***************************************************************** 10/19/07 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 15.246 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 US: Knoxville News Sentinel: More information needed on alternative 2 Derry Today: Cubitt rubbishes 'nuclear factory' recommendation - NUCLEAR REACTORS 3 US: Deseret Morning News: Cost of a Utah nuclear plant could reach $ 4 AU ABC: Protesters storm nuclear conference - 5 People's Daily: Nuke plant's life cycle set to double - 6 RIA Novosti: Belarus to hold tender in 2008 to build nuclear power p 7 US: Centre County: Second NRC inspector sent to Penn State - 8 WNN: Control rod stuck in Kashiwazaki Kariwa unit 9 Reuters: Belarus to tender nuclear plant, Russia interested | 10 US: Reuters: FPL Fla. Turkey Point 3 reactor up to 85 pct power 11 US: Reuters: Entergy N.Y. FitzPatrick reactor cut to 65 pct | 12 BarentsObserver: Floating NPP for Arctic platforms 13 US: MuskogeePhoenix.com: Federal officials meet with residents about 14 US: Daily Trojan: Nuclear power isn't just for the West - Opinion 15 WNN: Nuclear skills gaps addressed worldwide 16 US: TheDay.com: Anti-Nuke Appeal In Millstone Storage Case Heads To 17 Radio Australia: Australian nuclear expert says clean coal best for NUCLEAR SECURITY NUCLEAR SAFETY 18 US: Houston Chronicle: Search ends for lost radioactive item on Texa 19 US: RGJ.com: Environment could precipitate Cancer clusters NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 20 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Team uranium: Self-serving lawmakers have hug 21 US: LA Daily News: Santa Susana Field Lab site cleanup still up for 22 US: The Accorn: Governor, Boeing agree never to develop field lab 23 US: Ventura County Star: Portion of Santa Susana site could be park 24 NEWS.com.au: Protesters target Aussie nuclear conference | 25 GOAT: Time constraints at Yucca Mountain 26 Las Vegas SUN: Yucca Mountain project posts key notice about documen 27 US: ReviewJournal.com: Utilities unsure about nuclear waste canister 28 US: The Buffalo News: Niagara County: Testing standards for landfill PEACE 29 US: LOADING/FLYING NUKES ACROSS U$ WAS ACCIDENTAL !!! 30 US: nuclear missile flight was a accident 31 US: [NYTr] USAF Goes Public on the Nuke-Armed B-52 flight "Mistake" 32 US: Reuters: Air Force fires commanders over nuclear mix-up 33 AFP: India, Pakistan talk to ease nuclear tensions - 34 US: AFP: US Air Force blames transport of nukes on 'procedural' erro 35 US: Guardian Unlimited: 70 Punished in Accidental B-52 Flight 36 US: Guardian Unlimited: Military Explains Nuclear Weapon Mistake US DEPT. OF ENERGY 37 Tri-City Herald: 'Mythbusters' test seeks to determine if cockroache 38 Knoxville News Sentinel: ORNL scientist leads climate report ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Knoxville News Sentinel: More information needed on alternative fuels By Leslie Snow (Contact) Friday, October 19, 2007 He welcomes me into his home with a warm smile and leads me to his office. While his wife gets me a cup of coffee, I soak up the wall full of awards, noting his achievements as a scientist. I make small-talk about a recent trip to Ohio, but he doesn't seem to hear me. He just eases himself into his chair and swivels his seat toward his filing cabinet. With one smooth motion, he slides open a drawer and points to rows of tightly packed folders. It's an impressive body of work. "This is all my recent research," he says, chuckling. I can't help but smile at his enthusiasm. Then he pulls out a stapled packet that appears to be at least 10 pages long. "This is just the bibliography," he tells me. I search my brain for a question, a way to start the interview, but he stops me with a look. He's not waiting for a question; he's pondering his approach. He leans back in his chair and mumbles softly, "Where do I begin to teach you about biofuels?" For the next two hours, he's my teacher, and I'm his student. He's the lecturer, and I'm his rapt audience. He explains his subject thoroughly, then sends me on my way with a word of caution, "I don't want you to print my name, but you won't need to. I've given you a place to start. Just do some research." So I do. I go home and search "switchgrass" and "University of Tennessee" on my computer. I Google "ethanol" and "Vonore." I peruse the results and read all the good news. I learn that Mascoma Corp. and UT are teaming up to build and operate the country's first cellulosic ethanol biorefinery. I discover that the project will be funded through Gov. Phil Bredesen's Biofuel Initiative, "a research and business model designed to reduce dependence on foreign oil and provide economic and environmental benefits for Tennessee's farmers and communities." The initiative includes $40 million for the construction of the facility and $27 million for research and development, including incentives for farmers to grow switchgrass. I learn that the facility supplements research efforts at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and that ORNL was awarded $125 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to fund the Bioenergy Science Center, intended to "develop solutions to commercialize the production of cellulosic ethanol from switchgrass and other forms of biomass." It all sounds so promising. Then I Google the name I learned in my interview. I Google "David Pimentel," and I get the other side of the story. I learn that, in 1979, the U.S. Department of Energy invited Pimentel to chair an advisory committee to look at ethanol as a gasoline alternative. The committee concluded that ethanol requires more energy to produce than it delivers. According to Pimentel, professor emeritus at Cornell University, "There is just no energy benefit to using plant biomass for liquid fuel." Pimentel, along with Tad W. Patzek, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, conducted a detailed analysis of the energy input-yield ratios of producing ethanol from corn, switchgrass and wood biomass. The study found that corn requires 29 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced, switchgrass requires 45 percent more, and wood biomass requires 57 percent more. "Ethanol production in the United States does not benefit the nation's energy security, its agriculture, economy or the environment," says Pimentel. "Further, its production and use contribute to air, water and soil pollution and global warming." And Pimentel isn't the only voice of opposition. A recent study published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics concluded that many biofuels produce more greenhouse gases than they save. And, with the U.S. Senate's plan to increase corn-ethanol production sevenfold by 2022, greenhouse-gas emissions from transportation will rise by 6 percent. That's the good news and bad news about producing biofuel. And, before we dedicate millions of dollars to build a processing plant in Vonore and set aside 8,000 acres of land, we better take a closer look at the math and ask a lot of hard questions. We need to be wary of solutions that sound too good to be true. Leslie Snow is a freelance writer living in West Knoxville. In addition to this column, she writes a family column that runs in the News Sentinel's Community News section each Wednesday and at knoxville.yourhub.com. Her e-mail address is snowcolumn@aol.com. © 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 2 Derry Today: Cubitt rubbishes 'nuclear factory' recommendation - * Published Date: 19 October 2007 * Source: Journal Friday By Staff reporter A Limavady councillor has described a proposal by a leading scientist that Magilligan Point would be an ideal location for a nuclear factory as "total crap." Instead, Ulster Unionist Coalition member, Leslie Cubitt, has suggested the County Derry landmark would fulfil a better purpose as a waste disposal site. Dr. Edward Walsh, founding president of the University of Limerick and a qualified nuclear engineer, says nuclear power represents the safest, cheapest and cleanest form of energy. The proposals have been endorsed by the British government’s chief scientific adviser and the Institute of Engineers. “Nuclear energy, which emits no greenhouse gases, is now emerging as the economically and environmentally attractive alternative to coal, oil and gas,” said Dr. Walsh. “Abundant supplies of economically competitive energy would represent an inducement for investment in Northern Ireland, while energy exports would be a source of wealth and job creation. The coastline of Northern Ireland offers a number of attractive locations for nuclear power plants.” However, Colr Cubitt has dismissed the proposals as “absolute rubbish” and says Magilligan Point is the ideal location for a rubbish incinerator. “He talking absolute crap if he thinks Magilligan Point will ever come a site for a nuclear factory. I have always maintained that we should be using modern technology to bring hydro-electricity back to Limavady. “The River Roe was used for the provision of hydro-electric power up until 1964 and I say it is time we brought it back. “This is a more practical and cost effective solution that would benefit the environment. “If you ask me, they should build a big incinerator out at Magilligan Point as this would reduce the amount of money required to dispose of waste.” Last Updated: 18 October 2007 4:17 PM All rights reserved ©2007 Johnston Press Digital Publishing ***************************************************************** 3 Deseret Morning News: Cost of a Utah nuclear plant could reach $3 billion By Joe Bauman Deseret Morning News Published: Oct. 19, 2007 12:24 a.m. MDT A nuclear-power plant planned for Utah could be as expensive as $3 billion to build, and the radioactive waste generated by the plant would have to be stored on site, nuclear-power experts told legislators this week. David Hill, deputy director for science and technology at the Idaho National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy research campus, spoke Wednesday during a meeting of the Legislature's Public Utilities and Technology Interim Committee. He was invited to speak concerning a plan by Transition Power Development, a private equity group, to develop a nuclear-power plant in Utah. Rep. Aaron Tilton, R-Springville, a member of the interim committee, is an owner of Transition Power. Hill said the cost of bringing a new nuclear plant online is estimated "in the range of $2 billion to $3 billion." The plants are capital intensive but could last for 80 years, he said. Nils Diaz, a former chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission who is working with Transition Power, said such a plant's radioactive waste should be stored on site until it can be moved to a permanent repository or reprocessed. No nations now have permanent repositories for high-level nuclear waste, he said. A nuclear-power facility built anywhere in the United States would not be able move the radioactive material from its site "in a period of 40 to 100 years," he said. Diaz said he would recommend that radioactive waste from the Transition Power plant be kept in Utah until effective reprocessing technology is available. He said such plants are 10 times as safe as they were at the start of the nuclear power era. Utah now exports electricity generated by non-nuclear sources to Western states such as California, said Dianne Nielson, Utah's energy adviser. Some of the electricity from a nuclear-power plant also likely would leave the state. E-mail: bau@desnews.com deseretnews.com: ***************************************************************** 4 AU ABC: Protesters storm nuclear conference - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Updated October 19, 2007 12:51:00 About 25 protesters have stormed the lobby of a conference in Sydney on Australia's nuclear industry. Protesters barged into the lobby of the conference room where Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation chairman Ziggy Switkowski was due to speak. They were holding up signs and shouting slogans. Conference organisers and some participants got into heated arguments with the protesters over both their presence and nuclear issues. The protesters were calling for the shutdown of the nuclear industry and for uranium mining companies to leave Aboriginal land. Some conference-goers even manhandled the protesters towards the door. The building's manager arrived a short time later and ordered the protesters to leave. Despite this, the arguments lasted for several minutes before the protesters agreed. ANSTO Chairman Ziggy Switkowski told the conference the protesters' views are not representative of the general population. "If we allow the debate to unfold, and make it fact based, I think we will see that the broader community will accept nuclear power," he said. He says Australians would be even more willing to accept nuclear power if they understood how safe modern technologies are. Dr Switkowski says 25 nuclear power plants would produce about a third of Australia's energy needs and would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about a fifth. But he says clean coal would have a more significant impact, because the technologies could be used in other countries. "The most important thing is to find ways to burn coal more cleanly, to capture the combustion product and store them and then to make that technology available to the large coal burning countries around the world," he said. ***************************************************************** 5 People's Daily: Nuke plant's life cycle set to double - 08:15, October 19, 2007 The first phase of Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant (Qinshan-I), China's first nuclear plant, will be able to double its operational life through a cutting-edge plant life management (PLiM) mechanism, the plant's top engineer has said. "Qinshan-I is 16 years old. We're aware of the issue of life management and we have started introducing the PliM method," Ma Huiming, chief engineer of the Qinshan Nuclear Power Company, told China Daily on the sidelines of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) symposium on PliM which concluded yesterday. "With effective plant life management methods, Qinshan-I will probably be able to run another 20-40 years after its 30-year designed life." "It will save the cost of a new nuke plant if we have Qinshan-I run for another 40 years safely, not to mention the cost for disposing of the expired reactor." The PliM methodology can help optimize repair, replacement or modification of systems, structures and components of reactors, while ensuring a high level of safety. Yuri Sokolov, IAEA's deputy director-general also expressed optimism for the mechanism. "This (PliM) is especially important as the world's fleet of 439 nuclear power plants has been operating, on average, for more than 20 years." Qinshan-I teams are working with leading academies to conduct regular inspections and assessments of the key equipment in the plant, a core part of the PLiM methodology. Strict checks on shell-like containment facilities designed to prevent radiation leakage into the atmosphere, are conducted in line with PliM standards. "Non-destructive testing methods such as ultrasonic testing have been introduced for examination," Ma said. "As the Qinshan-I is the first nuke power plant in China, nuclear safety is our country's top priority. Fortunately there have been no safety-related aging problems occur." The Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and Design Institute (SNERDI) and the Research Institute of Nuclear Power Operation of Wuhan in Central China, provide PliM technical support for Qinshan-I. Dou Yikang, a senior engineer with the Shanghai nuclear institute, which designed Qinshan-I, agreed with Ma's expectations for the plant's life, but added it had to undergo sophisticated research and verification processes. "Technical feasibilities aside, we have to do a series of complex assessments to prove that it will do no harm to the environment and residents," Dou said. The 300-megawatt Qinshan-I, located in the eastern province of Zhejiang, started operation in 1991. It cost 1.2 billion yuan ($159.76 million) to build the first nuke plant in China at that time. But it would cost about $450 million to build a similar plant today, based on current construction costs, Dou said. Source: China Daily ***************************************************************** 6 RIA Novosti: Belarus to hold tender in 2008 to build nuclear power plant 20:22 | 19/ 10/ 2007 MINSK, October 19 (RIA Novosti) - Belarus will hold a tender next year for a project to build its first nuclear power plant, at which Russian and Western partners are expected to bid, the prime minister said on Friday. The Belarusian leadership has said the country needs the plant to ensure national energy security amid rising hydrocarbon prices. Russia doubled its gas price for Belarus at the start of the year, after over a decade of heavily discounted prices. The new plant is expected to provide 15% of the country's power consumption. "We have proposals from our Western partners and Russia to carry out this project," Sergei Sidorsky said following a session of the Council of Ministers of the Russia-Belarus Union State. Russia and France have been mentioned as possible participants in the tender. Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said earlier today in Minsk that Russia had the experience and potential to build the plant for Belarus, and that its proposal would be the most reasonable and meet international security standards. The plans for a nuclear power plant have been taken warily inside Belarus, which was heavily affected by the devastating Chernobyl accident in neighboring Ukraine in 1986. In April, on the anniversary of the disaster, some 2,500 people took to streets of Minsk to protest against the project. Sidorsky said the Belarusian government was studying several potential sites for the future plant. Belarus's energy ministry earlier said the plant would be built in the eastern Mogilyov Region, 100 km (62 miles) from the border with Russia, with the first reactor to be commissioned in 2017 and the second in 2020. RIA Novosti ***************************************************************** 7 Centre County: Second NRC inspector sent to Penn State - PennLive.com The Associated Press, 10/19/07 11:18 AM EDT UPDATED: 10/19/07 11:51 AM EDT STATE COLLEGE * A second federal inspector was dispatched to Penn State this week as workers continue to search for the source of a leak in the pool of water that cools the university’s nuclear research reactor. The school has said the minor leak at the Breazeale Nuclear Reactor of “slightly radioactive water” poses no danger to employees, students, the community or the environment. The leak was first discovered Oct. 9, and the reactor was shut down, the university said. A Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspector arrived at the site last week, and a second inspector was sent this week, NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said Thursday. Workers are in the process of draining half the 71,000-gallon pool to look for the source of the leak. There were early indications that pool leakage has lessened or stopped as the south portion of the pool slowly drains, Sheehan said. The other half of the pool will be drained if the leak still hasn’t been found, the university said. The building remains open, and classes and other research not connected to the reactor are ongoing. On the Net: Breazeale Nuclear Reactor : http://www.rsec.psu.edu/ The Associated Press, 10/19/07 11:18 AM EDT UPDATED: 10/19/07 11:51 AM EDT STATE COLLEGE * A second federal inspector was dispatched to Penn State this week as workers continue to search for the source of a leak in the pool of water that cools the university’s nuclear research reactor. The school has said the minor leak at the Breazeale Nuclear Reactor of “slightly radioactive water” poses no danger to employees, students, the community or the environment. The Patriot News | The Express-Times © 2007 PennLive LLC. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site ***************************************************************** 8 WNN: Control rod stuck in Kashiwazaki Kariwa unit 19 October 2007 Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) reported that a control rod cannot be removed from the reactor of unit 7 of its Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant. The unit shut down automatically when an earthquake struck the plant on 16 July. A control rod is moved in or out of the central core of a nuclear reactor in order to control the neutron flux - increase or decrease the number of neutrons which will split further uranium atoms. This in turn affects the thermal power of the reactor, the amount of steam generated, and hence the electricity produced. They are usually combined into control rod assemblies and inserted into guide tubes within a nuclear fuel element. In an emergency, the control rods are quickly inserted all the way into the fuel assembly to stop the fission reaction and shut down the reactor unit. All 205 of the 4-metre-long control rods at Kashiwazaki Kariwa 7's reactor were automatically inserted into the fuel as soon as the 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit, Tepco said. Control rods stand vertically within a reactor core. In pressurised water reactors (PWRs), they are inserted from above, the control rod drive mechanisms being mounted on the reactor pressure vessel head. However, due to the necessity of a steam dryer above the core of a boiling water reactor (BWR), such as the Kashiwazaki Kariwa units, this design requires insertion of the control rods from underneath the core. BWRs require the hydraulic insertion of control rods in the event of an emergency shutdown, using water from a special tank that is under high nitrogen pressure. Tepco said that in order to conduct in-core inspections, it had removed the lid of the reactor's pressure vessel and has started removing fuel assemblies and control rods from the reactor core to the fuel storage pools. So far, 106 control rods have been removed from the reactor. However, the company discovered that one of the control rods was jammed in the reactor core. Company officials said that one reason for the rod becoming stuck could be that devices intended to prevent the rod from slipping remained locked. Another possibility is that the earthquake distorted the shape of the facility, preventing the rod from moving. Checking the exact cause, however, is likely to take some time as water that fills the reactor must first be drained before its interior can be examined. At the time of the earthquake, three of the seven reactors at Kashiwazaki Kariwa - units 3, 4 and 7 - were in operation. Those reactors shut down safely as tremors began. Unit 2 was in the process of starting operation, and shut down automatically as well. Units 1, 5 and 6 were not operating as periodic inspections were being carried out. The earthquake resulted in water being shaken from cooling pools of all the units and some of this drained away to be discharged to sea. In addition, many barrels of solid low-level radioactive waste were knocked over and an external electrical transformer failed and caught fire. The discovery of the jammed control rod is likely to further delay the resumption of plant operations. All seven reactors at the plant remain offline while damage from the earthquake is assessed. Further information Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) WNA's Nuclear Power in Japan information paper WNA's Nuclear Power Plants and Earthquakes information paper WNA's Earthquakes and Nuclear Safety microsite WNN: Kashiwazaki Kariwa visit concludes WNN: IAEA team arrives in Japan WNN: Tepco lists earthquake effects ***************************************************************** 9 Reuters: Belarus to tender nuclear plant, Russia interested | Fri Oct 19, 2007 1:49pm EDT MINSK, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Belarus said on Friday it would hold a tender next year for the construction of the ex-Soviet state's first nuclear power plant, which could cost up to $3.5 billion, and Russia signalled its interest. Belarus has virtually no energy resources and has quarrelled with Moscow over the prices it pays for Russian gas, on which it relies heavily. President Alexander Lukashenko has long talked of diversifying sources of energy and on Thursday pointed to Japan as an ideal partner for the nuclear project. "The government at the moment is doing preliminary work. We have offers from Western partners and we have an offer from Russia," Belarussian Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky said after meeting his Russian counterpart, Viktor Zubkov. Earlier, Zubkov said Russia was "capable of offering the most pragmatic and safest way" of building a nuclear power plant. Russia's ambassador to Belarus has said before Russia could provide a loan to cover the entire cost of the project. Zubkov also said it would make sense to revisit a proposal to build a second gas export pipeline link to Europe through Belarus. "It is probably expedient once again to revert to the question of constructing a second link, but to do that we will need to tally all resources," Zubkov said. Sidorsky said he estimated building the link could cost $2-3 billion. Russia's gas export monopoly Gazprom (GAZP.MM: Quote, Profile, Research) has, however, abandoned the so-called Yamal-2 link across Belarus due to low demand in Poland. It is now focusing on a project to build a Baltic subsea export line to Germany called Nord Stream. Last week, when Lukashenko announced plans for the nuclear plant, Belarus estimated the cost at between $2.5 billion to $2.8 billion. That estimate has now risen to $3.5 billion. Continued... ***************************************************************** 10 Reuters: FPL Fla. Turkey Point 3 reactor up to 85 pct power Fri Oct 19, 2007 7:35am EDT NEW YORK, Oct 19 (Reuters) - FPL Group Inc's (FPL.N: Quote, Profile, Research) 693-megawatt Turkey Point 3 nuclear power unit in Florida ramped up to 85 percent power by early Friday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report. On Thursday, the unit was operating at 48 percent after exiting a refueling outage earlier in the week. The company shut the unit on Sept. 2 for the refueling. The unit last shut for refueling from March 5-April 11, 2006. The unit is on an 18-month refueling cycle. The 2,196 MW Turkey Point station is located in Florida City in Miami-Dade County, about 25 miles south of Miami. There are several units at Turkey Point: the 398 MW oil/natural gas-fired Unit 1, the 400 MW oil/gas-fired Unit 2, two 693 MW nuclear units, 3 and 4, the 1,150 MW combined-cycle gas-fired Unit 5, and a handful of 2 MW and 3 MW oil-fired turbines. Unit 1 entered service in 1967, Unit 2 in 1968, Unit 3 in 1972, Unit 4 in 1973, and Unit 5 in 2007. Unit 4 continued to operate at full power. The NRC in 2002 approved a 20-year license extension of the original 40-year operating license for both nuclear units at Turkey Point until 2032 and 2033. Continued... ***************************************************************** 11 Reuters: Entergy N.Y. FitzPatrick reactor cut to 65 pct | Fri Oct 19, 2007 7:30am EDT NEW YORK, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Entergy Corp's (ETR.N: Quote, Profile, Research) 852-megawatt FitzPatrick nuclear power station in New York dipped to 65 percent power by early Friday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report. On Thursday, the unit was operating at full power after exiting an outage earlier in the week. The unit shut on Oct. 14 due to an influx of algae in the cooling water intake. Power plants like FitzPatrick use water from a lake to cool the steam that drives the turbine into water, among other things. FitzPatrick sits on the shore of Lake Ontario. The station, which entered service in 1976, is located in Scriba in Oswego County, about 90 miles east of Rochester, New York. One MW powers about 800 homes in New York. Entergy in August 2006 filed for a 20-year extension of the unit's original 40-year operating license. It usually takes the NRC about 22 months (May 2008) to make a decision on a license renewal without a hearing and about 30 months (Jan 2009) with a hearing. Entergy owns and operates about 30,000 MW of generating capacity, markets energy commodities, and transmits and distributes power to 2.6 million customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. © Reuters2007All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 12 BarentsObserver: Floating NPP for Arctic platforms Floating NPP for Arctic platforms 2007-10-19 Rosenergoatom is promoting floating nuclear power plants (NPP) for energy supply for Arctic oil- and gas drilling platforms. Instead of using gas to produce electricity for the platform one floating NPP can ensure needed power supply. A promotion brochure from Rosenergoatom details the plans to use the floating NPPs for offshore oil- and gas installations in the remote Arctic oceans. The general concept of the plan is based on the same technology as the floating nuclear power plant currently under construction at the Sevmash plant in Severodvinsk in the Arkhangelsk region. The plant will be built as a barge where the core of the nuclear power plant is its KLT-40 reactor. This kind of reactors is similar to the ones onboard Russia’s civilian fleet of nuclear powered icebreakers operated by the Murmansk Shipping Company. According to the brochure one floating NPP helps to save 150 mln. cub. m of gas per year. The floating NPP can in addition to provide electricity to the platform itself, also ensure power supply to gas compressor units used for gas transmission systems, either from offshore installations or from coastal transmission installations. A standard floating NPP will be equipped with two reactors, providing 77 MW. Rosenergoatom is also currently working towards expanding the line of floating NPPs through development of small and medium sized reactors so that in the near future they can provide a series of floating NPPs ranging from 1,5 MW to 300 MW of electric power. The different sizes will allow addressing much more diverse tasks of such regional and self supporting energy supplies. Rosenergoatom underlines that the package of organizational and engineering solutions applied in the design ensure compliance with all Russian and international standards of nuclear and radiation safety and meet the conditions of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. The floating nuclear power plants life cycle is reported to be 38 years. In August BarentsObserver.com reported that the Murmansk Shipping Company will turn the nuclear-powered container carrier “Sevmorput“ into a drilling vessel for the oil industry. The vessel will be ready for drilling operations in the Arctic within 18 months. BarentsObserver ***************************************************************** 13 MuskogeePhoenix.com: Federal officials meet with residents about nuclear plant Muskogee, OK - Published October 19, 2007 01:38 am - GORE (AP) — U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials have detailed four options for reclamation of the site of a now-closed uranium conversion facility. Officials met Tuesday with residents of Gore, where the Sequoyah Fuels plant is located. The plant, which opened in 1970, closed in 1993 after numerous environmental violations, including a 1986 case of air contamination that resulted in an employee’s death. The four options are part of the commission’s draft environmental impact statement. The first option, proposed by Sequoyah Fuels, would result in the disposal of all contaminated materials on the site and, according to the commission, would cost the company $31.9 million. Under the proposal, debris and contaminated materials would be placed inside a disposal cell that would remain at the industrial area where the processing operations took place. The commission said its preliminary recommendation would be to approve the proposal “unless safety issues mandate otherwise.” According to the draft environmental impact statement, an environmental monitoring program and proposed mitigation measures would “eliminate or substantially lessen any potential adverse environmental impacts associated with the proposed action.” A public comment period on the statement will end Nov. 5, and a final report will be issued by the commission around April 2008. The second option — the most expensive — would be to dispose of all contaminated materials offsite, at a cost estimated at $189.9 million to $253.7 million. A third option would be a combination of the first two plans, with some hazardous waste disposed of at an alternate site, and would cost an estimated $38.5 million to $44.4 million. Continuing current operations is the final option. That would require the company to continue to perform surveillance and maintenance of the site indefinitely and continue cleaning up the groundwater contamination. The estimated cost of that option is $19.3, and it also would have the greatest environmental impact on the area. The U.S. Army recently removed about 55,000 gallons of depleted uranium from the facility, and it’s not clear how much hazardous materials remains at the plant site. Ed Henshaw, who lives near the plant, said the environmental impact statement “is not based on good science” and that mismanagement of the site