***************************************************************** 10/03/07 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 15.232 ***************************************************************** 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: Guardian Unlimited: Sen. Pete Domenici to Retire 2 US: Reuters: Summit-US climate talks go beyond platitudes-White Hous 3 US: Las Vegas SUN: Richardson sticks to Western issues in Nevada sto NUCLEAR REACTORS 4 US: NRC: NRC Meeting Oct. 24 in Mineral, Va., to Discuss Review Proc 5 AGI: NUCLEAR POWER: PRODI, NO CONDITIONS FOR RE-DISCUSSION 6 MidLothian Today: 25m to clear radioactive particles - 7 US: www.kansascity.com: It's rehearsal time at Wolf Creek nuclear pl 8 Whitecourt Star: Guest speaker discusses nuclear power in Alberta 9 US: NRC: NRC Seeks Comment on Draft Rule For New Reactor Aircraft Im 10 US: Platts : Bush backs nuclear power expansion to reduce emissions 11 Platts: NEK extends bid deadline for Belene `strategic investor' 12 US: post-gazette NOW: Conference on nuclear threat, global warming a 13 Platts: WENRA to start working on new national requirements for reac 14 US: Burlington Free Press: Sanders presses NRC official on Vermont Y 15 US: Burlington Free Press: Include cooling tower in Vt. Yankee revie 16 DutchNews.nl: Cabinet divided on nuclear power - FD 17 US: Brattleboro Reformer: Senate hearing will focus on reactor overs 18 US: NRC: Request To Amend a License To Export High-Enriched Uranium 19 US: NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) Meeting of 20 US: NRC: Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste and Materials Meeting o 21 US: NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS); Meeting of 22 US: Otter: Solar, wind too expensive, so Idaho should focus on nuke 23 News & Star: New lease of life NUCLEAR SECURITY NUCLEAR SAFETY 24 US: NIOSH: Petition for Mound exposure cohort 25 US: NIOSH: Petition for Y-12 Exposure Cohort 26 US: NIOSH: Petition for Rocky Flats exposure cohort 27 US: NIOSH: Petition for Rocky Flats exposure cohort 28 John O'Groat Journal and Caithness Courier: Plutonium concerns are a 29 US: Bradenton.com: State gives Lockheed more time for Tallevast clea NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 30 US: Deseret Morning News: Senate OKs deadline for Moab cleanup 31 US: Platts: Uranium spot price falls $10 to $75/pound - analysts see 32 US: Platts: US DOE turns down $9.5 billion offer to clean uranium fa 33 stv: Doureay owners announce particle clean-up option 34 The Herald: 25m to clean up radioactive particles left on the seabed 35 Reuters: GE-Hitachi in uranium fuel accord with utilities | 36 US: UPI: Energy Department announces funding ($16.3M GNEP) 37 US: Hemscott: Nuclear recycling study contracts given 38 Prague Post Online: Legacy of waste 39 US: KOB.com: Energy Dept. awards 4 contracts for nuclear recycling 40 US: The Daily Sentinel: Blast site drilling debate continues PEACE 41 Ban Ki-moon Welcomes Steps Towards Achieving Denuclearized Korean Pe 42 Nuclear Powers Must Slash Their Weapons Arsenals, Sweden Tells UN De 43 NYMHM: Bhutto promises nuclear access; Russia and the Muslims; 44 Regional nuclear war could trigger mass starvation 45 [NYTr] Term of Agreement for Denuclearization of Korea Published 46 BBC NEWS: Pakistan's power deal 'stalled' 47 RIA Novosti: Putin signs law on ratification of additional 48 UK: The Herald: Reasons for breaking the law at Faslane 49 Reuters: Redhall to target atomic weapons contracts - CEO | 50 US: Reuters: U.S. defense buildup comes amid fiscal pinch 51 AFP: NKorea agrees to disable Yongbyon nuclear site by Dec 31 - US DEPT. OF ENERGY 52 DOE: DOE Official in Salt Lake City to Launch Change a Light, 53 DOE: DOE Launches Change a Light, Change the World Campaign 54 DOE: Secretary of Energy to Address the Howard Baker Center for 55 Tri-City Herald: Applications being taken for PNNL contract 56 Tri-City Herald: Demand down, but still high, for Hanford tours 57 Hanford News: Radiation monitors missing from Hanford 58 Las Cruces Sun-News: Los Alamos lab resuming waste shipments to WIPP 59 DOE: Office of Science; Notice of Renewal of the DOE/NSF Nuclear 60 DOE: Office of Science; Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee 61 DOE: Events 62 Knoxville News Sentinel: Incinerator due for rehab after heavy load 63 lamonitor.com: Report reviews warhead design ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Guardian Unlimited: Sen. Pete Domenici to Retire Wednesday October 3, 2007 11:16 PM By ANDREW TAYLOR Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, an influential Republican voice on budget issues for a generation, intends to retire at the end of his term next year, party officials said Wednesday. These officials said the 75-year-old, six-term lawmaker intends to make a formal announcement on Thursday in his home state. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the decision. Domenici would be the fifth Republican senator to decline to seek a new term, giving Democrats an opportunity to expand their majority in the 2008 elections. GOP Sens. John Warner of Virginia, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Larry Craig of Idaho and Wayne Allard of Colorado have previously announced plans not to run again. A spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee did not immediately return a request for comment. The New Mexico Republican had earlier signaled a desire to run for re-election, despite coming under criticism this year over possible role in the firing U.S. Attorney David Iglesias. A Domenici adviser said the prospect of a potentially tough race in what is expected to be a difficult year for Republicans was not why Domenici decided to retire. Instead, lingering concerns about his health are the main reason for his decision. Domenici's long Senate career has been highlighted by involvement in budget issues. He was the longtime chairman of the Budget Committee dating to President Reagan's first term. He is currently the top Republican on the Energy Committee. He was a principal architect of a 1997 balanced budget bill negotiated with former President Clinton, and has been a major player on national energy legislation, pushing for nuclear power and opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. He's also earned a deserved reputation as an advocate for his state from his perch on the powerful Appropriations Committee, steering money to Energy Department nuclear facilities such as Los Alamos National Laboratory. He is now one of the Senate's ``Old Bulls,'' combining affectionate respect and fear to become one of the chambers more powerful members, despite his party's being relegated to minority status last November. Domenici's health became an issue after he suffered nerve damage in his right arm while playing touch football with his grandchildren on Thanksgiving Day 1999. He underwent surgery in June 2000 to relieve pressure on nerves in his neck. But the pain persisted and in 2003 he was diagnosed with arthritis in his lower back. He began using a low-speed scooter between his office and the Capitol. But the scooter disappeared two years later after a new workout regimen and treatment by arthritis specialists. Domenici came under investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee this year after a watchdog group accused him of trying to pressure David Iglesias, then the U.S. attorney in Albuquerque, N.M., to rush a corruption probe against Democrats to sway the 2006 elections. Iglesias says he believes he was dismissed from his job for resisting Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., who both say they did not pressure him. In March, Domenici called the controversy ``hell'' like he had never experienced in his career. Domenici was first elected to the Senate in the GOP landslide of 1972 when New Mexico was still a reliably Democratic state. His only serious challenge since came in 1978. President Bush beat Democrat John Kerry in 2004 in New Mexico by a single percentage point. The son of Italian immigrants, Domenici graduated in 1954 from the University of New Mexico, where he starred as a pitcher on the baseball team. He received his law degree from Denver University in 1958, and opened a law office in Albuquerque. His retirement is expected to spur a scramble among the state's top politicians who have long hoped to succeed him. Among them are Republican Reps. Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce and Rep. Tom Udall, a Democrat. ``He's an iconic figure here in New Mexico,'' said Paul Kennedy, a former state supreme court justice and a longtime Republican. ``He's probably the most popular politician in its history. He had a great run, and he'll be sorely missed from the delegation.'' --- Associated Press writer Jennifer Talhelm contributed to this report. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 2 Reuters: Summit-US climate talks go beyond platitudes-White House | Wed Oct 3, 2007 5:06pm EDT (For other news from the Reuters Environment Summit, click on http://www.reuters.com/summit/GlobalEnvironment07?pid=500) By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent WASHINGTON, Oct 3 (Reuters) - U.S.-sponsored climate change talks have moved beyond the political positioning and platitudes that can mire such discussions, the top White House environment official told Reuters on Wednesday. James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said last week's two-day Washington meeting of the 17 countries that emit the most greenhouse gases featured candid dialogue instead of "the formalistic presentations and set speeches that are typical of these climate discussions." "It was not hostile but it was frank and we engaged the issue at a level of substance that moved us beyond the platitudes," Connaughton said at the Reuters Environment Summit. "It was intense and it's going to be more intense, because this is hard." Connaughton disputed news reports in which participants in the talks complained that President George W. Bush seemed isolated in urging voluntary, rather than mandatory, requirements to curb the greenhouse gas emissions that spur global warming. "By the end of the meeting there was unanimity on the value of the discussion and the need to reconvene after Bali," he said, referring to a U.N. conference on climate change set for December in Bali, Indonesia. Those who described dissent were part of the "political positioning ... that goes with the territory," Connaughton said. THE 'AFTER YOU' PROBLEM He acknowledged that the most difficult issue to tackle is what has become known as the "After You" problem, where neither the United States -- by most counts the world's biggest emitter of climate-warming gases -- nor the fast-developing economies of China and India want to take the first step toward mandating limits on carbon dioxide and other emissions. "One way forward is to recognize that there are overlapping and complementary objectives," Connaughton said. "We know that that can work." Even if the developed world reduced its carbon dioxide emissions -- those gases spewed by coal-fired power plants and petroleum-fueled vehicles -- to zero by 2050, the developing countries would still have to cut their emissions by 50 percent from their peak to have meaningful global progress, Connaughton said. The solution may lie in an expanded discussion of possible solutions, including what Connaughton called the "shared challenge" of how to make coal more efficient and to have zero carbon dioxide emissions. "If we can't make (coal) zero-emission rapidly, then the globe is going to have to make a pretty dramatic decision to go with nuclear energy, supplemented by an even greater share of renewable power, and that's a choice we'll have to make sooner rather than later," he said. "So that's where you end up with the common interest that had been lacking in the discussion." © Reuters2007All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 3 Las Vegas SUN: Richardson sticks to Western issues in Nevada stop October 02, 2007 By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY Associated Press Writer BOULDER CITY, Nev. (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson tried to ramp up his appeal to Western voters Tuesday, telling Democrats in this small town just outside Las Vegas that "the West is going to rise again." The New Mexico governor outlined his proposals to cut greenhouse gases, create a national water policy and address the unpopular Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump planned in the state in a campaign speech before about 100 people. "We are a nation today that is not thinking about land use and open space. We dump all this pork spending on highways, we don't think about commuter rail," Richardson told the group. "We need to find ways to preserve our quality of life, to preserve our environment." Richardson's focus on the environment and land use was a shift from previous campaign stops in Nevada in which he regularly noted his Western roots, but largely stuck to discussing the Iraq war, education and health care. The governor, who is considered a long-shot for the nomination, is the only Western Democrat in the field and is hoping for a strong showing in Nevada, scheduled to hold the second caucus in the nation on Jan. 19. He's spent more time in campaigning before small groups in the state than any of his competitors. His stop Tuesday was the first in Boulder City for a2008 candidate. While Richardson discussed several issues important in the West, he avoided taking hard positions. On water, he said he would create a cabinet-level department of water and called for a national water summit. He did not mention the state's most contentious water issue, a plan to construction a multibillion-dollar pipeline to pump water from rural Nevada to Las Vegas. "We ought to have a national dialogue on water ... we need to find ways to plan ahead and take leadership," Richardson said. On nuclear waste storage, the former congressman and energy secretary cited his longtime opposition to plans to build a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The site is opposed by most Democrats and Republicans in the state. Richardson said he also opposes a commonly discussed alternative to Yucca Mountain, the creation of regional storage sites, "because of the transportation issue." Instead, he said, he would order national laboratories to research nuclear waste disposal. "We went to the moon, why can't we have solution to this?" he asked. Richardson said he wasn't a proponent of nuclear power, but believes it won't end. He called for increased subsidies for renewable energy sources and a 90 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. His environmental proposals appealed to Jody Tilman, a 61-year-old retired teacher who said she's undecided and "green." The governor's casual delivery also was a plus, Tilman said, demonstrated in his handling of a few missteps. He laughed off misstating the name of the town, blaming his staff for writing "Henderson" rather that "Boulder City" in his opening remarks. When he forgot the day of the week, he just asked the crowd, "Is it Monday or Tuesday?" As he searched for an answer to question he turned to an aide to ask, "What's the plan I just talked about?" "He's down to Earth, I wouldn't be intimidated to go up and talk to him," Tilman said. All contents © 1996 - 2007 Las Vegas Sun, Inc. ***************************************************************** 4 NRC: NRC Meeting Oct. 24 in Mineral, Va., to Discuss Review Process for Expected New Reactor Application News Release - 2007-126 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov www.nrc.gov Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will conduct a public meeting in Mineral, Va., on Wednesday, Oct. 24, to discuss how the agency will review an expected Combined License (COL) application for a new reactor at the North Anna site, about 40 miles northwest of Richmond. The prospective applicant, Dominion, has told the NRC it intends to apply later this year for a license to build and operate an Economic and Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) at North Anna. “The NRC is ready to review this application and the others we’re expecting over the next couple of years. Communities near these sites need to know what’s ahead,” said David Matthews, Director of the Division of New Reactor Licensing in the NRC’s Office of New Reactors. “We’re going to work with residents to help them understand the process and how they can participate, because they can provide valuable information.” The meeting will be held in the Auditorium of the Louisa County Middle School, 1009 Davis Highway in Mineral, from 7 p.m. until 9:30 p.m. NRC staff presentations will describe the overall Combined License review process, which includes safety and environmental assessments, as well as how the public can participate in the process. The NRC will host an open house for an hour prior to the meeting so members of the public have the opportunity to talk informally with agency staff. A COL, if issued, provides authorization from the NRC to construct and, with conditions, operate a nuclear power plant at a specific site and in accordance with laws and regulations. More information on the NRC’s new reactor licensing process is available on the agency’s Web site here: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactor-licensing.html. The ESBWR is under NRC review to be certified as a reactor design that can be referenced in a COL. It is a 1,600 MWe, natural-circulation boiling water reactor that incorporates passive safety systems. NRC news releases are available through a free listserv subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC Home Page at www.nrc.gov also offers a Subscribe to News link in the News & Information menu. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web Site. October 03, 2007 ***************************************************************** 5 AGI: NUCLEAR POWER: PRODI, NO CONDITIONS FOR RE-DISCUSSION Agenzia Italia | chi siamo | Contattaci NUCLEAR POWER: PRODI, NO CONDITIONS FOR RE-DISCUSSION (AGI) - Rome, 3rd October - "Today we do not have the political pre-conditions for re-opening the nuclear question. The problems concern safety and waste. For now we have re-started and intensified research activity. Enterprises in the field of renewable energy have been born as well as for increased efficiency in the use of energy" said Italy's Prime Minister, Romano Prodi, on the nuclear question. Prodi recalled having said that the campaign to promote nuclear energy was "in vain", but "I was defeated in the referendum".(AGI) AGENZIA ITALIA | AREA CLIENTI | ARCHIVIO | SANITA' | CONTATTI | INFO PUBBLICITA' | COPYRIGHT © 1999 - 2007 AGI S.P.A. - Privacy - P.IVA 00893701003 ***************************************************************** 6 MidLothian Today: 25m to clear radioactive particles - Thursday, 4th October 2007 Nuclear plant bosses have revealed plans for a £25 million clean-up operation to remove thousands of radioactive particles released into the sea. The preferred option for dealing with the legacy of the nuclear fragments which leaked from the Dounreay site in Caithness has been announced. The seven-year project involves using remotely operated vehicles to scour an area of seabed the size of 60 football pitches. It would be combined with an onshore operation to monitor and detect particles. The announcement follows a two-year public consultation on how best to dispose of the irradiated nuclear fuel fragments. An estimated 10,000 particles were discharged from Dounreay to the surrounding environment in the 1960s and 1970s. Site operators the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) believe the discharges were released into the sea through the plant's low active effluent drainage system. Some of the fragments of irradiated nuclear fuel have been detected on Dounreay's surrounding beaches as well as on the seabed. Earlier this year UKAEA was fined £140,000 by a court after admitting releasing radioactive particles into the sea and illegally dumping radioactive waste. The cost of the proposed onshore and offshore monitoring and recovery has been estimated at £18-£25 million. Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2007, All Rights Reserved. Last Updated: 04 October 2007 4:49 AM All rights reserved ©2007 Johnston Press Digital Publishing ***************************************************************** 7 www.kansascity.com: It's rehearsal time at Wolf Creek nuclear plant 10/02/2007 | By DAVID KLEPPER The Star’s Topeka correspondent One Monday last June, aviation officials overheard two frightening words in a transmission from an airplane flying in the general direction of Kansas’ sole nuclear plant: “Hostile takeover.” Immediately, the network of state, local and federal agencies that work with the Wolf Creek plant near Burlington, Kan., sprang into action. An F-16 was scrambled to force the small plane down. Crews at the plant began powering down the nuclear reactor in preparation for the worst. Turns out all for nothing. The occupants of the plane were discussing the “hostile takeover” of a pharmaceutical company. The Kansas City-based pilot, who was headed from Oklahoma to Clay County, was questioned after landing in Missouri and then freed. “It was over before it started,” plant spokeswoman Jenny Hageman said this week. Although the event now elicits chuckles from officials at this nuclear plant about 100 miles southwest of Kansas City, they say it shows just how seriously they and the authorities take security. The incident was reported two days later in The Star, though the plant’s involvement was not reported. The plant and state, federal and local agencies will train for the worst again this week with a disaster exercise, practicing their response to a pretend disaster: a potentially devastating radiation leak. “We practice several times a year for several different scenarios that could happen; a terrorist incident or a natural event,” said Sharon Watson of the Kansas Division of Emergency Management. “Because of it being a nuclear power facility, we treat it differently, and quite seriously.” The two-day drill will examine how the plant and government agencies would respond in the immediate and long-term aftermath of a radiation leak. The drill is a dress rehearsal for an exercise later this fall that will be graded by federal authorities. The plant, which went online in 1985, conducts safety and security drills four to six times a year. Some drills involve hired security teams who attempt to breach security; others, such as the one that starts Thursday, are exercises designed to expose flaws in cooperation and planning between plant officials and government agencies. Should the plant fail one of the graded exercises, the federal government could temporarily shut it down. Not too long ago, visitors could drive very close to the plant without encountering a security guard or fence. Things changed after the 9/11 terror attacks highlighted the need to safeguard the nation’s 104 nuclear plants. After 9/11, Wolf Creek hired more security and added $9.2 million in security. And the state Legislature recently passed a bill giving guards immunity from lawsuits if they shoot and kill someone while defending the plant. Officials here won’t tell you how many security guards they have, and they ask news photographers not to photograph certain security features. To reach David Klepper, call 785-354-1388 or send e-mail to dklepper@kcstar.com. ***************************************************************** 8 Whitecourt Star: Guest speaker discusses nuclear power in Alberta Whitecourt, AB October 3, 2007 The Tipping Point Project was host to a guest speaker last Friday night at a nuclear power presentation that sparked several questions from community members. Gine Racine Star staff Wednesday October 03, 2007 Dr. Gordon Edwards came from Montreal to discuss the negative effects of nuclear power at the Forest Interpretive Centre, with an auditorium full of people. Dr. Edwards, a mathematics professor at Vanier College and President of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, also received the 2006 Nuclear-free Future award for his work with nuclear power. Edwards began his career by trying to build a bridge between sciences and non-sciences and openly stated that he was once pro-nuclear. "Gradually, bit by bit, I became aware of the fact that this technology has problems," he said. "And if these problems are as serious as any problems I had ever heard about, then I had better educate myself." Edwards stated that one of the main reasons he was concerned about the spread of nuclear power is that many people do not understand the difference between atoms of peace and atoms for war. "The trouble is that somebody who has an enrichment plant can also decide to use that plant to produce the materials for atomic bombs," he said. Edwards went into detail about the effects of uranium and plutonium on the human body, two elements that are used quite frequently in the nuclear industry. He stated that human cells could become damaged, causing cancer as well as other harm to the body. "Some of those damaged cells could develop years later, and we’re not talking about the next day or the next week or the next month, we’re talking 15-20 years later," Edwards explained. "[The cell] could develop into a cancer or into some kind of other disease due to the fact that the cell has forgotten its genetic instructions." The topic of nuclear power’s spent fuel was also addressed by Dr. Edwards. "When one of those [spent] fuel bundles comes out of the reactor, it’s so radioactive that it would kill any human being standing one meter away from it in less than 20 seconds," he said. Pressing issues that Edwards tackled at the presentation were the costs and time frame involved in the actual building process of a nuclear power plant, and in regards to Peace River specifically. "We had one reactor in Quebec, it was one of the first CANDU 6’s, it’s a 600 mega-watt reactor, which is about half the size of what they’re planning for Peace River," Edwards explained. "And that reactor was originally supposed to cost 800 million dollars but ended up costing 1.5 billion dollars." But Edwards stated that the underestimation of the costs and projected time of the construction process is very common. "This has been a chronic problem with nuclear projects," he said. "They tend to be slower than expected and way over budget." Edwards said that he feels, from a scientist’s perspective, nuclear power is a topic that will always remain controversial. "You know what the greatest thing about nuclear power is?" he asked. "You never run out of problems." In regards to Whitecourt’s need for a power plant, Dr. Edwards stated that he does not understand the sense of urgency amongst local leaders. "What’s the rationale?" he asked. "Grant you it sounds great. You say wow, tax money galore, jobs, payrolls, [and] it sounds too good to be true. Maybe it is too good to be true." Town council member, and mayor electoral candidate, Larry McConnell, made an appearance at the presentation as well, and had a few questions of his own for Dr. Edwards. "What I have tried to do is setup an information meeting, much like this one and have it so it’s not a debate," McConnell said. "I would like to hear [AECL’s] answer after you tell them [the dangers involved]." McConnell stated that he is pro-nuclear, but that the decision of whether or not to have a nuclear power plant is ultimately up to the community. "We will have a plebiscite here whether anybody likes it or not," he said. "People are going to want to be educated, I want to be educated." Current mayor Trevor Thain, as well as Woodlands County mayor Jim Rennie, had scheduled to meet with Dr. Edwards on Sunday, Sept 30th, as prior engagements kept them from the presentation. Dr. Edwards finished his presentation by answering several questions from members of the community and discussing what lies in the future for his personal objective. "As long as I have breath, I am going to try and say what I think is the truth, that [nuclear power] is not the way to go." Publisher: Pamela Allain Proprietor and published by Bowes Publishers Limited at 4732 - 50 Avenue, Whitecourt, Alberta, Canada T7S 1N7 © 2007 Whitecourt Star ***************************************************************** 9 NRC: NRC Seeks Comment on Draft Rule For New Reactor Aircraft Impact Assessments News Release - 2007-127 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov www.nrc.gov The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking public comment on a proposed rule to enhance the safety and security of future nuclear power plants. The proposal would require applicants for new reactors to assess the level of built-in protection a particular design has to avoid or mitigate the effects of a large commercial aircraft impact, reducing the need for human intervention to protect public health and safety. The proposed rule would apply to the following types of applications: * A new reactor design certification application not referencing an approved standard design; * A new reactor design approval application; * A new combined license application not referencing a design certification, standard design approval or manufactured reactor; or, * A new manufacturing license application not referencing a design certification or standard design approval. Nuclear power plants are designed under very stringent requirements to assure they can safely shut down following “design-basis events” such as large fires, floods, earthquakes and hurricanes, as well as improbable equipment malfunctions including pipe breaks. These requirements include having two redundant systems to accomplish each safety function. The proposed rule establishes large commercial aircraft crashes as Abeyond-design-basis events.@ Under the proposed rule, any design feature, functional capability or strategy adopted solely to comply with the rule would meet high quality standards but would be exempt from NRC design-basis regulations, such as regulations for redundancy. The NRC has already taken several steps to improve security at existing nuclear power plants, including adopting a rule in January that requires both existing and potential new reactors to defend against a more realistic threat. While the agency does not believe nuclear power plants should be required to defend against large commercial aircraft, the NRC works closely with other federal agencies such as NORAD, the Federal Aviation Administration and the intelligence community to provide layered protection against such a threat. The agency expects these efforts would effectively preclude an aircraft attack from occurring. Should such an unlikely event take place at a new plant designed in accordance with the proposed rule, the NRC expects the plant would be better able to withstand such a crash. The proposed rule may be viewed and downloaded via the Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov. For more information on the proposed rule, please contact Stewart Schneider at 301-415-1642 or via e-mail at sxs4@nrc.gov; or Nanette Gilles at 301-415-1180 or via e-mail at nvg@nrc.gov. Comments on the proposed rule should be submitted within 75 days of the rule’s publication in the Federal Register, expected shortly. Comments can be mailed to Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555–0001, ATTN: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff. Comments can be e-mailed to SECY@nrc.gov. If you fail to receive a reply e-mail confirming that we have received your comments, please call (301) 415-1966. Comments can also be submitted online at the Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov. Comments can be hand-delivered to 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. Federal workdays, or faxed to Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at (301) 415-1101. Please includeRIN 3150-AI19 NRC news releases are available through a free listserv subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC Home Page at www.nrc.gov also offers a Subscribe to News link in the News & Information menu. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web Site. October 03, 2007 ***************************************************************** 10 Platts : Bush backs nuclear power expansion to reduce emissions 2007-09-28 Washington (Platts)--28Sep2007 Expanding the use of nuclear power would further reduce greenhouse gas emissions, President George W. Bush said September 28 in a talk at a US-led climate change summit in Washington. Bush has frequently endorsed nuclear energy as a way to meet growing energy demands and cut the US' reliance on foreign oil. Nuclear also can "generate massive amounts of electricity" without any emissions, he said in urging the technology be made more widely available, particularly in developing countries. Bush's remarks were intended to motivate the 18 countries in attendance to set a long-term greenhouse gas target that can be the basis of an international agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. Copyright © 2007 - Platts, All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 11 Platts: NEK extends bid deadline for Belene `strategic investor' 007-2O Paris (Platts)--2Oct2007 Bulgaria's National Electric Company, or NEK, extended the deadline for bids for a "strategic investor" in the Belene nuclear power plant project until October 15, NEK said October 1, the original deadline. Six bidders willing to take 49% of the project were shortlisted for the "strategic investor" role in July: CEZ, E.On, RWE, Electrabel, Electricite de France and Enel. Atel, EGL, Endesa and Bulgaria's Kumerio Med were willing to take only up to 25% of the project but could be included if the shortlisted bidders fail to reach an agreement on investment, according to NEK. Copyright © 2007 - Platts, All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 12 post-gazette NOW: Conference on nuclear threat, global warming at Pitt Wednesday, October 03, 2007 A two-day conference on nuclear threats and global warming featuring internationally prominent scholars and policy analysts will be held Oct. 12-13 on the University of Pittsburgh campus. The free conference, called "Securing Our Survival -- Meeting the Threats of Nuclear Weapons and Global Warming," will include six sessions of lectures and discussions. It's being organized by Pitt's Matthew B. Ridgway Center for International Security Studies, Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Stanley Foundation. Conference sessions will be held in the Teplitz Moot Courtroom in the Barco Law Building, 3900 Forbes Ave., Oakland. For more information, call 412-624-7396 or visit www.ridgway.pitt.edu. First published on October 3, 2007 at 12:00 am Copyright ©1997 - PG Publishing Co., Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 13 Platts: WENRA to start working on new national requirements for reactors 007-2O london (Platts)--2Oct2007 WENRA will soon start work on harmonizing national requirements for new reactors Andre-Claude Lacoste, chairman of France's Nuclear Safety Authority, said October 1. Speaking to the biennial meeting of the International Nuclear Law Association in Brussels, Lacoste said he expects the Western European Nuclear Regulators Association to launch the new "harmonization" work at its next meeting, this fall. Wenra's members are senior regulators from the 15 nuclear power countries in the European Union, plus Italy and Switzerland. In January, Wenra published final "safety reference levels" -- the group's term for requirements -- covering existing reactors, and working groups are currently working on harmonized requirements covering decommissioning and waste management. But up to now, the group has not tackled requirements for new reactors. Lacoste also said he thinks Wenra's technical work should be given "political coverage" by the EU's planned High-Level Group, or HLG, on nuclear safety, whose first meeting is scheduled October 12. One Brussels source said Lacoste could be chosen to chair the HLG, but there are other candidates. Lacoste was the first president of Wenra, from 1999 to 2003. The current president is Dana Drabova, head of the Czech Office of Nuclear Safety. Copyright © 2007 - Platts, All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 14 Burlington Free Press: Sanders presses NRC official on Vermont Yankee burlingtonfreepress.com | Burlington, Vermont Wednesday, October 3, 2007 By Doug Abrahms Gannett News Service WASHINGTON -- Sen. Bernie Sanders asked the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission today to conduct an independent safety assessment of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, which had a portion of its cooling tower collapse in August. Nine days after the Aug. 21 incident, stuck valves forced an emergency shutdown at the Vernon plant. Dale Klein, chairman of the NRC, said the plant would get a thorough review by the agency, but did not promise an independent review. “I would hope that people in Vermont have confidence in the NRC,” he said. “They don’t,” Sanders, I-Vt., responded. The exchange took place at a Senate Environment and Public Works oversight hearing on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is preparing to review applications for new nuclear power plants for the first time in a generationSanders introduced a bill in March that requires the NRC to hold an independent nuclear reactor safety assessment at the request of a governor or state utility commission. Many older nuclear power plants are seeking license extensions, including Vermont Yankee, a 35-year-old facility whose owners are seeking permission to run another 20 years until 2032. Independent assessments would make the public more confident about the safety of older nuclear plants, Sanders said. “We should go the extra mile that when it comes to nuclear power that we have done everything, everything we can to assure that these plants are as safe as can be,” Sanders said. “In Vermont and I think in many areas of this country there is a concern about Washington’s ability to do the right thing, especially on something as important as nuclear power.” Copyright ©2007 Burlingtonfreepress.com All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 15 Burlington Free Press: Include cooling tower in Vt. Yankee review om | Opinion burlingtonfreepress.com | Burlington, Vermont Published: Wednesday, October 3, 2007 The owner of Vermont Yankee would serve the interest of Vermonters, as well as themselves, by opening all parts of the nuclear power plant to federal regulatory review as part of the relicensing process. Entergy Nuclear -- which is seeking to extend the plant's operating license by 20 years -- wants to exclude cooling towers that collapsed in August because the towers are outside the plant's nuclear operations. Openness would contribute to public support for a vital installation that will form a critical part of Vermont's energy picture for the foreseeable future. Seeking to exclude parts of Vermont Yankee from the review only adds to the public unease about the integrity of the aging nuclear plant. The company says the collapse of the cooling tower posed no direct threat to the integrity of the nuclear portion of the plant. But failure of one part of a system can often indicate problems with other parts. If nothing else, the federal regulators must consider the collapse of the cooling towers to confirm that the event could not happen in other parts of the plant. The power from Vermont Yankee is an essential part of Vermont's energy portfolio. The plant provides roughly a third of the state's need under a contract that delivers power at below-market rates. While the disposition of highly radioactive spent fuel and overall plant security remain serious concerns, the state lacks a reasonable alternative for power at a comparable price. Energy cost is a critical issue for the state. Safety is of equal importance. An extension of Vermont Yankee's operating license, set to expire in 2012, would buy the state a little more time to pursue promising alternatives that will lead to, possibly, affordable, clean