***************************************************************** 10/24/07 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 15.250 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 AFP: France aims for 'green revolution' - NUCLEAR REACTORS 2 Nuclear Power To Stay Prominent, UN Atomic Energy Agency Reports 3 TOI: India should seek nuclear self-reliance through Thorium - 4 FT.com: Nuclear plans face fresh challenge 5 US: NRC: NRC Proposes $3,250 Fine for R&M Engineering, Inc. 6 Platts: Global nuclear power to grow between 447 or 679 gigawatts by 7 US: Hanford News: Rockers reprise anti-nuke message as Congress cons 8 US: NPR: Nuclear Power 101 9 US: toledoblade.com: Engineer says utility covered up problems 10 US: NRC: Indian Point guard's nap not a significant lapse 11 US: NRC: NRC Issues New Edition of Information Digest 12 US: Sentinel Online: Water leak at Penn State reactor slows; source 13 US: NRC: South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company; Notice of Re 14 US: NRC: NRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards to Meet Nov. 1 15 US: NRC: Appointments To Performance Review Boards for Senior Execut 16 US: NRC: William Stein, III, M.D.; Denial of Petition for Rulemaking 17 US: NRC: State of Nevada; Denial of a Petition for Rulemaking 18 US: NRC: Establishment of Atomic Safety and Licensing Board 19 WNN: IAEA report predicts nuclear growth 20 US: Reuters: US agency denies interference in climate testimony 21 US: Reuters: Progress N.C. Harris 1 reactor up to 50 pct power | 22 US: Reuters: Entergy's La. Waterford reactor back at full power | 23 US: Reuters: California nuclear reactors not in fire danger | 24 US: Reuters: Entergy Arkansas reactor at full power despite fire 25 US: NRC: Information Digest, 2007-2008 (NUREG-1350, Vol. 19) 26 Baltic Times: Officials still positive on energy deal 27 ITAR-TASS: Armenia to build new reactor at its nuclear power plant 28 US: Dothan Eagle: Investigation into faulty Farley breakers continue 29 The Guardian: Nuclear inspectors shortage threatens plan for new rea 30 IAEA: Special Event Launches New Partnership 31 US: TheDay.com: CL&P Request For Rate increase Riles Customers 32 US: ETWCN: Nuclear power, like cancer, reemerges NUCLEAR SECURITY 33 US: Newsday.com: NY official wants safeguards at nuke plants against NUCLEAR SAFETY 34 US: Las Vegas SUN: Senators slam delays in payments to Cold War-era 35 US: ReviewJournal.com SPECIAL EXPOSURE COHORT STATUS: Test site work 36 US: Deseret Morning News: 'Exposed' spellbinding drama 37 US: Hanford News: Murray rips program for ill workers 38 US: Tennessean: Auditors find security clearances active for former 39 US: MassLive.com: Chapman Valve workers radiation claims in limbo 40 US: Dayton Daily News: Compensation for atomic workers may get overh 41 US: ScienceDaily: Contamination From Depleted Uranium Found In Urine 42 US: UPI: Panel holds hearing on nuke worker program - 43 US: Rocky Mountain News DOCUMENT: Sen. Ken Salazar's statement about 44 US: Rocky Mountain News: Senators vow action on aid program for nuke NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 45 Las Vegas SUN: Jon Ralston on facts of Richardson's record on Yucca 46 Las Vegas SUN: Was Richardson for Yucca before he was against it? 47 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Utah lawmakers seek faster tailings cleanup 48 US: Salt Lake Tribune - Navajos: Old uranium tailings leave land rad 49 US: Connecticut Post Online: EPA official details Milford cleanup ef 50 US: Reuters: USEC says signs contract valued at $400 mln with Korean 51 US: Albuquerque Tribune: Navajos spurn uranium mining 52 Canada: BBC: Open House on Nuke waste 53 US: Gallup Independent: Pathways to exposure; Last in a series of pe PEACE 54 IHT: Senior American diplomat says US will go ahead with missile def 55 US: Reuters: Northrop gets $191 mln U.S. Navy nuclear deal 56 AFP: India test fires nuclear-capable missile - 57 US: TheDay.com: Rickover Would Not Be Happy 58 AFP: Pentagon seeks urgent funding for massive bunker busting bomb - 59 GU: US tries to placate Moscow with offer of missile delay | US DEPT. OF ENERGY 60 www.kansascity.com: Nuclear weapons plant in south KC picks up key e 61 DOE: DOE's Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) Program 62 Hanford News: Science writers learn about east side 63 DOE: Office of Science; Climate Change Science Program Product 64 Knoxville News Sentinel: British scientist named new SNS chief 65 Munger: At the end of the day, it's all about science 66 lamonitor.com: Safety board makes safety complaints formal 67 NewsBlaze : Energy Sec. Bodman Remarks about George Bush China-U.S. ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 AFP: France aims for 'green revolution' - Wednesday October 24, 11:51 PM PARIS (AFP) - Green campaigners, scientists and big business on Wednesday started a two-day round-table with French ministers aimed at launching an environmental revolution in Europe's third-biggest economy. President Nicolas Sarkozy will close the summit Thursday by outlining measures to slash France's environmental impact, in the presence of Nobel Peace Prize winning climate crusaders, former US vice president Al Gore and Kenyan green advocate Wangari Maathai. "This may be the start of a whole new kind of governance," Prime Minister Francois Fillon told reporters before the opening session, concluding weeks of talks that brought together business, farmers, experts and campaigners. "We are in the process of reconciling ecology and economic development," said Fillon, flanked by Sarkozy's environment "superminister" Jean-Louis Borloo and the ministers for housing, transport, research and education. Sarkozy vowed following his election in May to put sustainability at the heart of his government, and public expectations are high. Greenpeace has said it is expecting Sarkozy to deliver "real results" -- calling for a firm commitment to slash France's greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by the year 2030. "There will probably be a lot of good and useful measures, but we have to add it all together, and if it doesn't have any promise of reaching that target then it's not a good result," said Gerd Leipold, executive director of Greenpeace International. Road transport -- which accounts for a quarter of French emissions -- is a priority. Participants at the climate round-table agreed on a plan to move all freight trucks off France's major highways, creating two new freight rail links from north to southeast and north to southwest within the next three years. Borloo announced a freeze on the building of new roads and airports, while consumers will be steered away from gas-guzzling cars through bonuses and penalties, and France's tramway network is to be quadrupled. But tougher measures to cut transport emissions, from a speed cap on highways to a fuel-tax on shorthaul domestic flights, did not make it onto the shortlist. The round-table also called for a nationwide push to improve the energy-efficiency of new and existing buildings, with a target of 20 percent energy savings by 2010. But France's reliance on nuclear power, which accounts for more than 80 percent of its electricity production, was not up for discussion, since the government refuses to review its nuclear energy strategy. A second working group was due to hammer out plans for tax breaks to favour green goods and services -- although there was strong opposition to the idea of a carbon tax on fuel. Other proposals on the table include carbon-footprint labelling to track the environmental impact of supermarket goods, as a way to steer consumers towards greener produce. Participants were also expected to agree on a temporary freeze on the sale of genetically-modified (GMO) crop seeds -- an explosive issue in France, Europe's biggest agricultural producer -- while the government prepares new biotech legislation. Environmentalists warn that France, a laggard on many green issues, has to catch up with its neighbours before it can hope to provide global leadership on green issues. "We cannot imagine coming out of this with just a few token measures. We need figures, budgets, timetables," said Yannick Jadot, spokesman for the Alliance for the Planet which brings together 80 environmental groups. Sarkozy promised during his election campaign to convene the summit whose name in French, le Grenelle de l'Environnement, evokes the place where in 1968 the government sat down with unions to end major social unrest. The summit conclusions are expected to translate into 15-20 action plans to be put to parliament early next year. Copyright © 2007 Yahoo!7 Pty Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 2 Nuclear Power To Stay Prominent, UN Atomic Energy Agency Reports Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 09:01:34 -0400 NUCLEAR POWER TO STAY PROMINENT, UN ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY REPORTS New York, Oct 24 2007 9:00AM New projections from the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) show that nuclear power will remain a key energy source in the coming decades, with over two dozen new reactors now under construction globally. A new report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) projects an average growth rate of up to 2.5 per cent, or expressed as wattage, 679 gigawatts, by 2030. The low projection would be 447 gigawatts for the same period. "Our job is not so much to predict the future but to prepare for it," said IAEA Nuclear Analyst Alan McDonald. "To that end we update each year a high and low projection to establish the range of uncertainty we ought to be prepared for." The report documents 435 operating nuclear reactors around the world, including 103 in the United States alone. Globally, 29 more are under construction. The US had the most operating units, followed by France, with 59; Japan (55) and the Russian Federation (31). Of the 30 countries with nuclear power, the percentage of electricity supplied by nuclear ranged from a high of 78 per cent in France to just 2 per cent in China. But the report notes that China is experiencing "huge energy growth and is trying to expand every source it can, including nuclear power." With four reactors under construction, China plans a nearly five-fold expansion by just 2020. Nuclear power's share of worldwide electricity production rose from less than 1 per cent in 1960 to 16 per cent in 1986, and that percentage has held essentially constant in the 21 years since 1986, according to the IAEA. Nuclear electricity generation has grown steadily at the same pace as overall global electricity generation. At the close of 2006, nuclear provided about 15 per cent of total electricity worldwide. Serving as the main global forum for scientific and technical cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear technology, the IAEA carries out programmes to maximize the usefu to society while verifying its peaceful use. 2007-10-24 00:00:00.000 ___________________ For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news To listen to news and in-depth programmes from UN Radio go to: http://radio.un.org/ _______________________________ To change your profile or unsubscribe go to: http://www.un.org/apps/news/email/ ***************************************************************** 3 TOI: India should seek nuclear self-reliance through Thorium - Kalam-UK-World-The Times of India 24 Oct 2007, 0945 hrs IST,PTI LONDON: Former president A P J Abdul Kalam has said that India should seek to achieve self-sufficiency in nuclear power through Thorium fuel-based reactors. "Whatever treaty or agreement we do, if it helps.. well and good, but the thrust should be to be self-reliant in Thorium fuel-based reactors," Kalam said in an interview in London. Sidetracking a question on the Indo-US Nuclear deal, Kalam, who was in London on a three-day visit that concluded on Tuesday, said: "All our nuclear reactors are Uranium fuel-based. In the country we have a shortage of Uranium. But we have one of the largest reserves of Thorium." "It is also a fuel but it is not fissile material. You have to convert it as a fissile material through the fast breeder reactor which we are building. "So option for India is, while we need some Uranium flow, we should go for Thorium fuel based reactor," he said. While admitting that there was a lot of research still needed in the field, Kalam said "Our scientists are busy developing it and in the next five to seven years, Thorium fuel-based nuclear reactor will be a reality. That should be our final goal." The former president, widely regarded as the father of India's nuclear weapons programme, said: "My feeling is that whatever we want to do in that direction, India should become self-reliant in Nuclear energy. Fortunately Thorium is there. Some more fast breeder reactor we have to build." Copyright © 2007 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service ***************************************************************** 4 FT.com: Nuclear plans face fresh challenge Financial Times FT.com By Fiona Harvey and Rebecca Bream Published: October 24 2007 20:04 | Last updated: October 24 2007 20:04 Fresh legal challenges are expected to hamper plans to build new nuclear power stations in the UK. The government expects further attempts to take it to court in the coming months as it brings forward its plans for nuclear energy, according to leaked documents prepared by the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, and seen by the Financial Times. * © Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2007. "FT" and "Financial ***************************************************************** 5 NRC: NRC Proposes $3,250 Fine for R&M Engineering, Inc. News Release - Region IV - 2007-039 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region IV 611 Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 400, Arlington TX 76011 www.nrc.gov CONTACT: Victor Dricks Phone: 817-860-8128 E-mail: opa4@nrc.gov The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has proposed a fine of $3,250 against R&M Engineering, Inc. of Juneau, Alaska, for violating NRC requirements. In an Oct. 23 letter to the company, NRC Region IV Administrator E. Collins said that as a result of an NRC inspection, the agency determined that the company violated NRC requirements for the possession and use of radioactive materials. On Aug. 19, 2006, a company employee left a portable gauge containing radioactive materials unsecured in the bed of a pickup truck in the company’s parking lot for several minutes when he went into an office to retrieve some paperwork. In a separate incident later that day, a portable gauge containing radioactive materials fell out of the back of a company vehicle driven by the same individual on a public highway. The gauge was retrieved by a member of the public and promptly returned, but it was not under the company employee’s direct control and constant surveillance for a short period of time. “The NRC considers the loss of licensed materials significant, even for short periods of time,” Collins said in a letter to the company. “Although there were no actual safety consequences resulting from this violation, the failure to maintain adequate security of portable gauges and the loss of the gauge could have resulted in unintended radiation doses to members of the public if the sealed sources were moved from the locked and shielded position.” NRC discussed the violations, their significance, the root cause and the company’s corrective actions during an enforcement conference with the company on Oct. 4. The company has taken steps to prevent recurrence. The company has 30 days to either pay the proposed fine or challenge it and 10 days in which to request alternative dispute resolution. The NRC’s letter, its enclosures and the company’s response will be available through the agency’s public document reading room at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Help in accessing these documents is available from the NRC’s Public Document Room by calling 1-800-397-4209. NRC news releases are available through a free listserv subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC Home Page at www.nrc.gov also offers a Subscribe to News link in the News & Information menu. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web Site. Wednesday, October 24, 2007 ***************************************************************** 6 Platts: Global nuclear power to grow between 447 or 679 gigawatts by 2030 2007-10-24 London (Platts)--24Oct2007 By 2030, global nuclear power will grown from 370 GW in 2006 to either 447 gigawatts or 679 GW, the low and high projections, respectively, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency's latest annual assessment released October 23. Present nuclear power plant expansion is centered in Asia, the IAEA said, home to 15 of the 29 units under construction at the end of 2006. Twenty-six of the last 36 reactors connected to the grid were also in Asia. India currently gets less than 3% of its electricity from nuclear, but at the end of 2006 it had one-quarter of the world's nuclear construction with seven units under construction. Details can be found at www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/PressReleases/2007/prn200719.html. For more news, request a free trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/index.xml?story or subscribe now at http://www.platts.com/infostore/product_info.php?cPath=22_41&products_id=67 Copyright © 2007 - Platts, All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 7 Hanford News: Rockers reprise anti-nuke message as Congress considers new energy bill This story was published Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 By Andrew Miga, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Rock musicians Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and Graham Nash are putting a new millennium twist on their 1970s anti-nuclear message, urging Congress not to approve federal loan guarantees for new nuclear power plants. "Thirty years ago, we felt that this monster was dead," Nash said. "It's trying to raise its ugly head." Nearly three decades ago, the three were prominent in the anti-nuke movement, helping organize the "No Nukes" concerts at Madison Square Garden that stirred public opposition to nuclear power. Tuesday, they were on Capitol Hill warning that a Senate version of a new energy bill contains a provision, backed by the nuclear industry, for loan guarantees that could serve as a "virtual blank check from taxpayers" to help build more nuclear plants. The loan guarantee provision, they said, mars an otherwise attractive bill that supports renewable energy sources and improved energy efficiency standards. The musicians have launched a petition drive and YouTube music video. They have backing from environmental groups and dozens of artists such as R.E.M., Ben Harper, Maroon 5, Pearl Jam, Patti Smith and Wynton Marsalis. They said they have collected more than 120,000 signatures to present to Congress. "We're going to encourage our lawmakers to know that the American people are paying attention," said Browne. The Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's trade group, scoffed at the objections, saying nuclear energy is on the brink of a revival partly due to increased energy demands and concerns over global warming. "It's a debate they're going to lose because nuclear energy over the last quarter-century has proven its value to our country," said institute spokesman Steve Kerekes. "It's almost as if they're in a time capsule and they've been transported forward." Reps. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a leading Democrat on energy issues, and Rep. John Hall, D-N.Y., said the musicians will provide more lobbying muscle on the energy bill. Hall, once part of the group Orleans, helped organize the 1979 "No Nukes" concerts. ——— On the Net: Nuke Free campaign: www.nukefree.org Nuclear Energy Institute: http://www.nei.org © 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 8 NPR: Nuclear Power 101 A Renaissance for Nuclear Power Scientists used Albert Einstein's theory of relativity in creating both atomic energy and the atom bomb. AFP/Getty Images The Bryant Park Project, October 24, 2007 · With the Senate considering financial backing for the construction of nuclear reactors, physics professor David Morgan explains exactly how nuclear energy works, how it differs from nuclear weapons, how it can go wrong and how it can help to address climate change. ***************************************************************** 9 toledoblade.com: Engineer says utility covered up problems Article published Wednesday, October 24, 2007 Davis-Besse criminal trial drawing to close By TOM HENRY BLADE STAFF WRITER Closing arguments are planned today in the first of two federal criminal trials stemming from the cover-up at Davis-Besse in the fall of 2001, when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission correctly picked up on signals that the Ottawa County nuclear plant was running afoul but had no idea its reactor head was about to burst. FirstEnergy Corp. of Akron, which owns and operates the facility, has paid a record $33.5 million in fines for violating a federal law that requires complete and accurate information for the NRC. Former plant engineers David Geisen, Rodney N. Cook, and Andrew Siemaszko face up to five years in prison and separate $250,000 fines if a U.S. District Court jury convicts them on charges of lying to the government. Mr. Geisen, of Wisconsin, and Mr. Cook, a Tennessee contractor, are the subjects of the first trial, which began Oct. 1. Mr. Siemaszko will be tried later. In yesterday's concluding testimony, a FirstEnergy supervisor testified that he immediately saw evidence of a cover-up. Randy Rossomme, who now works in the utility's headquarters, was a quality-assurance supervisor at FirstEnergy's twin-reactor Beaver Valley nuclear complex in western Pennsylvania when the damage to Davis-Besse's reactor head was discovered in March, 2002. He said he was taken aback by documents he examined weeks later after the utility's nuclear subsidiary named him to an internal "root cause" inspection team at Davis-Besse. "My first gut response was they lied - they, being Davis-Besse," Mr. Rossomme told the jury. Mr. Cook, who took the stand Friday, concluded his fifth hour of testimony yesterday morning by telling the jury he did not deliberately withhold information. The trial, with Judge David Katz presiding, has been heard by 16 people - a 12-member jury and four alternates. Ten are women and six are men. Judge Katz said deliberations might not begin until tomorrow if closing arguments take as long as expected today. © 2007 The Blade. By using this service, you accept the terms of our privacy statement and our visitor agreement. Please read them. The Toledo Blade Company, 541 N. Superior St., Toledo, OH 43660 , (419) 724-6000 ***************************************************************** 10 NRC: Indian Point guard's nap not a significant lapse Wednesday, October 24, 2007 By GREG CLARY THE JOURNAL NEWS BUCHANAN - The security guard found sleeping on the job at Indian Point during the summer was not a significant safety lapse, according to a report released yesterday by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The agency ruled that the Aug. 26 incident, in which an on-site NRC inspector needed nearly two minutes to awaken the guard, merited a green rating, the NRC's grade for "very low safety significance." The agency will, however, include the incident in the NRC's upcoming performance assessment for the nuclear power plant, it reported in a letter yesterday to Entergy Nuclear, which owns and operates Indian Point. The NRC's assessment didn't find many supporters in the offices of Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano. "So the NRC thinks it's OK for guards to fall asleep at their posts?" saked Susan Tolchin, Spano's chief adviser. "We don't share the NRC's cavalier attitude. We think a guard asleep at the switch at Indian Point is a cause for concern." A more detailed NRC report, most of which is classified, was also sent to the company, said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the agency. "It ends up as a green finding ... because we always look at this in the context of the overall security program," Sheehan said. "While this guard was inattentive briefly, all the other elements of the program were still in place, including patrols, barriers, motion detectors and cameras." Sheehan said that even at the checkpoint where the guard was sleeping - an access point to the protected area for both Indian Point reactors - it would be necessary to scan a person's badge and hand to get inside. Subsequent testing showed the officer was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol when he was discovered about 2 p.m. on a Sunday shift. Entergy spokesman Jim Steets said the guard has since resigned after initially being put on administrative leave. Steets said the company did not push the officer out. "He knew he was inattentive to his duties and he made a decision on his own," Steets said. "He wasn't that far from retirement anyway." Officials from Riverkeeper, the environmental organization that continues to push for closing Indian Point, said the incident shows that security is just another area of operation at the nuclear power plant that Entergy isn't handling well. "I would reiterate our concern that Indian Point is a poorly run facility," said Phillip Musegaas, a policy analyst for the Tarrytown-based group. "We have continuing concerns about security and about guards being overworked at the plant." Steets said the NRC completed an analysis of Indian Point's overall security after the incident and found no other blemishes. "This is a security program that has been immensely strengthened over the years and meets all the regulatory requirements," Steets said. "This inspection affirms that." NRC officials said Entergy's quick response in the matter was one of the factors that the agency evaluated in determining that the event didn't have a significant impact. Steets said responding immediately was important for overall security and for other guards. "We know that moving quickly is extremely important in dealing with the inattentiveness, but also in sending a message to the other security officers that this is not something that will be tolerated," he said. Reach Greg Clary at 914-696-8566 or gclary@lohud.com. Copyright © 2007 The Journal News, a Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper serving Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties in New York. ***************************************************************** 11 NRC: NRC Issues New Edition of Information Digest News Release - 2007-139 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov www.nrc.gov The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued its 2007-2008 edition of the Information Digest, containing up-to-date information about the agency, domestic and worldwide nuclear energy, nuclear materials safety, and radioactive waste in an easy-to-read format. This edition, NUREG-1350, Volume 19, provides an expanded discussion about future U.S. commercial nuclear power reactor licensing. It also features enhanced graphics and illustrations as well as an updated design. The Information Digest, published annually, provides a compilation of NRC-related and nuclear-related data and is intended to serve as a quick reference to major facts about the agency and the industry it regulates. It is available electronically at: http://www.nrc.gov in the lower left-hand corner of the NRC’s homepage. A single copy is available free from NRC by sending requests to: DISTRIBUTION@nrc.gov or a fax to: 301-415-2289. Multiple copies may be purchased from the U.S. Government Printing Office by phone at 1-866-512-1800 or locally at 202-512-1800; by internet at: www.gpoaccess.gov;or by fax at: 202-512-2250 or from the National Technical Information Service at 1-800-553-6847 or locally at 703 605-6000; by e-mail: orders@ntis.gov; or fax: 703 605-6900. NRC news releases are available through a free listserv subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC Home Page at www.nrc.gov also offers a Subscribe to News link in the News & Information menu. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web Site. Wednesday, October 24, 2007 ***************************************************************** 12 Sentinel Online: Water leak at Penn State reactor slows; source still unknown Last updated: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 5:47 PM EDT STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - A leak in the pool of water that cools Penn State's nuclear research reactor has slowed, but the source is still unknown two weeks after the problem was discovered. Workers have completed the draining of half of the 71,000-gallon pool of water at the Breazeale Nuclear facility, Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan said Wednesday. The school has characterized the problem discovered Oct. 9 as a minor leak of "slightly radioactive water" that poses no danger to employees, students, the community or the environment. The reactor was taken out of operation but the building remains open for classes and research unrelated to the reactor. "Obviously, our major concern is safety," Bill Dreibelbis, a manager at Penn State Environmental Health and Safety, said Wednesday. "At this point, there is no issue with public safety." Over the next few weeks, a contractor will be brought in to start relining and sealing the pool walls on the half that has been drained. After that, the university hopes to do the same work on the other half. The facility is more than 50 years old, and the pool was last relined about 30 years ago, Dreibelbis said. "As far as we know, there's no question about the integrity of the concrete of the pool. It's probably just a small crack," he said. The sealing and relining work will probably take care of the problem, he said. The commission said an inspector will monitor the work. On the Net: Breazeale Nuclear Reactor: http://www.rsec.psu.edu/ A service of the Associated Press(AP) ©2007, The Sentinel, a division of Lee Enterprise The Sentinel Newspaper, Carlisle, Pennsylvania ***************************************************************** 13 NRC: South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company; Notice of Receipt and Availability of Application for a Combined License FR Doc E7-20861 [Federal Register: October 24, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 205)] [Notices] [Page 60394] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr24oc07-136] NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION On September 20, 2007, South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company (STPNOC, or the applicant) filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC, the Commission) pursuant to section 103 of the Atomic Energy Act and 10 CFR Part 52, an application for a combined license (COL) for two Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) nuclear power plants at the South Texas Project Electrical Generating Station located in Matagorda County, Texas, and identified as South Texas Project Units 3 and 4. An applicant may seek a COL in accordance with Subpart C of 10 CFR Part 52. The information submitted by the applicant includes certain administrative information such as financial qualifications submitted pursuant to 10 CFR 50.33, and an agreement to limit access to sensitive information submitted pursuant to 10 CFR 50.37. To support its application, the applicant also requested an exemption from certain requirements of section IV.A.2 of Appendix A to 10 CFR Part 52, as documented in its September 20, 2007, letter. The NRC will review this exemption request and render its decision as part of the acceptance review of the application. Subsequent Federal Register notices will address the acceptability of the tendered COL application for docketing and provisions for participation of the public in the COL review process. A copy of the application is available for public inspection at the Commission(s Public Document Room (PDR), located at One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland, and via the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at the NRC Web site, http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. The accession number for the application is ML072830407. Future publicly available documents related to the application will also be posted in ADAMS. Persons who do not have access to ADAMS, or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, should contact the NRC Public Document Room staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. The application is also available at http://www.nrc.gov/ reactors/new-licensing/col.html. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 16th day of October, 2007. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Thomas A. Bergman, Deputy Director for Licensing Operations, Division of New Reactor Licensing, Office of New Reactors. [FR Doc. E7-20861 Filed 10-23-07; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 14 NRC: NRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards to Meet Nov. 1-3 In Rockville, Md. News Release - 2007-140 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov www.nrc.gov The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) will hold a public meeting Nov. 1-3 in Rockville, Md., to discuss, among other items, topics of interest to NRC Commissioner Peter B. Lyons. In addition, the committee will be briefed on NRC staff’s implementation of the lessons learned from the review of Early Site Permit (ESP) applications for nuclear power plants, the Vogtle ESP application, ESBWR reactor design certification safety evaluation, and an extended power uprate application for the Susquehanna nuclear power plant. Portions of this meeting may be closed to protect information that is proprietary and are identified in the agenda. The ACRS advises the Commission on licensing and operation of nuclear power plants and related safety issues. The meeting will be held in Room T-2B3 of the agency’s Two White Flint North building, at 11545 Rockville Pike. The session on Thursday will run from 8:30 a.m to 7:15 p.m.; Friday’s session will run from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; and Saturday’s session will run from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. A complete agenda is available on the NRC’s Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/acrs/agenda/2007. Anyone with questions or those wishing to make public statements during the meeting should contact Giriga S. Shukla, at 301-415-6855. To pursue video conferencing services, contact Theron Brown, at 301-415-8066. NRC news releases are available through a free listserv subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC Home Page at www.nrc.gov also offers a Subscribe to News link in the News & Information menu. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web Site. Wednesday, October 24, 2007 ***************************************************************** 15 NRC: Appointments To Performance Review Boards for Senior Executive Service FR Doc E7-20917 [Federal Register: October 24, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 205)] [Notices] [Page 60394-60395] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr24oc07-137] NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION AGENCY: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Appointment to Performance Review Boards for Senior Executive Service. SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has announced the following appointments to the NRC Performance Review Boards. This notice amends the Federal Register notice issued September 14, 2007, by adding two additional names. The following individuals are appointed as members of the NRC Performance Review Board (PRB) [[Page 60395]] responsible for making recommendations to the appointing and awarding authorities on performance appraisal ratings and performance awards for Senior Executives and Senior Level employees: Darren B. Ash, Deputy Executive Director for Information Services and Chief Information Officer. R. Wiliam Borchardt, Director, Office of New Reactors. Samuel J. Collins, Regional Administrator, Region I. Karen D. Cyr, General Counsel. Margaret M. Doane, Director, Office of International Programs. John A. Grobe, Associate Director for Engineering and Safety Systems, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. Timothy F. Hagan, Director, Office of Administration. Bruce S. Mallet, Deputy Executive Director for Reactor and Preparedness Programs (Designate), Office of the Executive Director for Operations. William M. McCabe, Chief Financial Officer. Charles L. Miller, Director, Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management Programs. Luis A. Reyes, Executive Director for Operations. Martin J. Virgilio, Deputy Executive Director for Materials, Waste, Research, State, Tribal and Compliance Programs. The following individuals will serve as members of the NRC PRB Panel that was established to review appraisals and make recommendations to the appointing and awarding authorities for NRC PRB members: Stephen G. Burns, Deputy General Counsel, Office of the General Counsel. Brian W. Sheron, Director, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research. Roy P. Zimmerman, Director, Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response. All appointments are made pursuant to Section 4314 of Chapter 43 of Title 5 of the United States Code. EFFECTIVE DATE: October 24, 2007. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: Secretary, Executive Resources Board, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555, (301) 492- 2076. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 12th day of October 2007. For the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. James F. McDermott, Secretary, Executive Resources Board. [FR Doc. E7-20917 Filed 10-23-07; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 16 NRC: William Stein, III, M.D.; Denial of Petition for Rulemaking FR Doc E7-20918 [Federal Register: October 24, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 205)] [Proposed Rules] [Page 60285-60288] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr24oc07-23] Proposed Rules Federal Register ________________________________________________________________________ This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules. ======================================================================== [[Page 60285]] NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 10 CFR Part 35 [Docket No. PRM-35-19] AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Petition for rulemaking; denial. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is denying a petition for rulemaking (PRM-35-19) submitted by William Stein, III, M.D. (petitioner). The petitioner requested that the NRC amend the regulations that govern medical use of byproduct material concerning training for parenteral administration of certain radioactive drugs-- samarium-153 lexidronam (Quadramet), iodine-131 tositumomab (Bexxar), and yttrium-90 ibritumomab tiuxetan (Zevalin)--used to treat cancer. The petitioner believes that these regulations are unduly burdensome for the use of these drugs. The petitioner requested that the regulations be amended to codify an 80-hour Laboratory and classroom, training and appropriate work experience, and written attestation as appropriate and sufficient for physicians desiring to attain authorized user status for therapeutic administrations of these unsealed byproduct materials. ADDRESSES: Copies of the petition for rulemaking, the public comments received, and NRC's letter to the petitioner may be examined at the NRC Public Document Room, Public File Area Room O1F21, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD. These documents also may be viewed and downloaded electronically via the rulemaking Web site. The NRC maintains an Agencywide Document Access and Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and image files of NRC's public documents. These documents may be accessed through the NRC's Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. If you do not have access to ADAMS or if there are problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, contact the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415- 4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: James R. Firth, Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management Programs, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone (301) 415- 6628; e-mail: jrf2@nrc.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Petition On June 14, 2006 (71 FR 34285), the NRC published a notice of receipt of a petition for rulemaking filed by William Stein, III, M.D. The petitioner requested that the NRC amend the regulations that govern medical use of byproduct material concerning training for parenteral administration of certain radioactive drugs--samarium-153 lexidronam (Quadramet), iodine-131 tositumomab (Bexxar), and yttrium-90 ibritumomab tiuxetan (Zevalin)--used to treat cancer. The petitioner believes that these regulations are unduly burdensome for the use of these drugs. The petitioner requested that the regulations be amended to codify an 80-hour training and experience requirement as appropriate and sufficient for physicians desiring to attain authorized user status for these unsealed byproduct materials. The petitioner requested that the NRC amend Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulation (CFR) part 35, ``Medical Use of Byproduct Material'' to recognize that 80 hours of classroom and laboratory training, supervised work experience, and a written attestation for physicians are adequate and sufficient to attain authorized user status for parenteral administrations of Quadramet, Bexxar, and Zevalin. The petitioner provided three options for addressing this issue. (1) Add a specific requirement to 10 CFR part 35 that is essentially equivalent to the language in Sec. 35.394, ``Training for the oral administration of sodium iodide I-131 requiring a written directive in quantities greater than 1.22 Gigabecquerels (33 millicuries),'' which governs oral administration of sodium iodide I- 131 particularly with regard to the alternate pathway, but requires experience with at least three parenteral administrations of dosages to patients or human research subjects for each of these drugs. (2) Add a separate requirement for Quadramet, Bexxar, and Zevalin similar to the training and experience codification for administration of sodium iodide I-131 to allow the NRC to evaluate each substance individually so all radioactive drugs can be handled appropriately from a radiation safety perspective. (3) Revise 10 CFR 35.396, ``Training for the parenteral administration of unsealed byproduct material requiring a written directive,'' to specify an 80-hour classroom and laboratory training period, appropriate work experience, and a written attestation to apply to the alternate pathway for any physician, not limited to board- certified radiation oncologists. Specifically, remove the current Sec. 35.396(c) and redesignate Sec. Sec. 35.396(d)(1), (d)(2), and (d)(3) as Sec. Sec. 35.396(c)(1), (c)(2), and (c)(3). The petitioner recognizes that the Commission may not agree with this change if other more hazardous parenterally-administered radiopharmaceuticals become available, necessitating the increased training currently specified in this requirement. The petitioner stated that the training and experience requirements for physicians who seek authorized user status for parenteral administration of Quadramet, Bexxar, and Zevalin to treat certain cancers should reflect the current requirements in 10 CFR 35.394 and not those currently in 10 CFR 35.396. The petitioner noted that all administrations of Quadramet, Bexxar, and Zevalin require written directives and believes that these drugs are generally less hazardous than oral dosages of sodium iodide I-131. The petitioner therefore believes that the training and experience requirements should not exceed the 80 hours specified for an endocrinologist who treats thyroid disorders with oral dosages of sodium iodide I-131. The petitioner stated that Sec. 35.396 was published in the Federal Register on March 30, 2005 (70 FR 16336), as part of the final rule that amended training and experience requirements for administration of radiopharmaceuticals. The petitioner believes that the NRC's rationale for the [[Page 60286]] training and experience requirements in Sec. 35.396 is not known and that an opportunity for public comment period was not provided for this provision before it appeared in the final rule. The petitioner also stated that the NRC has not considered codification of new drugs that require written directives as they become available for medical use and that there is an unmet regulatory need to address the ability of physicians to qualify for medical use authorization for certain unsealed byproduct materials that are currently commercially available and for which written directives are required. The petitioner believes that users of radiopharmaceuticals should be subjected to training requirements according to potential radiation risk as is the case for oral administrations of I-131, rather than being lumped into a collective group, which the petitioner characterized as being the NRC's current practice. The petitioner believes that the current requirements are burdensome and deficient in this regard and that, without regulatory relief, physicians would be discouraged from providing these U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved and commercially available treatments resulting in an adverse impact on their ability to practice medicine. Under the current requirements, the petitioner believes that physicians would be required to become board-certified radiation oncologists under Sec. 35.396 or complete 700 hours of training (including 200 hours of classroom and laboratory training) under Sec. 35.390 to attain authorized user status to parenterally administer Quadramet, Bexxar, or Zevalin. Public Comments on the Petition The notice of receipt of the petition for rulemaking invited interested persons to submit comments. The comment period closed on August 28, 2006. As of July 27, 2007, the NRC had received 25 comment letters from individuals, State government agencies, and non- governmental organizations. In addition, the Advisory Committee on the Medical Uses of Isotopes (ACMUI) took a position on the arguments made in the petition. The NRC received 18 comment letters that supported granting the petition or agreed with the conclusions of the petitioner. Fourteen of these letters were submitted by 29 physicians. Two letters were submitted by State government agencies, the Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services and the Alabama Department of Public Health. Two letters were submitted by three individuals. Most of the commenters supporting the petition submitted form letters, or comments that were otherwise similar to one another. In general, these commenters stated that not granting the petition would intrude into the practice of medicine, discourage physicians from treating patients, and establish barriers to the use of potentially effective therapies, thus adversely impacting patient access to these therapies and increasing health care costs. These commenters also believed that the activity administrations of Quadramet, Bexxar, and Zevalin are from a radiation safety perspective less hazardous than oral administration of sodium iodide I- 131 for which the NRC requires only 80 hours of classroom and laboratory training. The NRC received seven comment letters that opposed granting the petition. Two of these were submitted by physicians, one was submitted by a State government agency (i.e., the Iowa Department of Public Health), and four were submitted by non-governmental organizations (i.e., the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), American College of Radiation Oncology (ACRO), American College of Radiology (ACR), and American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO)). In addition, at its October 24, 2006, meeting, the ACMUI passed a unanimous motion rejecting the arguments made by the petitioner. In general, many of these commenters disagreed that there was a shortage of individuals capable of performing these treatments or that patients were unable to access these treatments. Many of these commenters also raised concerns that there would be radiation safety issues and patients would be exposed to additional risk if the petition was granted; e.g., that medical oncology/hematology training does not include the extensive background necessary for administering these radiopharmaceuticals and that significant knowledge regarding handling of these radiopharmaceuticals cannot be imparted with limited training. These commenters also asserted that the amount of training required was debated many times during the revisions to 10 CFR part 35 and the NRC made a deliberate decision that the level of training required to administer these and similar treatments must include 700 hours of training and experience to ensure public health and safety. These commenters also stated that the intent of the regulations was not to regulate ``radionuclide by radionuclide,'' but to have generally applicable rules to accommodate new agents. Reasons for Denial After reviewing the information provided in the petition, the comment letters, and the views of the ACMUI, the NRC is denying the petition. The NRC believes that the current NRC regulations at 10 CFR 35.390 and 35.396 establish the appropriate amount of training and experience for a physician to become an authorized user for the parenteral administration of unsealed byproduct material requiring a written directive, including Quadramet, Bexxar, and Zevalin. The decision to deny this petition is consistent with the NRC policy statement, ``Medical Use of Byproduct Material'' (65 FR 47654; August 3, 2000). The NRC indicated in its general statement of policy that ``NRC will, when justified by the risk to patients, regulate the radiation safety of patients, primarily to assure the use of radionuclides is in accordance with the physician's directions.'' In the discussion of public comments on the medical use policy statement, the NRC indicated that the regulations for the medical use of byproduct material are predicated on the assumption that properly trained and adequately informed physicians will make decisions that are in the best interests of their patients. The training and experience requirements for the medical use of unsealed byproduct material requiring a written directive help to ensure that authorized users are properly trained and adequately informed. The elements of the current training and experience requirements for the use of unsealed byproduct materials were established through two separate rulemakings. The first rulemaking, a major revision to 10 CFR part 35 (67 FR 20250; April 24, 2002), was intended to focus NRC's regulations on those medical procedures that pose the highest risk to workers, patients, and the public, and structure the regulations to be more risk-informed and performance-based. The second rulemaking (70 FR 16336; March 30, 2005) revised the 10 CFR part 35 requirements for the recognition of specialty boards whose certifications may be used to demonstrate the adequacy of the training and experience of individuals for the purpose of serving as authorized persons and certain training and experience requirements for pathways for authorized status other than by the board certification pathways. Both rulemakings involved extensive input from the medical community, Agreement States, and the public, and [[Page 60287]] afforded substantial opportunity for public comment. During the 2002 revision to 10 CFR part 35, the NRC increased the required amount of training and experience from 80 hours to 700 hours for most medical uses of unsealed byproduct material requiring a written directive. The 700 hours spent in training provides assurance that physicians spend an adequate amount of time in an environment in which radioactive drugs are routinely being prepared and/or administered for medical use. In 2005, the NRC clarified that to properly cover the topics important for the safety for these uses, for the alternate pathway to authorized status, the minimum amount of classroom and laboratory training was 200 hours (see 70 FR 16336). In this connection, to achieve authorization via the board certification pathway, the individual must successfully complete multiple year residency training in a radiation therapy or nuclear medicine training program or a program in