New Mexico Environment Department?s Water and Waste Management Division, said Thursday that there is an application pending from Rio Grande Resources ? owned by General Atomics ? for a conventional underground mine on Mount Taylor. ?They applied for a permit to de-water the existing underground mine. What they?re planning to do is de-water it and then resume operations. They told us that they would like to propose an alternate water treatment method,? he said. The application has been deemed administratively complete, but the Environment Department is seeking further information from the applicant on its alternative water treatment method. Once that is complete there will be a public process on the permit. All contents property of the Gallup Independent. Please send the Gallup Independent feedback on this website and the paper in general. Send questions or comments to gallpind@cia-g.com ***************************************************************** 37 Bradenton.com: Tallevast residents want cleanup stalled 11/03/2007 | By DUANE MARSTELLER dmarsteller@bradenton.com TALLEVAST -- Residents of this polluted community want a defense contractor to suspend cleanup-related activities at a former beryllium plant, saying they fear the work could be causing health problems. But state environmental and health officials and Lockheed Martin Corp. said there's no link between the work and resident complaints of headaches, nausea and burning nostrils and throats. Lockheed recently installed two extraction wells at the former Loral American Beryllium plant at 1600 Tallevast Road. The wells, and two others, are part of an intermediate cleanup of decades-old contamination directly beneath the facility. The contamination also extends into the surrounding neighborhood. Lockheed, through its prior acquisition of Loral, owned the plant when the contamination was discovered in 2000 and thus is responsible for the cleanup. This week, workers were digging shallow trenches and installing pipes to connect the wells to an on-site treatment facility. That concerned Tallevast residents, several of whom went to the plant to investigate Tuesday, smelled an unusual odor in the windy conditions. They said they left with headaches and burning sensations in their noses and/or throats, reports of which have been circulating through the community for several weeks. Wanda Washington, vice president of the residents advocacy group FOCUS, said it has "strong suspicions" the health complaints are related to the recent work but doesn't know for sure. That's why the group wants the work halted until the potential health impacts, if any, are better known, she said Friday. "It's not the community crying wolf," Washington said. "It's not a virus or something going through the community. Something's happening here." She also said residents need earlier and more-detailed notification of upcoming cleanup work so that their consultants can assess potential community impacts. A Tallahassee environmental attorney, representing residents in cleanup matters, notified the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, which is overseeing the cleanup, of residents' concerns late Thursday. "We don't think these activities should be occurring," said attorney Jeanne Zokovitch. "There are potential risks to the community." But Lockheed spokeswoman Gail Rymer said there's no evidence of that. "There absolutely are no problems associated with the work being done at the site," she said. "We are meeting and exceeding all required safety regulations. We are working diligently to ensure the health and safety of the community and our workers." She also said air-quality data showed no escaping vapors from the contamination as a result of the work. But as a result of residents' concerns, Lockheed has installed equipment to continuously monitor air-quality at the site, DEP spokeswoman Pamala Vazquez said. The company also has agreed to hire an independent, certified industrial hygienist to serve as an on-site health adviser, she said. Duane Marsteller, transportation and growth/development reporter, can be reached at 745-7080, ext. 2630. * About Bradenton.com | ***************************************************************** 38 [southnews] Australia abstains from nuclear vote Date: Sun, 4 Nov 2007 22:29:02 -0600 (CST) Australia has resisted backing a United Nations vote aimed at reducing the high alert status of thousands of nuclear weapons around the world. The resolution - sponsored by New Zealand, Chile, Nigeria, Sweden and Switzerland - was given overwhelming support at the UN General Assembly's disarmament committee, passing by 124 votes to three. Australia abstains from nuclear vote AAP November 2, 2007 - 6:29PM Australia has resisted backing a United Nations vote aimed at reducing the high alert status of thousands of nuclear weapons around the world. The resolution - sponsored by New Zealand, Chile, Nigeria, Sweden and Switzerland - was given overwhelming support at the UN General