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                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
1 IPS-English INDIA/US: Nuke Deal on Pause
2 The Hindu: Arjun Singh justifies Left stand on nuclear deal
3 US: Herald - Life: DHEC to test wells around Catawba Nuclear Station
4 US: North County Times: Unleash power of the atom - 
5 US: Centre Daily Times: Radioactive pool leaking
6 US: Charlotte Observer: Group questions Duke Energy's water use
7 The Hindu: Left parties welcome PM, Sonia's remarks on nuclear deal
8 London Times: Nuclear deal in jeopardy after coalition bows to commu
9 US: The Associated Press: Penn State Reports Minor Reactor Leak
10 themorningcall.com: Nuclear power is best alternative to fossil fuel
11 US: Times Leader: PSU still searching for minor leak at nuclear reac
12 US: Rutland Herald: Yankee protest turns to levity
13 US: Times Argus: NRC panel hears Vt. Yankee concerns
14 US: CN: TVA Official Says Nuclear Is Best Option For Meeting Power N
15 US: Detroit Free Press: Fermi II probes find worker error to blame f
16 US: toledoblade.com: Sabotage is ruled out in steam line damage at F
17 toledoblade.com: Inspections for all
18 US: Brattleboro Reformer: NRC panel hears about Yankee concerns
19 China Daily: Work on nuclear plant gets started
20 US: SEIU: Nuclear Regulatory Commission Confirms Security Lapses at 
21 US: EPA: comment on Pilgrim license renewal
22 US: Charlotte Business Journal: Nuclear plants' costs assailed - 
23 UPI: Chernobyl-hit Belarus to build nuke plant
24 US: Vermont Public Radio: Regulators get an earful from plant critic
25 The Local: Volvo in nuclear energy retreat
26 AU: Herald Sun: Nuclear not an election issue - Switkoswki | 
27 US: WTOL-TV Toledo, OH: Officials still searching for cause of Fermi
28 The Telegraph: Left awaits nuclear last word
29 times and star: H-bomb race caused nuke blaze
 
                          NUCLEAR SECURITY
 
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
30 US: Revealing News: Assassination by Radiation, Spy Drones, EPA Appr
31 US: Deseret Morning News: Surviving downwind ? Mary Dickson's play b
32 US: RMN: Congress to look into compensation for nuke workers 
33 US: Detroit News: Officials: Worker mistake caused holes at Fermi II
34 US: Rocky Mountain News: Congress to hold Oct. 23 hearing on nuke wo
35 US: ABC4.com: Art exhibit depicts plight of Downwinders - 
36 News & Star: it was not in anyones mind that it could catch fire
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
37 US: The State: DHEC: Barnwell leaks pose no threat
38 US: The Tribune: Two meetings this weekend about uranium mine
39 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Safety issues threaten plan to move Moab tail
40 KVBC: DOE's Yucca deadline looming
41 Las Vegas Now: Two Nuke Waste Trucking Routes Proposed Through Las V
42 times and star: Experts seek help with nuke waste
 
                           PEACE
 
43 BBC NEWS: US rejects Russian missile call
44 PakTribune: Our nuclear scientists
45 US: UPI: Electric Boat wins new Navy sub contract
46 AFP: Rice, Gates tackle missile defence, Iran in Moscow talks - 
47 AFP: Russia threatens to leave missile treaty - 
48 Guardian Unlimited: Rice: Missile Defense Plans to Proceed 
49 Guardian Unlimited: Putin Says Missile Plan Risks Relations 
50 Guardian Unlimited: US-Russia Missile Defense Talks Fail 
51 Guardian Unlimited: We will dump nuclear treaty, Putin warns 
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
52 Tri-City Herald: Jet encounter over Hanford a test exercise
53 DOE: Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologi
54 Ventura County Star: State to take over former Rocketdyne site 
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 IPS-English INDIA/US: Nuke Deal on Pause
 
Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 15:08:29 -0700

 
Analysis by Praful Bidwai

NEW DELHI, Oct 12  (IPS)  - Stiff opposition from coalition partners
in the ruling United Progressive Alliance, as well as hesitation within
its own ranks, has compelled India's Congress party to put on hold
negotiations for completing the controversial nuclear cooperation
deal with the United States. 


This casts serious doubt over whether the agreement will be completed,
or fall through owing to lack of domestic and international consensus.


If it goes through, the deal would allow India to import. nuclear
fuel and reactors, despite the fact that India has nuclear weapons,
has tested them, and has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty. 

Although there is no clarity yet about the duration of the suspension
of the negotiation process, it is likely to last till the end of December,
and possibly into early next year.  

Matters will become somewhat clearer on Oct.  22, when a 15-member
joint committee set up by the UPA and the Left parties meets after
a 13-day break to discuss the deal, which the Communists vigorously
oppose,  but whose parliamentary support is crucial to the government's
survival.   

The Left parties demand that further talks on the deal be put on
hold; or they would withdraw support to the UPA, in all probability
precipitating parliamentary elections ahead of the scheduled date
of 2009.

Speculation about the next round of talks, expected to be held with
the International Atomic Energy Agency, peaked this week thanks to
the arrival of the agency's director-general Mohamed El-Baradei in
India. El-Baradei met various leaders but held no discussions on the
nuclear deal here. He is partly on a private visit.

However, El-Baradei repeatedly expressed his support for the deal
and said there is no time limit for India to approach the IAEA, and
he would wait till India is ready to discuss the issue with the agency.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Friday that he hopes
to complete his full five-year term and avoid mid-term elections.
This signals that completing his tenure has become a higher priority
than pushing through the nuclear deal. 

”Elections are still far away. This government still has one-and-a-half
years to complete its time,” Singh told a conference in New Delhi.
”It is my hope and expectation we will stay the course.” 

In another indication that the government could sacrifice the deal
or put it at risk in order to save the coalition and avoid early elections,
Singh said: ”We are not a one-issue government...we have made changes
in several areas. It is certainly true if the deal doesn't come through,
it will be a disappointment, but it will not be the end of life.” 

Congress party president Sonia Gandhi echoed Singh's comments and
emphasised that the government does not want an early election and
wants to fulfil its promises to the electorate. 

This is the clearest official statement so far that the UPA is not
averse to a rethink on the deal, into which Singh has invested a huge
amount of energy.

”It would be fair to say that it is the UPA that blinked first in
its months-long confrontation with the Left parties,” says Kamal Mitra
Chenoy, a political analyst attached to Jawaharlal Nehru University
in Delhi. ”Just a few days ago, it seemed as if the two were headed
for a showdown, with Sonia Gandhi calling the Left ‘enemies' of development
and peace, and declaring that the Congress was prepared to meet the
challenge of a mid-term election.”

The Congress this week pulled back from the brink of an election
when it realised that the Left's threat of withdrawal of support is
not empty, and when its own UPA allies are loath to face an early
election whose outcome seems uncertain.  

Some of the regional allies openly voiced their opposition at the
last meeting of the UPA-Left committee on Tuesday. This emboldened
many Congress leaders too to warn against an early election in inner-party
discussions. 

”Clearly, the Indian political debate on the nuclear deal has moved
away from its merits and demerits, to the practical implications of
pushing it through in the face of domestic opposition,” argues  Chenoy.
”Most UPA leaders do not want to go into an election on a complex
foreign policy issue like the deal, and that too with the U.S., which
is hardly a popular power in India.”  

UPA leaders, especially of the smaller parties, are uneasy at the
prospect of risking their political future on this controversial agreement.
Recent opinion polls show the deal is a low priority for most Indians.


The Left criticises the deal on ”principled grounds” because it will
draw India into the U.S. strategic orbit and erode her independence
in nuclear decision-making, besides promoting nuclear power generation
in costly imported reactors. 

The Left's opposition to the deal remained strong despite last-ditch
efforts by Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, last weekend, to moderate
it through a conditional offer regarding talks to further its completion,
mediated through senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader
and former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu.

The Left's opposition confronted the UPA's constituents with a stark
choice: push the deal through and risk losing power; or put the deal
on hold at least for some time in the hope that some reconciliation
with the agreement's critics might be possible. 

The first option, argued some UPA leaders like Nationalist Congress
Party chief and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, would probably
mean losing both the government and the deal -- an expensive strategy
that would extract a high political price.

In the event, they seem to have prevailed, at least for the moment,
over the deal's zealous supporters who would risk the government's
collapse to push through the agreement. 

The domestic debate is unlikely to be the sole determinant of the
fate of the nuclear deal. It has to clear three other obstacles: negotiation
and approval by the IAEA of a special inspections (safeguards) agreement
with India, unconditional exemption for India by the 45-nation Nuclear
Suppliers' Group from its nuclear commerce rules, and ratification
by the United States Congress.

”The first two hurdles could themselves prove difficult to cross
if some IAEA and NSG members raise awkward questions about the rationale
of making a special exception for India in the global non-proliferation
order,” says M.V. Ramana, an independent nuclear affairs analyst based
at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in the Environment and
Development in Bangalore. 

”There are indications that Ireland, New Zealand and the Nordic countries
are gearing up to do so, especially in the NSG,'' said Ramana. Others
like Germany, the Netherlands and Japan might join them too. And then
there is a China, which is known to be unhappy with the deal, although
it might not want to be seen as its sole opponent.”

If the international community gets the impression that the deal
does not enjoy broad support within India, and can even cause the
fall of the Manmohan Singh government, its critics are likely to become
more vocal in questioning it and delaying its completion.

”That's where the time-horizon becomes crucially important,” says
Ramana. ”In the final analysis, the deal must get ready for approval
by the U.S. Congress before President Bush becomes a total lame-duck.
No one else can muster the political capital and will necessary to
pilot the deal through Congress, many of whose members, especially
Democrats, have reservations about it.”

The UPA, then, may only have time till next spring or so to get the
deal approved in the IAEA and the NSG. And that may be cutting it
extremely fine. The length of the current pause will be critically
important. At any rate, the contestation over the nuclear deal promises
to be a photo finish.



*****
+ INDIA/US: Nuke Deal May Trigger Mid-Term Polls (http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39366)
+ Nuclear Ambitions - IPS Special Coverage  (http://www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/nuclear/index.asp)


(END/IPS/AP/WD/IP/NU/NR/IF/CO/PB/RDR/07)




 
= 10121752 ORP007
NNNN


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 2 The Hindu: Arjun Singh justifies Left stand on nuclear deal

Friday, October 12, 2007 : 2120 Hrs

Bhopal (PTI): Virtually defending the Left parties' protest on
Indo-US civil Nuclear deal, senior Congress leader and Union
Minister Arjun Singh on Friday said "no pressure is unjustified in a
democratic set up".

"In a democracy, no pressure is unjustified," Singh told reporters
when asked to comment on whether the 'pressure' exerted by the Left
parties on the issue of proposed nuclear deal with US is unjustified.

Talking to reporters, after unveiling the foundation stone of the
new building of a Kendriya Vidyalaya here, Singh said that the
decision on the nuclear deal was taken by the Union cabinet after
taking into account several issues.

On the issue of mid-term polls in the wake of standoff between UPA
and Left parties on the nuclear issue, Singh avoiding a categorial
reply on the issue merely said, "I would not be contesting polls.
Even if it has to be held, then political parties will decide about
it."

On the alleged irregularities in the Maulana Azad National Institute
of Technology (MANIT) here, he said that orders have been issued to
take action in the matter.

To a question on education standard in Madhya Pradesh, the HRD
minister quipped, "same as mine and your's".

The decision to abolish board exams for standard fifth and eighth in
the state is a subject of the state government, he added.

Earlier, addressing a function, Singh said that at present there are
nearly 900 Central schools in the country and during the 11th
five-year plan more such vidyalayas would be set up wherever
necessary in the country.

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the
*****************************************************************
 3 Herald - Life: DHEC to test wells around Catawba Nuclear Station

Serving York, Chester, and Lancaster Counties.

Action comes day after high tritium levels found in one well

By Adam MacInnis · Enquirer-Herald

Published 10/12/07 - 12:00 AM |

The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control will be
testing today for radioactive tritium in about 30 wells around the
Catawba Nuclear Station on Lake Wylie.

The testing comes after the Duke Energy-owned station discovered one
of 30 new wells at the plant had tritium levels twice as high as the
Environmental Protection Agency considers safe for drinking water.

DHEC spokeswoman Mary Nguyen Bright said testing should be completed
in the afternoon, and results should be available in about three
weeks.

"It's just preventative because we're wanting to make sure that
there isn't any indication that it's gotten off site," Bright said.

There's no need to panic, Duke Energy officials say. The well
containing the tritium was not a source for drinking water. It was
put at the site for the sole purpose of testing groundwater, said
Valerie Patterson, Duke spokeswoman.

There has been no indication that tritium has spread outside Duke
property, Patterson said.

Duke Energy was still investigating the leak's origins on Thursday.

Here's more information about tritium and what residents can do to
feel safe.

Just what is tritium?

Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen that occurs naturally when
cosmic rays collide with air molecules. It's also formed as a
byproduct of nuclear plants to help control heat. Tritium emits a
weak form of radiation that could increase risk of cancer or cause
birth defects if consumed in large quantities. Some experts,
however, have said tritium can be used to foreshadow the eventual
flow of more toxic radioactive materials in groundwater.

Has this happened before?

This is the first-known tritium leak at the York station, but it has
happened at six other nuclear plants outside the Carolinas in recent
years. There was no threat to public health in each incident.

How much tritium-contaminated water would I have to consume before
I'm in danger?

A lot. It would take a significant amount of tritium over a long
period of time to be harmful. The EPA says it is safe to drink water
with 20,000 picocuries per liter, assuming that a person drinks two
liters a day for a year. That amount of radiation from 20,000
picocuries would be about a third of the radiation you're exposed to
from one chest X-ray.

If I live downstream from the Catawba Nuclear Plant and own a well,
is there anything I should do now to ensure safety?

There isn't much to do now other than give DHEC permission to test
your water. If your well tests positive, you should still be OK
because the three weeks it will take for test results to come back
isn't long enough to consume significant amounts of tritium.

Should I have taken my KI pill?

No. The KI pill (potassium iodine pill) is designed to protect your
thyroid from absorbing radioactive iodine. KI should only be taken
in the event of a nuclear emergency, when directed by health
officials.

Would it do any good for me to boil my water?

No, boiling water may actually increase your risk, because when the
water is boiled, steam may make the tritium airborne. If you're
concerned about possible contamination, your best bet may be to
drink bottled water and wait until your water is tested.

Can I test my own water?

Yes, there are private companies across the region that will test
your water, but DHEC is testing water for free in the at-risk areas.
If you think you're in an at-risk area, call DHEC at (800) 476-9677
to request a test.

What happens if tritium is found outside the Catawba Nuclear Plant?

If tritium is found outside of the plant, DHEC will continue to test
to see how far out the water is contaminated. Water sources deemed
unsafe to drink will likely be restricted and owners would have to
look for alternative sources.

Is it likely this tritium will end up in the Catawba River system?

No. This particular tritium was found in groundwater that doesn't
move very far. It was found in just one well.

-- Sources: Duke Energy, DHEC, EPA

All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be published,

The Herald is owned by The McClatchy Company and is a Member of the
South Carolina Press Association
Copyright © 2006 The Herald, Rock Hill, South Carolina
*****************************************************************
 4 North County Times: Unleash power of the atom - 

/ The Californian -

Last modified Thursday, October 11, 2007 7:07 PM PDT

By: North County Times Opinion staff -

Our view: It's time to lift California's ban on new nuclear energy
plants

Sixty years into the Atomic Age, apocalypse has not yet been visited
upon us. That fact and our surging demand for energy compel
Californians to seriously consider the effort by Assemblyman Chuck
DeVore, R-Irvine, to overturn the state's 1976 moratorium on nuclear
power plants.

With California's population predicted to rise 36 percent by 2050 to
almost 60 million people, energy demand seems likely to keep growing.

Those arguing against the need for more nuclear power, especially in
coastal California, are losing ground ---- almost literally, as
concerns grow over rising sea levels due to global warming. A tough
new state law that seeks to cut greenhouse gases by 25 percent all
but requires new nuclear reactors.

Clearly, Californians want to stop relying on dirty fossil fuels,
such as coal, for electricity production. But there is little
evidence that clean alternative energies ---- wind, solar,
geothermal or wave-generated ---- can meet increased demand. That
leaves nuclear.

Although nuclear energy production will never be safe enough to
satisfy opponents, advances in technology promise to reduce the
already remote chance of a catastrophic meltdown.

Opponents stand on sturdier ground when they warn about the lack of
storage for nuclear waste. Fortunately, the United States built the
Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada for precisely that purpose. It
is primarily politics that prevents us from using that facility.

More nuclear power will mean building new generators at old sites,
like San Onofre. Though its vulnerability to tsunamis and
earthquakes shakes our confidence in our nearby site, building a
state-of-the-art, smarter reactor there won't tip the safety
equation on the site significantly.

We support striving for cleaner air, reduced reliance on fossil
fuels and lower greenhouse emissions. Like it or not, those goals
won't be achieved without more help from nuclear power.

A bill introduced earlier this week by Assemblyman Chuck DeVore,
R-Irvine, would allow the building of a new nuclear reactor at the
San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.

Part of the power produced by a third reactor at the nuclear plant
would be used to run a desalination plant to turn seawater into
drinking water, DeVore said. The bill would lift a decades-old ban
on nuclear facilities to build the reactor at San Onofre.

In 1976, the state banned building more nuclear plants pending a
permanent place to store used nuclear waste. Only two plants are in
operation in California: San Onofre near the San Diego County/Orange
County line and Diablo Canyon near San Luis Obispo.

San Diego County has two of the state's four nuclear reactors, and
it could get more if enough voters support a statewide petition that
seeks to overturn California's prohibition on new plants.

The initiative, which needs more than 400,000 signatures to qualify
for the November ballot, is championed by Orange County Assemblyman
Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, as a way of generating more electricity
without producing more carbon dioxide, which scientists link to
global warming.

DeVore's initiative, which was recently approved for signature
gathering by the California Attorney General's office, declares much
of the California coast off limits for building nuclear plants
because of the likelihood of severe earthquakes.

But most of the San Diego County coastline ---- including Camp
Pendleton where the two units of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating
Station sit, and the coast near San Luis Obispo where the Diablo
Canyon nuclear power station operates two units ---- is in the
clear, according to earthquake safety limits listed in the
initiative.

In 1976, California legislators banned building nuclear plants
pending a permanent place to store used nuclear fuel.

The federal government is making plans to store the nation's growing
pile of highly radioactive waste in an underground vault deep
beneath Yucca Mountain in Nevada, but that state's leadership and
anti-nuclear groups have opposed the plan.

For now, spent nuclear fuel is stored in deep pools and heavy
concrete bunkers at both of California's plant sites.

DeVore's proposed initiative relies on reprocessing old nuclear fuel
to solve the problem of permanent waste disposal.

Countries such as France use special facilities to separate
plutonium from used uranium, then recombine it with new uranium to
create more fuel.

DeVore said he sees reprocessing as the solution to the disposal
problem.

Steve Fetter, dean of the School of Public Policy at the University
of Maryland and a co-author of a book that compares reprocessing and
direct disposal of spent nuclear fuel, said the French solution does
not completely solve the problem of long-term disposal.

"It is a type of recycling, but it doesn't save money, and it
doesn't eliminate the need for deep geological long-term storage,"
Fetter said.

webmaster@nctimes.com © 1997-2007 North County Times ? Lee
Enterprises editor@nctimes.com
*****************************************************************
 5 Centre Daily Times: Radioactive pool leaking

CentreDaily.com Archives Web for

Friday, Oct. 12, 2007

PENN STATE: Breazeale Nuclear Reactor

By Adam Smeltz - asmeltz@centredaily.com

Several hundred gallons of mildly radioactive water have leaked 
in recent days from the Breazeale Nuclear Reactor at Penn State, 
the university reported late Thursday.

Breazeale Nuclear Reactor at Penn State.

In an interview and in a written statement, a public information
officer said the water poses no health risk to personnel at the
52-year-old reactor, to the community at large, or to the
environment.

The water pool where the reactor is based holds 71,000 gallons. As
of late Thursday, the university had shut down the reactor to help
crews find the source of the leak, said Andrea Messer, the
information officer. She said water from the pool is leaking into
the ground below.

“That’s as far as we know,” Messer said. “It’s not like there’s a
puddle outside the reactor.”

Fred Sears, a senior scientist who oversees the reactor, referred
questions to Messer.

She said radiation in the leaked water is minute. A person using it
as his sole drinking-water supply for a year would be exposed to
less than half the radiation absorbed during a single X-ray exam,
Messer said.

“The water is essentially at radioactive levels that are just
slightly above the legal limits for drinking water,” said Jack
Brenizer, the chairman in nuclear engineering at Penn State.

He said an unusual dip in the water level there prompted the staff
to shut down the reactor Tuesday. Research that depends on radiation
from the device has been put on hold until a fix is found, Brenizer
said.

Because the leak is relatively small — estimated by the university
at some 10 gallons an hour — tracking it down could require a lot of
investigation, he said.

“Once you find it,” Brenizer added, “it’s relatively easy to fix,”
especially with modern grout. Ongoing research involving the
noncommercial reactor had included some work on fuel cells, Brenizer
said. He estimated that three to four research experiments are
conducted at the facility in a typical week.

Also, this semester, two classes have been using the reactor, he
said.

He recalled two other similar, minor leaks at the facility — one in
the late 1990s, the other in the mid-’70s. “Every pool — including
swimming pools — has these types of issues occasionally,” Brenizer
said. He said the trouble at the reactor “is about as minor as it
could be, but it’s not something we take lightly.”

“This is a necessary but precautionary shutdown. It’s prudent to
shut down and figure out what’s going on,” Brenizer said. “ ... It’s
like if you see oil underneath your car. You’d better figure out
what’s going on.”

The university reported that it notified the state Department of
Environment Protection and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Workers at the reactor are inspecting valves, tanks and piping,
according to a news release. Water in the tank acts as a shield
around the radiation. It also helps cool the reactor.

Other than the slight radiation it carries, the water is remarkably
pure, university officials said.

The reactor itself, on the east side of the University Park campus
near University Drive, is a relatively small device.

Messer said its controls and monitoring devices have been updated
numerous times since the facility was built.

Adam Smeltz can be reached at 231-4631.

* Copyright 2007 The Centre Daily Times
*****************************************************************
 6 Charlotte Observer: Group questions Duke Energy's water use

10/12/2007 | 

BROAD RIVER NEAR HISTORIC LOW

Environmentalists say Cliffside plant draws more than permitted

BRUCE HENDERSON bhenderson@charlotteobserver.com

An environmental group Thursday challenged Duke Energy's use of
water at its Cliffside power plant in Rutherford County, which the
utility plans to expand.

The N.C. Waste Awareness & Reduction Network, based in Durham, asked
a state administrative court to suspend a wastewater-discharge
permit for the plant issued in August.

The group claims the plant routinely uses more cooling water from
the Broad River than what Duke listed in its permit application. It
says neither Duke nor the N.C. Division of Water Quality, the target
of the challenge, fully evaluated the impact of the plant's water
usage.

Duke spokesman Rick Rhodes said the company won't respond to a legal
challenge it hasn't seen.

WARN and other environmentalists have fought Duke's $1.8 billion
expansion plans -- one new boiler, updating a second and retiring
four old units -- for Cliffside. Coal-fired power plants are major
sources of air pollution and greenhouse gases linked to global
warming.

