***************************************************************** 10/14/07 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 15.241 ***************************************************************** 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 NUCLEAR REACTORS 1 US: Sign Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt's petition to stop $50 bil nuc 2 US: Concord Monitor: Christie Whitman on the road for nuclear energy 3 US: Detroit News: Nuclear site blames alert on staff error 4 US: Foster's Online: Dozens of new nuclear projects to be reviewed 5 US: Foster's Online: License extension in offing for Seabrook Statio 6 US: Detroit Free Press: Fermi 2 damage likely by workers 7 US: FRENCHTOWN TWP: Low-level emergency declared at Fermi 2 plant 8 US: toledoblade.com: Officials investigate DTE Energy's Fermi 2 'eve 9 US: toledoblade.com: Prosecution rests in trial of 2 Davis-Besse wor 10 US: Brattleboro Reformer: Nuke pollsters blanket state living by pla 11 US: York Dispatch: PSU still searching for minor leak at nuclear rea 12 US: Business Journal: Xcel to reintegrate nuclear operations - 13 US: dailypress.com: NRC to meet Oct. 24 on North Anna reactor -- 14 AFP: Nuclear reactors for sale: France vies for big stake in industr 15 UPI: Report: Israeli raid targeted nuke reactor - 16 UPI: Report: Israel hit Syrian nuclear site - 17 Daily Herald: Vexed by thorium, looking for help 18 US: MHNN: House members ask NRC to track Indian Point flaws in licen 19 US: San Luis Obispo Countys website: State allots more funds for Dia 20 AFP: Israel attacked unfinished Syrian nuclear reactor - report 21 Deccan Herald: UPA govt ready to dump N-deal 22 Hindustan Times: Supreme Court dismisses N-deal petition- 23 The Telegraph: DMK boss pats party for N-truce 24 The Telegraph: Nuclear detour, the untold story 25 Montreal Gazette: Renewed emphasis on nuclear power brings 26 Epoch Times: Nuclear Power's New Dawn 27 US: CPR: Against The Ropes, California Nuclear Power Proponents Put NUCLEAR SECURITY NUCLEAR SAFETY 28 [v911t] COOPRADIO.ORG: Leuren Moret - Canada & DU Weapons - A conver 29 US: Fw: RADIOACTIVE WASTE = "DEPLETED URANIUM" (Lethal Forever): ( F 30 Sunday Mirror: SCREEN N-TEST VICTIMS - 31 News & Star: I cant forget Windscale fire NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 32 US: The Coloradoan: Uranium mine focus of forum 33 Nevada Appeal Thoughts on Yucca Mountain 34 US: CITIZEN-TIMES.com: 20 years is way too long to let a contaminate 35 US: LA Daily News: Boeing will clean up toxic Santa Susana Field Lab 36 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Uranium tailings may take to roads 37 US: DailyBulletin.com: Rialto seeking estimate, insurance for cleanu 38 US: The Denver Post: Residents give uranium-mine plan static 39 US: Boston Globe: Watertown waste site land transfer awaits study - 40 US: Boulder Daily Camera: Forthofer: Time to ban weaponized uranium 41 KVBC: DOE's Yucca deadline looming 42 Las Vegas Now: Two Nuke Waste Trucking Routes Proposed Through Las V 43 Pahrump Valley Times: For Yucca, size doesn't matter 44 US: MWC News: Folly of nuke waste transport plan PEACE 45 US: Will a Missing Nuke from the B-52 Incident be used in a Simulate 46 [NYTr] Rice Accuses Iran of "Lying" about Nukes 47 Xinhua: Tension continues after Russian-U.S. missile defense talks 48 Reuters: Congress must approve US attack vs Iran - Pelosi | 49 MySA.com: Comment: Who moved the nuclear missiles? 50 AFP: Gates warns Russia against break with arms treaties - 51 sacbee.com: Opinion - Stopping an attack on Iran - US DEPT. OF ENERGY 52 Ventura County Star: Field Lab site may become parkland 53 Knoxville News Sentinel: UT, ORNL push toward the future 54 lamonitor.com: Help wanted: LANL seeks nuclear detectives 55 KIFI: LocalNews8.com: Hot Shop Building Demolished ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Sign Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt's petition to stop $50 bil nuclear bailout (fwd) Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 15:41:17 -0500 (CDT) http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/65016/ The video has Browne, Raitt, Ben Harper, Graham Nash, etc. explain how a $50 billion bailout to the nuclear industry has been inserted into the forthcoming "clean energy" bill before Congress. And they play Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth" with updated lyrics. Or go direct to sign the petition to: http://www.nukefree.org/petition I met Jackson at his father-in-law's party here in Boulder in September. What a nice guy! Unfortunately, due to UNrepresentative democracy, he and Raitt have to repeat their tireless work in the 70s against nukes all over again. Please pass this along... Evan www.Vote.org Taking the "mock" out of democracy! Evan Ravitz, founder (303)440-6838 evan@vote.org also: www.Vote.org/photos www.Vote.org/paradise "Fool's gold exists because there is real gold." -Rumi ***************************************************************** 2 Concord Monitor: Christie Whitman on the road for nuclear energy By LAUREN R. DORGAN Monitor staff October 13. 2007 12:31AM Nuclear power is a crucial part of America's energy future, former Environmental Protection Agency chief Christie Whitman said yesterday. The United States is projected to use 40 percent more electricity by 2030, Whitman said. Right now, nuclear supplies about one-fifth of American power - and if that ratio is going to be kept up, the nation will need 35 to 40 new nuclear plants by then, she said. Whitman, co-chairwoman of the nuclear-industry-funded Clean and Safe Energy Coalition, delivered her pro-nuclear message to a climate change conference in Manchester and in an interview with the Monitor. "As one environmentalist said to me, if you're worried about asthma, care about climate change, you've got to start thinking about nuclear," she said. "Because nuclear is the only base form of power that does not emit any greenhouse gases." Whitman served as EPA administrator at the beginning of President Bush's tenure. She resigned in 2003, after sparring with the White House over the limits on power plant regulations known as new source review. She said that as governor she'd been a part of lawsuits against power plants that polluted New Jersey's air. "I wasn't going to sign a regulation that was going to undermine those cases," she said. "It was clear to me after two-and-a-half years of arguing this back and forth that the levels were going to be set such that we were going to lose most of those cases," she said. "The president was elected, not me, so he had a right to set those policies." People who are worried about carbon emissions from gas and coal-filed power plants should consider nuclear, she said. "It's great to say no to everything, but how are you going to meet that demand? Conservation and renewables will only get you so far," said Whitman, a former Republican governor of New Jersey. At present, renewable sources like wind and solar produce 2.5 percent of American's energy. "So if you double or triple that, which is really putting a strain on that industry, you're still not going to get to the 40 percent," she said. Whitman pointed to the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, which sparked nationwide concern and new regulation of the nuclear industry, as a success of sorts. No one died or suffered injuries in the accident, she said. "There were mechanical failures there, but everything that was put in place to protect the public worked. No worker glowed in the dark," she said. Waste is one of the thorniest issues in nuclear power. Nevada's Yucca Mountain has been selected as the repository of nuclear waste, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has vowed to block the project. "That is a political science issue, not a nuclear science issue," Whitman said. But she pointed to France, which gets nearly 80 percent of its power from nuclear plants. The technology developed and used there is so superior that 96 or 97 percent of the fissionable material in a spent rod is recycled, Whitman said. The key to giving American companies to develop that kind of technology is showing them that nuclear is worth investing in. "If companies see that nuclear is going to be a part of the future, it becomes a necessity to use that power," she said. By LAUREN R. DORGAN Concord Monitor Online, P.O. Box 1177, Concord NH 03302 Phone: 603-224-5301 | E-mail: cmwebmaster@concordmonitor.com ***************************************************************** 3 Detroit News: Nuclear site blames alert on staff error * Detnews.com Saturday, October 13, 2007 Holes mistakenly made in lines during routine maintenance present no danger, plant officials say. MONROE -- Energy officials on Friday blamed workers for accidentally drilling small holes at the Fermi II nuclear power plant, sparking an emergency alert Thursday. Workers doing routine maintenance checks discovered 1/4 -inch holes in steam lines at the DTE Energy power plant in Monroe County. Preliminary findings from federal investigators found workers doing maintenance at the site drilled a small hole in the steam line while removing insulation material. Several other indentations of varying depths were found on steam line pipes, but it was determined that the holes didn't present a hazard or health concern. "There is still a lot of work to be done in terms of making sure that this is indeed what happened," said Viktoria Mitlyng, spokeswoman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Midwest Regional Office. "Right now the NRC is following the progress of the utility's investigation. Our next steps will be to look at why this happened." Officials shut down the plant Sept. 29 for maintenance work that is scheduled every 18 months. The 900 regular employees of the plant, along with 1,400 workers brought in for the maintenance checks were in the plant. No injuries occurred or hazards have been found due to the holes; and the plant is in a safe and stable condition, said DTE spokesman John Austerberry. "The key piece to the findings is that it didn't appear to be deliberate," Austerberry said. "We are concluding our investigation and outage work has continued " An Unusual Event alert was issued because officials originally suspected that tampering could be a potential cause of the holes and indentations. However, based on interviews and reviews of maintenance activities, plant security and federal investigators concluded that poor work practices caused the holes, Mitlyng said. "We need to see if there was inefficiency in the planning," Mitlyng said. "That is our job as the oversight agency to see what the utility is going to do to make sure that such issues don't arise again." Mitlyng said the affected pipes are used to relieve reactor pressure under certain emergencies, and if that would have been the case, there would have been no radiation released. You can reach Iveory Perkins at (734) 462-2672 or iveory.perkins@detnews.com. © Copyright 2007 The Detroit News. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 4 Foster's Online: Dozens of new nuclear projects to be reviewed Dover, New Hampshire Sunday, October 14, 2007 By ROBERT M. COOK Staff Writer bcook@fosters.com Nuclear power is hot these days. Federal regulators expect to get 21 applications through 2009 from companies seeking to build 32 nuclear reactors. Also, 15 firms are expected to apply to build uranium enrichment facilities to provide nuclear fuel, said David McIntyre, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman at the federal agency's headquarters in Rockland, Md. The firms that own Seabrook Station in New Hampshire also plans to apply to build two more reactors at the Turkey Point complex in Florida by 2020, according to information provided by the businesses, the FPL Group Inc. and the Florida, Power & Light Company, a principal FPL Group subsidiary. The projects would provide 3,000 more megawatts of electricity to Florida, according to company officials. The companies also plan to add 400 megawatts to existing reactors at the Turkey Point, Miami-Dade County and St. Lucie nuclear plants. "Nuclear power produces no greenhouse gases, and that is vital as we all work to reduce carbon dioxide emissions that are at the heart of climate change concerns," FPL President Armando Olivera said in an August statement. "Moreover, adding more nuclear power will further diversify our fuel mix, which should contribute to increased price stability for our customers." The NRC received one formal nuclear reactor license application in September — its first in 29 years. It came from two companies that want to build two reactors in Texas, McIntyre said. NRG Energy Inc., of Princeton, N.J., and South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company of Bay City, Texas, filed the application, to build two reactors that will produce 2,700 megawatts of electricity — enough to power up to two million homes, according to information from the companies. McIntyre said the NRC also hopes to begin its licensing review for the Yucca Mountain Central Repository in Nevada in June. The repository will store all nuclear waste produced by the nation's nuclear plants. The project, approved by Congress, has been held up by numerous court challenges filed by the state of Nevada. The NRC also hopes to hire 400 staff members to assist with the license review process, McIntyre said. The employees would replace an estimated 200 workers who soon will retire as well as add another 200 people to work on each proposed project's license review, McIntyre said. "It's a good time to be studying physics, geology, hydrogeology, mechanical engineering and nuclear engineering," he added. He called energy legislation that became law in 2005 a catalyst for the industry, though momentum was building for quite some time before then, he said. The bill's incentives included a 1.8-cent-per-kilowatt-hour production tax credit for electricity made by new nuclear power. The bill also provides for insurance to protect investors if litigation causes unexpected delays for a project. Some recent nationwide polls show more Americans are more willing than in the past to give nuclear power a chance. For example, a Bloomberg-Los Angeles Times poll between July 28 and Aug. 1, 2006 showed 61 percent supported more nuclear power, compared to 30 percent who opposed it and 9 percent who were unsure. The poll involved telephone interviews with 1,478 adults and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent. A CBS-New York Times poll released on June 1 showed 51 percent of those questioned supported the construction of nuclear plants, compared to 42 percent who opposed it and 7 percent who were unsure. The poll, taken from April 20 to April 24, involved telephone interviews with 1,052 people and had a margin of error of plus or minus of 3 percentage points. Sterling Burnett, a senior fellow focusing on the environment and energy for the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas, Texas, said the Northeast traditionally has been cool to the idea of adding more nuclear power. New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch and Maine Gov. John Baldacci, both Democrats, previously have said they wouldn't support expanding plants or building new ones in their states. Democratic New Hampshire Congresswoman Carol Shea Porter also indicated this week that she favors the development of alternative energy, such as wind and solar power, over nuclear energy. "People in my district fought long and bitterly to keep Seabrook from being built, and they would not accept any expansion there,"she said in a statement. "Today, we are still partly dependent upon nuclear power, but our nation needs to find clean, safe, reliable, and renewable sources of energy." Seabrook Station has operated since 1990. It is licensed to have two nuclear reactors, but has only one. Company officials have said they don't plan to bring a second reactor online. The plant generates 1,220 megawatts of electricity, enough to power up to two million homes. In Maine, Maine Yankee was located on Montsweag Bay in Wiscasset and was the state's top generator of electricity for 25 years, according to the company. Maine Yankee had a federal license to operate for 40 years, until 2008, but the plant's board of directors decided to close it in 1997. Burnett argues that renewable energy will not be enough to meet New England's future power needs and the region may have to accept more nuclear power. Meanwhile, states in the Southeast and West realize nuclear power is the best way to meet energy needs while cutting greenhouse gases, Burnett said. Robert M. Cook can be reached by calling 742-4455, ext. 5396 or via e-mail at bcookfosters.com. © 2007 Geo. J. Foster Company ***************************************************************** 5 Foster's Online: License extension in offing for Seabrook Station Dover, New Hampshire Sunday, October 14, 2007 By ROBERT M. COOK Staff Writer bcook@fosters.com Seabrook Station officials say they have no plans to bring a second nuclear reactor online, but they may apply to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to renew the power plant's license in the future. Al Griffin, a Seabrook Station spokesman, said the plant is in the 21st year of its 40-year license, which was granted in 1986. He said the plant's owners could apply for the renewal, but could not say when. But, he said, there are "no plans, and there is nothing on the horizon" regarding a second reactor, for which the plant already is licensed. David McIntyre, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman at the agency's headquarters in Rockland, Md., said Seabrook Station's license expires on Oct. 17, 2026. The plant's owner, Florida Power & Light Energy of Juno Beach, Fla., had not filed any letters of intent or applications for a license renewal as of Friday afternoon, McIntyre said. Renewal licenses extend a power plant's life by 20 years. The NRC has granted 42 reactor renewals so far, he said. "There's no restriction on the number of times they can renew, but no one has applied more than once," McIntyre said. The NRCrecommends nuclear plant operators begin the renewal process at least five years before the facility's current license expires. Some operators choose to give themselves much more lead time, McIntyre said. Several steps are required for a renewal. The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board holds a public hearing, giving all parties a chance to discuss why a plant should or should not have its license renewed. Federal regulators also examine the plant, including the safety of its emergency core cooling system, the condition of its reactor vessel and the piping in the cooling system, McIntyre said. If the NRC fails to finish the review process before the plant's license expires, the agency grants an exemption so the plant can keep operating until the review is done, he said. Until recently, a great deal of the NRC's work revolved around license renewals, he said. But the nuclear industry is seeing a resurgence, and the NRC will be busy reviewing new projects, McIntyre said. In September, the agency, for the first time in nearly 30 years, received an application to build new reactors. The NRC also expects to receive 21 applications through 2009 from companies seeking to build 32 reactors. Also, 15 firms are expected to apply to build uranium enrichment facilities to provide nuclear fuel, McIntyre said. Seabrook Station's parent company and a subsidiary plan to apply to build two more reactors at their Turkey Point complex in Florida by 2020, according to information provided by the businesses, the FPL Group Inc. and the Florida, Power & Light Company, a principal FPL Group subsidiary. Seabrook's second reactor site dome was deconstructed in 2005. Griffin said he believes support for nuclear energy never has been stronger than it is now. "There is nothing like experience, and the industry has matured and come a long way," he said. "It is gratifying to hear this growing support for nuclear energy and for Seabrook Station." But he would not speculate on whether New Hampshire citizens or the cities and towns in the plant's 10-mile radius would support a second reactor. Seabrook Station had to overcome four years of legal challenges between 1986 and 1990 before it got its operating license from the NRC, Griffith said. Thousands of protesters tried to block the plant's construction in the mid-1970s. Fifteen years after Seabrook Station began generating power, it has not had any problems, Griffith said. He called the station, which produces about 1,220 megawatts of power, New Hampshire's largest electricity producer. It can produce enough power for more than one million homes at peak efficiency, he estimated. Fred Welch, Hampton's town manager, said he thinks public attitudes about Seabrook Station have changed over the years. He said since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, people tend to be more concerned about the plant's security than its operation. Hampton's year-round population of 16,000 residents swells to as many as 100,000 during the summer at Hampton Beach, which overlooks Seabrook Station, Welch said. He served as Seabrook's town administrator for four years and said he lives near the plant. If Seabrook proposed building a second reactor, Welch said people likely "would be more receptive compared to 20, 30 years ago." "People are frightened about what's going to happen when the oil runs out," he said. Sandra Gravutis, executive director for the C-10 Research & Education Foundation in Newburyport, Mass., said anti-nuclear power groups like hers, the Seacoast Anti-Pollution League in Portsmouth and others would stage protest marches if Seabrook Station announced plans to build a second reactor. She said she's not sure how the general public would react. "The problem is that the industry has lulled the public to believe everything is fine," she said. "Unfortunately, it took 9-11 to bring this country to its knees and show how vulnerable we are." Her group continues to urge the State of New Hampshire to take notice of the stored nuclear waste Seabrook Station must keep on site until the Yucca Mountain Central Repository in Nevada is ready to receive it. The waste continues to be a tempting terrorist target, she said. Robert M. Cook can be reached by calling 742-4455, ext. 5396 or via e-mail at bcookfosters.com. © 2007 Geo. J. Foster Company ***************************************************************** 6 Detroit Free Press: Fermi 2 damage likely by workers FREEP.COM DTE officials rule out tampering October 13, 2007 BY ALEJANDRO BODIPO-MEMBA FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER The holes discovered in steam lines at the Fermi 2 nuclear power plant in Monroe County apparently were caused by workers doing regular maintenance, not from tampering as initially feared, according to an investigation. Several holes were discovered Thursday morning in steam-line pipes that relieve pressure in certain circumstances, according to officials. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Friday that tampering was initially considered as one of the potential causes. But an NRC official suggested that the likelihood of that was very small. The drilled holes were likely caused by workers who removed insulation from the pipes as part of regular maintenance."We don't normally talk about preliminary conclusions," said Viktoria Mitlyng, a spokeswoman for the NRC's Midwest regional office in Lisle, Ill. "But, obviously this is an unusual situation, and we want people to know what's happening so there is no panic." The findings were based on DTE Energy-led interviews of personnel and a mockup of the drilling work that was being performed. DTE officials said there were no safety concerns for workers at the facility or the public. Contact ALEJANDRO BODIPO-MEMBA at 313-222-5008 or abodipo@freepress.com. Copyright ©2007 the Detroit Free Press. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 7 FRENCHTOWN TWP: Low-level emergency declared at Fermi 2 plant * Freep.com Detroit Free Press October 12, 2007 BY NAOMI R. PATTON FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER Though a low-level emergency has been declared at the Fermi 2 nuclear power plant in Monroe County, DTE officials say there are no safety concerns to the public or workers, because the plant is closed for refueling. John Austerberry, DTE spokesman, said the plant, in Frenchtown Township a few miles north of Monroe, was offline since refueling began this month. The refueling, conducted every 18 months, takes four to five weeks and is expected to continue through November. Several drilled holes were found in steam lines associated with safety valves Thursday morning, while maintenance operations were conducted. The routine maintenance, including 2,300 individual tests, is done when the plant is refueled. The plant's staff of about 900 workers is supplemented by 1,400 workers during refueling and testing. The Fermi 2 plant, owned by DTE, generates 1,100 megawatts of electricity. The plant recently set a record for continuous power generation with 425 consecutive days. While the power plant is down for maintenance, DTE's other power plants around the state help make up for the loss of power. In August, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported that the Fermi 2 plant reactor was "operating within acceptable parameters." Copyright ©2007 the Detroit Free Press. All rights reserved. Users ***************************************************************** 8 toledoblade.com: Officials investigate DTE Energy's Fermi 2 'event' ; sabotage is ruled out Article published Saturday, October 13, 2007 ALSO ONLINE TODAY: Konop drafts resolution to monitor LCIC progress By TOM HENRY BLADE STAFF WRITER NEWPORT, Mich. — First, there was an Associated Press report of several unexplained holes drilled into steam pipes at DTE Energy’s Fermi 2 nuclear plant in northern Monroe County. Subsequent speculation raised the possibility of sabotage. Neither turned out to be true, although there was an incident that the plant’s operator, Detroit Edison Co., a DTE subsidiary, reported Thursday as an “unusual event” to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. That declaration, in itself, prompted the FBI’s involvement. But it wasn’t sabotage. And there was one hole accompanied by five indentations in the pipes, according to the utility. The NRC said the indentations were “of varying depths.” While the exact cause is yet to be determined, the incident could have been a slip-up on the part of an unidentified employee or contractor, officials said. Or, possibly, bad instructions. “We will complete our investigation and then determine what to do,” John Austerberry, a DTE spokesman for the plant, said. Joseph Piona, the Fermi 2 site vice president, said the hole and indentations appear to be related to drilling done during the removal of insulating material from the pipes. The damaged steam lines are associated with Fermi 2’s safety relief valves. Those valves are designed to relieve pressure in the plant’s reactor in the event of an emergency, according to a utility statement. The affected area is below the reactor in the plant’s primary containment shell, called drywell, where workers had been assigned tasks, Mr. Austerberry said. He said he was not sure if there was a single worker or multiple workers responsible for the damage. “Generally, the drywell gets opened pretty early in an outage. Workers coming and going are tracked,” he said. The damaged pipes will either be fixed or replaced before the plant resumes operation, he said. Damage discovered at the Fermi 2 plant is believed to be related to drilling done during the removal of some insulation. ( DETROIT NEWS ) The utility’s findings are considered preliminary and will be subject to NRC review to see if regulations were violated. No fine is likely unless the utility is caught withholding information from the government, said Viktoria Mitlyng, spokesman for the NRC’s Midwest regional office near Chicago. Detroit Edison, after consulting with the NRC, declared the event over last night. It is proceeding with Fermi 2’s scheduled refueling-and-maintenance outage that is expected to last at least into early November. The FBI accepts the preliminary explanation, said Kerry McCafferty, special agent and assistant spokesman for the FBI’s office in Detroit. The FBI will leave further investigation up to the NRC, he said. He acknowledged that the biggest question was put to rest by yesterday afternoon. The nuclear industry has spent billions of dollars on government directives to beef up security at each of the nation’s 104 nuclear plants since the terrorist events of Sept. 11, 2001. “Anytime you have something like [Thursday’s event] come up, there’s a myriad of possibilities,” Mr. McCafferty said. Fermi 2, which began commercial operation in 1988, is in the second week of its outage. It has about 2,300 workers on site doing hundreds of tasks, including 1,400 contractors. The damage was discovered during a routine inspection. Nuclear plants are shut down once every 18 to 24 months while one third of their reactor cores are refueled. Contact Tom Henry at:thenry@theblade.comor 419-724-6079. © 2007 The Blade. By using this service, you accept the terms of our privacy statement and our visitor agreement. Please read them. The Toledo Blade Company, 541 N. Superior St., Toledo, OH 43660 , (419) 724-6000 ***************************************************************** 9 toledoblade.com: Prosecution rests in trial of 2 Davis-Besse workers Article published Saturday, October 13, 2007 By TOM HENRY BLADE STAFF WRITER The government yesterday rested its case against two former Davis-Besse workers accused of covering up information about the Ottawa County nuclear plant's dangerous condition in the fall of 2001, when its old reactor head was on the verge of bursting and allowing radioactive steam to form. David Geisen of Wisconsin and Rodney N. Cook of Tennessee are both charged with lying to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as is Andrew Siemaszko of Texas. All three face up to five years in prison and separate $250,000 fines if convicted. Mr. Geisen, a former FirstEnergy Corp. engineer, and Mr. Cook, a contractor long associated with the plant, have been on trial in U.S. District Court in Toledo since Oct. 1. The trial for Mr. Siemaszko, another former FirstEnergy engineer, is to occur later. A defense motion to have the case dismissed because of a lack of evidence will be heard by Judge David Katz at 8:15 a.m. Thursday. If he lets the case to proceed, defense attorneys will begin calling witnesses at 9 a.m. Federal prosecutors get a chance to call rebuttal witnesses after the defense finishes. They have indicated a desire to call Mr. Siemaszko to the stand to testify against Mr. Geisen and Mr. Cook during that phase of the trial, a move that defense attorneys are challenging. The judge is expected to issue a ruling on that soon. The 10 women and six men who comprise the jury and its four alternatives are off until Thursday, because of a previously scheduled, three-day judicial commitment that begins Monday for Judge Katz. The trial is expected to continue into November. Mr. Siemaszko's trial likewise is expected to last three to five weeks. The two cases center on what the employees knew about Davis-Besse's reactor head when the NRC suspected something was amiss and wanted to shut the plant down for an emergency safety inspection by Dec. 31, 2001. FirstEnergy talked the agency into letting it continue operating until Feb. 16, 2002, a compromise the NRC said it later regretted. The utility wound up paying a record $33.5 million in fines for its failure to provide complete and accurate information as a corporation. Contact Tom Henry at: thenry@theblade.com or 419-724-6079. © 2007 The Blade. By using this service, you accept the terms of our privacy statement and our visitor agreement. Please read them. The Toledo Blade Company, 541 N. Superior St., Toledo, OH 43660 , (419) 724-6000 ***************************************************************** 10 Brattleboro Reformer: Nuke pollsters blanket state living by plants, NEI finds BRATTLEBORO, VT Nationwide, neighbors like By BOB AUDETTE, Reformer Staff Saturday, October 13 BRATTLEBORO -- People who live near a nuclear power plant who are comfortable with it being in their backyard outnumber those who are not so enamored of nuclear energy by a ratio of nearly 15 to one. But, cautioned one of the people who conducted a survey on behalf of the Nuclear Energy Institute, that's a nationwide attitude and is not representative of any single nuclear power plant in the country. "The general finding is that on average, nuclear power plant neighbors are very favorable to the their local plant," said Ann Bisconti, of Bisconti Research. "More favorable than the public at large." The Nuclear Energy Institute is a public information resource funded by the nuclear power industry. From late July through early August, Bisconti Research of Chevy Chase, Md., telephoned 1,152 people living within a 10-mile radius of nuclear power plants such as Vermont Yankee in Vernon. People in the area have also received phone calls from other pollsters, including the state's Department of Public Service and Charlton Research. A spokesman for Vermont Yankee confirmed Entergy, which owns and operates the power plant, had commissioned the Charlton survey. A call to Charlton Research was not returned for comment. "Entergy periodically conducts polling wherever it does business in the course of its business," said Rob Williams, spokesman for Vermont Yankee, which is owned and operated by Entergy. "It's a way to get an accurate read on public opinion." But Jim Matteau, the executive director of the Windham Regional Council and a member of an advisory committee that was established to review the questions in the DPS survey, said Entergy's claim that the timing of the surveys is just coincidence "is complete bull." "For (Entergy) to be doing a survey at the same time as the state is not only trying to shift public opinion in their favor, but also to confuse the whole thing," he said. "Entergy should be ashamed of the survey it has under way." The multiple surveys are causing some confusion around the state, said Stephen Wark, the DPS' director of consumer affairs. "The timing is unfortunate," he said. The Charlton survey is designed to sway people's opinions, said one man who received a call earlier this week. "Eighty percent were outright lies," said Bill McKim, of Dummerston. The other 20 percent, he said, "were misrepresentations." "I know this because I've been following all of the application procedures for Vermont Yankee," he said. Though he is not a member of local anti-nuclear groups such as the New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution and Citizen Awareness Network, McKim has contributed to them in the past. "It is not a poll," he said, and was not designed to solicit his opinion. "It was designed to sway my opinion with a barrage of statements supporting the nuke in the area." Another man who received a call from Charlton Research had a warning for people picking up their phones. "Be on guard that the questions they are asking are very much slanted to be in Entergy's favor promoting the license renewal," said Jake Stewart, of Brookfield, and a member of the New England Coalition. The Department of Public Service's survey is being conducted by that agency with the help of pollsters from the University of Texas and Stanford University, said Wark. "There are a lot of lobbyists and advocates out there," he said. "We wanted to hear what mainstream Vermonters had to say." The poll advisory committee included representatives from the utilities, the state's regulatory assistance project, alternative energy providers, the Vermont Public Interest Research Group and the Windham Regional Commission. "We really did our best to get as many people as we could to participate and help us design the questions so they weren't leading but were as open-ended as possible," said Wark. People will know they are getting a call from the DPS because the callers will identify themselves, he said. Though Wark has not seen the questions being asked by Charlton Research, "I've heard they are nothing like we are trying to do," he said. "I can assure you there are no push poll questions on our surveys." According to sourcewatch.org, "push polls are designed to shape, rather than measure, public opinion." Though the DPS survey questions are not available while the poll is being conducted, they will be open for public review once the process is done, said Wark. For her part, Bisconti said her polling was not designed to sway public opinion, but to collect information on people's attitudes about nuclear power. "The questions are very straightforward," said Bisconti, starting out with basic questions on nuclear energy and progressing to questions on its benefits. A telephone request to the Nuclear Energy Institute asking for a copy of the questions was not returned Friday. Bisconti's phone calls were made to homes within 10 miles of the 64 nuclear power plant sites in the country. The strength of the opinion in favor of nuclear power, she said, means those who live nearby are comfortable with having such a plant in their backyards. Those not in favor are a tiny minority, she said. "It's just a huge difference." The results of the Bisconti poll were not a surprise to Amanda Ibey, the executive director of Vermont Energy Partnership, which is comprised of more than 75 member organizations and professionals who support the license renewal of Vermont Yankee. "It reiterates the fact that people see the economic and environmental benefits associated with nuclear power," Ibey said Friday. "The majority of the people we talk with, the more they learn about nuclear power, especially as it relates to other sources, they are confident with it and feel it's an important piece of Vermont's electricity portfolio." The DPS polling is part of a three-piece effort by the DPS to find out what average Vermonters are thinking about energy policy. The project was initiated by the Legislature and Gov. James Douglas "to get a good idea of what Vermonters want to do when it comes to replacing the energy contracts of Vermont Yankee and Hydro Quebec," said Wark. DPS has scheduled workshops around the state to discuss Vermont's Energy Future, with the closest to Brattleboro being Oct. 29 in the cafeteria of Howard Dean Education Center at 307 South St. in Springfield. Registration is required at 802-828-2332 or www.raabassociates.org-/WebComponents/vtsignup/welcome.htm DPS is also designing a Web site on energy that will soon be ready for the public input. The telephone survey the department is conducting will poll 600 Vermonters, 200 of whom will be chosen to spend an all-expense paid weekend at the University of Vermont to take part in seminars and discussions about Vermont's energy future. Bob Audette can be reached at raudette@reformer.com or 802-254-2311, ext. 273. ***************************************************************** 11 York Dispatch: PSU still searching for minor leak at nuclear reactor THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Article Last Updated: 10/13/2007 06:56:19 AM EDT STATE COLLEGE -- Penn State workers searching for what the university called a minor leak of "slightly radioactive water" from a pool at the school's nuclear research reactor plan to drain part of the pool to try to find the problem. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan said Friday that the university has 15 people working on the leak discovered Tuesday and is looking to bring in outside help. University officials have said that the leak in the 71,000-gallon pool that shields the core's radiation and cools the reactor poses no risk to students, employees, the community or the environment. Someone drinking the contaminated water for a year would be exposed to only half the amount of radiation deemed safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and less than half the amount received from a conventional X-ray, the university said in a statement. The reactor is used for research by nuclear engineering undergraduate and graduate students and by 20 to 30 other departments on campus but does not produce electricity, according to the reactor facility's Web site. Research reactors use fuel that is less radioactive than that used in commercial power reactors, and also less fuel overall than power reactors. For instance, Penn State's fuel can generate about 1 megawatt of heat, while the amount of heat generated by a typical commercial power reactor would be about 3,000 megawatts, according to the NRC. While oversight is required at research facilities, the guidelines aren't as stringent as for power reactors, Sheehan said. --- On the Net: Breazeale Nuclear Reactor: http://www.rsec.psu.edu/index.html © 2005-2007 Copyright The York Dispatch ***************************************************************** 12 Business Journal: Xcel to reintegrate nuclear operations - Minneapolis / St. Paul Friday, October 12, 2007 - 2:39 PM CDT Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal - by Carissa Wyant Staff Writer Xcel Energy Inc. said Friday it plans to reintegrate nuclear operations into its energy supply business unit. Minneapolis-based Xcel (NYSE: XEL) said that under the plan, it would apply to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to transfer the operating licenses for the Prairie Island and Monticello nuclear plants from Nuclear Management Co. to its operating utility, Northern States Power Co.-Minnesota. NMC was formed by NSP-Minnesota, now an Xcel Energy subsidiary, and several other utilities in 1999. It began operating nuclear plants in 2000. Xcel said in a press release that the move comes in the wake of We Energies' recent sale of Point Beach Nuclear Plant to FPL Energy. Under terms of that deal, the Point Beach plant's operating license was transferred from NMC to FPL, which left Xcel Energy as the sole member of NMC. The company said that NMC will continue operating its's Prairie Island and Monticello plants until the NRC approves the license transfers, which it is expecting will happen in 2008. Xcel further detailed that after the license transfers are complete, NMC employees will become employees of Xcel, and the NMC headquarters in Hudson, Wis., will move to Xcel's Minneapolis office. cwyant@bizjournals.com | (612) 288-2108 Contact the Editor Need Assistance? More Latest News Bizjournals: © 2007 American City Business Journals, Inc. and its ***************************************************************** 13 dailypress.com: NRC to meet Oct. 24 on North Anna reactor -- October 14, 2007 By the Associated Press LOUISA, Va. - Federal regulators will conduct a public meeting this month on an application that could open the door to a third nuclear reactor at North Anna Power Station. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission meeting is scheduled for Oct. 24 at Louisa County Middle School. "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. Dominion Virginia Power, a subsidiary of the Richmond Energy company Dominion, is among the power companies nationwide that are wading back into the nuclear pool after virtually abandoning the power source following Three Mile Island and the huge cost increases for New Hampshire's Seabrook nuclear power plant. The NRC has predicted that nationwide the regulatory agency will get new combined construction and operating license applications for as many as 29 reactors at 20 sites, most in the South, over the next three years. The NRC is training hundreds of workers to process the 19 applications expected through 2009. Dominion's early site permit application--the first step in the review process--is amid the federal regulatory process. The NRC is expected to make a decision on that by early next year. The permit would allow Dominion to resolve environmental and safety issues, and to complete preliminary site work. Dominion officials say they have not yet decided whether to build a new reactor at North Anna, but that they want that option. If the early-site permit and the combined operating-license applications are approved, construction could begin as early as 2015. The applications are opposed by several environmental groups. They say another reactor is unnecessary at a time when utilities should be exploring alternative energy sources, and would present a new target for terrorists. A citizens group on the lake has expressed concerns about increased water temperatures and how that would affect aquatic life and recreational use. The Lake Anna area, where the North Anna Power Station is situated, is bordered by Spotsylvania, Louisa and Orange counties. Surrounded by thousands of homes, it is a recreational draw in central Virginia. Copyright © 2007, Newport News, Va., Daily Press ***************************************************************** 14 AFP: Nuclear reactors for sale: France vies for big stake in industry revival - Sunday October 14, 02:13 PM FLAMANVILLE, France (AFP) - On a strip of France's Channel coast, cranes, trucks and cement silos are hard at work preparing the world's most powerful nuclear reactor and showcase of French atomic savoir-faire. In two months, workers in Flamanville will pour the first concrete for the third-generation EPR, or European Pressurized Reactor, touted as the safest and cleanest addition to France's network of 58 nuclear reactors. With more than 80 percent of its electricity generated by nuclear plants, France sees itself as a model for successfully putting the atom at work toward producing carbon-free and relatively cheap power. More than two decades after Chernobyl shook the world's faith in nuclear power, France is vying to lead a worldwide revival of the nuclear industry as worries about global warming and rising energy prices have brought fission back in fashion. President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has described nuclear power as the "energy of the future", stood up at the United Nations last month and delivered what was tantamount to a sales pitch for French nuclear technology. "France is willing to help any country which wants to acquire civilian nuclear power. An energy source for the future should not be the preserve of western countries and out of reach of eastern countries," Sarkozy declared. Such promotion at the top world body is music to the ears of France's nuclear conglomerate Areva which builds reactors, mines uranium and provides fuel as well as utilities giant Electricite de France, which operates France's nuclear plants. "We have been running nuclear power plants for 30 years in France and there have been no major incident," said Goulven Graillat, the head of industrial strategy at EDF. "If a country choses the EPR, it is getting the sum of EDF's experience running its 58 reactors," said Graillat. "We have 4,000 engineers working on designs - that's our strength." When Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung visited France this month, he asked for a tour of a nuclear plant at Nogent-sur-Seine and later received an offer of help from Sarkozy to build the communist country's first reactor. Vietnam, along with Morocco, Indonesia, Chile, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates are on the list of prospective new buyers of French-designed nuclear reactors, said Arthur de Montalembert, vice president for international affairs and marketing at Areva. Areva is preparing for big business in the United States where it has partnered with Constellation Energy to build some of the 15 planned new reactors, in China, which wants to put 40 new reactors on-line by 2020 and in South Africa. It is building a third-generation EPR in Finland, upgrading a German-designed reactor in Brazil and is actively seeking a stake in reviving Britain's outdated nuclear infrastructure in a venture with EDF. India -- which like China is seeking to tap into new energy sources to feed its dynamic economy -- is also on the list of prospective new markets where "dozens of reactors" could dot the landscape in the coming years, said Montalembert. "We are obviously on the frontlines to try to win over markets in these countries," he said. Montalembert dismissed fears that any new buyer could put his nuclear reactor to work producing material for a bomb, emphasizing that a whole separate gamut of enrichment technology would be needed for such a venture. "Of course we are not going to build a reactor just anywhere," said Montalembert during an interview at Areva headquarters in Paris. "We are looking at countries that have the capacity to host this type of reactor, that have a nuclear safety authority that is able to regulate its operation and abide by international regulations in terms of nonproliferation." France's decision to make nuclear energy its main source of electricity dates back to 1973 when the Middle East oil shock sent prices soaring and forced the government to seek alternate sources. It now exports about 15 percent of nuclear-generated electricity to neighbouring countries. When it comes on line in 2012, the Flamanville EPR will produce 36 percent more power than its older sisters and boast added security features such as a double haul that EDF maintains could resist a terrorist attack. But in his home less than five kilometers from the new plant, anti-nuclear activist Didier Anger says talk of France leading a worldwide comeback of the atom is nothing but hype. "The EPR could very well be the next Concorde," he said of the technology, comparing it to the supersonic jet that was mothballed in 2003 after 34 years in the skies. A disastrous crash and high-maintenance costs brought the Concorde to its end. A former Green euro-MP now active for the group "Sortir du nucleaire" (End Nuclear Power), Anger noted that France had yet to resolve the issue of the long-term storage of nuclear waste. A law adopted last year set 2015 as the deadline for deciding what to do with processed waste. But Anger admitted that he and like-minded colleagues are a "minority" in Normandy, which draws its economic lifeline as much from the nuclear industry as it does from cows whose milk is made into the gourmet Camembert cheese. Other than the Flamanville power plant, a nuclear waste processing site at La Hague and the Cherbourg naval dockyard -- where nuclear submarines, the pride of the French navy, were built -- are major employers in the region. "Everyone knows what nuclear power is about and they have no apprehensions," said Philippe Leigne, the manager of the construction site at Flamanville. "Everyone knows someone who works in the industry." Leigne said he spares no effort to meet with local politicians and community leaders to discuss his work -- an approach that seeks to dispel the image of the nuclear industry as cloaked in military secrecy. "No one would necessarily want a reactor in their backyard," said EDF's Graillat. "But in the interest of the country's energy needs and of the planet, it's not an unreasonable proposition to look at a renewal of nuclear energy." ***************************************************************** 15 UPI: Report: Israeli raid targeted nuke reactor - UPI.com Published: 13, 2007 at 9:20 PM WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- An Israeli air strike on Syria last month was aimed at a site believed to be a nuclear reactor under construction, The New York Times reported Saturday. U.S. analysts said the reactor was years away from producing spent fuel that could be used for extracting plutonium for nuclear weapons. The strike suggests that Israel wanted to kill any Syrian nuclear program and may have wanted to send a warning message to Iran. Syria has not admitted the target was a reactor, with President Bashar al-Assad calling it "related to the military." The Bush administration is split on the wisdom of the Israeli raid, the newspaper said. Under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Syria does not have to report reactors at the beginning of construction and has the right to build reactors for power generation. “There wasn’t a lot of debate about the evidence,” one U.S. official told the Times. “There was a lot of debate about how to respond to it.” © Copyright United Press International. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 16 UPI: Report: Israel hit Syrian nuclear site - UPI.com Published: 14, 2007 at 9:04 AM WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- Israel entered Syrian airspace last month to attack a nuclear facility far from completion, The New York Times reported Sunday. The partially built reactor apparently was modeled on one North Korea built to stockpile fuel for atomic weapons, U.S. and foreign intelligence officials told the Times. The Sept. 6 attack was similar to a raid in 1981 when Israeli jets destroyed the Osirak atomic reactor in Iraq before it could begin operating. Bush administration officials have said that attack set back Iraq's nuclear plan by years. What remains unclear is the role of North Korea in providing nuclear assistance to Syria and whether Syria could make the case the facility was intended to produce electricity rather than aid a weapons program, the Times reported. Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, has said only that Israeli jets bombed an unused building “related to the military.” © Copyright United Press International. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 17 Daily Herald: Vexed by thorium, looking for help West Chicago residents running out of options By Rupa Shenoy | Daily Herald Staff Contact writer Published: 10/14/2007 5:59 AM Doroteo and Paula Garza were planning to spend a lifetime in their West Chicago home, a block away from the former Kerr-McGee Co. factory where Doroteo worked for decades. Over the past five months, the elderly couple watched across their small backyard as a neighbor, Sandy Riess, struggled to prove that radioactive, cancer-causing thorium remains on her property. They saw Riess and her husband move out a month ago after radioactive levels 300 times what's considered safe were discovered. The Garzas also got a letter telling them that their land might have to be dug up for the third time in three decades to clean possible residual contamination from the Kerr-McGee factory. Tronox, the successor to Kerr-McGee, paid for two cleanups in the 1980s and 1990s. Now the Garzas feel trapped on property they believe is worthless -- and may even be dangerous. And they don't see much reason for optimism. Even though she's out of her home, Riess is spending $179 a night for a hotel room. Meanwhile, an appeal by the Garza family for help from the city has gone unanswered. "They're not going to go through this three times," said Dolores Baker, 60, one of the Garzas' five children. "We won't let them." Search for answers Other homeowners soon may find themselves in the same situation. Five years after the residual radioactive contamination came to light, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it's ready to make its first report to homeowners about "progress on evaluation" of the 117 properties that might be affected, including the Garza home. A joint letter from the EPA and city will invite specific residents to the meeting planned for 6 p.m. Oct. 30 at city hall. The presentation will address the testing of basements, where the Riess' contamination was found. Previous owners of the Riess home didn't want the basement examined. Other residents made the same choice. But the Garzas say they repeatedly requested testing inside their home. EPA representatives told them it wasn't needed. "By the time of the meeting, we will know which of those 117 properties did or did not have their basements tested previously," EPA spokesman Mick Hans said. Waiting for help Riess and her husband, Rich, now are living with their two dogs in a local two-bedroom hotel suite. Their lawyer, Mark Sargis, wants Tronox to agree to pay for the couple's living expenses before signing an access agreement that will allow the company to examine the Riess home. With negotiations dragging on and bills mounting, Sargis said he may ask for an EPA mediator to step in. "How can a homeowner give open-ended access without addressing what's important to them or knowing specifically what Tronox is going to provide?" Sargis said. "We're waiting for them to do the right thing here. I hope this same long process doesn't drag on for 116 other property owners." Tronox spokeswoman Debbie Schramm said the company moved fewer than 10 families out of their homes during the previous two cleanups in West Chicago. Under company policy, residents are relocated when cleanups impede access to their home or workers literally have to lift the building to get at thorium underneath, she said. During past West Chicago cleanups, six homes were purchased for "various reasons," Schramm said, and "each situation was unique." As yet, Tronox doesn't know if those conditions apply in the Riess home because the family hasn't signed the access agreement, Schramm said. "I couldn't speculate on the future," Schramm said. "No one asked (the Riesses) to move out of the house. The EPA didn't indicate they should move out of the house." However, EPA officials say that isn't the agency's role. West Chicago Mayor Mike Kwasman said that he wasn't worried yet about what the Riess' situation might mean for the owners of other properties where contamination could be found. "The city will take a position at that time, once we find out more data," Kwasman said. Muted public outcry Kwasman said that the Thorium Action Group, a resident organization whose protests sparked an EPA-supervised cleanup in the 1990s, is happy with the way the city has been handling the situation. Over the past few months, TAG leaders have declined to comment to the news media. Meanwhile, residents aren't complaining about the issue to city officials, Kwasman said. "I think people feel confident that they're safe from the past years and years and years of going through this," he said. The Garzas haven't spoken publicly because they always have lived quiet lives, Baker said. But months ago, Baker called city hall and left a message for the mayor. She says she still is waiting for a reply. "We're still hoping that they do right by our parents," she said. Copyright © 2007 Daily Herald Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy ***************************************************************** 18 MHNN: House members ask NRC to track Indian Point flaws in license renewal Covering the Hudson to the Catskills! October 13-14, 2007 Copyright © 2007 Mid-Hudson News Network, a division of Statewide Washington – Four Hudson Valley House members Friday asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to review the environmental impacts of the Indian Point nuclear power plants when considering Entergy’s application for new licenses for the two facilities in Buchanan. House Members John Hall, Maurice Hinchey, Eliot Engel and Nita Lowey told the NRC they had “serious concerns” regarding Indian Point’s application for a license renewal citing its recent history of radioactive leakages and its aging infrastructure. “The environmental impacts of Indian Point on public health, local environmental resources, and water quality are very serious concerns that must be fully scrutinized during the license reapplication process,” they wrote in a letter to the NRC. Entergy, the company that owns the Indian Point nuclear facilities, is applying for a 20-year extension of its licenses to operate the plants. The Congress members cited the recent leakages of radioactive material migrating to the Hudson River, the thermal pollution that the plant causes on the Hudson by using its water to cool the reactors, the safety and security concerns arising from the plant’s proximity to the metropolitan area with its millions of residents, and the inadequacy of its storage of radioactive materials as considerations the NRC should take into account in drawing up its Environmental Impact Statement format. HEAR today's news on MidHudsonRadio.com, the Hudson Valley's only Internet radio news report. ***************************************************************** 19 San Luis Obispo Countys website: State allots more funds for Diablo disaster response 10/14/2007 | By David Sneed A bill signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday increases emergency planning and response funding for Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant by nearly 65 percent. The bill by Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo, renews the state’s Nuclear Planning Assessment Special Account through 2019. It also increases the account’s budget for Diablo Canyon from nearly $1.1 million to more than $1.7 million. The money is provided by Pacific Gas and Electric ratepayers and was set to expire in 2009. It is used to develop and maintain emergency response plans for dealing with a radiological release at Diablo Canyon. “This funding will ensure that the county has the resources necessary to discharge its critical public safety responsibilities,” Blakeslee said. “We learned from (Hurricane) Katrina that a failure to plan is no different than a plan to fail.” The increase in funds was requested by San Luis Obispo County emergency planners, who are responsible for coordinating any emergency response. It will be used to improve coordination with local schools, health agencies, community centers and first responders. For example, some of the funds will be used by the San Luis Obispo Fire Department to conduct a drill with the city’s emergency operations center. The bill also renews funding for emergency planning at the state’s other operating nuclear power plant, the San Onofre nuclear generating station, near the Orange and San Diego county line. ***************************************************************** 20 AFP: Israel attacked unfinished Syrian nuclear reactor - report Sun Oct 14, 11:46 AM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - Israel bombed a site in Syria last month that Israeli and US intelligence believe was a partly built nuclear reactor possibly modeled after one in North Korea, The New York Times said Sunday. If the North Korean link is confirmed, that would complicate disarmament talks with the Stalinist state, officials said. Citing unnamed US and foreign officials with access to the intelligence reports, the report said it appeared Israel carried out the September 6 raid to demonstrate its determination to snuff out even a nascent nuclear project in a neighboring state. A senior Israeli official told the newspaper the strike was intended to "re-establish the credibility of our deterrent power." Several US officials said Israel may also have intended to send a similar signal to Iran regarding its nuclear aspirations. Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad has said only that the target was an "unused military building" and that the bombs hit "nothing of consequence." The administration of President George W. Bush was divided about the strike, the paper said, and some senior policymakers still regard it as premature and fear the repercussions. "There wasn't a lot of debate about the evidence," the paper quoted a US official as saying of the discussions between the US and Israel. "There was a lot of debate about how to respond to it." The facility that the Israelis struck in Syria appears to have been much further from completion than the Osirak nuclear reactor that Israel destroyed in Iraq in 1981, the paper said. Officials said it would have been years before the Syrians could have used the reactor to produce the spent nuclear fuel that could, through a series of additional steps, be reprocessed into bomb-grade plutonium. North Korea has long provided military assistance to Syria, but any help in building a reactor would have marked the first clear evidence of ties between the two countries on a nuclear program. Such cooperation would complicate multi-national talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program. After the North Koreans conducted a nuclear test last year, Bush warned "the transfer of nuclear weapons or material by North Korea to state or non-state entities would be considered a grave threat to the United States, and we would hold North Korea fully accountable." US and foreign officials, however, would not confirm whether they believed the North Koreans sold or gave the plans to the Syrians, The New York Times reported. Senator John McCain, a runner in the Republican White House race, said the report raised questions about North Korea's trustworthiness as the difficult talks on disarming its nuclear program continue. "I really do believe that it argues... to make sure that any agreement we make with North Korea is a lot better than the one that failed under the Clinton administration," he said on CBS television Sunday. North Korea previously shut down the Yongbyon reactor under a 1994 agreement clinched during the US administration of president Bill Clinton. McCain said he would continue the present negotiations but press for "iron-clad agreements that have no loopholes whatsoever," calling also for China to exert more pressure on its North Korean ally. In Washington and Israel, the raid has been shrouded in secrecy and information restricted to few officials. Israeli media has been allowed to publish only the fact that a raid occurred without comment from Israeli officials. Visiting the region Sunday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice again refused to comment. Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 21 Deccan Herald: UPA govt ready to dump N-deal Saturday, October 13, 2007 UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made it clear they would not go to the extent of sacrificing the UPA government and force a snap poll for the sake of the Indo-US nuclear deal. Curtains came down on the intense mid-term poll speculation in the capital’s corridors of power on Friday. UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made it clear they would not go to the extent of sacrificing the UPA government and force a snap poll for the sake of the Indo-US nuclear deal. Speaking from the same Leadership Summit platform organised by the Hindustan Times in the national capital, the two leaders virtually together completed a U-turn on the nuclear deal-v/s-snap poll debate that for weeks that threatened the stability of the UPA government, preferring to settle for government stability. “No, we are not in favour of early elections. As the Prime Minister has said, the deadline is 2009 (for the next elections). We are going to do all that we can to see that we implement our programmes till 2009,” Ms Gandhi said. The Prime Minister, who has invested so much of his personal prestige and the prestige of his government on taking forward the nuclear deal to its logical conclusion, retracted thus: “We are not a one-issue government. If the (nuclear) deal does not come through, it will be a disappointment. It is not the end of the road… But in life one has to live with certain disappointment and move on.” The prime minister made it clear that he was not in favour of forcing an election over the nuclear issue which would be virtually the case as the Left partners have made it clear they would withdraw support if he went ahead with the nuclear deal. “Elections are still far away. The government has still one-and-a-half years to go to complete its term. I hope and expect we will stay the course,” Dr Singh said. Nor does the Prime Minister entertain the idea of quitting if he cannot operationalise the deal. When asked, in the course of a question-answer session at the meet, whether he would quit if the deal did not materialise, his response was: “It is a suggestion for action.” Ms Gandhi’s and Dr Singh’s comments have come as the clearest indication of the UPA government’s backtracking on the deal as their allies within the UPA have lately joined the Left partners to affect a nuclear pause to avoid snap polls which nobody is seemingly ready to fight now. Ms Gandhi, in fact, extended her conciliatory course correction a little further, assuring the Left that the Congress would “take note” of their political sensibilities. “They (the Left) have certain ideology, they have some views. They are merely stating their views. We have to understand their views and take note of what they say,” she said. “There is no softening of stance but we certainly don’t want to confront our partners. The dharma of coalition is not confrontation. We have explained ourselves on this. We are still trying to arrive at a consensus,” she said, adding, “This is just another issue and should not be seen as a be all and end off of this government.” Yet, the Prime Minister maintained that the deal was an “honourable” one and would be for the good for India. “I have not given up hope (that the Left would come around)… In politics we must survive short term battles to address long-term concerns,” he said, adding the he has been trying to appeal to the good sense of the Left”. Publicly, the Congress denied that the leadership had made a U-turn. Privately, leaders admitted as much when they dropped hints that the nuclear issue could be revisited in December depending on the outcome of Gujarat polls. Copyright 2007, The Printers (Mysore) Private Ltd., 75, M.G. Road, Post Box No 5331, Bangalore - 560001 Tel: +91 (80) 25880000 Fax No. +91 (80) 25880523 ***************************************************************** 22 Hindustan Times: Supreme Court dismisses N-deal petition- New Delhi, October 13, 2007 New Delhi: The Supreme Court dismisses a petition seeking Parliament's approval before going ahead with the agreement on Indo-US nuclear deal saying it was a policy matter not to be examined by it. Bangalore: Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy decides to resign after a blunt message from the Governor that he had no numbers to prove his majority and may better step down. Tuesday New Delhi: Karnataka is brought under central rule after collapse of the JD(S)-BJP coalition government with a Presidential proclamation that kept the state assembly in suspended animation. Mumbai: Treading cautiously on the Indo-US nuke deal, visiting IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei says it is "ready" for talks on safeguards whenever India approaches it but remained non-committal over the sensitive issue figuring in parleys with Indian leaders. Wednesday New Delhi: Assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh will be held in two phases on December 11 and 16 and November 11 and December 19 respectively, the Election Commission announces, slightly advancing the schedule in the hill state on account of weather conditions. New Delhi: Amid continued opposition by Left parties to Indo-US nuclear deal, IAEA chief Mohammad El Baradei says there was no deadline for negotiating the safeguards agreement with India and the agency would wait till the "domestic political dialogue" gets over here. New Delhi: In a major reprieve to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, the Supreme Court dismisses an application challenging the refusal of the State Governor to sanction her prosecution in the Rs 175-crore Taj corridor case. ***************************************************************** 23 The Telegraph: DMK boss pats party for N-truce Calcutta : Nation Chennai, Oct. 14 (PTI): DMK chief M. Karunanidhi today said his party had played a major role in ensuring that the UPA and the Left did not part ways over the Indo-US nuclear deal. The DMK was one of the parties responsible for the ?good decision?, the Tamil Nadu chief minister said in a statement a day after congratulating Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi for their comments on the deal and coalition dharma. Karunanidhi, whose DMK is part of the UPA, also told a television channel: ?Frankly, the deal is not important. The government is important. ?I had doubts about the deal. So I spoke for the Left. I shared communist parties? ideas with the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi.? The DMK chief said the UPA and the Left ?should serve the nation for the remaining two years?. The UPA and the Left should stay alert to protect the country from ?communal forces?, the statement added, and thanked everyone who had worked to avert mid-term elections. Copyright © 2006 The Telegraph. All rights reserved. Disclaimer | ***************************************************************** 24 The Telegraph: Nuclear detour, the untold story Calcutta : Frontpage | Monday, October 15, 2007 | Advertise with us - Tactical shift not because of Left but to sidestep non-proliferation trap K.P. NAYAR Washington, Oct. 14: The Indo-US nuclear deal is not dead. Contrary to the general perception, there is not even any slowdown in the operationalisation of the deal based on political considerations. According to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) sources in Vienna, India has concluded that it wants to put off signing an additional protocol and safeguards agreements with the IAEA. In ?informal? discussions, Indians in charge of operationalising the deal have told IAEA officials that they will sign these two documents only after the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) finds a way to allow its members to engage in nuclear commerce with India followed by an absolute certainty that the US Congress will vote for the 123 Agreement successfully negotiated between Washington and New Delhi. This change in strategy is not because the Left parties appeared at one stage to have pushed the Manmohan Singh government to the wall, according to Indian officials who have been involved in the Vienna talks, a view that is shared by IAEA officials who have no interest or stake in India?s domestic political developments. They said it became clear that India would be burning its boats if it blindly went ahead and signed an additional protocol and safeguards agreements with the UN?s nuclear watchdog without an exit route that took into account the constantly changing global non- proliferation environment and the US domestic political situation. This realisation came from the challenge that under New Delhi?s ?separation plan? to facilitate the deal and the subsequent 123 Agreement, India has to put its civilian nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards in perpetuity. That means if India signs the two IAEA agreements and then the NSG refuses to change its rules, not only the UPA government, but any future government will be trapped under intrusive oversight of its nuclear facilities while the global nuclear cartel continues its apartheid against New Delhi. It could be worse if the US Congress rejects the 123 Agreement after India is stuck with new commitments to the IAEA, which it has avoided for decades. Unlike India — which is not recognised internationally as a nuclear weapons state — the US, China, Russia and other recognised nuclear weapons states are allowed to withdraw any of their facilities from any dealings with the IAEA under the protocol for such states. Officials at the IAEA, which is a natural hot-bed for non-proliferation ayatollahs, would like India?s agreements with the nuclear watchdog to be under ?INFCIRC 153? which governs the commitments of non-nuclear weapons states to the IAEA. Although IAEA director-general Mohamed ElBaradei is extremely sympathetic to India, it is the non-proliferation hawks who populate the organisation that officials from Trombay and South Block have to deal with for negotiations. This situation is an exact repeat of the scenario in Washington where President George W. Bush was all for India while his negotiators on the ground unsuccessfully tried for over a year to tie India down in a 123 Agreement that would have frozen India?s nuclear programme. India would like its dealings with the IAEA to be governed by ?INFCIRC 66?, which was the basis for facility-specific safeguards in Tarapur, Kudankulam and even the Nuclear Fuel Complex in Hyderabad when it reprocesses spent fuel in what is known in nuclear parlance as ?campaign mode? under temporary safeguards. New Delhi also does not want any references to further nuclear testing or return of equipment in the event of testing in any agreement. With all these speedbreakers coming up, there is a realisation within the government that talks with the IAEA are going to be as tough and time-consuming as the 123 negotiations which repeatedly took the nuclear deal to the brink of extinction. Expediently, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have, however, used these genuine difficulties in proceeding with the atomic agency to give an impression to the Left parties that the government is going slow on negotiations with the IAEA to take their concerns into account. A clear indication that talks with the IAEA would take time came last Monday when South Block transferred India?s governor to the IAEA Board, Sheel Kant Sharma, out of Vienna. Sharma, who is being replaced by Saurabh Kumar, now ambassador to Ireland, had earlier been asked to stay on in the hope that talks with the IAEA could be wrapped up latest by November. Copyright © 2006 The Telegraph. All rights reserved. Disclaimer | ***************************************************************** 25 Montreal Gazette: Renewed emphasis on nuclear power brings No Nuke stars back together 28 years later BERNIE WOODALL, Reuters Published: Saturday, October 13 Nearly three decades after they banded together for a series of No Nukes concerts that yielded an album and movie, musicians Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and Graham Nash have revived their protest against nuclear power. No new concerts are planned, but the three reunited in a new YouTube video released Thursday and, Raitt said in a telephone interview, they are spearheading a drive to collect signatures for a petition calling on U.S. senators to kill a plan to give about $50 billion in loan guarantees to the nuclear power industry, . The three, along with Keb' Mo' and Ben Harper, issued a remake of the 1960s protest song, For What It's Worth. The song is known for its punch line, "Stop, children. What's that Sound? Everybody look what's going down." Raitt said that protests against nuclear power have ebbed since she and others, including Bruce Springsteen, Carly Simon and james Taylor, headlined the No Nukes concerts in 1979 at Madison Square Garden in New York. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expecting 17 companies to file to build about 31 new reactors in the next two years. There are 104 operating U.S. reactors now. She said opposition to nuclear power has been hushed mainly because there was no rallying point with the stalled nuclear industry plans for new plants. "It hasn't been an issue. Now that there is a bill to have the people fund nuclear power, we're once again the town criers," said Raitt. Nash said he is speaking out now because: "The nuclear power industry is raising its head once more under the guise that it can help global warming. It's a lot more complex than that. Nothing is ever easy about nuclear power." Nuclear Energy Institute spokesman Mitchell Singer, advocate for the industry, said in a telephone interview that a main selling point for a nuclear renaissance is that reactors emit no greenhouse gases while fossil fuel power plants do, especially those that burn coal. Singer said the nuclear industry supports solar, wind, biomass and geothermal power, but if the United States wants to lower carbon emissions soon, it must build nuclear power plants that can provide utility-scale baseload power, which is the promise but not yet the reality for renewable power technologies. Singer said he owns and likes the No Nukes album but "The upside of nuclear power is so big and so positive that we can deal with these issues." © The Gazette (Montreal) 2007 ***************************************************************** 26 Epoch Times: Nuclear Power's New Dawn Caylan Ford and Matthew Little Epoch Times Staff Oct 13, 2007 Nuclear power’s rise to popularity hasn’t been a smooth ride. For countries that supply the world’s uranium, heightened demand has stirred up old battles over land and environment. (Photos.com) Once synonymous with cash pits, bureaucratic incompetence and environmental disasters, nuclear is now experiencing a resurgence in popularity around the world, sending demand for uranium sky-high. That’s big news for uranium-rich countries like Canada, which produces 28 percent of the world’s uranium supply. But the heightened demand has also stirred up controversies in Canada, where some are still nervous about the environmental and political implications. In total 13 countries are in the process of building new nuclear reactors. According to the World Nuclear Association, more than 34 reactors are currently under construction, 81 are planned, and over 223 more are being proposed. For the first time since 1978, the American Nuclear Regulatory Commission is receiving applications for new plants, and a flood of them, at that. The commission expects to receive five applications in 2007 and 14 more in 2008. The British government is breathing new life into its aging nuclear power industry and making it easier to build new reactors by removing legal and bureaucratic barriers. Several other European countries such Finland and France are actively pursuing their nuclear programs with new reactors. China expects to quadruple its nuclear power output by 2020; and India and Russia also have major expansion plans. Even in Australia, which has shunned nuclear power in spite of being one of the world’s largest uranium suppliers, Prime Minister John Howard has conceded that nuclear power is an inevitability. It’s not without reason. Unlike oil, which tends to be located in politically unstable nations such as Iran, Iraq, and Venezuela, the world’s largest uranium deposits lie mostly in Canada, Australia, and Kazakhstan. Nuclear power is also relatively inexpensive to produce, although reactors are massively expensive to construct. Perhaps most importantly, in today’s political climate, nuclear power is an effective way to curb the carbon emissions produced by coal and gas power, which are widely believed to be causing global warming. Yes, But … And as new and refurbished reactors come online, the demand for uranium is soaring. Uranium prices have leaped to 15 times what they were in 2001. The pricing boom has reinvigorated Canada’s uranium mining industry, but important questions remain. Among the leading concerns related to the rejuvenation of the nuclear power industry is the issue of nuclear waste disposal. Most countries with nuclear reactors agree that burying the spent fuel deep underground is the best option for disposal, yet no such long-term receptacles yet exist. The United States has 55,000 metric tons of nuclear waste in temporary storage waiting for such a facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada that is still in the process of receiving regulatory approval. At the earliest, that facility wouldn't be operation until 2017. One possible solution has been proposed by the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), a U.S.-led initiative that seeks to expand peaceful use of nuclear energy while safeguarding against nuclear weapon proliferation. As a condition for membership, uranium-producing nations must agree to accept, process, and dispose of the spent nuclear fuel from other member states. Canada is not a member of the GNEP, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper was involved in discussions during the APEC summit in Sydney, Australia, over joining the partnership—a move that stirred indignation back home. "The Bush nuclear program would turn Canada into an international radioactive waste dump," said Greenpeace Energy Coordinator Dave Martin. Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion suggested the proposal be subject to public debate before Canada sign on. Canada has not yet decided if it will join the GNEP, though it did send an observer to the group’s conference in Vienna on September 16. Interestingly, Australia—the world’s second-larges uranium exporter—signed onto the GNEP at the Vienna conference, but refused to accept spent fuel. Uranium Mining Many in Canada also take issue with the uranium mines themselves, citing land contested claims and concerns about possible contamination. Some of the strongest opposition to uranium mining is coming from aboriginal communities who say provincial governments are handing out mining permits on traditional territories that were never ceded to the Canadian government. Organic farmer David Gill is an adopted Algonquin, one of Canada's First Nations peoples. He recently completed a canoe trip from the headwaters of the Mississippi watershed to the Ottawa River to protest the expansion of uranium mining. Gill took water from the headwaters and then poured it on the steps of Canada's parliament building to remind government that even distant mining sites can have huge impacts downriver. “The water gets contaminate and when it seeps out, it gets into the watershed and causes all kinds of problems,” he said. First Nations have blockaded access to a uranium exploration site near Sharbot Lake despite a court injunction ordering them to leave. Supporters say the delay will allow time to bring about a moratorium on uranium mining. Gill says he and others will continue to fight against uranium mining because of the threat it poses to the environment and future generations. They are calling on the government to explore other alternative forms of energy. Martin agrees, saying that he is also concerned about the environmental impacts of mining uranium. He points to environmental disasters in Canada's history as evidence of what can go wrong. Martin says in the early 50s and 60s a lack of regulation allowed companies to dump tailings from uranium mining in the Elliot Lake basin in Ontario. Contaminated water flowed through the Serpent River and the tailings acidified the water and killed off life in the river. Canada’s First Nation peoples used to take drinking water directly from the river. Martin said many died from cancer as a result of the contamination. Birth defects were also common, he said. “It really was an environmental disaster of major proportions.” Copyright (c) 2000 - 2007 The Epoch USA, Inc. ***************************************************************** 27 CPR: Against The Ropes, California Nuclear Power Proponents Put Up Their Nukes In New Fights - California Progress Report October 14, 2007. By Gary A. Patton Executive Director Planning and Conservation League It's proving to be a bumpy year for opponents of nuclear waste and public taxpayer boondoggles. Here's our latest scoop. First the good news: It appears that a proposed pro-nuclear power initiative, sponsored by Assemblymember Chuck DeVore, and opposed by PCL, is not going to make it to the California ballot. Momentum seems to have died for the DeVore initiative, which would have eliminated the "nuclear safeguards" that currently protect California residents. Now the bad: Nuclear power advocates aren't giving up the fight. They're just "putting up their nukes" in a different arena. On September 26th, Assemblymember DeVore introduced ABX2 5 into the current Special Session on water policy, to permit the construction of a new nuclear power plant if twenty percent of the power is used for desalination facilities. We predict that this bill is going nowhere, just like the proposed initiative. Here's the ugly: At the federal level there's a more threatening move to authorize massive new financial subsidies for the nuclear power industry. Provisions to accomplish this, with a price tag of about $30 billion dollars of taxpayer-financed loan guarantees, are seriously being considered as part of a comprehensive federal energy bill. "Provision 423" is the proposal that would undermine the integrity of what would otherwise be a terrific energy package. Please alert both Senator Boxer and Senator Feinstein that you strongly oppose the proposals to add taxpayer subsidies for nuclear power to the energy bill that the Congress is now considering. Gary Patton is the Executive Director of the Planning and Conservation League, a statewide, nonprofit lobbying organization. For more than thirty years, PCL has fought to develop a body of environmental laws in California that is the best in the United States. PCL staff review virtually every environmental bill that comes before the California Legislature each year. It has testified in support or opposition of thousands of bills to strengthen California's environmental laws and fight off rollbacks of environmental protections. ***************************************************************** 28 [v911t] COOPRADIO.ORG: Leuren Moret - Canada & DU Weapons - A conversation with Independent scientist Leuren Moret on the illegal use of Canadian Uranium in Depleted Uranium weapons worldwide - for a Depopulation agenda. Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 00:39:10 -0500 (CDT) COOPRADIO.ORG: Leuren Moret - Canada & DU Weapons When: Monday Oct 15, 2007 Where: Vancouver Coop Radio CFRO 102.7 FM Listen Live: http://www.coopradio.org LISTEN NOW TO AUDIO ARCHIVE (MP3): PART ONE: (30 MIns.) http://exopolitics.blogs.com/exopolitics_radio/2007/10/coopradioorg--1.html PART TWO: (26 Mins) http://exopolitics.blogs.com/exopolitics_radio/2007/10/coopradioorg--3.html WHAT: A conversation with Independent scientist Leuren Moret on the illegal use of Canadian Uranium in Depleted Uranium weapons worldwide - for a Depopulation agenda. WHO: Guest: Leuren Moret Bio: http://peaceinspace.blogs.com/nuclear_free_zone/2007/10/independent-sci.html Host: Alfred Lambremont Webre, JD, MEd Canada's role in Depleted Uranium (DU) weapons worldwide http://commonground.ca/iss/0707192/cg192_du.shtml "WAKE-UP WITH CO-OP" MON.-WED.- FRI. 7-9 AM PT "MONDAY BROWNBAGGER" MON. Noon 1 PM PT LISTENER-SPONSORED CO-OP RADIO is broadcast across Canada on the Star Choice satellite system on channel 845. Co-op radio, CFRO fm is located in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. Its frequency in the Vancouver area is 102.7 MHz and we are also found on various cable frequencies in most major cities throughout British Columbia. RealAudio and Program information for radio station CFRO can be found on the internet at http://www.coopradio.org Listener phone-in: Call Coop Radio on-air with your questions and comments at (604) 684-7561. ***************************************************************** 29 Fw: RADIOACTIVE WASTE = "DEPLETED URANIUM" (Lethal Forever): ( Fw: [v911t] Robert Burns: Radiological weapons used to target enemy leaders by U.S. Government -- "new concept of warfare") Resent-Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 00:29:55 -0500 (CDT) RESENDING THIS FOR THOSE WHO MIGHT HAVE MISSED IT: PLEASE READ IT CAREFULLY----------SO THAT WE ALL CLEARLY UNDERSTAND THE PURPOSEFUL ECOCIDAL RADIOACTIVE WARFARE WAGED IN IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, YUGOSLAVIA, VIEQUES, LARGE PARTS OF THE USA & USSR, .......and the harm already done to the rest of the World. -------- so that we can STOP IT NOW. ***************************************************************************** ******************************** Thank you, Beth, for the confirmation of facts !!!!!!!! ----- Original Message ----- From: Beth Buchanan To: Lynn Surgalla Sent: Friday, October 12, 2007 12:51 AM Subject: Re: Fw: [v911t] Robert Burns: Radiological weapons used to target enemy leaders by U.S. Government -- "new concept of warfare" Yes Lynn Surgalla wrote: Claire Wehrle was investigating & reporting on these (Domestic & International) COVERT WARCRIMES before she was (and probably WHY she was) murdered. ----- Original Message ----- From: Dick Eastman To: Undisclosed-Recipient:; Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 11:57 PM Subject: [v911t] Robert Burns: Radiological weapons used to target enemy leaders by U.S. Government -- "new concept of warfare" Recall that Robert Taft died of fast-acting cancer before he could challenge CFR Baruch minion Dwight Eisenhower for the GOP nomination in 1956 -- DE -------------- from leslie o. Radiological weapons used to target dissent by U.S. Government. By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer Mon Oct 8, 4:23 PM ET WASHINGTON - In one of the longest-held secrets of the Cold War, the U.S. Army explored the potential for using radioactive poisons to assassinate "important individuals" such as military or civilian leaders, according to newly declassified documents obtained by The Associated Press. Approved at the highest levels of the Army in 1948, the effort was a well-hidden part of the military's pursuit of a "new concept of warfare" using radioactive materials from atomic bombmaking to contaminate swaths of enemy land or to target military bases, factories or troop formations. Military historians who have researched the broader radiological warfare program said in interviews that they had never before seen evidence that it included pursuit of an assassination weapon. Targeting public figures in such attacks is not unheard of; just last year an unknown assailant used a tiny amount of radioactive polonium-210 to kill Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London. No targeted individuals are mentioned in references to the assassination weapon in the government documents declassified in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the AP in 1995. The decades-old records were released recently to the AP, heavily censored by the government to remove specifics about radiological warfare agents and other details. The censorship reflects concern that the potential for using radioactive poisons as a weapon is more than a historic footnote; it is believed to be sought by present-day terrorists bent on attacking U.S. targets. [this sentence is DISinformation. Only our own government is using this technology on its citizens] The documents give no indication whether a radiological weapon for targeting high-ranking individuals was ever used or even developed by the United States. They leave unclear how far the Army project went. One memo from December 1948 outlined the project and another memo that month indicated it was under way. The main sections of several subsequent progress reports in 1949 were removed by censors before release to the AP. The broader effort on offensive uses of radiological warfare apparently died by about 1954, at least in part because of the Defense Department's conviction that nuclear weapons were a better bet. Whether the work migrated to another agency such as the CIA is unclear. The project was given final approval in November 1948 and began the following month, just one year after the CIA's creation in 1947. It was a turbulent time on the international scene. In August 1949, the Soviet Union successfully tested its first atomic bomb, and two months later Mao Zedong's communists triumphed in China's civil war. As U.S. scientists developed the atomic bomb during World War II, it was recognized that radioactive agents used or created in the manufacturing process had lethal potential. The government's first public report on the bomb project, published in 1945, noted that radioactive fission products from a uranium-fueled reactor could be extracted and used "like a particularly vicious form of poison gas." Among the documents released to the AP - an Army memo dated Dec. 16, 1948, and labeled secret - described a crash program to develop a variety of military uses for radioactive materials. Work on a "subversive weapon for attack of individuals or small groups" was listed as a secondary priority, to be confined to feasibility studies and experiments. The top priorities listed were: . 1 - Weapons to contaminate "populated or otherwise critical areas for long periods of time." . 2 - Munitions combining high explosives with radioactive material "to accomplish physical damage and radioactive contamination simultaneously." . 3 - Air and-or surface weapons that would spread contamination across an area to be evacuated, thereby rendering it unusable by enemy forces. The stated goal was to produce a prototype for the No. 1 and No. 2 priority weapons by Dec. 31, 1950. **The 4th ranked priority was "munitions for attack on individuals" using radioactive agents for which there is "no means of therapy."** "This class of munitions is proposed for use by secret agents or subversive units for lethal attacks against small groups of important individuals, e.g., during meetings of civilian or military leaders," it said. Assassination of foreign figures by agents of the U.S. government was not explicitly outlawed until President Gerald R. Ford signed an executive order in 1976 in response to revelations that the CIA had plotted in the 1960s to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro, including by poisoning. The Dec. 16, 1948, memo said a lethal attack against individuals using radiological material should be done in a way that makes it impossible to trace the U.S. government's involvement, a concept known as "plausible deniability" that is central to U.S. covert actions. "The source of the munition, the fact that an attack has been made, and the kind of attack should not be determinable, if possible," it said. "The munition should be inconspicuous and readily transportable." Radioactive agents were thought to be ideal for this use, the document said, because of their high toxicity and the fact that the targeted individuals could not smell, taste or otherwise sense the attack. "It should be possible, for example, to develop a very small munition which could function unnoticeably and which would set up an invisible, yet highly lethal concentration in a room, with the effects noticeable only well after the time of attack," it said. "The time for lethal effects could, it is believed, be controlled within limits by the amount of radioactive agent dispersed. The toxicities are such that should relatively high concentrations be required for early lethal effects, on a weight basis, even such concentrations may be found practicable." Tom Bielefeld, a Harvard physicist who has studied radiological weapons issues, said that while he had never heard of this project, its technical aims sounded feasible. Bielefeld noted that polonium, the radioactive agent used to kill Litvinenko in November 2006, has just the kind of features that would be suitable for the lethal mission described in the Dec. 16 memo. Barton Bernstein, a Stanford history professor who has done extensive research on the U.S. military's radiological warfare efforts, said he did not believe this aspect had previously come to light. "This is one of those items that surprises us but should not shock us, because in the Cold War all kinds of ways of killing people, in all kinds of manners - inhumane, barbaric and even worse - were periodically contemplated at high levels in the American government in what was seen as a just war against a hated and hateful enemy," Bernstein said. The project was run by the Army Chemical Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. Alden H. Waitt, and supervised by a now-defunct agency called the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project. The project's first chief was Maj. Gen. Leslie R. Groves, the Army's head of the Manhattan Project that built the first atomic bombs. The radiological project was approved by Groves' successor, Maj. Gen. Kenneth D. Nichols. The released documents were in files of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project held by the National Archives. Among the officials copied in on the Dec. 16 memo were Herbert Scoville, Jr., then the technical director of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project and later the CIA's deputy director for research, and Samuel T. Cohen, a physicist with RAND Corp. who had worked on the Manhattan Project. The initial go-ahead for the Army to pursue its radiological weapons project was given in May 1948, a point in U.S. history, following the successful use of two atomic bombs against Japan to end World War II, when the military was eager to explore the implications of atomic science for the future of warfare. In a July 1948 memo outlining the program's intent, before specifics had received