Assembly's disarmament committee, passing by 124 votes to three. But Australia joined 34 other countries in abstaining from the vote. The United States, the United Kingdom and France were the only countries who voted against the move. New Zealand's Disarmament and Arms Control Minister Phil Goff said he hoped to be able to persuade Australia to eventually back the measure, which he first floated about three months ago. "Every country has to make its own decision ... I believe we can go forward and gain ... even bigger support," Goff said. A significant number of the worlds 27,000 remaining nuclear weapons are on high alert, which means they could be launched within minutes. The New Zealand resolution asks those countries with nuclear weapons to recognise the risks posed and catastrophic consequences of a nuclear war, Goff said. He said the move was designed to pressure nuclear powers to take their weapons off high alert, meaning it would take days for them to launch a military strike. It would also reduce the chances of a nuclear strike sparked by accident or technical malfunction, he said. "I am an eternal optimist. I believe that over time people will see the need to eliminate nuclear weapons," he said. New Zealand has been a strong advocate of international arms controls and has its nuclear free policy enshrined in law. The law bans all nuclear armed or powered ships from entering the country's waters. The vote now goes to the 192-nation General Assembly for a final vote. Assembly resolutions are not binding. ___________________________________________ Greens 'appalled' at nuclear vote abstention http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/11/04/2081024.htm?section=justin Posted 8 hours 11 minutes ago Greens Senator Christine Milne says Australia's reputation has been harmed by its decision not to back an anti-nuclear weapons motion at the United Nations. The non-binding vote called for all nuclear weapons to be taken off high alert. It easily passed, with the United States, Britain and France the only countries voting against it. Australia was one of 35 countries to abstain from voting. Senator Milne says she is appalled that Australia refused to support a motion that advances peace and nuclear disarmament. "The rest of the world sees that as long as John Howard is Prime Minister, Australia is just one of the apparatchiks of the United States," she said. "We're not seen as having an independent foreign policy, and I think we're certainly not seen as one of those countries striving for peace and disarmament." ***************************************************************** 39 Madsen: AF personnel ordered to keep mum on suspicious deaths Date: Sun, 4 Nov 2007 11:48:42 -0600 (CST) http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/articles/20071101_1 November 1, 2007 -- Air Force personnel ordered not to comment on suspicious deaths According to Air Force sources, personnel assigned to Minot, Barksdale, Lackland, and Davis-Monthan Air Force Bases, as well as the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Command (AFISR), have been warned not to discuss the August 29-30, 2007 incident in which nuclear-tipped cruise missiles were not moved to the Middle East theater for action against Iran in response to a stand-down by senior Air Force and other military commanders in open revolt against the Bush administration. The prohibition on talking also extends to discussions about some suspicious deaths surrounding the incident. The Air Force has concocted a cover story and a bogus official report to explain the movement of the nuclear weapons under the wings of a B-52 bomber as a mistake. According to WMR sources, Minot Air Force Base personnel have been strictly ordered not to discuss the death on September 10, 2007, of Airman 1st Class Todd Blue while he was on leave in Virginia. Todd was assigned to the 5th Security Forces Squadron at Minot, the base from which the nuclear weapons were transported to Barksdale, a staging base for Middle East operations. The Air Force later punished officers and enlisted men, including those assigned to the 5th Security Forces Squadron, for the missing nuke incident involving the Minot-to-Barksdale B-52 flight. According to Air Force personnel, Blue allegedly died from a suicide while on leave. Air Force personnel claim this degree of security surrounding a death in the Air Force family is unprecedented even when it is a suicide. WMR has previously reported on the unusual death of Air Force Captain John Frueh of Hurlburt Fields Air Force Special Operations Command's "Operations Weather" in Washington state, near Portland; the motorcycle deaths of Senior Airman Cliff Huff of the 26th Operational Weather Squadron at Barksdale and his wife; Master Sergeant Melvin Peele, of the 612th Air Communications Squadron at Davis-Monthan - killed by a runaway forklift in a parking lot - and Blue. The Air Combat Command at Davis-Monthan, where Peele was assigned, is "reviewing" the