and reliable sources of power. There are no guarantees. Currently, those alternatives, such as wind and solar power, as well as conservation and efficiency efforts, are not enough to make up for the electricity generated by Vermont Yankee. Tom Salmon, former governor and past chairman of Green Mountain Power, the state's second largest electric utility, sees few options for filling the power void should the state lose Vermont Yankee. "We have got this power gap and we need to do something about it," said Salmon, who was quoted in a The Associated Press report on his talk to the Montpelier Rotary Club on Monday. "We are not going to get 600 megawatts from conservation." Given that the state needs Vermont Yankee, the licensing review must be as comprehensive as possible, both to ensure the plant is capable of operating for another 20 years, and to assure Vermonters of the plant's safety. Copyright ©2007 Burlingtonfreepress.com All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 16 DutchNews.nl: Cabinet divided on nuclear power - FD Wednesday 03 October 2007 The ruling Christian Democrat party (CDA) says that comments by Labour’s environment minister Jacqueline Cramer that a new nuclear power plant in the Netherlands is ‘not an option’ are premature, reports today’s Financieele Dagblad. CDA MP Liesbeth Speis says that the discussion on nuclear power has not yet started. ‘Nuclear power will certainly continue to play a role in our energy supplies until 2050,’ she says, adding that it would be hypocritical to rule out the option of more nuclear power when seven percent of Holland’s current supplies come from its existing nuclear plant at Borssele. Delta, which owns 50% of the Borssele nuclear plant, says it is interested in building a new plant but will not make a formal application until there is public support for this form of energy. The CDA and Labour are both partners in the current coalition government, together with the small ChristenUnie party. © DutchNews.nl ***************************************************************** 17 Brattleboro Reformer: Senate hearing will focus on reactor oversight process By BOB AUDETTE, Reformer Staff Wednesday, October 3 BRATTLEBORO -- A handful of nuclear power experts will be spending the day today speaking with Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., and other members of the Senate Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate Change and Nuclear Energy. The hearing will focus on the reactor oversight process, said Sanders, and will give him an opportunity to ask questions about a cooling tower collapse, a reactor shutdown and inspection procedures at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant at Vernon. "With some of the recent problems at Yankee, there is growing concern in Vermont about how well some of these inspections have been conducted," said Sanders. "The American people and the people of Vermont are entitled to know that these plants are 100 percent absolutely safe. It amazes me that anyone would not want to do everything possible to guarantee their safety." The oversight hearing starts at 10 a.m. and includes for witnesses, the chairman and two commissioners of the NRC, Mark Gaffigan from the Government Accountability Office, Marvin Fertel of the Nuclear Energy Institute and David Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "We will talk about the industry's strong safety record that continues to improve under the revised reactor oversight process," said Melanie Lyons, spokeswoman for NEI, an industry-funded information organization. "We are going to talk about the safety performance, new plants and how we work with the NRC and their staff continuously." Sanders recently cosponsored legislation that would require the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to conduct an independent safety assessment of any plant applying for a license renewal or a power uprate. Entergy, which owns and operates Yankee, has asked the NRC to extend its operating license from 2012 to 2032. Last year it received permission to increase power output by 20 percent. "Everybody knows that we have an aging group of nuclear power plants," said Sanders, "some of which want to expand their capacity and longevity." The special study could be undertaken at the request of the governor of a state where a plant is located, or by the governor of a neighboring state with towns in an emergency preparedness zone around a nuclear plant. A live streaming broadcast of the meetings is available at epw.senate.gov/public/ and click on epw multimedia at the bottom of the page. It will also be broadcast on C-SPAN-3. Bob Audette can be reached at raudette@reformer.com or 802-254-2311, ext. 273. ***************************************************************** 18 NRC: Request To Amend a License To Export High-Enriched Uranium FR Doc E7-19492 [Federal Register: October 3, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 191)] [Notices] [Page 56391-56392] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr03oc07-96] NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Pursuant to 10 CFR 110.70(b)(2) ``Public notice of receipt of an application,'' please take notice that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has received the following request to amend an export license. Copies of the request are available electronically through ADAMS and can be accessed through the Public Electronic Reading Room (PERR) link http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm.html at the NRC Homepage. A request for a hearing or petition for leave to intervene may be filed within 30 days after publication of this notice in the Federal Register. Any request for hearing or petition for leave to intervene shall be served by the requestor or petitioner upon the applicant, the Office of the General Counsel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555; the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555; and the Executive Secretary, U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC 20520. In its review of the request to amend a license to export special nuclear material noticed herein, the Commission does not evaluate the health, safety or environmental effects in the recipient nation of the material to be exported. The information concerning this amendment request follows. [[Page 56392]] NRC Export License Application for High-Enriched Uranium ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name of applicant, date of Description of material application, date received, ------------------------------------------ Description of Country of application No., docket No. Material type Total qty amendment end use destination ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Transnuclear, Inc., September High-Enriched Total quantity of License is amended Canada. 18, 2007, September 20, 2007, Uranium (HEU) HEU authorized for to: (1) transfer XSNM03060/03, 11005070. (93.60%). export remains the current unchanged. license from Transnuclear, Inc. to BWXT NOD- L as licensee; (2) remove BWXT and insert DOE/ NNSA and BWXT Y- 12, LLC as ``Other Parties to Export''; and (3) extend the license expiration date from 12/31/07 to 12/31/12. HEU is used to produce medical radioisotopes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dated this 27th day of September 2007 at Rockville, Maryland. For the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Scott W. Moore, Deputy Director, Office of International Programs. [FR Doc. E7-19492 Filed 10-2-07; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 19 NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) Meeting of the Subcommittee on Early Site Permits; Notice of Meeting FR Doc E7-19494 [Federal Register: October 3, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 191)] [Notices] [Page 56392] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr03oc07-98] NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION The ACRS Subcommittee on Early Site Permits will hold a meeting on October 24, 2007, Room T-2B3, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. The entire meeting will be open to public attendance. The agenda for the subject meeting shall be as follows: Wednesday, October 24, 2007--8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. The Subcommittee will review and discuss the application submitted by Southern Nuclear Operating Company (Southern Company or SNC--the applicant) for the Vogtle early site permit and the associated NRC staff safety evaluation report (SER) with open items. The Committee must review the application and the final SER to fulfill the requirement of 10 CFR 52.23 that the ACRS report on those portions of an early site permit application that concern safety. The Subcommittee will hear presentations by and hold discussions with representatives of the NRC staff, Southern Nuclear Operating Company, and other interested persons regarding this matter. The Subcommittee will also discuss with the NRC staff the efficiency and effectiveness of staff's implementation of lessons learned from its review activities performed pursuant to 10 CFR part 52. The Subcommittee will gather information, analyze relevant issues and facts, and formulate proposed positions and actions, as appropriate, for deliberation by the full Committee. Members of the public desiring to provide oral statements and/or written comments should notify the Designated Federal Officer, David C. Fischer (telephone 301/415-6889) 5 days prior to the meeting, if possible, so that appropriate arrangements can be made. Electronic recordings will be permitted. Detailed procedures for the conduct of and participation in ACRS meetings were published in the Federal Register on September 26, 2007 (72 FR 54695). Further information regarding this meeting can be obtained by contacting the Designated Federal Officer between 7:15 a.m. and 4 p.m. (ET). Persons planning to attend this meeting are urged to contact the above named individual at least two working days prior to the meeting to be advised of any potential changes to the agenda. Dated: September 26, 2007. Cayetano Santos, Chief, Reactor Safety Branch. [FR Doc. E7-19494 Filed 10-2-07; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 20 NRC: Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste and Materials Meeting on Planning and Procedures; Notice of Meeting FR Doc E7-19502 [Federal Register: October 3, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 191)] [Notices] [Page 56392] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr03oc07-97] NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION The Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste and Materials (ACNW&M) will hold a Planning and Procedures meeting on October 17, 2007, Room T-2B3, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. The entire meeting will be open to public attendance, with the exception of a portion that may be closed pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552b(c)(2) and (6) to discuss organizational and personnel matters that relate solely to internal personnel rules and practices of ACNW&M, and information the release of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. The agenda for the subject meeting shall be as follows: Wednesday, October 17, 2007--4 p.m.-5:30 p.m. The Committee will discuss proposed ACNW&M activities and related matters. The purpose of this meeting is to gather information, analyze relevant issues and facts, and formulate proposed positions and actions, as appropriate, for deliberation by the full Committee. Members of the public desiring to provide oral statements and/or written comments should notify the Designated Federal Officer, Dr. Antonio F. Dias (Telephone: 301/415-6805) between 8:15 a.m. and 5 p.m. (ET) 5 days prior to the meeting, if possible, so that appropriate arrangements can be made. Electronic recordings will be permitted only during those portions of the meeting that are open to the public. Detailed procedures for the conduct of and participation in ACNW&M meetings were published in the Federal Register on September 26, 2007 (72 FR 54693). Further information regarding this meeting can be obtained by contacting the Designated Federal Officer between 8:15 a.m. and 5 p.m. (ET). Persons planning to attend this meeting are urged to contact the above named individual at least 2 working days prior to the meeting to be advised of any potential changes in the agenda. Dated: September 27, 2007. Antonio F. Dias, Chief, Nuclear Waste & Materials Branch. [FR Doc. E7-19502 Filed 10-2-07; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 21 NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS); Meeting of the ESBWR Subcommittee; Notice of Meeting FR Doc E7-19503 [Federal Register: October 3, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 191)] [Notices] [Page 56393] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr03oc07-99] [[Page 56393]] NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION The ACRS ESBWR Subcommittee will hold a meeting on October 25, 2007, Room T-2B3, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. The entire meeting will be open to public attendance, with the exception of a portion that may be closed to discuss unclassified safeguards and proprietary information pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552b(c)(3) and (4). The agenda for the subject meeting shall be as follows: Thursday, October 25, 2007--8:30 a.m. Until 5 p.m. The Subcommittee will review and discuss several chapters of the Draft Safety Evaluation Report with Open Items associated with the ESBWR Design Certification. The Subcommittee will hear presentations by and hold discussions with representatives of the NRC staff, GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas LLC, and other interested persons regarding this matter. The Subcommittee will gather information, analyze relevant issues and facts, and formulate proposed positions and actions, as appropriate, for deliberation by the full Committee. Members of the public desiring to provide oral statements and/or written comments should notify the Designated Federal Officer, Mr. Charles G. Hammer (telephone 301/415-7363) 5 days prior to the meeting, if possible, so that appropriate arrangements can be made. Electronic recordings will be permitted only during those portions of the meeting that are open to the public. Detailed procedures for the conduct of and participation in ACRS meetings were published in the Federal Register on September 26, 2007 (72 FR 54695). Further information regarding this meeting can be obtained by contacting the Designated Federal Officer between 6:45 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. (ET). Persons planning to attend this meeting are urged to contact the above named individual at least two working days prior to the meeting to be advised of any potential changes to the agenda. Dated: September 27, 2007. Cayetano Santos, Chief, Reactor Safety Branch. [FR Doc. E7-19503 Filed 10-2-07; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 22 Otter: Solar, wind too expensive, so Idaho should focus on nuke power Associated Press - October 2, 2007 8:24 PM ET BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Governor Otter is bullish on nuclear power. He told Idaho university and college presidents today it's better than solar or wind because those are too expensive. Otter says, "I think there are other clean energy alternatives. I think nuclear is 1 of them. I'm behind nuclear." Nuclear foes say Otter is ignoring lavish subsidies the industry gets - including more than $40 million the Idaho National Laboratory got starting in 2005 to develop an experimental nuclear reactor that produces electricity and hydrogen. Ken Miller, a spokesman for the Snake River Alliance nuclear watchdog, says "Nuclear energy is hugely expensive and it creates an entire suite of environmental problems." All content © Copyright 2004 - 2007, WorldNow, Montana's News Station ***************************************************************** 23 News & Star: New lease of life Published on 03/10/2007 A BUILDING in west Cumbria that was once classed as being so dangerous that no-one would enter it, is about to find a new use in the nuclear industry. A recently revived grant scheme, operated in Cumbria by Cumbria Rural Enterprise Agency, is succeeding in helping to breathe new life into old buildings: An example of a property going from 19th to 21st century use is the building which was once part of the Florence iron ore mines near Egremont. Officials were reluctant to enter the dangerous building, but now it has been brought back into industrial use. The building, which was once the powerhouse supporting Florence iron ore mines, is now being completely refurbished and will soon provide a large modern workspace. A spokesman for the Development Agency said it is anticipated that this would be used to provide services to the nuclear industry at Sellafield and create a significant number of extra jobs in the area. In the Eden valley unused buildings are being converted to provide children’s nursery places with the help of the Cumbria Rural Small Buildings Scheme. Two award-winning nurseries are being helped to further expand their facilities for both pre-school and after-school care for the children. This is not only creating additional job opportunities in the nursery schools themselves, but it is providing additional child care for parents which then enables them to return to the workplace. The Rural Small Buildings Scheme, which is helping these projects, is operated by CREA and is funded by North West Development Agency through Cumbria Vision. The scheme is to end in May 2008. First point of contact is Louise Wills on 01539 726624 or lwills@crea.co.uk. ***************************************************************** 24 NIOSH: Petition for Mound exposure cohort FR Doc E7-19522 [Federal Register: October 3, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 191)] [Notices] [Page 56360] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr03oc07-62] DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; Decision To Evaluate a Petition To Designate a Class of Employees at the Mound Plant, Miamisburg, OH, To Be Included in the Special Exposure Cohort AGENCY: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). ACTION: Notice. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) gives notice as required by 42 CFR 83.12(e) of a decision to evaluate a petition to designate a class of employees at the Mound Plant, Miamisburg, Ohio, to be included in the Special Exposure Cohort under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000. The initial proposed definition for the class being evaluated, subject to revision as warranted by the evaluation, is as follows: Facility: Mound Plant. Location: Miamisburg, Ohio. Job Titles and/or Job Duties: All workers. Period of Employment: February 1, 1949 through the present. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Larry Elliott, Director, Office of Compensation Analysis and Support, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), 4676 Columbia Parkway, MS C-46, Cincinnati, OH 45226, Telephone 513-533-6800 (this is not a toll-free number). Information requests can also be submitted by e-mail to OCAS@CDC.GOV. Dated: September 27, 2007. John Howard, Director, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. [FR Doc. E7-19522 Filed 10-2-07; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4163-19-P ***************************************************************** 25 NIOSH: Petition for Y-12 Exposure Cohort National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; Decision To Evaluate a Petition To Designate a Class of Employees at the Y-12 Facility, Oak Ridge, TN, To Be Included in the Special Exposure Cohort FR Doc E7-19525 [Federal Register: October 3, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 191)] [Notices] [Page 56361] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr03oc07-64] DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES AGENCY: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). ACTION: Notice. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) gives notice as required by 42 CFR 83.12(e) of a decision to evaluate a petition to designate a class of employees at the Y-12 facility, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to be included in the Special Exposure Cohort under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000. The initial proposed definition for the class being evaluated, subject to revision as warranted by the evaluation, is as follows: Facility: Y-12. Location: Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Job Titles and/or Job Duties: All workers. Period of Employment: March 1, 1943 through December 31, 1947. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Larry Elliott, Director, Office of Compensation Analysis and Support, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), 4676 Columbia Parkway, MS C-46, Cincinnati, OH 45226, Telephone 513-533-6800 (this is not a toll-free number). Information requests can also be submitted by e-mail to OCAS@CDC.GOV. Dated: September 27, 2007. John Howard, Director, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. [FR Doc. E7-19525 Filed 10-2-07; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4163-19-P ***************************************************************** 26 NIOSH: Petition for Rocky Flats exposure cohort FR Doc E7-19528 [Federal Register: October 3, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 191)] [Notices] [Page 56360] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr03oc07-61] DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; Final Effect of Designation of a Class of Employees for Addition to the Special Exposure Cohort AGENCY: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). ACTION: Notice. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) gives notice concerning the final effect of the HHS decision to designate a class of employees at the Rocky Flats Plant, Golden, Colorado, as an addition to the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000. On August 6, 2007, as provided for under 42 U.S.C. 7384q(b), the Secretary of HHS designated the following class of employees as an addition to the SEC: Employees of the Department of Energy (DOE), its predecessor agencies, or DOE contractors or subcontractors who were monitored or should have been monitored for neutron exposures while working at the Rocky Flats Plant in Golden, Colorado, for a number of work days aggregating at least 250 work days from January 1, 1959, through December 31, 1966, or in combination with work days within the parameters established for one or more other classes of employees in the Special Exposure Cohort. This designation became effective on September 5, 2007, as provided for under 42 U.S.C. 7384l(14)(C). Hence, beginning on September 5, 2007, members of this class of employees, defined as reported in this notice, became members of the Special Exposure Cohort. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Larry Elliott, Director, Office of Compensation Analysis and Support, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), 4676 Columbia Parkway, MS C-46, Cincinnati, OH 45226, Telephone 513-533-6800 (this is not a toll-free number). Information requests can also be submitted by e-mail to OCAS@CDC.GOV. Dated: September 26, 2007. John Howard, Director, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. [FR Doc. E7-19528 Filed 10-2-07; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4163-19-P ***************************************************************** 27 NIOSH: Petition for Rocky Flats exposure cohort FR Doc E7-19531 [Federal Register: October 3, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 191)] [Notices] [Page 56360-56361] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr03oc07-63] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; Final Effect of Designation of a Class of Employees for Addition to the Special Exposure Cohort AGENCY: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). ACTION: Notice. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) gives notice concerning the final effect of the HHS decision to designate a class of employees at the Rocky Flats Plant, Golden, Colorado, as an addition to the Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000. On August 6, 2007, as provided for under 42 U.S.C. 7384q(b), the Secretary of HHS designated the following class of employees as an addition to the SEC: Employees of the Department of Energy (DOE), its predecessor agencies, or DOE contractors or subcontractors who were monitored or should have been monitored for neutron exposures while working at the Rocky Flats Plant in Golden, Colorado, for a number of work days aggregating at least 250 work days from April 1, 1952 through December 31, 1958, or in combination with work days within the parameters established for one or more other classes of employees in the Special Exposure Cohort. This designation became effective on September 5, 2007, as provided for under 42 U.S.C. 7384l(14)(C). Hence, beginning on September 5, 2007, members of this class of employees, defined as reported in this notice, became members of the Special Exposure Cohort. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Larry Elliott, Director, Office of Compensation Analysis and Support, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), 4676 Columbia Parkway, MS C-46, Cincinnati, OH 45226, Telephone 513-533-6800 (this is not a toll-free number). Information requests can also be submitted by e-mail to OCAS@CDC.GOV. [[Page 56361]] Dated: September 26, 2007. John Howard, Director, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. [FR Doc. E7-19531 Filed 10-2-07; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4163-19-P ***************************************************************** 28 John O'Groat Journal and Caithness Courier: Plutonium concerns are allayed By Iain Grant Published: 03 October, 2007 MANAGERS at Dounreay are confident no-one has been harmed by the shock find of plutonium in a groundwater drain at the site during the summer. Tests were carried out on eight workers after fears that they might have breathed in particles of the potentially lethal substance. But the concerns have been allayed after the results proved negative. The contamination of the surface-water drain was detected during a routine radiation scan in June. Since then, the area around the manhole has been cordoned off while the UKAEA draws up plans to clean up the polluted area. The find prompted a joint investigation by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, while European Commission officials asked for a report. Follow-up checks have not found any further evidence of plutonium but confirmed the presence of caesium contamination. An estimated 400 kg of radioactive silt is in the manhole and the water flowing in and out of the manhole is radioactive. The UKAEA's Phil Cartwright said it is keeping industry regulators updated on its programme to deal with the contamination. Mr Cartwright, the site's particles and land contamination manager, said a collection system is in place while sampling continues as part of its review into how best to remediate the polluted area. He said that tests on the workers have not found anything untoward. Of particular concern was the health physics surveyor who was not wearing any protective equipment when he initially detected the microscopic traces of plutonium in the manhole. Mr Cartwright said: "The tests were carried out to provide reassurance and nothing was found. There was no indication of any personal intake." His colleague Tony Wratten said the investigation has been hampered by Dounreay's non-active drain network dating back to the site's use as a wartime airfield. He said: "One of the reasons that the decommissioning of a site like Dounreay is not straightforward is that we have a number of legacy issues to deal with." The UKAEA and its regulators believe the source of the contamination is ground around one-time low-level effluent pits, on the lowest-lying part of the site. SEPA's Roger Wilson says the agency is satisfied with how the UKAEA has responded so far. He said: "SEPA's view was that this may have been an unauthorised discharge since the UKAEA weren't certain where the liquor was coming from or going to at the time of the event. Our position was that this liquor should be intercepted and then be discharged via the authorised route in the short term." Mr Wilson said that in the longer term it is pressing for the contaminated land to be cleaned up. SEPA's report was forwarded to the EC, which is responsible for policing the terms of the Euratom Treaty. A Scottish Government spokesman said: "We were asked to provide for the commission a report from SEPA on the contamination, including the further regulatory action to be undertaken. "The Scottish Government stated its view that the report indicates that there are no deficiencies in the monitoring arrangements. Rather, the arrangements in place ensure that the environment on and around the Dounreay site remains well protected and monitored, thus ensuring that the effect on any other member states remains of no significance from the point of view of health." Meanwhile, the NII has pledged that it will not shirk from bringing the UKAEA to book for any safety breaches. Senior NII site inspector Lyn Bevington was speaking in the wake of the recent case in which the UKAEA was fined £15,000 at Wick Sheriff Court after admitting shortcomings which led to a worker breathing in plutonium. Speaking at last week's Dounreay Stakeholder Group meeting, Mr Bevington said: "Our investigation revealed a failure to implement even the most basic safety precautions which have to be applied when dealing with radioactive materials. It was a serious lapse in standards." Mr Bevington added: "Our action and the view taken by the court show the commitment we have to take action where we deem it necessary to maintain the high standards of safety that are required in the nuclear industry." The UKAEA said it acted quickly to rectify the shortcomings which led to the incident in a former fuel processing plant. iain-grant@ukf.net All content copyright 2007 Scottish Provincial Press Ltd. ***************************************************************** 29 Bradenton.com: State gives Lockheed more time for Tallevast cleanup 10/03/2007 | By DONNA WRIGHT dwright@bradenton.com TALLEVAST -- The state has granted Lockheed Martin Corp.'s request for an additional year to produce a revised plan to clean up the toxic waste under Tallevast. But the state approval comes with a list of deadlines the company must meet at the risk of severe penalties. If the defense giant fails to follow the schedule, or turns in reports the Department of Environmental Protection considers incomplete, Lockheed could face fines of $500 a day, up to a limit of $10,000 per deadline missed. The revised cleanup plan was originally due Monday, but Lockheed scientists said they needed more time to address more than 130 concerns DEP raised with the original plan, submitted May 4. Lockheed has estimated it will take up to 100 years to clean up the toxic spill, now known to extend more than 200 acres under Tallevast and beyond. The pollution has been traced back to a former beryllium plant Lockheed once owned. FOCUS, the Tallevast residents' advocacy group, has repeatedly said the Lockheed data so far has failed to define the full extent of the plume. FOCUS leaders and their technical consultant also criticized Lockheed's original cleanup plan as inadequate. "The comments of the community weighed very heavily in our decision to move ahead with granting the deadline extension," said Pamala Vazquez, DEP spokeswoman. "They live there and this affects them. We did what we could to give them a sense of comfort. We established these deadlines so everyone knows that the department will have a good, solid plan next year." The agreement to approve the extension request was reached after a very amicable meeting Thursday between DEP, Lockheed and Tim Varney, Tallevast's technical consultant, Vazquez said. Varney said Tuesday he is pleased with the renewed commitment to keep the community informed. "My comfort level is now much higher," he said. "Every time DEP meets with Lockheed, there will be a followup meeting with the community." Gail Rymer, Lockheed spokeswoman, confirmed FOCUS will be involved in followup meetings with the Lockheed team. "There will be open communication as we move forward," Rymer said. "We are pleased that the state has agreed with our request and as we partner with the state and the community on the remedial action plan, we will in parallel continue to clean up the groundwater with the existing treatment system and undertake other interim measures to address the contamination." Wanda Washington, FOCUS vice president, said the community has a wait-and-see attitude. "Obviously the information DEP had was inadequate, so what choice did any of us have but give them more time to get it right?" she said. Laura Ward, FOCUS president, was pleased that the community is going to be involved as the revised plan is drafted. "We do need to have those followup meetings because we need to know what has been discussed," she said. "We are happy with DEP granting that request." ***************************************************************** 30 Deseret Morning News: Senate OKs deadline for Moab cleanup Wednesday, October 3, 2007 By Suzanne Struglinski Deseret Morning News WASHINGTON ? The Senate agreed to a firm 2019 deadline for the Energy Department to clean up the Moab uranium mill tailings, in a Defense authorization bill passed late Monday. Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, had pushed for the firm deadline after Energy Department officials earlier this year said the cleanup project, which was initially planned to last seven to 10 years, would require 21 years to complete. "I have said all along it is entirely unacceptable for the cleanup of these tailings to take over 20 years," Bennett said in a statement Tuesday. "I believe it is completely doable and logical to have it completed by 2019, and my amendment requires the secretary of energy to put forward a plan to do just that." Bennett sits on the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee and has secured nearly $70 million in federal dollars since 2000 for the remediation of the site, according to his office. He also has requested $29.3 million for the project in the Senate version of the energy and water spending bill, which is waiting for a Senate floor vote. The House approved roughly $24 million for the project. The Defense authorization bill, a must-pass bill for Congress, gives Congress permission to move ahead with certain projects and dictates how much money can be spent in certain areas. Appropriations measures would then be required to actually put the money toward the project. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, also inserted a 2019 deadline for the Moab project in the House Defense authorization bill, which passed earlier this year. The deadline language would need to make it through the House and Senate conference that works out differences between the versions of the bill before it would be passed by each chamber again and go to the president to become law. Also in the Defense authorization bill, the Senate included an amendment by Bennett and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, that requires the Defense Department to complete a report on how the government can maintain the nation's missile supplies, which are now partly built in Utah, including at Hill Air Force Base. E-mail: suzanne@desnews.com deseretnews.com: Home ***************************************************************** 31 Platts: Uranium spot price falls $10 to $75/pound - analysts see bottom 007-2O Washington (Platts)--2Oct2007 The spot price of uranium dropped $10 over the last week to $75/pound U3O8, according to both TradeTech and Ux Consulting. Some analysts believe the market may have now reached a bottom and that the spot price will now head back up as more buyers begin looking for material. But Ux Consulting said late Monday that if the long-term U3O8 price starts to weaken (it has stayed at $95/lb for a number of months), then it is likely that the spot price will fall further. If the long-term price doesn't decline, then more spot demand is likely as buyers look to buy and hold uranium, Ux Consulting said. The $10 decline over the week was the result of a September 24 auction of 100 metric tons uranium as either U3O8 or UF6 (about 260,000 pounds of U3O8 equivalent) by Nukem. Nukem is believed to have sold slightly more material to three companies, one of which is Uranium Participation Corp., a Canadian company that has been investing in uranium for the past several years, sources said. The US Department of Energy on Friday announced the results of its mid-August auction of 200 mt of UF6 (about 520,000 pounds of U3O8 equivalent). DOE said it sold the uranium in eight lots at an average price of $213.48/kgU. The successful buyers were Florida Power and Light, FPL Energy Seabrook, Exelon Generation, Progress Energy, and Piney Branch Park of New York, an investment company. The Platts NuclearFuel range for the week was $70-$80/pound U3O8. --Mike Knapik, newsdesk@platts.com Copyright © 2007 - Platts, All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 32 Platts: US DOE turns down $9.5 billion offer to clean uranium facilities 007-2O Washington (Platts)--2Oct2007 The US Department of Energy has rejected an Energy Solutions and USEC proposal for a $9.5 billion sole-source contract to decontaminate and decommission DOE's Portsmouth, Ohio, and Paducah, Kentucky, uranium enrichment plants, two lawmakers said Tuesday. The proposal also called for Energy Solutions to acquire USEC and invest in a $2 billion uranium enrichment plant at the Paducah site. "I commend the DOE general counsel and his legal staff for scrubbing and ultimately rejecting a proposal which is so plainly at odds with the public interest," House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell said in a statement with Representative Bart Stupak, chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. Earlier this year, Dingell and Stupak -- both Michigan Democrats -- challenged the proposal, saying DOE should obtain the D&D work through an open solicitation for contract proposals. Dingell and Stupak also questioned whether the arrangement would constitute an indirect subsidy to Energy Solutions to finance its acquisition of USEC's stock. Energy Solutions is a Salt Lake City-based nuclear services company, while USEC, a uranium services company, is based in Bethesda, Maryland. "After 10 months of review, DOE agreed with our concerns that this sole-source contracting proposal was not in the taxpayer's best interest," Stupak said. "However, it is imperative, as a next step, that [Energy] Secretary [Samuel] Bodman protect taxpayer interests by soliciting bids from a wide array of qualified firms using full and open competition while ensuring that qualified workers at these sites are provided a seamless transition to decommissioning work." --Bill Loveless, bill_loveless@platts.com Copyright © 2007 - Platts, All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 33 stv: Doureay owners announce particle clean-up option . Thu 4 October search Video report by Laura Goodwin The UK Atomic Energy Authority has announced its preferred option for cleaning up particles near the Dounreay nuclear plant. It follows a review of all the information gained from public consultation and mapping surveys. Ninety six radioactive particles have been unearthed at Sandside Beach in Caithness since monitoring began back in 1984. Today Dounreay operators unveiled their preferred option for cleaning up these hotspots following an extensive review of all the information gained from public consultation studies and offshore mapping surveys. Over the next three summers remotely operated vehicles will scour the seabed where the most hazardous particles. Monitoring