final approval, a key focus was on long-lasting contamination of large land areas where residents would be told that unless the areas were abandoned they probably would die from radiation within one to 10 years. "It is thought that this is a new concept of warfare, with results that cannot be predicted," it said ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- Be smarter than spam. See how smart SpamGuard is at giving junk email the boot with the All-new Yahoo! Mail ***************************************************************** 30 Sunday Mirror: SCREEN N-TEST VICTIMS - By Susie Boniface 14/10/2007 A cancer expert is calling for Britain's Christmas Island atomic test victims to be screened for genetic damage in their battle for compensation. Professor Julian Peto says they should undergo a battery of new medical checks to find out why they suffer from a range of deadly diseases. Ground-breaking research in New Zealand showed test veterans there suffered worse chromosomal damage than people at Chernobyl in 1986. "This research was so surprising it has to be repeated over here," said Prof Peto. British veterans would undergo cytogenetic testing where white blood cells, or lymphocytes, would be checked to see if DNA strands had been damaged. It would back veterans' claims that the fallout from the blasts damaged their genes and was passed to family members. Prof Peto will call for the tests tomorrow at a rare Parliamentary inquiry by Labour MP Dr Ian Gibson and Tory MP John Baron into the scandal. Around 22,000 Servicemen witnessed hundreds of atomic blasts from 1952 to 1967. They had no protective clothing and today only 3,000 remain alive. Research shows their children have 10 times the normal rate of birth deformities. Yet the Government insists there is no proof of a link. Widow Shirley Denson, whose husband Eric flew into a nuclear cloud and committed suicide after years of ill-health, said: "These tests would prove once and for all the cause of the problems everyone has suffered." Yet the Health Protection Agency says the new tests would be "unlikely" to produce "meaningful or medically useful results". ***************************************************************** 31 News & Star: I cant forget Windscale fire Published on 13/10/2007 I remember the Windscale nuclear reactor fire of 1957 and not just because I missed my little bottle of lukewarm milk at school playtimes for a couple of weeks. I remember it because my father didn’t come home from work for a number of days. He was a health physics monitor at the plant and, as such, was intimately involved in the incident. He was amongst that band of men who, knowing the risks they ran working in that environment, stayed at their posts and, eventually, brought the fire under control and in doing so prevented what would have been a true disaster not just for West Cumberland but for the wider world. It is no surprise that those men didn’t think of themselves first and just bale out to leave the fire to do its worst. These were men, who, just over a decade before, many of them as teenagers, had endured the dangers of war. Duty and quiet heroism were to them as natural as breathing. It is a pity that heroism, as so often is the case in this country, should receive no reward other than to be treated in a tawdry and shameful manner. My father, who was to become something of an expert in health physics always made my mother promise that if he ever developed certain cancers she would pursue a claim against the industry. He did and she kept her promise. For 10 long years she fought a system which seemed determined to avoid responsibility and deny her justice. For several years it simply denied he was anywhere near the fire while she knew for certain he was. Suspect records and an epidemic of amnesia amongst several individuals made life extremely difficult but my mother did keep her promise thanks to the unstinting help of the GMB union, an organisation he had been a member of only briefly in the 1950s. A panel of independent experts found in her favour. Yet it was still a hollow victory. Yes, I remember 1957. Every time I’ve missed my dad over the last 25 years I remember it. by brian nicholLs ***************************************************************** 32 The Coloradoan: Uranium mine focus of forum www.coloradoan.com - Ft. Collins, CO. Sunday, October 14, 2007 Residents voice concern about proposed plan BY LYNDSEY STRUTHERS LyndseyStruthers@coloradoan.com NUNN — Rep. Marilyn Musgrave questioned Powertech (USA) Inc. officials Saturday about a proposed uranium mine in western Weld County. Musgrave, who hosted a forum on the mine, asked Powertech officials if they could assure concerned residents that the mine wouldn’t damage the area. Critics say the mine could contaminate water in aquifers below the plains, which residents use for drinking and irrigation. Lane Douglas, project manager for the proposed mine, said unless the company can demonstrate that it will not cause damage to surrounding aquifers, it won’t go ahead with the mine. “If we are unable to prove that, we won’t get a permit,” he said. About 200 people turned out for the forum at the Nunn Community Center, most of whom opposed the proposed mine. “There have been few issues that have elicited the concern this proposed uranium mine has caused,” Musgrave said. Powertech is considering mining uranium from 5,760 acres east of Wellington for which it owns the mineral rights. The company has said it intends to use a process known as in-situ recovery that uses treated water pumped under high pressure to extract uranium ore from underground deposits in the area. But Richard Blubaugh, Powertech’s vice president of environmental health and safety resources, said Saturday he couldn’t rule out an open-pit mine. Officials have said the company is more than a year from applying for permits from state and county regulatory agencies. The proposed mine has been met with heavy opposition from locals who cite threats to water quality, the economy and quality of life. Opponents also filled out a panel of speakers at the forum, which included Lilias Jarding of Coloradoans Against Resource Destruction, Jeffrey Parson, senior attorney with the Western Mining Action Project, Dr. Cory Carroll of the Larimer County Medical Society and Kent Peppler, president of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union. Douglas joined the panel after the forum began. “One of the impressive things about this whole situation is we have people from all levels of government. We have people from both political parties, and that is certainly not true with most issues,” Jarding said. During a public comment period, Powertech’s Douglas, who said he disagreed with information provided by the panel, said he would have liked to have been initially included on the forum’s panel. Musgrave, after apologizing for company officials not receiving her invitation to sit in on the panel, invited Douglas to join the four opponents of the project. “It is always better when people show up to talk,” Musgrave said. Musgrave held the forum to give residents a better understanding of the potential impact of the mine in Northern Colorado. “I think we can make the best decision when we have all of the information,” she said. Jarding said she was glad to have the backing of Musgrave, who grew up in the area, on “one of the most important things to the area in a long time.” “She comes from a rural background, she knows the importance of water,” Jarding said. “I don’t think there is any doubt about that.” Copyright ©2007 The Fort Collins Coloradoan. ***************************************************************** 33 Nevada Appeal Thoughts on Yucca Mountain | Serving Carson City, Nevada Guy W. Farmer For the Appeal October 14, 2007, 4:01 AM ??? Last month I wrote about arrogant U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) officials who believe that they can defy federal court orders in their unseemly haste to open a huge nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain only 90 miles north of Las Vegas, the nation's fastest growing city. After asserting that they had the right to ignore a federal court order barring them from using state water to drill test holes at the dump site, they now want to double the size of the so-called "repository" in defiance of our elected representatives and more than 70 percent of Nevada residents. Truly, DOE arrogance knows no bounds. A couple of weeks ago a high-ranking DOE bureaucrat told the House Budget Committee that his Department wants to expand the nuclear waste dump's capacity from 77,000 tons of highly toxic nuclear waste to 150,000 tons. And furthermore, Yucca Mountain Project Director Ward Sproat told Congress that DOE would need more than $77 billion (that's "b" for billion) to complete the project, a 35-percent increase over the $57.5 billion that DOE projected in 2001 - an illustrative example of how DOE is spending your hard-earned federal tax dollars. Can you say "fleecing of America?" To their credit, Nevada officials immediately fired back at Sproat. "If they think they are going to get more money for an irresponsible plan to ship nuclear waste across the country and into Nevada's backyard, they're dreaming," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told the Associated Press. And Nevada Nuclear Projects Chief Bob Loux branded as "invalid and likely illegal" an environmental study outlining the super-sizing proposal. According to the AP, the study's release came as DOE ramps-up efforts to meet a June 30, 2008, deadline for submission of an application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for permission to operate the huge toxic dump in a state that doesn't generate any nuclear waste. Originally, DOE planned to open the Yucca Mountain dump by 1998 but the original timetable has been slowed by lawsuits, quality control concerns and funding shortfalls, thanks to Sen. Reid and Nevada's bipartisan congressional delegation. As a result, DOE has pushed back the target opening date to 2017, or later. With luck, however, it will never open. All contents © Copyright 2007 nevadaappeal.com Nevada Appeal - 580 Mallory Way - Carson City, NV 89701 ***************************************************************** 34 CITIZEN-TIMES.com: 20 years is way too long to let a contaminated site languish Asheville, NC Sunday, October 14, 2007 7:40 PM Federal and state efforts to clean up the contaminated CTS site can so far best be characterized as too little, too late. More than 17 years after tests revealed an industrial solvent linked to health risks, efforts to clean up the contaminated soil and water have barely begun. Neighbors, some of whom were drinking from contaminated springs and a contaminated well until 1999, are justifiably frustrated and angry. Though neighbors have since been placed on the city water system, the possible movement of contaminated groundwater away from the site and the prospect of unhealthy indoor air in homes above contaminated groundwater may still pose a threat. It’s time for the Environmental Protection Agency and the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources to take aggressive action to do the tests and remediation to assure those who live near the site their health is not at risk. Recent tests by the DENR found levels of the solvent trichloroethylene, or TCE, as high as 19,700 parts per billion, almost 4,000 times the safe drinking water level, east of the site on Mills Gap Road. Tests performed by residents in February showed levels considerably higher. Levels were also found in areas west of the site that had not previously shown contamination. The health risks Prolonged exposure to concentrations of TCE in air or water has been linked to cancer and liver damage. Workers at the Asheville CTS plant manufactured industrial switches and resistors on the 57-acre site for 20 years before CTS closed the plant in 1986. CTS sold the site, and a portion of it has been developed. The dilapidated building sits on 10 fenced acres. EPA tests in 1990 showed high levels of toxic substances such as cadmium, magnesium, beryllium, nickel, zinc, vinyl chloride and TCE in soil and stream samples. Even though an EPA report issued in 1991 said the groundwater and air pathway (because of high concentrations of metal and inorganic compounds found in surface soil samples) were of concern, it incomprehensibly recommended that “no further remedial action be planned for CTS of Asheville.” The EPA handed the site off to the North Carolina Superfund program, where it languished until a neighbor discovered an oily mess oozing up from a spring in 1999 and reported it to state environmental officials. The spring was being used as a source of drinking water. State environmental officials performed tests and found one well and two springs on neighboring properties to be contaminated. Water samples revealed concentrations of TCE at a level of 21,000 parts per billion. The acceptable level of TCE in drinking water set by EPA is five parts per billion. Neighbors were placed on the city water, but it took another five years for EPA to sign a remediation agreement with CTS Corp. and Mills Gap Road Associates, current owners of the plant, to clean up the site. The cleanup didn’t actually begin until 2006. EPA is directing soil vapor extraction at the site to remove contaminants from the soil underneath the plant. The vapor extraction will help prevent more TCE from getting into the water, but will not remove what is there, a DENR spokesperson said. Threat to groundwater TCE has a specific gravity heavier than water, which means that if the concentration is sufficient it can sink and pool at the bottom of the aquafer in the uneven bedrock below the site. Groundwater moves very slowly, but can travel away from the site. As groundwater flows by the pooled TCE, the TCE diffuses and potentially contaminates water being discharged into surface streams or flowing into wells, especially down slope. Ideally, three things should happen when a contaminated site is identified. First, those who could be affected by the contamination should be protected. Second, the pathway for the contamination to travel off the site should be cut off. Third, remediation should take place at the source. Soil vapor extraction can be an effective method of extracting TCE from the soil and water, but it can take years. Discharging the vapors into the air below regulatory limits is considered safe because the chemical disperses and sunlight degrades it. In recent years, the EPA has also begun testing the indoor air of residences above sites where TCE groundwater contamination occurs because of the risk posed by the chemical as it volatilizes and disperses into soil and potentially indoor air. A DENR spokesperson said vapor intrusion into homes will be assessed. Harry Zinn, an environmental engineer with the state’s Superfund section, said after the last round of tests that the state will probably take additional samples farther from the site and work with the EPA to limit exposure to the contamination. Show some accountability Probably? Given the risks posed by the contamination and the uncertainty about how far it could have traveled from the site in the almost two decades EPA and DENR knew about the site but did nothing to clean it up, “probably” is unacceptable. The test results have also prompted the state and local health departments to ask the federal government to perform a health risk assessment at the site. That should be done as quickly as possible to protect residents if health risks do exist. Rep. Charles Thomas, R-Buncombe, who recently met with residents living near the site, said, “My end goal is to get the site cleaned up as soon as possible.” Copyright © 2007 Asheville Citizen-Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 35 LA Daily News: Boeing will clean up toxic Santa Susana Field Lab site BY HARRISON SHEPPARD, Sacramento Bureau Article Last Updated: 10/12/2007 10:02:11 PM PDT SACRAMENTO - In a landmark deal cautiously hailed by community and environmental activists, the Boeing Co. agreed on Friday to donate its contaminated Santa Susana Field Laboratory site to the state of California for use as open space after cleaning it up to state standards. The deal - culminating an 18-year controversy since the Daily News disclosed toxic contamination of the research site - was negotiated by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration. It calls for the company to contribute $22.5million over 30 years to an endowment fund to pay for maintaining the property in the hills above Simi Valley and Chatsworth as parkland. While the deal is not yet final, it caps years of struggle by community and environmental activists who had decried Boeing and federal-government cleanup efforts and worried that the company would sell a still-contaminated site to a residential developer. But facing recently passed legislation that would have forced a strict standard of cleanup, Boeing decided to donate the land to the state in exchange for a cleanup standard seen as slightly less restrictive, but still tougher than the current effort. "I think Boeing frankly saw the writing on the wall," said Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles, author of the legislation. Kuehl's Senate Bill 990, which the governor also said he intends to sign as part of the deal, prohibits the sale or transfer of the 2,850-acre property until it is cleaned up to state standards that are stricter than the current federally regulated cleanup. With Boeing's agreement to turn over the property for open space, Kuehl said she will introduce new legislation that will allow the company and the state to negotiate a new cleanup standard that will supersede the one in her bill. Boeing owns about 2,400 acres of the property, while NASA owns the rest. The company said it will work with NASA to acquire its land and also clean it up. Soil and water contamination from the property, used in the 1940s for rocket tests and nuclear-energy research, has long been seen as a cause of health problems in the local community, including higher-than-usual rates of cancer. Schwarzenegger said the new deal should help protect the community. "I am pleased to announce this historic agreement will benefit the environment, nearby residents in Ventura County and the people of California," Schwarzenegger said in a written statement. "I would like to applaud Sen. Kuehl for her leadership on this issue and commend the Boeing Co. for working with officials to come up with this solution that will protect the health of residents in adjacent communities." Kuehl has been working for more than a decade to strengthen cleanup efforts at the facility and has introduced a handful of bills over the years that failed to pass through the Legislature, in part because of heavy lobbying by Boeing. Kuehl credited freshman Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, D-Santa Monica, for helping to "strong-arm" colleagues in the Assembly, where Kuehl has in the past had trouble getting legislation through. In addition, support from two Assembly Republicans whose districts border the property - Cameron Smyth, R-Santa Clarita, and Audra Strickland, R-Westlake Village - were seen as helping the bill win passage and gain support from Schwarzenegger. Boeing officials said Friday that the company is trying to be a good corporate citizen in agreeing to the deal. Company spokeswoman Blythe Jameson estimated it will take at least 10 years to clean up the property. "Santa Susana is a site of great natural, cultural and historic significance and should be appropriately preserved and placed in the public trust for future generations upon completion of cleanup activities," Jim Albaugh, president and CEO of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, said in a written statement. "Teaming with a respected land steward will ensure that the environmental cleanup and the ultimate transfer of the property is completed in an appropriate and timely manner ... that is safe for use by the public." Critics, however, said they believe the company had no choice. Boeing was being hammered with bad publicity for a property it did not even own when the contamination occurred - and the governor's decision to sign Kuehl's bill pretty much forced the company's hand. Boeing also will likely get a hefty tax break for donating the land and the maintenance funds. While many hailed the deal Friday, after years of fighting, they also remained skeptical that the company will fully live up to the bargain. They noted that while the company has signed a letter of intent, the full agreement has not been finalized. Dan Hirsch of watchdog group Committee to Bridge the Gap said the deal is a "great victory," but noted that the community will remain vigilant. "Given the history of broken commitments, we will be watching closely," he said. "And if in the still-to-be-drafted binding agreement Boeing breaks its promise to adopt truly protective cleanup standards, we will vigorously oppose any amendments to the legislation just signed into law that would weaken it." Barbara Johnson has lived near the site since 1970 and both she and her son have been treated for cancer. She said that while she would prefer that the property still be held to the very highest cleanup standards, she is generally happy with the deal. "I'm sorry that the bill got diluted in any way whatsoever, but we're very happy that it's not going to be released for unrestricted use, that it will go into parkland," Johnson said. "That is the wonderful saving grace of the whole thing." California Environmental Protection Agency Secretary Linda Adams said Boeing approached the administration with the deal earlier this year when it became apparent Kuehl's bill would hold the company to cleanup standards it considered impossible to meet. Adams said her own staff concluded that Kuehl's standards were "basically not achievable." The bill, Adams said, called for cleanup standards that are the equivalent of the property being located in a rural area and being used to grow food crops. Instead, the state will now hold the property to "still a very high standard" of cleanup appropriate for residential areas, but not agricultural use, even though there will be no residential development on the land, Adams said. "It was a very clever approach to keep Boeing's feet to the fire," she said. Smyth plans to introduce legislation next year to create a joint-powers authority that will study the creation of a state park on the land. The authority would include the state parks department, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and agencies from Simi Valley, Ventura County, Los Angeles County and the city of Los Angeles. Smyth said he believes the park should remain dedicated to hiking, equestrian trails and picnic areas, adding, "We would leave it as much in its natural state as possible." harrison.sheppard@dailynews.com (916) 446-6723 For more local Southern California News: Copyright ©2007 ***************************************************************** 36 Salt Lake Tribune: Uranium tailings may take to roads Floods, faster timetable could scrap plan to use rail, councilwoman says Article Last Updated: 10/13/2007 12:54:46 AM MDT Plans to move 16 million tons of uranium tailings and contaminated waste from the old Atlas Mill site near Moab might be sent back to the drawing board before they get rolling. The Energy Department awarded a contract in June to EnergySolutions to load the mountain of Cold War-era uranium residue onto rail cars and move it from the banks of the Colorado River to a disposal site 30 miles north near Crescent Junction. But Joette Langianese, a Grand County councilwoman who heads a local steering committee tracking the tailings project, says she told her committee this week "to be prepared" for changes to the rail shipment plan. "I think then we're going to see a little change in direction," she said. Two factors are driving the issue, she said: Flash flooding near where the tailings are expected to be loaded onto the rail cars that has raised safety concerns, and a legislative provision that substantially speeds up the timetable for the cleanup project. For now, the Energy Department is focused on the original plan to move the material by rail. Talk of changing that plan is premature, said Don Metzler, the department's project manager for the cleanup. "If there are rumors out there, they don't have legs," Metzler said. Nearly 60 percent of the design studies on the rail line are complete and progressing. The rail plan may have to be reassessed, Metzler said, if a provision that Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, has added to a Defense Department spending bill passes. It would require the tailings to be moved by 2019, likely via truck. That would cost as much as 15 percent less than the rail plan, but the Energy Department initially picked rail because it "has a lower accident rate, lower potential impacts to wildlife and lower fuel consumption," the department said in issuing its decision. Mark Walker, a spokesman for EnergySolutions, said the company is taking