Such plants use enormous amounts of water to cool the equipment
inside. Most of it is returned to the source, but some is lost to
evaporation -- nearly 10 million gallons a day at Cliffside.

Water questions are timely because of the ongoing drought, said WARN
Executive Director Jim Warren. The Broad is near its historic low
stream flow. Duke might also build a new nuclear plant, which would
need cooling water, downstream in Cherokee County, S.C.

Duke says the expanded plant, expected to start up in 2012, will use
about 88 percent less water than it does now. Cooling towers on the
new and upgraded unit will end the discharge of heated water to the
Broad.

But water lost to evaporation after the expansion will more than
double.

*****************************************************************
 7 The Hindu: Left parties welcome PM, Sonia's remarks on nuclear deal

Friday, October 12, 2007 : 2200 Hrs

New Delhi (PTI): Left parties on Friday welcomed the statements of
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chief Sonia Gandhi on the
nuclear deal, saying the government was committed to considering the
findings of the joint mechanism set up to allay their concerns on
the issue.

"The government will proceed on the deal only after the committee
formed to give an opinion on ramifications of the deal gives its
opnion. On the basis of the written agreement between the Left and
the government, we will deliberate on the October 22," CPI(M) Polit
Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said here.

CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan said the deal has never been the
"end-all" of the government but that is what has been propogated for
all these days.

"I have always been saying that why do you want to sacrifice your
own government on the altar of this nuclear deal," he said, adding
perhaps "sobreity" has returned.

His party colleague D Raja said "it is good that they see a point
now on what the Left has been saying on the deal. It is a positive
development (that) they will give consideration to the concerns
expressed by the Left in national interests."

Singh said the failure to carry the deal through would not not be
"the end of life" and Gandhi said the Left parties, which were
opposing the deal, were not being "unreasonable" and the government
was not not looking for a confrontation with them.

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the
*****************************************************************
 8 London Times: Nuclear deal in jeopardy after coalition bows to communists - 

Times

October 13, 2007

Jeremy Page in Delhi

India&rsquo;s landmark nuclear deal with the United States was in 
jeopardy last night after the Government indicated that it was 
unwilling to sacrifice the country&rsquo;s ruling coalition and 
force early elections. The communist parties that back the 
Government have threatened repeatedly to withdraw their support 
over the deal, prompting widespread talk of a snap poll next year 
instead of in 2009.

Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, told a conference in Delhi 
that he would continue to try to persuade the communists to back 
what he called an &ldquo;honourable deal that is good for India 
and good for the world&rdquo;. But both he and Sonia Gandhi, the 
Congress Party leader, emphasised that their priority was to see 
out the Government&rsquo;s current term rather than to force the 
deal through at any cost.

&ldquo;This Government still has one and a half years to complete 
its time. It is my hope and expectation we will stay the 
course,&rdquo; said Mr Singh, who spearheaded two years of 
negotiations over the nuclear deal. &ldquo;We are not a one-issue 
Government,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;It is certainly true that if 
the deal doesn&rsquo;t come through, it will be a disappointment, 
but it will not be the end of life.&rdquo;



It is designed to secure energy sources for the booming Indian 
economy and underpin a new strategic relationship between 
Washington and Delhi. But the communist parties that give the 
coalition its majority in Parliament say that it will make India 
subservient to US strategic interests and compromise its own 
military programme.

They have threatened to withdraw their support if the Government 
&ldquo;operationalises&rdquo; the deal by starting to negotiate 
an agreement on safeguards with the International Atomic Energy 
Agency. The crisis came to a head this week just as Mohammed 
ElBaradei, the agency chief, visited India to meet Mr Singh and 
other senior officials.

Until yesterday, the Government appeared determined to call the 
communists&rsquo; bluff, and an early election seemed inevitable. 
On Sunday, Mrs Gandhi denounced opponents of the nuclear deal as 
&ldquo;enemies of progress and development&rdquo;. Yesterday, she 
insisted that her comments had been misinterpreted and played 
down the importance of the deal. &ldquo;This is just another 
issue among a large number of issues,&rdquo; she said. 
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not in favour of early elections . . . our 
deadline is 2009 and we&rsquo;re going to do all we can to see to 
it that work to that deadline.&rdquo;

Some analysts said that the Government was trying to cool the 
atmosphere before the next round of talks with the communists, 
scheduled for October 22, and was not necessarily backing down. 
Others said that the coalition had got cold feet about an early 
election and the future of the deal was now in question.

India had wanted to conclude an agreement with the atomic energy 
authority by the end of the month and get approval from the US 
Congress before the American presidential election. But the deal 
has also been criticised by Congress members, who say it 
undermines American efforts to stop the spread of nuclear 
weapons.

© Copyright 2007 Times Newspapers Ltd.

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*****************************************************************
 9 The Associated Press: Penn State Reports Minor Reactor Leak

By GENARO C. ARMAS &ndash; 1 day ago

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) &#x2014; Penn State University reported a
minor leak of "slightly radioactive water" at its nuclear research
reactor but said Thursday that the leak poses no risk to workers,
the community or the environment.

Workers discovered water leaking Tuesday from the pool in which the
reactor sits into the ground beneath the Penn State campus. State
and federal officials were notified, and the reactor was shut down
and will remain out of service until the source of the leak is
found, the university said.

"There's no impact on the community. It's just something that, now
that we know what's going on, we are telling the community and
continuing to look for the leak," A'ndrea Elyse Messer, the
university's senior science and research spokeswoman, said Thursday
night.

The state Department of Environmental Protection was notified after
the problem arose Tuesday and is in contact with the university and
the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, state environmental
spokesman Neil Weaver said. A call Thursday night to the commission
was not immediately returned.

"Just like what they said, there is no concern for public safety,"
Weaver said. "We will continue to monitor the situation and make
sure it's rectified."

Staff at the Breazeale nuclear research reactor noticed "a small
reduction of several hundred gallons over the past several days"
from the 71,000-gallon pool, which shields the core's radiation and
cools the reactor, the university said. The level had not dropped
enough to trigger an alarm from monitoring devices, Messer said.

Classes, meetings and other research not connected to the reactor
were still taking place at the facility, Messer said. There was no
threat to the water supply and the public "should not be worried" by
the leak, she said.

Someone drinking the contaminated water for a year would be exposed
to only half the amount of radiation deemed safe by the
Environmental Protection Agency and less than half the amount
received from a conventional X-ray, the university said in a news
release.

"Residents of central Pennsylvania routinely receive much larger
exposure from natural sources in their environment," Penn State said.

The reactor is used for research by nuclear engineering students and
by 20 to 30 other departments on campus but does not produce
electricity, according to the reactor center's Web site. Since it
was built in 1955, there have been "no accidents or evacuations
involving a degradation or problem with the reactor," the site said.
On the Net:

* Breazeale Nuclear Reactor: http://www.rsec.psu.edu/index.html

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 10 themorningcall.com: Nuclear power is best alternative to fossil fuels --

Another View

By David Dawson

October 12, 2007

In September, the cooling towers at the world's oldest
industrial-scale nuclear power plant were reduced to a pile of
rubble. The Calder Hall plant in northern England is being taken
apart after 50 years of service.

The plant has special significance to my family. Shortly after
earning his engineering degree, my father in 1954 moved our family
from Liverpool to England's Lake District to work on that plant.
Calder Hall went on line in 1956. A year later, the first commercial
U.S. plant began generating right here in Pennsylvania, in
Shippingport, Beaver County. A half-century later, it seems nothing
has changed.

At that time, nuclear power promised to solve what was, to the
industry, an obvious problem even then: that fossil fuels were a
finite source of energy and that a viable substitute had to be
found. My father spent his career in the design of nuclear power
plants, becoming a specialist in the massive concrete structures
that house and support them. He always believed that, like it or
not, nuclear power was the only viable answer to the world's
ever-growing energy needs. In the 1950s and through the 1960s, there
was good reason to beleive that the fission plants being built at
that time were bridge technology, a power source to hold us over
until cleaner, safer and more powerful fusion plants were developed.

The Calder Hall plant is history, and England has decided to move
away from nuclear power. But in the United States, we see a new
interest in atomic power, supported by legislation that reduces the
financial risks for the utilities that build them. Among the
companies interested is PPL, which plans to add a third reactor to
its Susquehanna Plant in Luzerne County.

My father always argued that nuclear power was never developed to
its potential in the United States due to misguided regulation --
regulation that drove up the cost beyond reason and which, at its
heart, was intended to halt the industry's growth. As do many
supporters of nuclear power, he pointed to France's program as a
model of what could have been done. Today, France derives 80 percent
of its power from nuclear plants. The United States is at about 20
percent.

The specter of energy shortages in the postwar era drove atomic
power forward in the 1950s and early 1960s, but these fears were
largely forgotten in subsequent decades as massive new reserves of
oil and gas were discovered around the world. But as world
population continues to grow apace and as energy needs expand to
match with no end in sight, we find our thinking back where it was
in the late 50s. Nuclear, like it or not, is the only technology
that can satisfy world power requirements over the long term.

It was in 1957 that our family emigrated to the United States, where
my dad took a job with a Boston engineering firm that was to see its
fortunes grow and then fade with the nuclear power industry. Five
decades of nuclear history do not make the lessons any easier to
swallow. There have been accidents. The cost of decommissioning the
old plants is considerable. And disposal of nuclear waste remains a
political football. More difficult still, the belief that fusion
power would supplant that first generation of fission reactors has
been lost.

Looking ahead, we must be realistic. There is no ideal option. We
can build windmills and spread solar panels across the landscape; we
can do much to curb the growth of our energy needs. But even the
most ardent backers of these approaches can't argue that this will
be enough.

A new generation of nuclear plants will be built -- and it behooves
us to see in them the same promise they offered 50 years ago. That
promise is a bridge, the only bridge that's big enough, to carry us
forward until a better alternative is discovered.

David Dawson of Cherryville is an editor at The Morning Call. His
e-mail address is david.dawson@mcall.com.

More articles

Copyright © 2007, The Morning Call

*****************************************************************
 11 Times Leader: PSU still searching for minor leak at nuclear reactor

Wilkes-Barre and Northeastern PA News from the Associated Press |
timesleader.com - 

(AP)

Penn State workers searching for what the university called a minor
leak of "slightly radioactive water" from a pool at the school's
nuclear research reactor plan to drain part of the pool to try to
find the problem.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan said Friday
that the university has 15 people working on the leak discovered
Tuesday and is looking to bring in outside help.

University officials have said that the leak in the 71,000-gallon
pool that shields the core's radiation and cools the reactor poses
no risk to students, employees, the community or the environment.

Someone drinking the contaminated water for a year would be exposed
to only half the amount of radiation deemed safe by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency and less than half the amount
received from a conventional X-ray, the university said in a
statement.

The reactor is used for research by nuclear engineering
undergraduate and graduate students and by 20 to 30 other
departments on campus but does not produce electricity, according to
the reactor facility's Web site.

Research reactors use fuel that is less radioactive than that used
in commercial power reactors, and also less fuel overall than power
reactors.

For instance, Penn State's fuel can generate about 1 megawatt of
heat, while the amount of heat generated by a typical commercial
power reactor would be about 3,000 megawatts, according to the NRC.

While oversight is required at research facilities, the guidelines
aren't as stringent as for power reactors, Sheehan said.

___

On the Net:

Breazeale Nuclear Reactor: http://www.rsec.psu.edu/index.html

© Copyright 2007 The Times Leader. All Rights Reserved.

Times Leader 15 N. Main Street Wilkes-Barre, PA 18711
(570) 829-7101 or (800) 427-8649
*****************************************************************
 12 Rutland Herald: Yankee protest turns to levity

October 12, 2007

By Susan Smallheer Herald Staff

BRATTLEBORO — Residents used humor, satire and outright pleas for
help to try and convince a panel from the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission Thursday that Entergy Nuclear shouldn't be allowed to
operate Vermont Yankee for another 20 years.

The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board listened to dozens of
residents' concerns, with most people pointing to the collapse of
one of Vermont Yankee's cooling towers in August, and an emergency
shutdown a week later as proof that something was wrong at the
35-year-old plant.

Entergy Nuclear has applied for a license amendment so it can
continue operating Vermont Yankee beyond its original shutdown date
of 2012. Federal regulators and state regulators must approve the
request.

But to listen to the people who turned out at an NRC hearing at the
Latchis Theater, the public's confidence in the plant, never very
strong in the communities surrounding the plant, has hit a new low.

John Ward, an auto mechanic from Gill, Mass., which is not far from
the Vernon reactor, told the ALSB panel that the NRC was "complicit
with the industry" and that more scrutiny was warranted of the
Vernon plant.

Ward, who said he also raced cars, said he was very familiar with
metal fatigue, which he said was bound to be a problem at a plant
that is approaching 40 years old.

"Radiation does cross state lines," Ward said, echoing the remarks
of several Massachusetts and New Hampshire residents, who took
umbrage at remarks by Vermont Gov. James Douglas, who said last week
that he didn't want the governors of those states meddling in the
issues of Vermont Yankee.

U.S. Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., has introduced legislation that
would give neighboring governors the right to ask for a special
inspection at nuclear power plants, not just the home state.

Ward said Entergy had ignored an identical cooling tower collapse 10
years ago at the Prairie Island reactor.

Ward said he attended his first meeting about Vermont Yankee last
week, when the Vermont State Nuclear Advisory Panel held a hearing
about the recent events at Yankee.

He said while the cooling tower collapse was startling, the
emergency shutdown was actually much more serious, since it was an
indication of poor maintenance in the plant itself.

"At this age, unanticipated problems are beginning to show up. Who
is doing aging management?" he asked.

Derrik Jordan of Putney said a former worker at Vermont Yankee had
told him that the tower collapse was a result of a deliberate
decision by the company not to do maintenance.

"I hope you are here to listen to what the people in the county are
feeling," he said.

Earlier in the evening, two Brattleboro women — "Mrs. Will O'Bay"
and "Mrs. Merrie Newcomb" injected some humor in the proceedings,
when they testified that they were glad that the NRC was in charge
of reviewing Vermont Yankee since they didn't really understand the
issues.

The two women, Brattleboro area activists, were dressed in 1950s era
clothing, complete with white gloves, spectator pumps, fancy hats
and wigs.

"O'Bay" praised the NRC panel for "refusing to talk about waste,"
noting that in genteel society, people didn't talk about waste,
human or nuclear.

"To discuss waste is in extremely poor taste," she said, referring
to the waste at the nuclear reactor.

"Newcomb" said she was there instead of her husband, Will Newcomb.

"Newcomb" said that it was only natural that accidents happen.

"Anyone can overlook a tower, after all," she said, telling Alex
Karlin, the head judge of the Atomic Safety Licensing Board, that
she had a nephew who was a carpenter.

"Would you like his name?" she asked.

"Yes," said Karlin, playing along. "That would be great."

Earlier in the evening, the Safe Power Coalition, an organization of
anti-nuclear groups, held a rally in downtown Brattleboro,
attracting about 70 people.

Vermont can get along without the power generated at Vermont Yankee,
several speakers said, pointing to the recent problems at the plant
when it reduced power for 17 days and actually shut down for a few
days.

"You didn't see the lights go out," said Michael Daley of
Westminster. "There is no safe nuclear plant."

Vermont should invest more in efficiency, from buying compact
fluorescent light bulbs to new refrigerators, to decrease the demand
for electricity, he said.

"Eliminate Vermont Yankee in your life," he said.

Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com.

   © 2007 Rutland Herald
*****************************************************************
 13 Times Argus: NRC panel hears Vt. Yankee concerns

October 12, 2007

By Dave Gram Associated Press

Jean Broome of Brattleboro holds a sign during a rally to protest
the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Brattleboro Thursday.
Photo: AP Photo/Toby Talbot

BRATTLEBORO — The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission panel came for
a narrow purpose, but its three members got the broad brush from
both sides in the debate over nuclear power Thursday.

The NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board wanted to hear public
comments on three technical issues connected with Vermont Yankee's
application to extend its operating license for 20 years beyond its
current expiration date in 2012.

Instead, it heard impassioned speeches on how storing high-level
radioactive waste at the plant was making its host town a terrorist
target, complaints that the NRC can't be an effective regulator and
a defense of the plant as being good for Vermont's economy.

Storing high-level waste in "dry casks" — large concrete and steel
canisters on the banks of the Connecticut River — "puts Vernon, Vt.,
on Iran's map, on (North) Korea's map and on the map of every
terrorist group that wants to take us off the map," said Paul
Busquet of West Townshend.

Shari Zabriskie of Guilford asked the NRC panel, "Is the NRC here to
do its job and protect us, or is it simply going to support the
industry on which its existence depends?"

Amanda Ibey, representing pro-Vermont Yankee group Vermont Energy
Partnership, said her group's member businesses and
business-friendly organizations want to keep the plant running as
long as possible.

"Our mission is to advocate for sound policies that will provide an
ample supply of clean and affordable electricity for the long-term
economic and environ-mental vitality of our state," Ibey said.
"Vermont Yankee is an important part of that long-term equation."

Those were three samples of comments the NRC panel heard on an
evening when it said speakers should be addressing three specific
formal complaints or "contentions" filed by the nuclear watchdog
group New England Coalition and later joined by the state Department
of Public Service. Those concerns:

Whether Vermont Yankee is being careful enough in tracking "metal
fatigue" of various plant components caused by its 35 years of
operation;

Whether it has a good plan to monitor cracks in its steam dryer, a
key plant part that removes water from the steam that comes from the
reactor before it is sent to the turbine;

Whether it is adequately watching for "flow-accelerated corrosion"—
or wear on pipes caused by their needing to carry water and steam at
huge volumes and pressures.

But it was clear that Alex Karlin — who presided — knew he and his
colleagues were in for a spirited discussion about other issues at
Vermont's lone nuclear plant — including an automatic shutdown
triggered by a valve malfunction and the collapse of a 50-foot
cooling tower, both in August.

"There's no contention before us on that issue," Karlin said of the
Aug. 21 collapse of a cooling tower at the plant. But, "I guess you
can talk about it."

Only about 30 people showed up at Brattleboro's Latchis Theater for
an afternoon session, but about 75 attended a 6:30 p.m. session.
Meanwhile, anti-nuclear activists marched from a downtown park to
the theater, led by a band featuring Newfane Selectman Dan DeWalt,
who recently separated his shoulder, playing trombone with his right
arm in a sling.

At the rally, Deb Katz of the Citizens' Awareness Network implored
the crowd to step up their anti-nuclear activism as Vermont
lawmakers begin to consider whether to exercise the veto power over
the plant's license extension that exists in state law.

"This is the window of opportunity," she said, an opportunity at
"changing history for your children."

Nuclear critics see the Aug. 21 cooling tower collapse — which
produced striking photographs of a broken six-foot pipe pouring
thousands of gallons of water onto a pile of rubble — as indicative
of the overall condition of the 35-year-old nuclear plant.

They want Vermont Yankee retired.

"It is clear to me, as evidenced by the recent cooling tower
collapse, that many of the NRC-sanctioned, industry-approved
inspection processes rely on remote-controlled cameras, not hands-on
inspection," said longtime plant critic Gary Sachs. "This may lead
to catastrophic collapse."

Some saw the cooling tower collapse as a bad sign. "For all of us
here it raises the question of what else is being under-maintained,"
Derrik Jordan of Dummerston asked during the evening hearing.

The panel also heard from retired nuclear engineer Howard C. Shaffer
III, of Enfield, N.H., whose business card shows he represents
Nuclear Public Outreach and features the classic nuclear symbol of
swirling electrons.

Shaffer took aim at Sachs' contention that Vermont Yankee was
similar to an old car, with various major parts going or about to go
at once. Scrapping an old car "is a matter of economic choice, not
technology," Shaffer said, noting that his son has a 1968 classic
car that is still operable.

Vermont Yankee is four years younger, dating from 1972.

   © 2007 Times Argus
*****************************************************************
 14 CN: TVA Official Says Nuclear Is Best Option For Meeting Power Needs 

10/12/2007 - 

Breaking News - Chattanoogan.com

Nuclear is the best option for meeting the growing power needs of
the Tennessee Valley, a TVA official said Friday.

Jack Bailey, vice president of TVA nuclear generation development,
told the Civitan Club that nuclear has zero emissions, is not so
expensive after the initial investment and is reliable.

He called such options as solar and wind "boutique sources" that can
be in the mix, but are not valid options to meet high demand.

Mr. Bailey said to produce an equivalent amount of power supplied by
a nuclear plant it would require 1,440 wind towers along 240 miles
of ridge line. He said, "In this area, we don't have a lot of wind."
He said the wind blows 25-30 percent of the time.

The speaker said to match a nuclear plant it would take 55 square
miles of solar installations covering 37,000 acres. He said the sun
often does not beat down in the South, and solar is 25-35 percent
efficient.

He said even in Arizona solar did not prove a viable option.

Mr. Bailey said biomass has been considered, including burning wood
or switch grass. He said to equal a nuclear plant it would take
nearly 12,000 square miles of land for wood or switch grass.

On the option of using animal waste, he said it would require waste
from 60 million pigs or 800 million chickens to equal the output
from a nuclear facility.

Mr. Bailey said there are some 30 current applications for new
nuclear operations, including proposals from TVA for the Bellefant
plant.

He said TVA is also backing a demonstration project that would be
carried out at Oak Ridge on recycling radioactive spent rods from
nuclear facilities.

He said he would like additional focus put on ways to handle nuclear
wastes rather than so much on alternative forms of energy.

He said, despite the limitations of alternative energy sources,
governments seem to be proceeding toward mandating that a certain
share of energy supply come from those sources

The speaker said this region has an ample supply of coal, but he
said it causes significant air pollution problems. He said the
carbon dioxide emissions from coal have not been addressed. He said
dealing with that would significantly raise the cost of operation of
coal-fired plants.

He said the problem with natural gas is its price volatility. He
suggested that it be retained for home heating and for use in
producing various consumer products.

Mr. Bailey said the power needs for the Tennessee Valley are already
high, but they are projected to be up another 40 percent by 2030.

news@chattanoogan.com  (423) 266-2325
© 2004 Site designed and copyrighted by HD
*****************************************************************
 15 Detroit Free Press: Fermi II probes find worker error to blame for alert

FREEP.COM

Holes in piping linked to safety valve were discovered during
maintenance

October 12, 2007

BY ALEJANDRO BODIPO-MEMBA FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

A low-level emergency was declared at DTE Energy’s Fermi 2 
nuclear power plant in Monroe County, Thursday morning, after 
several holes drilled into a steam-line associated with a safety 
relief valve were discovered by workers.

A preliminary investigation conducted by DTE, Michigan’s largest 
utility, and the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission 
(NRC) found that the holes were apparently caused when workers 
began removing insulation from the pipes as part of the regular 
maintenance.

The findings, which were based on DTE-led interviews of personnel on
site and a mock-up of the drilling work that was being performed,
ruled out tampering or sabotage, according to officials at the
federal agency.

Several holes were discovered in steam-line pipes that are used to
relieve pressure in the nuclear reactor in certain circumstances,
according to officials. Apparently, one of the holes pierced the
piping and went all the way through, while others of varying depths
penetrated but didn’t exit the other side.

“We don’t normally talk about preliminary conclusions,” said
Viktoria Mitlyng, a spokeswoman for the NRC’s Midwest Regional
Office in Lisle, Ill. “But, obviously this is an unusual situation
and we want people to know what’s happening so there is no panic.”