a related medical specialty, each of which also includes 700 hours of training and experience as described in Sec. Sec. 35.390(b)(1)(i) through (b)(1)(ii)(E) of the alternate pathway requirements. The required training is that considered appropriate for the purposes of radiation safety of workers, members of the public, and patients. The adequacy of the training of authorized users is an important contributor to radiation safety. An important aspect of the NRC requirements for the medical use of byproduct material is the flexibility provided to medical practitioners. Medical use licensees have the flexibility to use radioactive drugs requiring a written directive for indications and methods of administration that are not listed in the FDA-approved package insert. These licensees are able to depart from the manufacturer's instructions for preparing radioactive drugs. Because of the flexibility offered to physicians, they are expected to have certain training, even if, for example, they choose not to exercise their flexibility, such as using only unit dosages. The petitioner asserted, with regard to the requirements at 10 CFR 35.396, that the NRC's reasoning is not known and that no comment period was offered before this requirement appeared in the final rule. Concerning these assertions, the requirements at Sec. 35.396 were established during the 2005 rulemaking and fully explained in the Supplementary Information accompanying the final rule. As explained in the final rule notice, the NRC established these requirements in the final rule in response to public comments on the proposed rule, published in the Federal Register on December 9, 2003 (68 FR 68549). The public comments expressed a concern that the training requirements in Sec. 35.390 should consider the totality of all work experience for individuals trained in radiation oncology. As discussed in the Supplementary Information accompanying the final rule, the NRC agreed that certain physicians, such as those who meet the requirements for training and experience for uses under Sec. Sec. 35.490 or 35.690, have a good understanding of radiation that includes topics common to the use of sealed sources and unsealed byproduct material. Therefore, the NRC included Sec. 35.396 to provide a pathway to authorized status that allows individuals to take credit for training and experience associated with other medical uses of byproduct material that may be applicable to the use of unsealed byproduct material. To ensure that these individuals would have adequate training and experience to use unsealed byproduct material safely, the NRC requires that these individuals have training and experience applicable to the parenteral administration of unsealed byproduct material for which a written directive is required. The petitioner also asserts that the administrations of Quadramet, Bexxar, and Zevalin are no more hazardous from a radiation safety perspective than the oral administration of sodium iodide I-131, and therefore the training and experience requirements for physicians treating their patients with these drugs should not exceed those for an endocrinologist treating thyroid disorders with oral sodium iodide I- 131. The NRC has addressed the difference in the required number of hours of training and experience for the oral administration of sodium iodide I-131 requiring a written directive and other medical uses of unsealed byproduct material requiring a written directive in both the 2002 rulemaking and the 2005 rulemaking. When the proposed rule amending Part 35 was published in 1998 (63 FR 43516; August 13, 1998), the training and experience requirements then in existence pertaining to treatment of hyperthyroidism and thyroid carcinoma were deleted and were to be subsumed within the training requirements that applied to the use of unsealed material for which a written directive is required proposed in Sec. 35.390. Under the proposed revision, individuals wishing to become authorized users of unsealed byproduct material for which a written directive is required (including the use of sodium iodide I-131 to treat hyperthyroidism and thyroid carcinoma) would have been required to obtain 40 hours of supervised practical experience at a medical institution, in addition to the 80 hours of didactic training which had been required by the prior regulations. This would have increased the amount of training and experience required for the use of sodium iodide I-131 to treat hyperthyroidism and thyroid carcinoma. However, as explained in the Supplementary Information accompanying the final rule, commenters were strongly opposed to the proposed changes to the requirements for the administration of sodium iodide I-131 for treatment of hyperthyroidism and thyroid cancer. These commenters indicated that the increased training was not warranted for these purposes in light of endocrinologists' impeccable safety record with the use of sodium iodide I-131 and the fact that there had been no records of therapeutic misadministrations of any byproduct material by endocrinologists, and that in reality most of the practical aspects of handling sodium iodide I-131 that would be covered in the proposed 40 hours of additional training were already covered in the 80 hours of didactic training and supervised clinical training. The NRC considered these comments in making a determination that Sec. Sec. 35.392 and 35.394 should be added in the final rule to specifically address oral administrations of sodium iodide I-131. These sections did not increase the duration of training for the oral administration of sodium iodide I-131 over the previous requirements for such use in Sec. Sec. 35.932 and 35.934. However, with regard to all other uses of unsealed byproduct material for which a written directive is required, a specific determination was made to increase the training and experience requirements from 80 hours to 700 hours. The NRC made this determination after considering the potential for greater associated radiation risks of the use of these unsealed byproduct materials and the public comments received on the proposed rule (67 FR 20250; April 24, 2002). Subsequently, during the revision made to the training and experience requirements in 2005, the NRC specifically determined not to change the existing requirements in Sec. Sec. 35.390, 35.392, or 35.394. The Supplementary Information accompanying the final rule in 2005 notes that although the NRC continued to believe that the [[Page 60288]] increase in training and experience hours was generally necessary for physicians authorized under Sec. 35.390, to qualify as an authorized user under the limited authorization of performing oral administration of sodium iodide I-131, a physician must have 80 hours of classroom and laboratory training and the specified supervised work experience. As noted in the Supplementary Information (70 FR 16336; March 30, 2005), the NRC based its determination on licensee use, NRC inspections, and experience with medical events reported after the effective date of the 2002 rule. The petitioner has not provided sufficient specific information that would warrant the NRC to reconsider this determination. The petitioner has asserted that the training and experience requirements for the parenteral administration of unsealed byproduct material are unduly burdensome and that an entire class of physicians is unfairly discouraged from providing FDA-approved and commercially available treatments. The petitioner believes this results in an adverse impact on their ability to practice medicine and discourages medical oncologists/hematologists from providing these FDA-approved and commercially available treatments. The NRC is unaware of problems in Agreement States or non-Agreement States with patient access to these treatments that would indicate that the training and experience requirements represent an unnecessary burden. Neither the petitioner nor the commenters supporting the petition provided specific information or data supporting the assertion that there is a problem with patient access to these treatments resulting from unnecessarily burdensome requirements for training and experience. The training and experience requirements are intended to ensure that authorized users of byproduct material are properly trained and adequately informed. The NRC believes that the currently required amount of training and experience for the parenteral administration of unsealed byproduct material requiring a written directive is appropriate and does not represent an unnecessary burden. The NRC notes that its requirements are not written to favor or penalize any class of physician (e.g., any physician can qualify as an authorized user for the oral administration of sodium iodide I-131), but are written to reflect the training necessary to ensure that authorized user physicians have adequate training. The alternate pathways for acquiring the training and experience necessary to become an authorized user were developed to provide physicians with a way to qualify for authorized user status, without having to acquire board certification or to have any particular specialty. Consequently, the NRC does not believe that medical oncologists/hematologists or any other class of physician are unfairly discouraged from becoming an authorized user or treating their patients. The NRC's regulatory approach is intended to provide a flexible, risk-informed approach to the regulation of medical uses of byproduct material. In addition, the existing approach reduces the need to revise requirements for individual radiopharmaceuticals. The training and experience requirements for the medical use of byproduct material are a matter of strict compatibility between the NRC and the Agreement States and have been assigned Compatibility Category B. This means that Agreement States should adopt program elements essentially identical to those established by the NRC. In addition, training programs for candidates of the medical specialty boards may have to adapt their training programs to remain current with changes to NRC and Agreement State training and experience requirements. The current approach to training and experience for the medical use of unsealed byproduct material accommodates the introduction of new radiopharmaceuticals without requiring additional rulemaking, with its associated costs to the Agreement States. Attempting to tailor the training and experience requirements to specific uses of unsealed byproduct material and to the amount of flexibility that a user may wish to have would significantly increase the complexity of the regulatory oversight. The NRC does not believe that such added complexity would be of benefit to patients, the Agreement States, licensees, current and prospective authorized users, or the medical specialty boards. The decision to deny the petition is consistent with the NRC strategic goals and strategies as described in the NRC Strategic Plan for fiscal years 2004 through 2009 (NUREG-1614). The training and experience requirements for the parenteral administration of unsealed byproduct material, including Quadramet, Bexxar, and Zevalin, do not present a significant regulatory impediment to the safe and beneficial use of these radioactive materials. In addition, the amount of classroom and laboratory training required to become an authorized user for the administration of these radiopharmaceuticals is necessary to protect public health and safety and the NRC regulations would not be improved by changing the requirements. In conclusion, the NRC is denying the petition because the NRC has determined that the current requirements establish the appropriate amount of training and experience for a physician to become an authorized user for the parenteral administration of Quadramet, Bexxar, and Zevalin and that the NRC requirements do not impose an unnecessary regulatory burden for the use of Quadramet, Bexxar, Zevalin, and similar radiopharmaceuticals. The existing NRC regulations provide the basis for NRC to have reasonable assurance that public health and safety is adequately protected. Neither the petitioner nor the commenters supporting the petition have provided sufficient information such as would warrant the regulatory relief sought by the petitioner. For the reasons cited in this document, the NRC denies this petition. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 5th day of October, 2007. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. William F. Kane, Acting Executive Director for Operations. [FR Doc. E7-20918 Filed 10-23-07; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 17 NRC: State of Nevada; Denial of a Petition for Rulemaking FR Doc E7-20919 [Federal Register: October 24, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 205)] [Proposed Rules] [Page 60288-60290] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr24oc07-24] NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 10 CFR Part 63 [Docket No. PRM-63-2] AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Petition for rulemaking: Denial. SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or Commission) is denying a petition for rulemaking submitted by the State of Nevada (PRM-63-2). The petition requests that NRC amend its regulations for the proposed geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada (YM) to specify the limits of permissible spent fuel storage at the YM site. Petitioner believes that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is planning to construct an Aging Facility at the YM site designed to store 21,000 metric tons of heavy metal in what petitioner believes is a manifest violation of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended, and the Commission's regulations. NRC is denying the petition because NRC's current regulations are [[Page 60289]] consistent with law and do not permit storage of spent nuclear fuel at the YM site unless such storage is integral to waste handling, necessary treatment, and disposal at the proposed repository, including storage which is integral to the thermal-loading strategy for disposal that DOE may include in its design of the entire repository system. DOE must make the case, in its anticipated license application, that any contemplated storage of spent nuclear fuel is permissible because it is integral to waste handling, necessary treatment, and disposal activities. NRC believes that, without an application currently before the agency, the issues raised by the petition are best addressed during the agency's review of the application when a final design will be available and an opportunity to request a hearing will be offered. ADDRESSES: Publicly available documents related to this petition, including the petition for rulemaking and NRC's letter of denial to the petitioner may be viewed electronically on public computers in NRC's Public Document Room (PDR), 01F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. The PDR reproduction contractor will copy documents for a fee. Publicly available documents created or received at NRC after November 1, 1999, are also available electronically at the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this site, the public can gain entry into the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and image files of NRC's public documents. If you do not have access to ADAMS or if there are problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, contact the PDR reference staff at (800) 387-4209, (301) 415-4737 or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: E. Neil Jensen, Office of the General Counsel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, telephone (301) 415-1637 or Toll Free: 1-800-368-5642, e-mail: enj@nrc.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Petition On December 22, 2006, the State of Nevada (petitioner or the State) submitted a ``Petition for Rulemaking to Amend Part 63 to Clarify the Limits on Spent Fuel Storage at the Yucca Mountain Site'' (petition) which was docketed as a petition for rulemaking under 10 CFR 2.802 of the Commission's regulations (PRM-63-2) (available in the Agencywide Document Access and Management System (ADAMS) No. ML070030020). The State supplemented its petition by letter of January 23, 2007 (ML070330245). The petition requests amendments to 10 CFR part 63, NRC's regulations governing the disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) in a proposed geologic repository at YM. The petitioner believes that 10 CFR part 63 must be amended to specify the limits of permissible spent fuel storage at YM, together with related changes to 10 CFR part 71. Petitioner asserts that, at an August 29, 2006 technical exchange and management meeting between NRC and DOE, DOE indicated that its design for the geologic repository included both a ``Receipt Facility'' and an ``Aging Facility'' or ``Aging Pad''. (Meeting summary, ML062710597). The Receipt Facility would be designed to receive commercial spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from off-site and prepare it for the Aging Facility. The Aging Facility would be designed to store 21,000 metric tons of heavy metal (MTHM) on the YM site. See DOE, Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, Surface Facilities Overview and Canister Receipt and Closure Facility, slides presented to NRC/DOE Technical Exchange and Management Meeting on Design Changes Approved Through DOE's Critical Decision (CD-1) Process, August 29, 2006, Las Vegas, Nevada (DOE slides) (ML062510423). Petitioner further asserts that, in an NRC Staff response to the State's letter asking about what surface storage of SNF might be allowed at YM under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended (NWPA), 42 U.S.C 10101 et seq., and 10 CFR Part 63, NRC stated that surface storage is permissible ``to the extent such storage is integral to waste handling and disposal at the proposed repository,'' and that ``storage may also be integral to the thermal-loading strategy the applicant may adopt in its design of the entire repository system.'' See Letter to Robert R. Loux from Jack R. Strosnider, December 4, 2006 (ML062900384). Petitioner believes that it is unclear why a thermal loading strategy must necessarily require the storage of significant quantities of SNF on the YM site and holds that ``it is absurd to suppose that storage in capacities approaching anywhere near 21,000 MTHM on the Site could be justified as part of a `thermal loading' strategy that `is integral to waste handling and disposal.'' Petition at 1. Further, petitioner supplemented its petition to state that DOE's preliminary specifications for a transportation, aging and disposal (TAD) canister system suggest that DOE is planning on long-term storage of SNF at YM. See DOE, Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, Civilian Radioactive Waste Management System: Preliminary Transportation, Aging and Disposal Canister System Performance Specification, Revision A, DOE/RW-0585, November 2006 (DOE Performance Specification) (Licensing Support Network No. DN20023585505). Petitioner believes that DOE's plans for an Aging Facility that could contain 21,000 MTHM are ``manifestly unlawful'' and requests that NRC amend 10 CFR part 63 to specify by rule the limits of permissible spent fuel storage at YM, together with related changes to 10 CFR part 71. As support for its petition, the State provides an analysis of provisions of the NWPA which demonstrate, in petitioner's view, that storage of SNF at YM is unlawful. In brief, petitioner argues that the structure and text of the NWPA show that Congress intended the repository to be for disposal only. This is because Congress provided for a repository for disposal of SNF in Subtitle A of the statute, but separately provided for a limited interim storage program in Subtitle B and for potentially longer term storage in a monitored retrievable storage facility (MRS) in Subtitle C. Both Subtitle B and Subtitle C contain provisions which would effectively prevent storage in a state being considered for a repository. Petitioner points out that ``if Congress had intended a repository site to be used for storage, neither Subtitle B nor Subtitle C would have been necessary, and the statutory prohibition on co-location of a repository and an interim storage facility or MRS would have been nonsensical.'' Petition at 3. Thus, petitioner concludes, the structure of NWPA demonstrates that a repository is for disposal only. Petitioner requests three changes to NRC's rules. First, 10 CFR 63.21(c)(22) (regarding the contents of the license application) would be amended to add a new paragraph viii at the end: viii. Plans for the emplacement of spent nuclear fuel in the underground facility within a reasonably short time after it is received (in no event longer than one year), and information to explain why any facilities for the storage of spent nuclear fuel in the repository operations area or on the Site are integral to safe waste handling and disposal in the underground facility. Second, 10 CFR 63.41(b) (regarding required license conditions) would be amended to add a new subsection (c): (c). The license shall include additional conditions as follows: (1) No spent nuclear [[Page 60290]] fuel may be received in the geologic repository operations area, or on the Site, unless there is reasonable assurance that it can be moved into the underground facility within a reasonably short time (in no event later than one year after receipt); (2) no spent nuclear fuel may be stored in the geologic repository operations area, or on the Site, unless such storage is necessary for the safe and efficient emplacement of spent fuel in the underground facility; and (3) no spent nuclear fuel may be stored in the geologic repository operations area, or on the Site, for the purpose primarily of aging (cooling or radioactive decay) prior to emplacement in the underground facility. The foregoing conditions do not preclude the construction of storage space to allow retrieval of spent fuel after its emplacement in the underground facility or for the amelioration of emergency conditions associated with the repository's operation. Third, to ensure proper coordination between DOE and reactor licensees desirous of sending spent fuel to the repository, 10 CFR 71.5 would be amended by adding a new subsection (c): (c). No licensee possessing spent reactor fuel may deliver the fuel to the Department of Energy or to a carrier for transport to Yucca Mountain, or transport the fuel to Yucca Mountain, unless the fuel either complies with waste disposal criteria (including thermal loading criteria) approved by the Commission, or the fuel is expected to do so within one year after receipt at the Yucca Mountain site. In complying with this subsection, a licensee may rely on compliance certifications provided by the Department of Energy. Reasons for Denial Petitioner recognizes that NRC's regulations are currently in harmony with its view of what storage is permissible: In the preamble to the original Part 63, NRC stated that no license to receive waste or spent fuel would be issued until NRC is able to find that DOE has completed construction of sufficient underground storage space for initial operations, and it concluded that Part 63 does not allow early use of surface facilities for storage of spent fuel. 66 FR 55738 (November 2, 2001). This is consistent with the text of 10 CFR 63.41(a)(1), which provides that no license may be issued until NRC finds that construction of ``[a]ny underground storage space required for initial operation [is] substantially complete.'' Thus, NRC's regulations appear consistent with NWPA in eliminating the possibility of spent fuel storage that is decoupled from actual repository operations and logistics. Petition at 4, n.3. Indeed, NRC recently reaffirmed this interpretation of its regulations when it informed petitioner that surface storage of spent fuel is only permissible, under 10 CFR part 63, to the extent such storage is integral to waste handling and disposal at the proposed repository (including storage which is integral to the thermal-loading strategy the applicant may adopt in its design of the entire repository system). See NRC Staff Letter of December 4, 2006. In the preamble to NRC's final rule incorporating 10 CFR part 63 into its regulations, the Commission stated: The DOE has not indicated to the Commission any intention to seek an authorization for early use of the surface facilities for storage of spent nuclear fuel. Such an authorization likely would necessitate a change to (or an exemption from) the regulations. Before NRC would make changes of this type to its regulations, NRC would need to publish the proposed changes and seek public comment (66 FR 55738; November 2, 2001). These statements make it clear that the Commission does not regard its regulations as sanctioning the type of spent fuel storage imagined by petitioner; i.e., storage of large amounts of spent nuclear fuel on an Aging Pad divorced from waste handling, necessary treatment, and disposal operations. Petitioner's concern about DOE's supposed intent to construct a ``gigantic'' Aging Facility in violation of law apparently stems from information exchanged between DOE and NRC at the August 29, 2006 NRC/ DOE Technical Exchange and Management Meeting. The DOE slides presented design changes that DOE had approved for the repository, including the preliminary hazards analysis (PHA) performed as part of DOE's process for approving design changes. The radiological consequence analysis of the PHA was based on key assumptions with respect to source terms, site weather and the location of workers and members of the public. One of these assumptions was an assumption of aging pads at full capacity which was identified as being 21,000 MTHM. However, assumptions used in a hazards analysis are not the equivalent of an actual plan for SNF storage. Petitioner also cites DOE's draft Performance Specification for a TAD canister system in support of its claim that DOE is planning for ``an illegal Yucca aging pad.'' This document explains, inter alia, that a TAD canister may be aged in an aging overpack which is used to safely contain a loaded TAD canister on the aging pad until repository emplacement thermal limits are met and that it could take a long period of time (years) for sufficient radioactive decay to take place. Clearly, this document suggests that DOE plans to age some amount of spent nuclear fuel for some period of time on an aging pad at the repository but it provides no information on the actual amount or length of time nor explanation as to how whatever DOE is planning complies with 10 CFR 63.41(a). This information should be part of DOE's license application and will be subject to review by the NRC staff. As stated in NRC Staff's December 4, 2006 letter, ``NRC fully expects that DOE would seek authorization for a facility that complies with Federal law. If the application includes an aging facility, the NRC staff would review that facility in the context of the overall repository design to determine if it is integral to waste handling and disposal at the proposed repository * * *.'' Precisely what amount of spent nuclear fuel would meet that test, and precisely what amount of time can be justified, is an issue best resolved in the licensing proceeding. DOE's technical rationale supporting its intended use of the Aging Pad is dependent upon the actual repository design DOE intends to implement and will not be fully known until DOE submits its license application. DOE's design will be subject to scrutiny by the NRC staff in the licensing proceeding. Potential parties to the adjudicatory proceeding may seek to raise contentions on this issue if, in their view, DOE's case does not meet NRC's regulations. Conclusion In sum, NRC's rules already bar storage of SNF at the repository which is not integral to waste handling, necessary treatment, and disposal operations. The Commission believes that, without an application currently before the agency, the issues raised by the petition are best addressed during the agency's review of the application when a final design will be available and an opportunity to request a hearing will be offered. For these reasons, the Commission denies PRM-63-2. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 18th day of October 2007. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Annette L. Vietti-Cook, Secretary of the Commission. [FR Doc. E7-20919 Filed 10-23-07; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 18 NRC: Establishment of Atomic Safety and Licensing Board FR Doc E7-20952 [Federal Register: October 24, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 205)] [Notices] [Page 60394] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr24oc07-135] NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION [Docket Nos. 50-247-LR and 50-286-LR; ASLBP No. 07-858-03-LR-BD01] Pursuant to delegation by the Commission dated December 29,1972, published in the Federal Register, 37 FR 28,710 (1972), and the Commission's regulations, see 10 CFR 2.104, 2.300, 2.303, 2.309, 2.311, 2.318, and 2.321, notice is hereby given that an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board is being established to preside over the following proceeding: Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. (Indian Point Nuclear Generating Units 2 and 3) A Licensing Board is being established pursuant to an August 1, 2007 Notice of Opportunity for Hearing (72 Fed. Reg. 42,134) regarding the April 23, 2007 application for renewal of Operating License Nos. DPR-26 and DPR-64, which authorize Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. (Entergy) to operate the Indian Point Nuclear Generating Units 2 and 3, respectively, at 3216 megawatts thermal for each unit. Entergy's renewal application seeks to extend the current operating licenses-- which expire on September 9, 2013 (Unit 2) and December 12, 2015 (Unit 3)--for an additional twenty years. This proceeding concerns requests for hearing filed by The New York Affordable Reliable Electricity Alliance, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, and Friends of Sustainable Energy, USA, Inc. The Board is comprised of the following administrative judges: Lawrence G. McDade, Chair, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Dr. Richard E. Wardwell, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Dr. Kaye D. Lathrop, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. All correspondence, documents, and other materials shall be filed with the administrative judges in accordance with 10 CFR 2.302. Issued at Rockville, Maryland, this 18th day of October 2007. E. Roy Hawkens, Chief Administrative Judge, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel. [FR Doc. E7-20952 Filed 10-23-07; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 19 WNN: IAEA report predicts nuclear growth 24 October 2007 The International Atomic Energy Agency's latest projections predict that global nuclear generation will grow to between 447 and 679 GWe by 2030, from the current level of 370 GWe. The IAEA's new report, entitled Energy, Electricity and Nuclear Power for the period up to 2030, is the latest of the IAEA's two annual projections - one high, one low - concerning the growth of nuclear generation. The low projection assumes that all nuclear capacity currently under construction or firmly in the development pipeline is completed and attached to the grid, but no further capacity is added. This low projection would see nuclear capacity grow 25% from the 370 GWe present at the end of 2006 to 447 GWe in 2030. The high projection adds additional projects and plans that the IAEA describe as 'reasonable and promising'. When these are included the projection for 2030 rises to 679 GWe, an increase of 93%. This represents an annual growth rate of around 2.5%. The IAEA report says that nuclear power's share of worldwide electricity production rose from less than 1% in 1960 to 16% in 1986, and that percentage has held essentially constant in the 21 years since 1986, with nuclear electricity generation growing steadily at the same pace as overall global electricity generation. At the close of 2006, nuclear provided about 15% of total electricity worldwide. The IAEA expects nuclear power plant expansion to be centred in Asia, noting that 15 of the 29 units under construction at the end of 2006 were in Asia and 26 of the last 36 reactors to be connected to the grid were in Asia. Alan MacDonald, a nuclear energy analyst at the IAEA, said "China and India have booming economies, booming populations, growing energy demands. They need to develop all the energy sources they can ... China plans a five-fold increase in nuclear generation by 2020, India plans an eight-fold increase by 2022." The IAEA's projections are broadly consistent with those recently published by the World Nuclear Association in its latest Market Report, The Global Fuel Market: Supply and Demand 2007-2030, which projects an upper scenario of 730 GWe nuclear capacity by 2030, a lower scenario of 285 GWe, with a reference scenario predicting 529 GWe nuclear generation capacity by 2030. IAEA and WNA predictions for nuclear capacity in 2030. International Atomic Energy Agency WNA's Table of the World's nuclear power reactors information paper WNA's Market Report ***************************************************************** 20 Reuters: US agency denies interference in climate testimony Wed Oct 24, 2007 2:42pm EDT By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor WASHINGTON, Oct 24 (Reuters) - The White House watered down testimony to Congress about climate change by the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before she delivered it, an activist group said on Wednesday, but the agency and White House both denied it. The anti-nuclear group Physicians for Social Responsibility said White House officials had forced CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding to remove specific references about the effects of climate change from Tuesday's testimony to a Senate committee. The group, which also testified before the committee, distributed what it said were copies of Gerberding's testimony before and after it was edited by the White House Office of Management and Budget, or OMB, and said significant changes were made. "It appears the White House has denied a congressional committee access to scientific information about health and global warming. This misuse of science and abuse of the legislative process is deplorable," Dr. Michael McCally, the group's executive director, said in a statement. The White House and CDC denied that serious changes were made to Gerberding's testimony to the Committee on Environment and Public Works. "A number of the agencies had some concerns with the draft and I know that our scientists at the Office of Science and Technology Policy looked at the draft and wanted to make sure that it was taking advantage of the science that had been provided in the (Intergovernmental) Panel on Climate Change," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change this year shared the Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. The physicians group shared the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize as part of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. Some groups have accused the administration of President George W. Bush of downplaying the global climate change threat, and of interfering with scientific and medical decisions. The White House has come to agree with the majority of climate experts who say that global warming is under way and that human activity has contributed to it. NOTHING UNUSUAL CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said it is not unusual for OMB to review and edit official testimony. "The bottom line is Dr. Gerberding said what she felt needed to be said without constraint," Skinner said in a telephone interview. In her testimony to the committee, Gerberding said CDC was geared up to monitor changes in disease and health caused by global warming and climate change. Physicians for Social Responsibility released a far more specific version that said climate change would lead to more severe weather patterns. It reads: "In the United States, climate change is likely to have a significant impact on health, through links with the following outcomes: -- Direct effects of heat, -- Health effects related to extreme weather events, -- Air pollution-related health effects, -- Allergic diseases, -- Water- and food-borne infectious diseases, -- Vector-borne and zoonotic diseases, -- Food and water scarcity, at least for some populations, -- Mental health problems, and -- Long-term impacts of chronic diseases and other health effects." "Most notably, staff at the Office of Management and Budget removed the notation that 'CDC considers climate change a serious public health concern,'" said the physicians group. (With additional reporting by Tabassum Zakaria) © Reuters2007All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 21 Reuters: Progress N.C. Harris 1 reactor up to 50 pct power | Wed Oct 24, 2007 7:16am EDT NEW YORK, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Progress Energy Inc's (PGN.N: Quote, Profile, Research) 900-megawatt Harris nuclear power unit in North Carolina was at 50 percent power early Wednesday, up from just seven percent of capacity early Tuesday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report. The unit had been shut since late September when it automatically tripped while coasting down for a planned refueling outage. The Harris station, which entered service in 1987, is located in Wake County, about 20 miles southwest of Raleigh, North Carolina. One MW powers about 700 homes in North Carolina. Progress in November 2006 filed for a 20-year extension of the unit's original 40-year operating license. The NRC said it expects to make a decision in December 2008 without a hearing or August 2009 with a hearing. Separately, the NRC expects Progress to apply over the next year or so to build two of Westinghouse's AP1000 reactors at Harris. Progress Energy, of Raleigh, North Carolina, operates the station for its owners, Progress (83.5 percent) and North Carolina Municipal Power (16.5 percent). Progress, of Raleigh, North Carolina, owns and operates more than 21,000 MW of generating capacity, markets energy commodities, and transmits and distributes electricity to about 3.1 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. © Reuters2007All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 22 Reuters: Entergy's La. Waterford reactor back at full power | Wed Oct 24, 2007 7:22am EDT NEW YORK, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Entergy Corp's (ETR.N: Quote, Profile, Research) 1,152-megawatt Waterford 3 nuclear power reactor in Louisiana was back at full power early Wednesday, up from 30 percent of capacity early Tuesday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in its power reactor status report. The unit, in Taft, Louisiana, about 30 miles west of New Orleans, had been shut since Oct. 8 for planned work. There are three units at the 1,957-MW Waterford station, the 400-MW natural gas/oil-fired Unit 1 and 405-MW gas/oil-fired Unit 2 and the nuclear reactor Unit 3. Units 1 and 2 entered service in 1975 and Unit 3 in 1985. One MW powers about 500 homes in Louisiana. Entergy, of New Orleans, owns and operates about 30,000 MW of generating capacity, markets energy commodities, and transmits and distributes power to 2.6 million customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. © Reuters2007All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 23 Reuters: California nuclear reactors not in fire danger | Wed Oct 24, 2007 7:19pm EDT By Bernie Woodall LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Southern California wildfires moved closer on Wednesday to two nuclear reactors at the giant San Onofre electrical plant in San Diego County, but were not seen threatening operations, officials said. "The fire does not pose a threat to the plant itself," said Gil Alexander, spokesman for Southern California Edison. Separately, officials from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission confirmed Alexander's assessment. The fires raging in northern San Diego County on a U.S. Marine base were about a mile from the inland edge of the San Onofre complex but were still several miles from the reactors. But even if flames approach the reactors, there is little danger a blaze will reach them because they are surrounded by acres of concrete, officials said. "There might be a little brush but there is not much fuel for a fire," said NRC spokesman Victor Dricks. "There aren't many trees in the area." SCE's San Onofre fire department, as well as the fire department from the Camp Pendleton Marine base, "conducted a controlled burn Wednesday to reduce fuel on the inland side of Interstate 5, should the fire reach that point. It is still a mile or more on the other side of a hill," said Alexander. The San Onofre nuclear reactors are situated between Interstate 5 and the Pacific Ocean. Wildfires have burned more than 1,000 homes in San Diego County, prompting the largest evacuations in state history and causing damages that are expected to surpass $1 billion. Continued... Neither San Onofre reactor is currently operating due to maintenance work that began before the fires sparked on Sunday. Maintenance continued Wednesday and would not change the plant's schedule for returning to production, Alexander said. TRANSMISSION CONCERN The fire is less a threat to the plant than it is to massive power transmission lines that run to and from it, said the NRC's Dricks. Nuclear power plants need electricity from outside to run essential safety systems and operate huge pumps that move hundreds of thousands of gallons of water used to cool the reactor even when its not operating, said Dricks. If power lines to San Onofre cease operation -- an event that was not expected on Wednesday -- backup generators are on site that can run the cooling water pumps. Transmission lines to San Diego Gas & Electric's service area, which lies mainly to the south of the plant, were out of service Wednesday. Lines to the north and into SCE service area are working and not in danger from fires, Alexander said. The two reactors at San Onofre can generate about 2,250 megawatts of power, enough to serve about 1.4 million homes. San Diego Gas & Electric, which owns 20 percent of San Onofre and therefore owns 20 percent of the power generated there, had not returned phone calls Wednesday to determine whether the lines from San Onofre to its service area to the south of the plant were working. SDG&E is owned by San Diego-based Sempra Energy. Southern California Edison is owned by Edison International, based in Rosemead in suburban Los Angeles. ***************************************************************** 24 Reuters: Entergy Arkansas reactor at full power despite fire Wed Oct 24, 2007 7:33am EDT NEW YORK, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Entergy Corp.'s (ETR.N: Quote, Profile, Research) 1,834-megawatt Arkansas nuclear power station in Arkansas continued to run at full power Wednesday despite an electrical fire in an auxiliary building at the plant, according to reports from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. An alert was declared at the plant's 998-MW Unit 2 late Tuesday based on a "fire or explosion onsite affecting one train of ESF systems," the NRC said in an event report. The fire was out at the time of the notification and there was no gaseous radiological release. There was also no explosion or injuries, but the company was still assessing the full impact of any damage, according to the report. The alert condition was terminated early Wednesday, with inspections of the local area confirming the fire had been extinguished. The plant, in Russellville, Arkansas, about 75 miles northwest of Little Rock, also contains the adjacent 836-megawatt Unit 1, which continued to run at full power. Unit 1 entered service in 1974 and Unit 2 in 1980. The NRC in 2001 and 2005 renewed the plant's original 40-year operating licenses for another 20 years until 2034 and 2038. One MW powers about 500 homes in Arkansas. Entergy, of New Orleans, owns and operates about 30,000 MW of generating capacity, markets energy commodities, and transmits and distributes power to 2.6 million customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. © Reuters2007All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 25 NRC: Information Digest, 2007-2008 (NUREG-1350, Vol. 19) Download complete document The following links on this page are to documents in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). See our Plugins, Viewers, and Other Tools page for more information. For successful viewing of PDF documents on our site please be sure to use the latest version of Adobe. * NUREG-1350 (PDF - 7.65 MB) Publication Information Manuscipt Completed: August 2007 Date Published: August 2007 Office of the Chief Financial Officer U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, DC 20555-0001 Abstract The "U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) 2007–2008 Information Digest" (the digest) provides a summary of information about the NRC, including the agency's regulatory responsibilities and licensing activities, and general information on domestic and worldwide nuclear energy. Published annually, the digest is a compilation of nuclear- and NRC-related data designed to serve as a quick reference to major facts about the agency and the industry it regulates. In general, the data include activities through 2006 or the data available at manuscript completion. Information on the generating capacity and average capacity factor for operating U.S. commercial nuclear power reactors is obtained from the NRC, as well as from various industry sources. Industry source information is reviewed by the NRC for consistency only, and no independent validation and/or verification is performed. Comments and/or suggestions on the data presented are welcomed and should be directed to Richard Rough, Director, Resource Management Support Staff, Office of the Chief Financial Officer, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. For detailed and complete information about tables and figures, refer to the source publications. Wednesday, October 24, 2007 ***************************************************************** 26 Baltic Times: Officials still positive on energy deal News from Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania Oct 24, 2007 By Kimberly Kweder POWER PLAY: Poland’s insistence on a bigger share of electricity from the new nuclear plant has hampered negotiations. VILNIUS - Lithuanian officials, energy experts and economists forecast that Poland and Lithuania will be able to reach an agreement on construction of a new “energy bridge†linking the two countries’ energy grids despite recent setbacks on the issue. “I’m optimistic that sooner or later we will have this agreement because it’s useful to both sides,†said Birute Vesaite, chairwoman of the economics committee of the Parliament. “But it’s too early to judge, we don’t know how the power will be produced from the new nuclear power plant,†she said, referring to a nuclear plant – a joint project between all three Baltic countries and Poland – that is scheduled to start up in 2015. During an international energy conference held in Vilnius Oct. 10 - 11 both Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus and Polish President Lech Kaczynski said an energy bridge agreement should be signed before the end of the month. “We had bilateral negotiations about the electric bridge,†said Adamkus. “It has to be built and it will be built. Today we have not signed due to technical reasons. It will be signed immediately after a company structure has been established – before the end of this month,†he said. Negotiations on the energy bridge were stalled just prior to that conference when Poland insisted on control of 1,000 - 1,200 megawatts of electricity from the Ignalina plant. Later Lietuvos Energija and Poland’s PSE SA (Polish Power Grid Company) failed to lock a deal during an Oct. 20 meeting, held while Poland was undergoing early parliamentary elections. President Kaczynski had also canceled a visit to Vilnius that was to take place the same day. Lithuania won’t be able to hold concrete discussions on megawatt allowances from the Ignalina plant until next spring at the earliest, when environmental impact studies to determine the capacity of the plant will be completed, experts say. But officials are hoping that the greater need for an energy bridge will push the deal through sooner than that. “The Polish side is trying to link the construction of the bridge and of the nuclear power plant project. Lithuania is stressing that this is part of the EU priority connections plan†said Nerijus Udrenas, the Lithuanian president’s advisor on the issue. “We need electricity sooner than having a nuclear power plant constructed, so that’s why the two shouldn’t be related,†he said. Algimantas Ziremba, director of the energy department at the Ministry of Economy, also stressed the importance of the bridge. “Once the project is implemented and the bridge is constructed, then it could only have a good effect because the Lithuanian energy sector could participate in the EU electricity market. Without the grid, we can’t participate in the EU electricity market. An agreement is one of the first steps to implement the project,†said. Professor Wladyslaw Mielczarski of the Technical University of Lodz in Poland is the EU-appointed coordinator for the energy bridge project. He said that since the European Commission is the driving force behind the energy projects, he’s optimistic the two member states will make progress on implementation. “If in the worst case when the agreement on the investment in the power line between PSE SA and Lietuvos Energija is not signed in a few weeks, it does not delay the construction of the power link as there are other important issues that have to be addressed,†said Mielczarski. Mielczarski said factors that have to be worked out include investment by the independent transmission system operators, operation rules of the power link for emergency situations, what capacity of the line is available in public auction, and how to ensure enough power generation. ***************************************************************** 27 ITAR-TASS: Armenia to build new reactor at its nuclear power plant 24.10.2007, 20.55 YEREVAN, October 24 (Itar-Tass) -- Armenia has made a decision to build a new unit at the operating nuclear power plant to replace the one to be decommissioned, Energy Minister Armen Movsesyan said. “An alternative to the nuclear power plant in Armenia could be only a new nuclear unit that will meet current safety and security requirements,” the minister said in an interview with the Voice of Armenia newspaper on Wednesday. The decision to build a new reactor was also prompted by the fact that the country has commercial reserves of uranium, Movsesyan said. “While it was economically unprofitable to produce this radioactive material before because of the low prices, now the situation has changed,” he said. “So Armenia will have its own energy supply and its own nuclear reactor.” “Armenia has no goal of introducing enrichment technology in the country. Especially since our reserves may not be big enough to enrich uranium inside the country,” he said. “Preliminary estimates show that Armenia has enough uranium reserves to meet the needs of its own nuclear power plant and export part of them,” the minister said. In his view, the best solution would be to build a 1,000 megawatt power unit since the republic’s electricity needs grow at about 4 percent a year. In determining the capacity of the new reactor, the government is taking into account not only internal needs of the republic but also regional energy problems, he added. “A 1,000 megawatt power unit will be able not only to meet the needs of Armenia and reduce the country’s dependence on organic energy [gas, oil, etc.] considerably, but will also have certain energy importance in the region,” Movsesyan said. Armenia “will stop the operating nuclear reactor only when and if it obtains alternative generating capacities that match it,” the minister said. “When we speak about alternative capacities, we mean not only physical parameters, i.e. the volume of electricity generation, but also economic ones, i.e. its cost for the population,” he said. “The European Union is seeking to stop the reactor as soon as possible. But since the reactor’s service life ends in 2016 and we have no replacement for it at the moment, we cannot announce its decommissioning,” the minister said. “If we build a new reactor sooner, the operating one may be stopped before that date,” he added. “At any rate, we are