concocted official Air Force report in order to assign further blame. ***************************************************************** 40 www.kansascity.com: Galloway: This is the beat of scary drummers | 11/03/2007 | JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY COMMENTARY There were some things far more frightening last week than Halloween’s small ghouls and goblins — and the scariest of all is the Bush administration’s seemingly inexorable march toward military confrontation with Iran. What are they smoking back there at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.? The very idea is dumb as a fencepost and best left to the biggest pied piper of what passes for neoconservative thought, Norman Podhoretz. Yet both President Bush and his able assistant, Vice President Darth Cheney, are marching to that tune and humming along lustily. There is no crisis here, and no earthly reason to manufacture one on short notice, except for the fact that in under 15 months the Bush administration will pass ignominiously into history. Then a new chief executive can begin dealing with two ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, a national debt nearing $10 trillion, a terrorist threat to America only made stronger by eight years of Bush and Cheney, and a national economy trembling on the brink of recession. There are two questions here: Why? And, why now? Yes, the centrifuges are whirling away in Iran’s deeply buried and widely dispersed nuclear facilities, enriching uranium that can be used to power electric generation plants and, it’s true, can also be used to build nuclear weapons. But most analysts say that even if Iran’s ultimate ambition is to build a nuclear weapon, it will take the country another five or six years before it gets there. Some say even longer. How about we take a deep breath and — once we have an administration in power that believes that it is far better to talk, talk, talk than it is to war, war, war — negotiate with Iran without all those preconditions so beloved by Bush and Cheney? How about we do all we can to support the International Atomic Energy Agency and its goal of inspecting facilities like those in Iran to ensure that the product is used only for peaceful purposes? If none of that works, we can count on one final fallback position: If and when Iran and its illustrious leader, Ahmad Uglydinnerjacket, get within reach of building a nuke, Israel will take out crucial parts of that system. All of this argues against Bush and Cheney doing anything more than running their mouths and pretending to still be relevant, studly and in charge as they stumble blindly toward the finish line and history’s harsh judgment. The more thoughtful military and civilian advisers can rattle off a dozen reasons why an American attack on Iran at this juncture would be foolish in the extreme and risk setting the Middle East afire. Just some of those reasons would include: •Shutting down not only Iran’s oil production but Iraq’s as well, and possibly triggering Iranian retaliation against the oil production and shipping in other nations around the Persian Gulf. Are we ready for $300-a-barrel oil? •Putting 160,000 American troops and 125,000 American and foreign contractors in Iraq at much greater risk, as neighboring Iran signals Shiite allies there to begin all-out war against us and sends in its own well-armed guerrillas to lead the attack. •Risking confrontation with the newly oil-rich and energized Russian Federation and President Bush’s ex-KGB soulmate Vladimir Putin. Because Putin has his hand on the natural gas and oil pipelines that keep our presumed allies in Europe from freezing to death, it is wise to assume that any support for an American attack on his ally Iran would be slim to none. When you add it all up, you have your answer: No one in his right mind would believe that attacking Iran now makes any sense at all. But that doesn’t mean that Bush and Cheney won’t do it. Be afraid. Be very afraid. ©2007 McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. Joseph L. Galloway is a military columnist for McClatchy Newspapers and a former senior military correspondent for Knight Ridder Newspapers. ***************************************************************** 41 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Nuclear insecurity November 03, 2007 Energy Department plays bureaucratic games instead of taking care of national security Although instructed by Congress a year ago to tighten security at the nation's nuclear bomb factories and laboratories, the Energy Department has failed to do so. Only five of the Energy Department's 11 locations that handle nuclear material will meet the congressional deadline of 2008, according to the Government Accountability Office. Congress has pushed the Energy Department to better protect the facilities against terrorists and other security threats. The department and its contractors have repeatedly failed in the past to provide any sense of assurance