Mitlyng added that the NRC agrees with the preliminary finds of DTE.

A low-level emergency is defined by the NRC as an unusual event in
the lowest classification of an emergency. It is declared when there
is a potential degradation of safety margins to the facility. It is
usually in stable condition and no radiation is expected.

DTE officials, who have yet to complete their own investigation in
coordination with the NRC, said there were no safety concerns to
workers at the facility or the surrounding public. Workers were
cleared from the part of the reactor where the holes were discovered
to allow for investigators to complete their work.

“We found some holes in some piping in a drywell area during a
routine inspection while the plant was shutdown for regular
maintenance and repair work,” said Lorie Kessler, a spokeswoman for
DTE. “The area was cleared to facilitate a more thorough
investigation, not for safety reasons.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Office of Homeland
Security were both contacted by the NRC.

In a statement released Friday afternoon, the NRC said DTE
considered tampering as one of the potential causes of the holes.
This is what led the utility to declare the incident as an unusual
event.

Located in Frenchtown Township, Fermi 2, which generates 1,100
megawatts of electricity, has been temporarily shut down for the
last two weeks as part of a routine refueling and maintenance
process that generally takes place every 18 months.

Kessler added that the investigations into the incident would likely
spread to other areas of the plant.

The routine maintenance, including 2,300 individual tests, is done
when the plant is refueled. Fermi’s staff of about 900 workers is
supplemented by 1,400 workers during the refueling and testing.

According to the NRC Fermi 2 was issued an operating license on July
15, 1985, which expires on March 20, 2025.

Contact ALEJANDRO BODIPO-MEMBA at 313-222-5008 or
abodipo@freepress.com.

jamesm1

Mr. Burns: "Homer be a good chap, will you? and go and remove pipe
insulation. The old girl's pipes are sweating, and no one likes a
sweaty girl.

Homer Simpson: Ooh, I was just about to eat this donut...stupid
burns...stupid sweaty pipes! I'll use this drill bit to just...DOH!

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 11:44 pm


mcdirt

Sure would be nice if the industry and the nation would find a
better solution than storing dangerous nuclear waste under armed
guard scattered about the shoreline of the Great Lakes.

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 5:42 pm
======================================================================

Copyright ©2007 the Detroit Free Press. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 16 toledoblade.com: Sabotage is ruled out in steam line damage at Fermi 2

Article published Friday, October 12, 2007

BLADE STAFF

NEWPORT, Mich. — While the sequence of events that resulted in
damage to Fermi 2’s steam lines remains under investigation,
officials today have ruled out sabotage as a possible cause.

A statement issued this afternoon by the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission said that Detroit Edison Co., the plant’s operator, has
determined that the damage occurred during the removal of pipe
insulation.

What initially was reported by the Associated Press as several holes
turned out to be one, with multiple indentations “of varying
depths,” the NRC said.

John Austerberry, plant spokesman, said it appears a drill was used
to remove the pipe insulation in the vicinity of safety relief
valves in the plant’s drywell area, which sits below the nuclear
reactor.

It was not immediately known how much damage occurred, how many
workers were involved, or how the situation will be resolved, he
said.

The plant is in the second week of a scheduled
refueling-and-maintenance outage that is expected to last until
early November. It has about 2,300 workers on site, including 1,400
contractors, doing hundreds of tasks.

The damage was discovered Thursday during a routine inspection. The
plant will not restart until the damaged area is fixed or replaced,
Mr. Austerberry said.

The plant confirmed the FBI was called to the scene because the
incident had been declared an unusual event. FBI spokesmen in
Detroit and Washington could not be immediately reached.

Read more in later editions of The Blade and toledoblade.com

 © 2007 The Blade. By using this service, you accept the terms of
our privacy statement and our visitor agreement. Please read them.
The Toledo Blade Company, 541 N. Superior St., Toledo, OH 43660 ,
(419) 724-6000
*****************************************************************
 17 toledoblade.com: Inspections for all

Article published Friday, October 12, 2007

A NUCLEAR fuel and technology deal that the United States negotiated
with India is running into fierce political opposition in an
unlikely place — India.

The agreement, negotiated under President Bush, was controversial in
the United States because it was incompatible with prior U.S. policy.

That policy excluded cooperation in the nuclear field with countries
such as India, Israel, and Pakistan that possess nuclear weapons but
have not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Those countries
shunned the treaty because it requires that they submit their
nuclear facilities to inspection by the International Atomic Energy
Agency. Both Iran and North Korea, the administration’s betes noires
in the nuclear field, have signed the NPT.

The Bush Administration wanted the nuclear accord with India to
improve political ties and, more specifically, because India intends
to spend some $40 billion in coming years in arms purchases, a
potential bonanza for U.S. arms producers.

Congress approved the agreement in December, although it will still
have one more cut at it after other preconditions to final agreement
have been fulfilled. One of these is approval of the deal by the
45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group. A second is IAEA agreement. The
third, where serious problems have now arisen, is in India itself.

The coalition government of Prime Minister Manowan Singh, led by his
Congress Party but including the Communist Party of India and three
other parties on the left, is encountering serious opposition in
Parliament to the U.S. agreement and might even fall, forced into
early elections over the issue.

Indian opposition seems to be based on general wariness of a closer
relationship with the United States, not particularly on the nuclear
agreement itself. In New Delhi, Mr. Singh’s government is digging in
for the fight. In Washington, India’s lobbyists, led by the
U.S.-India Political Action Committee, have become increasingly
active as the pace quickens for the 2008 U.S. elections. American
defense contractors are also weighing in, eyeing India’s likely arms
purchases.

This is an issue where it is important that Congress not lose sight
of principle as it is importuned by lobbyists wielding campaign
donations.

Principle must prevail. If India wants a nuclear deal with the
United States, it should open its nuclear weapons and other nuclear
programs to IAEA inspection. What we are requiring of North Korea
and Iran we should require of our friends as well.

Big arms contracts are not a valid reason to abandon an important
principle that makes the world a less dangerous place.

 © 2007 The Blade. By using this service, you accept the terms of
our privacy statement and our visitor agreement. Please read them.
The Toledo Blade Company, 541 N. Superior St., Toledo, OH 43660 ,
(419) 724-6000
*****************************************************************
 18 Brattleboro Reformer: NRC panel hears about Yankee concerns

BRATTLEBORO, VT

By PAUL H. HEINTZ, Reformer Staff

(Zachary P. Stephens/Reformer)<br><br> People parade down Main 
St. in Brattleboro from an anti-nuclear power rally at Pliny Park 
to the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board of the Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission hearings at the Latchis Theatre, Thursday 
evening.

Friday, October 12

BRATTLEBORO -- The three Atomic Safety and Licensing Board judges
who will preside over hearings related to Vermont Yankee nuclear
power plant's proposed license extension got quite an earful
Thursday evening from neighbors of the plant.

The judges were in town for a tour of the facility Wednesday, and a
pair of hearings Thursday afternoon and evening at the Latchis
Theatre. Members of the self-described judicial branch of the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the three judges will be tasked with
deciding on three contentions raised by the anti-nuclear New England
Coalition.

While Thursday's hearings -- formally known as "limited appearance
statements" -- were supposed to be restricted to the three specific
concerns raised previously by the NEC, most speakers chafed at the
NRC's limited scope and attempted to broaden the discussion to other
issues.

"The truth is the people have no confidence in your process. That's
the truth," said Deb Katz, executive director of the Citizens
Awareness Network. "We turn to you as judges, but you don't have the
power (to rule on other issues)."

ASLB judge Michael Karlan told members of the audience at both
hearings that the panel's jurisdiction is limited to NEC's three 
contentions, which were accepted by the board in Sept. 2006, and 
will be decided upon after the board holds a formal hearing six 
months after the release of the NRC's Safety Evaluation Report.

In those contentions, NEC argues that Entergy Nuclear, which owns
VY, does not have a plan to monitor aging reactor components, its
piping and its steam dryer if it is allowed to operate an additional
20 years after its scheduled 2012 closure.

Few in the audience, however, stuck to the technical issues at hand.
Summing up the frustrations of many in attendance, Brattleboro
Selectboard Chairwoman Audrey Garfield told the judges she felt the
NRC routinely comes to town seeking input and then "it seems to have
no effect on your decision-making process."

"I'd like to know how our comments are incorporated into your
decision-making process," she said.

Garfield also invited the ASLB judges to a selectboard meeting to
further discuss the issue. While Karlan said he and his colleagues
would "take that into consideration," he said it would be "highly
unusual" for judges charged with deliberating on a case to come
before a local board. He also reiterated that the purpose of the
hearings was to solicit input from members of the public that formal
parties to the contentions may not have previously brought forward.

Many in the audience argued the NRC should require the plant to
undergo an independent safety assessment, like that performed at
Maine Yankee in 1996, leading to its closure.

"I don't have the proof, but I do know the proof resides within the
walls of Vermont Yankee," said Shari Zabriskie of Guilford. "Many,
many lives depend on your decisions."

Ellen Tenney of Saxtons River said, "If the NRC believes this plant
is so safe, then prove it to us. Do an independent safety
assessment. It's a beautiful area and I'd hate to see it abandoned
because of profits," she said.

Several audience members from Massachusetts and New Hampshire said
that, as residents of those states, their input was not taken into
consideration -- even though they, too, live nearby to the nuclear
plant.

"It is not fair to have a plant so close to other states and not let
those states have input into its future," said Loren Kramer of
Greenfield, Mass.

Speaking of a "litany of problems" he said are occurring at VY,
Kramer told the board, "We don't feel they quite are under control,
and so much is at stake."

While many in the audience likely felt Entergy was their prime
opponent, their harshest comments were leveled at the NRC, which
some accused of being in league with the nuclear industry.

Katz took that course further than most, comparing the ASLB to the
architects of the Holocaust.

"I want you to think of the Nuremberg trials, because at the
Nuremberg trials even 'good Germans' were found guilty," she said.
While every single speaker at the evening hearing -- which drew
roughly 80 people -- spoke against extending VY's license, two
proponents of the extension spoke at the sparsely attended afternoon
session.

One of them, Amanda Ibey of Vermont Energy Partnership, said, "While
the key to Vermont's future prosperity is through a broad,
diversified electricity portfolio, without Vermont Yankee it will be
difficult, if not nearly impossible, to achieve a portfolio that is
clean, reliable and affordable."

Referring perhaps to a rally that took place prior to the evening
hearing, she said, "We urge you to focus on the facts and not the
rhetoric, and not to give in to political pressure exhibited through
street rallies, anti-nuclear activists, politicians or others. This
is an important process that needs to be governed by dispassionate
facts."

Entergy spokesman Rob Williams, who was on hand for the hearing,
said afterwards, "This is a good opportunity for people to speak
directly to the licensing board that has the three contentions
before them. They have every right to make their opinions known and
we respect that, but we do feel our plant is a good candidate for
license renewal."

The evening was not without political humor. Two anti-nuclear
activists dressed as old women and calling themselves Mrs. Will
O'Bey and Mary Nukem, addressed the panel, facetiously scolding
their fellow Vermonters for questioning the NRC.

"I don't know where their manners are," O'Bey said to an
appreciative audience and the three judges -- two of whom remained
stone-faced while one smiled good-naturedly.

Paul Heintz can be reached at pheintz@reformer.com or 802-254-2311,
ext. 275.

*****************************************************************
 19 China Daily: Work on nuclear plant gets started

By Zheng Caixiong (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-10-12 14:43

Construction of infrastructure for the Yangjiang Nuclear Power 
Plant (YNPP) began recently in the coastal city of Yangjiang in 
Guangdong Province.

"This initial building work at the YNPP is preparation for the 
construction of the main part of the nuclear power plant," 
according to He Yu, general manager of China Guangdong Nuclear 
Power Group.

"More than 2.5 billion yuan has, so far, been spent on 
infrastructure for the project," He was quoted as saying by 
Xinhua News Agency.

The nuclear island project, which will be the country's biggest 
nuclear power plant, will cost more than $8 billion.

The nuclear island's major equipment, including digital meters 
and control systems, will be made locally in China, He said.

Large-scale construction is expected to begin within a year, He 
said.

The first phase of the YNPP is expected to be ready for 
commercial operation in 2013. It will generate more than 30 
billion kilowatt-hours of power annually for the province in a 
bid to ease supply pressure.

Guangdong's electricity supply gap is estimated at around 30 
percent this year. The province's electricity consumption peak 
period usually takes place from May to September annually.

The YNPP is located in Dongping of Yangdong County in Guangdong's 
western coastal area. It will have six generating units in 
operation, each with production capacity of 1 million kilowatts, 
when the second phase is completed. Four generating units will be 
constructed in the first phase.

The YNPP is one of several nuclear power plants being constructed 
and planned in the southern Chinese province.

Guangdong has stepped up efforts to produce more nuclear power 
during the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-10) by expediting 
existing projects at the construction and pre-construction 
stages.

The Ling'ao Nuclear Power Plant is scheduled to complete its 
second phase and come onstream by the end of 2010.

*****************************************************************
 20 SEIU: Nuclear Regulatory Commission Confirms Security Lapses at Exelon

; Findings Come a Year After the Company was Warned by SEIU

Service Employees International Union :: 

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A year after SEIU 
advised nuclear power plant operator Exelon about Wackenhut 
Corp.'s security deficiencies, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission 
has faulted Exelon for security lapses at the Peach Bottom 
nuclear plant. At a public meeting on Tuesday October 9th the NRC 
said they found that Exelon "missed opportunities" to find and 
correct the problem of sleeping guards at its nuclear power plant 
in Peach Bottom, PA.

"Over a year ago we met with Exelon and informed them of 
Wackenhut's inadequacies," said Valerie Long, head of SEIU's 
Property Services division. "At this point we hope they seriously 
reconsider all ten of their contracts with Wackenhut."

Yesterday the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) expressed a 
number of concerns about why these officers were sleeping. POGO's 
nuclear power plant investigations have repeatedly found that 
post-9/11, security contractors, including Wackenhut, overwork 
security officers to the point of exhaustion.

POGO's reports have found security officers working as many as 
six 12-hour days on a regular basis.

In fact, Wackenhut security guards have already been found 
sleeping at a nuclear power plants in Limerick, PA and Three Mile 
Island, PA, both of which are operated by Exelon Corporation, 
which still contracts Wackenhut for security. Even after 
incidents of sleeping on the job, guards report working excessive 
overtime at Three Mile Island, the site of America's worst 
commercial nuclear power plant failure.

This past July, Wackenhut was the subject of a congressional 
hearing conducted by Edolphus Towns (D-New York), chair of the 
Subcommittee on Government Management, Organization, and 
Procurement.

Wackenhut is owned by the London-based security conglomerate G4S. 
G4S, the largest company trading on the London stock exchange, is 
under fire from international human rights groups and trade 
unions for the company's practices in southern Africa and 
elsewhere. More about Wackenhut Services, Inc. and the campaign 
to improve conditions for security workers can be found on the 
website eyeonwackenhut.org.

SEIU, the fastest-growing union in North America, with 1.9 
million members in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico, is 
also the largest union of security officers in the nation. 
Website: http://www.eyeonwackenhut.org/ Website: 
http://www.seiu.org/

Copyright © 1996-2007 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights 
Reserved. A United Business Media company.
*****************************************************************
 21 EPA: comment on Pilgrim license renewal

FR Doc E7-20149

[Federal Register: October 12, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 197)] 
[Notices] [Page 58080-58081] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr12oc07-45]                         

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[ER-FRL-6691-9]

 
Environmental Impact Statements and Regulations; Availability of 
EPA Comments

    Availability of EPA comments prepared pursuant to the Environmental 
Review Process (ERP), under section 309 of the Clean Air Act and 
section 102(2)(c) of the National Environmental Policy Act as amended. 
Requests for copies of EPA comments can be directed to the Office of 
Federal Activities at 202-564-7167.
    An explanation of the ratings assigned to draft environmental 
impact statements (EISs) was published in FR dated April 6, 2007 (72 FR 
17156).

Draft EISs


Final EISs

EIS No. 20070325, ERP No. F-NRC-B06006-MA, Generic--License Renewal of 
Nuclear Plants, Supplement 29 to NUREG-1437, Regarding the License 
Renewal of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, Cape Cod Bay, Town of 
Plymouth, Plymouth County, MA.

Summary

    EPA expressed environmental concerns about the effectiveness of 
various mitigation measures to address adverse impacts from continued 
operation of Pilgrim over the relicensing period. EPA also continues to 
believe that more detailed information should be provided to describe 
the impacts of relicensing, to examine alternative operating modes, 
technologies, and mitigation measures.

EIS No. 20070335, ERP No. F-NRC-B06007-VT, Generic--License Renewal of 
Nuclear Plants, Supplement 30 to NUREG1437, Regarding Vermont Yankee 
Nuclear Power Station, Vernon, VT

Summary

    EPA continues to express concerns about entrainment and impingement 
of fish and other aquatic organisms and impact from thermal discharge.

    Dated: October 9, 2007.
Ken Mittelholtz,
Environmental Protection Specialist, Office of Federal Activities.
[FR Doc. E7-20149 Filed 10-11-07; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6560-50-P


*****************************************************************
 22 Charlotte Business Journal: Nuclear plants' costs assailed - 

Friday, October 12, 2007

Charlotte Business Journal - by John Downey

"If we are not serious about supporting more nuclear power plants 
in this country, then we are not serious about climate change."

Jim Rogers, Duke Energy Corp. chief executive, in June 28 
testimony to the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works 
Committee

Former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission member Peter Bradford 
came through Charlotte last week sounding an alarm on nuclear 
energy: not that it's dangerous, but too expensive.

He argues nuclear energy supporters brandish global warming as a 
club to force government subsidies for unjustifiably expensive 
nuclear plants.

This article is for Paid Print Subscribers ONLY.

  View Charlotte Jobs - 1396 jobs today

      bizjournals | BizSpace.com | Jobs | bizwomen.com

      © 2007 American City Business Journals, Inc. and its
*****************************************************************
 23 UPI: Chernobyl-hit Belarus to build nuke plant

United Press International - International Security - Energy -

Published: 12, 2007 at 1:18 PM

MINSK, Belarus, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Belarus on Friday said it would 
go ahead with plans to build a nuclear power plant next year.

RIA Novosti reported that President Alexander Lukashenko made the 
call for the nuclear power plant to be built next year as the 
country has few energy options. Planned construction work is to 
be completed in 2008, allowing for further work.

Belarus depends mainly on Russia for its energy needs, but ties 
between the two have become frosty since Gazprom, the Russian 
monopolist, raised prices for its gas sold to Belarus. Nuclear 
energy, Belarus says, is the only way for it to achieve some 
semblance of energy independence.

Belarus was adversely affected by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, 
and there is some domestic opposition to the proposed 
2,000-megawatt nuclear plant.

© Copyright United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 24 Vermont Public Radio: Regulators get an earful from plant critics and supporters

Friday October 12, 2007

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP)

People on both sides of the nuclear power issue turned out in
Brattleboro to speak their minds to a panel of the U-S Nuclear
Regulatory Commission.

The hearing last night part of the NRC's fact-finding on Vermont
Yankee's request for permission to operate for 20 years past its
scheduled 2012 shutdown. Opponents say the 35-year-old plant is
showing its age lately and should be shut down permanently, but
supporters told the panel that Vermont needs the electricity
produced by the Vernon power plant.

AP Photo/Toby Talbot


© Copyright 2007, Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

© 2007 Vermont Public Radio   Privacy Policy | Site Map | Contact

*****************************************************************
 25 The Local: Volvo in nuclear energy retreat

BokningsBolaget – find a venue in Sweden

Published: 12th October 2007 14:15 CET

Online: http://www.thelocal.se/8770/

Truck maker Volvo has announced that it will cease buying Swedish
nuclear power at the end of this year. Volvo has signed a deal with
Vattenfall ensuring that it does not receive energy from nuclear
power sources, which it said did not sit well with the company's
environmental goals.

"We place nuclear energy far down the scale. It's not sustainable
from a number of aspects," Volvo's environmental chief Inge Horkeby
told Dagens Nyheter.


"The raw materials used to produce nuclear energy are a finite
resource and the waste management problem has not been solved," she
added.

While agreeing that Volvo should make use of renewable energy
sources, CEO Leif Johansson was careful to note that the company was
not opposed to Swedish nuclear energy.

"In my view, Sweden should really consider using new technology for
nuclear power," he told Dagens Nyheter.

Trade Union IF Metall was unimpressed by Volvo Trucks' anti-nuclear
stance.

"It sounds like Volvo is using environmental profiling as a PR
stunt," spokesman Per Öhman told Dagens Nyheter.

Volvo has the stated aim of fuelling all its plants worldwide using
renewable energy sources. The company has already built three farms
at its Belgian plant in Gent, with a further wind farm in the
pipeline for the Tuve plant outside Gothenburg.

TT/The Local (news@thelocal.se


*****************************************************************
 26 AU: Herald Sun: Nuclear not an election issue - Switkoswki | 

NEWS.com.au |

Cameron England

October 13, 2007 12:00am

NUCLEAR power is unlikely to be a federal election issue according
to Ziggy Switkoswki, chairman of the Nuclear Science and Technology
Organisation.

He believes the debate about whether nuclear power is appropriate
for use in Australia is in its early stages.

"It reminds me a bit of the debate around the privatisation of
Telstra," he said.

"People often have strong views about the issue of nuclear power,
but they're not views that shape their voting intentions," the
former chief executive of Telstra said. He was speaking after an
Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce lunch in Adelaide.

"From my point of view, with the nuclear debate being only a year
old, it's too early to expect people to form an informed view. The
debate needs to run a little bit further.

"I hope it's not an election issue."

Dr Switkowski said there was, however, a clear divide between the
major political parties. He said the Federal Government was willing
to examine the use of nuclear power in Australia, while the Labor
Party was against any further participation in the nuclear fuel
cycle, beyond uranium mining.

Dr Switkowski led the Federal Government's 2006 Review of Uranium
Mining, Processing and Nuclear Energy, which raised the possibility
of Australia having 25 nuclear reactors by 2050.

© Herald and Weekly Times. All times AEST (GMT + 10).

*****************************************************************
 27 WTOL-TV Toledo, OH: Officials still searching for cause of Fermi II
steam line holes

o EEO Public File Report for WTOL-TV, Toledo, OH

Associated Press - October 12, 2007 8:15 AM ET

MONROE, Mich. (AP) - Officials are trying to determine what caused
several holes found in steam lines at a nuclear power plant north of
Toledo.

A spokesman for the DTE Energy company says several quarter-inch
holes were discovered yesterday by workers performing routine
maintenance at the Fermi II plant near Monroe, Michigan. That's
about 20 miles from Toledo.

The facility was already shut down for about two weeks of 
maintenance.

The utility says there was never a public safety concern, and the 
discovery has been reported to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission 
and the FBI.

 All content © Copyright 2000 - 2007 WorldNow and WTOL, a Raycom
Media Station.
*****************************************************************
 28 The Telegraph: Left awaits nuclear last word

Calcutta : Nation

  Saturday, October 13, 2007 | Advertise with us

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

New Delhi, Oct. 12: The Left was guarded in its response to Manmohan
Singh and Sonia Gandhi?s statements today suggesting the government
would last its full term.

The parties indicated the remarks by the UPA Big Two weren?t the
last word on the nuclear deal and they would wait for a formal
communication on or before October 22, when the UPA-Left panel meets
in an effort to end the stalemate.