by the government and Sequoyah Fuels had made it impossible for total reclamation to occur. “At a site such as this, a bronze plaque should be erected and the names of the culprits responsible inscribed permanently for generations to come to know who perpetrated such a ruse,” Henshaw said. © 2007, The Muskogee Phoenix P.O. Box 1968; Muskogee, OK 74402 (918) 684-2828 Email News tips & feedback ***************************************************************** 14 Daily Trojan: Nuclear power isn't just for the West - Opinion Daily Trojan USC.edu Alexander Comisar Issue date: 10/19/07 Section: Opinion Media Credit: Phillip Solis | Daily Trojan The past few years have brought increasing confusion and division to some of this country's most important political issues - health care, for example, has not been so hotly debated since the inception of the State Children's Health Insurance Program in the '90s. Despite these divisions, the issue of climate change is unifying Washington. Ever since a group of United Nations scientists - who would later win the Nobel Prize along with Mr. Inconvenient Truth himself, Al Gore - declared evidence for climate change "unequivocal," Republicans have been jumping on the global warming bandwagon by the dozens. The political climate (no pun intended) has shifted in such a way that the acknowledgment of climate change is necessary for all candidates hoping for a shot at the presidency in 2008. The problem is, Republican candidates don't seem to keep their energy views consistent with views on foreign policy. In response to our warming woes, each candidate has outlined his ideas to wean the country off foreign oil. The answer from Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and John McCain is, among other things, increased use of nuclear power. Giuliani, leading in most Republican polls, said during a recent town-hall meeting that we need to catch up to countries like France. "Right now, only 20 percent of our energy comes from nuclear power," he said. "The difference is, in France, 80 percent is nuclear." Similarly, Romney declares on his website that expanding our nuclear program is a step in the right direction on the road to energy efficiency. "We're using too much oil," the website says. "We have an answer. We can use alternative sources of energy - biodiesel, ethanol, nuclear power." Don't get me wrong. I am as happy about the recent emphasis on energy efficiency as the next earth-loving college kid. But even as these candidates advocate cleaner, more productive energy resources in our country, they seek to prohibit them in the Middle East. While Giuliani and Romney think America should be able to expand its nuclear program, they both strongly oppose Iran's nuclear ambitions. A day after he praised nuclear power at the town hall meeting, Giuliani told the Washington Post, "I believe the United States and our allies should deliver a very clear message to Iran 
 they are not going to be allowed to become a nuclear power - it's just not going to happen." Romney has an entire five-step plan of action to prevent a nuclear Iran, cleverly titled "Governor Romney's Five Step Plan of Action to Prevent a Nuclear Iran." Psycho leader aside, Iran is a country that could really benefit from a nuclear power program. The world is slowly realizing that fossil fuel is going to be gone sooner rather than later. Countries that have based their entire economies on oil, such as Iran, need to start developing alternate energy resources now. This is not to say that we should hand Iran a warhead, but our politicians are not even willing to make an attempt at negotiating a situation where Iran could safely expand its nuclear program. Instead, people such as Mitt Romney sit in their offices, publishing websites that essentially vow to keep the Middle East in the Stone Age while America goes on a plutonium shopping spree. But quite simply, we can't do that. It isn't our place to tell Iran that it can't develop a nuclear power program. Energy production is a domestic matter that cannot be governed by external powers. In addition, politicians here in the United States have completely overlooked the benefit of a nuclear power program for Iran. If we are as benevolent and interested in peace as we claim, we should be chomping at the bit to aid a Middle Eastern country in weaning itself off oil dependency. Apparently, though, our peace of mind is worth the expense of their energy development. In trying to keep the world safe from nuclear weapons, we are stomping out very important technological growth. It is important to keep weapons of mass destruction to a minimum. But the road to peace in the Middle East will be paved by modernization; instead of trapping it in the Stone Age, we should be helping Iran develop its resources. - Alexander Comisar is a junior majoring in print journalism. His column, "Strictly Gourmet," runs Fridays. posted 10/19/07 @ 12:24 AM PST ***************************************************************** 15 WNN: Nuclear skills gaps addressed worldwide 19 October 2007 Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has been told that his plans for a nuclear power plant are in jeopardy without adequate nuclear engineering skills. His is not the only country facing a skills gap. Yevgeny Nadezhdin, the UN Economic Council for Europe's regional advisor on energy saidin Belarus: "It is essential to realize that construction costs are not the most important thing. The main thing is personnel training. Such training should begin right now, and do it outside Belarus, as there are no people here to train professionals." In response, deputy energy minister Mikhail Mikhaddzyuk told Belorussian News the country had established a special training program, reached agreements with several countries, and had secured assistance from the International Atomic Energy agency. He added that Belorusian nuclear workers currently in Lithuania, Russia and Ukraine could return home. Separately, Nuclear.Ru has reported that Belarusian officials are investigating two sites in the Mogilev region: Krasnopolyanskaya and Kushinovskaya. Russia's AtomStroyExport is active in Belarus and has suggested that it act as either main supplier, or as an organizer if another vendor's reactor would be chosen. An ASE official said that four 1000 MWe reactors were under consideration. Lukashenko told Kyodo News Agency on 18 October that 'American-Japanese, French-German and Russian' reactors were under consideration. He apparently did not distinguish between the two American-Japanese possibilities of General Electric and Hitachi, who merged their nuclear businesses or of Westinghouse, which is owned by Toshiba. Belarus' first vice prime minister said that a draft law on nuclear power should be submitted for review next month. Education initiatives Problems in supplies of nuclear professional are not only faced by Belarus. Worldwide, several inititives have recently come to light. Russia Plans are in development for a Federal Nuclear University, to be hosted by the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (MIFI). The initiative is one part of a wider response to the development of Russia's new nuclear build plans. The Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom) has firmly planned eight large reactors for completion between 2013 and 2016. A further 14 large unit will follow up to 2020 as well as six smaller VK-300 boiling water reactors in that timeframe. According to a Nuclear.Ru report, it has been suggested that Rosatom coordinate work with the Ministry of Education to set state educational and professional standards. Further liaison would also be required between Rosatom and the Ministry of Defence to employ staff from the nuclear navy in the commercial nuclear power sector. Vietnam On a smaller scale in Vietnam, the Hanoi University of Technology (HTU) this month started its second annual course in nuclear power plant technology. With sponsorship from Toshiba and the Vietnam Atomic Energy Commission, 30 scientists and engineers from the HTU will attend the five-week course. Ha Manh Thu of HTU said: "The program will provide skill training for the first nuclear power plant in Vietnam, which will be built in 2020 in Ninh Thuan province." Last year, Toshiba granted $2500 in scholarships to ten outstanding HUT students, taking three of them to Toshiba factories and power plants in Japan. United Kingdom In Britain, the drive to create a new national nuclear training network has advanced with the creation at Lancaster University of The Lloyd's Register Educational Trust Chair in Nuclear Engineering and Decommissioning. GBP755,000 ($1.55 million) in funding for the chair has been agreed over five years with the Lloyd's Register Educational Trust, a charity connected to Lloyd's Register the risk management organisation. The UK has put together a comprehensive clean-up program under the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and is also becoming increasingly serious about building new nuclear power plants. Meanwhile, the country's industry has been shaken up by the dismantling of the former giant British Nuclear Fuels. ***************************************************************** 16 TheDay.com: Anti-Nuke Appeal In Millstone Storage Case Heads To State Supreme Court By Patricia Daddona , Published on 10/19/2007 The state Supreme Court may hear anti-nuclear activists' appeal next month of a lower court ruling that found no improprieties in the siting of waste storage bunkers at Millstone Power Station. In the appeal, the Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone alleges the lower court judge erred in his rulings and allowed the Connecticut Siting Council to “dodge” fundamental issues about public risk when allowing storage bunkers to be built. The appeal filed by the coalition has been transferred from the state Appellate Court to the Supreme Court in Hartford, according to the court docket. Supreme Court Chief Clerk Michele Angers said Thursday that there is no way to know whether the transfer was made to ease the burden on the appellate court, or because of some special issue that needs the attention of the higher court. In 2004, the Siting Council granted Dominion, the owner of the nuclear complex, a permit that allows the company to install up to 49 concrete bunkers in which to house radioactive waste from its Unit 2 reactor. Currently five of the 10 bunkers on site are full, said Pete Hyde, spokesman for Dominion. In separate rulings in January and June of 2006, Judge George Levine of the state Court of Tax and Administrative Appeals ruled that the Siting Council appropriately avoided analyzing any radiological risks associated with putting more storage at the nuclear power station two years ago, because federal law pre-empts state jurisdiction. He also ruled that coalition leader Nancy Burton and other state residents filing the appeal failed to demonstrate that two members of the Siting Council were biased when approving the company's application for a permit. The parties, including defendants Dominion and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, have filed legal briefs, and the case is “ready” to be heard, Angers said. The town of Waterford is also a defendant. Once assigned to a Supreme Court judge, the case could be heard sometime between Nov. 19 and Dec. 3, she said. p.daddona@theday.com Privacy Policy | Contact Us at 1 (860) 442-2200 | New London, CT | © 1998-2007 The Day Publishing Co. 102 ***************************************************************** 17 Radio Australia: Australian nuclear expert says clean coal best for environment The chairman of Australia's nuclear watchdog says investing in clean coal technologies would do more to reduce the effects of climate change than nuclear power. Last Updated 19/10/2007, 17:25:33 The chairman of Australia's nuclear watchdog says investing in clean coal technologies would do more to reduce the effects of climate change than nuclear power. ANSTO Chairman Ziggy Switkowski says 25 nuclear power plants would produce about a third of Australia's energy needs and would reduce greenhouse gas emmissions by about a fifth. But Dr Switkowski says clean coal would have a more significant impact, because the technologies could be used in other countries. ***************************************************************** 18 Houston Chronicle: Search ends for lost radioactive item on Texas 225 | Chron.com - Oct. 19, 2007, 12:28AM By LINDSAY WISE Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Texas 225 reopened about 8 p.m. Thursday after authorities called off their nearly five-hour search for a dime-size piece of radioactive material that fell off the back of a truck. Officials with the Department of State Health Services said they will continue to search the area over the weekend, but they do not believe the very small, low-level radiation source poses any risk to the public. The joint search by the Pasadena Fire Department, Harris County Haz-Mat, and the Department of State Health Services shut down the westbound feeder and mainlanes of Texas 225 between Preston and Beltway 8 after a moisture-density gauge containing two sources of radiation fell off the back of a pickup truck and broke into pieces about 3:50 p.m., said Pasadena Fire Chief Lanny Armstrong. One of the pieces was found, but the other is still missing, Armstrong said. The tiny device is believed to be encapsulated in a form of stainless steel shield to keep the radiation from escaping, he said. The driver of the truck may be cited by police, Armstrong said. The Department of State Health Services will also conduct an extensive investigation into the company that owns the truck and gauge, Professional Services Industries, said Lisa Clark, a field inspector with the department. The company is required to transport the radioactive material in a special case that is supposed to be doubled chained and locked in the back of the truck, Clark said. Authorities decided to close down the highway so that searchers could look for the material safely, she said. "We would not like to have any sort of radioactive material loose, no matter how small," Clark said. The missing radioactive material has a half-life of about 450 years, and emits about as much radiation as a household smoke detector. lindsay.wise@chron.com ***************************************************************** 19 RGJ.com: Environment could precipitate Cancer clusters FRANK X. MULLEN FALLON STAR PRESS Posted: 10/19/2007 PROVIDED TO THE RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL Scientists researching leukemia cluster in front of the Raggio building at the University of Nevada, Reno: From left, Doctors William Murphy, Paul Sheppard, Mark Witten, Lisbeth Welniak, Ralph Seiler, Dana Loomis, Joseph Wiemels, and Chris Pritsos. Flashing light at interesection on the mend Wyeth appealing $99 million award Armstrong: A hero and much more CCHS Theatre presents comedies tonight,Saturday Youth speech & talent contests at museum Nov. 6 Student work to appear in WNC Getto Hall Gallery Scientists in Reno Monday announced preliminary findings that may help solve the mystery of the Fallon leukemia cluster. The scientists at a University of Nevada, Reno symposia theorized that the epidemic may have been fueled by a one-two punch of environmental factors that harmed the genes of the children who developed leukemia. The first genetic change may have occurred while the children were in their mothers' wombs or during infancy. The next genetic change would have happened later in the children's lives, just prior to the onset of leukemia, a cancer of the blood. "What primes the pump?" asked Dr. Mark Witten, a toxicologist at the University of Arizona who has been researching the Fallon cluster and a similar outbreak in Sierra Vista, Ariz. Since 2002. "That's what we're trying to determine. I think we're making some very good progress." Brenda Gross, mother of Dustin, 12, who was diagnosed with child leukemia at the age of three on April 17, 1999. Dustin is now a very healthy sixth grade student at West End Elementary in Fallon where he plays football, basketball and baseball. "I am very exicted about the research UNR is doing. With research you can't lose. Seeing all these people work together is so beneficial. And Sen. Harry Reid helped make this happen. "I'm hoping that people in Fallon realize that what the scientists and others discover will help other communities deal with future clusters. Those communities will benefit from what Fallon and researchers have learned." The researchers from UNR; the University of Arizona; and the University of California, San Francisco presented some of the results of genetic, environmental and water studies into the cancer cluster that