that the nation's nuclear supply is safe. For example, during the past several years simulated attacks on the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico repeatedly succeeded , with mock terrorists carrying off nuclear material or blowing it up. Instead of tightening security, the Energy Department has delayed action at some sites that store plutonium because it plans to consolidate locations. In other cases, such as at the Idaho National Laboratory, the department is taking its sweet time - security upgrades aren't expected to be done there until 2013. Other sites that will miss the deadline include the Nevada Test Site. The Energy Department has apparently been slow to move in part because of turf fights. Robert Alvarez, an Energy Department official in the Clinton administration, told The New York Times there is general agreement to consolidate the storage of plutonium in a few locations, but he noted there is "a lot of pushback about moving fissile material from a site because then you lose a portion of your budget and prestige." So national security concerns are outweighed by budget and prestige? Given the department's ludicrous attempts to use faulty science to defend its indelibly broken plan to make Nevada the nation's nuclear waste dump, this should not be a surprise. It is, however, a sign of how bad things are in the Energy Department. Nothing good can come from an agency that puts bureaucratic infighting ahead of national security. All contents © 1996 - 2007 Las Vegas Sun, Inc. ***************************************************************** 42 Sunday Times: Attlee feared atom bomb Armageddon - November 4, 2007 Jon Ungoed-Thomas Read Attlee's memo | Read Churchill's letter to the Queen CLEMENT ATTLEE, who was Labour prime minister when the Americans dropped the first atomic bombs on Japan, feared that the world was on the brink of Armageddon, a secret memo that he wrote to cabinet colleagues reveals. “The time is short . . . I believe that only a bold course can save civilisation,” he wrote. Afterwards, Attlee wrote: “No government has ever been placed in such a position as is ours today. The governments of the UK and the USA are responsible as never before for the future of the human race.” He warned against any attempt to impose the will of Britain and America on nonnuclear Russia. He argued: “The only course which seems to offer a reasonable hope of staving off imminent disaster for the world is joint action by the USA, UK and Russia based upon stark reality.” His memo, marked Top Secret and kept in the National Archives, is revealed in a book, Cabinets and the Bomb, by the historian Peter Hennessy, to be published this week. While fearing for civilisation, Attlee believed in nuclear deterrence. He secretly authorised the development of a British atomic bomb, spending £100m on it without parliament’s knowledge. By the time it was ready for testing in 1952, Churchill was back in office and began the development of the much more powerful hydrogen bomb. © Copyright 2007 Times Newspapers Ltd. ***************************************************************** 43 Times Union: Bush, Cheney don't know when to stop -- Albany NY First published: Sunday, November 4, 2007 It is truly frightening to see our President and vice president apparently gearing up for another war. This time it is Iran. More and more, commentators are noting the escalation in their rhetoric similar to their escalation in rhetoric before Iraq. They are now identifying the Iranians as "terrorists." They are evoking the specter of nuclear holocaust. They are apparently ordering the military to identify Iranian targets. As ordinary citizens, our tendency is to stay blind to all this. The thought of another war seems so senseless with its cost in more lives, its disruption of American families, and its unforeseen consequences that we can't imagine how they would contemplate it. We feel helpless. Both George Bush and Dick Cheney don't listen to us. They are heedless of our opinions as we have expressed these over and over in polls. So many of us are just holding our breaths through these last months of a President and vice president who can only bring in their wake contention, divisiveness, and death. ANTON G. HARDY All Times Union materials copyright 1996-2007, Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation, Albany, N.Y. ***************************************************************** 44 AU ABC: Greens 'appalled' at nuclear vote abstention - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Posted November 4, 2007 07:32:00 Greens Senator Christine Milne says Australia's reputation has been harmed by its decision not to back an anti-nuclear weapons motion at the United Nations. The non-binding vote called for all nuclear weapons to be taken off high alert. It easily passed, with the United States, Britain and France the only countries voting against it. Australia was one of 35 countries to abstain from voting. Senator Milne says