?The government will proceed only after the committee formed to
consider the ramifications of the deal gives its opinion. On the
basis of the agreement between the Left and the government, we will
deliberate on October 22,? CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury said.

CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan insisted the deal had never been
the ?end-all? for the government, though that was the idea
propagated in recent weeks. ?I have always been saying, why do you
want to sacrifice your own government at the altar of this nuclear
deal??

 Copyright © 2006 The Telegraph. All rights reserved. Disclaimer |
*****************************************************************
 29 times and star: H-bomb race caused nuke blaze

Published on 12/10/2007

IT IS 50 years this week since the Windscale nuclear disaster. ALAN
IRVING talks to Vic Goodwin, who as a young physicist found himself
at the forefront of the battle to contain a devastating blaze

SELLAFIELD used to be a bomb-making factory. If it hadnâ€™t been,
the Windscale fire of 1957 would never have happened.

Since 1951, in top secret on the West Cumbrian coast, the twin 400
foot high Windscale piles had been producing plutonium for Britain
to make its own atomic and hydrogen bombs - until October, 1957,
when a fuel cannister ruptured causing one of the piles to catch
fire, spewing radioactivity over the countryside.

The explosive material from the operation of the first Sellafield
reactor was used for the UK's first nuclear weapons test in
Australia on October 3, 1952, but five years later came the
disaster, which at the time was believed to be the worldâ€™s most
serious nuclear accident.

Nearly 200 cancers, half of them fatal, resulted but although
neither of the Windscale Pile reactors ever worked again, the
accident did not stop the government from continuing to use
Sellafield as its bomb factory.

Calder Hall, in the national interest, became a close at hand
alternative for Britainâ€™s defence in the cold-war arms race.

Experts have concluded that the operation of the Windscale Piles was
an accident waiting to happen.

They include Vic Goodwin, who as a young physicist was sent to work
at Windscale a year before the accident.

It was literally a baptism of fire at the start of a distinguished
nuclear career.

He became part of a heroic Sellafield team under site boss Tom Tuohy
which fought day and night to put out the blaze and minimise the
consequences.

Was it really an accident waiting to happen?

â€œI am afraid that while it might not have been true when the piles
were first built, I fear it was true in 1957,â€ says Mr Goodwin,
now 75 and living at Ravenglass.

So why werenâ€™t the warnings heeded?

He says: â€œThere was growing unease, but the military programme
tended to be dominant.

â€œCapable and successive men at Sellafield called for improvements
and changes, particularly in measuring temperatures.â€

Was there a case in 1956 for shutting down the piles?

â€œOh, hindsight is a wonderful thing but I am sure that with the
knowledge we have now, and which we obtained fairly quickly after
the fire, it would have been better if, after the Queen opened
Calder Hall, which had a much more secure design, that these old
piles were shut down.

â€œBut the military programme was demanding, and the country decided
it would go nuclear in the sense of making its own bomb.â€

He explains that British researchers effectively repeated what had
been developed in the USA, with designs based on reactors which had
some problems.

He adds: â€œThe next Macmillan administration was racing to get the
hydrogen bomb going, because America and Russia had already done it.
The military programme was paramount.â€

Effectively Sellafield was a bomb-making factory long before it
became a civil nuclear plant.

Mr Goodwin says: â€œA great deal of effort was rightly put into work
which would underpin the military programme.

â€œIt was just that in doing so, other work that should have been
done to show how close to the edge the Windscale Piles were, was not
done until after the fire itself.

â€œWe came to realise that while this particular design was really
quite dodgy, Cinderella to some extent, we had no knowledge that it
would actually catch fire in this way.â€

On the fire itself, he says: â€œYou could see it was red hot at
first, white hot later.

â€œIn the area where we could not discharge the fuel, the fire was
getting worse; carbon dioxide did not do anything, so the siteâ€™s
deputy general manager Tom Tuohy took the decision that water had to
go on.

â€œThere was a good big flow of water which just carried away the
heat and doused the fire.

â€œMy task was to get a water injection system made. I already had
some tubes for another purpose but they proved ideal for making long
lances which Eddie Davies and his little engineering workshop
quickly lashed on to conventional fire hoses.

â€œWe got water injection points installed up near the top of the
reactor core and connected to a fire engine to give a jolly good
flow.â€

So, does he think that Windscale helped to prevent a Third World War
in what was a cold war arms race?

He says: â€œThat might well be. We could easily have been pig in the
middle between America and the Russians, so going it on our own did
enable us to have a say and stick up for ourselves at a time when
the Soviet Union did appear to be terribly threatening.â€

The Windscale piles, along with Calder Hall, were operated by the
United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority but the task of
decommissioning the reactors has been in the hands of BNFL.

One of the companyâ€™s former leading scientists, Richard Wakeford,
now at Manchester University, has written a paper â€œThe Windscale
reactor accident 50 years onâ€ in which he concludes that whatever
the actual cause of the fire, it was one waiting to happen.

He states: â€œThe Windscale Piles posed problems to their operators
throughout their service.

â€œIndeed, even before construction was completed, Sir John
Cockcroft insisted that filters be installed to remove radioactive
material potentially present in the exhaust cooling air.â€

Eminent researchers concluded that the Windscale fire caused or
would case 100 fatal cancers and 90 non-fatal cancers due to
radiation exposure.

So, was it a catastrophe?

Says Mr Goodwin: â€œNo, that would be too strong a word but it was
serious enough.

â€œWe measured the radioactivity in the pile afterwards. I canâ€™t
remember how much there was but it was quite a lot, so if the
filters hadnâ€™t been there the stuff would have got out on to the
grass and into the milk. Cattle were still outside at the time.

â€œThe decision to impose a ban on the consumption and distribution
of local milk was a good piece of work.â€

The ban ran from six miles north of Windscale to 15 miles to the
south.

A BBC investigation into the 1957 fire at Windscale described how
nuclear staff were blamed for the disaster to protect Britainâ€™s
â€œspecial relationshipâ€ with America.

Windscale: Britainâ€™s Biggest Nuclear Disaster, on BBC2 on Monday,
featured former staff angered by their treatment at the hands of an
official investigation carried out by the Macmillan government.

In a 90-minute documentary the men revealed how they fought the fire
in Pile Number 1 reactor at Windscale on October 10 and 11, 1957.

They told of their anger at being made scapegoats.

The programme told how safety margins inside the reactor were being
eroded.

Politicians and the military ignored the warnings, it was claimed,
and instead increased demands on Windscale to produce material for a
H-bomb.

Prime Minister Harold Macmillan believed that if Britain could
develop the H-bomb on the scale of the Americans, they would treat
us as a nuclear equal and form an alliance.

Macmillan realised that if the American Congress knew that the fire
had been the result of reckless decisions taken to try to produce
the-H bomb, they might veto the alliance plans.

Macmillan instead issued a report that said the Windscale accident
had been caused by â€œan error of judgementâ€ by Windscale workers.

â€œHe covered it up, plain and simpleâ€, revealed his grandson and
biographer, Lord Stockton.

For 50 years, the official record stated that the men who had
averted a potentially devastating accident were to blame for causing
it.

â€œI resented it at the time,â€ said Peter Jenkinson, an assistant
physicist at the reactor. â€œI hoped the record would be put
straight.â€

* Another programme - The Men Who Saved Cumbria - celebrating the
heroism of those involved, was screened on Border TV last night.

& A new study claims the cancer effects of the fire were
under-estimated.

The study, carried out by John Garland, formerly of the UK Atomic
Energy Authority and Richard Wakeford, a visiting professor at the
University of Manchester, suggests that contamination of the
environment may have been much higher.

They confirmed that radioactive iodine and caesium were released, as
well as polonium.

There was also a small amount of plutonium, but found that the
levels would have been higher than previously thought.

Mr Garland said: â€œThe reassessments showed that there was roughly
twice the amount than was initially assessed."

Previously, it was thought that the radiation would have eventually
led to about 200 cases of cancer but the new contamination figures
suggest it could have caused about 240.

View this story and the latest newspaper in full digital
reproduction, just like the printed copy at
www.timesandstar.co.uk/digitalcopy
*****************************************************************
 30 Revealing News: Assassination by Radiation, Spy Drones, EPA Approves Dangerous Pesticide, More
 
Resent-Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:12:29 -0500 (CDT)

To subscribe to or unsubscribe from this list (one email every few
days) or to reply to this message, see end of email

This message is available online at
http://www.WantToKnow.info/071012assassinationradiationspydronesdangerouspesticide

Dear friends,

Below are one-paragraph excerpts of important news articles you may
have missed. These news articles include revealing information on
the U.S. Army research program into methods of assassination by
radiation in the late 1940s, the current programs funded by the
U.S. government to develop and deploy miniature spy drones, the
approval by the E.P.A. of a highly dangerous pesticide despite
strong objections from many renowned scientists, and more. Each
excerpt is taken verbatim from the major media website listed at
the link provided. If any link fails to function, click here. Key
sentences are highlighted for those with limited time. By choosing
to educate ourselves and to spread the word, we can and will build
a brighter future.

With best wishes, Tod Fletcher and Fred Burks for PEERS and the
WantToKnow.info Team

U.S. Weighed Radioactive Poisons October 9, 2007, Washington
Post/Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/08/AR2007100801432.html/

In one of the longest-held secrets of the Cold War, the U.S. Army
explored the potential for using radioactive poisons to assassinate
"important individuals" such as military or civilian leaders,
according to newly declassified documents obtained by The Associated
Press. Approved at the highest levels of the Army in 1948, the
effort was a well-hidden part of the military's pursuit of a "new
concept of warfare" using radioactive materials from atomic bombmaking
to contaminate swathes of enemy land or to target military bases,
factories or troop formations. Military historians who have researched
the broader radiological warfare program said in interviews that
they had never before seen evidence that it included pursuit of an
assassination weapon. No targeted individuals are mentioned in
references to the assassination weapon in the government documents
declassified in response to a Freedom of Information Act request
filed by the AP in 1995. The decades-old records were releas!

ed recently to the AP, heavily censored by the government to remove
specifics about radiological warfare agents and other details. The
documents give no indication whether a radiological weapon for
targeting high-ranking individuals was ever used or even developed
by the United States. They leave unclear how far the Army project
went. One memo from December 1948 outlined the project and another
memo that month indicated it was under way. The main sections of
several subsequent progress reports in 1949 were removed by censors
before release to the AP. The broader effort on offensive uses of
radiological warfare apparently died by about 1954, at least in
part because of the Defense Department's conviction that nuclear
weapons were a better bet. Whether the work migrated to another
agency such as the CIA is unclear.

Note: For revealing reports from major media sources on
government-sponsored assassinations and assassination programs,
click here.

Dragonfly or Insect Spy? Scientists at Work on Robobugs.

October 9, 2007, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/08/AR2007100801434.html

Vanessa Alarcon saw them while working at an antiwar rally in
Lafayette Square last month. "I heard someone say, 'Oh my god, look
at those,' " the college senior from New York recalled. "I look up
and I'm like, 'What the hell is that?' They looked kind of like
dragonflies or little helicopters. But I mean, those are not insects."
Out in the crowd, Bernard Crane saw them, too. "I'd never seen
anything like it in my life," the Washington lawyer said. "They
were large for dragonflies. I thought, 'Is that mechanical, or is
that alive?' " Some suspect the insectlike drones are high-tech
surveillance tools, perhaps deployed by the Department of Homeland
Security. No agency admits to having deployed insect-size spy drones.
But a number of U.S. government and private entities acknowledge
they are trying. So what was seen by Crane, Alarcon and a handful
of others at the D.C. march -- and as far back as 2004, during the
Republican National Convention in New York, when one observant ..!

. peace-march participant described on the Web "a jet-black 
dragonfly hovering about 10 feet off the ground, precisely in the 
middle of 7th Avenue . . . watching us?" Three people at the D.C. 
event independently described a row of spheres, the size of small 
berries, attached along the tails of the big dragonflies -- an 
accoutrement that [Jerry Louton, an entomologist at the National 
Museum of Natural History,] could not explain. And all reported 
seeing at least three maneuvering in unison. "Dragonflies neve r 
fly in a pack," he said. Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the 
Partnership for Civil Justice said her group is investigating 
witness reports and has filed Freedom of Information Act requests 
with several federal agencies. If such devices are being used to 
spy on political activists, she said, "it would be a significant 
violation of people's civil rights."

Note: To read further reliable reports of threats to our civil
liberties, click here.

EPA approves new pesticide despite scientists' concerns October 6,
2007, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-pesticide6oct06,0,2247860.story

Despite the protests of more than 50 scientists, including five
Nobel laureates in chemistry, the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency on Friday approved use of a new, highly toxic fumigant,
mainly for strawberry fields. The new pesticide, methyl iodide, is
designed for growers, mainly in California and Florida, who need
to replace methyl bromide, which has been banned under an international
treaty because it damages the Earth's ozone layer. In a letter sent
last month to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, 54 scientists,
mostly chemists, warned that "pregnant women and the fetus, children,
the elderly, farmworkers and other people living near application
sites would be at serious risk." Methyl iodide is a neurotoxin and
carcinogen that has caused thyroid tumors, neurological damage and
miscarriages in lab animals. But EPA officials said Friday that
they carefully evaluated the risks and decided to approve its use
for one year, imposing restrictions such as buffer zones to pr!

otect farmworkers and neighbors. Growers, particularly those who
grow strawberries and tomatoes, have been searching for 15 years
for a new soil fumigant to replace methyl bromide. Fumigants are
valuable to growers because they can be injected into the soil
before planting to sterilize the field and kill a broad spectrum
of insects and diseases without leaving residue on crops. But
fumigants are among the most potentially dangerous pesticides in
use today because the toxic gas can evaporate from the soil, exposing
farmworkers and drifting into neighborhoods. Methyl iodide ... will
be allowed on fields growing strawberries, tomatoes, peppers,
ornamentals, turf, trees and vines.

Probe Into Tainted Rice Ends October 6, 2007, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/05/AR2007100502176.html

More than 14 months after the Agriculture Department began an
investigation into how the U.S. supply of long-grain rice became
tainted with an unapproved genetically engineered variety -- an
event that continues to disrupt U.S. exports -- the government
announced yesterday that it could not figure out how the contamination
happened. Agency officials said documents from several years ago
that might have helped them determine what went wrong had been lost
or destroyed. Lacking clear evidence of who was responsible, they
said, the government will not take enforcement action against any
person or entity, including Bayer CropScience, the company whose
gene-altered products slipped into the food supply. The widespread,
low-level contamination with experimental genes that make the rice
pesticide-tolerant, one of several such events in recent years,
prompted countries around the world to cut off imports of U.S.
long-grain rice. Rice prices plummeted, and many farmers, scientists
and!

biotechnology activists called for an overhaul of the oversight
system for gene-altered crops. While some countries have begun to
accept U.S. rice with added testing, the European Union and Russia
have not -- a trade loss valued in the hundreds of millions of
dollars a year. Critics assailed the report as yet more evidence
that the nation's regulatory system for gene-altered crops is broken.
"This underlines the anxiety people have about more such incidents
occurring," said Margaret Mellon of the Union of Concerned Scientists,
a science-based advocacy group that has called for a more rigorous
approval process for biotech crops.

Note: For important reports from major media sources which reveal
the dangers of genetically modified foods and other organisms, click
here.

Save the Gnostics October 6, 2007, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/06/opinion/06deutsch.html

The [US] didnt set out to eradicate the Mandeans, one of the oldest,
smallest and least understood of the many minorities in Iraq. This
extinction in the making has simply been another unfortunate ...
consequence of our invasion of Iraq  though that will be of little
comfort to the Mandeans, whose 2,000-year-old culture is in grave
danger of disappearing from the face of the earth. The Mandeans are
the only surviving Gnostics from antiquity, cousins of the people
who produced the ... Gospel of Thomas, a work that sheds invaluable
light on the many ways in which Jesus was perceived in the early
Christian period. The Mandeans have their own language ... an
impressive body of literature, and a treasury of cultural and
religious traditions amassed over two millennia of living in the
southern marshes of present-day Iraq and Iran. Practitioners of a
religion at least as old as Christianity, the Mandeans have witnessed
the rise of Islam; the Mongol invasion; the arrival of Europe!

ans, who mistakenly identified them as Christians of St. John,
because of their veneration of John the Baptist; and, most recently,
the oppressive regime of Saddam Hussein. They have withstood
everything  until now. Like their ancestors, contemporary Mandeans
were able to survive as a community because of the delicate balance
achieved among Iraqs many peoples over centuries of cohabitation.
But our reckless prosecution of the war destroyed this balance, and
the Mandeans, whose pacifist religion prohibits them from carrying
weapons even for self-defense, found themselves victims of kidnappings,
extortion, rapes, beatings, murders and forced conversions carried
out by radical Islamic groups and common criminals. When American
forces invaded in 2003, there were probably 60,000 Mandeans in Iraq;
today, fewer than 5,000 remain.

Note: A fascinating introduction to the culture and history of this
ancient people is Edmondo Lupieri's The Mandaeans: the Last Gnostics.

The Democrats Who Enable Bush October 4, 2007, Salt Lake Tribune/Hearst
Newspapers http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_7074632

President Bush has no better friends than the spineless Democratic
congressional leadership and the party's leading presidential
candidates when it comes to his failing Iraq policy. Those Democrats
seem to have forgotten that the American people want U.S. troops
out of Iraq, especially since Bush still cannot give a credible
reason for attacking Iraq after nearly five years of war. Last week
at a debate in Hanover, N.H., the leading Democratic presidential
candidates sang from the same songbook: Sens. Hillary Clinton of
New York, and Barack Obama of Illinois and former North Carolina
Sen. John Edwards refused to promise to withdraw U.S. troops from
Iraq by 2013, at the end of the first term of their hypothetical
presidencies. Can you believe it? When the question was put to
Clinton, she reverted to her usual cautious equivocation, saying:
"It is very difficult to know what we're going to be inheriting."
Obama dodged, too: "I think it would be irresponsible" to say what
he wo!

uld do as president. Edwards, on whom hopes were riding to show
some independence, replied to the question: "I cannot make that
commitment." Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., ... wants to break up Iraq
into three provinces along religious and ethnic lines. In other
words, Balkanize Iraq. To have major Democratic backing to stay the
course in Iraq added up to good news for Bush. House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi is another Democratic leader who has empowered Bush's war.
Pelosi removed a provision from the most recent war-funding bill
that would have required Bush to seek the permission of Congress
before launching any attack on Iran. Is it any wonder the Democrats
are faring lower than the president in a Washington Post ABC approval
poll? Bush came in at 33 percent and Congress at 29 percent. So
what are the leading Democratic White House hopefuls offering? It
seems nothing but more war. So where do the voters go who are sick
of the Iraqi debacle?

Note: This article by veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas
shows the power of the war machine controlling Washington DC today.
For a highly revealing historical context on the "War Racket", click
here.

Theories abound on Israeli bombing of Syria October 2, 2007, Miami
Herald/McClatchy News
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/story/258294.html

Nearly a month after an Israeli military airstrike in Syria generated
political aftershocks from Washington to North Korea, the Israeli
government lifted its official veil of secrecy Tuesday. It didn't
provide much new information about what took place on Sept. 6,
however. While its government censor cleared the way for journalists
here to report that the incident had taken place, rigid rules
remained in effect that ban reporting what the target was, what
troops were involved or why the strike was ordered. Israel lifted
its ban on reporting that the attack took place after Syrian President
Bashar Assad told the British Broadcasting Corp. that Israeli jets
had hit an "unused military building." But Israeli officials refused
to say anything about the attack, and almost no one who would be
expected to know -- from government officials to former intelligence
officers -- is talking. The dearth of information has allowed fertile
speculation: The strike was a dry run for an attack !

on Iran's nuclear facilities. The target was an Iranian missile
cache bound for Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon. The attack hit a
fledgling Syrian-North Korean nuclear weapons program. Or it was
meant to thwart efforts to provide Hezbollah with a "dirty bomb"
to use against Israel. One of the latest theories is that North
Korea told the United States it had sold nuclear technology to
Syria, which prompted the U.S. to pass that information to Israel,
leading Israel to attack the technology. The problem of separating
fact from fiction is compounded by the practice on all sides of
routinely leaking distorted, exaggerated or downright bogus information
to conceal the truth and wage psychological warfare. "Everything
reported about the raid is wrong and is part of a psychological
warfare that will not fool Syria," Deputy President Farouq Shara
said in Damascus.

Supreme Court denies hearing for fired 'honk for peace' teacher
October 2, 2007, San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/02/MNEASHSN0.DTL

An elementary-school teacher who was dismissed after telling her
class on the eve of the Iraq war that "I honk for peace" lost [her]
U.S. Supreme Court appeal. The justices ... denied a hearing to
Deborah Mayer, who had appealed lower-court decisions upholding an
Indiana school district's refusal to renew her contract in June
2003. The most-recent ruling, by a federal appeals court in Chicago,
said teachers in public schools have no constitutional right to
express personal opinions in the classroom. A teacher's speech is
"the commodity she sells to an employer in exchange for her salary,"
the [court] said in January. "The Constitution does not enable
teachers to present personal views to captive audiences against the
instructions of elected officials." The appellate ruling is ... one
of a series of recent decisions taking a narrow view of free speech
for teachers, other government employees and students. Mayer, who
now teaches sixth grade in Florida, was distraught. "I don't!

know why anybody would want to be a teacher if you can be fired for
saying four little words," she said Monday. "I'm supposed to teach
the Constitution to my students. I'm supposed to tell them that the
Constitution guarantees free speech. How am I going to justify
that?" She said her class of fourth- through sixth-graders was
discussing an article in the children's edition of Time magazine,
part of the school-approved curriculum, on protests against U.S.
preparations for an invasion of Iraq in January 2003. When a student
asked her whether she took part in demonstrations, Mayer said, she
replied that she blew her horn whenever she saw a "Honk for Peace"
sign, and that peaceful solutions should be sought before going to
war. After a parent complained, the principal ordered Mayer never
to discuss the war or her political views in class.

Note: To read further reliable reports of threats to our civil
liberties, click here.

New revelations in attack on American spy ship October 2, 2007,
Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/printedition/tuesday/chi-liberty...

Bryce Lockwood, Marine staff sergeant, Russian-language expert,
recipient of the Silver Star for heroism, ordained Baptist minister,
is shouting into the phone. "I'm angry! I'm seething with anger!
Forty years, and I'm seething with anger!" Lockwood was aboard the
USS Liberty, a super-secret spy ship on station in the eastern
Mediterranean, when four Israeli fighter jets flew out of the
afternoon sun to strafe and bomb the virtually defenseless vessel
on June 8, 1967, the fourth day of what would become known as the
Six-Day War. Four decades later, many of the more than two dozen
Liberty survivors located and interviewed by The Tribune cannot
talk about the attack without shouting or weeping. Their anger has
been stoked by the declassification of government documents and the
recollections of former military personnel, including some quoted
in this article for the first time, which strengthen doubts about
the U.S. National Security Agency's position that it never intercepted
!

the communications of the attacking Israeli pilots -- communications,
according to those who remember seeing them, that showed the Israelis
knew they were attacking an American naval vessel. The documents
also suggest that the U.S. government, anxious to spare Israel's
reputation and preserve its alliance with the U.S., closed the case
with what even some of its participants now say was a hasty and
seriously flawed investigation. In declassifying the most recent
and largest batch of materials last June 8, the 40th anniversary
of the attack, the NSA, this country's chief U.S.
electronic-intelligence-gatherer and code-breaker, acknowledged
that the attack had "become the center of considerable controversy
and debate." It was not the agency's intention, it said, "to prove
or disprove any one set of conclusions, many of which can be drawn
from a thorough review of this material," available at
http://www.nsa.gov/liberty.