has sickened 17 children and killed three of them in Fallon since 1997. Witten said the clusters in Fallon and Sierra Vista may have been preceded by an outbreak of childhood shingles, a disease usually found in adults who were exposed to chicken pox as children. That virus may have played a part in the development of the cancer cluster. Witten and his partner, Dr. Paul Sheppard, a tree-ring scientist at the University of Arizona, have shown in previous studies that both areas have unusually high amounts of the metal tungsten in their environments. The scientists are doing mouse studies to determine how tungsten may cause gene mutations, especially those which have been linked to leukemia. So far, Witten and Sheppard have concluded that tungsten is not biologically inert, as previously thought, and that community-wide exposure to the element may have something to do with the cluster. They also published a study showing that most of the tungsten particles found in their air filters are not from naturally-occuring forms of the element. Other experiments indicated that tungsten exposure may have something to do with reproductive diseases, Witten said. Scientists said answers may be found in the genes. "Different cancers vary widely in their genetic signatures," said Dr. William Murphy, of the UNR School of Medicine. Unlike what has been shown in popular movies such as "A Civil Action, "the (Fallon) cause is not a one-hit wonder"» Fallon may provide a window where maybe we can understand cancer or just leukemia in general." Dr. Joseph Wiemels, a genetics researcher from UCSF, said Fallon, with its 17 cases in so short a time period, is the most striking cluster ever studied. He said the theory that the disease is caused by two "hits, at different times, from different causes and with different mechanisms" is the most promising path for research. Those "hits" that mutate genes, he said, could be caused by infection, exposure to electromagnetic radiation or chemical exposure. But why Fallon? "Since this is a rare cluster, it may have a rare cause," Wiemels said. Recent data from the Nevada Cancer Registry also indicates that there may have been peaks in other forms of cancer in Churchill County. "The cancer rate was elevated in 2000," Wiemels said. "There may be something going on here besides leukemia." That's consistent with a door-to-door survey conducted by volunteers and organized by former Fallon resident Floyd Sands, whose daughter, Stephanie, died of leukemia in 2001. That survey found more rare cancers than common cancers. The survey hasn't yet been scientifically verified, but experts have said the results are a compelling reason to do further research into cancer incidence in the area. Dr. Chris Pritsos of UNR is examining tungsten, arsenic and the radioactive isotope polonium-210 in Fallon's groundwater to determine if those elements may have some link to the cluster. He is exposing rats to water with various concentrations of those elements to see if the exposure causes genetic damage. Dr. Ralph Seiler of the U.S. Geologic Survey is overseeing the tests of Churchill County well water. The research was funded by $750,000 in federal grants obtained by Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and administered by the Environmental Protection Agency and UNR. Witten and Sheppard also have received grants from the Gerber Foundation. Scientists stressed that their results are preliminary and more research needs to be done. Jeff Braccini, whose son Jeremy, 9, has recovered from leukemia, is part of a parent's group that lobbied Reid for the funding. He said the current research is a start to solve the mystery of why so many of Fallon's children became ill between 1997 and 2003. "We got the money and we've got the science," he said. "This is a great start. It will lead to more science, more studies. "I guarantee that no matter what the results (of the current studies), we'll have more and more questions to answer." © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett Co. Inc. Newspaper. ***************************************************************** 20 Salt Lake Tribune: Team uranium: Self-serving lawmakers have huge conflict Tribune Editorial Article Last Updated: 10/18/2007 11:56:53 PM MDT State Reps. Aaron Tilton and Mike Noel shamelessly beat the drum for nuclear power in the Utah Legislature. And now we know why. They're knee-deep in a private deal that creates an unacceptable conflict of interest. It turns out that Tilton is an owner and CEO of Transition Power Development, a firm that will attempt to secure, and then sell, a license to operate a nuclear power plant in Utah. He will purchase the precious water needed to run the plant from the Kane County Water Conservancy District, where his buddy Noel works as executive director. If the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission grants the license, and Tilton is able to sell it to a utility, well, let's just say the Tilton kids will never want or worry. Also, the water district would net millions of dollars in sales, allowing Noel to score points with his employer and justify a controversial pipeline from Lake Powell to southwestern Utah that already may be doomed by the diminishing Colorado River. Tilton changed hats and hopped over the table Wednesday to testify before the Public Utilities and Technology Interim Committee, on which he and Noel oh-so-conveniently serve. That's kind of like a defendant serving on the jury, because the committee has been debating nuclear power, including legislation that would make it easier for Tilton to sell his license by allowing utilities to bill consumers in advance for the cost of building a nuclear plant. Last month, Tilton, who refers to himself on his Web site as "Someone you can trust," flatly denied to The Tribune that he had ties to the nuclear industry. But last week, eight months after becoming CEO of TPD, he belatedly revealed his nuclear ambitions and corporate position on a House conflict-of-interest disclosure form. "We weren't, as a company, ready to release that information," Tilton said in lame defense of his lie. Tilton and Noel vehemently deny they have a conflict of interest. And, under the Legislature's laughably loose ethics law, they're probably right. That law defines a conflict as "legislation or action by a legislator that the legislator reasonably believes may cause direct financial benefit or detriment to him ... or a business in which the legislator is associated." But what, you might ask, do "action" or "reasonably believes" really mean? Sorry. We can't help you. Terms aren't defined in laws written to be winked at. Worse, legislators only have to reveal a conflict, but they can still vote their own self-interest. Tilton and Noel should be bumped to committees that play no role in shaping the state's energy policies. The Legislature, if it cares a whit about honest government and public perception, should clearly define "conflict of interest" and forbid legislators voting when they have one. And Tilton, who lied to the public when he lied to this newspaper, should change his Web site to read: "Someone you can't trust." ***************************************************************** 21 LA Daily News: Santa Susana Field Lab site cleanup still up for debate KERRY CAVANAUGH, Staff Writer Article Last Updated: 10/19/2007 04:33:07 AM PDT A week after the governor announced an agreement to preserve the Santa Susana Field Lab as public parkland, some environmentalists warned Thursday that the deal could let the Boeing Co. leave much of the radiologically contaminated soil on site. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles, on Friday that requires Boeing to clean up the 2,850-acre hilltop lab to the strictest environmental standards. However, the governor's support came with a condition: Kuehl must introduce legislation next session that could allow a less stringent cleanup standard in exchange for Boeing dedicating the land for open space. But longtime lab watchdog Dan Hirsch and the Natural Resources Defense Council warned that the new cleanup standard - if passed next year - could weaken the protections of Kuehl's original bill and allow Boeing to leave tons of contaminated dirt in place. "If the deal is consummated by the Legislature, taking the action Boeing has requested, then the community would be back at square one, facing unsafe levels of radioactive contamination," said Hirsch, with the Committee to Bridge the Gap. But Kuehl said the deal is not done, and her new legislation will spur negotiations over the cleanup standards. "I'm thinking the highest (standard) possible and I'm going to continue to work with the Department of Toxic Substances Control to make sure that they're as protective as they can be and that the state is protected, too." Kuehl said she sensed that the governor would have rejected her bill if she hadn't compromised, but she still had several sleepless nights before deciding on the deal that ensures the site won't be developed. "Fighting for a standard for open space is different than fighting for a standard for schools and homes," she said. In a letter of intent signed by Boeing and the state, the company agreed to clean up the former nuclear research and rocket-engine test lab to residential standards that would protect people in the vicinity. But the debate is over whether the standard will be for suburban residential or agricultural residential. The agricultural standard assumes people are eating food grown on site, and is therefore most stringent than the suburban scenario. Boeing officials said Thursday that they intend to meet the suburban residential standards, even though nobody will ever live on the property. Kuehl's law, as it's currently written, would prohibit Boeing from transferring the land without first meeting the agricultural residential standard - a level of cleanliness the company considers impossible to achieve, said Tom Gallacher, director of environment, health and safety at the field lab. "We can't prove we're below that level," he said. "We would be unable to do anything with the site, even transfer it to the state." If the state requires the toughest standard, the company would be unable to meet it and would not be able to dedicate the land as open space, Gallacher said. That's why the deal requires Kuehl to rewrite the legislation to require cleanup to residential standards, giving Boeing and state regulators more flexibility to negotiate a cleanup somewhere between suburban and agricultural standards. kerry.cavanaugh@dailynews.com (213) 978-0390 ***************************************************************** 22 The Accorn: Governor, Boeing agree never to develop field lab Front Page October 19, 2007 Schwarzenegger signs Senate Bill 990 into law By Darleen Principe darleen@theacorn.com The Santa Susana Field Laboratory, once the site of experiments involving nuclear reactors, highpowered lasers, and rockets that helped man get into space, may one day become a state park. Following weeks of negotiations among the governor's office, the California Environmental Protection Agency and Boeing Co., Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last Friday signed into law Senate Bill 990, a measure that would ensure the complete cleanup of the former field lab in accordance with the highest standards of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The governor agreed to sign the bill after Boeing- which since 1997 has controlled the 2,850-acre site in the hills south of Simi Valley- issued a nonbinding letter of intent detailing a plan to donate its portion of the property to the state to be used for parkland once the cleanup is complete. "The company just felt that dedicating the property to open space is the right thing to do," said Blythe Jameson, a Boeing spokesperson. "We've had a longstanding commitment to clean the site to residential standards as determined by the government agencies and we the government agencies and we will continue to do so even though residential development will not be taking place at the site." State Sen. Sheila James Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) introduced SB 990 in February. The bill passed the Assembly last month on a bipartisan vote of 5022, giving the governor until Oct. 14 to sign or veto it. "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 an official 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." As part of the tentative agreement, the state agreed to keep the property upon transfer from ever being used for residential, agricultural or commercial purposes. Additionally, Boeing agreed to pay $750,000 a year for 30 years- or $22.5 million- to fund the transfer and for future maintenance and management of the land. "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," said Jim Albaugh, president and CEO of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. Although the agreement would permanently protect the longcontroversial site from development, it may also rekindle debate concerning the standards used to clean the contamination at the site. According to the governor's office, a stipulation of Schwarzenegger signing SB 990 is that Kuehl agrees to introduce an amendment to the bill during the next legislative season- after Boeing and the governor sign a binding agreement confirming the terms set forth in the initial letter of intent. "Sen. Kuehl agreed to introduce legislation that would enable and recognize environmental cleanup to an appropriate, reasonable and attainable level," Jameson said. "Basically it will enable the land transfer to take place." The amendment, drafted by the governor, voids four sections of the original bill, one of which details the specific standards of the cleanup, another gives the Department of Toxic Substances Control the final say in certifying the area as clean. "The standards are only set aside for those parcels there's an agreement about," Kuehl told The Acorn. "The law stays in place for (the portion of the site owned by NASA) until there's an agreement on those as well." Critics such as Dan Hirsch, cochair of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory Study Group and the leader of a nuclear-watchdog group, said the stipulation to the amendment essentially defeats the purpose of the bill. "The cleanup standards are now law and the public thinks the long struggle they've had to deal with is over," Hirsch said. "But in fact, the governor had cut a private deal with Boeing to overturn the very cleanup standards he had just claimed he signed. "If the legislation (Kuehl) introduces next year doesn't pass, SB 990 will stay in force. The public should now rally to defend the law that was just signed so it's not overturned next year," Hirsch said. Still, Kuehl said she's generally "very happy" with the results of the negotiations because it's now "in the state's interest to get the highest possible cleanup standard." "If anything happens after the transfer, it could be a problem for the state," Kuehl said. "I think it's worthwhile allowing Boeing to give (the land) to the state and that's why I agreed to carry the amendment." Assemblymember Cameron Smyth (R-Santa Clarita), who had previously endorsed SB 990, announced a plan last Friday to introduce another piece of legislation in January ensuring that a new state park would be established on the site. "I knew there had been discussions between Boeing and the governor about using that site as parkland," Smyth told the Simi Valley Acorn this week. "I felt that if they were able to reach an agreement, I would step forward with the legislation. We were waiting until an agreement had been reached. Once that was done, we would start putting the language into bill form." Smyth's plan includes the creation of a State Park Joint Powers Authority that would be responsible for developing the boundaries for the new park. "When you look at the property, I think it's best used in its natural state for hiking, walking, equestrian activities and mountain biking," Smyth said. "My vision is that it remains in its natural state and be enjoyed in that way. What my bill does is create the framework and the mechanism for it to occur." If the legislation passes, Smyth said, members of the Joint Powers Authority would include the State Parks Department, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, the city of Simi Valley, the county of Ventura, and the city and county of Los Angeles, along with other agencies that might want to join. Mayor Paul Miller said he thinks the creation of the joint body is "a good idea." "Those political entities that are affected by that piece of land should have input," he said. "The bottom line is that that land is polluted and needs to be cleaned up. Hopefully