and recovery onshore will also continue. It is estimated the operation will cost between £18 - £25 million. Earlier this year the UK Atomic Energy Authority were fined £144,000 for releasing the particles into the sea and dumping waste illegally. Meanwhile, attention is also turning to the future of the Dounreay site once it is fully decommisioned. It is likely the DFR dome will be the only building left standing after the clear up is complete in the late 2020s or early 2030s. Consultants will be appointed next year to review a list of seven options ranging from demolition to a full clean up of the sphere. Possible new uses include turning it into a hotel, a museum or a night club. (c) Scotland Today ***************************************************************** 34 The Herald: 25m to clean up radioactive particles left on the seabed Web Issue 2956 October 4 2007 DAVID ROSS, Highland Correspondent October 04 2007 Up to £25m is to be spent on retrieving the most dangerous radioactive particles which escaped from Dounreay 40 years ago and are now embedded in the seabed. Hundreds of thousands of particles are believed to have been dispersed from the Caithness plant in the early 1960s but only 1400 have been found since monitoring began in 1983. Most are the size of a grain of sand, but one was 6mm in length and another 4mm. The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) is convinced they are fragments from aluminium-uranium radioactive fuel rods which were being reprocessed at Dounreay and should have gone to storage pools with other waste awaiting solidification. Instead, they ended up in the drains and went into the diffuser system. In February, UKAEA was fined more than £100,000 for their unauthorised release but yesterday it revealed a seven-year remedial plan which, if approved by the regulators, could begin in under a year. It proposes that, over the next three summers, remotely operated vehicles, working from a ship, scour an area of seabed equivalent to 60 football pitches where the estimated 2500 most hazardous particles are located. When found, the particles will be removed using a suction system which is still being developed. During the fourth summer, there will also be remedial work carried out on the old diffuser, from where the particles are believed to have escaped. It lies 25 metres beneath the seabed which itself is covered by 25 metres of water. A jack-up drilling rig may have to be deployed to complete this phase of the work. There will then be a further three summers for rechecking and further recovery if needed. According to UKAEA at Dounreay yesterday, this area off the coast near the plant is almost certainly the source of 99 particles found on the public beach at Sandside Bay, two miles to the west, and on other beaches. UKAEA believes its plan should reduce and eventually eliminate the supply of the pollution to the beaches. Onshore monitoring and recovery would also continue until the seabed clean-up has been demonstrated to be effective at frequencies agreed with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the relevant landowner. The cost over the seven-year period is currently estimated at £18-25m, but that might change after tests on the remote recovering vehicles have been completed by the end of the year. Simon Middlemas, Dounreay's director, said: "All the good work done on the Dounreay site over 50 years tends to be forgotten by people and what is remembered is the negative side such as the shaft the waste shaft which exploded in 1977 and the particles. "We were getting ahead with the shaft and it is going really well, so this is the one area the particles which unfortunately everybody knows Dounreay for as well. So it is a really good thing to get on with." He described the seven-year plan as an environmentally and publicly acceptable way forward. "We have invited further public comment before we review and agree on how to take this forward with the key agencies and affected land owners," he added. Geoffrey Minter, owner of the Sandside Estate, successfully took legal action against UKAEA several years ago over the particles and for periods has banned the authority from Sandside Beach because of what he sees as the inadequate remedial efforts. However, he said yesterday: "At long last, but not without huge effort on the part of my private team, we have moved from a decade of denial to a declaration of duty and good intention. We do seem to be genuinely entering a new era." © All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without Copyright © 2007 Newsquest (Herald & Times) Limited. All Rights ***************************************************************** 35 Reuters: GE-Hitachi in uranium fuel accord with utilities | Wed Oct 3, 2007 5:29pm EDT SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 3 (Reuters) - GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy said on Wednesday that U.S. utilities Exelon Corp (EXC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Entergy Corp (ETR.N: Quote, Profile, Research) have signed letters of intent to contract for uranium enrichment services. GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy is working on a "global laser enrichment" technology to produce enriched uranium fuel used in commercial nuclear reactors. Exelon operates 10 nuclear power plants with 17 reactors and Entergy owns nine nuclear plants with 11 reactors and another unit under contract. (Reporting by Leonard Anderson) © Reuters2007All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 36 UPI: Energy Department announces funding ($16.3M GNEP) Published: 3, 2007 at 12:36 PM WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $16.3 million for technical and design studies in its Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, or GNEP, program. The funding went to: Areva and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., $5.6 million; EnergySolutions LLC, $4.3 million; GE-Hitachi Nuclear Americas LLC; $4.8 million, and General Atomics, $1.6 million. "These studies will contribute to the analysis and inform the research that (the Energy Department) is conducting to further the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership," Assistant Secretary of Nuclear Energy Dennis Spurgeon said. "These awards enable (us) to benefit from the vast technological and business experience of the private sector as we move towards the goal of closing the nuclear fuel cycle." © Copyright United Press International. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated ***************************************************************** 37 Hemscott: Nuclear recycling study contracts given BETHESDA, Md. (AP) - The Department of Energy has awarded four contracts to study the feasibility of using recycled nuclear power plant fuel in a new breed of reactors. The largest contract, for $5.6 million, was awarded Monday to Bethesda-based International Nuclear Recycling Alliance, which is led by French state-owned nuclear power plant supplier AREVA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. Areva is building reactors in the United States with Constellation Energy, the parent of Baltimore Gas & Electric and the operator of the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant. EnergySolutions, LLC received a $4.3 million contract; GE-Hitachi Nuclear Americas, LLC, received a $4.8 million contract; and General Atomics was awarded a $1.6 million contract. INRA will complete three studies by 2008 detailing the technologies needed, designs for a recycling center and recycling reactor, and business plans for nuclear fuel recycling and reuse. If the DOE decides the technology is feasible, a plant could be operational as early as 2020, said Laurence Pernot, an AREVA spokeswoman. Prior studies have shown that recycling spent nuclear fuel not only reduces the amount of fuel heading to nuclear waste facilities, but can provide power profitably, Pernot said. The contracts were awarded under the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. Under the partnership, a limited number of countries including the U.S. and Russia would provide uranium fuel to other nations for powering reactors to generate electricity, and then retrieve the fuel for reprocessing. This would deprive those nations of their own nuclear fuel enrichment programs, which can be used to make atomic arms. Critics of the initiative say resuming recycling, a process the U.S. abandoned in the 1970s over proliferation concerns, can make it easier for terrorists or enemy states to obtain weapons-usable plutonium. While the program envisions reprocessing through a technique where pure plutonium is not separated, that technology is commonly said to be decades away. In June, the Union of Concerned Scientists said it continues to oppose GNEP, saying it does not believe the technologies proposed for development would be proliferation-resistant. The end result will be an increase in the 'risk of diversion or theft of weapon-usable materials and an associated risk of nuclear terrorism,' the group said in a letter to the Department of Energy. Eleven U.S. sites have been selected as possible places to reprocess spent nuclear fuel from reactors. The sites are the: Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington; Idaho National Laboratory, Atomic City, Idaho; Savannah River National Laboratory, S.C., Barnwell, S.C.; Hobbs, N.M.; Roswell, N.M., Morris, Ill.; Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tenn.; Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Ky.; Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Ohio. Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Hemscott PLC - Serious Investment Research Copyright 2007 Hemscott Group Limited. ***************************************************************** 38 Prague Post Online: Legacy of waste Restoration of communist-era industrial sites to last another 20 years By Kimberly Ashton Staff Writer, The Prague Post October 3rd, 2007 CTK The cleansing of the groundwater at the closed Stráž uranium mine will cost 41 billion Kc and finish in 2035. Despite keeping tight controls on nearly every aspect of commerce in the former Czechoslovakia, the communist regime that ruled for decades made no effort to regulate industry’s impact on the environment. The result was disastrous for the air, water and land. “Frankly speaking, the environment of the former Czechoslovakia was, in one word, catastrophic,” says Jakub Kašpar, spokesman for the Environment Ministry. Now, the country is paying a debt long overdue, funding the multibillion-crown efforts of a spate of companies to right the ecological wrongs of last century. So far, about 35 billion Kc ($1.8 billion) has been spent to undo the damage, and the process is far from over — in fact, it has barely begun. The cost of the cleanup should total around 159 billion Kc after it is completed in another 15 to 20 years, says Jakub Haas, spokesman for the Finance Ministry. By the early 1990s, there were more than 2,000 contaminated sites listed nationwide, Kašpar says. Of those, 800 have been cleaned and the rest are in the process of decontamination. But that list could grow, as another 1,500 locations are being surveyed for inclusion in the list. “But I would say that the process of cleaning up the old ecological burden is going as well as possible in real circumstances,” he says. Chemopetrol in Litvínov, north Bohemia, is a company undertaking one of the larger cleanups. “The pollution that began in 1941 … consisted of crude oil and tar residue from fuel production, ammonium ions from waste water and sediment from refinery production,” says Pavel Veselý, a spokesman of Unipetrol, the parent company of Chemopetrol. Of 11 polluted areas on the Chemopetrol site, four have been completely redeveloped since the company was privatized in 1994 and the remaining seven are being cleaned, he says. The government is expected to pay 3.6 billion Kc to redevelop the entire site by 2016. Coal mining, another dirty business, inflicted massive ecological damage in some parts of the country. The Industry and Trade Ministry is now administering two programs to help restore the countryside and its economy, says spokesman Tomáš Bartovský. One program pays for the restoration of lakes and woods; the other helps former coal miners who have since lost their jobs. On top of an estimated 159 billion Kc that the government is expected to pay out, companies will also spend billions to clean their sites. Diamo, the state-owned uranium mining company, is contributing about 640 million Kc of its own funds to what is expected to be an 80-billion-Kc restoration of the Rožná mining complex in west Moravia. Earlier this year, the government extended mining at Rožná for an indefinite period; wholescale remediation won’t begin until after mining stops. Ludvík Kašpar, a spokesman for Diamo, says another large uranium mine, the inactive deposit at Stráž pod Ralskem, north Bohemia, will cost 41 billion Kc to clean by 2035. In the process, about 3.7 million tons of contaminants — largely sulfuric acid used to leach the uranium out of the soil — will be withdrawn from the ground. The acid now contaminates more than 300 million cubic meters (984 cubic feet) of water in the Cenomanian aquifer beneath Stráž. Although the government is investing billions to atone for the sins of the socialists, and Kašpar from the Environment Ministry says air quality, nature and biodiversity have “substantially improved,” there is still cause for concern, mostly about the increasing ecological damage being done today. The biggest risk now, he says, is in air polluted by vehicle exhaust, byproducts of heating with fossil fuels and the treatment of household garbage. “The problem is not improving; the trend is negative,” Kašpar says. “There are many new problems connected to new situations and the evolution of modern contemporary society.” Kimberly Ashton can be reached at kashton@praguepost.com The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic. ***************************************************************** 39 KOB.com: Energy Dept. awards 4 contracts for nuclear recycling Posted at: 10/03/2007 03:38:54 PM By: The Associated Press BETHESDA, Md. (AP) - The Department of Energy has awarded four contracts to study the feasibility of using recycled nuclear power plant fuel in a new breed of reactors. Eleven U.S. sites, including Hobbs and Roswell, have been selected as possible places to reprocess spent nuclear fuel from reactors. The largest contract, for more than 5 million dollars, went to Maryland-based International Nuclear Recycling Alliance. The alliance is led by French state-owned nuclear power plant supplier AREVA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. An AREVA spokeswoman says if the technology is feasible, a plant could be operational by 2020. She says prior studies show recycling spent nuclear fuel reduces the amount of fuel heading to nuclear waste facilities. The initiative's critics say recycling can make it easier for enemy states to obtain weapons-usable plutonium. (Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) ***************************************************************** 40 The Daily Sentinel: Blast site drilling debate continues By MIKE SACCONE Wednesday, October 03, 2007 Until the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission can unearth better data about the Project Rulison nuclear blast site, it should ban all drilling within a three-mile radius of the site, Robert Moran, a Golden-based hydrogeologist and geochemist, told the panel Tuesday. The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission hosted a day-long informational meeting in Grand Junction on the Project Rulison site at the old Mesa County courthouse. The commission made no decisions on the matter, but drilling opponents and energy-industry advocates turned out in force to respectively argue for more stringent and more relaxed regulation of drilling near the blast site. The Project Rulison site was created in 1969 when the Energy Department detonated a nuclear bomb underground in an attempt to harvest natural gas. The explosion, however, created a underground glass cavity filled with radioactive materials. In an attempt to keep local residents safe from radioactive waste, the commission has forbidden natural gas drilling within a half mile of the site and required a public hearing on any drilling permits requested within three miles of the site. Moran said the U.S. Energy Department has provided the panel merely with estimates of what radioactive materials might be in the ground. He said that until the Energy Department’s post-explosion test data is declassified, or the commission does its own rock and groundwater testing, it will be safest to avoid unearthing any mineral from the site. More than a dozen wells have been sunk within the three miles of the site, but each is outside the zone for drilling. Wesley Kent, who moved near the Rulison site seven years ago, told the commission he cannot believe Noble Energy, which owns roughly 20,000 acres near the blast site, and its peers will respect air and water quality. “They can’t drill a conventional well without violations,” Kent said. “They certainly can’t drill a nuclear blast site.” Pointing to citations the commission issued to Noble’s predecessor, Texas-based Presco Inc., when it allowed drilling chemicals to overflow onto its well pads less than a year ago, Kent said he has no faith in the commission to allow and regulate more drilling in the area. “If you can’t protect my water,” Kent said, “you certainly can’t protect my life.” A second group of landowners near the blast site, however, countered that expanding the no-drill zone around the Project Rulison blast site would constitute theft by the state. Marshall Savage, who owns roughly 1,500 acres of mineral estate and 160 surface acres around the blast site, said the commission would undermine the value of his family’s land if it expanded the half-mile no-drill zone. He said it is absurd for Kent and his compatriots to attack the natural gas industry for wanting to tap gas within the three-mile radius but not within the half-mile no-drill zone. “How afraid can you be of the consequences of (drilling a) nuclear blast site when you build your cabin on it,” Savage said. Craig Hayward, who owns 292 surface acres and 330 subsurface acres north of the blast site, said the commission already has “too stringent” rules in place for drilling around the site. “It appears there is adequate science to drilling beyond the half-mile area,” Hayward said. He encouraged the commission to consider its drilling rules at a future date. To expand the no-drill zone, he said, would render his property useless. In a brief moment of levity during the day’s tense testimony, Laurel Garrett, a producer of the environmentalist documentary “A Land Out of Time,” said comments by drilling proponents at the hearing seemed akin to heroin addicts injecting the drug in the gaps between their toes to get high. “Drilling gas in a former nuclear blast site must be the energy equivalent of that,” she said to spotty applause in the crowd. The commission has not announced if or when it will consider modifying the Project Rulison site’s no-drill zone, but representatives of Noble Energy, EnCana and Williams Energy hinted that such a confrontation could come later this fall. Mike Saccone can be reached via e-mail at msaccone@gjds.com Commenting is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. M-F, except on Tuesday when it's open until 9 p.m. Copyright 2007 Grand Junction Newspapers, Inc. All rights reserved. - The Daily Sentinel - Our Partners ***************************************************************** 41 Ban Ki-moon Welcomes Steps Towards Achieving Denuclearized Korean Peninsula Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2007 17:00:27 -0400 BAN KI-MOON WELCOMES STEPS TOWARDS ACHIEVING DENUCLEARIZED KOREAN PENINSULA New York, Oct 3 2007 5:00PM Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed the announcement at the six-party talks – involving the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States – in Beijing of the next steps towards achieving a denuclearized Korean Peninsula. The next phase of denuclearization specifies important measures to implement provisions of an agreement reached in February on dismantling the DPRK’s nuclear weapons facilities, and Mr. Ban is “encouraged by this important step forward in multilateral diplomatic efforts towards a nuclear-free Peninsula,” according to a <"http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2007/sgsm11204.doc.htm">statement issued by his spokesperson. “Given the vital importance of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, these efforts deserve strong support from the international community in order to maintain the current momentum.” The Secretary-General voiced hope that all parties will intensify their efforts towards denuclearization, peace and security in the region, as well as build mutual trust among them. Today’s announcement comes as the leaders of DPRK and the Republic of Korea are holding a landmark three-day summit in Pyongyang. Earlier this week, Mr. Ban said that he hopes they will use “this historic occasion to lay a solid foundation for peace and stability” on the Korean Peninsula. 