Note: For photos, a BBC documentary, and more excellent information
on this major cover-up, click here.

Bleakonomics September 30, 2007, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/books/review/Stiglitz-t.html

The Shock Doctrine is [Naomi] Kleins ambitious look at the economic
history of the last 50 years and the rise of free-market fundamentalism
around the world. Disaster capitalism, as she calls it, is a violent
system that ... requires terror to do its job. Extreme capitalism
loves a blank slate, often finding its opening after crises or
shocks. Klein compares radical capitalist economic policy to shock
therapy administered by psychiatrists. She interviews Gail Kastner,
a victim of covert C.I.A. experiments in interrogation techniques
that were carried out by the scientist Ewen Cameron in the 1950s.
His idea was to use electroshock therapy to break down patients.
Once complete depatterning had been achieved, the patients could
be reprogrammed. For Klein the larger lessons are clear: Countries
are shocked  by wars, terror attacks, coups ditat and natural
disasters. Then they are shocked again  by corporations and politicians
who exploit the fear and disorientation !

of this first shock to push through economic shock therapy. People
who dare to resist are shocked for a third time, by police, soldiers
and prison interrogators. Klein offers an account of Milton Friedman
she calls him the other doctor shock. In the 1950s, as Cameron was
conducting his experiments, the Chicago School was developing the
ideas that [dominate capitalist planning today]. She quotes the
Chilean economist Orlando Letelier on the inner harmony between the
terror of the Pinochet regime and its free-market policies. Letelier
said that Milton Friedman shared responsibility for the regimes
crimes, rejecting his argument that he was only offering technical
advice. Letelier was killed in 1976 by a car bomb planted in
Washington [DC]. For Klein, he was another victim of the Chicago
Boys who wanted to impose free-market capitalism on the region. In
the Southern Cone, where contemporary capitalism was born, the war
on terror was a war against all obstacl!

es to the new order, she writes.

Note: For highly revealing, verifiable information on government
mind control programs, click here.

Eggheads: How bird brains are shaking up science September 16, 2007,
Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/09/16/eggheads/

The New Caledonian crow is surprisingly smart about its food. Its
favorite insects live in tiny crevices that are too narrow for its
beak. So the crow takes a barbed leaf and, using its beak and claws,
fashions a primitive hook. It then lowers the hook down into the
cracks, almost like a man fishing, and draws up a rich meal. Some
scientists even suggest that crows are more sophisticated tool
builders than chimps, since they can transmit their knowledge on
to successive generations and improve the tools over time. These
birds have a culture. The world lost its most famous bird brain
this month: Alex, an African gray parrot who lived in a Brandeis
laboratory and possessed a vocabulary of nearly 150 words. Yet as
remarkable as Alex was - he could identify colors and shapes - he
was not alone. The songs of starlings display a sophisticated grammar
once thought the sole domain of human thinking. A nutcracker can
remember the precise location of hundreds of different food storage!

spots. And crows in Japan have learned how to get people to crack
walnuts for them: They drop them near busy intersections, then
retrieve the smashed nuts when the traffic light turns red. These
feats are part of a growing recognition of the genius of birds.
Scientists are now studying various birds to explore everything
from spatial memory to the grammatical structure of human language.
This research is helping to reveal the secrets of the human brain.
But it is also overturning the conventional evolutionary story of
intelligence, in which all paths lead to the creation of the human
cortex. The tree of life, scientists are discovering, has numerous
branches of brilliance. "It used to be that people would only talk
about intelligence in terms of primates," says Nicola Clayton, a
professor of comparative psychology at the University of Cambridge.
"But now I think that birds have achieved a sort of honorary ape
status, just with a few feathers attached."

Key Articles From Years Past

Mexican A.F. Pilots Film 'UFOs' May 12, 2004, CBS News/Associated
Press http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/12/world/main616937.shtml

Mexican Air Force pilots filmed 11 unidentified flying objects in
the skies over southern Campeche state, a Defense Department spokesman
confirmed. A videotape made widely available to the news media ...
shows the bright objects, some sharp points of light and others
like large headlights, moving rapidly in what appears to be a
late-evening sky. The lights were filmed on March 5 by pilots using
infrared equipment. They appeared to be flying at an altitude of
about 11,480 feet, and allegedly surrounded the Air Force jet as
it conducted routine anti-drug trafficking vigilance in Campeche.
Only three of the objects showed up on the plane's radar. "Was I
afraid? Yes. A little afraid because we were facing something that
had never happened before," said radar operator Lt. German Marin
in a taped interview. "I couldn't say what it was ... but I think
they're completely real," added Lt. Mario Adrian Vazquez, the
infrared equipment operator. Vazquez insisted that there was no way
to!

alter the recorded images. The plane's captain, Maj. Magdaleno
Castanon, said the military jets chased the lights "and I believe
they could feel we were pursuing them." When the jets stopped
following the objects, they disappeared, he said. A Defense Department
spokesman confirmed ... that the videotape was filmed by members
of the Mexican Air Force. The spokesman declined to comment further
and spoke on customary condition of anonymity. The video was first
aired on national television [and] then again at a news conference
.. by Jaime Maussan, a Mexican investigator who has dedicated the
past 10 years to studying UFOs. "This is historic news," Maussan
told reporters. "Hundreds of videos (of UFOs) exist, but none had
the backing of the armed forces of any country. ... The armed forces
don't perpetuate frauds."

Note: To watch TV reports of this sighting on Fox News and CNN,
click here.

Special Note: For those who are ready to be inspired by the rapid
spread of the new paradigm in our world, click here. For a revealing
10-minute Fox News clip revealing the dangers of aspartame and
related political manipulations, click here. For those who feel one
of the main reasons they are here is to help transform our world
to a new paradigm based on love and empowerment, click here.

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 31 Deseret Morning News: Surviving downwind ? Mary Dickson's play blasts nuclear testing

By Ivan M. Lincoln Deseret Morning News

Published: Oct. 12, 2007 12:14 a.m. MDT

When "downwinders" comes up in a conversation, many ? if not most ?
probably think it applies only to a small corner of southwestern
Utah, not far from the drifting, poisonous dust that came from four
decades of nuclear testing across the border in the Nevada desert.

But Mary Dickson, a well-known Utah journalist and writer, has a
deeply personal perspective on the deadly aftermath of the testing.
And now, she's put her experiences ? originally part of an
as-yet-to-be-finished book ? into a "docudrama"-style play.

"Exposed," which Plan-B Theatre Company is staging as a world
premiere next week in the Studio Theatre of the Rose Wagner
Performing Arts Center, is comprised of Dickson's well-documented
findings, which show that what the U.S. government first saw as an
experiment that would have little or no effect on the few
inhabitants in southwest Utah actually impacted thousands across a
much wider area.

"The winds didn't stop at a chain-link fence or at county or state
borders," Dickson told the Deseret Morning News, during an interview
with her, the play's director and the two actresses playing both
Mary and her late sister, Ann.

Delving into formerly classified government documents, Dickson is
providing a dramatic new dimension to what one New York Times
journalist called "the most prodigiously reckless program of human
experimentation in U.S. history."

"We believed our government when they told us, 'There is no
danger,"' Dickson said.

While the focus of Plan-B's drama is Mary and her sister ? both of
whom suffered from the consequences of the fallout ? Dickson's play
also brings in dozens of additional characters, including real-life
government officials and composites of other figures.

When Mary refers to herself and her sister as "downwinders," you
just assume they must have lived somewhere down around St. George.
But they were actually among more than 54 people who got sick or
died from fallout-related illnesses but live within a relatively
small five-block Salt Lake neighborhood.

During the interview, Dickson said there are also many "downwind"
victims who lived in Los Angeles. The deadly fallout was trapped
between layers of L.A.'s infamous inversions.

A dramatic map shows that the spread of the fallout takes in almost
the entire United States, including large portions of Idaho and
Montana.

Above-ground testing in the Nevada desert involved the dropping of
more than 100 nuclear bombs between 1951 and 1962. Atmospheric
testing was banned in 1962, but underground tests continued for
another three decades. More than half of these 828 underground tests
leaked radiation into the atmosphere.

In Plan-B's production, local Equity actress Joyce Cohen will play
Mary Dickson. In an ironic twist, when Cohen first moved to Salt
Lake City nearly two decades ago, strangers on the street would
address her as "Mary." Meanwhile Dickson was having the same,
unnerving experience ? people calling her "Joyce." Both women are
petite blondes and both, at various times back then, wore their hair
in similar styles.

Seeing them together during Plan-B Theatre Company's collaborative
production process, it's easy to see how they could be mistaken for
each other. They're almost, but not quite, twins in appearance.

Teri Cowan will be playing Mary's sister, Ann Dickson DeBirk, who
died on March 18, 2001, following a nine-year battle with lupus.

During a joint interview with the three women, along with director
Jerry Rapier, they seem to have developed into a backstage family,
finishing each other's sentences as topics quickly change from one
aspect of the drama to another.

"I'm not trying to imitate Mary," Cohen said.

Cowan added, "After we did one read-through, someone said Joyce was
just like Mary," adding that "Normally, you're doing that backstory
just based on what's in front of you (in the script), and you have
to fill in the blanks. We have the luxury of Mary telling us that
'Ann was like this.' But it's also a little daunting to know that."

"The trick with this play," said Cohen, "is that there is so much
information. You have to keep some of the stuff in and leave other
stuff out."

"What's amazing is this whole collaborative process," said Dickson,
"from Jerry to the actors."

Cohen added that "when you work on a play, you form a family.
Sometimes it's intense and sometimes it's dysfunctional."

All agreed that the process of producing Dickson's play has become a
communal experience.

Dickson's script brings up such well-known figures as eccentric
Hollywood mogul Howard Hughes, whose 1956 Genghis Kahn spectacle
"The Conqueror" became notorious for being one of the worst pictures
ever made. And an alarming number of cast and crew (including stars
John Wayne, Susan Hayward and Agnes Moorhead, and director Dick
Powell) were stricken with cancer after the "on-location" shooting
in Utah and Nevada, where the film's desert settings were in the
direct path of the fallout.

Over the past few months, following limited "workshop" and staged
readings of the script, Dickson has collected hundreds of names of
people who were either ill themselves or who lost loved ones from
the fallout.

The cast also includes Jason Tatom as Government Official No. 1, and
a tour guide in the Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas, and Mark
Fossen as Official No. 2, Howard Hughes and Dr. Harold Knapp.

Kirt Bateman will play a variety of men's roles, including outspoken
protagonist Preston Truman of Malad, Idaho; newsman Peter Jennings;
and retired Col. Raymond Brim, who was involved with the early years
of testing and who later questioned the government's ethics.

Teresa Sanderson will also play several roles, including Elizabeth
Bruhn Catalan of St. George, one of many who testified during
congressional hearings, and Carole Gallagher, a Brooklyn, N.Y.,
native who became immersed in documenting the stories of many
downwinders.

Studies by the National Cancer Institute indicate that the
radioactive fallout affected virtually every state and county in the
continental United States ? as far as 2,300 miles from the Nevada
Test Site.

"Exposed" touches on events ranging from the Cold War trauma of the
early 1950s to the recent controversy of plans for the "Divine
Strake" blasts at the Nevada Test Site. The latter was called off
following strong protests by members of Downwinders United and other
anti-nuclear activists.

Dickson herself was diagnosed with cancer when she was 29, which
eventually led to her having a hysterectomy.

Like fallout scattered across the North American terrain, Dickson's
drama is a collection of tales of government cover-ups.

"The hardest thing is not the dying," Dickson says toward the end of
her play. "It's that the dead are so easily forgotten."

If you go

What: "Exposed"

Where: Rose Wagner Center, 138 W. 300 South

When: Oct. 19-Nov. 4

How much: $18

Phone: 355-2787

Web: www.planbtheatre.org

E-mail: ivan@desnews.com

deseretnews.com: Home
*****************************************************************
 32 RMN: Congress to look into compensation for nuke workers 

Rocky Mountain News

| ScrippsNews

By LAURA FRANK
Scripps Howard News Service
Friday, October 12, 2007

A congressional hearing Oct. 23 will assess whether ill workers from
Rocky Flats and other nuclear weapons sites are being treated fairly
by a federal program that is supposed to compensate them for
work-related illnesses.

Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., heads the committee on Health, Education,
Labor and Pensions, which will try to determine whether the program
is "friendly to our Cold War heroes."

Coloradan Terrie Barrie is getting ready to go. She became a
national advocate for ill workers like her husband George, a former
Rocky Flats worker. She plans to meet with lawmakers' staff members.

"It's very important that we go," Barrie said. "They need to know
that this program is not fair to claimants."

Two top officials of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness and
Compensation Program confirmed they will testify. They are Shelby
Hallmark, director of the program for the U.S. Department of Labor,
and John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health.

A spokesman for Howard said the director will be testifying about
efforts to make the program "claimant friendly."

Currently, there are no workers scheduled to testify. But Ken
Silver, an advocate from Oak Ridge, Tenn., said he was soliciting
input from workers at several sites for his testimony.

The program has been under fire, most recently after a government
contractor found officials had ignored evidence trying to prove a
link between ailments and exposures from the nuclear weapons work.

"If they're ignoring evidence, it's not claimant friendly," Barrie
said.

Reach Laura Frank at frankl(at)RockyMountainNews.com

A special investigative report examining 40,000 cases of infant
mortality around the nation reveals that sloppy investigations and
muddled records come with a very high price: the deaths of more
babies who might have been saved through medical research. Discover
and compare with a searchable database, watch compelling video, and
share your stories and reactions.
*   Enter Saving Babies

Scripps Newspaper Group — Online
© 2007 The E.W. Scripps Co.
*****************************************************************
 33 Detroit News: Officials: Worker mistake caused holes at Fermi II

* Detnews.com

Friday, October 12, 2007

MONROE -- Officials today blamed mysterious holes found at the Fermi
II nuclear power plant Thursday on worker errors.

Preliminary findings by DTE Energy and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission are that workers removing insulation material
accidentally drilled the ¼-inch holes inside steam lines.

The holes were discovered during routine maintenance checks.

"The key piece to the findings is that it didn't appear to be
deliberate," said DTE spokesman John Austerberry. "We are concluding
our investigation and outage work has continued even though we had
suspended work in that part of the plant."

Officials shut down the plant Sept. 29 for maintenance work that is
scheduled every 18 months. The 900 regular employees of the plant
along with 1,400 workers brought in for the maintenance checks were
in the plant.

No injuries occurred and no hazards have been found due to the
holes, Austerberry said.

You can reach Iveory Perkins at (734) 462-2672 or
iveory.perkins@detnews.com.

© Copyright 2007 The Detroit News. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 34 Rocky Mountain News: Congress to hold Oct. 23 hearing on nuke workers

By Laura Frank, Rocky Mountain News

October 11, 2007

A congressional hearing Oct. 23 will assess whether ill workers from
Rocky Flats and other nuclear weapons sites are being treated fairly
by a federal program that is supposed to compensate them for
work-related illnesses.

Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., heads the committee on Health, Education,
Labor and Pensions, which will try to determine whether the program
is "friendly to our Cold War heroes."

Coloradan Terrie Barrie is getting ready to go. The Craig woman
became a national advocate for ill workers like her husband George,
a former Rocky Flats worker. She is not set to testify, but plans to
meet with lawmakers' staff members.

"It's very important that we go," Barrie said. "They need to know
that this program is not fair to claimants."

Two top officials of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness and
Compensation Program confirmed they will testify. They are Shelby
Hallmark, director of the program for the U.S. Department of Labor,
and John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health.

A spokesman for Howard said the director will be testifying about
efforts to make the program "claimant friendly."

Currently, there are no workers scheduled to testify. But Ken
Silver, an advocate from Oak Ridge, Tenn., said he was soliciting
input from workers at several sites for his testimony.

The program has been under fire, most recently after a government
contractor found officials had ignored evidence trying to prove a
link between ailments and exposures from the nuclear weapons work.

"If they're ignoring evidence, it's not claimant friendly," Barrie
said.

frankl@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5091

Scripps Newspaper Group — Online © 2007 The E.W. Scripps Co. 
Privacy Policy | User Agreement

*****************************************************************
 35 ABC4.com: Art exhibit depicts plight of Downwinders - 

 Reported by: Chris Vanocur

Last Update: 10/12 11:00 pm

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - In Salt Lake an opening reception 
was held Friday for an unusual and highly emotional exhibit.

It's called "Exposed" and tells the tale of Utah's Downwinders -
those exposed to the nuclear bomb tests in southern Nevada.

The Pickle Companyâ€™s Katrina Robb says, "It's crushing to me that
these humans in this area were so potentially disposable."

Many Utahns still bear the physical and emotional scars of hundreds
of nuclear tests and the radioactive air that poisoned them.

Photographer Carole Gallagher hopes those who look at her
photographs will be inspired to: "Question authority. If you're told
something read both sides don't take anything as the god's honest
truth."

And for many of these artists, itâ€™s not just the past which scares
them.

Some also fear nuclear tests in the future.

Proof of that can be found in a work called "Cold War Jesus."

The stake seen driven thru the the artwork is called a "Divine
Strake."

Artist Eric Ristau says, "Itâ€™s not pleasant stuff to think about
but without public outcry, I think that there is a great danger of
it returning and becoming a part of our lives again."

This Downwinder exhibit is on display at Salt Lake's Pickle Company.

It officially opens to the public October 19th during the city's
monthly gallery stroll.


  &copy; 2007 Clear Channel Broadcasting, Inc. | 
*****************************************************************
 36 News & Star: it was not in anyones mind that it could catch fire

Published on 12/10/2007

Dark secret: The Windscale piles which the nation thought 
heralded a bright, clean, nuclear age but which, instead, now 
stand as a monument to the folly of the arms race. Inset, Vic 
Goodwin

There was no emergency drill. Nothing like it had been experienced
or predicted. But a handful of men defied searing heat and radiation
contamination to avert nuclear devastation at Windscale, 50 years
ago this week.

The Windscale Pile 1 and Pile 2 reactors had been built to produce
plutonium for atomic bombs as post-war British governments struggled
to keep up with America and Russia in the nuclear arms race.

The reactors were designed and built to a strict deadline and Pile 1
began operating in October 1 1950 while Pile 2 followed in June 1951.

In October 1952, plutonium from Windscale was used in Britainâ€™s
first atomic bomb test in the Monte Bello Islands north west of
Australia.

But the drive to match the nuclear superpowers almost led to
disaster as the reactors were pushed to their limits.

Vic Goodwin was one of a handful of technicians who battled to
prevent catastrophe at Windscale.

He was the first to notice that the reactor core in Pile 1 was
behaving strangely.

Now a 75-year-old enjoying quiet retirement in west Cumbria, his
mind clicks back through the decades with precision and clarity.

A graduate trainee at Windscale, he was finishing his shift at
midnight on Wednesday, October 9, 1957, when he became aware of the
unusual temperatures in part of the core.

He reported them to the night watch and when he returned at midday
on Thursday, radiation was registering in the filters of the
chimney, signalling a â€˜burstâ€™ or escape of radioactive material.

The massive graphite core contained 3,440 channels into which fuel
isotopes would be loaded, then sealed by charge plugs.

Mr Goodwin helped find the over-heating area of the reactor at about
3pm and when the plugs were removed, they could see the fuel rods
were red hot.

Two teams of four men were immediately drafted in to empty the core
of uranium fuel rods to isolate the fire and cool the system.

Bamboo poles with clamps were normally used for the job, but as the
heat and fears of disaster rose, metal poles and hammers were used
to dislodge some of the rods around the hottest part of the core to
create a fire-break.

Fire temperatures peaked at 1,300C.

The reactor was air-cooled by a giant fan, but the fire had started
when there was almost no air going through it.

The fan was switched on to cool the area enough to allow the men to
work.

While the men sweated to remove the fuel, Mr Goodwin raced round the
reactor, taking different readings as there was no central control.

He said: â€œThere was a well-established emergency procedure at the
site, but no drill for a reactor fire because it was not in
anyoneâ€™s mind that it could catch fire.

â€œI was going round the building, looking at gauges to estimate
what was happening and work out what we could do.

â€œMy thoughts were â€˜what is the next step?â€™ We had to ensure as
much of the radiation was kept inside and the least amount was
getting out.â€

The firebreak was not working, there was not enough inert gas to
submerge the reactor.

A supply of CO2 was brought over from nearby Calder Hall and at
about 3am, it was used to try to suffocate the fire, but it had
little effect.

It was decided to douse the core in water, even though there were
fears that it could cause a nuclear explosion.

Mr Goodwin was responsible for rigging a water injection system.

The water was turned on at 9am and the air fan turned off at 10am.

â€œThere were risks pumping in water,â€ he said.

â€œBut it was pretty well all over by midday on the Friday.â€

He said the disaster did not compare to conditions at Chernobyl and
he was never scared about the situation or fearful of radiation
exposure.

While some men did suffer radiation exposure, no one actually died
working on the fire.

Mr Goodwin said: â€œWe all carried radiation measuring devices and
we all knew perfectly well what the dosage was that would kill you.

â€œThis was nothing like the much later Chernobyl problems, this was
all inside a big concrete shield.

â€œMen were rotated at the charge face because it was physically
demanding work and it was hot, not because of exposure to
radiation.â€

There was no time afterwards for reflection, or to think of what
could have happened.

â€œIt all had to be cleaned up and safely dealt with, we had to work
out what was the trigger, what had caused the fire, then there was
the inquiry and we had to get on with the job,â€ he said.

â€œIt had not finished, it just went on.â€

A new study claims that the radioactive fallout from the incident
was underestimated 50 years ago.

The â€˜cloudâ€™ of contaminants released through the Pile 1 chimney
spread out over the UK, Scandinavia and north eastern Europe.

Fear of contamination sparked a six week ban on milk from farms
within a 200-mile radius of the reactor, and the fallout has since
been blamed for causing hundreds of cancers.

But a â€˜virtualâ€™ recreation of the fire has led to claims that
the contamination may have been much greater than originally thought.

John Garland, formerly of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, and
Professor Richard Wakeford, a visiting professor at the University
of Manchester, re-analysed the data taken from monitoring the air,
grass and vegetation at the time of the event.

They fed it into a powerful Met office computer model to reveal how
the radioactive cloud would have spread from the reactor with the
weather conditions at that time.

They confirmed radioactive iodine and caesium were released, as well
as polonium and a very small amount of plutonium, but found that the
levels would have been higher than previously thought, and would
have affected more people.

Originally, the government said prevailing winds took most of the
contamination out into the Irish Sea.

But Prof Wakeford said: â€œWe were able to assess that the plume
went further to the east than anticipated which is why the amount
and activity of radiation were doubled.

â€œThis would have affected the number of cancers caused which would
have been closer to 240 than the 200 previously believed to have
been caused.â€

The professors said most of the radioactive materials released had
decayed and now posed no risk, while small quantities of caesium and
plutonium remained.

For 50 years, the official record on the accident has been that the
men who had bravely battled to prevent a devastating accident were
to blame for causing it.

Prime Minister Harold Macmillan issued a report that said the
accident had been caused by â€œan error of judgementâ€.

But scientists had warned about the increasing dangers of an
accident for some time.