she is appalled that Australia refused to support a motion that advances peace and nuclear disarmament. "The rest of the world sees that as long as John Howard is Prime Minister, Australia is just one of the apparatchiks of the United States," she said. "We're not seen as having an independent foreign policy, and I think we're certainly not seen as one of those countries striving for peace and disarmament." AEDT = Australian Eastern Daylight Time which is 11 hours ahead of UTC (Greenwich Mean Time) © 2007 ABC Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 45 Carlsbad Current-Argus: Double jeopardy unfair for DOE The Current-Argus Article Launched: 11/03/2007 09:57:02 PM MDT N.M. Environment Department Secretary Ron Curry indicated recently that the Department of Energy can expect a six-figure fine for shipping a non compliant drum to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant last summer. Realistically, any fine has already been paid in spades. Curry never really disputed DOE's evidence that the drum presented no kind of threat. Instead, his Aug. 3 explanation for ordering the drum's removal seemed to be one of basic enforcement, with a call for some punishment to inspire rehabilitation on the DOE's part. "I hope this decision sends a message to DOE that the State of New Mexico is serious about compliance with our regulations and permit," he said. "We have a zero-tolerance policy for mistakes like these and we expect DOE officials, including those in Idaho, to quickly correct this pattern of error." Curry has a duty to get the message across that the state has zero tolerance for error when it comes to following the permit. His act of ordering the drum removed was itself a fairly significant swat to the wrist. WIPP's entire process had to be halted and, at some points, reversed. Shipments to WIPP were stopped during a portion of the retrieval process. Hundreds of workers who were trained and equipped to bring waste to WIPP suddenly had to figure out how to reverse the process, using the same equipment to take a container out. The retrieval process was handled efficiently and safely, and the DOE also implemented dozens of measures to make sure such a problem will not occur again. DOE officials estimate that it cost more than $1 million to remove the drum and ship it back to Idaho, and the total cost is still being tallied. This isn't funny money the taxpayer is footing the bill. The DOE, as Sen. Vernon Asbill noted in a column last week, initially offered to remove the drum but apparently received at least some early indication by the state that the container might not have to be removed. Some of the time the drum spent at WIPP was related directly to the DOE waiting for the state's response. A "per day" type of fine, given these circumstances, is ridiculous. It's important to remember who is ultimately paying the tab. A fine, in this case, basically means the taxpayer is paying several hundred thousand more dollars to the DOE to give to the state. Curry has to set a strong example to protect the interests of New Mexico residents. WIPP is only possible if state residents who oppose the project are placated with tight regulations. Curry has a right to enact related punishment that deters future mistakes. The thing is, he already has. The Department of Energy has already spent more than six figures and many weeks solving this problem. The lesson has already hit home. An excessive second wave of penalties seems like double jeopardy. Copyright © 2007 Carlsbad Current-Argus; All Rights Reserved; No ***************************************************************** 46 BDC: 200 years of science: Boulder labs hold celebration : Science and Environment : Boulder Daily Camera By Laura Snider (Contact) Sunday, November 4, 2007 Photo by Joshua Lawton Above, research chemist Karl Feierabend adjusts a laser while working on the photochemistry of acetone Friday at the Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder. The lab is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which celebrates its 200-year-old scientific roots this week. Most folks in Boulder wouldn't be surprised to learn scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration study the climate. But it's easy to forget — looking at the Flatirons marking the edge of the Rockies behind the lab in Boulder — that NOAA also makes sure no dolphins were harmed catching the tuna in your sandwich. Nationwide, NOAA's scope is tremendous. Its scientists predict the weather — both on our planet and in space — monitor satellites, warn about tsunamis, fly into hurricanes, launch weather balloons from Antarctica, measure carbon dioxide, monitor salmon runs, scan the ocean floor and make maps — lots and lots of maps. And though the formal name NOAA is only turning a spry 37 this year, the many threads of the scientific agencies that were eventually woven into NOAA can be traced back 200 years, when President Thomas Jefferson created the Survey of the Coast with