2007-10-03 00:00:00.000 ___________________ For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news To listen to news and in-depth programmes from UN Radio go to: http://radio.un.org/ _______________________________ To change your profile or unsubscribe go to: http://www.un.org/apps/news/email/ ***************************************************************** 42 Nuclear Powers Must Slash Their Weapons Arsenals, Sweden Tells UN Debate Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2007 08:36:12 -0400 NUCLEAR POWERS MUST SLASH THEIR WEAPONS ARSENALS, SWEDEN TELLS UN DEBATE New York, Oct 2 2007 9:00PM The world’s nuclear powers have a duty to take the lead on non-proliferation by demonstrating they are willing to substantially reduce their arsenals of weapons, <"http://www.un.org/webcast/ga/62/2007/pdfs/sweden-eng.pdf">Sweden’s Permanent Representative told the General Assembly tonight. “It’s a question of self-interest – and far-sighted statesmanship,” Ambassador Anders Lidén said in an address to the Assembly’s annual high-level debate in which he urged the nuclear powers “to live up to their responsibilities.” He added: “These weapons are of no use in deterring the adversaries we might face if the regime of non-proliferation is eroded or collapses.” Mr. Lidén warned that “were there to be one new State with nuclear weapons, the danger is that soon another would follow. Shortly, these weapons might well be out of any State’s control. The risk of nuclear terrorism would be a very real one. “This must be prevented. Our children deserve to live in a world safe from the threat of nuclear war and of weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of terrorists. These weapons threaten the very existence of mankind.” 2007-10-02 00:00:00.000 ___________________ For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news To listen to news and in-depth programmes from UN Radio go to: http://radio.un.org/ _______________________________ To change your profile or unsubscribe go to: http://www.un.org/apps/news/email/ ***************************************************************** 43 NYMHM: Bhutto promises nuclear access; Russia and the Muslims; Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2007 13:38:35 -0700 *** TELL A FRIEND: You can help News You Might Have Missed grow its subscriber base. New subscribers can sign up here: http://lists.artsandmedia.net/mailman/listinfo/nymhm ============================================================================= NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED * October 3, 2007 * Vol. 6, No. 40 Important but overlooked news from around the world. NYMHM is a free service of Newsdesk.org. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Online this week: http://www.newsdesk.org/archives/004412.html - RSS: http://newsdesk.org/news/atom.xml - Donations: http://artsandmedia.net/contribute/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- QUOTED: "Maybe we'll have one or two executions each year, just to prove that we still can." -- Activist Stephen Elliot on new challenges to capital punishment nationwide (see "Crime & Punishment," below). CONTENTS: *Top Stories* Kurdish vote puts pressure on Arabs Refugees take a risky route to Yemen Bhutto promises nuclear access *Energy* A nuclear "renaissance" *Crime & Punishment* The death sentence on trial? *World* Russia and the Muslims ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- TOP STORIES ............................................................................. > Kurdish Vote Puts Pressure on Arabs Kurdish officials are beginning the process of sending Arab residents back to their cities of origin ahead of a referendum on whether to absorb Kirkuk into the Kurdistan Regional Government area. Some Arabs, who were originally placed in Kirkuk by Saddam Hussein to counter the political influence of ethnic Kurds, fear they will be forced to leave their comparatively peaceful region. Kurdish officials fear the Arabs will ... GET THE WHOLE STORY: http://www.newsdesk.org/archives/004413.html > Bhutto Promises Nuclear Access Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said that if she were to return to power, she would permit the United Nations -- but not the United States or other Western powers -- to interview the nuclear weapons expert AQ Khan. Khan, who was pardoned in 2004 by President Pervez Musharraf for passing nuclear secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea, has "lived under virtual house arrest" since then, reports Agence France-Press. Bhutto, who plans to return from exile to ... GET THE WHOLE STORY: http://www.newsdesk.org/archives/004414.html > Refugees: A Risky Route to Yemen Thousands of Somali and Ethiopian refugees attempting to flee to Yemen are risking their lives in covert smuggling voyages across the dangerous Gulf of Aden, reports ADNKronos. Of the 4,741 people who crossed in September alone, 89 were killed and 154 are missing and presumed dead. Many refugees are killed by asphyxiation below board or drown when smugglers throw them ... GET THE WHOLE STORY: http://www.newsdesk.org/archives/004415.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ENERGY ............................................................................. > A Nuclear "Renaissance" Although it is a long way from becoming a reality, pundits are already predicting a "nuclear renaissance" in America for the first time in 30 years, even as plans for new plants take shape around the world. A New Jersey company has filed an application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to built two nuclear power plants in Texas, and the NRC expects to receive applications to build 28 more reactors in the next 15 months, according to the Christian Science Monitor. The traditional arguments against nuclear energy -- that it is dangerous, costly, offers terrorist attack targets and creates radioactive waste -- have not ... GET THE WHOLE STORY: http://www.newsdesk.org/archives/004416.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- CRIME & PUNISHMENT ............................................................................. > The Death Sentence on Trial? Support for capital punishment may be on the wane, as the Supreme Court ponders a Kentucky case that pivots on the question of whether lethal injections constitute "cruel and unusual punishment," reports the Globe & Mail in Toronto. In Texas, at least one inmate's execution has been put on pending a decision in the case, according to the Houston Chronicle. Lawyers there are predicting that judges will begin placing a moratorium on all executions until the case is heard this winter. But Texas Governor Rick Perry wants ... GET THE WHOLE STORY: http://www.newsdesk.org/archives/004417.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- WORLD ............................................................................. > Russia and the Muslims A series of unprovoked attacks on native Russian families living in Ingushetia, a Muslim Republic in Southern Russia, have brought hundreds of Russian security forces into the area and increased the level of carnage in recent days. Accusations abound as to who is responsible for the killings. Some believe the assailants are boyeviki, or Muslim rebels based in the mountains, who want to gain power in the region. Others think the killings are organized by opponents of President Murad Zyazikov as a way to ... GET THE WHOLE STORY: http://www.newsdesk.org/archives/004418.html ============================================================================= Editor: Josh Wilson ............................................................................. SUPPORT PUBLIC-SERVICE MEDIA Newsdesk.org and News You Might Have Missed are commercial-free, and available at no charge. We welcome your tax-deductible contributions: https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?id=695 ............................................................................. MANAGE YOUR SUBSCRIPTION Subscribe, unsubscribe, etc: http://lists.artsandmedia.net/mailman/listinfo/nymhm/ ............................................................................. News You Might Have Missed and Newsdesk.org are free services of Independent Arts & Media: http://artsandmedia.net/ ............................................................................. 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Independent Arts & Media does not exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at these locations and does not have a copyright on any of the content located at these sites. ============================================================================= _______________________________________________ NYMHM mailing list NYMHM@lists.artsandmedia.net http://lists.artsandmedia.net/mailman/listinfo/nymhm ***************************************************************** 44 Regional nuclear war could trigger mass starvation Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2007 13:18:33 -0500 (CDT) A nuclear war between India and Pakistan could cause one billion people to starve to death around the world, and hundreds of millions more to die from disease and conflicts over food. That is the horrifying scenario being presented in London today by a US medical expert, Ira Helfand. A conference at the Royal Society of Medicine will also hear new evidence of the severe damage that such a war could inflict on the ozone layer. "A limited nuclear war taking place far away poses a threat that should concern everyone on the planet," Helfand told New Scientist. This was not scare mongering, he adds: "It is appropriate, given the data, to be frightened." Helfand points out that the world is ill-prepared to cope with such a disaster. "Global grain stocks stand at 49 days, lower than at any point in the past five decades," he says. "These stocks would not provide any significant reserve in the event of a sharp decline in production. We would see hoarding on a global scale." More: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12728-regional-nuclear-war-could-trigger-mass-starvation.html = = = = STILL FEELING LIKE THE MAINSTREAM U.S. CORPORATE MEDIA IS GIVING A FULL HONEST PICTURE OF WHAT'S GOING ON? = = = = = = = = Sorry, we cannot read/reply to most usenet posts but welcome email FOR MORE INFORMATION: http://EconomicDemocracy.org/wtc/ (peace) http://economicdemocracy.org/eco/climate-summary.html (Climate) And http://EconomicDemocracy.org/ (general) ** New email: econdemocracy[at]gmail[dot]com ***************************************************************** 45 [NYTr] Term of Agreement for Denuclearization of Korea Published Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2007 16:33:39 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Deadline for Korean Denuclearization Beijing, Oct 3 (Prensa Latina) The terms agreed for denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, and improvement of US relations with Pyongyang were published here Wednesday in a declaration by the Chinese chancellery. The document is related to the joint declaration of the second session of the six-party talks' sixth round, according to which North Korea is to render inoperative all its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon, and the US will simultaneously begin a process to improve relations with that country. The text, made known by Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, host of the talks, reads that the disabling of the Experimental Reactor, the Reprocessing Plant (Radiochemical Laboratory) and the Nuclear Fuel Rod Fabrication Facility in Yongbyon will be completed by December 31 at the latest. In the meantime, the US government reaffirmed its commitment to concurrently exclude Pyongyang from the list of so called terrorist countries, and will stop applying the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA) on Pyongyang. North Korea also agreed to provide a complete and correct declaration of all its nuclear programs by the end of 2007, and reaffirmed its commitment not to transfer nuclear materials, technology, or know-how to other countries. Economic and energy and humanitarian assistance up to the equivalent of one million tons of heavy fuel oil will be provided to Pyongyang, but specific modalities will be finalized through discussion by the Working Group on Economy and Energy Cooperation, the declaration sustains. Similarly, the six parties agreed to hold a ministerial meeting in Beijing at an appropriate time. hr dig jhb mf PL-24 * ================================================================= 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 ================================================================= ***************************************************************** 46 BBC NEWS: Pakistan's power deal 'stalled' Last Updated: Wednesday, 3 October 2007, 15:37 GMT 16:37 UK Ms Bhutto says she plans to return to Pakistan to fight elections Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has said that talks on a power-sharing deal with President Pervez Musharraf are "totally stalled". Speaking in London, she said reports that corruption charges against her had been dropped were "disinformation". She also said she expected her party to join a boycott of parliament. Ms Bhutto, who denies allegations of corruption, has lived abroad since well before Gen Musharraf seized power in a coup in 1999. It's absolutely wrong, the news the corruption charges have been dropped Benazir Bhutto She has been one of his sternest critics, but is now a possible future ally. A deal between the pair has appeared close a number of times during negotiations which have gone on for months. The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Karachi says Ms Bhutto may be trying to exert pressure on the president to make more concessions, which are very hard for him to grant. 'Absolutely wrong' Ms Bhutto was speaking to reporters at a meeting of her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) central executive in London. KEY DATES 06 Oct: Presidential vote due to be held 18 Oct: Date ex-PM Benazir Bhutto has set for her homecoming 15 Nov: Parliamentary term ends and general election must be held Asked if her MPs would join other opposition parties in resigning en masse from Pakistan's assemblies ahead of Saturday's election, she said "most probably". "We don't want to resign. But certainly we're being pushed into taking the step." She said a final decision would be made either later on Wednesday or on Thursday. "I think that the resignation of the Pakistan People's Party MPs will be a severe blow to the legitimacy of the presidential election." Earlier, she said reports that she no longer faced corruption charges in Pakistan were "totally wrong". "This is just a typical disinformation campaign by the present regime," she said. The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says the government's announcement that it was close to finalising an agreement to drop corruption cases against Ms Bhutto may have been aimed at dissuading her from joining the boycott being observed by other opposition parties. Turmoil Pakistan has faced growing political and security instability in recent months. Gen Musharraf's election plans are illegal, critics say The PPP is the biggest party in Pakistan. Observers say Gen Musharraf wants a power-sharing agreement with the PPP to give him more popular support. But Ms Bhutto has been insisting that the president gives up his power to sack the prime minister. She also wants the repeal of a law banning anyone from being prime minister for more that two terms. She and political rival Nawaz Sharif have both been prime minister twice. He returned to Pakistan in August but was promptly deported to Saudi Arabia. Ms Bhutto, who faces possible arrest in Pakistan because of the corruption cases, says she will return to lead her party in general elections due by mid-January. Pakistan's president is elected indirectly by parliament and the four provincial assemblies. Gen Musharraf's supporters say they are confident he has the support to win another term. But it is thought he will need help in parliament, most probably from the PPP, after the general elections in which the ruling party is expected to fare badly. Opposition resignations aimed at undermining the credibility of the ballot make victory for the president even more certain, observers say. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 47 RIA Novosti: Putin signs law on ratification of additional protocol with IAEA - 1 15:04 | 03/ 10/ 2007 MOSCOW, October 3 (RIA Novosti) - President Vladimir Putin signed a law on the ratification of an additional protocol between Russia and the UN nuclear watchdog to a Soviet-era agreement on guarantees in Russia, the Kremlin press service said Wednesday. The law was adopted by the lower house of parliament on September 14 and approved by the upper house on September 19. Russia's Nuclear Power Ministry signed the document on behalf of Russia on March 22, 2000. The document envisions a set of additional organizational and technical measures to control civilian nuclear activity among Non-Proliferation Treaty member states. In particular, Russia must provide information to the International Atomic Energy Agency on its nuclear exports to non-nuclear powers and data on its cooperation with them. States possessing nuclear weapons are given the right to select control measures from those proposed in the protocol, which they deem possible to use on their territory. "This protocol confirms Russia's leading role in strengthening the global nuclear non-proliferation regime," Nikolai Spassky, deputy head of the Nuclear Power Agency, said in September, adding that the protocol's adoption would not harm Russia's security, as it is based on "the principle of voluntariness." RIA Novosti ***************************************************************** 48 UK: The Herald: Reasons for breaking the law at Faslane Features: LETTERS Web Issue 2956 October 4 2007 Sitting in a police cell on a concrete slab (albeit topped by a plastic-covered "mattress"), as I was on October 1, at least allows some pause for thought. The WPC who had arrested me at Faslane is a community police officer in Govanhill, and I told her that some of us have real questions about taking valuable police resources away from areas where they are much needed. We also have concerns about the massive amount of money spent: £6m to police the year-long Faslane 365 campaign. These reservations have to be taken seriously and considered with respect. I have broken the law over these issues on a number of occasions, never lightly, and mainly for two reasons. First, I am a mother and grandmother, and I would be failing my family and future generations if I did not protest against the abomination of Trident which is capable of destroying most of the northern hemisphere in 10 minutes. Secondly, I used to work alongside families living in poverty in Glasgow - many of whom I am privileged to call my friends. I would be failing them if I did not protest against this obscene expenditure. Molly Harvey, 501 Shields Road, Glasgow. It was a felicitous juxtaposition (The Herald, October 2), having the piece on Faslane 365 facing the picture of the celebrations of Gandhi's life in India. The non-violent principles of Gandhi and Martin Luther King are easy to laud and celebrate, when viewed from afar in a foreign country, but when applied at home in Britain, it is, I fear, a different story. It must have been really disruptive of local traffic when one million black civil rights protesters marched on Washington DC. The inconveniences to the good burgers of Helensburgh that councillor George Freeman complains about seem pretty trivial in comparison. Like Alexander McKay, he seems unwilling to look at the bigger picture, and unable to grasp the sheer immensity of the moral issues involved. When I attended the Iona Community service at the base on Monday, I was reminded of words from the community liturgy: "If Christ's disciples keep silent, these stones will shout aloud." The very hills seem to cry out a silent howl of anguish at the unimaginable evil being planned here at Faslane. Faslane 365 has been a model campaign in terms of its fidelity to the principle of non-violence, and Strathclyde Police have responded in a uniquely professional and courteous fashion. We have attempted to bring about awareness of the the utter evil - and the blatant illegality - of the UK government's deployment of nuclear WMD here in Scotland. If our actions have done nothing else, I hope that we have caused some people to ask themselves why so many good law-abiding folk from the churches and the general community are driven to take this action. I can assure Councillor Freeman and his friends that we are not going to go away. We will continue to act until Trident sails down the Clyde to the breakers' yard. Brian M Quail, 2 Hyndland Avenue, Glasgow. © All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without Copyright © 2007 Newsquest (Herald & Times) Limited. All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 49 Reuters: Redhall to target atomic weapons contracts - CEO | Wed Oct 3, 2007 3:34pm BST By John Bowker LONDON, Oct 3 (Reuters) - British engineer Redhall Group Plc (RHL.L: Quote, Profile, Research) is pinning growth hopes partly on Britain's 400 million pounds ($816 million)-a-year atomic weapons programme, Chief Executive David Jackson said on Wednesday. The company -- which also provides services to the UK's nuclear decommissioning industry -- said it was bidding for a second major contract at Britain's Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), after winning a 9 million pound deal earlier this year. That contract is expected to help the fast-growing firm beat market expectations for the year to end September, the company said on Wednesday, sending its shares up 4 percent. Jackson has his eye on 30 percent sales growth this year. "AWE has a budget that we can bid for, and we want to increase our share of that cake," Jackson said. A spokesman for AWE said the body -- which builds the country's nuclear missile warheads -- spent 403 million pounds on the procurement of materials and services last year. Shares in Redhall -- which are almost 10 times the value they were when Jackson joined the company in late 2005 -- were up 4 percent at 250 pence by 1350 GMT, valuing the firm at 53.3 million pounds. NUCLEAR WASTE CLEAN-UP Jackson added that nuclear decommissioning had given the business its biggest contract since he took over -- a 20 million pound deal to build a nuclear waste store for the British Nuclear Group (BNG) at Sellafield. "The store will hold waste for 125 years, and will be completed during the course of next year," Jackson said, adding that the group was currently bidding for another, as yet unidentified BNG contract. David Phillips, an analyst at Altium, kept his pretax profit forecast unchanged at 2.2 million pounds for the year to end September on sales of 55.4 million, rising to 4.0 million next year on sales of 83.4 million. Jackson last made headlines as chairman of support services group Peterhouse, which was bought by Babcock International (BAB.L: Quote, Profile, Research) for 106 million pounds following an acrimonious takeover battle three years ago. Jackson and fellow director Simon Foster -- now his deputy at Redhall -- opposed the deal, and later chastised the shareholders for giving the company away. Another high-profile Redhall appointment is Tony Price -- who was the head of decommissioning at Sellafield. © Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. | Learn more about Reuters ***************************************************************** 50 Reuters: U.S. defense buildup comes amid fiscal pinch Wed Oct 3, 2007 6:34pm EDT By Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The price of the world's most expensive security blanket -- the U.S. defense budget -- is growing robustly just as Washington can least afford it, with an aging population soon demanding their promised retirement and health benefits, lawmakers and independent analysts said. The U.S. Senate on Wednesday was poised to approve nearly $460 billion to allow the Pentagon to pay soldiers, buy weapons and conduct research over the next 12 months. That's up from about $335 billion when President George W. Bush took office in 2001, before the September 11 attacks that year, which helped spark a surge in defense spending. Similar legislation already has passed the U.S. House of Representatives. While $460 billion may seem like a staggering amount, it is just a portion of the total U.S. defense budget for this fiscal year that started on Monday. The price tag actually could top $700 billion when including nearly $200 billion sought for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and funds for building military bases, taking care of a growing number of wounded and sick veterans and nuclear weapons activities. With no end in sight to the Iraq war now in its fifth year, members of Congress and Pentagon officials looking beyond this year worry about a fraying military that will need even more money to fix. "While we continue to spend at this colossal rate in Iraq...our military chiefs advise that as a nation we must be concerned about the eroding strength of our military," said Rep. John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat. Continued... ***************************************************************** 51 AFP: NKorea agrees to disable Yongbyon nuclear site by Dec 31 - Wed Oct 3, 7:38 AM ET BEIJING (AFP) - North Korea has agreed to disable the facilities at its main Yongbyon nuclear reactor complex by December 31 under US supervision, according to a six-nation agreement released Wednesday by China. The announcement of the deal came following the latest round of talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear drive involving the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, which wrapped up at the weekend. "The DPRK agreed to disable all its existing nuclear facilities subject to abandonment under the September 2005 Joint Statement and the February 13 agreement this year," Xinhua news agency reported, quoting the statement. "The disablement of the five-megawatt Experimental Reactor, the Reprocessing Plant (Radiochemical Laboratory) and the Nuclear Fuel Rod Fabrication Facility in Yongbyon will be completed by December 31, 2007," the accord said. North Korea also agreed to divulge the "complete" list of its nuclear installations, according to the text of the agreement. The United States, North and South Korea, Russia, China and Japan agreed in principle on Sunday on a joint statement to push forward the North Korean disarmament deal. But in a rare move, the provisional agreement, which has been kept under wraps, was sent back to the governments for approval. The United States on Tuesday gave its approval to the deal, with chief envoy Christopher Hill saying China would make it public once the other five parties had given the go-ahead. The disablement process would get underway "in a matter of weeks" after the approval, he said. Under the first phase of the February deal, North Korea shut down its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon and four other related facilities in July, and allowed inspectors from the UN atomic watchdog back into the country. In return, the first tranches of a promised one million tonnes of fuel aid were delivered, and North Korea began diplomatic talks with rivals United States and Japan. South Korea and China have so far delivered a combined 100,000 tonnes of fuel oil, while Bush last week gave the go-ahead for another tranche of 50,000 tonnes to be sent to the impoverished country. The third and final phase to be implemented in early 2008 would require North Korea to surrender all its fissile material and nuclear weapons, which experts see as an ambitious task. Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 52 DOE: DOE Official in Salt Lake City to Launch Change a Light, Change the World October 3, 2007 SALT LAKE CITY, UT –U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Assistant Secretary for Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability Kevin Kolevar today launched the 2007 Change a Light, Change the World campaign, encouraging every American to change at least one light at home to an ENERGY STAR® Compact Fluorescent Light bulb (CFL.) Assistant Secretary Kolevar kicked-off the national effort during a visit to Wasatch Elementary School in Salt Lake City where he encouraged students and the community to change at least one light at home to a CFL which use 75 percent less energy than standard bulbs and last up to ten times longer, resulting in fewer greenhouse gas emissions and substantial energy cost savings. “This campaign is about taking simple actions to have a big impact and every American can change a light to a CFL to save energy and protect the environment,” Assistant Secretary Kolevar said. “I join the President in encouraging all Americans to be more energy efficient by changing a light.” The Assistant Secretary visited two sixth grade classes at Wasatch to discuss the importance of saving energy and how every family can participate in the Change a Light campaign. Kolevar was joined by representatives from Governor Huntsman’s office and Utah Clean Energy, a local Energy Star® partner. The nationwide effort to encourage Americans to use CFLs begins today, ENERGY STAR® Change a Light Day. At the heart of the Change a Light effort is the online pledge to use CFLs at home. Already over 500,000 people have taken the pledge. Lighting accounts for nearly 20 percent of the average home’s electric bill. Each CFL can save up to $30 in energy costs over its extended lifetime by using 75 percent less energy than a traditional bulb. If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, it would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars. Assistant Secretary Kolevar is joining with others in the federal government, as well as with leaders of all levels from across the country to celebrate ENERGY STAR Change a Light Day and encourage Americans to use energy wisely at work and at home. Like changing a light bulb, simple actions taken at home help preserve our energy resources and reduce the risks of global climate change. The national educational campaign is run in partnership with The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and hundreds of retail stores, manufacturers, energy efficiency organizations, and state and territory governments. Media contact(s): Julie Ruggiero, (202) 586-4940 U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW | Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 ***************************************************************** 53 DOE: DOE Launches Change a Light, Change the World Campaign October 3, 2007 Encourages Americans to Pledge to Change One Light to an Efficient Compact Fluorescent Lightbulb WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Samuel W. Bodman today launched the 2007 Change a Light, Change the World campaign encouraging every American to change at least one light at home to an ENERGY STAR® Compact Fluorescent Light bulb (CFL). These bulbs are estimated to use 75 percent less energy than standard bulbs and last up to ten times longer, resulting in fewer greenhouse gas emissions and substantial energy savings. This national call to action encourages all Americans to help change the world, one light — one energy-saving step — at a time. “The simplest actions can have the largest impact and changing to a CFL is something every American can do today to save money, increase energy efficiency, and benefit the environment,” Secretary Bodman said. “I encourage all Americans to answer the President’s call to be more energy efficient by changing a light.” The nationwide effort to encourage Americans to use CFLs begins today, ENERGY STAR® Change a Light Day. At the heart of the Change A Light effort is the online pledge to use CFLs at home. Already over 500,000 people have taken the pledge. Lighting accounts for nearly 20 percent of the average home’s electric bill. Each CFL can save up to $30 in energy costs over its extended lifetime by using 75 percent less energy than a traditional bulb. If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR® qualified bulb, it would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars. Secretary Bodman is joining others in the Bush Administration, as well as leaders across the country to celebrate ENERGY STAR® Change a Light Day and encourage Americans to use energy wisely. Like changing a light bulb, simple actions taken at home can help preserve our energy resources and reduce the risks of global climate change. The national educational campaign is run in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and hundreds of retail stores, manufacturers, energy efficiency organizations, and state and territory governments. Learn more about the ENERGY STAR® program. Media contact(s): Julie Ruggiero, (202) 586-4940 U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW | Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 ***************************************************************** 54 DOE: Secretary of Energy to Address the Howard Baker Center for Public Policy Nuclear Power Conference October 3, 2007 WASHINGTON, DC – Tomorrow, October 4, 2007, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Samuel W. Bodman will deliver keynote remarks at the Howard Baker Center for Public Policy Nuclear Power Conference in Washington, DC. Secretary Bodman is expected to discuss the Bush Administration’s effort to expand the use of clean, safe and affordable nuclear power worldwide. WHO: U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman WHAT: Remarks on the Bush Administration’s effort to increase the use of nuclear power worldwide WHEN: Thursday, October 4, 2007 1:15PM EDT WHERE: The Ronald Reagan Building Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Fifth Floor Washington, DC Media contact(s): Megan Barnett, (202) 586-4940 U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW | Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 ***************************************************************** 55 Tri-City Herald: Applications being taken for PNNL contract Published Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 JOHN TRUMBO HERALD STAFF WRITER It's time for Battelle and anyone else who might be interested in running the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland to say so. The Department of Energy is calling for "expressions of interest" to be submitted to headquarters in Oak Ridge, Tenn., by next Tuesday. Battelle Memorial Institute, which has operated the DOE lab under contract since 1965, will have to compete for the job. Battelle's contract was supposed to expire last Sunday, but was extended two years to allow enough time for DOE to finish a successful request for bids. DOE's invitation for companies to say they're interested is a first step in what is expected to be a yearlong process toward awarding the contract next fall. The agency says it would issue a draft request for proposals before this winter. The request for proposals will be open for comments or questions for about 45 days. DOE also will give lab tours and one-on-one meetings with prospective bidders for three weeks after the draft request for proposals is released. DOE said it intends to keep the Richland laboratory operating out of an estimated 85 government-owned or -leased buildings. With Battelle running the lab, PNNL has about 4,200 employees and an annual budget valued at nearly $750 million. The national lab is unique because it is the only DOE lab which has some facilities owned by the contractor, Battelle. It also is the only national lab in where the government allows the contractor to use PNNL personnel and facilities for private work. Battelle officials in the Tri-Cities referred questions Tuesday to Battelle spokeswoman Katy Delaney, the company's national media relations manager based in Frederick, Md. She could not be reached about the rebidding process. But in Inside Energy, Delaney was quoted as saying Battelle would strive to recapture the contract. "Winning the PNNL recompete is our highest priority. It's our flagship laboratory in the national lab system, and we intend to put together a winning proposal," she said. The call for interested contractors is the first public sign from DOE in two years that it's moving ahead with seeking bids to operate PNNL. Federal officials have been slow to prepare a draft request for proposals because of the unusual PNNL contract that includes allowing private work to be done at a government lab. Gary Petersen, vice president of TRIDEC, said that makes it more difficult for anyone other than Battelle to bid. © 2007 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press & Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 56 Tri-City Herald: Demand down, but still high, for Hanford tours Published Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 ANNETTE CARY HERALD STAFF WRITER Demand for tours of the Hanford nuclear reservation may have eased slightly, but they're still among the toughest tickets in town. For the first round of tours offered this year, registration closed within a minute after all seats for the free spring bus tours were claimed. Tuesday, it took 27 minutes for all the seats to be claimed. That may be because sign-ups were held two days in a row this week for 12 tours scheduled Oct. 24 and 25 and Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. Those who successfully signed up for the tours Monday still had to be quick. Registration filled in three minutes and seven seconds. For most who don't work at Hanford, the tours are the only time they're allowed on the secure site to see current work to clean up pollution and also get a firsthand look at World War II and Cold War history. The high point of the tour is a visit inside B Reactor, which looks much the same as it did when it produced plutonium for the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, helping end the war. The tours draw history buffs who may come from around the nation and people who live in the Tri-Cities but have never seen the site. They also are popular with former workers. "Retirees come back. They've worked at B Reactor," said Karen Welsh, tour coordinator for Fluor Hanford. "It's great to see the anticipation in their eyes." Tours stopped after 9/11, and when they resumed in 2004 Welsh quickly realized that signing up the crush of people wanting to see the site was no longer practical using e-mail and phone calls. Fluor subcontractor Lockheed Martin developed what's essentially a mini-Ticketmaster for Internet registration, said Kyle Willers, Lockheed Martin manager of systems development and integration. The goal was to be scrupulously fair in a first-come, first-served system. Even Department of Energy employees are told they need to log