They feared that safety margins for radioactive material in the
Piles were being over-stretched.

Yet politicians pressed ahead with increased demands on Windscale to
produce material for an H-bomb.

They believed it would strengthen the â€œspecial relationshipâ€
with America and mean they would be treated as a nuclear equal and
form an alliance against the Soviet states.

Macmillan realised that if the American Congress knew the fire had
been the result of risky decisions taken to try to produce the bomb,
they might veto his partnership plans.

To protect the â€œspecial relationshipâ€, Macmillan lied â€“ and Mr
Goodwin doesnâ€™t blame him.

â€œMacmillan did the right thing,â€ he said.

â€œIf he had to tell a lie or two to get the agreement, I would have
done the same thing.

â€œIt just so happens that it was hard on the people who had put
their back into things and were now getting the blame.

â€œThere was no great harm done, except to oneâ€™s pride.â€

Mr Goodwin, who lives near Ravenglass, carried on a varied career
within the nuclear industry.

But despite the near-catastrophe, he never had any doubts about
returning to the area to retire.

He said: â€œI bought a house here just after the fire.

â€œAlthough I did not live in it for a long time because I was
posted around the country, I thought this place was marvellous,
where better than here to live?â€

And he is convinced that nuclear power should be a source of our
future energy provision.

â€œMy main concern now is just that we have enough electricity and
fuel.â€


nw evening mail | cumberland news | times and star | whitehaven news
*****************************************************************
 37 The State: DHEC: Barnwell leaks pose no threat

10/12/2007 

By SAMMY FRETWELL - sfretwell@thestate.com

SNELLING — Radioactive tritium levels are increasing in groundwater
in the area of South Carolina’s 36-year-old nuclear waste dump as
the atomic refuse seeps away from the burial ground, Barnwell County
residents were told Thursday night.

Susan Jenkins, a regulator with the S.C. Department of Health and
Environmental Control, said the area below the landfill had seen
tritium levels rise in recent years.

“The readings in the wells south of the southern trench area
increased,” she said during a public meeting in Snelling. “Tritium
has begun to move off-site.”

But regulators said tritium levels in monitoring wells across the
site are not uniform, and they provided few answers to explain the
trend after a public meeting in this tiny crossroads about an hour
southwest of Columbia.

“Some wells are increasing and some wells are decreasing” in their
tritium levels, state health department spokesman Thom Berry said,
referring to monitoring wells tested by his agency. Asked whether
the agency knew why there was a disparity, Berry said he did not.

DHEC called the meeting to explain whether people’s drinking water
near the landfill is in danger of radioactive contamination.
Officials said the landfill poses no immediate threat. Tritium is a
byproduct of nuclear power that can increase a person’s chances of
cancer and signal the flow of other, more dangerous pollutants.

More than 30 monitoring wells on the site contain tritium levels
that exceed the Environmental Protection Agency’s safe drinking
water standard, in some cases by hundreds of times, The State
newspaper reported Aug. 19. The newspaper obtained a plume map that
had been sealed from public view at Chem-Nuclear’s request. Some of
the contaminated wells were found to be between the landfill and a
creek that flows toward the Savannah River.

DHEC has since found that none of the 39 private drinking water
wells it checked for tritium late last summer contained unsafe
levels. But agency regulator Richard Haynes said Thursday that DHEC
will continue checking about seven to 10 private wells near the
waste dump to see whether that changes in the future.

Snelling resident Steven Zimmerman said he’s glad to hear that.
During the meeting, Zimmerman expressed concern about the impact the
landfill might have on his drinking water one day.

Although Zimmerman said he believes DHEC sincerely wants to help
prevent that from happening, he has four children to worry about.

“I’m concerned with their well-being,” he said after the meeting,
explaining that most public health standards are set up to protect
active adults. But toxic material can affect children differently,
he said.

Others at the meeting said they were not worried about the
landfill’s impact on their drinking water.

“I never had any concerns,” Emily Williams said. But Williams said
negative publicity about the landfill could hurt her county’s
economy. “I’m concerned about the way the media have put Barnwell
County in a negative light that was unwarranted.”

Barnwell County Council chairman Keith Sloan said publicity about
landfill leaks was overblown and was part of a media agenda against
his county.

The low-level atomic waste landfill has been a source of controversy
in South Carolina for decades. Since opening in 1971, it has taken
more than 28 million cubic feet of the nation’s low-level nuclear
waste. That waste includes lightly contaminated materials from
hospitals and more heavily radioactive refuse, such as nuclear
reactor parts.

The landfill is scheduled to close to the nation next summer, when
only South Carolina, Connecticut and New Jersey can use it. Last
March, state legislators turned back an effort by Chem-Nuclear, a
division of Energy Solutions of Utah, to extend the life of the
landfill for all states through 2023.

Reach Fretwell at (803) 771-8537.

*****************************************************************
 38 The Tribune: Two meetings this weekend about uranium mine

State lawmakers to announce new legislation
 
October 12, 2007

The weekend will be busy for people with concerns about a proposed
uranium mine in northern Weld County.

State and federal lawmakers are hosting meetings on Saturday and
Sunday in Nunn and Denver to listen to residents’ concerns. State
lawmakers also plan to announce legislation to deal with the mine.

On Saturday, U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Fort Morgan, and State
Sen. Steve Johnson, R-Fort Collins, will be among lawmakers and
interested residents hosting a meeting in Nunn about the mine.

The following day, Democratic lawmakers will join Johnson and others
at the state Capitol in Denver to announce new legislation for the
upcoming session of the Colorado General Assembly, which convenes in
January.

Horses, area residents and yellow sheet cake — in homage to
yellowcake, the final product that mined uranium becomes — will be
present at the Capitol rally.

The Centennial Project, north of Nunn and between that town and
Wellington, contains 5,760 acres of land to which Powertech has
purchased mineral rights. The company estimates 9.7 million pounds
of uranium lie beneath a 15-mile chunk of northern Colorado, a
veritable mother lode of radioactive resources.

But neighbors in the sparsely populated areas are wary of the mining
company’s plans and worry about their health and the safety of
Colorado’s water.

Powetech plans to use water from the massive Dakota-Cheyenne
aquifer, which spreads beneath much of the Front Range, to extract
the uranium. The Larimer County Medical Society recently joined a
list of people opposing the mine.

Powertech representatives were invited to Saturday’s meeting in Nunn
so residents’ concerns can be addressed.

To Go:
Community forum Saturday, Oct. 14
When: 2 p.m.
Where: Nunn Community Center, 185 Lincoln Ave., Nunn
Speakers: U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave
Dr. Lilias Jardin – Coloradoans Against Resource Destruction (CARD)
Jeffrey C. Parson – Western Mining Action Project (Senior Attorney)
Dr. Cory Carroll – President, Larimer County Medical Society
Representative from the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union

There will be time for Q & A with those in attendance

Capitol rally Sunday, Oct. 14
What: Larimer County lawmakers will announce legislation to address
the proposed mine.
When : 2 p.m.   
Where : Colorado State Capitol, West Steps, 200 W. Colfax Ave.,
Denver
Speakers:
State Rep. John Kefalas, D-Fort Collins
State Rep. Randy Fischer D-Fort Collins
Senator Steve Johnson, R-Fort Collins
Robin Davis, Northern Colorado Landowner
Daryl Burkhart, Northern Colorado Landowner
Dr. Cory Carroll, President, Larimer County Medical Society
In attendance:
Larimer County Medical Society and Weld County Medical Society
Colorado Environmental Coalition and Environment Colorado
Tentative: Senator Bob Bacon, Senator Brandon Shaffer, State Rep.
Jim Riesberg

October 13, 2007 - Meetings in Nunn and Denver to discuss proposed
uranium mine
October 9, 2007 - We must stop PowerTech before plans go any further
September 20, 2007 - Uranium, JFK and the Warren Commission
September 13, 2007 - Time to stop denying hazards of uranium
September 5, 2007 - What's all the fuss about a uranium mine near
Nunn?
September 2, 2007 - I, too, worry about uranium mining
August 31, 2007 - Clean water + wind energy = uranium mining?
August 31, 2007 - Musgrave: NRC to allow more time to comment on
uranium mine
August 20, 2007 - Uranium drilling sparks concern
August 15, 2007 - Will uranium sites be adequately restored?
June 24, 2007 - Will Fort Collins soon be the worst place to live?


All contents © Copyright 2007 greeleytrib.com
The Greeley Publishing Co. - P.O. Box 1690 - Greeley, CO 80632
*****************************************************************
 39 Salt Lake Tribune: Safety issues threaten plan to move Moab tailings

The Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated: 10/12/2007 06:37:11 PM MDT

Posted: 6:30 PM- Plans to move 16 million tons of uranium tailings
and contaminated waste from the old Atlas Mill site near Moab might
be sent back to the drawing board before they get rolling.

    The Energy Department awarded a contract in June to
EnergySolutions to load the mountain of Cold War-era uranium residue
onto rail cars and move it from the banks of the Colorado River
north to a disposal site 30 miles north near Crescent Junction.

    But Joette Langianese, a Grand County councilwoman who heads a
local steering committee tracking the tailings project, says she
told her committee this week "to be prepared" for changes in to the
rail shipment plan.

    "I think then we're going to see a little change in direction,"
she said.

    Two factors are driving the issue, she said: Flash flooding near
where the tailings are expected to be loaded onto the rail cars has
raised safety issues, and a legislative provision that substantially
speeds up the timetable for the cleanup project.

    For now, the Energy Department is focused on the original plan
to move the material by rail. Talk of changing that plan is
premature, said Don Metzler, the department's project manager for
the cleanup.

    "If there are rumors out there, they don't have legs," 
Metzler said. Nearly 60 percent of the design studies on the rail 
line are complete and progressing.

    The rail plan may have to be reassessed, Metzler said, if a
provision that Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, has added to a Defense
Department spending bill is passed. It would require the tailings to
be moved by 2019.

    Trucking the waste would cost as much as 15 percent less than
the rail plan, but the Energy Department picked rail because it "has
a lower accident rate, lower potential impacts to wildlife and lower
fuel consumption," the department said in issuing its decision.

    Mark Walker, a spokesman for EnergySolutions, said the company
is taking its orders from the Energy Department.

    "We're moving forward with engineering and preparing to rail the
material," Walker said. "If they give us a different direction,
we'll do whatever direction they take."

    The other issue that could affect the movement of the waste is a
series of flash floods in the area where the tailings are expected
to be transferred from trucks to the rail cars.

    "That in my mind is a real concern," Langainese said. "We
certainly don't want any accidents up there."

    Metzler said he, too, is concerned, but believes the flooding
issue can be addressed.

    "That area's got to be shored up and made stable," Walker said.

    One of the potential alternatives, said Langianese, is to truck
the tailings to a transfer station near the turn-off from U.S.
Highway 191 to Dead Horse Point, but the National Park Service might
object to that because of its proximity to Canyonlands National Park.

*****************************************************************
 40 KVBC: DOE's Yucca deadline looming

o News 3 Las Vegas Web Cams

There's new optimism that the Yucca Mountain Project will never
store nuclear waste northwest of Las Vegas. That's according to
Richard Bryan, a former governor of our state.

He was among those telling southern Nevada officials what's recently
changed in the fight against Yucca, and what's at stake for all of
us. News 3's Mitch Truswell reports.

June 8, 2008. It's a deadline for the Department of Energy. That's
the day the DOE has to complete its license application to store
nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. Many don't think the DOE will make
it.  

"It's (the project) really on life support and this attempt to get
this license application in by June 8 is a last ditch effort to
breathe life back into the project," Joseph Strolin with the Nevada
Agency for Nuclear Projects said.

"From the state's perspective, I am more optimistic today than I
have ever been," former Nevada governor Bryan said added. Now that's
not to suggest we fold our tents, declare victory and go home.
Because the nuclear power industry is a formidable presence on
Capital Hill; they spend a fortune lobbying this."

So what's changed? Two of the big supporters in Congress are on
their way out. Senator Larry Craig will leave office at the end of
his term, maybe sooner. Senator Pete Domenici, the ranking member on
the Energy Committee, has announced he won't seek reelection.

There are other concerns. Years after work began at the site,
evidence seemed to show an earthquake fault line was running through
the repository. That caused many state officials to question the
DOE's expert opinions.

In the DOE's favor, while many people say they're opposed to the
repository, it fails to draw a big crowd during public hearings.
That may change, state officials think, once it becomes known how
nuclear waste will get to Nevada.

The Department of Energy has a much different take on the issue.
Spokesman Allen Benson said:

I'm not sure Congress would appropriate money for a program that was
not needed or necessary. We're complying with the congressional
will. We've been directed to develop a repository for the nation,
and that's what we're doing.

 All content © Copyright 2000 - 2007 WorldNow and KVBC. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 41 Las Vegas Now: Two Nuke Waste Trucking Routes Proposed Through Las Vegas

Edward Lawrence, Reporter

 DOE Proposes 215 as Alternate Nuclear Waste Trucking Route

The state commission formed to fight the nuclear waste repository 
at Yucca Mountain says the timetable is politically motivated.

The head of the Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects says the 
Department of Energy wants to ram through the license for the 
nuclear waste repository before the current president leaves 
office.

Eyewitness News has uncovered new information about 
transportation and safety, which could impact the entire Las 
Vegas Valley.

More trucks with spent high level nuclear waste would be rolling 
through Las Vegas than first thought according to two more 
supplemental drafts of the Environmental Impact Study released 
relating to the overall project.

Friday, the state agency fighting the Yucca Mountain repository 
was briefed about the fine print in the reports. This is a fight 
that has the state of Nevada hunkered down behind a collective 
"not in my back yard" approach.

Elected officials from Nevada, including the governor to the most 
powerful senator in the United States all say storing nuclear 
waste at the Yucca Mountain repository would endanger our health, 
way of life, and future.

The executive director of the state agency fighting the federal 
government says new Department of Energy reports validate the 
fears.

Bob Loux, with the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, said, "We 
have seen documents from Sandia [in New Mexico] that say schedule 
is more important than scientific integrity. Schedule is more 
important than anything else. Others that say if we don't make 
the June filing date the DOE has told us we are all out of jobs."

Loux says the Department of Energy is recklessly rushing to 
submit a license application to open the nuclear waste dump 
before President George Bush leaves office so it can be rubber 
stamped.

"There are only going to be 30-percent of the designs for these 
facilities available. There is not going to be emergency plans 
and plans for retrieval available because they don't have time to 
do them," Bob Loux continued.

Also, Loux says the Department of Energy added an 11th hour plan 
into new environmental impact draft statements. The latest 
surprise shows the numbers of high level nuclear waste shipments 
on Nevada roads will more than double what was originally 
proposed.
z The new report shows 2,700 truck shipments would come in on two 
possible routes: Interstate 15 to US-95, or Interstate 15 to the 
215 Beltway to US-95.

That goes through Las Vegas City Councilman Larry Brown's 
district.

Councilman Brown said, "Then you start impacting communities like 
Sun City Summerlin. You are getting into the core of residential 
areas in Southern Nevada. The politics will raise itself at this 
stage of the game."

The Department of Energy says no formal trucking route has been 
selected. The federal agency also says the license application 
will meet all rules and regulations.

Clark County recently did a study showing 76-percent of residents 
oppose storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.

Following that information, the state formally asked the city of 
Las Vegas and Clark County to become partners in the fight. Up to 
now both local governments officially watched from the sidelines.

The city's resolution will be voted on in the next meeting. The 
county's vote will be in another month.

z E-mail your comments to Reporter Edward Lawrence.

 All content © Copyright 2000 - 2007 WorldNow and KLAS. All Rights
Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 42 times and star: Experts seek help with nuke waste

Published on 12/10/2007

THE PUBLIC is being asked to help come up with solutions to deal
with radioactive low level waste.

Experts are looking for more effective and faster ways of dealing
with a variety of materials as the clean-up of Sellafield gathers
pace.

The capacity of the nearby Drigg low level waste site, which also
takes slightly radioactive materials from hospitals, universities
and other industries, will be stretched by the process.

Now Sellafield Ltd has decided to consult the public on possible
solutions including re-use and recycling of contaminated materials
and continued treatment and direct disposal.

Sellafield Ltd head of waste Laurence Cook said: â€œFor low level
material there is a need to deal with some historically stored
wastes that have yet to be properly treated as well as new wastes
arising from risk reduction activities and the demolition of ageing
facilities on the Sellafield site. Storage space on the site and in
the nearby low level waste repository is becoming severely limited.
If solutions are not developed bottlenecks could arise that would
result in a slow-down of risk reduction, clean-up, decommissioning
and demolition work.â€

Solutions have to be found for oil, metals and asbestos on top of
the large volumes of general process wastes. A large majority of
this is expected to be contaminated at very low radioactive levels,
including about a million tonnes of concrete.

An estimated 15,000 tonnes of asbestos will be generated from clean
up, half of it from the decommissioning of Calder Hall, although
most of this is said to be free from radioactivity.

People are being urged to register for a series of workshops
discussing the issue at www.sellafieldsites.com.



View this story and the latest newspaper in full digital
reproduction, just like the printed copy at
www.timesandstar.co.uk/digitalcopy
*****************************************************************
 43 BBC NEWS: US rejects Russian missile call
Last Updated: Friday, 12 October 2007, 22:22 GMT 23:22 UK

The US goal was to make progress on some crucial strategic issues


Talks between the US and Russia about a US anti-missile system in
Europe have ended acrimoniously and without any sign of progress.

The US rejected Russian appeals at the talks in Moscow to halt the
scheme.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said his country would take
steps to neutralise the threat posed by the missile system if it
went ahead.



US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the shield system was not
directed at Russia.

Mr Gates said he and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had put
several new ideas to the Russians but indicated that they had not
yet been accepted.

Map of US missile defence systems

"Our talks reflected the complex, multi-faceted relationship the US
and Russia have," he said.

"We remain eager to be open and full partners with Russia in missile
defence... We discussed a range of proposals we hope they will
accept."

How US missile shield works

Q&A: US missile defences

But Mr Lavrov said the proposals needed to be studied and that
meanwhile Washington should halt work on the shield.

"We believe that to make the joint work of Russian and US experts
most effective, plans on deploying [the missile defence system in
Europe] should be frozen," he said.

Ms Rice said talks with Poland and the Czech Republic on deploying
elements of the shield on their soil would continue.

"We will work during this time to address Russian concerns... We
believe that we can address those concerns and we are prepared to do
it," she said.


The US says it needs a missile defence system to counteract "rogue
states" like Iran and North Korea.

The Kremlin has asked the US why it cannot instead use
Russian-operated early warning radar in Azerbaijan.

Mr Gates said while that radar might be used, it was not capable of
guiding interceptor missiles.

Treaty threats

The BBC's diplomatic correspondent, Jonathan Marcus, says the news
conference after the talks showed the underlying tensions between
Washington and Moscow.

He says that this should have been an opportunity to work on the
climate of US-Russia relations but the outcome may well have made
things worse.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin signalled he would not
support US plans and threatened to abandon a key nuclear missile
treaty which he said was outdated.


One day you and I may decide that missile defence systems can be
deployed on the Moon, but before we get there the possibility of
reaching an agreement may be lost because you will have implemented
your own plans

Vladimir Putin


US fails to bridge gap

President Putin said it would be difficult to remain part of the
Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty unless it was
expanded to include more countries than just the US and Russia.

The reason, he said, was that other countries were developing these
kinds of weapons systems - including those close to Russia's borders.

Analysts say President Putin's threat to withdraw from the treaty is
yet another diplomatic move to put pressure on the Americans.

The treaty, which limits US and Russian short and medium range
missiles, was signed 20 years ago and led to the elimination of
almost 3,000 Russian and US missiles.

Russia has additionally threatened to leave the Treaty on
Conventional Armed Forces in Europe if it is not ratified by all
Nato nations.

The US-Russian talks also covered the Iranian nuclear issue.

Mr Lavrov criticised US sanctions and hints about using military
force against Iran, which he said "contradict our collective
efforts" to negotiate a solution.


US MISSILE DEFENCE: LONG RANGE THREAT PROTECTION

US wants to build defence system against possible missile attacks

Part of defences would be in Eastern Europe - which Russia 
opposes

Russia suggests US should use its Gabala, Azerbaijan base instead

* BBC Copyright Notice
*****************************************************************
 44 PakTribune: Our nuclear scientists

Pakistan News Service - 

Friday October 12, 2007 (1000 PST)

Our chief justice is an amazing person. During the hearing of a 
bank case where some officers of the bank were rewarded with 
millions of rupees for their so-called excellent performance, he 
aptly remarked that there was hardly any justification for doling 
out so much money to such people.

In his opinion such an amount should have been given to our 
nuclear scientists who took Pakistan to the top of the world. The 
CJ may be amused and even shocked to know that for carrying out 
successful nuclear tests in 1998 the nuclear scientists were 
granted 15 daysâ€™ salary and honorarium for their meritorious 
services.

Those who made pioneering contribution to our nuclear capability 
were â€˜generouslyâ€™ granted one monthâ€™s salary and the high 
civilian award of Hilal-i-Imtiaz (which hardly brought any solace 
or relief to the scientists or their families).

The then prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, who untiringly exploited
Pakistanâ€™s nuclear capability for his personal political
aggrandisement, ignored the scientists after the nuclear event.

The scientists were too egoistic to demand anything for themselves.
It is really gracious on the part of the chief justice to raise this
point nine years after the event when everybody else had seemed to
have forgotten the whole thing.

President Musharrafâ€™s government is generous in recognising
excellence. The recent example is an award of Rs6 million to each
member of our cricket team for their outstanding performance in the
Twenty20 World Cup. The president has made great a contribution
towards development of science and technology.

I appeal to him that he should announce a befitting reward for those
who enabled Pakistan to become a member of the prestigious nuclear
club.

RASHID ABBAS

Islamabad
 
Web paktribune.com

Pakistan News Service © PakTribune.com Pvt Ltd 2003-2004
*****************************************************************
 45 UPI: Electric Boat wins new Navy sub contract

United Press International - International Security - Industry -

Published: 12, 2007 at 6:11 PM

GROTON, Conn., Oct. 12 (UPI) -- General Dynamics Electric Boat has
won a new sub modernization contract from the U.S. Navy.

"The U.S. Navy has awarded General Dynamics Electric Boat two
contract modifications worth a total of $53.5 million for nuclear
submarine modernization and planning yard services and support,"
General Dynamics said in a statement Thursday. "Electric Boat is a
wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics," it said.

"Under a $37.3 million modification, Electric Boat will continue
operating the New England Maintenance Manpower Initiative -- NEMMI
-- at the Naval Submarine Base in Groton. Specifically, Electric
Boat will provide a wide range of overhaul, repair and modernization
services in support of nuclear submarines, floating dry-docks,
support and service craft and other platforms and equipment at the
submarine base. About 270 Electric Boat employees are involved in
the work," the company said.

"Additionally, Electric Boat will provide reactor-plant planning
yard services for nuclear submarines and support yard services for
moored training ships under a separate $16.2 million contract
modification," the statement said.

General Dynamics is based in Falls Church, Va., and has a staff of
around 82,900. It projects 2007 revenues of more than $27 billion.
General Dynamics describes itself as "a market leader in business
aviation; land and expeditionary combat systems, armaments and
munitions; shipbuilding and marine systems; and information systems
and technologies."