its orders from the Energy Department. "We're moving forward with engineering and preparing to rail the material," Walker said. "If they give us a different direction, we'll do whatever direction they take." The other issue that could affect the movement of the waste is a series of flash floods in the area where the tailings are expected to be transferred from trucks to the rail cars. "That in my mind is a real concern," Langianese said. "We certainly don't want any accidents up there." Metzler said he, too, is concerned, but believes the flooding issue can be addressed. "That area's got to be shored up and made stable," Walker said. One of the potential alternatives, said Langianese, is to truck the tailings to a transfer station near the turn-off from U.S. Highway 191 to Dead Horse Point, but the National Park Service might object to that because of its proximity to Canyonlands National Park. ***************************************************************** 37 DailyBulletin.com: Rialto seeking estimate, insurance for cleanup By Jason Pesick, Staff Writer RIALTO - Even though there's a lot of talk about water contamination here, no one is sure how much it will cost to clean it up. Perchlorate, which is used to make explosives, is contaminating drinking water in Rialto, though local agencies filter it out of the water before sending it on to residents. The perchlorate is flowing from industrial sites on the city's north end that have been in use since World War II. Now Rialto is seeking bids on a project to find out how much it would cost to clean the Rialto Basin, while taking out an insurance policy in case the cost estimate is off. "We felt this was a possible solution for our needs," said Councilwoman Winnie Hanson, a member of the council's perchlorate subcommittee. If the cleanup ends up costing more than the estimate, the insurance company would have to make up the difference, not the city or the suspected polluters, said Councilman Ed Scott, another member of the perchlorate subcommittee. In theory, the city would negotiate a settlement number with each suspected polluter. The suspected polluters would then pay that amount into a fund managed by the insurance company and would no longer be held liable for the contamination. The city hired AIG to insure cleanup of a landfill south of the 10 Freeway, Scott said. That cleanup was completed last year. jason.pesick@sbsun.com ***************************************************************** 38 The Denver Post: Residents give uranium-mine plan static The Denver Post Article Last Updated: 10/13/2007 11:44:38 PM MDT FORT COLLINS — A controversial plan to mine uranium in Weld County is raising environmental concerns among the mine's neighbors. Officials in Fort Collins and Larimer County have ordered studies on whether a mine will affect air and water quality in the region. Real-estate values in the area also will be weighed, said Larimer County Commissioner Randy Eubanks. "Let's get past the emotion and give us the nuts and bolts of what kind of effect this mine will have on the region," Eubanks said. No mining permits have been issued yet. But there is exploratory drilling going on at the site, which is on 5,760 acres of farmland between the towns of Wellington and Nunn. The involvement of other government watchdogs over the proposal by Canadian-based Powertech Uranium Corp. to dig up more than 4,750 tons of uranium is welcome news to opponents of the idea. "They will come to the same conclusion, that uranium mining just doesn't fit in public health," said Robin Davis, a Nunn resident. Opponents hope the study will sway both state and Weld County regulators away from giving Powertech the permits needed to extract the ore. Davis helped form Coloradoans Against Resource Destruction to oppose Colorado uranium mining, which the organization says damages groundwater supplies and pollutes the air with radiation. Powertech officials say they are likely to use in-situ recovery to extract the uranium. That involves pumping treated water into uranium-laced deposits, which dissolves the mineral so the uranium can be pumped to the surface. The ore is then removed from the water, and the water is returned to the area. However, Powertech hasn't ruled out using open-pit mining to get at uranium deposits. Mining could begin in 2010. Meanwhile, four other companies have bought mining rights in Weld County, Davis said. Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com ***************************************************************** 39 Boston Globe: Watertown waste site land transfer awaits study - By Christina Pazzanese, Globe Correspondent | October 14, 2007 Several large properties in the East End of Watertown, including a nearly 12-acre swath of land at Greenough Boulevard and Arsenal Street that was once used to burn depleted uranium from a Watertown Arsenal nuclear reactor, are undergoing close scrutiny to determine how badly contaminated they are and who is responsible for cleaning them up. The status of the former uranium disposal site is in limbo, as state and federal agencies haggle over who should make the land safe for public use. A July 25 deadline to begin transfer of the property from the Army Corps of Engineers to the state Department of Conservation and Recreation was pushed back after conservation department officials said they wanted further data to determine the extent of contaminants in the soil. On Thursday, the state Department of Environmental Protection, which set the July target date, will present the findings of its own study to the Legislature, said the conservation department's commissioner, Rick Sullivan. The study will be a major factor in whether the department accepts the land transfer from the Army Corps, he said. If the land is not deemed safe for all kinds of recreational uses, Sullivan said, "we're not going to be able to take it." He also said that he was not prepared to discuss what the department intends to do with the property once it takes it over. "It's up to them to push to get it done," said Susan Falkoff, a longtime environmental activist involved in the Superfund site's cleanup. Army Corps officials have said they have done all the remediation required by law and are ready to hand over the property. Results from another study released last month showed that two nearby properties, Sawins Pond and Williams Pond, still contain measurable levels of petroleum byproducts, PCBs, metals, and other toxins, much of it left over from industrial dumping in the 1970s and 1980s. The area was used as a landfill for the BF Goodrich Co. until the late 1960s. Steven Fleming, a senior project manager for Vineyard Engineering and Environmental Services, which did the study, said that although cleanups of a 1983 dump of 500 gallons of PCBs and a 1979 oil spill at Sawins Pond were completed, traces of those contaminants still show up in pond sediment. Fleming said no new contaminants appear to have been introduced at either pond in the last few decades. According to Fleming, his company needs to further study the two privately owned properties before drawing final conclusions. He said he expected to resume work last week. The results of the additional work probably will be presented to the public in early December, he said. Fleming said the Department of Environmental Protection has required Maximus Hatziiliades, who has owned both ponds since 1984, to pay for the study to determine the extent of the contamination and clean it up. Fleming said he doesn't have an estimate for the cleanup costs. A former Boston Edison facility on Elm Street - now owned by NStar - is upstream from the ponds and could be the source of some PCBs detected on the 6-acre property, according to Fleming. Fleming said the toxins were possibly carried by drainage and storm-water runoff into the ponds. Ultimately, he said, the Department of Environmental Protection will determine the extent, if any, of NStar's responsibility. "We're really pleased something is happening there and they're going to do some work," said Falkoff, who cochairs a citizens board monitoring the site. Christina Pazzanese can be reached at cpazzanese@ globe.com. © Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company. ***************************************************************** 40 Boulder Daily Camera: Forthofer: Time to ban weaponized uranium : Guest Opinions : By Ron Forthofer Sunday, October 14, 2007 'There is no safe level of exposure and there is no dose of (ionizing) radiation so low that the risk of a malignancy is zero." "The Veterans Administration seems always on the defensive to make sure the victims are not compensated." These quotes by Dr. Karl Z. Morgan, one of the founders of the field of health physics who also served as radiation safety director at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory from 1944 to 1971, provide a context for a discussion of depleted uranium — DU. DU, perhaps a deliberately innocuous name for a low-level radioactive waste product from uranium enrichment, is an extremely dense hard metal that is chemically toxic. Probably because it is so dense and burns upon impact and is also essentially available free of charge as a waste product, the U.S. military chose to use DU in armor for tanks and in armor-piercing shells know as DU penetrators. These penetrators are also radiologically hazardous since, upon burning, they create tiny aerosolized glass particles that can be inhaled or ingested. The U.S. military's use of DU weapons in its attacks on Iraq, in the Balkans and possibly in Afghanistan has caused controversy because of DU's likely adverse health and environmental effects. Those most likely to be affected are soldiers and civilians (especially children and newborns) who live in the regions where DU weapons are used. As usual, the U.S. has not shown much concern about the 'other', but it has paid lip service regarding the health of its forces and returning veterans. However, in terms of examining the effects of depleted uranium on veterans, a key problem is that the Pentagon and the VA haven't conducted the necessary studies nor have they used appropriate procedures in the limited testing that has been done. "The military's policy is don't look, don't find," said Dan Fahey, a Navy veteran in the Persian Gulf and DU activist. Fahey added: "If they don't do proper studies of veterans, they can say there is no evidence of adverse health effects." It is shocking that the U.S. treats its soldiers in this fashion. Fahey also pointed out in a 2002 presentation that the U.S. government is clearly afraid of what it would find if it were to conduct the long-term studies of those exposed to weaponized uranium waste. Unfortunately the situation with weaponized uranium waste is very comparable to that of the appalling Agent Orange cover-up by the U.S. government against the interest of the U.S. Vietnam vets as well as the Vietnamese population. Early studies conducted by the military clearly showed that weaponized uranium waste was a major concern. For example, according to an article at commdreams.org on March 27, 2005, by Lucinda Marshall: "In 1990, U.S. Army Armaments, Munitions and Chemical Command reported that depleted uranium is a 'low-level alpha radiation emitter, which is linked to cancer when exposures are internal.' AMCCOM's radiological task group also pointed out that the 'long term effects of low doses [of DU] have been implicated in cancer ... there is no dose so low that the probability of effect is zero.' The risk to our own military personnel was spelled out in a 1993 letter from the U.S. Army Surgeon General stating that, 'When soldiers inhale or ingest DU dust, they incur a potential increase in cancer risk.' And in 1995, a U.S. Army U.S. Army Environmental Policy Institute report to Congress says that depleted uranium has the potential to generate 'significant medical consequences.'" In addition to the Army studies, there are numerous animal studies (including many conducted by the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute) and other experiments suggesting that exposure to radioactive substances are dangerous to human health. A report by Drs. Arjun Makhijani and Brice Smith on the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Web site offers a good summary of the potential health effects of DU. An article by Dr. Rosalie Bertell on the International Institute of Concern for Public Health site provides a good overview/summary of how weaponized uranium waste likely causes health problems. Another very good and detailed report by Gretel Munroe that examined health effects of DU is found at www.miltoxproj.org/Health%20Effects%20of%20DU%2010-25-04%20RTF.rtf. A relevant conclusion is that: "Without more epidemiological studies, those who think DU is not harmful will not be convinced. However there are many signs on the cellular level, in animal models and even indications in some human studies that DU is harmful whether due to DU's chemical toxicity, its radioactivity or both." These many well-done studies are strongly suggestive of numerous health problems being associated with exposure to weaponized uranium weapons that have been used in combat. Even though some branches of the U.S. military claim that these weapons are necessary, the fact that the U.S. Navy stopped using DU in favor of tungsten suggests that this claim is false. In addition, Fahey pointed out that the U.S. military destroyed the overwhelming majority of Iraqi tanks in 1991 with conventional weapons. Given the potential for large-scale health problems and the lack of a real need for DU weapons, these studies call into question the continued use of DU weapons. Therefore we are calling for a ban on further use of DU weapons until the research called for above has been conducted and the results are known. Ron Forthofer, Dick Williams and Gretchen Williams are residents of Boulder County. Comments Posted by Dragonslayer on October 14, 2007 at 2:21 p.m. (Suggest removal) United States Goverment Leadership is on a DEAD END ROAD US Policies of aggression, nuclear arms, nuclear weapon development, nuclear wea pon use threats, and missile shields will only serve to antagonize China, Russia , and some Middle Eastern countries. The inevitable event will be one or many nu clear weapons fired against the United States in the very near future. The only thing that can stop this is for the globalization movement to stop its power grab and for native peoples to be given equal voice in institutions like the United Nations. The native peoples are the moral reserve of humanity, not the rich overbloated bankers, politicians and royalty. The world needs to come together to end racism against religions and ethnicities. We should start with Iran and immediately. The Third Major shaking of the earth on US soil was prophesized by the Cherokee long ago. Its time to listen to the native wisdom again, and let go of the snake oil politicians who are only concerned about themselves. " America has lost its self-determination as the government has been hijacked from its inhabitants by elite factions in Israel, Saudi Arabia and Europe. America n o longer operates with self-preservation as a goal. In parallel, Israel is leadi ng and sometimes following on the same suicide path. Most americans have forgotten the old adage, "If you live in a glass house, you shouldn't throw rocks." The lack of collective wisdom and common sense as a nati on will be our demise. According an AP article, "The Iranian parliament said the US Army and the CIA we re terrorists because of the atomic bombing of Japan; the use of depleted uraniu m munitions in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq; support of the killings of Pal estinians by Israel; the bombing and killing Iraqi civilians and the torture of imprisoned terror suspects." A statement signed by the 215 members who voted for the resolution reads, "The aggressor U.S. Army and the Central Intelligence Agency are terrorists and also nurture terror. Depleted Uranium will serve the purpose of turning the world community against t he US in future world confict certainly after the coming US-Iran war. In light o f the use of DU in the Middle East and Afganistan, the world community will dest roy the United States and Israel. This is ultimately the plan that will serve th e interests of the One World Government and New World Order. Although DU has about 60% of the radioactivity of the natural uranium for an equ al mass of substance (Cantaluppi and Degeto, 2000), elevated uranium activity co ncentrations have been observed in most of the surface soil samples and all of t he biological samples collected in Kosovo. In some soils, elevations of even sev en thousand times higher than the background uranium level have been observed. Scripps Newspaper Group — Online © 2007 The E.W. Scripps Co. ***************************************************************** 41 KVBC: DOE's Yucca deadline looming There's new optimism that the Yucca Mountain Project will never store nuclear waste northwest of Las Vegas. That's according to Richard Bryan, a former governor of our state. He was among those telling southern Nevada officials what's recently changed in the fight against Yucca, and what's at stake for all of us. News 3's Mitch Truswell reports. June 8, 2008. It's a deadline for the Department of Energy. That's the day the DOE has to complete its license application to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. Many don't think the DOE will make it. "It's (the project) really on life support and this attempt to get this license application in by June 8 is a last ditch effort to breathe life back into the project," Joseph Strolin with the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects said. "From the state's perspective, I am more optimistic today than I have ever been," former Nevada governor Bryan said added. Now that's not to suggest we fold our tents, declare victory and go home. Because the nuclear power industry is a formidable presence on Capital Hill; they spend a fortune lobbying this." So what's changed? Two of the big supporters in Congress are on their way out. Senator Larry Craig will leave office at the end of his term, maybe sooner. Senator Pete Domenici, the ranking member on the Energy Committee, has announced he won't seek reelection. There are other concerns. Years after work began at the site, evidence seemed to show an earthquake fault line was running through the repository. That caused many state officials to question the DOE's expert opinions. In the DOE's favor, while many people say they're opposed to the repository, it fails to draw a big crowd during public hearings. That may change, state officials think, once it becomes known how nuclear waste will get to Nevada. The Department of Energy has a much different take on the issue. Spokesman Allen Benson said: I'm not sure Congress would appropriate money for a program that was not needed or necessary. We're complying with the congressional will. We've been directed to develop a repository for the nation, and that's what we're doing. All content © Copyright 2000 - 2007 WorldNow and KVBC. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 42 Las Vegas Now: Two Nuke Waste Trucking Routes Proposed Through Las Vegas Edward Lawrence, Reporter DOE Proposes 215 as Alternate Nuclear Waste Trucking Route The state commission formed to fight the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain says the timetable is politically motivated. The head of the Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects says the Department of Energy wants to ram through the license for the nuclear waste repository before the current president leaves office. Eyewitness News has uncovered new information about transportation and safety, which could impact the entire Las Vegas Valley. More trucks with spent high level nuclear waste would be rolling through Las Vegas than first thought according to two more supplemental drafts of the Environmental Impact Study released relating to the overall project. Friday, the state agency fighting the Yucca Mountain repository was briefed about the fine print in the reports. This is a fight that has the state of Nevada hunkered down behind a collective "not in my back yard" approach. Elected officials from Nevada, including the governor to the most powerful senator in the United States all say storing nuclear waste at the Yucca Mountain repository would endanger our health, way of life, and future. The executive director of the state agency fighting the federal government says new Department of Energy reports validate the fears. Bob Loux, with the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, said, "We have seen documents from Sandia [in New Mexico] that say schedule is more important than scientific integrity. Schedule is more important than anything else. Others that say if we don't make the June filing date the DOE has told us we are all out of jobs." Loux says the Department of Energy is recklessly rushing to submit a license application to open the nuclear waste dump before President George Bush leaves office so it can be rubber stamped. "There are only going to be 30-percent of the designs for these facilities available. There is not going to be emergency plans and plans for retrieval available because they don't have time to do them," Bob Loux continued. Also, Loux says the Department of Energy added an 11th hour plan into new environmental impact draft statements. The latest surprise shows the numbers of high level nuclear waste shipments on Nevada roads will more than double what was originally proposed. The new report shows 2,700 truck shipments would come in on two possible routes: Interstate 15 to US-95, or Interstate 15 to the 215 Beltway to US-95. That goes through Las Vegas City Councilman Larry Brown's district. Councilman Brown said, "Then you start impacting communities like Sun City Summerlin. You are getting into the core of residential areas in Southern Nevada. The politics will raise itself at this stage of the game." The Department of Energy says no formal trucking route has been selected. The federal agency also says the license application will meet all rules and regulations. Clark County recently did a study showing 76-percent of residents oppose storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. Following that information, the state formally asked the city of Las Vegas and Clark County to become partners in the fight. Up to now both local governments officially watched from the sidelines. The city's resolution will be voted on in the next meeting. The county's vote will be in another month. E-mail your comments to Reporter Edward Lawrence. All content © Copyright 2000 - 2007 WorldNow and KLAS. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 43 Pahrump Valley Times: For Yucca, size doesn't matter Nye County's Largest Newspaper Circulation Oct. 12, 2007 By MARK WAITE PVT The 90-day comment period on a supplemental environmental impact statement, or EIS, to allow more storage of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain is expected to begin today. The Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management announced last week it was analyzing increasing the effects of building a repository built to hold up to 135,000 metric tons of high level nuclear waste, or about double the 70,000 tons authorized by Congress. Bob Gamble, the Nye County representative at the U.S. Department of Energy in Las Vegas, said it could be spring 2009 before Congress can vote on permitting the additional storage. The additional storage capacity would mean a longer period of time the nuclear waste would be passing through Nye County to the site, Gamble said. A base inventory of 70,000 metric tons in 2002 also considered additional inventories of nuclear waste. "So the fact that the EIS is looking at the possibility of additional inventory is not new," Gamble said. The county's point man on nuclear waste, Gamble speculated the additional waste could be stored at another mountain range just west of Yucca Mountain. But he said there are numerous possibilities for expansion. Cash Jaszczak, with Nevada operations of SRS Technologies, said "there's a lot of different dynamics that go into this ... The repository as envisioned with its legislative limits was going to be filled before it was opened, so to speak." Projections are 70,000 tons of nuclear waste already stored at the nation's 104 nuclear reactors to fill the repository by 2010. The latest projections are the Yucca Mountain facility may not be open until somewhere between 2017 and 2022. "Anybody who thinks we're not going to have any changes and adjustments to this process as we move forward has to have no sense of history, because that's exactly what's happened up to this point," Jaszczak said. Dave Swanson, assistant project administrator of the Nye County Nuclear Waste Office, said the Nuclear Waste Policy Act requires the director of the Office of Civilian Waste Management, Ward Sproat, to make a recommendation by 2010 on a second nuclear waste repository to be located in the East. Gamble said Sproat is likely to give that recommendation either late this year or early in 2008. When asked the county's position on the expanded repository proposal, Jaszczak referred to the Nye County Community Protection Plan, which discusses protecting the health and safety of county residents and gainng economic benefits from the project. The county's analysis would be that 80 percent of the 3,000 workers at Yucca Mountain would live in Nye County, the opposite of the Nevada Test Site whose 80 percent of the workers live in Clark County, Gamble said. "When the law was passed and Yucca Mountain was selected, Nye County had no say in it. That decision was made by others elsewhere, and the most Nye County can hope for is to make this a success," Jaszczak said. While Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has pledged the Yucca Mountain repository will never happen, Jaszczak noted the House of Representatives recently voted 350-81 against a motion by U.S. Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., to kill funding for the project. The damages the utility companies are seeking for delays in the project are another factor influencing the DOE right now, Gamble said. "So between DOE progress toward licensing, what the choices are for the second repository, damages for failure to accept the waste, those are going to get people's attention," Gamble said. Another factor complicating the situation is the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, which will present an EIS on recycling nuclear waste. The partnership hasn't made any recommendations or decisions yet, so the DOE can't make any decisions about reprocessing at this point, Gamble said. Speaking of the proposed reprocessing of nuclear waste, Gamble said that "will give us another supply of fuel for reactors; it would reduce the volume and radiological toxicity of the waste that has to be disposed of at Yucca Mountain." The Nye County Nuclear Waste Project Office will have representatives at each of the eight public hearings scheduled on the latest EIS, Lacey said. Mineral County residents will have the first chance to comment, with a public hearing Nov. 13 at the Hawthorne Convention Center. After meetings in Caliente and Reno, a public hearing is scheduled from 4 to 7 p.m. Nov. 26 at the LongStreet Inn and Casino in Amargosa Valley. The hearings move to the Goldfield School Gymnasium at 4 p.m., Nov. 27. From there the DOE moves to public hearings in Lone Pine, Calif., Nov. 29, the Cashman Center in Las Vegas Dec. 3 and Washington, D.C., Dec. 6. Jaszczak said the amount of money Nye County receives for oversight of the project is influenced more by the total budget for the Yucca Mountain project than by the size of the facility. Swanson said judging from the response at the nuclear waste and environmental advisory board booth at the Pahrump Fall Festival last weekend, there may not be much of a local outcry over a larger repository. "We talked to a lot of people, a whole lot of people stopped by. There was one woman who expressed anxiety about nuclear material, one person out of everybody we talked to over a period of three days and I was absolutely surprised by that," Swanson said. The Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, which is composed of members opposed to Yucca Mountain, will meet at Las Vegas City Hall at 10:30 a.m. today. It will be the first meeting attended by Nye County School Superintendent Rob Roberts, who was appointed to the committee by Gov. Jim Gibbons last summer. webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - ***************************************************************** 44 MWC News: Folly of nuke waste transport plan A Site Without Borders - - Oct 13 2007 Investigating Reports By Ace Hoffman 15-truck fiery pileup in California highlights folly of nuke waste transport plan One might recall, last April (2007), when a section of freeway near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge collapsed after a gasoline tanker truck overturned and erupted into flames. One might recall a fire in a tunnel near Baltimore, when a train burned for five days and the heat was estimated at more than 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, exceeding design limits for nuke waste transport casks. It's easy to forget, because it happened July 18-23, 2001, but we must not forget. The same tunnel will probably be used to transport nuclear waste from Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant to Yucca Mountain. Over 1000 tons of High Level Nuclear Waste is currently being stored at Calvert Cliffs, requiring hundreds of individual shipments. Every other nuclear power station in America also has many tons of nuclear waste stored dangerously outside the "containment dome." One might recall (if you were me) that the Department of Energy told me -- when I mentioned the tunnel fire at a hearing on Yucca Mountain, and said "how are you going to guarantee that all those nuke transport vehicles won't get involved in something like that?" -- that they would be tracking all the other trains on all the other tracks that the nuke waste train would go near, so there could never be a combination of a nuke train and a fuel or hazardous / flammable waste train in a tunnel, on a bridge or overpass, or just simply passing each other at the same time. One would have to be very dense -- denser than D.U. -- to believe anything the D.O.E. tells you. Today's fiery pileup in a California truck tunnel just points out, once again, that the nuke waste problem hasn't been solved. It won't be solved -- transporting waste will always be hazardous, risky, leaky, and foolhardy. But sooner or later, we're going to do it anyway, because the waste has to go somewhere. But transporting the waste won't be safe, and it won't be easy. "Nuke waste transport routes cover hundreds of thousands of miles of old, dilapidated roadways. Bridges thought to be safe are collapsing around us, yet still the plan moves forward, as if there is no danger. As if the containers will be made magically strong enough to survive anything that can happen. It's a pipe-dream. It's terrorism. Domestic terrorism by our own government against our own citizens." In today's fire, chunks of concrete and steel fell from the ceiling -- a container of nuke waste could be crushed and breached. Today's pileup happened just thirty miles from Los Angeles and closed one of the most important escape routes out of the city. Nuke waste transport routes cover hundreds of thousands of miles of old, dilapidated roadways. Bridges thought to be safe are collapsing around us, yet still the plan moves forward, as if there is no danger. As if the containers will be made magically strong enough to survive anything that can happen. It's a pipe-dream. It's terrorism. Domestic terrorism by our own government against our own citizens. But what are our options? We can't leave the waste on the coasts, subject to tsunamis. We can't leave it near population centers. We can't leave it in earthquake zones. We can't just leave it be -- it must be monitored for hundreds of thousands of years. It will cost a bundle. The costs have not been factored in to the price you pay for nuclear-generated electricity, no matter what the nuclear industry claims to the contrary. What about Yucca Mountain, I hear some naive pro-nukers cry! "That will solve our problem once and for all!" No it won't. It won't even solve our problem once, let alone, for all time. Yucca Mountain probably will never be completed because 1) The people of Nevada have a say in their future, and they hate it. and 2) It's a scientific failure and a financial boondoggle, and 3) Even if built, it would only hold today's waste -- if that. It won't hold the waste the nuclear industry plans to make tomorrow. Nuclear power is a crime against humanity. To call it anything less is an understatement. Nuclear power's supporters, with almost zero exceptions, all make a living, or made a living, from within the nuclear industry. Nuclear reactors generate about 20,000 pounds -- 10 tons -- of high-level radioactive waste each day in America alone -- 100,000 pounds of new "HLRW" worldwide every day. The day must come when this madness stops. Many pro-DNA people ("anti-nukers" is the term pro-nukers use, but we're really just "pro-DNA") believe that only a severe accident will stop the juggernaut. But humanity cannot wait for that -- the cost -- trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives -- would be too great to bear. It would bankrupt America, or any country it happens to. Sanity -- stopping nuclear power entirely and immediately -- is the only choice. That, or hell on earth. If you think a 15-truck fiery pileup in a truck tunnel in California, or a 5,000 degree fire in Baltimore, Maryland, or leaky containers along routes that pass within a few miles of 200 million Americans are bad things, then you need to protest not just "new" nuclear power, but "old" nuclear power, too. A closed reactor is much less vulnerable to terrorism, human error, environmental catastrophes, and aging ("embrittlement") accidents than an operating reactor, and perhaps most important, it's no longer generating new nuclear waste. Nuclear power was a dream of cheap energy that failed miserably. It's time to put the nightmare to rest. Ace Hoffman Carlsbad, CA (C)2005 MWC News - A Site Without Borders - MWC.News Network. © 2007 ***************************************************************** 45 Will a Missing Nuke from the B-52 Incident be used in a Simulated Terrorist Attack? Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 14:14:28 -0500 (CDT) Dick Cheney & Vigilant Shield: Will a Missing Nuke from the B-52 Incident be used in a Simulated Terrorist Attack? by Michael Salla, Ph.D. From October 15 to 19, 2007, a set of military and civil exercises will be held in Oregon, Arizona and Guam. The exercises, TOPOFF 4 and Vigilant Shield 08, are designed to test official responses to the detonation of radiological dispersal devices on U.S. territory. The exercises will be overseen by Vice President Dick Cheney who will travel specifically to Portland to coordinate all Federal departments and agencies responses to the simulated attacks. This has led to a number of civilian groups expressing alarm that TOPOFF and Vigilant Shield might be used as a cover for False Flag operations that replicate what occurred during the 911 attacks. On September 11, 2001, Dick Cheney was overseeing a series of simulated terrorist attacks involving hijacked airplanes hitting buildings that was called "Vigilant Guardian". Vigilant Guardian was run simultaneously with NORAD training exercises called Vigilant Warrior and Northern Vigilance that altogether involved as many as eleven hijacked airplanes. This created much confusion and led to stand down orders for the US Air Force that was unsure if the 911 attacks were part of the simulated exercises or real attacks. This confusion accounted for the long delays between initial reports of hijacked planes being used in 'terrorist' attacks, and Air Force intercept missions being launched using the few planes not involved in the Northern Vigilance exercise. the rest of the article here- http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_michael__071012_dick_cheney__26_vigila.htm ***************************************************************** 46 [NYTr] Rice Accuses Iran of "Lying" about Nukes Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 11:33:45 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit via Info Clearing House - Oct 12, 2007 Now it's Iran "lying" according to Condi. Here, in her own lying words on Jan 23, 2003 is what she said about IRAQ: "Why We Know Iraq is Lying" A Column by Dr. Condoleezza Rice http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030123-1.html *** AP via Yahoo - Oct 11, 2007 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071011/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iran Rice says Iran 'lying' about nukes By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Write Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday accused Iran of "lying" about the aim of its nuclear program, saying there's no doubt Tehran wants the capability to produce nuclear weapons and has deceived the U.N.'s atomic watchdog about its intentions. "There is an Iranian history of obfuscation and, indeed, lying to the IAEA," she said, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency. "There is a history of Iran not answering important questions about what is going on and there is Iran pursuing nuclear technologies that can lead to nuclear weapons-grade material," Rice told reporters aboard her plane as she headed to Moscow. U.S. officials have long accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons behind the facade of a civil atomic energy program, charges that Tehran denies. But Rice's strong words, including the blunt reference to Iranian "lying," come at a critical time in dealing with the matter. The United States is trying to win Russian support for new U.N. sanctions against Iran but has faced sharp resistance from Moscow, which has nuclear cooperation agreements with Tehran and argues the country should be given more time to come clean on its programs. Russian President Vladimir Putin said this week there is no proof Tehran is trying to build the bomb. Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates are scheduled to see him in Moscow on Friday. Washington has been pressing for more sanctions since earlier this year. But last month, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council b Britain, China, France the United States and Russia b and Germany agreed with the support of the European Union to hold off on a new sanctions resolution until November to allow negotiations with Iran to continue. If no progress is made on two separate tracks b talks with E.U. foreign policy chief Javier Solana on an offer of assistance in exchange for a suspension in Iran's nuclear program and discussions with IAEA on its past activities b they are to bring the resolution to a vote. It remains unclear, though, if Russia and China, which also opposes sanctions, will support it. Even as work on the proposed resolution is to continue at an Oct. 17 meeting of senior diplomats in Europe, Putin said Wednesday that Russia was not convinced Iran is trying to create nuclear weapons. His comments came after talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose government is firmly behind the U.S. sanctions drive, and appeared to deal a new blow to efforts to forge a consensus. "We have no objective data that Iran is seeking to make atomic weapons," Putin said. "Therefore, we proceed from the assumption that Iran has no such plans." Rice, however, stressed that Russia had signed on to the Sept. 28 agreement to consider new sanctions in November and said she did not "expect that there is any deviation from that course at this point" from the Russian side. She also noted that Russia had in the past demonstrated its concern about Iran's program by limiting its cooperation to prevent Tehran from acquiring a full nuclear fuel cycle that could be used to produce weapons-grade material. "That concern was seen very clearly in Russia's offer to Iran to enrich and reprocess in a joint venture and to bring back any spent fuel so that the fuel cycle wouldn't be available to Iran," she said. "I think there is a reason for that and that is suspicion about Iran's intentions." Copyright B) 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved * ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us Our main website: http://www.blythe.org List Archives: http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ Subscribe: http://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================= ***************************************************************** 47 Xinhua: Tension continues after Russian-U.S. missile defense talks www.chinaview.cn 2007-10-13 19:25:03 Print MOSCOW, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- Tension between Russia and the United States on missile defense issues did not ease as both sides failed to agree on any key points during their talks in Moscow on Friday. The talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin, visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and foreign and defense ministers from both countries, focused on missile defense, the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty, and ways to further reduce offensive arms after START-1 (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) expires in 2012. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attend the news conference after their talks in the "two-plus-two" format in Moscow, Oct. 12, 2007. Russia and the United States had failed to reach any agreement on missile defense, Rice told reporters on Friday. (Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>> However, the two sides failed to overcome differences on the U.S. plan to deploy 10 ballistic missile interceptors in Poland and a tracking radar in the Czech Republic, as well as Russia's proposals to extend the START-1, although both sides agreed to continue discussions at an expert level and resume the talks in six months. Analysts said the U.S. missile defense plan in Eastern Europe stood at the center of the conflict between the two powers, and their lack of sincerity to cooperate directly caused the talks to bog down. Washington says the missile defense plan in eastern Europe is intended to stave off the threat from what it calls "rogue states," but Moscow strongly opposes it, seeing it as a worrisome step that undermines Russian security. At a press conference after Friday's talks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow had urged the U.S. to freeze the plan during consultations between experts, But Rice said later in an interview with Russian TV channel "Rossiya" that the United States should start deploying elements of its missile defense shield in Central Europe without delay. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) chats with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as they attend the news conference after their talks in the "two-plus-two" format in Moscow, Oct. 12, 2007. Russia and the United States had failed to reach any agreement on missile defense, Rice told reporters on Friday. (Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>> Lavrov warned that if the United States deployed missile defense elements in Europe, Russia would be forced to take steps to "neutralize" the threat posed by the U.S. anti-missile system. Putin asked the United States to abandon the plan, warning it would hurt bilateral relations. He also threatened to pull his country out of the Russian-U.S. Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) unless it was extended to other countries. The CFE treaty also puts Russia in a favorable position in negotiations. The pact, signed by 22 states in Paris on Nov. 19, 1990, was an agreement between NATO members and Warsaw Pact countries aimed at establishing a balance in Europe by cutting weapons of conventional armed forces. On July 13, 2007, Putin signed a decree suspending Russia's participation in the treaty, arousing "great concern" among European countries. NATO spokesman James Appathurai said, "NATO considers this treaty to be an important foundation of European security and stability." Russia had threatened several times to withdraw from the treaty when it was at odds with the U.S. over the planned missile defense shield in Eastern Europe. Under pressure from its European allies, the U.S. showed its concern about Russia's declared intention to withdraw from the CFE Treaty. After the talks on Friday, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped that the two parties would be able to bridge their differences and that specialists would be able to sort out a solution to the problem. (L-R)U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov attend the news conference after their talks in the "two-plus-two" format in Moscow, Oct. 12, 2007. Russia and the United States had failed to reach any agreement on missile defense, Rice told reporters on Friday. (Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>> However, Russia considers the U.S. proposals on salvaging the CFE Treaty inadequate. According to Lavrov, Russia and the United States will continue their consultations on the missile defense in Europe involving foreign and defense ministers of the two countries, in what is called the "two-plus-two" format, in six months in Washington. "We have agreed that this format will deal with practical implementation of the initiatives, which our countries jointly promote and implement on the international arena for the sake of strategic stability," Lavrov said. Some Russian officials said the U.S. willingness to cooperate was due to Russia's hard steps. "Russia's recent resolute steps, including the resumption of patrol missions of its long-range aircraft and the rearmament of its armed forces with new types of powerful weapons, have played a significant role in this change," Russian State Duma international affairs committee head Konstantin Kosachyov said, as quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency. He said that in addition to the suspension of Russia's participation in the CFE Treaty, these steps have created "a fundamentally different climate" in the Russian-U.S. relations. He also believed that "the clearly articulated agreement between the parties to continue negotiations on a regular basis" is the most important result of the meeting. Analysts have noticed that although Russia and the United States have barely budged their positions, they have maintained their interest in dialogues and agreed to continue consultations on the issue. However, it is believed that no definitive results can be expected from the talks before the presidential elections in both countries next year. Editor: Bi Mingxin ***************************************************************** 48 Reuters: Congress must approve US attack vs Iran - Pelosi | Sun 14 Oct 2007 | 22:10 EDT By Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush must seek congressional approval before taking any military action in Iran, unless Tehran attacks the United States first, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday. "We don't believe that any authorities that the president has would give him the ability to go in without an act of Congress," Pelosi told ABC's "This Week" program. "Any president, if we are attacked, if our country is attacked has -- even under the War Powers Act -- very strong powers to go after that country. But short of that, he must come to the Congress," said the top Democrat in the House of Representatives. Pelosi said Bush had not requested any congressional authority to take military action in Iran, despite growing U.S. concern over Iran's nuclear ambitions and its support for militant groups in Lebanon and Gaza. Republican presidential candidates last week said it may be necessary to attack Iran's nuclear facilities to prevent it from developing a bomb, but they were cautious about a preemptive strike, saying Congress should be consulted first. Iran denies trying to build a nuclear weapon, but the United States, France, Britain and other countries fear Iran's stated pursuit of nuclear-generated electricity is a precursor to learning how to build atom bombs. Bush this month said the United States was working to resolve the nuclear standoff with Iran diplomatically but was keeping all its options open. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week said Washington was considering sanctions against the the Qods force, the elite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, which it accuses of inciting violence against U.S. troops in Iraq. The Senate last month passed a resolution urging the Bush administration to "combat, contain, and roll back" Iran's "violent activities and destabilizing influence inside Iraq," and to designate the entire Guard a "terrorist" organization. The House passed a similar measure, but it told the White House to determine if the Guard should be labeled as such. Iran condemned the congressional resolutions, saying any U.S. move to brand the Guard a terrorist group would amount to a confrontation with the entire Islamic Republic. "Whatever Iran's impact is on our troops in Iraq should be dealt with in Iraq," Pelosi said. © Reuters2007All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 49 MySA.com: Comment: Who moved the nuclear missiles? Web Posted: 10/13/2007 12:00 PM CDT Robert Stormer Special to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Last month, six W80-1 nuclear-armed AGM-129 advanced cruise missiles were flown from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., to Barksdale AFB in Louisiana and sat on the tarmac for 10 hours undetected. Press reports initially cited the Air Force mistake of flying nuclear weapons over the United States in violation of Air Force standing orders and international treaties, while completely missing the more important major issues, such as how six nuclear cruise missiles got loose to begin with. Opinion columns and editorials appeared in America's newspapers, some blasting the Air Force for flying nukes over the U.S. and some defending the Air Force procedure. None of the news reports focused on the real questions of our nuclear security. Let me be very clear here: We are not talking about paintball cartridges or pellet gun ammo. We are talking nuclear weapons. There is a strict chain of custody for all such weapons. Nuclear weapons handling is spelled out in great detail in Air Force regulations, to the credit of that service. Every person who orders the movement of these weapons, handles them, breaks seals or moves any nuclear weapon must sign off for tracking purposes. Two armed munitions specialists are required to work as a team with all nuclear weapons. All individuals working with nuclear weapons must meet very strict security standards and be tested for loyalty — this is known as a "Personnel Reliability Program." They work in restricted areas within eyeshot of one another and are reviewed constantly. All security forces assigned are authorized to use deadly force to protect the weapons from any threat. Nor does anyone quickly move a 1-ton cruise missile — or forget about six of them, as reported by some news outlets, especially cruise missiles loaded with high explosives. The United States also does not transport nuclear weapons meant for elimination attached to their launch vehicles under the wings of a combat aircraft. The procedure is to separate the warhead from the missile, encase the warhead and transport it by military cargo aircraft to a repository — not an operational bomber base that just happens to be the staging area for Middle Eastern operations. Yes, we still do fly nuclear warheads over the United States today. We also drive them over land as well. That's not the point. This is about how six nuclear advanced cruise missiles got out of their bunkers and onto a combat aircraft without notice of the wing commander, squadron commander, munitions maintenance squadron, or MMS, the B-52H's crew chief and command pilot and onto another Air Force base tarmac without notice of that air base's chain of command — for 10 hours. It is time that we got to the bottom of it through a comprehensive investigation. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has asked Larry Welch, a former Air Force chief of staff, to lead an independent inquiry into the implications of the incident. That is in addition to the existing Air Force investigation headed by Maj. Gen. Douglas Raaberg, director of air and space operations at Air Combat Command, which is responsible for all Air Force bombers and fighters. Ten questions that must be answered: Why, and for what ostensible purpose, were these nuclear weapons taken to Barksdale? How long was it before the error was discovered? How many mistakes and errors were made, and how many needed to be made, for this to happen? How many and which security protocols were overlooked? How many and which safety procedures were bypassed or ignored? How many other nuclear command and control non-observations of procedure have there been? What is Congress going to do to better oversee U.S. nuclear command and control? How does this incident relate to concern for reliability of control over nuclear weapons and nuclear materials in Russia, Pakistan and elsewhere? Does the Bush administration, as some news reports suggest, have plans to attack Iran with nuclear weapons? If this was an accident, have we degraded our military to a point where we are now making critical mistakes with our nuclear arsenal? If so, how do we correct this? Yes, heads must roll and careers will end. But let's make sure that this includes the ranks from general officers to noncommissioned ones. Or is this to be the Air Force version of the Abu Ghraib investigation? Robert Stormer of Chicago is a retired lieutenant commander in the Navy Reserve, serving with the Navy's Supervisor of Salvage, and was a specialist in weapons retrieval. He is a marine engineer and marine salvage specialist. ***************************************************************** 50 AFP: Gates warns Russia against break with arms treaties - by Jim Mannion Sat Oct 13, 2:26 PM ET RAF MILDENHALL, England (AFP) - US Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned Saturday that Russia will hurt its position in Europe if it unilaterally breaks with a treaty limiting the deployment of conventional forces in Europe. "My own view is that the Europeans are beginning to wonder what the Russians are all about," he told reporters. "And I think it would be frankly harmful to Russia's interests in Europe to unilaterally suspend or withdraw from this treaty, in terms of the sense of security and reassurance in Europe of the predictability of the future." Gates spoke aboard his plane as he flew back to Washington at the end of two days of talks dominated by bitter disputes over missile defense and Cold War-era arms control treaties. He stopped at the Royal Air Force base Mildenhall to refuel. Among the more pressing issues is the Russian threat to suspend its participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty on December 12 unless all NATO member countries ratify a version of the treaty amended in 1999. "I think if the Russians are serious about walking away from a number of agreements that were negotiated with virtually all of Europe I imagine that some of them would find that unsettling," Gates said. Originally negotiated between NATO and the Warsaw Pact countries in 1990, the treaty establishes national ceilings for troops and tanks enforced through a regime of notifications and inspections. NATO countries have refused to ratify the treaty until Russia withdraws all its forces from Georgia and Moldova. Gates told reporters that he and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made some suggestions to the Russians aimed at resolving the dispute during their talks in Moscow. "Our hope is we can maybe narrow these differences and get it done in a timely enough way that they won't feel it necessary to do that," he said. "The truth is they really hate this treaty, they call it the colonial treaty. But at the same time, I think they need to realize some protections for them that they don't talk about very much." "When you look at the demographics and so on, the Russians are not going to be able to field large-scale conventional armies in 10 or 15 years. Also it provides protections to them in terms of limits to where forces go on their borders," he said. During the Moscow talks, President Vladimir Putin also raised the possibility that Russia may withdraw from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, another Cold War-era agreement that abolished short- and medium-ranged nuclear missiles in Europe. Gates, a former CIA expert on the Soviet Union, said Putin's recent turn may be "a delayed reaction in some respects to the period from about 1991 and perhaps through the nineties or at least the early nineties where they felt they were really down and that they were taken advantage of." "I think President Putin is coming back and saying you have to take us into account on all these things, and saying in essence: 'We are back, we've got a lot of money, and we are a key player'." Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 51 sacbee.com: Opinion - Stopping an attack on Iran - By Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith - The Nation Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, October 14, 2007 Sometimes history -- and necessity -- make strange bedfellows. The German general staff transported Lenin to Russia to lead a revolution. Union-buster Ronald Reagan played godfather to the birth of the Polish Solidarity union. Equally strange -- but perhaps equally necessary -- is the addressee of a new appeal signed by Daniel Ellsberg, Cindy Sheehan, Ann Wright and many other leaders of the American peace movement: "ATTENTION: Joint Chiefs of Staff and all U.S. Military Personnel: Do not attack Iran." The initiative responds to the growing calls for an attack on Iran from the likes of author Norman Podhoretz and John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and the reports of growing war momentum in Washington by reporters such as Seymour M. Hersh of The New Yorker and Joe Klein of Time. International lawyer Scott Horton says European diplomats at the recent U.N. General Assembly gathering in New York "believe that the United States will launch an air war on Iran, and that it will occur within the next six to eight months." He puts the likelihood of conflict at 70 percent. The initiative also responds to the recent failure of Congress to pass legislation requiring its approval before an attack on Iran and the hawk-driven resolution encouraging President Bush to act against the Iranian military. Marcy Winograd, president of Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles, who originally suggested the petition, said: "If we thought that our lawmakers would restrain the Bush administration from further endangering Americans and the rest of the world, we would concentrate solely on them. If we went to Las Vegas today, would we find anyone willing to bet on this Congress restraining Bush? I don't think so." Military resistance What could be stranger than a group of peace activists petitioning the military to stop a war? And yet there is more logic here than meets the eye. Asked in an online discussion Sept. 27 whether the Bush administration will launch a war against Iran, Washington Post intelligence reporter Dana Priest replied, "Frankly, I think the military would revolt and there would be no pilots to fly those missions." She acknowledged that she had indulged in a bit of hyperbole, then added, "but not much." There have been many other hints of military disaffection from plans to attack Iran -- indeed, military resistance may help explain why, despite years of rumors about Bush administration intentions, such an attack has not yet occurred. A Pentagon consultant told Hersh more than a year ago, "There is a war about the war going on inside the building." Hersh also reported that Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had forced Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to remove the "nuclear option" from the plans for possible conflict with Iran -- in the Pentagon it was known as the April Revolution. In December, according to Klein, Bush met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff in a secure room known as The Tank. The president was told that "the U.S. could launch a devastating air attack on Iran's government and military, wiping out the Iranian air force, the command and control structure and some of the more obvious nuclear facilities." But the Joint Chiefs were "unanimously opposed to taking that course of action," both because it might not eliminate Iran's nuclear capacity and because Iran could respond devastatingly in Iraq -- and in the United States. In an article published by Inter Press Service, historian and national security policy analyst Gareth Porter reported that Adm. William Fallon, Bush's then-nominee to head the Central Command, sent the Defense Department a strongly worded message earlier this year opposing the plan to send a third aircraft carrier strike group into the Persian Gulf. In another Inter Press analysis, Porter quotes someone who met with Fallon saying an attack on Iran "will not happen on my watch." He added, "You know what choices I have. I'm a professional. ... There are several of us trying to put the crazies back in the box." About the writer: * Jeremy Brecher is a historian whose books include “Strike!” He is a co-founder of WarCrimesWatch.org. Brendan Smith is a legal analyst whose books include “Globalization From Below”. He is current co-director of Global Labor Strategies and UCLA Law School’s Globalization and Labor Standards Project. Copyright © The Sacramento Bee ***************************************************************** 52 Ventura County Star: Field Lab site may become parkland : Simi Valley : By Teresa Rochester (Contact) Saturday, October 13, 2007 The Santa Susana Field Laboratory, a former rocket engine and nuclear test site in the hills south of Simi Valley, will be transferred to state ownership and placed off-limits to development if officials accept a tentative agreement announced Friday between the state and the property's owner, the Boeing Co. The potential transfer is part of a complicated deal announced as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill that requires Boeing to clean the 2,849-acre site to the highest standards of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency before the property can be released for development. "I am pleased to announce this historic agreement will benefit the environment, nearby residents in Ventura County and the people of California," Schwarzenegger said in a prepared statement. The bill, SB 990, was written by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica. Its passage in the Assembly last month capped a six-year legislative battle to ensure strict cleanup standards are used at the field laboratory, which has both chemical and radioactive contamination. The tentative agreement was signed by Boeing, the state Environmental Protection Agency and the state Resources Agency. It requires Boeing to enter into a binding agreement with the state that calls for the land to be cleaned to "levels acceptable for residential use and that protect individuals living in the vicinity of the property." The agreement would also mandate that Boeing release the land to the state once it is cleaned up. The site would then be used for park, recreational and open space. Once the binding agreement is reached, Kuehl will carry a bill in the next legislative season that, if passed, would void the portions of SB 990 that call for the Santa Susana Field Laboratory to be cleaned to Superfund standards before it is released by Boeing. On Friday, Kuehl said in an interview that permanently protecting the land from development was a good thing, as was mandating a cleanup standard that protects area residents. The tentative agreement, however, does reopen the discussion of what standards will be used to clean the contamination at the site. "I have done my very best to remind the people of the state and up to the governor's office, that if the state is going to accept it as parkland they need to worry how clean it is," Kuehl said. "It does not need to be what Boeing is already doing." The tentative agreement between the state and Boeing capped months of negotiations as environmentalists, community members and nuclear watchdogs successfully lobbied lawmakers to support SB990. Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, D-Santa Monica, who helped shepherd the bill through the Assembly, said Friday that it would be hard to predict the level of cleanup the state and Boeing will agree to. "It can be years before it is determined as part of this agreement," she said. "The one very positive thing is that this property will never be residentially developed." Kuehl's bill garnered bipartisan support, including that of Assemblyman Cameron Smyth, R-Santa Clarita, whose district includes part of Simi Valley. Smyth announced Friday that he has started work on creating a state park on the land. Boeing officials began looking into the possibility of turning over the land nearly two years ago, spokesman Dan Beck said. "We approached state officials and asked, How can we make this happen?'" he said. One of Boeing's most outspoken critics on the cleanup of the Field Laboratory, nuclear watchdog-group leader Dan Hirsch, lauded Kuehl's work on the bill but was skeptical about the future agreement. "Since we have such a history of Boeing breaking its promises and since this promise is vague, we will watch very closely the final, as yet to be written, agreement," Hirsch said. "If Boeing breaks its promise we will vigorously oppose any amendment to weaken the bill." © 2007 The E.W. Scripps Co. ***************************************************************** 53 Knoxville News Sentinel: UT, ORNL push toward the future : Perspectives Dr. Thom Mason, masont@ornl.gov Sunday, October 14, 2007 The last 90 days have been one of the most important periods in the history of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee. Three milestones, valued together at nearly $250 million, occurred in a 12-week period and may to a large extent define the future of both institutions. More significant, each milestone was made possible by the growing partnership between Tennessee's land grant university and one of the Department of Energy's premier research laboratories, managed by an equally successful partnership between UT and Battelle Memorial Institute. In June, the Department of Energy announced that Oak Ridge will be the site of a new $135 million Bioenergy Science Center dedicated to finding ways of making ethanol from plants such as switchgrass and poplar trees. The winning ORNL team, which included UT, was selected from among some two dozen highly competitive proposals from the nation's leading universities and laboratories. The selection of Tennessee to help lead the Department of Energy's new biofuels program was a tremendous statement of confidence in the capabilities of both the laboratory and the university to develop alternative fuels. Most of those close to the selection process believe Oak Ridge was awarded the Bioenergy Science Center in part because of the state of Tennessee's commitment to support the project. Proposed by Gov. Phil Bredesen and approved by the General Assembly just prior to the Department of Energy announcement, the Tennessee Biofuels Initiative includes $40 million as part of the construction cost of a refinery in Monroe County capable of manufacturing 5 million gallons of ethanol per year. Our goal is that this second milestone project, led by UT, will combine with the research at Oak Ridge to catapult Tennessee to the forefront in the emerging biofuels industry. Only weeks after the announcement of the two bioenergy projects, the National Science Foundation selected UT as the winner of a competition to build a new supercomputer capable of a mind-boggling 1,000 trillion calculations per second. The $65 million grant - the largest in the university's history - will fund the construction of a machine that will be located on the ORNL campus adjacent to the world's most powerful open science supercomputer funded by the Department of Energy. Together, these two extraordinary machines are rapidly placing East Tennessee among the world's leaders in high-performance computing. Success on this scale does not happen by accident. A genuine partnership that includes Bredesen, UT President John Petersen, Tennessee Valley Authority Director Tom Kilgore and the Tennessee General Assembly provided the kind of leverage that other states increasingly are finding difficult to match. Alone, our chances were in doubt. Together, the partnership is proving as formidable as any in America. The results of these recent successes will come over the next three to five years. If events unfold as I expect, this period may be recalled as one during which the reputation of the university, of the laboratory and of Tennessee rose in the eyes of the world. Dr. Thom Mason is director at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. His e-mail address is masont@ornl.gov. © 2007 The E.W. Scripps Co. ***************************************************************** 54 lamonitor.com: Help wanted: LANL seeks nuclear detectives The Online News Source for Los Alamos ROGER SNODGRASS Monitor Assistant Editor Just about any Sherlock Holmes story finds somebody completely puzzled by how the great detective has been able to name the culprit of a crime, to whom Holmes replies something like, “Why, simply by having the good fortune to get the right clue from the beginning, my dear friend.” At a webcast hearing this week in Washington, D.C., Carol Burns, a scientist from Los Alamos National Laboratory, provided testimony on some of the challenges involved in finding people who can get the right clues from the beginning on a major issue of national security. A House subcommittee on emerging threats was marking up a bill to strengthen national defense against nuclear terrorism, which has been designated by the Bush administration as the number one security threat facing the nation. The bill, the Nuclear Forensics and Attribution Act, authored by Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., is meant in part to create a new kind of deterrence against a new kind of nuclear threat. “Nuclear attribution would allow us to identify the provenance of nuclear material intercepted in transit, or God forbid, in the aftermath of a detonation,” Schiff said in his prepared testimony to the committee. “That knowledge would help us decide how to respond and it would also provide a deterrent.” The bill under discussion would assign an important role to nuclear forensics to identify the perpetrator or the provenance of any nuclear material involved in terrorist activities. As one witness at the hearing noted, the new nuclear deterrent would require “much faster answers to different questions under the pressure of an extreme crisis without prior notice.” “I staff and maintain our radioanalytical capability, and as such am a ‘consumer’ of the product of our educational pipeline,” said Burns, a Laboratory Fellow and the lab’s group leader in nuclear and radiochemistry, who was asked by the committee to focus her remarks on workforce needs in nuclear forensics. Sherlock Holmes in the “Adventure of the Norwood Builder” single-handedly put together clues about the strength of the suspect, his skill in the use of a harpoon, some rum and a sealskin pouch containing coarse tobacco to pin his suspicions on a seaman who had been a former whaler. Today’s nuclear forensics detective is more likely to be part of a team of highly specialized experts, Burns said, many of whom are involved in trying to prevent nuclear incidents from happening in the first place. Some of these specialists can help trace captured materials or remnants of explosions back to where they originated. Altogether, they include nuclear physicists and engineers, radiochemists, and other scientists who can use creative and sophisticated methods to interpret technical data and read elemental signatures from a smattering of radiological information. These are the kind of people Carol Burns has to find coming out of research universities and graduate schools. Adding to the difficulty is the fact that only a fraction of what they will need to know can be taught in school. Much of it comes only from the art and lore of experience. The current staff, as is the case with many other segments of the nuclear workforce is aging. Finding mentors becomes more difficult as time goes on. Burns said only about 20-30 employees across the weapons complex are said by the laboratories to be spending most of their time on these issues. “Of those workers the laboratories identified as working on nuclear forensic efforts for more than 50 percent of their effort, the majority are more than 50 years old,” she said. “In some cases we have retirees staffing significant roles.” She said there was need to replenish this workforce. Among efforts that are promising she said the Department of Energy has had some success attracting early career candidates from summer schools in nuclear and radiochemistry sponsored by the American Chemical Society. But research opportunities, developing appropriate curricula and hiring appropriate faculty are subsets of the same issue, along with providing that non-academic training that is especially necessary in nuclear forensics but harder to assure with such a rapidly aging workforce. LANL’s National Security Education Center, made up of a number of institutes and university partnerships, Burns said, is developing proposals related to education and staff recruiting in these areas. She said the benefits that she outlined for the committee would go beyond nuclear forensics, to help the nation in other areas, including nonproliferation, nuclear medicine and environmental management. © 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 55 KIFI: LocalNews8.com: Hot Shop Building Demolished Idaho Falls, Pocatello - In a spectacular display, crews detonated explosives to bring down the 7 foot-thick steel-reinforced walls of the INL building TAN-607, otherwise known as the "Hot Shop." The building was built in 1954 to support research related to the aircraft nuclear propulsion project. Originally designed to handle remote work on highly radioactive components of nuclear-powered jet engines after each test, it was put to many other nuclear safety and accident research uses over the years. The Hot Shop was the last major facility to be demolished at test area north as part of the Idaho Cleanup Project. All content © Copyright 2000 - 2007 WorldNow and KIFI. 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: *****************************************************************