the mission to map the country's coastline to ensure safe passage for ships. On Friday, the labs in Boulder are throwing a public celebration to honor NOAA's 200-year legacy of science. About 1,000 people fill the Boulder offices of NOAA, many of whom do work on climate science. But even in land-locked Boulder, a few oceanographers can be found. "It turns out, you can't study the atmosphere without understanding the ocean," said Carol Knight, NOAA outreach coordinator in Boulder. "It's one system; it all works together." Seeds of science planted in Boulder Seeds of the research that NOAA does today have been growing in Boulder since the early 1950s, when the federal government moved the Central Radio Propagation Lab from Washington, D.C. At the time, the Cold War was dawning, and moving some of the federal agencies out of the nation's capital — and away from the nuclear strike zone — was a priority for President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Boulder was chosen because it was tucked away in the belly of the country, and because radio traffic was relatively quiet. Even so, Boulder beat out other mid-country towns with a gift of the land to the federal government organized by the Chamber of Commerce. "Residents of Boulder really saw that the labs could be a cornerstone," said Boulder Mayor Mark Ruzzin. "They bring stability to our local economy in a way that very few communities have." Eventually, elements of the Central Radio Propagation lab were absorbed by NOAA and what's now known as the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which shares the donated land with NOAA today. Scripps Newspaper Group — Online © 2007 The E.W. Scripps Co. Camera & dailycamera.com | 1048 Pearl Street, Boulder, CO 80302 | (303) 442-1202 | Contact Us | Staff | Site Map | Job Openings | ***************************************************************** 47 Boulder Daily Camera: 'Dew of death' found at refuge Toxic material forces closure of programs Associated Press Sunday, November 4, 2007 COMMERCE CITY — The discovery of a toxic material called "the dew of death" at Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge has forced the closure the refuge and the cancellation of four wildlife, natural and photo programs this weekend. Sherry James, a park ranger, told the Rocky Mountain News that about 150 people were expected to take part. The refuge was closed Wednesday after a blistering chemical weapon developed and produced during both World Wars, called Lewsite, was found in a restricted area near the refuge. State officials said it could be a week to months before the refuge re-opens while the area is examined. Lewsite, also called lewisite, had the fragrance of geraniums. First attempts to develop it occurred during World War I, but it was not used. It wasn't used in World War II, either. The chemical is used with mustard gas and can cause vomiting, pulmonary edema and other effects, eventually leading to death. The chemical can penetrate rubber and clothing. Workers were digging a trench around the five-acre Lime Basins site connected to the 1943 production of the deadly chemical, which is an oily, colorless liquid in its pure form, when air monitors detected traces of it. "This work was in an area of the arsenal that was known for disposal of chemical agents," Dr. Ned Calonge, Colorado Chief Medical Officer said in a statement Thursday. "The closure of the refuge is the appropriate precautionary measure until we are certain there is no risk to human health." Workers, who were wearing protective clothing, were decontaminated and none showed any symptoms of coming into contact with the blistering agent. Jeff Edson, manager of remediation for the state health department, said the difficulty of the cleanup will depend partly on whether the material is in the soil or in a container. If it is found in a drum or vial it will take longer. Edson said his department and the Environmental Protection Agency will review the Army's plan. He said finding the material was not a surprise and no one was endangered. Sandra Jaquith, spokeswoman for the citizens' Site Specific Advisory Board of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, said the refuge should be shut down whenever such work is under way. "There are likely a lot of things out there they don't know about," she said, "and they don't know where they're located." The 17,000-acre site 10 miles from downtown Denver opened in 1942 and manufactured several weapons of mass destruction, including sarin, before a cleanup began in 1985. Traces of sarin have been found several times in the area outside the portion that was designated a wildlife refuge. Portions of it opened last year. The former Rocky Flats plutonium manufacturing plant west of Denver also has become a wildlife refuge site, also over the opposition of some environmental groups. Scripps Newspaper Group — Online © 2007 The E.W. Scripps Co. ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************