© Copyright United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 46 AFP: Rice, Gates tackle missile defence, Iran in Moscow talks - 

by Jim Mannion Fri Oct 12, 3:43 AM ET

MOSCOW (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and US 
Defence Secretary Robert Gates meet Russian leaders Friday for 
talks on the Iran nuclear showdown, US missile defence plans and 
other disputes chilling East-West relations.

The two top US officials will meet President Vladimir Putin, then
hold joint talks with their Russian counterparts, Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov and Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, in an attempt
to break the diplomatic logjam.

Negotiations are expected to focus on a series of Cold War
agreements facing collapse amid increasingly rancorous relations
between a newly assertive Kremlin and hawkish White House.

Rice's decision to meet with human rights activists in Moscow was
unlikely to please Putin, who is accused in the West of dismantling
post-Soviet democratic gains in the run-up to December parliamentary
and March presidential elections.

US plans for a missile defence shield in Eastern Europe, a Russian
threat to suspend its participation in a treaty limiting troops and
tanks in Europe, and the approaching expiration of the START treaty
limiting strategic nuclear weapons will all be on the agenda, the US
State Department said.

The talks also will touch on pressing disagreements over the fate of
the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo and Iran's nuclear
programme, officials said.

The high-powered US delegation was unlikely to make much progress in
persuading Moscow to back a Western push for tougher sanctions on
Iran.

Putin said on Wednesday that he saw no evidence the Islamic republic
was masking a bomb-making project behind the largely Russian-built
civilian nuclear power programme.

But Rice, who hopes to persuade Moscow to back stronger action
against Tehran, said en route to Moscow that the Russians were
indeed worried by Iran's intentions.

A Russian proposal to handle Iran's uranium processing on Russian
territory and to control any spent fuel revealed "suspicion about
Iran's intentions," she said.

On Kosovo, Russia has sided with Serbia in opposing Western backing
for independence in the breakway province, currently administered by
the United Nations.

A December 10 deadline in talks between Belgrade and Pristina will
increase the urgency of hammering out a compromise.

But with Gates in attendance, the focus is likely to be on the
explosive debate over US plans to intall a missile defense shield in
Central Europe.

Russia vehemently opposes the stationing of interceptor missiles in
Poland and a powerful targeting radar in the Czech Republic by 2012,
but has offered access to a Russian-controlled early warning radar
in Azerbaijan as an alternative.

The Pentagon says it hopes for a compromise that could lead to
far-reaching cooperation. "We're open to anything," said a senior
Defence Department official traveling with Gates.

But he said the Russians had yet to respond to detailed US proposals
in April for sharing early warning radar data and establishing a
joint center in Moscow to track ballistic missile launches from the
Middle East.

The United States and its NATO allies face another deadline on
December 12 when Putin has said Russia will suspend its
participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty if it is
not ratified by all NATO nations.

NATO countries insist that Russia first withdraw its troops from
ex-Soviet Moldova and Georgia, both of which are seeking closer ties
with Western institutions.

Rice and Gates will also discuss proposals for a follow-on to the
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which limited both sides to 6,000
warheads but expires in 2009, the state department said.


Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 47 AFP: Russia threatens to leave missile treaty - 

by Jim Mannion Fri Oct 12, 7:16 AM ET

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened Friday 
in talks with top US administration officials to abandon a key 
nuclear missile treaty, while also telling Washington to freeze 
plans for a European anti-missile shield.

Speaking at the start of talks with US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and Defence Secretary Robert Gates, the Kremlin
leader said the Cold War-era INF treaty limiting Russian and US
shorter and medium range missiles was outmoded because other
countries were acquiring such weapons.

"If we are unable to make such a goal of making this treaty
universal, then it will be difficult for us to keep within the
framework of such a treaty, especially when other countries do have
such weapons systems," Putin said.

Putin also urged the US delegation, which was in Moscow to address
spiralling Russian-US tensions, "not to force" the planned
deployment of an anti-missile system in new NATO members Poland and
the Czech Republic.

Gates said that talks on Friday and Saturday were to tackle "an
ambitious agenda for security issues that concern both of us,
including the development of missile systems by others in the
neighbourhood -- I would say in particular Iran."

Rice and Gates, who sat stern-faced through Putin's opening remarks,
later began talks with their Russian counterparts on a range of
issues including US missile defense plans and Russia's threatened
withdrawal from another Cold War-era treaty, the Conventional Forces
in Europe (CFE) treaty, which limits the numbers of troops and tanks
stationed in Europe.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov welcomed what he said were
"detailed (US) proposals on missile defense, the CFE treaty, as well
as the arrangements for following the lapse of the CFE treaty."

The two sides were also to raise Iran's nuclear programme, the
status of Kosovo, and proposals to renew the Cold War-era START
strategic missile treaty.

"I know we don't always see eye to eye on every element of the
solution to these issues," said Rice. "Nevertheless, I believe we
will do this in a constructive spirit, that we will make progress
during these talks, and continue to pursue cooperation."

Adding to the sensitivity of the trip, which comes at a time of
rancorous relations between an increasingly assertive Kremlin and
the hawkish White House, Rice was to meet with human rights
activists.

Domestic and foreign critics of Putin accuse him of dismantling
post-Soviet democratic gains in the run-up to December parliamentary
and March 2008 presidential elections.

Lavrov said on arrival for the talks at Putin's Novo-Ogaryevo
residence in the Moscow suburbs that deals were far from certain.

Asked if he expected a breakthrough, Lavrov quipped: "Breaks
definitely, (but) through or down, I don't know."

The high-powered US delegation was unlikely to make much progress in
persuading Moscow to back a Western push for tougher sanctions on
Iran.

Putin said on Wednesday that he saw no evidence the Islamic republic
was masking a bomb-making project behind the largely Russian-built
civilian nuclear power programme.

But Rice, who hopes to persuade Moscow to back stronger action
against Tehran, said en route to Moscow that the Russians did
harbour "suspicion about Iran's intentions."

On Kosovo, Russia has sided with Serbia in opposing Western backing
for independence in the breakway province, currently administered by
the United Nations.

A December 10 deadline in talks between Belgrade and Pristina will
increase the urgency for a compromise.

The most divisive Washington-Moscow row, though, is the Pentagon's
plan to intall a missile defense shield in Central Europe.

Russia vehemently opposes the stationing of interceptor missiles in
Poland and a powerful targeting radar in the Czech Republic by 2012,
but has offered access to a Russian-controlled early warning radar
in Azerbaijan as an alternative.

Russia claims the system could diminish the force of its nuclear
deterrent, but the United States argues that the shield would be far
too small to have any impact except against hypothetical attacks by
countries such as Iran or North Korea.

Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The
*****************************************************************
 48 Guardian Unlimited: Rice: Missile Defense Plans to Proceed 

Friday October 12, 2007 8:01 AM

By ROBERT BURNS and MATTHEW LEE Associated Press Writers

MOSCOW (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says plans to 
expand the U.S. missile defense system in Poland and the Czech 
Republic will proceed, but she wants to seek Russian suggestions 
for cooperation to address Moscow's opposition to the program.

  Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates gathered Friday morning 
at President Vladimir Putin's dacha, or residence, outside Moscow 
to kick off a series of high-level meetings on missile defense 
and other thorny issues including Iran's nuclear program, 
U.S.-Russian arms control and Russia's commitment to democracy.

   Shortly before the talks began, Russian Foreign Minister 
Sergei Lavrov strolled into the dacha's billiards room, where 
American reporters had gathered, for a cigarette break. He was 
asked whether he expected any breakthroughs in the talks.

   ``Breaks, definitely. Through or down, I don't know,'' he 
said.

   The Pentagon plans to install 10 missile interceptors in 
Poland, linked to a missile tracking radar in the Czech Republic. 
The Pentagon says the system will provide some protection in 
Europe and beyond for long-range missiles launched from Iran, but 
Russia believes the system is a step toward undermining the 
deterrent value of its nuclear arsenal.

    Rice said the U.S. would go ahead with the program as 
planned.

  ``We've been very clear that we need the Czech and Polish 
sites,'' she said Thursday, although there's ``considerable 
interest'' in Russian ideas for cooperation such as sharing a 
Soviet-era tracking station in Azerbaijan.

  ``We're going to keep exploring ideas, we want to explore 
ideas,'' she said. ``We are interested in other potential sites 
as well and we may be able to find ways to put that together.''

  Beyond the discussion with Putin, Gates and Rice also were to 
meet with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defense Minister 
Anatoly Serdyukov. Rice and Gates also scheduled a dinner with 
First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, whose portfolio 
includes national security issues and who until recently held the 
defense minister's job.

     On Gates' last trip to Moscow, in April, he explained a U.S. 
proposal for U.S.-Russian cooperation on missile defense, 
including information sharing and some joint experiments. So far 
the Russians have not responded, according to a defense official 
traveling with Gates who spoke on condition of anonymity.

   Rice acknowledged Thursday that she would welcome a 
face-to-face discussion with Putin about his future political 
plans, including his interest in becoming prime minister.

 The prospect of Putin clinging to power after his presidential 
term ends has caused U.S. dismay, with the Bush administration 
expressing concerns about democratic backsliding in Russia, a 
consolidation of power in the Kremlin, and crackdowns on 
independent media and opposition groups.

   Rice, an expert on the former Soviet Union before she joined 
the administration, said she would not raise the issue herself.

   ``I wouldn't turn down that offer,'' Rice said with a smile 
when asked by reporters how she would respond if Putin raised the 
topic. But she refused to be drawn out on the subject.

 Earlier this month, Putin said he would lead the ticket of the 
main pro-Kremlin party in the parliamentary elections coming up 
in the next few months and could later take the prime minister's 
job - a hint that he could remain at the helm and eclipse a 
weaker president.

   On Iran, Putin says there's no proof Tehran is trying to build 
a nuclear weapons program.

 Rice, on her way to Moscow, accused Iran of ``lying'' about the 
aim of its nuclear program and deceiving the U.N.'s atomic 
watchdog about its intentions.

  ``There is an Iranian history of obfuscation and, indeed, lying 
to the IAEA,'' Rice said, referring to the International Atomic 
Energy Agency.

  U.S. officials long have accused Iran of trying to develop 
nuclear weapons behind the facade of a civil atomic energy 
program, charges Tehran denies. The Bush administration is 
pushing for new sanctions to punish Iran, but has yet to gather 
enough backing at the U.N. for such a move.

  The U.S. and Russia also differ on the future of a treaty 
limiting deployment of conventional military forces in Europe as 
well as the prospect of Kosovo declaring independence from Serbia 
as early as December.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
*****************************************************************
 49 Guardian Unlimited: Putin Says Missile Plan Risks Relations 

Friday October 12, 2007 1:01 PM

By ROBERT BURNS and MATTHEW LEE Associated Press Writers

MOSCOW (AP) - In a tense start to talks on a range of thorny 
issues, President Vladimir Putin on Friday warned U.S. officials 
to back off a plan to install missile defenses in eastern Europe 
or risk harming relations with Moscow.

 Addressing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense 
Secretary Robert Gates, the Russian president appeared to mock 
the U.S. missile defense plan, which is at the center of a tangle 
of arms control and diplomatic disputes between the former Cold 
War adversaries.

      ``Of course we can sometime in the future decide that some 
anti-missile defense system should be established somewhere on 
the moon,'' Putin said, according to an English translation. 
``But before we reach such arrangements we will lose the 
opportunity for fixing some particular arrangements between us.''

     Putin also said Russia might feel compelled to pull out of a 
20-year-old arms control deal unless it is expanded.

    Later, at the start of a meeting with Rice and Gates, Foreign 
Minister Sergey Lavrov referred to the Americans having presented 
``detailed proposals'' in the Putin talks to address U.S.-Russian 
differences on missile defense and arms control. He offered no 
details but said the Russian government is ready to seek 
compromise.

  ``We have differences and there is no need to hide them,'' 
Lavrov said.

    But both he and Rice said the two countries were committed to 
bridging those gaps.

 ``I know that we don't always see eye-to-eye on every element of 
the solutions to these issues, nonetheless, I believe we will do 
this in a constructive spirit, that we will make progress during 
these talks as we continue to pursue cooperation,'' Rice said.

   The Russian government sees the U.S. missile defense plan, 
which Washington describes as a hedge against the threat of 
missile attack from Iran, as a worrisome step toward weakening 
Russian security. It has been a longstanding dispute, and Putin's 
remarks seemed to raise the level of tensions.

       Rice and Gates appeared taken aback at the firm tone and 
forcefulness of Putin's remarks, which were made from notes in 
the presence of American and Russian news media before they began 
a closed-door meeting around an oval table in an ornate 
conference room at his country house outside the capital.

  ``We will try to find ways to cooperate,'' Rice said in 
response. ``Even though we have our differences, we have a great 
deal in common because that which unites us in trying to deal 
with the threats of terrorism, of proliferation, are much greater 
than the issues that divide us.''

  After Putin addressed further comments about U.S.-Russian 
military cooperation to Gates, the American defense secretary 
responded by saying the Pentagon was ready to intensify a 
dialogue on military relations.

  ``We have an ambitious agenda of security issues that concern 
both of us, including, as you suggest, development of missile 
systems by others in the neighborhood - I would say in 
particular, Iran,'' Gates said.

    Gates did not directly comment on the missile defense 
dispute.

 After keeping Rice and Gates waiting for 40 minutes, Putin began 
the session with a lengthy monologue in which he also said that 
Russia may feel compelled to abandon its obligations under a 1987 
missile treaty with the United States if it is not expanded to 
constrain other missile-armed countries.

  Referring to the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty that 
was negotiated with the United States before the breakup of the 
Soviet Union, Putin said it must be applied to other countries, 
including those ``located in our near vicinity.'' He did not 
mention any by name, but in response, Gates said Washington was 
interested in limiting missile proliferation in Iran.

     Putin said the treaty must be made ``universal in nature.''

 The pact eliminated the deployment of Soviet and American 
ballistic missiles of intermediate range and was a landmark step 
in arms control just two years before the fall of the Berlin Wall 
and later the breakup of the Soviet Union.

 ``We need to convince other (countries) to assume the same level 
of obligation as assumed by the Russian Federation and the United 
States,'' Putin said. ``If we are unable to obtain such a goal 
... it will be difficult for us to keep within the framework of 
the treaty in a situation where other countries do develop such 
weapon systems, and among those are countries located in our near 
vicinity.''

  Putin also has threatened to suspend Russian adherence to 
another arms control treaty, known as the Conventional Forces in 
Europe pact, which limits deployments of conventional military 
forces. Moscow wants it to be revised in ways that thus far have 
been unacceptable to U.S. and European signatories.

  On missile defense, Putin was particularly pointed in his 
remarks, in which he sought to lay out his view of what Rice and 
Gates should be discussing later Friday with Lavrov and Defense 
Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.

   ``We hope that in the process of such complex and 
multi-faceted talks you will not be forcing forward your 
relations with the eastern European countries,'' the president 
said. He then made his remark about the possibility of one day 
putting a missile defense system on the moon.

 Shortly before the talks with Putin began, Lavrov strolled into 
the house's billiards room, where American reporters had 
gathered, for a cigarette break. He was asked whether he expected 
any breakthroughs in the talks.

   ``Breaks, definitely. Through or down, I don't know,'' he 
said.

   The Pentagon plans to install 10 missile interceptors in 
Poland, linked to a missile tracking radar in the Czech Republic. 
The Pentagon says the system will provide some protection in 
Europe and beyond for long-range missiles launched from Iran, but 
Russia believes the system is a step toward undermining the 
deterrent value of its nuclear arsenal.

   Rice told reporters on Thursday on her flight to Moscow that 
the U.S. would go ahead with the program as planned.

  ``We've been very clear that we need the Czech and Polish 
sites,'' she said, although there's ``considerable interest'' in 
Russian ideas for cooperation such as sharing a Soviet-era 
tracking station in Azerbaijan.

  ``We're going to keep exploring ideas, we want to explore 
ideas,'' she said. ``We are interested in other potential sites 
as well and we may be able to find ways to put that together.''

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
*****************************************************************
 50 Guardian Unlimited: US-Russia Missile Defense Talks Fail 

Friday October 12, 2007 7:01 PM

By MATTHEW LEE Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW (AP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin warned President 
Bush's top two Cabinet officials on Friday to back off U.S. 
missile defense plans for eastern Europe as high-level talks 
yielded little more than a pledge to meet again.

    Despite presenting new cooperation proposals intended to 
bring Moscow on board, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and 
Defense Secretary Robert Gates failed in a series of tough 
meetings to turn around Moscow's opposition to the system and 
other strategic issues.

 Putin set the tone early on when he hosted Rice and Gates and 
their Russian counterparts at his country home outside Moscow and 
delivered a stern rebuff to U.S. plans to push ahead with 
establishing missile defense facilities in Poland and the Czech 
Republic.

  In combative comments that took the U.S. side aback during a 
photo session, Putin criticized Bush's pet project and threatened 
to pull out of a Cold War-era treaty that limits 
intermediate-range missiles.

 ``We may decide someday to put missile defense systems on the 
moon, but before we get to that we may lose a chance for 
agreement because of you implementing your own plans,'' he told 
Rice and Gates in Russian, according to an Associated Press 
translation.

 ``We hope that in the process of such complex and multifaceted 
talks you will not be forcing forward your previous agreements 
with eastern European countries,'' Putin said.

 The United States has repeatedly rejected Russian demands to 
freeze U.S. negotiations with Poland and the Czech Republic and 
Rice did so again Friday, said three senior U.S. officials 
present at the sessions with Rice, Gates, Russian Foreign 
Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.

    The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to 
describe diplomatic discussions, maintained that differences were 
narrowed but progress was incremental and might not produce 
ultimate understandings.

  ``I agree that we did not agree on anything today,'' one 
official told reporters. He added quickly that neither Washington 
nor Moscow had expected significant breakthroughs.

  Rice and Lavrov announced at a news conference after the 
meetings that the two sides would meet again in Washington in six 
months to review a ``strategic framework'' on evaluating and 
addressing the missile threat posed by rogue states, principally 
Iran.

    The U.S. proposals are intended to ease fears that its 
missile defense plans threaten Russia's nuclear deterrent and 
include the creation of a so-called ``joint regional missile 
defense architecture'' that would protect the United States, NATO 
allies in Europe and Russia.

   As part of that scheme, experts from all nations covered by 
the system would be based at missile defense facilities to try to 
improve coordination and transparency.

 A spokesman for Putin, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters in a 
conference call that ``some of them are quite interesting and the 
Russian side will start examining this proposal.''

   But, he stressed: ``It will take some time before we are able 
to make public our estimation.''

     Initial reaction from Lavrov and Serdyukov, though, was less 
gracious.

  ``We see two serious problems with these proposals,'' Lavrov 
told reporters at the news conference with Rice, Gates and 
Serdyukov. He said the two sides still disagree about the threat 
to Europe and complained that the negotiations with the Poles and 
Czechs were continuing.

                          Serdyukov agreed.

     ``The principal thing to which we did not agree today is the 
deployment of anti-missile elements which have an anti-Russian 
character and which are to be placed in Europe,'' he said.

 Rice said the ideas that she and Gates presented are 
``conceptual at this point'' and would be handed to experts to 
consider further.

 ``I know that we don't always see eye-to-eye on every element of 
the solutions to these issues,'' Rice said. ``Nonetheless, I 
believe we will do this in a constructive spirit, that we will 
make progress during these talks as we continue to pursue 
cooperation,'' she added.

   The Pentagon plans to install 10 missile interceptors in 
Poland, linked to a missile tracking radar in the Czech Republic. 
The Pentagon says the system will provide some protection in 
Europe and beyond for long-range missiles launched from Iran, but 
Russia believes the system is a step toward undermining the 
deterrent value of its nuclear arsenal.

   The day got off to a rocky start when Putin kept Rice and 
Gates waiting for 40 minutes before meeting them and then began 
the session with a lengthy monologue detailing Russian 
complaints.

 In addition to the problems with missile defense, Putin warned 
that Russia might abandon its obligations under a 1987 missile 
treaty with the United States if it is not expanded to constrain 
other missile-armed countries.

 Referring to the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty 
negotiated with the U.S. before the breakup of the Soviet Union, 
Putin said it must be applied to other countries, but did not 
mention any by name.

  ``If we are unable to obtain such a goal ... it will be 
difficult for us to keep within the framework of the treaty in a 
situation where other countries do develop such weapon systems, 
and among those are countries located in our near vicinity,'' he 
said.

   The pact eliminated the deployment of Soviet and U.S. 
ballistic missiles of intermediate range and was a landmark step 
in arms control just two years before the fall of the Berlin Wall 
and later the breakup of the Soviet Union.

 U.S. officials said Russia had the right to withdraw from the 
treaty but expressed skepticism that the bilateral agreement 
could be extended to other countries, which have their own 
defense needs.

  Putin has also threatened to suspend Russian adherence to 
another arms control treaty, known as the Conventional Forces in 
Europe pact, which limits deployments of conventional military 
forces. Moscow wants it to be revised in ways that thus far have 
been unacceptable to U.S. and European signatories.

 Shortly before the talks with Putin began, Lavrov strolled into 
the house's billiards room, where American reporters had 
gathered, for a cigarette break. He was asked whether he expected 
any breakthroughs in the talks.

   ``Breaks, definitely. Through or down, I don't know,'' he 
said.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007

*****************************************************************
 51 Guardian Unlimited: We will dump nuclear treaty, Putin warns 

Luke Harding in Moscow
Saturday October 13, 2007

Vladimir Putin warned yesterday that Russia was considering
withdrawing from a major cold war arms treaty banning intermediate
nuclear missiles unless it was expanded to include other states.

President Putin said that Moscow was planning to dump the
intermediate range nuclear forces treaty (INF) - signed in a
landmark deal between the US and Soviet Union in 1987 - unless
countries such as China were included in its provisions.

His comments came during talks in Moscow yesterday involving the US
secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and defence secretary, Robert
Gates, and Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and defence
minister, Anatoly Serdyukov.

Mr Putin repeated his opposition to US plans to site elements of a
missile defence shield in central Europe. The project threatened the
US and Russia's strategic relationship, he said. "We need other
international participants to assume the same obligations which have
been assumed by the Russian Federation and the US," he said. "If we
are unable to attain such a goal ... it will be difficult for us to
keep within the framework of the treaty in a situation where other
countries do develop such weapons systems, and among those are
countries in our near vicinity."

He appeared to refer to the INF treaty - between Mikhail Gorbachev
and Ronald Reagan - under which both sides agreed to scrap their
arsenals of intermediate range nuclear and conventional
ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles.

Russian defence experts said yesterday that the Kremlin was unhappy
with the treaty because of concerns over the growing mid-range
nuclear arsenals of countries such as China, Pakistan and India.
Iran is also developing a medium-range missile programme. "We are
speaking about the plans of a number of neighbouring countries
developing short- and mid-range missile systems. While our two
countries are bound by the provisions of the INF treaty there will
be a certain imbalance in the region," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry
Peskov told the Guardian.

The treaty only applies to the US, Russia and the ex-Soviet
republics of Ukraine and Belarus. It was widely seen as
disadvantageous for the USSR as it did not include the US's naval
nuclear cruise missiles or the nuclear arsenals of Britain or France.

"Russia's nuclear arsenal is still mainly a legacy of the Soviet
Union. Its platforms are ageing. Russia feels more and more
vulnerable not only from the nuclear forces of the US but from other
threats as well," said Yevgeny Miasnikov, a senior research
scientist at the Centre for Arms Control, Energy and Environment
Studies in Moscow. "This move fits into Russia's policy towards arms
treaties these days."