the Legislature will take steps to ensure that." Simi Valley Councilmember Glen Becerra, who last year tried to contact Boeing to request the land be donated as open space, told The Acorn he thinks the new agreement is a "terrific" idea. "I took a lot of heat for my initial statement but that to me was the right thing to do," Becerra said. "I'm thrilled that everybody's come to that conclusion." Becerra said he's not "overly concerned" about the amendment to SB 990 as long as the area is definitely cleaned up to the proper standards. ***************************************************************** 23 Ventura County Star: Portion of Santa Susana site could be park by '09 Cleanup standards would be eased if the property is used as parkland By Teresa Rochester (Contact) Friday, October 19, 2007 A thousand acres of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory may become parkland as early as 2009, Boeing Co. officials said Thursday. The land, which sits on the southern border of the 2,850-acre facility in the hills south of Simi Valley, is a buffer zone and was not used for operations at the former nuclear and rocket engine test site. Its use as parkland would require the determination by state regulators that the contaminated site is clean enough to be released for public use. A week ago, Boeing announced its intention to transfer 2,400 acres of the field laboratory to the state after the property is cleaned. The land would be restricted to use as parkland, open space and recreational activities. The announcement coincided with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signing into law a bill, SB990, that prohibits the release of the field laboratory for any use unless it is cleaned to the strictest of cleanup standards. However, the standards in the new law would be voided by an amendment carried by its author, Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, once Boeing Co. and the state strike a binding agreement on the land transfer. The binding agreement would set standards agreed to by Boeing officials and two state regulatory agencies. The land would be cleaned to a level appropriate for residential use. "In order for there to be a transfer to the state — a gift to the state — that condition, that standard in SB990 needs to be changed," said Steve Barker, president of Boeing Realty. Activists have derided the agreement between the state and Boeing, and the proposed amendment, which would require the Legislature's vote. "What they want to do is ignore the new law and do no additional cleanup whatsoever, and we won't let that happen," said Dan Hirsch of the nuclear watchdog group Committee to Bridge the Gap. "We will deliver on what we promised," said Tom Gallacher, Boeing's director of environment, health and safety. That standard is stricter than what is required as open space. Gallacher said it would be impossible for the company to clean the site to the level called for in Kuehl's bill, which is the level set for Environmental Protection Agency Superfund sites. "Based on technology we cannot meet the standard for all isotopes," he said. "It makes it unachievable for us." Environmental watchdogs disputed Boeing's assertions. "These are EPA standards set across the country so there is no reason they couldn't meet them," said James Birkelund of the National Resources Defense Council. Discussions about the future of the site began in earnest about 18 months ago, when it became clear that NASA would be wrapping up its operations at the field laboratory. The space agency owns 450 acres at the site, and the land transfer applies only to the acreage Boeing owns. Conversations between Boeing and the state began earlier this year. Additional pieces of the land would be released for park use as they are cleaned and given approval by the state. Scripps Newspaper Group — Online © 2007 The E.W. Scripps Co. ***************************************************************** 24 NEWS.com.au: Protesters target Aussie nuclear conference | October 19, 2007 09:45am Article from: AAP PROTESTERS have forced their way into the Australian Nuclear Association conference in Sydney. They burst out of elevators on the first floor of the Pitt Street building where today's conference was due to start at 9.30am (AEST). "No Howard, no weapons, no waste," the protesters shouted as they held placards and banners. Conference organisers pleaded with the group of about 12 protesters to leave, threatening to call police, but the demonstrators refused to go. The conference will include a speech from Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) president Ziggy Switkowski. Copyright 2007 News Limited. All times AEST (GMT +10). ***************************************************************** 25 GOAT: Time constraints at Yucca Mountain A High Country News Blog » “ Filed under: Bad Judgment, Nuclear issues — Marty Durlin at 4:19 pm on Friday, October 19, 2007 The Associated Press reports that the state of Nevada has petitioned the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to ban Sandia National Laboratories from working on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project. The state claims that one of Sandia’s managers, Geoff Freeze, indicated in a memo that meeting a deadline for paperwork was more important than ensuring that the facility will keep nuclear waste safe for at least ten thousand years. If a June 2008 deadline for the application to the Department of Energy isn’t met, “we are all out of a job,” Freeze wrote, according to a copy of the memo obtained by Nevada. He also wrote that “three priorities – schedule, defensibility, credibility – in that order” must be satisfied. “Any slips in schedule must be recovered by cutting scope. There is no allowance for not meeting schedule.” “Common sense and experience teach that a plan which puts schedule ahead of defensibility and defensibility ahead of genuine scientific credibility is a recipe for disaster,” retorted Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto in the state’s petition to the NRC. Sandia heads the team of scientists analyzing the Yucca Mountain site, where the US government plans to bury more than 70,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, currently stored at more than a hundred sites around the nation. Yucca Mountain is a ridge of volcanic rock located about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The plan is to excavate tunnels 1000 feet below the surface of the mountain and 1000 feet above the water table, and bury the radioactive waste there, in sealed, corrosion-resistant metal containers. The DOE was slated to open Yucca Mountain by 1998, but the project has now been pushed back to 2017. The cost estimate, originally $57.5 billion, is now more than $77 billion. The Sandia Labs, hired in January 2006 to prepare a “performance assessment” of Yucca Mountain, received $123 million in the most recent fiscal year, and will receive $75 million in 2008 for its work on the project. Among the uncertainties, researchers are trying to determine how much water will reach the repository over the next 10,000 years, how quickly the nuclear waste casks will corrode, and at what rate radioactivity might contaminate surrounding areas. Other concerns include earthquakes, volcanic eruptions or meteorite impacts. Nevada has filed seven NRC petitions regarding problems with Yucca Mountain since 2002. Freeze’s memo is another in a string of unfortunate remarks from officials and bureaucrats about the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project. For example, there’s the EPA’s, “Our moral responsibility diminishes on a sliding scale over the course of time” and a DOE employee’s, “If they need more proof, I will be happy to make up more stuff.” Goat skull image provided courtesy of www.skullsunlimited.com. GOAT is a project of High Country News, a non-profit organization. ***************************************************************** 26 Las Vegas SUN: Yucca Mountain project posts key notice about document network October 19, 2007 LAS VEGAS (AP) - The federal Energy Department says it's met a requirement to open its collection of documents supporting plans for a national nuclear waste dump in Nevada. The declaration "certifying" the electronic Licensing Support Network is a key step toward applying for a license to operate the Yucca Mountain project. The department plans to make that license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by June 30. Congress in 2002 picked the Yucca site about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas to entomb 77,000 tons of spent nuclear reactor fuel. Project director Edward F. "Ward" Sproat III says the LSN contains more than 30 million pages and more than 3.5 million scientific, geologic and engineering documents. --- On the Net: Nuclear Regulatory Commission Licensing Support Network: http://www.lsnnet.govs -- All contents © 1996 - 2007 Las Vegas Sun, Inc. ***************************************************************** 27 ReviewJournal.com: Utilities unsure about nuclear waste canisters Oct. 19, 2007 Interest in casks hinges on Yucca Mountain's fate By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Utilities "have a healthy level of skepticism" about multipurpose canisters the Energy Department is proposing to ship nuclear waste to a planned Yucca Mountain repository, in part because they are unsure about the project's future, an industry official said Thursday. Executives are worried about incorporating the canisters into their nuclear waste handling on the chance the Nevada site ends up scrapped by Congress or the next president, according to Kristopher W. Cummings, a manager for Holtec International, a nuclear equipment manufacturer. Energy Department officials have said they plan to negotiate "incentives" for utilities to accept the "transportation, aging and disposal," or TAD, containers that could be adapted for shipping highly radioactive spent fuel and eventually burying it in the repository planned for 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. "The utilities see the political environment, and they are like, what if I go two years and load TADs and then all of a sudden Yucca Mountain is not going to happen?" Cummings said. "I will have a TAD that is Yucca Mountain-approved, but there is no Yucca Mountain to send it to." Cummings, who is Holtec's manager of DOE programs, made the comments following a presentation to the Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste and Materials, a panel that advises the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Yucca Mountain technical matters. "Incentives from DOE will dictate whether TADs are implemented," Cummings said in his presentation. Getting nuclear power companies to accept the TAD canisters illustrates yet another challenge facing the Department of Energy as it pushes to license a Yucca Mountain repository. The DOE, on its Web site, maintains the TADs will be "simpler, safer and more cost-effective," but it has yet to persuade the utilities to buy into them. Cummings said the most significant concern among utilities is that the TADs would be smaller than the containers they now use for on-site nuclear waste storage. More casks would need to be loaded, more time would be needed to load more casks, and "more casks mean more cost." Utilities "want to see real progress being made," Cummings said. "I think DOE is getting there, but there is still some concern among utilities." About 7,500 canisters would be needed to fill Yucca Mountain to its 70,000 metric ton capacity, DOE officials have said. They would be constructed of borated stainless steel, would be between 15.5 feet and 17.5 feet long with a diameter of 66.5 inches, and weigh 54.25 tons fully loaded. "The TADs will certainly work," DOE spokesman Allen Benson said. As for whether a repository will be open to accept them, "we are on schedule to submit a license application to the NRC which includes the TADs," he said. The DOE has set a June 30, 2008, application goal. Holtec is one of four companies working on TAD designs for the Department of Energy. The New Jersey-based firm is trying to interest DOE and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on a design that would allow nuclear waste awaiting final burial at Yucca Mountain to be stored temporarily in below-surface boreholes rather than on more conventional above-ground pads. Cummings said such a layout would better shield waste canisters from earthquakes and from airplane or missile crashes, and would require less space at the site. "We brought that to DOE and said we think it would be good for the repository site from a technical basis," he said. The DOE has yet to comment. When Cummings began talking about politics surrounding Yucca Mountain and the opposition from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., the committee chairman, Michael T. Ryan, cut him off. "I want to remind you this is a technical committee," Ryan said. "Move along." Links powered by inform.com Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2007 ***************************************************************** 28 The Buffalo News: Niagara County: Testing standards for landfill are faulted Updated: 10/19/07 7:48 AM LEWISTON — New state testing requirements for CWM Chemical Services fail to adequately investigate for plutonium, exclude areas that drain into local creeks and may allow the company to skirt other environmental standards, according to some members of a residents advisory group. Members of the Community Advisory Committee to the Northeast’s only commercial hazardous-waste landfill Thursday questioned the scope of plans to investigate radiological contamination at the Balmer Road facility in the Town of Porter. The state Department of Environmental Conservation, which will have to review the company’s upcoming application to expand its Balmer Road landfill by 50 acres, approved the testing plans in late August. “It seems to defy logic and reason at some points,” said Lewiston resident Karl Frankovitch. Even a state environmental engineer seemed to see potential problems in the approved plans. James Strickland, an agency engineer involved in hazardous-waste issues, presented details of the approved testing requirements to the group in Lewiston Town Hall. Strickland said the testing plans are adaptable. “It’s a learning process for us, too,” he said. Portions of the CWM site were used to dispose of radioactive waste from experiments that were part of the Manhattan Project. The landfill facility is also adjacent to a 191-acre federal storage facility for radioactive waste known as the Niagara Falls Storage Site. The state Department of Health issued an order banning soil disturbance in 1972, an order that was not enforced on any of the landfill operators at the site. In 2002, the Army Corps of Engineers found small amounts of plutonium on an unused portion of the CWM site. The agency is continuing to investigate chemical and radiological contamination there. The radiological testing plans include: • A walkover survey of gamma radiation in areas both a part of current operations and to be developed. • Soil sampling of areas with elevated radiation levels identified by the walkover survey. • Tests of buildings that remain on site since the time the area was a part of the former Lake Ontario Ordnance Works, a federal weapons production facility. • Other air, water and ground sampling. • Permission for CWM to excavate their site for “small projects,” though the company is not limited in number of projects. Advisory committee members questioned why the ground survey did not include an area known as the Central Drainage Ditch. The ditch drains water from the CWM site into both Four Mile Creek and Twelve Mile Creek. Lewiston resident Amy Witryol said she believes the area was cut out from testing after negotiations between state agency officials and CWM. Testing there would be expensive for CWM, and the area would not be part of the planned landfill expansion, Witryol said. Town of Porter resident William Rolland said he was “thoroughly frustrated” by the bureaucracy involved at a site that has been the subject of investigation for decades. Rolland said he could not understand why the Army Corps of Engineers does not have jurisdiction over the whole site. “The whole process is just baffling,” he said. CWM did not send a representative to Thursday after- noon’s meeting. Afterward, spokeswoman Lori Caso said the testing standards imposed by the state are meticulous. During digging, the tests will check for radiation every 6 inches. A certified health physicist will also be on hand during excavation, Caso said. She also invited the public to a Nov. 8 information session on the radiation testing plans. The session will take place in the facility, 1550 Balmer Road. For information on the session, call 754-0404. Copies of the approved testing plans are available at Youngstown Free Library, 240 Lockport St., Youngstown, and Porter Town Hall, 3265 Creek Road. abesecker@buffnews.com Copyright 1999 - 2007 - The Buffalo News copyright-protected ***************************************************************** 29 LOADING/FLYING NUKES ACROSS U$ WAS ACCIDENTAL !!! Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 21:11:58 -0500 (CDT) It's an easy out for the Pentagon, but it's hard to believe this story. Michael ################ http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-7010405,00.html 70 Punished in Accidental B-52 Flight Saturday October 20, 2007 2:46 AM WASHINGTON (AP) - The Air Force said Friday it has punished 70 airmen involved in the accidental, cross-country flight of a nuclear-armed B-52 bomber following an investigation that found widespread disregard for the rules on handling such munitions. ``There has been an erosion of adherence to weapons-handling standards at Minot Air Force Base and Barksdale Air Force Base,'' said Maj. Gen. Richard Newton, the Air Force deputy chief of staff for operations. Newton was announcing the results of a six-week probe into the Aug. 29-30 incident in which the B-52 was inadvertently armed with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and flown from Minot in North Dakota to Barksdale in Louisiana without anyone noticing the mistake for more than a day. The missiles were supposed to be taken to Louisiana, but the warheads were supposed to have been removed beforehand. A main reason for the error was that crews had decided not to follow a complex schedule under which the status of the missiles is tracked while they are disarmed, loaded, moved and so on, one official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record. The airmen replaced the schedule with their own ``informal'' system, he said, though he didn't say why they did that nor how long they had been doing it their own way. ``This was an unacceptable mistake and a clear deviation from our exacting standards,'' Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne said at a Pentagon press conference with Newton. ``We hold ourselves accountable to the American people and want to ensure proper corrective action has been taken.'' Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., chairwoman of the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, said she believed the Air Force had done a thorough investigation, but the findings were ``a warning sign that there has been degradation'' of attitudes toward the handling of the weapons. ``These are not just rules that people dreamed up ... just so they could check off the boxes,'' she said. ``This is fundamentally important to the security of the country and the world.'' Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists was among those skeptical that the August flight represented an isolated incident. He said a decline in Air Force standards for nuclear weapons maintenance and security was documented by the government a decade ago. In recent years, he said, Minot and Barksdale have both gotten poor marks during inspections routinely required for certification. ``Part of the reason is that after the end of the Cold War, and the disappearance of the Soviet nuclear threat, the nuclear career was not very sexy - it was not the way to go if you wanted to'' advance in the military. A shortage of people with the right skills, training and mentality followed, something the Air Force has worked to improve, he said. Newton acknowledged that the Air Force needs to ``restore the confidence'' lost among the American people after the August incident, which raised questions about the safety of the country's nuclear arsenal. ``We are making all appropriate changes to ensure this has a minimal chance of ever happening again,'' Wynne said. Newton said the flight in question resulted from an ``unprecedented string of procedural errors,'' beginning with a failure by airmen to conduct a required inspection of the missiles before they were loaded aboard the B-52 bomber at Minot. The crew flying the plane was unaware nuclear warheads were on its wing, though it wasn't explained what role they played in the mistake. Highest ranked among those punished were four officers who were relieved this week of their commands, including the 5th Bomb Wing commander at Minot - Col. Bruce Emig, who also has been the base commander since June. In addition, the wing has been ``decertified from its wartime mission,'' Newton said. Some 65 airmen have been decertified from handling nuclear weapons. The certification process looks at a person's psychological profile, any medications they are taking and other factors in determining a person's reliability to handle weapons. After it was loaded with the missiles, the B-52 sat overnight at Minot, flew the next morning to Louisiana, and then sat on a tarmac again for hours before anyone noticed the nuclear warheads. Newton avoided repeated questions on what extra security would have been required if crews had known the nuclear weapons were on the plane. But another official later said privately that security was increased as soon as the nuclear warheads were discovered. The Air Combat Command ordered a command-wide stand-down - instituted base by base and completed Sept. 14 - to set aside time for personnel to review procedures, officials said. The incident was so serious that it required President Bush and Defense Secretary Robert Gates to be quickly informed. Wynne prefaced his remarks about the B-52 incident by saying that, in publicly confirming that nuclear weapons were involved, he had authorized a one-time exception to U.S. policy, which states that the location of nuclear weapons will never be confirmed publicly. He said he made this exception because of the seriousness of the episode and its importance to the nation. The weapon involved was the Advanced Cruise Missile, a ``stealth'' weapon developed in the 1980s with the ability to evade detection by Soviet radar. The Air Force said in March that it had decided to retire the Advanced Cruise Missile fleet soon, and officials said after the breach that the missiles were being flown to Barksdale for decommissioning. ***************************************************************** 30 nuclear missile flight was a accident Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 21:29:01 -0500 (CDT) http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20071020/twl-us-military-nuclear-7e07afd.html AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE 1 hour 12 minutes ago US Air Force describes errors in nuclear missile flight WASHINGTON (AFP) - - The Pentagon acknowledged Friday an unprecedented breakdown in procedures that allowed six nuclear missiles to mistakenly end up on a cross-country flight, an incident which took 36 hours to be discovered. "Nothing like this has ever occurred," said Major General Richard Newton. "This was a failure to follow procedures, procedures that have proven to be sound." He said at least four officers have been relieved of command, including the commander of the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota and two other colonels, in the wake of the August 30 incident. Six nuclear armed cruise missiles on a pylon were loaded onto the wing of a B-52 bomber that was supposed to ferry other cruise missiles from Minot Air Force Base to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana for decommissioning. The nuclear weapons were discovered nearly 36 hours later when they were unloaded at Barksdale, according to a timeline provided by Newton. An intensive six-week investigation concluded that the unauthorized transfer resulted from "a series of procedural breakdowns and human errors," Newton said. He said there also was "an erosion in adherence to weapons handling standards" at both air force bases that had resulted in a lack of attention to detail. "It was a lack of effective supervision, a lack of effective leadership, and the fact that they were not following, nor did they adhere to these very strict checklist guideline procedures," Newton said. At the root of the chain of errors was the failure of weapons maintenance crews to remove the nuclear warheads from the cruise missiles in preparation for transfer to Barksdale, he said. "The day-to-day mission out in the weapons storage area under the munitions control was lackadaisical. It, again, lacked the attention to detail. It lacked a formal process to the point where it became an informal process," Newton said. Airmen assigned at Minot's weapons storage area failed to examine all the pylons located in the storage area on August 29, Newton said. Compounding that error, a crew moving pylons of cruise missiles to the aircraft by trailer began hooking up while the required inspection was under way, and then failed to verify that it had the right payload. "The crew is required to inspect the munitions before departing. They did not do that," Newton said. Minot's mission control center should have caught the error by checking the pylon against a database when it was being loaded on the bomber at 9:25 am on August 29. But it failed to do so, Newton said. "At this point the wrong weapons already were in transit to the flight line and several safety procedures had been disregarded," he said. "The Minot weapons handlers then loaded the munitions onto a B-52 and they remained there on a secure flight line," he said. The next morning, the B-52's instructor radar navigator conducted a spot check, but looked only at the pylon with cruise missiles that had been properly prepared for transfer, he said. "The pylon carrying the wrong weapons was never inspected," he said. The B-52 departed at 8:40 am on August 30, arriving at Barksdale at 11:23 am. It was not unloaded until about 7:30 pm to 8:30 pm. When the nuclear armed weapons were discovered, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and President George W. Bush were quickly notified. Newton said the air force conducted an inventory of its nuclear stockpile but discovered no additional discrepancies. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne ordered inspections of all nuclear capable units. The inspections are still under way, but Newton said all units inspected so far have received "satisfactory" ratings, the highest possible. The commander of Minot's munitions squadron was relieved of his post immediately after the incident, and some airmen were decertified. The Minot wing commander, the head of the wing's maintenance group and the head of the operations group of the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base also have been relieved of command, Newton said. He said action has been taken against other officers of the rank of lieutenant colonel and below, but would not specify. A general with powers to convene courts-martial has been assigned to review the incident and determine whether further disciplinary action is appropriate for selected individuals, he said. The 5th Bomb Wing at Minot has been decertified for certain missions and so-called "tactical ferry operations" have been suspended, he said. ***************************************************************** 31 [NYTr] USAF Goes Public on the Nuke-Armed B-52 flight "Mistake" Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2007 02:11:36 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit [The USAF made an "exception" in their policy of "never commenting" on such incidents, to discuss their investigation and its findings, according to the PBS NewsHour on Oct 19th, because this caused such a furor. The Pentagon claims that there was a whole series of mistakes and "passivity" about following checklist protocols. Guess that sort of "passivity" also accounts for firing off a missile by "mistake" in Qatar this week. Maybe they want to start giving contracts to Blackwater instead of the Air Force. Perhaps the language used in the earlier article on this incident about at least five officers being "fired" wasn't so silly after all. To give the devils their due, the Pentagon today said that several officers have been "relieved of their commands." The Official Tale is at the af.mil site - they have video and are making a Big Deal out of their "Investigation" results. With the incompetence, ignorance and illiteracy of the current overstretched US military, and the "only following orders" level of paranoia, do not discount that this actually was a screw-up. We all live in New Orleans. And we're supposed to worry about rogue nukes from the former USSR? We're supposed to be scared of a mushroom cloud from IRAN? When they do drop a bomb on themselves, they will of course blame Iran, or Al-Qaeda in Kansas or wherever. -NY Transfer] Earlier story: USAF Said to be "Firing" 5 Officers over Nuke-armed B-52 "Mistake" http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20071015/070409.html See also: "Oops! Another Little "Mistake": US Launches Patriot Missile, Hits Qatar Farm" - Oct 16, 2007 http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20071015/070282.html *** The Official USAF PR Story: See the URL below for all sorts of extras. US Air Force - Oct 19, 2007 http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123072687 Air Force releases B-52 munitions transfer investigation results by Staff Sgt. Monique Randolph Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs 10/19/2007 - WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- A senior Air Force official released results of the command-directed investigation stemming from a weapons transfer incident that occurred Aug. 30 when cruise missiles were loaded onto a B-52 Stratofortress at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., and transported to Barksdale AFB, La. The Barksdale-assigned B-52 was prepared to transport 12 cruise missiles to Louisiana as part of a tactical ferry mission; however, six of the 12 missiles were not properly prepared for transport, said Maj. Gen. Richard Newton III, assistant deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements at the Pentagon. General Newton attributed the loading and transport of the weapons to "a series of procedural breakdowns and human errors," stating that the six cruise missiles on that particular pylon "were not supposed to be moved." "The extensive, six-week investigation found that this was an isolated event and the weapons never left the custody of Airmen and were never unsecured," General Newton said. "However, this incident is unacceptable to the people of the United States and to the United States Air Force." Following the incident, Gen. Ronald Keys, Air Combat Command commander, ordered an immediate investigation to be conducted by Maj. Gen. Douglas Raaberg, ACC director of Air and Space Operations. The investigation lasted six weeks. Immediately following the incident, one ACC commander was relieved of command, and the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot was decertified from specific missions and suspended from performing tactical ferry operations. Since the investigation, several other officers have received administrative action and were relieved of command. Additionally, the Air Force conducted a service-wide stockpile inventory to verify there were no additional discrepancies, and enhanced management directives regarding the storage, tracking and labeling of all weapons. Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne also directed nuclear security inspections for nuclear-capable units with oversight from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. As a result of the investigation, Air Combat Command officials will recertify the tactical ferry program prior to reinitiating B-52 ferry operations, General Newton said. "We are aggressively examining and implementing corrective measures to our weapons handling and transfer process," he said. "Corrective action will ensure our munitions are handled precisely and safely 100 percent of the time. "This was a serious error caused by a breakdown of procedural discipline by our Airmen," General Newton added. "We're accountable and we reassure the American people that the Air Force standards they expect are being met." NOW, DON'T ALL YOU FOLKS FEEL "REASSURED?" *** AP via The Guardian - Oct 20, 2007 http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-7010405,00.html 70 Punished in Accidental B-52 Flight By PAULINE JELINEK Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The Air Force said Friday it has punished 70 airmen involved in the accidental, cross-country flight of a nuclear-armed B-52 bomber following an investigation that found widespread disregard for the rules on handling such munitions. ``There has been an erosion of adherence to weapons-handling standards at Minot Air Force Base and Barksdale Air Force Base,'' said Maj. Gen. Richard Newton, the Air Force deputy chief of staff for operations. Newton was announcing the results of a six-week probe into the Aug. 29-30 incident in which the B-52 was inadvertently armed with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and flown from Minot in North Dakota to Barksdale in Louisiana without anyone noticing the mistake for more than a day. The missiles were supposed to be taken to Louisiana, but the warheads were supposed to have been removed beforehand. A main reason for the error was that crews had decided not to follow a complex schedule under which the status of the missiles is tracked while they are disarmed, loaded, moved and so on, one official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record. The airmen replaced the schedule with their own ``informal'' system, he said, though he didn't say why they did that nor how long they had been doing it their own way. ``This was an unacceptable mistake and a clear deviation from our exacting standards,'' Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne said at a Pentagon press conference with Newton. ``We hold ourselves accountable to the American people and want to ensure proper corrective action has been taken.'' Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., chairwoman of the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, said she believed the Air Force had done a thorough investigation, but the findings were ``a warning sign that there has been degradation'' of attitudes toward the handling of the weapons. ``These are not just rules that people dreamed up ... just so they could check off the boxes,'' she said. ``This is fundamentally important to the security of the country and the world.'' Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists was among those skeptical that the August flight represented an isolated incident. He said a decline in Air Force standards for nuclear weapons maintenance and security was documented by the government a decade ago. In recent years, he said, Minot and Barksdale have both gotten poor marks during inspections routinely required for certification. ``Part of the reason is that after the end of the Cold War, and the disappearance of the Soviet nuclear threat, the nuclear career was not very sexy - it was not the way to go if you wanted to'' advance in the military. A shortage of people with the right skills, training and mentality followed, something the Air Force has worked to improve, he said. Newton acknowledged that the Air Force needs to ``restore the confidence'' lost among the American people after the August incident, which raised questions about the safety of the country's nuclear arsenal. ``We are making all appropriate changes to ensure this has a minimal chance of ever happening again,'' Wynne said. Newton said the flight in question resulted from an ``unprecedented string of procedural errors,'' beginning with a failure by airmen to conduct a required inspection of the missiles before they were loaded aboard the B-52 bomber at Minot. The crew flying the plane was unaware nuclear warheads were on its wing, though it wasn't explained what role they played in the mistake. Highest ranked among those punished were four officers who were relieved this week of their commands, including the 5th Bomb Wing commander at Minot - Col. Bruce Emig, who also has been the base commander since June. In addition, the wing has been ``decertified from its wartime mission,'' Newton said. Some 65 airmen have been decertified from handling nuclear weapons. The certification process looks at a person's psychological profile, any medications they are taking and other factors in determining a person's reliability to handle weapons. After it was loaded with the missiles, the B-52 sat overnight at Minot, flew the next morning to Louisiana, and then sat on a tarmac again for hours before anyone noticed the nuclear warheads. Newton avoided repeated questions on what extra security would have been required if crews had known the nuclear weapons were on the plane. But another official later said privately that security was increased as soon as the nuclear warheads were discovered. The Air Combat Command ordered a command-wide stand-down - instituted base by base and completed Sept. 14 - to set aside time for personnel to review procedures, officials said. The incident was so serious that it required President Bush and Defense Secretary Robert Gates to be quickly informed. Wynne prefaced his remarks about the B-52 incident by saying that, in publicly confirming that nuclear weapons were involved, he had authorized a one-time exception to U.S. policy, which states that the location of nuclear weapons will never be confirmed publicly. He said he made this exception because of the seriousness of the episode and its importance to the nation. The weapon involved was the Advanced Cruise Missile, a ``stealth'' weapon developed in the 1980s with the ability to evade detection by Soviet radar. The Air Force said in March that it had decided to retire the Advanced Cruise Missile fleet soon, and officials said after the breach that the missiles were being flown to Barksdale for decommissioning. On the Net: Air Combat Command: http://www.acc.af.mil *** AFP via Yahoo - Oct 20, 2007 http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20071020/twl-us-military-nuclear-7e07afd.html US Air Force describes errors in nuclear missile flight FP - Saturday, October 20 WASHINGTON (AFP) - - The Pentagon acknowledged Friday an unprecedented breakdown in procedures that allowed six nuclear missiles to mistakenly end up on a cross-country flight, an incident which took 36 hours to be discovered. "Nothing like this has ever occurred," said Major General Richard Newton. "This was a failure to follow procedures, procedures that have proven to be sound." He said at least four officers have been relieved of command, including the commander of the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota and two other colonels, in the wake of the August 30 incident. Six nuclear armed cruise missiles on a pylon were loaded onto the wing of a B-52 bomber that was supposed to ferry other cruise missiles from Minot Air Force Base to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana for decommissioning. The nuclear weapons were discovered nearly 36 hours later when they were unloaded at Barksdale, according to a timeline provided by Newton. An intensive six-week investigation concluded that the unauthorized transfer resulted from "a series of procedural breakdowns and human errors," Newton said. He said there also was "an erosion in adherence to weapons handling standards" at both air force bases that had resulted in a lack of attention to detail. "It was a lack of effective supervision, a lack of effective leadership, and the fact that they were not following, nor did they adhere to these very strict checklist guideline procedures," Newton said. At the root of the chain of errors was the failure of weapons maintenance crews to remove the nuclear warheads from the cruise missiles in preparation for transfer to Barksdale, he said. "The day-to-day mission out in the weapons storage area under the munitions control was lackadaisical. It, again, lacked the attention to detail. It lacked a formal process to the point where it became an informal process," Newton said. Airmen assigned at Minot's weapons storage area failed to examine all the pylons located in the storage area on August 29, Newton said. Compounding that error, a crew moving pylons of cruise missiles to the aircraft by trailer began hooking up while the required inspection was under way, and then failed to verify that it had the right payload. "The crew is required to inspect the munitions before departing. They did not do that," Newton said. Minot's mission control center should have caught the error by checking the pylon against a database when it was being loaded on the bomber at 9:25 am on August 29. But it failed to do so, Newton said. "At this point the wrong weapons already were in transit to the flight line and several safety procedures had been disregarded," he said. "The Minot weapons handlers then loaded the munitions onto a B-52 and they remained there on a secure flight line," he said. The next morning, the B-52's instructor radar navigator conducted a spot check, but looked only at the pylon with cruise missiles that had been properly prepared for transfer, he said. "The pylon carrying the wrong weapons was never inspected," he said. The B-52 departed at 8:40 am on August 30, arriving at Barksdale at 11:23 am. It was not unloaded until about 7:30 pm to 8:30 pm. When the nuclear armed weapons were discovered, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and President George W. Bush were quickly notified. Newton said the air force conducted an inventory of its nuclear stockpile but discovered no additional discrepancies. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne ordered inspections of all nuclear capable units. The inspections are still under way, but Newton said all units inspected so far have received "satisfactory" ratings, the highest possible. The commander of Minot's munitions squadron was relieved of his post immediately after the incident, and some airmen were decertified. The Minot wing commander, the head of the wing's maintenance group and the head of the operations group of the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base also have been relieved of command, Newton said. He said action has been taken against other officers of the rank of lieutenant colonel and below, but would not specify. A general with powers to convene courts-martial has been assigned to review the incident and determine whether further disciplinary action is appropriate for selected individuals, he said. The 5th Bomb Wing at Minot has been decertified for certain missions and so-called "tactical ferry operations" have been suspended, he said. * ================================================================= 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 ================================================================= ***************************************************************** 32 Reuters: Air Force fires commanders over nuclear mix-up Fri Oct 19, 2007 6:16pm EDT By Andrew Gray WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Four U.S. Air Force officers have been relieved of command after nuclear missiles were mistakenly flown between two bases in the United States, the Air Force said on Friday. Three colonels and a lieutenant colonel were removed from their posts while about 65 Air Force members had their permission to handle nuclear weapons withdrawn as a result of the incident, which took place in late August, officials said. "In the countless times our dedicated airmen have transferred weapons in our nation's arsenal, nothing like this has ever occurred," said Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard Newton, briefing reporters on an investigation into the incident. "This was a failure to follow procedures," he said. "Clearly, this incident is unacceptable to the people of the United States and to the United States Air Force. We owe the nation nothing less than adherence to the highest standards." On August 29, six cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads were taken out of shelters at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota and loaded onto one wing of a B-52 bomber, where they remained overnight, Air Force officials said. Six missiles not armed with nuclear warheads were loaded onto the other wing of the aircraft. Newton said the flight line at the air base was secure while the weapons were on the aircraft but he acknowledged the security level was "not up to the standards that we would have liked" for nuclear arms. The following day, the aircraft flew to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, where the error was discovered, the Air Force said. ***************************************************************** 33 AFP: India, Pakistan talk to ease nuclear tensions - Fri Oct 19, 6:06 AM ET NEW DELHI (AFP) - India and Pakistan opened talks aimed at cutting the risk of accidents with nuclear weapons and developing further cooperation in the arms arena, officials said. The one-day meeting is part of a peace process launched between the nuclear-armed neighbours in January 2004, India's foreign ministry said in a statement. Discussions will focus on reviewing the implementation of existing nuclear confidence-building deals and security issues in global organisations, such as the United Nations, the statement said. In February, India and Pakistan signed a deal to try to avoid an accidental nuclear conflict through immediate notification of any mishaps. The countries had already agreed to inform each other before conducting ballistic missile tests and to exchange lists of nuclear facilities every year. The South Asian rivals have fought three wars since 1947, including two over the still-disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. They are considering cooperation on a range of issues, including developing shared positions on security issues at the United Nations or the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. "Both have common positions on many issues at the UN for example but do not work together as yet," said Arundhati Ghosh, India's former envoy to Geneva. "Cooperation at this level -- presenting a common position -- could be one of the issues on the table today (Friday)." India's delegation was led by senior foreign ministry official K.C. Singh and Pakistan's by his counterpart, Khalid Aziz Babar. Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 34 AFP: US Air Force blames transport of nukes on 'procedural' errors - Fri Oct 19, 6:26 PM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Pentagon acknowledged Friday that a breakdown in standards and procedures led to an unprecedented unauthorized transfer of nuclear weapons aboard a B-52 bomber that went undiscovered for 36 hours. "Nothing like this has ever occurred," said Major General Richard Newton. "This was a failure to follow procedures, procedures that have proven to be sound." He said at least four officers have been relieved of command, including the commander of the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota and two other colonels, in the wake of the August 30 incident. Six nuclear armed cruise missiles on a pylon were loaded onto the wing of a B-52 bomber that was supposed to ferry other cruise missiles from Minot Air Force Base to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana for decommissioning. The nuclear weapons were discovered nearly 36 hours later when they were unloaded at Barksdale, according to a timeline provided by Newton. An intensive six-week investigation concluded that the unauthorized transfer resulted from "a series of procedural breakdowns and human errors," Newton said. He said there also was "an erosion in adherence to weapons handling standards" at both air force bases that had resulted in a lack of attention to detail. "It was a lack of effective supervision, a lack of effective leadership, and the fact that they were not following, nor did they adhere to these very strict checklist guideline procedures," Newton said. "What set this in motion, our investigation found, is that one of the two pylons for this mission, a tactical ferry mission, had not been properly prepared. "The reason it was not properly prepared was the fact that a formal scheduling process for tracking the status of the missiles had been subverted in favor of an informal process that did not identify this pylon as prepared for the flight," he said. The first of five breakdowns occurred on August 29, when airmen assigned at Minot's weapons storage area failed to examine all the pylons located in the storage area, Newton said. Compounding that error, a crew moving the pylon to the aircraft by trailer began hooking up while the required inspection was under way, and then failed to verify that it had the right payload. "The crew is required to inspect the munitions before departing. They did not do that," Newton said. Minot's mission control center should have caught the error by checking the pylon against a database when it was being loaded on the bomber at 9:25 am on August 29. But it failed to do so, Newton said. "At this point the wrong weapons already were in transit to the flight line and several safety procedures had been disregarded," he said. "The Minot weapons handlers then loaded the munitions onto a B-52 and they remained there on a secure flight line," he said. The next morning, the B-52's instructor radar navigator conducted a spot check, but looked only at the pylon with cruise missiles that had been properly prepared for transfer, he said. "The pylon carrying the wrong weapons was never inspected," he said. The B-52 departed at 8:40 am on August 30, arriving at Barksdale at 11:23 am. It was not unloaded until about 7:30 pm to 8:30 pm. When the nuclear armed weapons were discovered, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and President George W. Bush were notified. Newton said the air force conducted an inventory of its nuclear stockpile but discovered no additional discrepancies. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne ordered inspections of all nuclear capable units. The inspections are still under way, but Newton said all units inspected so far have received "satisfactory" ratings, the highest possible. The commander of Minot's munitions squadron was relieved of his post immediately after the incident, and some airmen were decertified. The Minot wing commander, the head of the wing's maintenance group and the head of the operations group of the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base also have been relieved of command, Newton said. He said action has been taken against other officers of the rank of lieutenant colonel and below, but would not specify. A general with powers to convene courts-martial has been assigned to review the incident and determine whether further disciplinary action is appropriate for selected individuals, he said. The 5th Bomb Wing at Minot, meanwhile, has been decertified for certain missions and so-called "tactical ferry operations" have been suspended, he said. Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 35 Guardian Unlimited: 70 Punished in Accidental B-52 Flight Friday October 19, 2007 11:46 PM By PAULINE JELINEK Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The Air Force said Friday it would punish 70 airmen involved in the accidental, cross-country flight of a nuclear-armed B-52 bomber following an investigation that found widespread disregard for the rules on handling such munitions. ``There has been an erosion of adherence to weapons-handling standards at Minot Air Force Base and Barksdale Air Force Base,'' said Maj. Gen. Richard Newton, the Air Force deputy chief of staff for operations. Newton was announcing the results of a six-week probe into the Aug. 29-30 incident in which the B-52 was inadvertently armed with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and flown from Minot in North Dakota to Barksdale in Louisiana without anyone noticing the mistake for more than a day. The missiles were supposed to be taken to Louisiana, but the warheads were supposed to have been removed beforehand. A main reason for the error was that crews had decided not to follow a complex schedule under which the status of the missiles is tracked while they are disarmed, loaded, moved and so on, one official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record. The airmen replaced the schedule with their own ``informal'' system, he said, though he didn't say why they did that nor how long they had been doing it their own way. ``This was an unacceptable mistake and a clear deviation from our exacting standards,'' Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne said at a Pentagon press conference with Newton. ``We hold ourselves accountable to the American people and want to ensure proper corrective action has been taken.'' Newton acknowledged that the Air Force needs to ``restore the confidence'' lost among the American people after the August incident, which raised questions about the safety of the country's nuclear arsenal. ``We are making all appropriate changes to ensure this has a minimal chance of ever happening again,'' Wynne said. Newton said the flight in question resulted from an ``unprecedented string of procedural errors,'' beginning with a failure by airmen to conduct a required inspection of the missiles before they were loaded aboard the B-52 bomber at Minot. The crew flying the plane was unaware nuclear warheads were on its wing, though it wasn't explained what role they played in the mistake. Highest among those to be punished are four officers who were relieved this week of their commands, including the 5th Bomb Wing commander at Minot - Col. Bruce Emig, who also has been the base commander since June. In addition, the wing has been ``decertified from its wartime mission,'' Newton said. Some 65 airmen have been decertified from handling nuclear weapons. The certification process looks at a person's psychological profile, any medications they are taking and other factors in determining a person's reliability to handle weapons. After it was loaded with the missiles, the B-52 sat overnight at Minot, flew the next morning to Louisiana, and then sat on a tarmac again for hours before anyone noticed the nuclear warheads. Newton avoided repeated questions on what extra security would have been required if crews had known the nuclear weapons were on the plane. But another official later said privately that security was increased as soon as the nuclear warheads were discovered. The Air Combat Command ordered a command-wide stand-down - instituted base by base and completed Sept. 14 - to set aside time for personnel to review procedures, officials said. The incident was so serious that it required President Bush and Defense Secretary Robert Gates to be quickly informed. Wynne prefaced his remarks about the B-52 incident by saying that, in publicly confirming that nuclear weapons were involved, he had authorized a one-time exception to U.S. policy, which states that the location of nuclear weapons will never be confirmed publicly. He said he made this exception because of the seriousness of the episode and its importance to the nation. The weapon involved was the Advanced Cruise Missile, a ``stealth'' weapon developed in the 1980s with the ability to evade detection by Soviet radar. The Air Force said in March that it had decided to retire the Advanced Cruise Missile fleet soon, and officials said after the breach that the missiles were being flown to Barksdale for decommissioning. ^--- On the Net: Air Combat Command: http://www.acc.af.mil Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 36 Guardian Unlimited: Military Explains Nuclear Weapon Mistake Friday October 19, 2007 9:31 PM By PAULINE JELINEK Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - In its first explicit confirmation that six nuclear-armed missiles were erroneously flown from an air base in North Dakota to a base in Louisiana in late August, the Air Force on Friday called the episode an ``unacceptable mistake'' - of a sort that had never happened before. ``We are making all appropriate changes to ensure this has a minimal chance of ever happening again,'' Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne told reporters. He spoke at a Pentagon news conference after Defense Secretary Robert Gates was briefed on the results of the Air Force's investigation into the Aug. 29-30 incident - one of the worst known breaches of nuclear weapons handling procedures in decades. Appearing with Wynne was Maj. Gen. Richard Newton, the Air Force deputy chief of staff for operations, who attributed the episode to an ``unprecedented string of procedural errors'' beginning with a failure by airmen to conduct a required inspection of the missiles before they were loaded aboard the B-52 bomber that flew from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., to Barksdale Air Force Base, La. ``This was a failure to follow procedures - procedures that have proven to be sound,'' Newton said. A six-week Air Force investigation found fault with several officers, who have been relieved of duty, Newton said. He said the 5th Bomb Group commander at Minot was relieved of command, among others. Newton did not name them. Newton said the 5th Bomb Wing, which operates the B-52 has been ``decertified from its wartime mission.'' He added that the August incident was isolated but a result of a problem at those two air bases. ``There has been an erosion of adherence to weapons handling standards at Minot Air Force Base and Barksdale Air Force Base,'' Newton said. After arriving at Barksdale, the B-52 sat on a runway for hours with the missiles before the breach was known - meaning a total of 36 hours passed before the missiles were properly secured, officials have said. The Air Combat Command ordered a command-wide stand-down - instituted base by base and completed Sept. 14 - to set aside time for personnel to review procedures, officials said. The incident was so serious that it required President Bush and Gates to be quickly informed. Wynne prefaced his remarks about the B-52 incident by saying that in publicly confirming that nuclear weapons were involved he had authorized a one-time exception to U.S. policy, which states that the location of nuclear weapons will never be confirmed publicly. He said he made this exception because of the seriousness of the episode and its importance to the nation. The weapons involved were the Advanced Cruise Missile, a ``stealth'' weapon developed in the 1980s with the ability to evade detection by Soviet radars. The Air Force said in March that it had decided to retire the Advanced Cruise Missile fleet soon, and officials said after the breach that the missiles were being flown to Barksdale for decommissioning but were supposed to be disarmed. ^--- On the Net: Air Combat Command http://www.acc.af.mil Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 37 Tri-City Herald: 'Mythbusters' test seeks to determine if cockroaches could survive a nuclear holocaust Published Friday, October 19th, 2007 ANNETTE CARY, HERALD STAFF WRITER After a nuclear holocaust, would cockroaches really be the last creatures standing? That's a question for the same people who've tested whether you can jump in a falling elevator to save yourself, whether throwing a toaster into a bathtub really will electrocute someone and whether dropping a penny from a skyscraper is lethal. A team from the Discovery Channel's Mythbusters is at the Hanford nuclear reservation this week to get to the bottom of the nuclear survival myth. "It's been on the original list of myths since day one," said Kari Byron, one of the Mythbuster stars, who came to town with Grant Imahara and Tory Belleci. The show not only had to find a place to do the testing, but it also had to convince the Discovery Channel that it could be done safely. "People are just scared when they hear radiation," Byron said. "Too many zombie movies." The crew is using an irradiator in the basement of Hanford's 318 Building just north of Richland. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory usually uses it to calibrate dosimeters and test for radiation damage on equipment such as video cameras and fiber optic cables. But Thursday afternoon, Byron and Imahara were moving uncooperative cockroaches into a specially built roach condo to be exposed in the irradiator. "I had to put myself in quite the mindset to do it," Byron said. The experiment required 200 cockroaches sent to Richland by a scientific supply company. "They're all laboratory-grade. Farm fresh," Imahara said. Fifty will get no radiation so they can be used as a control group. Another 50 will be exposed to 1,000 rad of radiation, the exposure that's lethal to humans. It gets worse from there for the bugs. The next 50 will be exposed to 10,000 rad and the final to 100,000 rad. They'll be compared against flour beetles and fruit flies that will get equal radiation exposures. But it was the roaches causing the team grief as they tried to corral them inside a set of tiny blocks arrayed to make sure each got the same radiation exposure. "They are very fast. They are very aggressive. They want to get away," Byron said. "They are opportunists." "Frustrating" and "gross," Imahara said. All the bugs will go back to San Francisco. But instead of flying, a Mythbusters employee is having to drive the bugs back. Airlines, it seems, don't like cockroaches on a plane. They can't fly in the baggage hold without upsetting the experiment. "We have to maintain reasonable temperature and humidity so they don't go into shock," Imahara said. The bugs will be watched over the next couple of weeks to see how soon they die. "Contrary to popular belief, not a significant amount of research goes into cockroach radiation," Imahara said. But scientists do know that cockroaches and other insects do not have all the complex organs that humans have that can be damaged by radiation. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory agreed to play host to the visit in the interest of science education. Staff donated their time, including workers who took vacation time to operate the irradiator. Mythbusters showed their appreciation by meeting with laboratory staff and their children to answer questions as part of a food drive for the Tri-Cities Food Bank. The show, while perhaps best known for exploding outhouses and cement trucks, presents good examples of scientific method and encourages developing a questioning attitude, said Michelle Johnson, a technical group manager for the national lab. "(Viewers) should learn that things don't glow if exposed to radiation," she said. "And they won't be radioactive after being exposed to radiation." But will the roaches grow really, really large? "Some of our staff do believe in comic book logic," Byron said. And if that happens, it will be a really good show, she said. The episode should air in about four months. © 2007 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press & Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 38 Knoxville News Sentinel: ORNL scientist leads climate report Wilbanks says now is time to figure out how to adapt to changes in energy needs By Frank Munger (Contact) Friday, October 19, 2007 Michael Patrick Sean Ahern, the visualization task leader for Oak Ridge National Lab’s Center for Computational Science, is in charge of making supercomputer results come to life for scientists to study and evaluate. The first comprehensive look at the impact of climate change on U.S. energy use and production was released Thursday in Washington, and an Oak Ridge scientist was in the spotlight. Tom Wilbanks, a corporate fellow and distinguished scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was lead author of the report — the third in a series of 21 reports to address the current knowledge and identify research needs on climate issues. Wilbanks took part in a Department of Energy press briefing. In a telephone interview from Washington earlier this week, Wilbanks said the report has attracted a lot of attention, even though it’s not overly controversial or eyebrow-raising. “The bottom line is climate change raises some concerns about the energy sector in the United States, but there’s no reason to be alarmist at this point,” Wilbanks said. While the changes are likely to occur gradually, now is the time to address some of the risks and vulnerabilities and figure out how to adapt, he said. “Clearly, if the climate gets warmer, we’re going to need more (energy) for cooling and less for warming,” the scientist said. That will put more demand on electricity, which is used for cooling, as opposed to other fuel sources involved in heating, Wilbanks said. Stronger storms can put additional pressures on power supplies and pose greater risks to energy infrastructure, which may need to be hardened or relocated, he said. “We found out with (Hurricane) Katrina what that might mean for infrastructure in coastal areas,” Wilbanks said. Also, less snowfall and snowpack in the mountains of the West will affect hydroelectric production and potentially reduce the water supplies for agriculture and other needs, he said. At this point, there are still plenty of unresolved questions about climate changes — especially on a regional basis, Wilbanks said. Future changes in wind patterns and cloud cover could have significant impacts on some of the renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power, but they’re difficult to define, he said. “We wish we could say more,” Wilbanks said. “In the meantime, we need to come up with answers (to questions) we can’t answer now.” ORNL is one of the leading U.S. research labs studying climate change, and Wilbanks said he expects that role to continue and perhaps grow. “ORNL is trying to position itself as the lead laboratory for ‘consequence’ research on climate change,” he said. “We are DOE’s lead laboratory on that right now.” Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329. © 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. 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