on and try to be quick enough to get a spot on the tours. Lockheed Martin's system keeps track of who requests spots for tours during Internet registration down to milliseconds. Employees also do their best to make the registration site work with a wide variety of Web browsers and equipment. Tuesday, as four Lockheed Martin computer specialists and Welsh gathered to watch registration, the first two buses were filled in four minutes and 16 seconds. A few minutes later they were getting e-mail messages and telephone calls. One woman asked why she couldn't sign on. It turns out the Conquer Web browser is one of the few that the Lockheed Martin system won't support. Another person asked if binoculars and digital cameras were allowed on the tour. She was told the binoculars were fine. But no recording devices, including cell phones, are allowed for security reasons. Plutonium still is stored at the site. Although all seats on the tours had filled at 12:27 p.m. Tuesday, those who want to participate still have a chance. If anyone cancels, the vacant seats are automatically re-posted on the DOE website. The fall tours are the last expected to be offered until next spring. © 2007 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press & Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 57 Hanford News: Radiation monitors missing from Hanford This story was published Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 the Herald staff Radiation monitors valued at $10,000 are missing from a Hanford training room, according to Richland police reports. Four monitors last were seen Thursday in a room at 1812 Terminal Drive, said Richland police Capt. Mike Cobb. Department of Energy contractor Washington Closure Hanford noticed they were missing and contacted police Tuesday. Dept. of Energy: Workers may have missed chances to catch spill: Clues could have hinted radioactive waste had spilled in central Hanford © 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 58 Las Cruces Sun-News: Los Alamos lab resuming waste shipments to WIPP By The Associated Press Article Launched: 10/03/2007 01:41:52 PM MDT LOS ALAMOS, N.M. — Los Alamos National Laboratory has resumed shipping higher-risk plutonium-contaminated waste to the federal government's underground dump in southeastern New Mexico after improvements to the lab's waste repackaging facility. The National Nuclear Security Administration last month certified the facility to repackage containers of hotter radioactive waste. Los Alamos resumed operations at the Waste Characterization, Reduction and Repackaging facility after the NNSA gave it a Category 2 certification, meaning it's allowed to repackage "high-activity waste" — that above a certain level of radioactivity. The first container of such waste was repackaged and shipped to the Department of Energy's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad for permanent burial in September. "The successful restart of the WCRR facility represents a major milestone in reducing the laboratory's waste inventory and associated environmental risk," said Sue Stiger, the lab's associate director for environmental programs. Los Alamos has about 325 containers of high-activity waste among 20,000 waste containers at Area G, its radioactive waste storage and disposal area. Some 235 of the high-activity containers are bound for WIPP in the near term. The remaining 90 hold material such as sludge and must remain at Los Alamos until a disposal strategy can be devised. About two-thirds of the 235 containers include material that cannot by law be buried at WIPP, such as aerosol cans or bottles of liquid. Those containers will be opened at the repackaging facility, the prohibited items will be removed, and the containers will be repackaged for shipment. Last year, the lab said it was temporarily storing several hundred drums of waste that were considered too hot to be repackaged at the facility that then existed at the lab. Los Alamos subsequently upgraded the facility. Certification for the facility required structural improvements to the building, improvements to fire protection systems, an operations control center and refurbished waste storage areas. Workers also must follow new procedures and safety requirements. Los Alamos began its "Quick to WIPP" program to expedite shipment of the most radioactive lower level waste after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the East Coast and the 2000 Cerro Grande wildfire that burned through parts of the town of Los Alamos. Lab officials had hoped to finish sending such waste to WIPP by the end of 2006, but the program has been delayed, prompting environmental groups to call for better lab storage facilities. WIPP, which opened in March 1999, stores plutonium-contaminated waste from defense work 2,150 feet underground in ancient salt beds. Copyright © 2006 Las Cruces Sun-News, a MediaNews Group Newspaper. ***************************************************************** 59 DOE: Office of Science; Notice of Renewal of the DOE/NSF Nuclear Science Advisory Committee FR Doc E7-19550 [Federal Register: October 3, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 191)] [Notices] [Page 56339] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr03oc07-40] DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Pursuant to Section 14(a)(2)(A) of the Federal Advisory Committee Act and in accordance with Title 41 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Section 102-3.65, and following consultation with the Committee Management Secretariat, General Services Administration, notice is hereby given that the DOE/NSF Nuclear Science Advisory Committee has been renewed for a two-year period. The Committee will provide advice to the Associate Director of the Office of Science for Nuclear Physics (DOE), and the Assistant Director, Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (NSF), on scientific priorities within the field of basic nuclear science research. The Secretary of Energy has determined that renewal of the Committee is essential to conduct business of the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation and is in the public interest in connection with the performance duties imposed by law upon the Department of Energy. The Committee will continue to operate in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the Department of Energy Organization Act (Pub. L. 95-91), and implementing regulations. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Rachel Samuel at (202) 586-3279. Issued in Washington, DC on September 28, 2007. Carol Matthews, Acting Committee Management Officer. [FR Doc. E7-19550 Filed 10-2-07; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P ***************************************************************** 60 DOE: Office of Science; Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee FR Doc E7-19551 [Federal Register: October 3, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 191)] [Notices] [Page 56339] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr03oc07-41] DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY AGENCY: Department of Energy. ACTION: Notice of open meeting. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: This notice announces a meeting of the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee. The Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, 86 Stat.770) requires that public notice of these meetings be announced in the Federal Register. DATES: Tuesday, October 23, 2007, 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and Wednesday, October 24, 2007, 8:30 a.m. to noon. ADDRESSES: The Gaithersburg Hilton, 620 Perry Parkway, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 20878. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Albert L. Opdenaker, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences; U.S. Department of Energy; 1000 Independence Avenue, SW.; Washington, DC 20585-1290; Telephone: 301-903-4927. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Purpose of the Meeting: The major purposes of the meeting are for the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC) to complete its responses to the charges on (1) planning (Greenwald Panel), (2) the Fusion Simulation Project (Tang Panel), and (3) the scientific/ programmatic review of the National Compact Stellarator Experiment (NCSE) (Hazeltine Panel). During the meeting, FESAC members will also hear a status report on the ITER Major Item of Equipment (MIE) Project, and discuss future approaches to strategic planning and possible future charges to FESAC. Tentative Agenda Tuesday, October 23, 2007 Office Fusion Energy Sciences Perspective Report from the NCSX Science Review Panel/Discussion Report from the Panel on Strategic Planning/Discussion Report from the Panel on the Fusion Simulation Program/ Discussion Public Comments Wednesday, October 24, 2007 Report on U.S. ITER MIE Project Recommendations to DOE on NCSX and Long Term Program Opportunities Public Participation: The meeting is open to the public. If you would like to file a written statement with the Committee, you may do so either before or after the meeting. If you would like to make oral statements regarding any of the items on the agenda, you should contact Albert L. Opdenaker at 301-903-8584 (fax) or albert.opdenaker@science.doe.gov (e-mail). You must make your request for an oral statement at least 5 business days before the meeting. Reasonable provision will be made to include the scheduled oral statements on the agenda. The Chairperson of the Committee will conduct the meeting to facilitate the orderly conduct of business. Public comment will follow the 10-minute rule. Minutes: The minutes of the meeting will be available on the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Fusion Energy Sciences Web site (http://www.science.doe.gov/ofes/). Issued at Washington, DC, on September 28, 2007. Rachel M. Samuel, Deputy Committee Management Officer. [FR Doc. E7-19551 Filed 10-2-07; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P ***************************************************************** 61 DOE: Events DOE-Sponsored Public Meetings and Workshops DATE TITLE LOCATION 10.04.07 LLNL Community Leaders Day Livermore, CA 10.10.07 Oak Ridge Site Advisory Board Mtg. Oak Ridge, TN 10.23.07 Hanford Site Public Tour Richland, WA 10.24.07 Hanford Site Public Tour Richland, WA 10.30.07 Hanford Site Public Tour Richland, WA 10.31.07 Hanford Site Public Tour Richland, WA 11.01.07 - 11.02.07 Hanford Advisory Board Mtg. Richland, WA 11.13.07 - 11.14.07 INL/EM Citizens Advisory Board Mtg. Idaho Falls, ID 11.14.07 Oak Ridge Site Advisory Board Mtg. Oak Ridge, TN 11.15.07 Paducah Site Citizens Advisory Board Mtg. Paducah, KY 11.26.07 - 11.27.07 SRS Citizens Advisory Board Mtg. Augusta, GA 11.28.07 Northern NM Citizens Advisory Board Mtg. Santa Fe, NM 12.12.07 Oak Ridge Site Advisory Board Mtg. Oak Ridge, TN U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW | Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 ***************************************************************** 62 Knoxville News Sentinel: Incinerator due for rehab after heavy load in 2007 By Frank Munger (Contact) Wednesday, October 3, 2007 The government's toxic-waste incinerator in Oak Ridge burned about 1.4 million pounds of waste in fiscal 2007, which concluded Sept. 30. The incinerator will be shut down soon for its annual maintenance period. Dennis Hill of Bechtel Jacobs Co., the Department of Energy's cleanup manager, said the plan is to shut down the incinerator until early January to reline the kiln and perform other checks and repairs. "It's mostly preventive maintenance," Hill said. Bechtel Jacobs operates the federal facility that burns so-called mixed waste, which contains both radioactive elements and hazardous chemicals - such as polychlorinated biphenyls. Hill said the waste treated in 2007 was the highest total since 1999. DOE has indicated it plans to shut down the incinerator at the end of 2009, but that date isn't firm. The federal agency previously extended the Oak Ridge incinerator's lifetime to provide a treatment option for other cleanup sites around the country. --- On another cleanup front, Bechtel Jacobs has approval to resume uranium removal activities at the Molten Salt Reactor. Hill said the plan is to restart that work by the middle of this month. Most operations have been on hold at the old reactor since May 2006 because of a series of problems, including a fluorine leak. The plan is to remove all of the uranium-233, a fissile material of potential use in nuclear weapons, from the reactor site and transport it to Building 3019-A at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for safekeeping. That work is to be completed by mid-February, Hill said. After the fissile uranium is removed from the fuel storage tanks, the site will be placed in a "surveillance and maintenance mode" while contractors study how to proceed with the cleanup project. Removal of the highly radioactive fuel salts is tentatively scheduled for 2011-2012. Molten Salt was built and operated in the 1960s to test new reactor concepts. It was shut down in 1969. --- When U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., was in town recently, I asked him and other elected officials about the rising cost of modernizing the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant - including the proposed Uranium Processing Facility with a price tag that could exceed $3 billion. I noted that it was difficult for most folks, including the taxpayers who are funding these facilities, to understand the costs. That's because the increases are being blamed on changes in the Design Basis Threat, which is the government's intelligence report on terrorist threats and which is classified (and, thus, unavailable to Average Joe and Jane). "Well, I guess that's why we have senators," Alexander said. "Because I can find that out and then pass judgment, and then I can try to give you a good answer to your question." --- There's been plenty of bad stuff to say about the K-25 cleanup project, which is now years behind schedule and significantly over the original cost estimates. The dismantlement of the World War II uranium-enrichment facilities has proved far more difficult than imagined. Now a piece of good news: In the nearly two years since an ironworker fell through a floor and was hospitalized with injuries, the 800-member work crew has completed about 600 work days - more than 2 million man-hours - without an injury or accident that resulted in lost work time. Bechtel Jacobs, a partnership of Bechtel National and Jacobs Engineering, is handling the project. --- The Coalition of Oak Ridge Retired Employees now has a blog to share information and gather input and opinions from computer-savvy retirees. The address is http://blog.corre.info. CORRE has about 2,900 dues-paying members and represents the interests of about 12,000 Oak Ridge contractor retirees and surviving spouses. --- Thom Mason, director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, will give a community lecture at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the American Museum of Science and Energy. The event is sponsored by Friends of ORNL. The talk is open to the public. There is no charge. Mason, who managed the Spallation Neutron Source through its final construction stages and early operations, became ORNL director July 1. He succeeded Jeff Wadsworth, who accepted an executive position at Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio. Senior writer Frank Munger covers the Department of Energy for the News Sentinel. He may be reached at 865-342-6329 or at munger@knews.com. This column is also available in the opinion section of knoxnews.com. © 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 63 lamonitor.com: Report reviews warhead design The Online News Source for Los Alamos ROGER SNODGRASS Monitor Assistant Editor Depending on an observer's perspective, a new report by an independent assessment team raises doubts or confirms proponents' ideas about plans for a Reliable Replace Warhead (RRW). The replacement warhead concept plays a central role in future directions of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which supervises the nuclear weapons complex. The report, which has already inspired various interpretations, was produced by JASON, a group of scientists who are regularly called upon for high-level technical assessments of complex defense issues. A criterion for the replacement nuclear weapon is that it would not require future testing to qualify for certification in the nuclear stockpile. While saying the project has kept appropriate technical principals in mind, the authors stated, "(C)ertification is not yet assured." The current design, known as WR1, was chosen in a competition between Los Alamos National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The unclassified Executive Summary of the JASON report recommended "additional experiments and analyses are needed that explore failure modes, and assess the impact of performance of new manufacturing processes." "The present report just adds one more reason to kill the RRW now, before wasting even more money and distracting the NNSA from its care responsibilities," Greg Mello of the Los Alamos Study Group commented in a written analysis for the media. He cited "increased costs" inherent in the "increased difficulties." The warhead is one of the sticking points in the energy appropriation standoff between the House, which has passed a bill, and the Senate that has only passed a committee recommendation. The House zeroed out the RRW, concluding in the report accompanying a bill, "The Committee is unconvinced that pursuing the RRW design competition to a production phase is necessary at this time." The Senate report expressed a willingness to go for another round, despite some misgivings. "The committee is divided on Reliable Replacement Warhead program," the Senate report acknowledged. The Senate appropriation committee proposed $66 million of the $88 million requested by the administration, to complete the next phase of design definition and costs studies. The nuclear weapons agency embraced the JASON report, saying it confirmed issues that are meant to be studied in the next phase of the project. "I am pleased that the JASON panel feels that we are on the right track," said NNSA Administrator Thomas D'Agostino in a prepared statement. In a statement Tuesday, Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said, "I hope we can all agree that the laboratories need to get on with the appropriate research as provided in the Senate Bill." The JASON report concluded, "Establishing that the case for confidence in any RRW has been satisfactorily made will require a new peer review process," adding that they were not asked to compare the merits of the RRW program to other options, such as the current program for extending the useful life of existing nuclear weapons. "We were not shown material on cost or schedule sufficient to establish the impact of WR1 on the nuclear weapons complex," the JASONs wrote. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., who has pushed for independent reviews with unclassified summaries and who secured an amendment for a previous report by the JASONs on plutonium aging in nuclear weapons, commented on the new study. "This backs up a previous JASONs report that says when it comes to RRW, we need to conduct additional research," Bingaman said this morning. Jack Jekowski, a principal partner of Innovative Technology Partnerships in Albuquerque, is a consultant and authority on the current debate about transforming the nuclear complex. "Overall, if this report is read in context, it will be the call to significantly enhance the scientific work at all three laboratories to ensure the robustness of our future stockpile, and to encourage a significant amount of work to assess what the future of the weapons complex should be to ensure that robustness," Jekowski concluded in an e-mail response this morning. © 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************