Since denouncing the US in Munich this year, Mr Putin has withdrawn
from the conventional armed forces in Europe treaty and resumed
long-range patrols by Russia's strategic nuclear bombers.

Yesterday Mr Putin kept his visitors waiting for 30 minutes. He then
launched into a monologue warning Washington not to rush ahead with
its plans to locate elements of its missile defence shield in Poland
and the Czech Republic. "We hope that in the process of such complex
and multifaceted talks you will not be forcing forward your
relations with the eastern European countries," he said.

After the talks Mr Gates said the US had some "new ideas" to assuage
Russia's fears over the shield, including allowing Russian
inspectors to visit the sites. "I would like to emphasise that the
missile defence shield being proposed in central Europe is not
directed at Russia," he soothed. But Mr Lavrov said Russia was
unconvinced that the system was needed to counter a possible nuclear
attack by rogue states such as Iran or North Korea.

Mr Serdyukov, Russia's defence minister, was even blunter. The
defence shield was "anti-Russian", he said. Kremlin sources
confirmed that if the US carried on regardless of Russia's
objections Moscow would take military counter-measures.

Mr Putin has proposed using a Russian-operated early warning radar
in Azerbaijan in exchange for Washington abandoning the Polish and
Czech sites. The radar might complement the US's plans but wouldn't
be much good at shooting down enemy missiles, Mr Gates noted
yesterday.

Ms Rice and Mr Gates also touched on disagreements over Iran. Mr
Putin, who does not support western calls for a new round of UN
sanctions on Iran, will meet the Iranian president, Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, in Tehran next week.

Backstory

The intermediate range nuclear forces treaty (INF) was one of the
most important arms-reduction agreements of the cold war era. The US
and USSR agreed to scrap all intermediate and conventional
ground-launched missiles, both ballistic and cruise. Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev and US president Ronald Reagan signed the deal in
1987. By 1991 the USSR had scrapped 1,846 missiles and the US 846.
Russia now believes the arsenals of neighbouring countries mean the
treaty should be rethought.


Useful links
Campaign Against Arms Trade
Control Arms campaign site
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
Federation of American Scientists
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Transparency International
saferworld.org.uk
Wisconsin Project
Foreign Policy magazine

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
*****************************************************************
 52 Tri-City Herald: Jet encounter over Hanford a test exercise

Published Friday, October 12th, 2007

BY THE HERALD STAFF

Two military fighter jets escorted two small planes from an area
over Hanford on Thursday morning during a drill, startling Hanford
workers.

Vivian Wilson, a community manager from the North American Aerospace
Defense Command Western Air Defense Sector, said two planes were
intercepted at 11:30 a.m. by two F-15 fighter jets scrambled from
the Portland Air National Guard Base.

Some Hanford workers spotted only one plane being intercepted,
though two Cessna 182s were involved in the drill, Wilson said.

One witness, who asked not to be identified, described seeing one of
the Cessnas.

"The small plane was circling over Hanford for quite a while, then
all of a sudden these two (jets) show up and start circling the
small plane," they said. "At one point, it looked like one of the
fighters came real close to the plane, like it was trying to get its
attention."

Eventually the jets herded the plane out of the no-fly zone heading
north, then returned a short time later and continued to circle the
Hanford reservation, the witness said.

Wilson said the drill was part of a two-pronged exercise "of a 9/11
nature," testing forces' ability to respond to simultaneous threats.
While the F-15s were responding to Hanford, a pair of F-16s were
scrambled from Ellington Field in Texas to respond to another
simulated threat involving an unknown aircraft making a border
crossing into the U.S. from Mexico.

Wilson said the exercises are planned to avoid any local disruption.
The last such exercise over Hanford was July 17.

"Hanford is a natural selection for an exercise because it is high
priority infrastructure," Wilson said. The Department of Energy was
not notified of the drill.

Pilots generally are aware they will be tested by such drills but
are not made aware when they will occur.

"The overall purpose is to test our readiness," Wilson said.

The drills are conducted regularly within the agency's western
region, which extends from the Pacific Coast to the Mississippi
River, covering 73 percent of the continental United States. The
sector headquarters is at McChord Air Force Base near Tacoma.

"Our commander is very aggressive in exercise scenarios," Wilson
said. "The exercises are not at all rare."

  &copy 2007 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press & Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
 53 DOE: Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic 
Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level 
Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, NV and Draft 
Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic Repository 
for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste 
at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada--Nevada Rail Transportation 
Corridor and Draft Environmental Impact Statement for a Rail Alignment 
for the Construction and Operation of a Railroad in Nevada to a 
Geologic Repository at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, NV

FR Doc E7-20135

[Federal Register: October 12, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 197)] 
[Notices] [Page 58071-58074] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr12oc07-41]                         

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

AGENCY: U.S. Department of Energy.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Department of Energy (DOE or the Department) announces the 
availability of two draft National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) 
documents related to its Yucca Mountain Project: Draft Supplemental 
Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic Repository for the 
Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at 
Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada (DOE/EIS-0250F-S1D) (Draft 
Repository SEIS), and the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact 
Statement for a Geologic Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear 
Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, 
Nevada--Nevada Rail Transportation Corridor (Draft Nevada Rail Corridor 
SEIS) (DOE/EIS-0250F-S2D) and Draft Environmental Impact Statement for 
a Rail Alignment for the Construction and Operation of a Railroad in 
Nevada to a Geologic Repository at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada 
(DOE/EIS-0369D) (Draft Rail Alignment EIS). The Department has prepared 
these documents consistent with NEPA, the Council on Environmental 
Quality (CEQ) regulations that implement the procedural provisions of 
NEPA (40 CFR parts 1500-1508), and DOE procedures implementing NEPA (10 
CFR part 1021).
    Nye County, Nevada, the location of the proposed Yucca Mountain 
repository, participated as a cooperating agency in the preparation of 
the Draft Repository SEIS. The U.S. Air Force, U.S. Bureau of Land 
Management, and the Surface Transportation Board participated as 
cooperating agencies in the preparation of the Draft Nevada Rail 
Corridor SEIS and Draft Rail Alignment EIS.

[[Page 58072]]

    DOE invites interested parties to comment on the two documents 
during a 90-day public comment period. During the public comment 
period, DOE will hold eight public hearings at six locations in Nevada, 
one location in California, and one location in Washington, DC, the 
locations and times of which are described below.

DATES: The Department invites comments on the Draft Repository SEIS, 
and the Draft Nevada Rail Corridor SEIS and Draft Rail Alignment EIS 
during the 90-day public comment period, which ends January 10, 2008. 
Comments received after this date will be considered to the extent 
practicable. Public hearings are described below in the SUPPLEMENTARY 
INFORMATION section.

ADDRESSES: Requests for additional information on the Draft Repository 
SEIS, or the Draft Nevada Rail Corridor SEIS and Draft Rail Alignment 
EIS should be directed to either: Dr. Jane Summerson or Mr. Lee Bishop, 
EIS Office, Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, U.S. 
Department of Energy, 1551 Hillshire Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89134, or by 
calling 1-800-967-3477 or faxing a request to 1-800-967-0739.
    Written comments on the Draft Repository SEIS, and/or the Draft 
Nevada Rail Corridor SEIS and Draft Rail Alignment EIS may be submitted 
to the EIS Office at the above address, by facsimile to 1-800-967-0739, 
or via the Internet at http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For general information regarding the 
DOE NEPA process contact: Ms. Carol M. Borgstrom, Director, Office of 
NEPA Policy and Compliance, U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 
Independence Ave., SW., Washington, DC 20585, Telephone 202-586-4600, 
or leave a message at 1-800-472-2756.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Section 111(a)(4) of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as 
amended (NWPA), 42 U.S.C. 10131, states that the Federal Government has 
the:

    * * * responsibility to provide for the permanent disposal of 
high-level radioactive waste and such spent nuclear fuel as may be 
disposed of in order to protect the public health and safety and the 
environment.

    The NWPA directs the Secretary of Energy, if the Secretary decides 
to recommend approval of the Yucca Mountain site for development of a 
repository, to submit a final environmental impact statement with any 
recommendation to the President. The Department prepared the Final 
Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic Repository for the 
Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at 
Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada (DOE/EIS-0250F) (Yucca Mountain 
Final EIS) to fulfill that requirement.
    On February 14, 2002, the Secretary transmitted his recommendation 
(including the Yucca Mountain Final EIS) to the President for approval 
of the Yucca Mountain site for development of the Nation's first 
permanent geologic repository for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel 
and high-level radioactive waste. The President considered the site 
qualified for application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 
(NRC) for construction authorization and recommended the site to the 
U.S. Congress. Subsequently, on July 23, 2002, the President signed 
into law (Pub. L. 107-200) a joint resolution of the U.S. House of 
Representatives and the U.S. Senate designating the Yucca Mountain site 
for development as a geologic repository for the disposal of spent 
nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. The Department is 
preparing an application for submittal to the NRC seeking authorization 
to construct the repository, as required by the NWPA (Section 114(b)).
    In the Yucca Mountain Final EIS, DOE considered the potential 
environmental impacts of a repository design for surface and subsurface 
facilities; a range of canister packaging scenarios and repository 
thermal operating modes; and plans for the construction, operation, 
monitoring, and eventual closure of the repository. The Yucca Mountain 
Final EIS also described and evaluated the transportation of spent 
nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste from commercial and DOE 
sites to the repository by two principal modes--mostly truck and mostly 
rail. DOE recognized at that time that these repository design concepts 
and operational plans would continue to develop during the design and 
engineering process.
    Since completion of the Yucca Mountain Final EIS in 2002, DOE has 
continued to develop the repository design and associated construction 
and operational plans. For example, as now proposed, the newly designed 
surface and subsurface facilities would allow DOE to operate the 
repository following a primarily canistered approach in which most 
commercial spent nuclear fuel would be packaged at the reactor sites in 
transportation, aging, and disposal (TAD) canisters. Any commercial 
spent nuclear fuel arriving at the repository in packages other than 
TAD canisters would be repackaged by DOE into TAD canisters in these 
surface facilities at the repository. DOE would construct these 
facilities over a period of several years (referred to as phased 
construction) to accommodate the increase in spent nuclear fuel and 
high-level radioactive waste receipt rates as repository operational 
capability reaches its design capacity.
    On October 13, 2006 (71 FR 60490), the Department issued a Notice 
of Intent to prepare a supplement to the Yucca Mountain Final EIS, to 
inform the public of the proposed scope of the Repository SEIS, to 
solicit public input regarding the document's scope, and to announce 
the schedule of scoping meetings that would be held. During the public 
scoping period, which closed on December 12, 2006, DOE held four public 
scoping meetings.
    The Draft Repository SEIS evaluates a Proposed Action and a No 
Action Alternative. Under the Proposed Action, DOE would construct, 
operate, monitor, and eventually close a geologic repository at Yucca 
Mountain for the disposal of up to 70,000 metric tons of heavy metal 
(MTHM) of commercial and DOE-owned spent nuclear fuel and high-level 
radioactive waste. Under the Proposed Action, most spent nuclear fuel 
and high-level radioactive waste would be shipped from 72 commercial 
and 4 DOE sites to the repository in NRC-certified transportation casks 
placed on trains dedicated only to these shipments. Some shipments 
would arrive at the repository by truck.
    Under the No Action Alternative, DOE would terminate activities at 
Yucca Mountain and undertake site reclamation to mitigate any 
significant adverse environmental impacts.
    Commercial nuclear power utilities and DOE would continue to manage 
spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste at sites throughout 
the United States.
    Since issuance of the Yucca Mountain Final EIS, DOE issued a Record 
of Decision on April 8, 2004 (69 FR 18557) announcing its selection, 
both nationally and in the State of Nevada, of the mostly rail scenario 
analyzed in the Yucca Mountain Final EIS as the mode of transportation 
for shipments of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste to 
the repository. Implementation of the mostly rail scenario ultimately 
will require construction of a rail line to connect the repository site 
at Yucca Mountain to an existing rail line in the State of Nevada. To 
that end, in the same Record of Decision, the Department also selected 
the Caliente rail corridor to study possible alignments for this 
proposed rail line within Nevada.

[[Page 58073]]

    Also on April 8, 2004 (69 FR 18565), DOE published a Notice of 
Intent to prepare an EIS under NEPA for the alignment, construction, 
and operation of a rail line for shipments of spent nuclear fuel, high-
level radioactive waste, and other materials related to the 
construction and operation of a repository from a site near Caliente, 
Nevada, to a geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada (Rail 
Alignment EIS; DOE/EIS-0369). The subsequent public scoping period 
closed on June 1, 2004, during which time the Department held five 
public scoping meetings.
    During this public scoping period, DOE received comments suggesting 
that other rail corridors should be considered, in particular, the Mina 
route, which crosses the Walker River Paiute Tribe Reservation. In the 
Yucca Mountain Final EIS, DOE had considered but eliminated the Mina 
route from detailed study. The Department did not study the Mina route 
in detail in the Yucca Mountain Final EIS because a rail line within 
the Mina route could only connect to an existing rail line by crossing 
the Walker River Paiute Reservation, and the Tribe had informed DOE 
that it objected to the transportation of nuclear waste across its 
Reservation. However, following review of the scoping comments, DOE 
held discussions with the Tribe regarding the availability of the Mina 
route for evaluation. In May 2006, the Tribal Council for the Walker 
River Paiute Tribe informed DOE that it withdrew its objection to the 
completion of an EIS for the transportation of nuclear waste across the 
Walker River Paiute Reservation.
    On October 13, 2006 (71 FR 60484), after a preliminary evaluation 
of the feasibility of the Mina rail corridor, DOE amended its 2004 
Notice of Intent and announced the Department's intent to expand the 
scope of the Rail Alignment EIS to consider the potential environmental 
impacts of constructing and operating a rail line within the Mina 
corridor (corridor-level analysis) and, if warranted, to consider in 
detail alignments for the construction and operation of a railroad 
within the Mina corridor (in addition to alignments within the Caliente 
corridor). The subsequent public scoping period closed on December 12, 
2006, during which time the Department held eight public scoping 
meetings.
    The expanded EIS (now the Draft Nevada Rail Corridor SEIS and Draft 
Rail Alignment EIS) is comprised of two parts. The Draft Nevada Rail 
Corridor SEIS (DOE/EIS-0250F-S2D) supplements the Nevada rail corridor 
analysis in the Yucca Mountain Final EIS by analyzing the potential 
environmental impacts associated with constructing and operating a 
railroad to connect the Yucca Mountain repository to an existing rail 
line near Wabuska, Nevada (the Mina corridor). In it, DOE analyzes the 
Mina corridor at a level of detail commensurate with that of the rail 
corridor analysis in the Yucca Mountain Final EIS. DOE also analyzes a 
No Action Alternative under which DOE would not construct and operate a 
railroad within the Mina corridor. The Draft Nevada Rail Corridor SEIS 
also updates, as appropriate, the rail corridor analysis of the Yucca 
Mountain Final EIS to identify any significant new circumstances or 
information relevant to environmental concerns associated with rail 
corridors analyzed previously (Carlin, Valley Modified, and Jean rail 
corridors).
    The Draft Rail Alignment EIS (DOE/EIS-0369D) analyzes the potential 
environmental impacts associated with potential rail alignments within 
the Caliente and Mina corridors, and analyzes constructing and 
operating a railroad in Nevada to transport spent nuclear fuel, high-
level radioactive waste, and other Yucca Mountain project materials to 
a repository at Yucca Mountain. As such, it tiers from the broader 
corridor analysis in both the Yucca Mountain Final EIS and the Draft 
Nevada Rail Corridor SEIS, consistent with CEQ regulations (see 40 CFR 
1508.28). The Draft Rail Alignment EIS also analyzes a No Action 
Alternative under which DOE would not determine an alignment nor 
construct and operate a railroad within either the Caliente or Mina 
corridors.
    On April 17, 2007, the Tribal Council for the Walker River Paiute 
Tribe passed a resolution withdrawing support for the Tribe's 
participation in the preparation of the Draft Rail Corridor SEIS and 
Draft Rail Alignment EIS. The Tribal Council's decision was based on a 
review of information gathered to date and input from tribal members.
    The Tribal Council's resolution also renewed the Tribe's past 
objection to the transportation of nuclear waste through their 
Reservation. Accordingly, DOE has identified the Mina Implementing 
Alternative as ``nonpreferred'' in the Draft Rail Alignment EIS.
    In the Draft Rail Alignment EIS, the Department identifies the 
Caliente Implementing Alternative as its preferred alternative, and 
identifies its preferred rail alignment as comprising the following 
segments (starting in Caliente and ending at Yucca Mountain): Caliente 
Alternative Segment, Common Segment 1, Garden Valley 1, Common Segment 
2, South Reveille 3, Common Segment 3, Goldfield 3, Common Segment 4, 
Bonnie Claire 3, Common Segment 5, Oasis Valley 1, and Common Segment 
6. The location of these segments and the basis for DOE's preferences 
are provided in the document. The Department also indicates in the 
Draft Rail Alignment EIS that it prefers the Shared Use option, that 
is, DOE would make its rail line available to commercial shippers for 
shipments of general freight. The Department invites comments on its 
preferred implementing alternative and associated preferred rail 
alignment and on its preference to enable use of the rail line by 
commercial shippers.
    DOE, in the Draft Rail Alignment EIS, also evaluates three 
potential locations along the Caliente Implementing Alternative for a 
Staging Yard: Two along the Caliente alternative segment (referred to 
as Indian Cove and Upland) and one along the Eccles alternative segment 
(referred to as Eccles-North). The Staging Yard would be used to hold 
railcars with spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, and 
to hold and sort railcars with construction and other materials. The 
Department has not identified a preferred location for the Staging Yard 
and invites comments that would help DOE identify a preferred location.

Other Agency Involvement

    Nye County, Nevada, the location of the proposed Yucca Mountain 
repository, participated as a cooperating agency in the preparation of 
the Draft Repository SEIS. The U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Bureau of Land 
Management, and the Surface Transportation Board are cooperating 
agencies in the preparation of the Draft Nevada Rail Corridor SEIS and 
Rail Alignment EIS.

Public Hearings and Invitation To Comment

    The public is invited to provide oral and written comments on the 
Draft Repository SEIS, and/or Draft Nevada Rail Corridor SEIS and Draft 
Rail Alignment EIS during a 90-day public comment period. The comment 
period begins with publication of this Notice of Availability in the 
Federal Register and closes on January 10, 2008. Comments received 
after this date will be considered to the extent practicable in the 
preparation of both final NEPA documents.
    DOE will hold eight public hearings on the Draft Repository SEIS, 
and Draft Nevada Rail Corridor SEIS and Draft Rail Alignment EIS. The 
hearings will be held at the following locations and times:

[[Page 58074]]

     Hawthorne, Nevada. Hawthorne Convention Center, 932 E. 
Street, November 13, 2007, from 4 to 7 p.m.
     Caliente, Nevada. Caliente Youth Center, U.S. Highway 93, 
November 15, 2007, from 5:30 to 8 p.m.
     Reno/Sparks, Nevada. Reno-Sparks Convention Center, 4590 
S. Virginia Street, November 19, 2007, from 4 to 7 p.m.
     Town of Amargosa Valley, Nevada. Longstreet Inn & Casino, 
Highway 373, November 26, 2007, from 4 to 7 p.m.
     Goldfield, Nevada. Goldfield School Gymnasium, Hall & 
Euclid, November 27, 2007, from 4 to 7 p.m.
     Lone Pine, California. Statham Hall, 138 N. Jackson 
Street, November 29, 2007, from 4 to 7 p.m.
     Las Vegas, Nevada. Cashman Center, 850 Las Vegas Blvd., 
December 3, 2007, from 4 to 7 p.m.
     Washington, DC Marriott at Metro Center, 775 12th Street, 
NW., December 5, 2007, from 2 to 5 p.m.
    The public hearings will provide members of the public the 
opportunity to provide oral comments on the record. Members of the 
public who plan to present oral comments are asked to register in 
advance by calling 1-800-225-6972; speakers also may register upon 
arrival at the hearing location. The Department intends to allot five 
minutes to each individual wishing to provide oral comments so as to 
ensure that each registered individual has the opportunity to speak. If 
time permits, more than five minutes will be allotted by the hearing 
officer.
    Prior to, and coincident with, the public hearings, members of the 
public are invited to engage DOE representatives in one-on-one 
discussions in an open-house format. Members of the public also may 
offer comments in writing or in person (orally) to a DOE representative 
in the presence of a court reporter during these discussions.
    Comments on the Draft Repository SEIS, and/or Draft Nevada Rail 
Corridor SEIS and Draft Rail Alignment EIS may be provided in writing, 
by facsimile, or via the Internet to the EIS Office (see ADDRESSES 
above).

Public Reading Rooms

    Documents referenced in this Notice of Availability and related 
information are available at the following locations: Esmeralda County 
Yucca Mountain Oversight Office, 274 E. Crook Avenue, Goldfield, NV 
89013, (775) 485-3419; Lincoln County Nuclear Waste Project Office, 100 
Depot Avenue, Caliente, NV 89008, (775) 726-3511; Nye County Nuclear 
Waste Repository Project Office, 1210 E. Basin Road, Suite 6, 
Pahrump, NV 89060 (775) 727-7727; Pahrump Yucca Mountain Information 
Center, 2341 Postal Drive, Pahrump, NV 89048, (775) 751-7480; 
University of Nevada, Reno, The University of Nevada Libraries, 
Business and Government Information Center, M/S 322, 1664 N. Virginia 
Street, Reno, NV 89557, (775) 813-6496; and the U.S. Department of 
Energy Headquarters Office Public Reading Room, 1000 Independence 
Avenue, SW., Room 1E-190 (ME-74) FORS, Washington, DC 20585, 202-586-
3142.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on October 9, 2007.
Edward F. Sproat, III,
Director, Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management.
 [FR Doc. E7-20135 Filed 10-11-07; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6450-01-P


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 54 Ventura County Star: State to take over former Rocketdyne site 

Updated 03:54 p.m., October 12, 2007

The Santa Susana Field Laboratory, a former rocket engine and
nuclear test site in the hills south of Simi Valley, will be
transferred to the state and off-limits to development if a
tentative agreement between its owner, The Boeing Co., and the state
becomes binding.

The potential transfer is part of a complicated deal that was part
of an announcement Friday by Governor Arnold SchwarzeneggerÂ¹s
office that the governor would sign a bill that mandates Boeing to
clean the 2,849-acre site to U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyÂ¹s
highest standards before it is released for development.

The bill, SB 990 was proposed by Senator Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa
Monica, and its passage in the Assembly last month, capped a
six-year legislative battle to ensure strict cleanup standards are
used at the field laboratory, which has both chemical and
radioactive contamination.

The tentative agreement released Friday was signed by Boeing, the
California Environmental Protection Agency and Resources Agency. It
requires Boeing to enter into a binding agreement with the state
that calls for the land to be cleaned to Â³levels acceptable for
residential use and that protect individuals living in the vicinity
of the property.Â² The agreement would also mandate Boeing release
the land to the state and it would be used for park, recreational or
open-space uses.

Once the binding agreement is reached, Kuehl will carry a bill next
legislative season that would void the portions of SB 990, that call
for the Santa Susana Field Laboratory to be cleaned to Superfund
standards before it is released by Boeing.

Scripps Newspaper Group — Online
© 2007 The E.W. Scripps Co.
    
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information go to: 
<http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml> 
    
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