clearly and openly showing the world our readiness to move in parallel towards the decommissioning of the operating reactor at the nuclear power plant and replacing it with a new, more modern, effective and safe one,” Movsesyan said. In his words, the development of a feasibility study for building a new reactor at the Armenian nuclear power plant is underway with the assistance of foreign specialists. This work will be completed within 1-2 years. The document will “substantiate the optimal scenario for us”, the minister said, “from the optimal capacity of the reactor, technology and equipment, to communications, infrastructure and seismic characteristics.” He did not rule out that the Armenian nuclear power plant may use of a Russian, Canadian, American, European or Japanese reactor, or it may install a hybrid, as Bulgaria did, using a Russian reactor but European electrical machines and mechanisms, and the American safety system. “We hope that individual countries, private and/or state companies, international organisations or their consortium will be able to form a financial offer that is necessary for the construction of a new reactor at the Armenian nuclear power plant,” Movsesyan said. The European Union insists that the operating reactor at the Armenian nuclear power plant be stopped. “But we say, create conditions where we could get access to long-term and low-interest (cheap) credits, and we will solve all our problems,” he said. © ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. You undertake not to copy, store ***************************************************************** 28 Dothan Eagle: Investigation into faulty Farley breakers continues Wednesday, Oct 24, 2007 - 06:29 AM By Jim Cook Inspectors for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have extended an investigation at Farley Nuclear Plant after a recently-replaced electrical breaker failed during testing on Monday. Breakers on a cooling water pump for the plant’s Unit 1 reactor failed during a test in September. Following company and public policy, Farley contacted the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and launched an investigation. Subsequently, other breakers were found to be faulty and were replaced. On Monday, during a post-installation test, a recently-installed breaker on a pump in the plant’s Unit 1 Residual Heat Removal (RHR) system failed. At the time of the failure in September, the Unit 1 reactor had been shut down for refueling and testing. NRC officials said the pump was not required when the breaker failure occurred. The RHR system is designed to provide cooling to the reactor cooling system water when the plant is shut down with fuel in the reactor vessel, and to inject water into that system during certain emergency conditions. Because of the breaker failure Monday, the investigation will continue. The Unit 1 reactor remains shut down as the inspection continues. According to Alyson Fuqua, a spokesperson for Southern Nuclear, Farley’s parent company, unit shut downs, called outages, generally last for 30 to 40 days. Fuqua said that Farley officials are monitoring breakers on the plant’s Unit 2 reactor, which is operational. Earlier this month, Farley’s Unit 2 reactor automatically shut down after one of its off-site power sources was lost, presumably during tests related to the plant’s Unit 1 reactor. That incident remains under investigation. Dothan Eagle Copyright © 2007 Media General, Inc. All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 29 The Guardian: Nuclear inspectors shortage threatens plan for new reactors | Environment | · Leaked papers show 35 more officials are needed · Treasury pay rules blamed for recruitment problems o John Vidal, environment editor o Wednesday October 24 2007 The government is so short of nuclear inspectors that the programme of new reactors being planned may have to be put on hold, leaked papers show. The business secretary, John Hutton, yesterday warned Gordon Brown that the government has only five inspectors working on the design assessments of the three types of reactors being considered for Britain. The papers show an additional 35 inspectors are needed to be in place within 16 months. But despite offering 15% more money, the government is finding it hard to recruit more because the Treasury refuses to offer a better pay package. "We understand that the Health and Safety Executive and Nuclear Installations Inspectorate [are] unable to recruit new inspectors and are vulnerable to losing staff through retirement, as around 50% of their inspectors are over 57," say the papers which are understood to have formed the basis of Mr Hutton's presentation to the prime minister. Opposition parties, the renewables industry and environment groups yesterday reacted angrily to the revelation in the Guardian that the government was considering a change of policy which "effectively abolishes" the renewables target that Tony Blair signed Britain up to in March. Confidential papers stated that Britain was considering working with Poland and other countries to try to undermine EU commitments on renewable targets in favour of an emissions trading scheme. Mr Brown's spokesman said yesterday: "Of course, there's a discussion taking place within Europe about the implication of that target. Meeting the target will be challenging and we want to make sure the system is well-designed, cost-effective and practical. But it's not the case that ministers are planning a U-turn." But Peter Ainsworth, shadow environment secretary, said the papers showed that the government had lost credibility on the environment. "This blows a massive hole in the government's previous rhetoric on climate change and it is further evidence of what most of us suspected all along; that Gordon Brown neither understands nor cares about the need to tackle climate change." The Liberal Democrat environment spokesman, Chris Huhne, said the government "must not go back on the ambitious targets recently set by European leaders ... only serious targets will concentrate minds enough to ensure rapid progress." IAG and Employment Services Manager * Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 30 IAEA: Special Event Launches New Partnership IAEA Press Releases Press Release 2007/20 IAEA and NFCR Join Forces to Fight Cancer in Developing World 24 October 2007 | IAEA Director General and Nobel Laureate Mohamed ElBaradei will join more than 100 leading public figures, philanthropists and cancer experts at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 29 October to mark the launch of a new partnership between the IAEA and the US based National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR). Through this partnership, and the endowment fund called the PACT Fund at NFCR, Americans can support the IAEA and its partners in helping poor countries to combat the looming cancer epidemic. "The IAEA has long provided radiotherapy machines and expertise to developing countries, but the growing cancer crisis cannot be fought with radiotherapy alone," says Mohamed ElBaradei. "Our Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy (PACT), which draws on the Agency´s long experience in radiation therapy, is building international partnerships to assist in cancer prevention, early detection, treatment and palliative care. Now, through the PACT Fund at NFCR, Americans have the opportunity to support these efforts and bring hope to millions of cancer patients in developing nations." According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the world is on the brink of a cancer crisis. New cases are expected to double to more than 16 million a year by 2020, unless action is taken now. Hardest hit will be low-income countries, whose health systems are already overburdened by infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. PACT, which was created within the IAEA in 2004, is forging international partnerships with other cancer organizations in both the public and private sectors. Together with partners such as WHO, the American Cancer Society (ACS) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), it has established pilot projects called Model Demonstration Sites (PMDS) in six countries (Albania, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Vietnam and Yemen) to develop and implement comprehensive, integrated cancer control programmes crafted to meet the specific needs of each country. "PACT and its partners are working closely together to help low-income countries expand their cancer control and care capacities in a sustainable manner," says Massoud Samiei, Head of the PACT Programme Office. "Our priority through these pilot projects is to demonstrate that cancer is a preventable and a curable disease. If sufficient funds were available millions of lives could be saved, even with relatively simple solutions." PACT estimates that the implementation of all six PMDS projects will total some $28 million. The launch of the PACT Fund at NFCR will enable Americans to donate to the efforts of PACT and its partners in Africa, Asia and Latin America to meet the challenge, and thus contribute to placing cancer on the global health agenda. Founded in 1973, NFCR is internationally recognized for its leadership in cancer research and public education relating to all aspects of cancer care and control. Based in Bethesda, Maryland, NFCR is committed to innovative research and accelerating the pace at which new treatment and therapies are brought to patients who need them the most. "Millions of lives needlessly are lost to cancer in developing countries because effective therapies all too often are not available," says Franklin C. Salisbury, Jr., President and CEO of NFCR. "We are committed to ending this tragic loss. We will make the PACT Fund at NFCR a stronghold in the fight against cancer in developing countries." Press Contacts Suzanne Schneider PACT Programme Officer Division of Nuclear Applications [43-1] 2600-26784 [43] 699 16522328 (mobile) Angela Leuker Media & Outreach Section Division of Public Information [43-1] 2600-22627 [43] 664 3918136 (mobile) About the IAEA The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) serves as the world's foremost intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical co-operation in the peaceful use of nuclear technology. Established as an autonomous organization under the United Nations (UN) in 1957, the IAEA carries out programmes to maximize the useful contribution of nuclear technology to society while verifying its peaceful use. NOTE TO EDITORS: For additional information visit the Press Section of the IAEA's website (http://www.iaea.org/Resources/Journalists/), or call the IAEA's Division of Public Information at (431) 2600-21270. Copyright ©, International Atomic Energy Agency, P.O. Box 100, Wagramer Strasse 5, A-1400 Vienna, Austria Telephone (+431) 2600-0; Facsimilie (+431) 2600-7; E-mail: Disclaimer ***************************************************************** 31 TheDay.com: CL&P Request For Rate increase Riles Customers By Lee Howard Published on 10/24/2007 Waterford — Sameer Hassan, who has lived in an all-electric house in Quaker Hill for the past 40 years, remembers the days when Northeast Utilities proclaimed that nuclear power would heat his home for almost nothing. Those days, if they ever existed, are long gone. In the past nine years, since the state legislature partially deregulated electricity, Hassan has seen his Connecticut Light & Power bills almost triple, from $35 a month in the summer to about $100 now. The winter is even worse, costing him more than $300 a month. “And that's with us shutting off rooms, lowering the thermostat to 55 degrees and walking around wearing sweaters,” Hassan said. “It's really brutal.” And now this: CL&P has requested a 4.6-percent increase in electrical rates for the coming year. “It's killing us,” said Andre Savard, a Quaker Hill resident with all-electric heat who, with his wife, Joan, paid $310 a month to CL&P last year on a budget plan and still owed more than $500 at the end of the year. Savard was one of nearly a dozen residents who spoke out against the rate hike at a state Department of Public Utility Control hearing Monday at Waterford Town Hall. Speakers, including state Sen. Andrea Stillman and state Rep. Betsy Ritter, told DPUC Commissioner Anthony J. Palermino that electric rates had already increased more than 30 percent over the past two years. How could CL&P want more, they asked. CL&P spokesman Mitch Gross, who attended the meeting Monday, said in a phone interview that no one is happy with the price of energy these days. But he said the costs associated with maintaining the electricity-delivery system have increased dramatically, and CL&P needs to cover its costs. Gross, along with the speakers at Monday's hearing, blamed the state legislature's deregulation of power companies for rate increases that fly in the face of local nuclear-power generation, which many believe should have stabilized power costs in the region. Instead, according to Bill Sheehan, a Waterford Board of Finance member who spoke at the hearing, most of the nuclear power generated here is being sold out of state, and local consumers are missing out. In addition, Sheehan said, the state made a mistake in the way it deregulated power companies. It deregulated the sale of electricity but not its transmission, waiting “way too late” before stepping in to encourage the type of competition in that field that could have led to lower prices, he said. Whatever the results of deregulation, people who attended this week's hearing said they know one thing: The price for electricity in this region is too high. Ritter said the state's electricity rates are 17.4 cents a kilowatt hour, compared to 10.9 cents nationally. “Connecticut has the third-highest electrical rates in the country,” just behind Hawaii and Alaska, said New London resident Murray Renshaw. “We're driving the middle class out of the state.” Renshaw said the rate increase represents a double whammy to ratepayers. Not only have their electrical bills gone way up in the last two years, he said, but also taxes will have to increase to pay higher costs to heat and cool buildings and pay for streetlights. Renshaw said Connecticut is already perceived as anti-business, and higher electrical rates are only going to make it more difficult to earn a living in the state. “The increase is not beneficial to business or to the blue-collar worker,” he said. Renshaw and others mentioned that CL&P spends $25 million a year in charitable contributions and wondered whether some of that money could be used to offset rate increases. “That's our money they're giving away,” Savard said. Stillman, who requested Monday's hearing in Waterford after the DPUC originally had no local rate-hike meetings scheduled, said she was glad to see about 20 people show up to speak out, more speakers than at any other CL&P hearing in the state, despite poor publicity. Stillman, who said she is very concerned about the effect of electrical costs on the less affluent and retirees on fixed incomes, gave the commission an earful. “I'm outraged at the whole thing,” she said. “We have a nuclear power plant down the road, but people in the region are not benefiting.” While Stillman, Ritter and others are hopeful that the state will deny a rate hike, they say history is not on their side. “The DPUC has to say no, but they've never said no to a rate increase before,” she said. The DPUC has amended price-hike proposals, but Ritter said the fact it has never denied an increase has outraged consumers who believe the agency works in lock step with power companies. “The suspicion, I think, is justified,” Ritter said. “But what they decide might change those suspicions.” Privacy Policy | Contact Us at 1 (860) 442-2200 | New London, CT | © 1998-2007 The Day Publishing Co. 104 ***************************************************************** 32 ETWCN: Nuclear power, like cancer, reemerges East Texas Weekly Community Newspaper Vol.12 No.465 Thursday, October 25, 2007 by Andrew Korfhage The partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979 left many Americans with grave concerns about the risk of nuclear power – concerns that were only magnified seven years later when the Chernobyl disaster forced the evacuation and resettlement of nearly 400,000 people, with thousands poisoned by radiation. By then, Three Mile Island was still only halfway finished with a clean-up that would last until 1993, at a cost that ultimately topped one billion dollars. The first few years after the Three Mile Island disaster likewise saw the plant’s owner, the General Public Utilities Corp., teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, struggling to finance the clean-up while battling lawsuits from its shareholders and utility customers. This should have marked the end of the nuclear industry in the US. Unfortunately, bills passed in both the House and Senate would ease the way for nuclear energy companies not only to perpetuate the grave health and public safety risks associated with nuclear power, but also to expose American taxpayers to the financial risks that nearly buried General Public Utilities Corp. At issue is the federal government’s involvement in loan guarantees for the construction of new nuclear power plants. As the Nuclear Energy Institute recently reported in a brief to the US Department of Energy, “100 percent loan coverage is essential … [because] the capital markets are unwilling, now and for the foreseeable future, to provide the financing necessary” for new power plants. In other words, nuclear plants are so financially risky that the market refuses to support them, so the nuclear industry has turned to the federal government with a plan for shifting the massive financial risks of new nuclear reactors onto US taxpayers. Even worse, the nuclear lobby has already partially succeeded. A one-sentence provision slipped into the Senate’s energy bill over the summer strips congressional appropriations committees of their fiscal responsibility to oversee loan guarantee programs – allowing the Department of Energy to give out unlimited guarantees without congressional authorization. The House version of the energy bill doesn’t go quite so far, but still limits congressional power to protect taxpayers from financial backing the most risky energy projects. This capitulation to the nuclear lobby puts US taxpayers at risk many, many times over: • Nuclear power presents a human safety risk, leaving behind radioactive material that will be toxic to humans for more than 100,000 years. This isn’t just a problem for communities near nuclear waste sites, as nuclear power plants around the country would be shipping waste through nearly every state in the nation to reach final storage destinations. • Nuclear power presents a national security risk, with nuclear plants a tempting target for terrorists. As Robert Kennedy, Jr. has pointed out, there are at least eight relatively easy ways to cause a major meltdown at a nuclear plant – you don’t need to crash airplanes into the cooling towers. What’s more, human error and natural disasters can trigger the same emergencies, without the assistance of terrorists. • Nuclear power exacerbates the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation. With countries like North Korea and Iran working in the nuclear arena, the problem of separating energy-generating nuclear technology from weapons proliferation is not solved, and our pursuit of nuclear programs only encourages other “rogue” regimes to do the same. As the House and Senate resolve their energy bills in committee, they need to recognize their duty to protect the interests of the American people, and avoid the human safety, national security, and nuclear proliferations risks – as well as the serious financial risks –that accompany loan guarantees for such a volatile industry. Nuclear power companies do not deserve the giveaways that Congress is considering. If private banks and investors will not finance the expensive risk of restarting a robust nuclear energy industry in this country, then American taxpayers should not either. The nuclear power industry must be forced to compete in the market just like other energy technologies – such as solar and wind energy – that carry with them none of the drawbacks of nuclear, and hold much more promise for a safe, secure, and reliable energy future in America. Andrew Korfhage is an editor for Co-op America (www.coopamerica.org), a nonprofit consumer organization advocating socially and environmentally responsible purchasing and investing. Copyright © 2001-2007 East Texas Review Newspaper All Rights Reserved. 517 South Mobberly Longview, TX 75602 903.236.0406 ***************************************************************** 33 Newsday.com: NY official wants safeguards at nuke plants against air attacks -- By JIM FITZGERALD | Associated Press Writer 6:32 PM EDT, October 24, 2007 WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is demanding that Indian Point and other nuclear plants be required to have defenses against terrorist attacks from the air. Cuomo said Wednesday he has filed a brief with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Los Angeles, joining an existing lawsuit appealing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's refusal to require air defenses. "The Sept. 11 terrorists specifically contemplated attacking nuclear power plants with airplanes, yet the NRC continues to allow the owners of these plants to avoid their responsibility to guard against such attacks," Cuomo said. "My office will not allow the NRC to simply ignore a demonstrated threat to the safety of millions of New Yorkers." In response, commission spokesman Neil Sheehan said, "Studies done to date confirm there is a low likelihood that an airplane attack on a nuclear power plant would affect public health and safety, thanks in part to the robustness of the structures. Further, the NRC has required plants to develop plans to minimize damage and risk to the public in the event that there was any kind of large fire or explosion on-site. "It is the federal government and military's responsibility to protect the nation against an aircraft attack," he added. Cuomo's brief did not argue for anti-aircraft batteries around the plants or fighter patrols above them. It suggested instead that "passive physical security measures, like external steel girders or earthen berms" could be constructed. Cuomo's filing was applauded by Reps. John Hall and Elliot Engel, Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano, the Riverkeeper environmental organization and the New York Public Interest Research Group. Copyright © 2007, The Associated Press ***************************************************************** 34 Las Vegas SUN: Senators slam delays in payments to Cold War-era nuclear workers October 23, 2007 By ERICA WERNER Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Majority Leader Harry Reid and other senators said Tuesday that there are unacceptable delays in a government program to compensate Cold War-era nuclear workers who developed cancer from exposure to radiation. Reid, D-Nev., told a Senate hearing that ill and dying workers from the Nevada Test Site are waiting years for the government to process their claims and give them the $150,000 checks and medical benefits they're entitled to under the program created by Congress in 2001. The workers were involved in nuclear weapons testing that happened at the site in the Nevada desert from 1951 to 1992. "They tell me their sacrifices are being ignored," Reid told a hearing of the Senate Health, Education and Labor Committee. "This program has the right intentions, but it is failing thousands of Americans who helped win the Cold War," Reid said. Other senators voiced similar concerns about workers at Oak Ridge in Tennessee, Hanford in Washington, and Rocky Flats in Colorado, among other sites. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said he was considering introducing legislation aimed at speeding the compensation process and ensuring that if an affected worker dies, his or her survivors would collect benefits that are due, something that doesn't necessarily happen now. The director of the Labor Department's worker compensation programs, Shelby Hallmark, defended his efforts to administer the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program. Nationally, more than 64,000 workers have been paid more than $3.2 billion under the law, he said. "I'm not satisfied with our current processing speed, but we will fix it," he said. Individual cases can take about three years to process. Before workers can qualify for compensation, the government must determine there is a 50 percent or greater chance that their cancer or other illness was caused by work-related exposure to radiation or other toxins. The lengthy process of deciding whether someone's illness is work-related is done by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Workers complain it can be impossible to prove their cases because of lost records or other bureaucratic snafus. In some instances, they say they were instructed to hide the amount of radiation they were getting by not wearing devices that recorded the radiation. The House Judiciary Committee also has released documents that suggest government officials have attempted to limit program claim costs. Of the 15,000 workers that have gone through individual adjudications by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, only about 5,000 have had their cases accepted, while 10,000 have been denied. Of 766 Nevada Test Site cases adjudicated, 129 have been accepted and 637 denied. The only way to avoid individual adjudication is for employees to be classified as part of a "special exposure cohort." Currently certain workers at 22 different sites qualify. Workers potentially exposed to aboveground testing at the Nevada Test Site from 1951 to 1963 have been classed in the special exposure cohort. But late last month the government recommended against a petition by people who worked at the Nevada Test Site from 1963 through 1992 to be given that special status. Reid has tried to get special status for the group through legislation but hasn't succeeded. Alexander said he's considering a bill that would automatically add workers to the special exposure cohort if it's taking too long to work through their individual claims. All contents © 1996 - 2007 Las Vegas Sun, Inc. ***************************************************************** 35 ReviewJournal.com SPECIAL EXPOSURE COHORT STATUS: Test site workers' timing key Oct. 24, 2007 Post-1963 to be handled individually By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Hundreds of former Nevada Test Site workers seeking a fast track for health claims after being exposed to radiation and toxic substances on their jobs have encountered a new setback. A federal agency is recommending that people who worked at the nuclear proving ground from 1963 through 1992 not be granted a special classification that would streamline $150,000 compensation and medical payments if they contracted certain cancers or lung diseases as they grew older. Workers from earlier years at the test site, when atomic bombs were exploded in the atmosphere and radiation exposure records were spotty, already qualify for what is known as special exposure cohort status for the payments distributed by the Department of Labor. But the director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health said Tuesday that his agency believes there are sufficient records available from the later years -- when weapons were detonated underground -- for the government to weigh health claims individually. "For the underground ones, we think there is enough monitoring data. That is the one we recommended be denied," said NIOSH director John Howard. "We have enough data. That is the bottom line." The NIOSH report, which was issued on Sept. 24, is not the final word although it is expected to carry some weight when the Presidential Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health issues a formal recommendation, possibly early next year. The board is scheduled to meet in Las Vegas from Jan. 8-10. A final decision would rest with Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. Lacking any special treatment, former test site workers must wait along with thousands of other nuclear workers nationwide for NIOSH and the Department of Labor to evaluate their health claims, a process that sometimes takes years and has sparked enormous frustration among families. Under the main compensation program, former test site workers have filed 4,002 claims, with 1,339 denied and 787 paid to a total of $79 million, according to figures provided by the Department of Labor. For an associated workers comp-style program, 2,856 test site claims have been requested, with 669 denied and 283 paid so far for a total $33 million. Oscar Foger of Las Vegas, a miner who excavated blast holes at the test site and who worked on tunnel re-entry teams, said he lost a kidney to cancer earlier this year. He worked at the site from May 1959, through Nov. 16, 1995. Foger, 65, said he began pursuing compensation in January. He said the idea that test site records are trustworthy "is not true at all, and anybody who files a claim can attest to the same thing. Half the records have been destroyed and the other half, I would not say they were falsified, but they are not correct." Lynn Anspaugh, a health physicist who formerly worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and who has studied the test site, said the NIOSH findings appear based on a test site evaluation that might have been incomplete. "The site profile is undergoing revision, and they have made some very substantial changes that have not been approved by the board," Anspaugh said. "Any evaluation that says it is based on information in the site profile, I think is very premature." A petition seeking special exposure cohort status for the test site workers was filed with NIOSH in February by a group of former employees with help from Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. Trying another strategy, Reid prepared an amendment for Congress to fast-track the test site workers but was unable to get it added to a defense bill earlier this month. "We knew it was going to be difficult to secure special exposure cohort status for all NTS workers," Reid spokesman Jon Summers said, adding the senator is "concerned" about the agency's recommendation. "NIOSH's report is far from a final decision," Summers said. On Tuesday, Reid urged a Senate committee to fix the compensation program, where the biggest complaint is over how long it takes to render decisions, particularly when a person's exposure records need to be reconstructed. "I think this program has the right intentions, but it is clearly failing thousands of Americans who helped us win the Cold War," Reid said at a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said afterward he will explore a bill that automatically would fast-track claims for workers whose cases cannot be processed within a set time period. "There are still too many examples and stories of delay and frustration on the part of claimants," Alexander said. "I am considering legislation that would put a time limit on how much time can be taken on dose reconstruction." Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2007 Stephens Media, LLC Privacy Statement ***************************************************************** 36 Deseret Morning News: 'Exposed' spellbinding drama By Ivan M. Lincoln Deseret Morning News Published: Oct. 23, 2007 12:46 p.m. MDT "EXPOSED," PLAN-B THEATRE COMPANY, Rose Wagner Center, through Nov. 4 (355-2787), running time: 90 minutes (no intermission) Notes from an Atomic Energy Commission meeting on May 18, 1953, one day prior to a detonation at the Nevada Test Site: "Shouldn't we make a public announcement about the unusually high yield (fallout) of this device?" One official's reply: "That's not necessary. People in nearby communities probably won't notice." That's just one of the many official government entries in local journalist-playwright Mary Dickson's spellbinding autobiographical docudrama, which had its world premiere last weekend. In 31 scenes, the action shifts back and forth between 1950, when military leaders at the Pentagon were debating how to address Russia's newly acquired nuclear superiority, and as recently as 2007, when activists succeeded in halting plans for the Divine Strake underground atomic test. "Exposed" looks at how innocent residents (whom the government considered nothing more than "a low-use segment of the population") became known as "downwinders," hundreds ? more likely thousands ? affected by fallout from above-ground and underground tests. The downwinder segment of the population was considered to be mainly those living around St. George ? in close proximity to the Nevada site. But Dickson's fact-based drama, which puts a compelling human face on the statistics, graphically indicates that the site's fallout over the past four decades stretches across the entire country and up into Canada. "The clouds came and went, then the cancer came and the people went," says Preston Truman, a feisty old cowboy who used to watch the atomic blasts from his family's ranch near Enterprise. Directed by Jerry Rapier, the six-member ensemble brings Dickson's story to life. Joyce Cohen plays Dickson, beginning in 1985, when she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer at the age of 29, then follows her fact-finding journey as she probes the government cover-up. Teri Cowan plays Mary's younger sister, Ann Dickson DeBirk, who died in 2001 after a nine-year battle with lupus. Both women were among several in their close-knit Salt Lake City neighborhood who contracted various forms of cancer ? all traced to the Nevada tests years earlier. Cohen and Cowan are perfectly matched as sisters who share moments of trauma and humor. Jason Tatom and Mark Fossen deliver commanding performances as two government officials, plus other roles. Fossen is especially good as an uptight, hand-wringing Howard Hughes. Kirt Bateman and Teresa Sanderson carry a large portion of the drama in 15 roles ? ranging from true-life characters (three of whom were in the audience on opening night) to some composites. (My one complaint is that a few additional, quick-change costume pieces might have made these roles easier to keep separate in the minds of audience members.) The simple, functional setting, coupled with dramatic lighting and sound, keep things moving smoothly and rapidly. Projected supertitles overhead also help the audience keep track of when and where various scenes take place. "Radiation is no more harmful than the sun. Simply stay indoors," one government official cautions during an early scene. "We could have held our high school reunions in the city cemetery," says Michelle Thomas ? now wheelchair-bound and part of the opening-night crowd ? during a 1985 interview with Dickson in St. George. Like last season's "Facing East," Plan-B Theatre Company's "Exposed" deserves national exposure. Sensitivity rating: A small amount of profanity and adult language. E-mail: ivan@desnews.com deseretnews.com: Home ***************************************************************** 37 Hanford News: Murray rips program for ill workers This story was published Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 Annette Cary, Herald staff writer Ill Hanford workers and their families are waiting too long for compensation and not being given enough information about their claims in a federal program, said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Tuesday. She questioned federal officials and experts at a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. "Many of the people who contact my office do not believe this program lives up to the promise of being claimant friendly," said Malcolm Nelson, ombudsman for part of the federal program. The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program has paid $3.2 billion in compensation and medical coverage to World War II and Cold War employees at the nation's nuclear weapon sites. That includes payment of $180 million to workers at Hanford and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory who became ill because of workplace exposure to radiation or hazardous chemicals. But some workers or their survivors have waited years for a decision on their claims. "I'm concerned about how long it takes to process claims because too many of these people are waiting far too long for a final decision," Murray said. The average claim for a cancer case caused by radiation has required three years for a decision to be made. Of the first 5,000 claims filed for all sites nationwide beginning in 2001, decisions have not been made on 64 claims, said Dr. John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Those claims are for Part B of the compensation program, which pays $150,000 in compensation and medical benefits. "These workers and their families shouldn't have to struggle with a very frustrating bureaucracy as they seek their compensation," Murray said. Among problems is an interview process that asks the same questions of all workers or their survivors even though they worked at widely varying sites, said Dr. James Melius. He serves on the NIOSH Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health but spoke at the hearing as administrator of the New York State Laborers' Health and Safety Trust Fund. Workers provide information in the interview on incidents that may have exposed them to radiation, but the information often is ignored or not fully processed, Melius said. He also offered some hope for Hanford workers who have had claims denied because the government does not believe they were exposed to enough radiation to cause cancer. Workers who believe their radiation exposure cannot be adequately estimated may apply to be named a "special exposure cohort," which eases the rules for qualifying for compensation. One special exposure cohort has been named for the earliest Hanford workers, but NIOSH has recommended that most workers at the site after 1946 not be added to a special exposure cohort. However, there are serious questions about whether Hanford has adequate records for neutron exposures, said Melius, who is leading the advisory board work group evaluating NIOSH's recommendation. That could result in the advisory board not following NIOSH's recommendation to exclude most workers from eased compensation requirements. NIOSH also is taking another look at methods for estimating worker exposure to neutrons, he said. The cost of administering the cancer compensation program was criticized by Ken Silver, an assistant professor of environmental health at East Tennessee State University, in written comments submitted at the hearing. NIOSH administrative costs for estimated exposures to workers is equal to about 32 percent of the cost of payments made, he said. The second part of the compensation program, Part E, also drew criticism at the hearing. Congress moved Part E to the Department of Labor in 2004 after the Department of Energy had made little progress in paying claims. It offers compensation for impairment and lost wages plus medical benefits in a program similar to a traditional worker compensation program. Many of those applying for compensation are elderly and have debilitating illnesses, Nelson said. "Claimants have been quite blunt in telling us that they fear that if they are made to wait too long, they will not be around to receive benefits," he said in written comments. Although Congress broadened the survivors eligible for Part B compensation, Part E has only limited survivor benefits and most children of ill workers do not qualify for compensation if the worker dies. Workers also complain that records they need to prove their claims are lost, destroyed or not accurate. Decisions are not adequately explained and information they receive from the government is difficult to understand, Nelson said. The Department of Labor plans to increase staffing on the program from 525 to 600 employees, said Shelby Hallmark, director of the Office of Workers' Compensation Program. Employees are well aware of the long wait for payment, he said. A week ago, when the Department of Labor heard that one claimant was expected to live only 24 hours, employees took the final paperwork to the hospital for him to sign, then pushed to get a check cut the next day. The worker, who died the next day, was comforted to know his family had the money, Hallmark said. About 15,000 claims a year continue to be filed in the compensation program. For information about the claims program, call 888-654-0014 or 946-3333. To contact the ombudsman's office with concerns about the program's Part E, call 877-662-8363. © 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 38 Tennessean: Auditors find security clearances active for former nuke workers - Nashville, Tennessee - Wednesday, 10/24/07 - Tennessean.com Wednesday, 10/24/07 KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- The Department of Energy allowed security clearances to remain active for dozens of former employees months after they stopped working at a nuclear cleanup site in Tennessee, according to a federal audit released Tuesday. DOE managers overseeing the former K-25 uranium-enrichment site now known as the East Tennessee Technology Park in Oak Ridge said clearances were extended in a central database for more than 70 workers. Many on the "hold list" were expected to be rehired later. "If you know anything about security clearances, it takes a long time" to get them, said John Shewairy, spokesman in DOE's Oak Ridge office. The extension policy avoided those delays when workers were recalled. Meantime, former workers with active clearances still couldn't get inside the plant without badges and authorization, he said. "(If) they don't have a legitimate need to be there, they are not going to be there. They are not going to get in," Shewairy said. However, DOE Inspector General Gregory Friedman said the practice posed a security risk. "These actions would not have prevented access to other sites and perhaps not even to other Oak Ridge locations since the security clearance was still active" in the central computer, Friedman wrote. ====================================================================== While the feds spy on us, regardless of the constitution. While the requirement for background checks has increased exponentially during the rule of the idiot, part of the feds insists background checks be done and redone for the same individuals. Bush is not capable of running this government. I'll have to grant him the fact that he has double and tripled the daily wages paid on towboats with their silly background check laws. Yeehaw! Congratulations to all boat personnel in the marine industry - it is something a union only dreamed of doing for you! Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 8:35 am Copyright © 2007, tennessean.com. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 39 MassLive.com: Chapman Valve workers radiation claims in limbo Posted by The Republican Newsroom October 23, 2007 22:24PM By JO-ANN MORIARTY jo-ann.moriarty@newhouse.com WASHINGTON - On the eve of the demolition of the Chapman Valve plant in Springfield, most former workers who have filed for compensation for exposure to radioactivity have received nothing. Of 406 claims that have been filed for compensation, only 63 have been approved for payment, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. No new approvals have come in the last year and a half. The 63 former workers have received a total of $5.1 million. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee today held an oversight hearing on progress of a federal program in giving compensation or benefits to workers. Chapman Valve, which closed in the 1980s, was once the largest manufacturer of valves in the world with a payroll of nearly 3,500. In 1948 and 1949, the plant milled uranium for nuclear weapons. However, an April 2005 federal study revealed that "significant" radioactive contamination remained at the plant at Pineville and Goodwin streets in Indian Orchard through the early 1990s. While the government created a program to provide up to $150,000 to workers nationwide who became seriously ill because of exposure to radiation, former workers of Chapman Valve seemed either shut out from the process or unable to attain a standard for eligibility. In April 2005, the government reported it paid out more than $1 billion to about 13,800 claims filed across the country with nearly 40 percent of the claimants being approved for compensation. But, at that time, none of the 268 claims filed by Chapman Valve workers were approved and 162 had been denied, primarily because the workers were not at the plant in 1948 and 1949. "By many accounts, the program has been remarkably successful," Sen. Edward M. Kennedy stated in written testimony to the Senate committee, of which he is chairman. "So far, 34,000 claims have been paid and more than $3 billion has been paid out in compensation. Problems remain, however." Through his statement, the Massachusetts Democrat, home in Hyannis recovering from surgery, looked to resolve the claims filed by Chapman Valve workers. They have have been held in bureaucratic limbo for two years while the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health has been deciding if the Springfield workers can be classified as Special Exposure Cohort, thus making it easier for them to prove they qualify for compensation. "The program is also plagued by delays," wrote Kennedy. "We've seen these problems firsthand in Massachusetts. Workers from the old Chapman Valve Manufacturing Company in Indian Orchard have been trying to be certified as a Special Exposure Cohort, but have met frustration and disappointment at almost every turn." The advisory board, which answers to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention within the Department of Health and Human Services. It also has to decide if Chapman Valve workers who worked at the plant only in 1948 and 1949, when the plant was milling uranium for nuclear defense purposes, can be considered for compensation. To make matters more complicated, U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, today said that the advisory board voted on the petition from Chapman Valve workers during the summer but the vote was tied, with three members supporting the petition and three opposed. Now, he said, it appears that their case is at impasse. "While the process may have reached a temporary impasse, I will continue to be a strong voice on behalf of the former employees of Chapman Valve," Neal said. Springfield Mayor Charles V. Ryan is holding a press conference Thursday to announce the start of the demolition the former Chapman Valve plant. The city is planning to redevelop the 13-acre site where the 138,000-square-foot factory is located to revitalize the Indian Orchard section of the city. ©2007 masslive.com. All Rights Reserved. RSS Feeds | Complete Index ***************************************************************** 40 Dayton Daily News: Compensation for atomic workers may get overhaul DaytonDailyNews.com Processing a claim for workers who become ill as a result of exposure can take government years. By Jessica Wehrman Staff Writer Wednesday, October 24, 2007 WASHINGTON — Members of a U.S. Senate committee Tuesday had harsh words for a program designed to compensate atomic workers who became ill as a result of their work, saying the program's good intentions have been marred by its cumbersome nature. "None of us intended for this program to be this unforgiving for Cold War veterans," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee about flaws in the program. The 2000 Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act tasked the federal government with providing lifetime medical benefits for atomic workers and cash payments to them or eligible survivors. So far, the federal government has issued more than $3.2 billion to atomic workers who became ill as a result of their on-the-job exposures. But the program is administered under a complex set of rules that takes into account factors including where they work and how long they worked there. That process, witnesses testified, can be marred by poor and conflicting data and shoddy records kept at places once prized for their secrecy. At some nuclear facilities, including the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant near Piketon, Ohio, as well as at 10 other facilities nationally, employees receive a "special exposure cohort" status because plants' records were so poorly kept. But at other Ohio nuclear installations, including Mound Laboratory in Miamisburg and the Fernald Feed Materials Production Center in Hamilton County, workers must go through a screening process that involves comparison of an employee's work and medical history and the plant's known hazards. Shelby Hallmark, director of the Office of Workers' Compensations Programs at the U.S. Department of Labor said it takes an average of two to three years to process a claim. Deb Jerison, a Yellow Springs resident whose father worked at Mound Laboratory in Miamisburg and died at age 36 in 1960 of Hodgkin's disease and pulmonary extension, has helped her mother go through the lengthy compensation process. Six years after filing their claim, they're still waiting. Jerison said she was "surprised and encouraged" that the Department of Labor admitted the program had problems. But she said they've gotten used to being disappointed. "Let's just say Mom's not running out to buy a new car yet," she said. DaytonDailyNews.com: Copyright 2007 Dayton Daily News. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 41 ScienceDaily: Contamination From Depleted Uranium Found In Urine 20 Years Later Science News (Oct. 24, 2007) ? Inhaled depleted uranium (DU) oxide aerosols are recognised as a distinct human health hazard and DU has been suggested to be responsible in part for illness in both military and civilian populations that may have been exposed. University of Leicester geologist, Professor Randall R Parrish will be giving this message to the 119th annual meeting of the Geological Society of America at the Colorado Convention Center in Philadelphia on 28 October 2007. In his talk entitled: ‘Depleted uranium (DU): its environmental dispersion and human uptake’ he will outline his research findings on a new method of tracing DU. The issue has been the subject of investigations by the Royal Society (UK), the National Academy of Science (US) and other bodies, but studies of individuals who have been clearly exposed to environmental contamination are lacking. Professor Parrish commented: “Our objective was to develop a high sensitivity method of EU detection in urine, using MC-ICP mass spectrometry that would be capable of detecting an individual’s exposure to DU up to 20 years after the event. “We developed this method and applied it to individuals, either known or likely to have had a DU aerosol inhalation exposure, and to a large voluntary cohort of 1991 Gulf conflict veterans to assess DU exposure screening reliability and accumulate data on exposure.” Using his method, Professor Parrish and his research team have found traces of DU in urine more than 20 years later, in those cases where exposure to DU aerosol has been unambiguous and in sufficient quantity. This is true even when the U concentration is at the low end of the normal range. Most such samples would return a negative screening result with other, less sensitive, methods. Professor Parrish added: “Our method has been used to show that it is capable of resolving legal cases based on a claim of DU exposure. Also it shows that the occurrence of DU in 1991 Gulf Conflict veterans is likely to be uncommon to rare, but if a significant inhalation exposure occurred then it can be detected in urine for decades to come. “It offers a way to resolve debates about DU and health and provide perspective on the issue. Resolving the potential implications of DU to health in contaminated populations is best done by properly testing exposed cohorts. The cohorts in need of study are those living in DU-contaminated areas of Iraq, or those living in the vicinity of DU munitions factories with large DU contamination footprints.” Adapted from materials provided by University of Leicester. Researchers have found traces of DU in urine more than 20 years later, in those cases where exposure to DU aerosol has been unambiguous and in sufficient quantity. (Credit: iStockphoto/Eva Serrabassa) ====================================================================== UK Army Personnel Involved In Iraqi Invasion Not At Risk From Depleted Uranium, Study Finds (Jul. 5, 2007) ? Army personnel involved in the Iraqi invasion of 2003 have not absorbed dangerous levels of depleted uranium, finds research published ahead of print in Occupational and Environmental ... > read more Isotope Analysis Shows Exposure To Depleted Uranium In Gulf War Veterans (Jan. 22, 2004) ? U.S. veterans who were exposed to depleted uranium during the 1991 Gulf War have continued to excrete the potentially harmful chemical in their urine for years after their exposure, according to a ... > read more Tests To Reveal Levels Of Depleted Uranium In Army Personnel (Mar. 6, 2007) ? A test recently used by the UK government's Independent Depleted Uranium Oversight Board to detect exposure to UK troops by depleted uranium (DU) during the 1991 Gulf Conflict was developed by a team ... > read more Study: Tree Coring Seems To Be Quicker, Cheaper Method Of Measuring Radiation (Nov. 7, 2001) ? Monitoring uranium contamination by drilling wells costs a lot, but a new study suggests it may be possible to do the same monitoring far more cheaply by coring trees on potentially radioactive ... > read more Sandia Completes Depleted Uranium Study; Serious Health Risks Not Found (Jul. 24, 2005) ? Sandia National Laboratories has completed a two-year study of the potential health effects associated with accidental exposure to depleted uranium (DU) during the 1991 Gulf War. The study concluded ... > read more Exposure To Depleted Uranium From Military Action May Pose Health Threats (May 10, 2007) ? Exposure to particles of depleted uranium (DU), the source of growing international concern as a potential health hazard, may increase the risk of genetic damage and lung cancer, scientists in Maine ... > read more Copyright © 1995-2007 ScienceDaily LLC — All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 42 UPI: Panel holds hearing on nuke worker program - UPI.com Published: 24, 2007 at 5:09 PM WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- A U.S. Senate committee finds that a program to compensate workers in nuclear plants for exposure to hazardous radiation is burdened by red tape. Under the 2000 Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act, eligible workers can receive lifetime medical care and cash compensation. But proving eligibility can take as long as three years, The Dayton, Ohio, Daily News reported. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held a hearing about the program Tuesday. "None of us intended for this program to be this unforgiving for Cold War veterans," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in his testimony. Eligibility depends on a number of factors, including where nuclear plant employees worked and the length of service. Digging up records to prove a claim can be difficult, especially since nuclear plants operated under strict security rules. © Copyright United Press International. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 43 Rocky Mountain News DOCUMENT: Sen. Ken Salazar's statement about Rocky Flats workers October 24, 2007 WASHINGTON, DC ? Today, the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held a hearing regarding the Energy Employee Occupational Injury Compensation Program (EEOICP) and whether the "program is claimant friendly for our cold war heroes." United States Ken Salazar knows that thousands of American workers, including thousands at Rocky Flats, put their own lives on the line to serve our Nation during the Cold War. He has long been an advocate for adequate compensation for our Cold War heroes and wants to ensure that the proper program reforms are enacted so that they are able to get their compensation in an expedient and timely manner. Senator Salazar submitted the following statement, reiterating his commitment to those that put their health and safety at risk for our Nation. "Thank you, Chairman Kennedy and Ranking Member Enzi, for holding this hearing today. The issue of whether the Energy Employee Occupational Injury Compensation Program (EEOICP) is claimant friendly is critically important and timely. Reports from the Office of the Ombudsman for the EEOICP Part E, and past Congressional hearings have revealed considerable claimant dissatisfaction with the Program and a concerted effort to deny compensation to many workers. I hope that the evidence collected through this hearing will inspire swift Congressional action to grant compensation to our Cold War heroes and enact necessary Program reforms. Although I am not a member of this Committee, I look forward to working with you to ensure that these goals are met. "The Energy Employee Occupational Injury Compensation Program Act (EEIOCPA) was enacted to compensate American workers (and certain survivors) who put their health and life on the line to serve our Nation during the Cold War. These brave men and women worked in laboratories and factories in the U.S. building nuclear weapons that led to the fall of the former Soviet Union. Sadly, many of these Cold War Veterans were exposed to toxic and carcinogenic properties that made them very sick. "But while thousands of workers are successfully applying and receiving benefits, too many face incredible obstacles as they try to demonstrate that they qualify for benefits. Some workers may not be able to prove that their cancers were caused by their work in nuclear weapons facilities, whether due to the lack of records or other problems that make it difficult or impossible to determine the dose of radiation they received. To protect these workers, Congress designated a Special Exposure Cohort (SEC), a provision in the EEOICPA to enable workers to receive benefits if they suffered from one of the specified cancers known to be linked to radiation exposure. "From 1951 to 1988, approximately 23,000 individuals worked at the Rocky Flats plant located 16 miles Northwest of Denver, Colorado. Throughout the years, many Rocky Flats workers processed plutonium, one of the most dangerous substances that exists, and crafted it into triggers for atomic weapons. Through five decades, Rocky Flats workers were exposed to toxic and carcinogenic properties, including beryllium, radiation and other hazards. "More than two years ago, Rocky Flats workers filed a SEC petition to receive compensation. After three years of patiently and diligently making their case to the federal government, the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health made its recommendation on June 12, 2007. The Board recommended SEC inclusion for only those plutonium workers employed at Rocky Flats from January 1, 1959 to December 31, 1966. In other words, the Board voted (6 to 4) to exclude from the SEC all pre-1966 workers other than plutonium workers and all post-1966 Rocky Flats workers. This should limit the number of Rocky Flats workers who receive benefits to approximately 2,000 to 3,000 workers. Secretary Leavitt recently approved the Board?s recommendation. "The men and women who worked at Rocky Flats served a critical role in a program deemed essential to our national security by a succession of Presidents and Congresses. Several of these workers have died without receiving the healthcare or compensation they deserve. In fact, a combination of missing records and bureaucratic red tape has prevented many Rocky Flats workers from accessing benefits. Our government failed these workers when they maintained shoddy, inaccurate, and incomplete records. "Furthermore, after years of research and review, many questions remain about the reliability of data and the ability of National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health to accurately measure develop worker history and exposure to toxic materials. On March 1, 2007, I introduced S. 729, The Rocky Flats Special Exposure Cohort Act. S. 729 would extend SEC status to workers employed by the Department of Energy or its contractors at Rocky Flats according to the stringent requirements of the Act. "With the SEC designation, a Rocky Flats worker suffering from one of the 22 listed cancers can receive benefits despite the inadequate records maintained by the Department of Energy and its contractors. I urge this Congress to act now to stop impeding Rocky Flats workers? ability to receive the compensation they deserve. The Cold War Veterans of Rocky Flats have waited long enough. "In conclusion, I am eager to work with members of this Committee to develop and implement much needed reforms to the EEOICP. I also urge the Senate to swiftly take up and pass S. 729 to grant compensation to Rocky Flats who put their health and life on the line for the Nation." site map Subscribe | E-mail alerts | Electronic edition | RSS Advertisement SPONSORED LINKS * World Travel * Lasik Denver eye surgery * Cash Advance * Denver Real Estate * Juarez Mexico Guide * Compare Prices * Bad Credit Second Mortgage * Free Online Dating * Fundraisers * Attorney Finder * Online Shopping * Whole House Fans * Lingerie * Personal Loan * Direct Mailing Lists * Mesotherapy & Lipodissolve * Juarez Mexico Forum Advertisement Scripps Newspaper Group — Online © 2007 The E.W. Scripps Co. Privacy Policy | User Agreement Archive | About Us | Contact Us | RSS Feeds | Subscribe | Site Map | Photo Reprints | Corrections Questions? Comments? Talk to Us. Comparison shop at Shopzilla and BizRate | uSwitch.com compares gas & electricity, home phone, mobile phones, broadband, credit cards, loans and car insurance ***************************************************************** 44 Rocky Mountain News: Senators vow action on aid program for nuke workers By Laura Frank, Rocky Mountain News October 24, 2007 WASHINGTON - Members of a power-packed U.S. Senate committee said Tuesday that they would find ways to reform the federal program to compensate ill nuclear weapons workers, including those from Rocky Flats. A leading national advocate for the workers, Terrie Barrie, of Craig, said she was encouraged by the hearing, the first in a series to be held before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. "The senators were really on top of the problems," Barrie said. "I don't think they were just giving lip service." Allard leans on official Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard was one of the toughest questioners during the hearing. He took John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupation Safety and Health, to task when Howard suggested that he didn't know what changes might be needed in the law governing the compensation program. NIOSH helps run the program. With Allard's prodding, Howard touched on what could become the centerpiece of potential reform: setting deadlines for the government to reach conclusions on which workers deserve compensation. Ill nuclear workers from Rocky Flats and other U.S. weapons production and testing sites wait an average of three years for the government to determine whether contamination likely caused their diseases and whether they should be compensated. One in 10 Rocky Flats workers whose cases eventually qualified for compensation died before their cases were completed, the Rocky Mountain News reported earlier this year. The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program gives $150,000, medical coverage and lost wages to ill workers or their survivors if they can prove a link between the ailments and exposures. Colorado cases cited The plight of Rocky Flats workers came up several times as an example of how the program is broken. Rocky Flats workers applied in February 2005 for streamlined compensation, which is available when records are missing or too incomplete to use in figuring out how big a dose of radiation a worker received. Government scientists took more than 800 days to conclude in June that only a small portion of Rocky Flats workers deserved the streamlined status. The rest must go through the years-long process of proving their individual radiation doses. "That seems to me like anything but a speedy process," Allard said during the hearing. Dr. James Melius, a member of a White House advisory board that monitors the program, suggested during the hearing that a deadline could be imposed. Compensation would be automatic for workers with certain illnesses if no decision is made on calculating does or granting streamlined status within a set time. "They need incentive," Melius said of the program's overseers. "There's no reason dose reconstruction should take more than a year to complete." Claimants frustrated Shelby Hallmark, who oversees the program for the U.S. Department of Labor, defended it. Hallmark told lawmakers about two cases this month in which dying claimants were rushed their money just days before they died. But he did acknowledge that most claimants had to wait too long. "In this arena, we haven't been as successful as we would have liked," he said, adding that he planned to increase staff from 525 full-time positions to nearly 600. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, of Nevada, also testified, criticizing the complexity and lack of quality control in the program he and other lawmakers created to help the ill workers. "None of us intended the program to be this unforgiving," Reid said. During the hearing, Malcolm Nelson, one of the program's ombudsmen, testified that claimants are fed up with the program. And Ken Silver, an environmental health professor at East Tennessee State University who has studied ill workers, said the government was overlooking key records that could help prove workers' exposures. He said several workers who helped push for the program seven years ago still had not been compensated, despite documented exposures, assistance from their congressional representatives and support from nationally known health experts. Silver asked what has become of hundreds of claimants who did not have access to such help. After the hearing, Barrie said she hoped the organization she helped found, the Alliance of Nuclear Workers Advocacy Groups, could persuade Congress to take action on reforming the program soon. "I'm pushing for something now," she said. "After seeing (lawmakers) at the hearing, I don't think it's going to be that difficult." Seeking solutions ? Tuesday: Lawmakers pledged to find ways to improve the federal program to compensate ill nuclear weapons workers, including those from the now-demolished Rocky Flats plant northwest of Denver. Top suggestions included setting deadlines for decisions that can now drag on for years. ? Next: More hearings are expected. Meanwhile, Rocky Flats workers are trying to appeal a decision that denies automatic compensation for most of them who have or will develop radiation-related cancers. © 2007 The E.W. Scripps Co. ***************************************************************** 45 Las Vegas SUN: Jon Ralston on facts of Richardson's record on Yucca Today: October 24, 2007 at 7:26:41 PDT "For more than 20 years, in Congress and as secretary of energy, I have opposed the Yucca Mountain project." - Democratic presidential hopeful Bill Richardson, May 24 campaign release When I first questioned the New Mexico governor in February about his false characterization of his nuclear waste dump record, he retorted that I had "wrong facts." But facts, as a man (John Adams) who once held the job Richardson seeks knew, are stubborn things, although apparently not quite as stubborn as the Democratic candidate. You would think that a man running a "Nevada or bust" campaign, a man who has been here more than any other White House contender, would not pump himself up on this, of all issues, so someone could come along to deflate him. But on Tuesday, here and in Colorado, Richardson's balloon was finally pricked, the air rushed out of his inflated characterization and the facts of his dump record were revealed: First, as a congressman, he supported the most infamous pro-dump legislation; and then, as secretary of energy, he was an enabler of a policy to study only the Nevada site and helmed an operation that moved along construction of the facility. Richardson, as first disclosed by former Las Vegas journalist Susan Greene in The Denver Post on Tuesday, voted for the "Screw Nevada bill" in 1987, the measure so named because it short-circuited the intent of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act by narrowing the dump choices from three to one. The move was seen as the first and most egregious of many steps in putting politics over science . As Nevada politicians squealed about the unfairness - one aide to then-Gov. Richard Bryan called it a "gang-rape mentality" and Sen. Harry Reid pessimistically called it "the end of the road" - Richardson voted for the bill. That is a fact. Richardson, as he told Greene, said Tuesday on "Face to Face" that he voted for the measure because it was part of an omnibus bill that contained many worthwhile projects. Consider this exchange during what was a very contentious interview: Richardson: "That's a bill that contained money for pensions, for Medicare, for defense." Me: "It's the Screw Nevada bill!" Richardson: "There is no such thing." Tell that to Bryan, Reid and then-Reps. Jim Bilbray and Barbara Vucanovich, both of whom spoke out against the measure, and to voters here he is now trying to convince that he is one of them. This was no overwhelmingly popular bill Richardson supported 20 years ago - it passed 237-181 - and he was part of the Screw Nevada majority. That is a fact. Nevertheless, Richardson continues to portray himself as a friend of the state on the dump, frequently speaking in absolute terms and obdurately refusing to acknowledge his true record. Richardson claimed Tuesday that as secretary of energy he "disqualified the site" because of concerns about water. If the site is disqualified, what has been going on since the Clinton administration? Richardson also loves to play up President Clinton's veto of the site, often without mentioning that was for interim storage. Clinton and Richardson deserve credit for that veto because interim storage was a move designed to, like the 1987 legislation, change the intent of the existing law to force Nevada to take the waste early. But, ironically, in making the case in front of Congress during his tenure against the interim storage legislation, Richardson argued that the permanent dump project was proceeding. On March 12, 1999, he told a subcommittee that the dump "was on the right track and cited several recent accomplishments, including the completion of a 5-mile tunnel through Yucca Mountain," according to a summary of his testimony. Yes, Richardson argued that sound science should take precedence over politics - where have we heard that before? - but he did nothing to slow down the dump. And when given the opportunity as DOE boss to do what he claimed Tuesday he had done - disqualify the project - he declined, despite written entreaties from two Nevada governors - Bob Miller and Kenny Guinn. That is a fact. "To be truthful and honest, he (Richardson) didn't do anything to slow this thing down," Bob Loux, the state agency head who might know more about the fight against the dump than even Bryan or Reid, told Greene. Richardson was not nearly as hostile as DOE bosses to come - Hazel O'Leary and Spencer Abraham, to name a couple. But the way he has portrayed his record on Yucca Mountain is misleading, disingenuous and, ultimately, false. And that's a fact. Jon Ralston hosts the news discussion program "Face to Face With Jon Ralston" on Las Vegas ONE and publishes the daily e-mail newsletter "RalstonFlash.com." His column for the Las Vegas Sun appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Ralston can be reached at 870-7997 or at ralston@vegas.com. All contents © 1996 - 2007 Las Vegas Sun, Inc. ***************************************************************** 46 Las Vegas SUN: Was Richardson for Yucca before he was against it? Today: October 24, 2007 at 7:29:7 PDT Some say he 'set the stage' for use as nuclear waste dump By Michael J. Mishak, Las Vegas Sun Las Vegas Sun New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is coming under scrutiny for how he has painted his position on Nevada's preeminent issue: Yucca Mountain. As a seven-term congressman and former energy secretary, the Democrat has perhaps the longest record on the proposed nuclear waste repository of any candidate. If elected, Richardson has said , he would not open Yucca Mountain, and instead would designate it as a national laboratory to solve the nuclear waste problem. In May, Richardson boasted in a campaign statement that for more than 20 years "I have opposed the Yucca Mountain project." That claim was challenged Tuesday from various corners, including by Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. "I saw the Department of Energy putting reports together for Congress that said it was a very good site," said Loux, Nevada's point man in fighting Yucca Mountain. Loux said the Clinton Energy Department "set the stage" for Yucca Mountain's designation as the nation's nuke dump. One report in particular, dubbed a "viability assessment," confirmed the site as a suitable waste dump during Richardson's tenure, Loux said. For the second time in a decade, in 1999, Nevada petitioned the energy secretary to disqualify Yucca Mountain on the basis of the department's own ground water guidelines. According to Loux, Richardson declined, saying the department lacked sufficient information and was still studying the site. "Perhaps in his own mind he did (disqualify the site), but we didn't see any evidence of it ," Loux said. "The opportunity was there." The issue surfaced in a Denver Post report Tuesday, and Richardson was later confronted on his record during a taping of the public affairs TV show "Face to Face With Jon Ralston." Richardson said he supported a far-reaching appropriations bill in 1987 that narrowed the nuclear dump choices to Nevada because the legislation more importantly included funding for health care, pensions and defense. The bill later became known as the "Screw Nevada bill" for targeting the Silver State with high-level nuclear waste. "How can I vote against Medicare ?" Richardson asked Ralston . "You're finding (fault with) a vote on an overall bill. I don't recall any 'Screw Nevada bill.' Bill Richardson has always been with Nevada on stopping Yucca Mountain." Richardson said he subsequently voted against the project "five or six" times in Congress, and highlighted his record as energy secretary. "I am the one, because of science reasons, who said we're going to decide whether we open Yucca on science, not politics," he said. Richardson said he stopped a move to validate Yucca as the nation's nuclear waste dump because of water concerns, and suggested the country examine storing the waste at regional sites. During the TV appearance, Richardson repeatedly invoked the name of Richard Bryan, a former Nevada governor and senator during Richardson's tenure as energy secretary. Bryan defended Richardson on Tuesday. "In the 12 years I was in Washington, D.C., from a Nevada perspective, he was the best energy secretary we had," Bryan said. "He was faithful to the policies of the Clinton administration." He said although Clinton did not categorically oppose the Yucca project, he had two broad principles: The administration would not compromise on health and safety standards, nor approve Nevada as a temporary waste dump. Nevada Sen. Harry Reid took a pass on the issue. " Senator Reid is not going to get into dissecting the candidates' records," spokesman Jon Summers said . "What's important now is halting the dump. Voters can decide for themselves who's going to do that." A Senate hearing on Yucca Mountain, requested by the Democratic front - runner, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, will be held next week. The rest of the Democratic field also opposes storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. Michael J. Mishak can be reached at 259-2347 or at michael.mishak@lasvegassun.com. All contents © 1996 - 2007 Las Vegas Sun, Inc. ***************************************************************** 47 Salt Lake Tribune: Utah lawmakers seek faster tailings cleanup Article Last Updated: 10/24/2007 12:58:35 AM MDT Utah lawmakers continue to push in Congress for speedy cleanup of the Atlas uranium tailings pile outside of Moab. On Monday, the U.S. Senate passed the defense authorization bill that contains a provision to develop plans for removing the massive waste pile from the edge of the Colorado River by 2019. "I have said all along it is entirely unacceptable for the cleanup of these tailings to take over 20 years," said. U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett, a Utah Republican and sponsor of the provision. "I believe it is completely doable and logical to have it completed by 2019." Elected leaders at the state, local and federal levels have been prodding the federal government for years to get the contaminated pile off the riverbank. They grew concerned last spring when the U.S. Energy Secretary said the job might not be done until 2028. "That's just unacceptable," said Joette Langianese, a Grand County Council member. Similar expedited cleanup directions were included in the House-passed version of the defense bill at the request of U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah. That means it is more likely that some form of cleanup instructions will be part of the final bill. fahys@sltrib.com ***************************************************************** 48 Salt Lake Tribune - Navajos: Old uranium tailings leave land radioactive, people sick The Salt Lake Tribune Article Last Updated: 10/24/2007 06:52:39 AM MDT WASHINGTON - The Navajo Nation representative waved an instrument over the small pile of dirt. Beep, beep, beep it went, in a radioactive crescendo. The bit of soil - shipped from the Four Corners region to the Capitol - underscored Stephen Etsitty's point: This was only a minuscule sample of the tailings left behind from decades of uranium mining. Much larger pieces, he said, can be found in the homes of American Indians, in watering holes for grazing animals, even pressed into a public highway. "The sounds that you have heard come from an instrument called a Ludlum 19 and show that Navajo families are living within a few hundred yards of materials that we're told we shouldn't be exposed to for longer than an hour," said Etsitty, executive director of the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency. Members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee stared at the small tub of dirt, which was then sealed off and escorted out of the building by Capitol Police. The demonstration on Tuesday came during testimony on the problems faced by those living in the Navajo Nation - 27,000 square miles across Arizona, Utah and New Mexico - where more than 500 former uranium mines were abandoned after the rush to find nuclear material during the 1940s to the 1970s. Representatives of the Navajo Nation say the U.S. government has not done enough to clean up the aftermath of the uranium mining, an effort that one committee member said could cost more than $500 million. Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., declared at the start of the hearing that it is the federal government's responsibility to see that the contamination is cleaned up. And he decried the lack of work on restoring the land on the Navajo reservation. "If a fraction of the deadly contamination the Navajos live with every day had been in Beverly Hills or any wealthy community, it would have been cleaned up immediately," Waxman said. "But there's a different standard applied to the Navajo land." Ray Manygoats lives near Tuba City, Ariz., where a uranium mill sprang up during the Cold War, and he says radioactive waste is still strewn all over the area. "Our land today is poisoned," Manygoats said. "Today, I am a man who has lost his health, his family and his ancestral way of life because of uranium. I am here today to ask you to act to stop the suffering and needless deaths of my people." Etsitty, who says the presence of hazardous waste violates America's treaty with the Navajos, noted that the federal government is planning to reclaim a tailings site near Moab just outside the Navajo Nation. "Why is this not happening on the Navajo reservation," he said. "Are we seeing environmental injustice in action once again?" Because of the health and environmental problems that have plagued tribal members since the last boom, the Navajo Nation has passed a resolution prohibiting new uranium mining on the reservation. In 2001, the EPA razed Mary Holiday's hogan in Monument Valley because of gamma radiation readings 25 times higher than the level considered safe and radon 44 times above the "safe" level. Exposure to high radiation sometimes causes lung cancer, the disease that killed Holiday's nephew, Leonard Begay, a non-smoker who had lived in the hogan for many years. He died in 2003 at age 38. Wayne Nastri, the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency region that covers the Navajo Nation, said there have been efforts made to reclaim some of the now-contaminated land. The agency has built an inventory of 520 abandoned mines and the Navajo government is now helping to prioritize the sites for cleanup, Nastri said. "The challenge posed by uranium mine sites in the Navajo Nation will need to be addressed through federal, state and tribal efforts," Nastri said, adding that the agency provides $3.9 million annually to the Navajo government and that during the last 16 years it has spent $7.8 million specifically for a superfund program. The Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Department of Interior also is helping the Navajos reclaim the land, its director, Jerry Gidner, testified. His agency is providing assistance to the tribal government to address the hazards at the mines and also helping to seal some mine openings and remove physical hazards at others. Waxman, who plans more hearings on the subject, called for a comprehensive study of the health risks posed by the tailings and suggested the EPA conduct detailed site assessments at the priority mine sites right away. Once that's done, he added, the cleanups need be "initiated and accelerated." tburr@sltrib.com The key issues * The Navajo Nation says the federal government is dragging its feet on cleaning up radioactive tailings. * The federal EPA says it needs cooperation from state and tribal leaders. ***************************************************************** 49 Connecticut Post Online: EPA official details Milford cleanup effort BILL McDONALD bmcdonald@ctpost.com Article Last Updated: 10/24/2007 12:17:35 AM EDT Environmental Protection Agency on-scene coordinator Melanie Morash shows slides from her work in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to students at Platt Tech in Milford. MILFORD — The federal official leading a major chemical waste cleanup near Wampus Lane came to Platt Technical High School on Friday, demonstrating the rigors of her job as she urged students to be good stewards of the environment. Melanie Morash, the on-scene coordinator for the Environmental Protection Agency's office of site remediation and restoration, said work in the 24-acre marshland has lasted a month and is expected to be done by Thanksgiving. The 75 seniors attending the slide lecture are set to tour the site Thursday. Morash's lecture featured her earlier cleanup work and tools used in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Danvers, Mass., after a chemical warehouse explosion in 2006. Equipment included protective plastic suits to be worn in "hot zones" of chemical spills, some that include breathing apparatus and some that do not. "We don't need any special breathing apparatus at the Wampus Road site," Morash said. "Just the plastic suit with rubber boots and gloves, hard hats and safety glasses, the standard safety ware." The project concerns a 210-foot-long contaminated drainage swale in back of 80 Wampus Lane. Contaminants being removed include beryllium and lead metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and oils. FCI USA Inc., based in Etters, Pa., is paying the $360,000 cleanup bill after being found liable under the Superfund law, Marash said. The property was owned since 1956 by the Burndy Corp., which became Framatone Connections USA in 1995 and ultimately FCI USA Inc. The property was bought in 1999 by Wampus Milford Associates LLC. Morash said that after one month, 200 tons of soil has been excavated, still stored on site on plastic sheets in a secured, fenced-in area. "Once sample results come back, we'll see whether we need to do any more work," she said. "We don't believe there has been any impact from local ground water that has affected anyone else's water supply," Morash said. "We have been sharing all air sampling reports with the Milford Health Department, police, fire and mayor." Platt Principal Gene LaPorta warned the students about being careful with the environment. "What you have seen is the end result of not taking care of the environment like it should be taken care of. It's Melanie's job to clean it up," he said. "This has been great to hear from the EPA to see how these cleanups work." Tommy Stowers, of Stratford, enjoyed the presentation. "I learned an oil spill can cause a lot of problems with the environment," he said. "It's interesting to see how careful the EPA works." Telondia Jones, of New Haven, was also impressed. "The EPA takes every precaution in cleaning up," she said. "They're all over the place. They've been to Katrina, now they're in Milford. It's amazing how well they're able to help." © 1999-2007 MediaNews Group Newspapers :: Privacy Policy :: MNG Corporate Site Map ***************************************************************** 50 Reuters: USEC says signs contract valued at $400 mln with Korean utility | Wed Oct 24, 2007 1:23pm EDT Oct 24 (Reuters) - USEC Inc (USU.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said it signed a contract valued at about $400 million with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co Ltd to sell separative work units of enriched uranium for the utility's light-water nuclear power reactors. The new contract with the Seoul-based utility runs through 2013 and covers new deliveries of enriched uranium, as well as improved terms on existing commitments, USEC said. (Reporting by Jennifer Robin Raj in Bangalore) © Reuters2007All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 51 Albuquerque Tribune: Navajos spurn uranium mining By James W. Brosnan (Contact) Wednesday, October 24, 2007 WASHINGTON ? Soaring uranium prices are bringing mining companies back to western New Mexico, but the response from the Navajo Nation is "keep away." Two tribal leaders and four tribe members at a congressional hearing Tuesday recited a legacy of cancer and other diseases they believe were caused by uranium mining during the 1950s, '60s and '70s and by the slow response of federal agencies. The Navajo Nation has since banned uranium mining on reservation land. Now it wants Congress to put a moratorium on uranium mining on American Indian trust land regulated for the benefit of individuals by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. One company that wants to mine on those allotments and to persuade the Navajo Nation to allow mining as well is Uranium Resources, which recently bought an old mill near Grants. The company says it can employ about 3,000 people at mine sites it owns or would lease in the region. "These will not be your mother's uranium mines from 50 years ago," Richard Van Horn, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Uranium Resources, said in an interview. "It will be safe. It will be environmentally friendly." And at $78 a pound on the uranium spot market - 10 times the price of four years ago - the Navajos could have billions of dollars worth of ore on their land, said Van Horn. Told of Van Horn's comments, the director of the Navajo Nation's Environmental Protection Agency, Stephen Etsitty, said the tribe would reconsider the uranium mining ban "only if we were able to find a true and reliable cure for cancer." "We understand this is a resource. We understand that it is valuable at this time. But we cannot rely on the market to rest our future on," Etsitty said. "We need more than monetary compensation. The thing that's been driving our position is that the legacy contains all these health issues that have not been addressed." Etsitty testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Tuesday. He was joined by George Arthur, the chairman of the Navajo council's resources committee, and four Navajos who had personal or family experiences with uranium mining. Phil Harrison, 50, said his father worked in a mine near Cove, Ariz., and would bring home water collected from a cistern at his workplace. The family used it to wash in, and for making coffee and infant formula. One brother died at the age of 6 months from a stomach ailment, Harrison said. His father died from lung cancer at the age of 46 and his cousin's father died from the same illness at 42. An Indian Health Service official testified later that more lung cancers on Navajo land are due to uranium exposure than to smoking. Edith Hood, who lives 12 miles north of Church Rock Village, near Gallup, said there are piles of waste from a uranium mine 50 to 60 feet high less than a quarter-mile from her home. Children still play in the piles, she said, and sheep get through the fence that is supposed to barricade the tailings. "Today, there is talk of opening new mines. How can they open new mines when we haven't even addressed the health impacts and environmental damage from the old ones? Mining has already contaminated the water, the plants and the air. People are sick and dying all around us," Hood said, her voice often breaking with emotion. It was at Church Rock Village in 1979, three months after the explosion at Three Mile Island, that a dam gave way at a tailings lagoon, sending 94 million gallons of wastewater and 1,100 tons of mill waste into the Rio Puerco. The Environmental Protection Agency last summer removed 6,500 cubic yards of the radium-contaminated soils around the Northeast Church Rock Mine at a cost of $990,000 to EPA and $1.3 million to the former operator, United Nuclear Corp. An estimated 1.4 million cubic yards remains to be cleaned up. The Department of Energy has spent $137 million at four milling sites that supplied uranium for the nation's nuclear weapons program. The EPA also demolished two contaminated homes, although as many as 70 to 80 remain to be examined. Both Democrats and Republicans on the oversight committee criticized the federal response to the cleanup effort as too limited and too slow. "You have all suffered needlessly from corporate greed and our nation's weapons programs," said Rep. Betty McCollum, a Minnesota Democrat. She wondered if the response would have been the same if the uranium had been in Minneapolis or New York City. In one telling moment, officials from the EPA, Department of Energy, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Indian Health Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs admitted that Tuesday's hearing was the first time the agencies had ever sat in the room to discuss uranium pollution on Navajo land. "The old adage about too many chiefs comes to mind," observed Rep. Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican. Said the EPA's administrator for the region, Wayne Nastri: "Perhaps we studied issues too long. Perhaps we needed to take action." Rep. Tom Udall, a Santa Fe Democrat who was allowed to participate in the hearing although he is not a committee member, pounced on the director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Jerry Gidner. "Do you think you (the bureau) fulfilled the trust responsibility?" Udall asked. "That's hard to say," Gidner responded. Udall interrupted: "Hard to say! I would hope you would be outraged. I would hope you would stand up and say, `We're supposed to be protecting these people.' Have you asked any of these agencies to put money in their budgets to remedy these contamination and cleanup problems and radioactive homes?" "No," Gidner responded. Gidner went on to say he didn't think the BIA could have stopped the mining given the pressure during the Cold War for nuclear weapons. The committee chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, told the agencies he wants a progress report on Dec. 12 and then he will decide whether another hearing is needed. This site does not necessarily agree with posted comments, they are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. Readers will be banned for posting defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy comments. Read our privacy agreement. Posted by AndrewLeoLopez on October 24, 2007 at 12:28 p.m. (Suggest removal) Radon gas is a radioactive element that is a daughter byproduct of uranium mining that has a half life of 3.9 days. ---- As the gas decays it gives off particles that damage living tissue causing illnesses including cancer and even death. ---- Unarguable is that illness to miners and others exposed to decaying radon gas goes hand in hand with uranium mining. ---- Less studied is the possible effects of damage to the genetic code of miners and others exposed to decaying radon gas. ---- There is no safe way to mine uranium to avoid the production of radon gas and protect the miners from the effects of radioactive decay. ---- Thus, mining uranium is an extreme form of Faustian bargain. Payroll money in now for health money out later plus misery in between. ---- Those who assure of the safety of uranium mining are not miners and experience little if any exposure to radon gas and the effects of its decay. ---- Note that accumulation of radon gas in suppsedly safe personal residences that are now tightly constructed is a cause of illness and even death. ---- To'hajiilee Reservation [located in Bernalillo County West of Albuquerque along border with Cibola County] was the first unit of government anywhere to realize the ill effects of uranium mining and banned all mining on its lands. ---- The Navajo Nation followed suit some years later. ---- Andrew Leo Lopez Lobbyist for Cañoncito Band of Navajo who reside on To'hajiilee Reservation © 2007 The E.W. Scripps Co. ***************************************************************** 52 Canada: BBC: Open House on Nuke waste Bayshore Broadcasting Corporation News for Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 Written by Ken Hashizume Ontario Power Generation's DGR open house making a stop in Owen Sound. Over a hundred passed through the doors of the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre last night. OPG staff were on hand to answer questions and to guide visitors through a series of visuals describing the proposed Deep Geological Repository at the Bruce site for low and intermediate level waste. Hepworth resident Gail Gvinter says she came down to the open house because she worries about the effects of nuclear waste being stored deep under the limestone. She says people may forget about the waste after keeping it there for about a hundred years. Darlene Bond of Chesley says the information was quite interesting especially about the effects on wildlife and what would happen in the event of an earthquake. While she is concerned about nuclear waste, Bond doesn't feel there is much she can do about it. Owen Sound resident Bill Chnarr says he didn't realize that nuclear waste is being brought in from Pickering and Darlington reactors to be store at the Bruce until he came to the open house. Chnarr says he is satisfied with what he learned about the DGR but is troubled by the lack of people showing up. He says people should be informed about nuclear waste adding it is important for his children's future. There is another open house tonight at the Chesley Fire Hall and tomorrow at the Wiarton and District Community Centre. Both run from 4 P.M. until 8 P.M.. The open houses are part of an environmental assessment to determine the suitability of a DGR at the Bruce site. This site is part of the Bayshore Broadcasting family of radio stations Mix 106 | 560 CFOS | Country 93 | 98 the Beach | Bayshore Broadcasting © 2006 Bayshore Broadcasting Corp. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 53 Gallup Independent: Pathways to exposure; Last in a series of personal accounts of Post-71 miners. October 23, 2007: Strong winds carry misted water through the air and toward Hwy 605 at the Homestake mining site near Milan, NM on Wednesday. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent] By Kathy Helms Diné Bureau Chili Kicks on Route 66 restaurant owner Molly Chavez, a former uranium mine worker, reflects for a moment inside her Grants, NM business on the number of miners she knows who have died from illnesses believed to have been a result of radition exposure. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent] GRANTS ? Millie Chavez is somewhat of an enigma when it comes to radiation exposure. Just pick a pathway ? she has been exposed. Chavez was born in Springerville, Ariz., in 1946 and moved with her family to San Rafael in the early 1950s. Unfortunately, the move wasn?t soon enough. Atomic testing at Nevada Test Site already had begun. Both of Chavez?s sisters were compensated as downwinders. One sister has since died. Her father was a watchman at Homestake, starting work soon after the mill first opened. He died of a massive heart attack. Her mother?s illnesses were similar to her own. Chavez?s husband, Senovio, who is from San Mateo, spent 2 1/2 years at Kerr-McGee, Section 17, first as a laborer and then working his way below ground to become a uranium miner. Afterward, he spent nine years at United Nuclear-Church Rock Mine, and later hired on at Anaconda after the mill closed to help with cleanup. He started getting sick back around 1972, he said, but ?they passed me anyway to go back to work. They removed half my lung here ? upper lobe.? Senovio was diagnosed with cancer about three to four years ago and now is undergoing treatment in Albuquerque. He doesn?t know what type of cancer it is, he said. ?It?s a long word.? As a miller, Millie?s story is similar to that of other Post-71 uranium workers ? hardly any safety equipment and no warning about the dangers of exposure to radiation. She operated a Bobcat and front-end loader, cleaning out ore spills, and brought her work clothes home to wash along with her husband?s. ?I worked in the basement where they used to load the ore. There was always a lot of powder, a lot of dust in the air there. I was pretty much by myself. Every once in a while I?d have a helper,? she said. Neither of them had respirators. ?I operated the crusher there. I used to have to call the control office and tell him to shut down if we had a big ore spill. There was a lot of ore spilled onto the ground. ?I think I started getting sick right then. I never had asthma in my life, and I got diagnosed with asthma a little bit later when I was working there. Nothing ever changed. I still feel like I have some problems with my lungs. You can tell by the sound of my voice,? she said, coughing, her voice barely above a whisper. After the mines shut down, Millie, Senovio and Cipriano Lucero went to work at Anaconda. ?We were filtering. They called it ?filtering tailings ponds.? All of the waste went into those tailings ponds. They used this black piece of material ? it was a plastic-like thing ? and we were covering the tailings ponds. ?I was the foreman. Whatever the waste was in those things, after they dried up, we were down in there filtering them out. We were laying the plastic all the way across. I think we did, like, three tailings ponds. I don?t know why they were doing that. It must have cost them a lot of money to cover that up,? she said. ?I can?t remember what the name of the material was, but they called us seamers, because we used to have to make sure that it was done right, that there was no way that water could go in there after we got it done.? Lucero was a patcher, fixing rips in the plastic, and Senovio operated a loader. ?Sometimes you?d press the brake and bury yourself in the muck,? Senovio said. ?You?d get stuck in it. It was in layers, the uranium, yellowcake ? just layers.? He used to walk around in it, wearing only his street boots. Millie said they called him one time because he was an equipment operator. ?They told him, ?Get rid of these gamma badges.? He says, ?Well, what do you want me to do?? They told him to put them in the loader and go bury them. ... So those gamma badges are somewhere in the field over there where the former Anaconda is at,? she said. ?They didn?t check them (badges) very often. I worked there a year and I think they checked it once,? Millie said. Lucero said they checked his badges twice in three to four years. After the mines and mills shut down, Millie moved on, selling burritos ?because I couldn?t afford to pay my bills, and that was the only way I knew how to do it. There were no jobs here ? everything was shutting down. They called me the ?Tamale Lady? and the ?Burrito Lady,?? she said. Cibola County began holding an annual chile contest each October and Millie won first place three years in a row with her famous red chile con carne. She and Senovio operated ?Burrito Vans? off and on for the last 20 years, until about six months ago when Millie finally realized her dream of owing her own restaurant, ?Chili Kicks on Route 66.? She has translated her culinary skills into a shelf full of trophies. With a full-time business to run, she doesn?t have time for illness. ?I have diabetes and all these other things. They did tell me at one point that I had a spot on my lungs. I never really looked into that any. Maybe I should be going to the doctors, but I?m not about that. I have problems with my heart. I had a pretty hard heart attack and then I had some little heart attacks. They were able to do some work on that, stents and that sort of stuff,? she said. ?I know I?m having some kidney failure right now, by the way things have changed. I?ve got to go see about that. I?m experiencing a little bit of pain in the back of my kidney. I have a lot of blood clotting,? she said. Millie believes that all their illnesses has to do with the contamination. ?Even my children have a lot of health problems. My granddaughter has lupus. When she was just a little girl, she used to live out there right by Homestake. Maybe the whole city of Grants is contaminated ? I don?t know,? she said. ?Two of my sisters have lupus. One of them just got a settlement out of Washington. It was not the same thing ? she didn?t work with the mines. It was the atomic-something, the downwinders sort of thing. So she got a settlement for that. My other sister, she passed away with lupus. They grew up in Springerville, Arizona. That might have had something to do with that, I don?t know. They were downwinders. But my granddaughter has lived here. ?I?m not saying it has anything to do with it, but I think it should be looked into. There?s another girl right here in town that lives around in the same area, and she has lupus. They both have a Factor 2 deficiency, which is thinning of the blood. ?They?re both about the same age. They?re like 21 now. But I know that my granddaughter was diagnosed when she was 14, and like I said, she spent a lot of time out at her grandfather?s ranch, which is out there too, by Homestake. But even the animals don?t live out there, so there?s got to be something there. I believe there?s something there because the animals are not surviving,? Millie said. ?I figure as long as they don?t tell me they have to go in and operate, I?m not going to. I?m not looking for anything. If I?m breathing air every day, I?m fine,? she said. ?One time they told me I had a tumor in my brain. But the thing is, when I went back they told me that I didn?t have a tumor, that there was a little gap there. I had been diagnosed with brain cancer. ?It?s just that every time we go to the doctor, you?re afraid to let them even see you anymore, because they?re always finding something. I?m a hard-working woman and I think that when you stop and think about all these things, that?s when it gets you down. ?I don?t have time to get sick. But I know that I do have one thing for sure ? that?s lung problems, and that?s what bothers me the most,? she said. Tuesday October 23, 2007 All contents property of the Gallup Independent. Please send the Gallup Independent feedback on this website and the paper in general. Send questions or comments to gallpind@cia-g.com ***************************************************************** 54 IHT: Senior American diplomat says US will go ahead with missile defense plans - International Herald Tribune The Associated Press Published: October 24, 2007 BERLIN: A senior American diplomat on Wednesday defended plans for a U.S.-built missile defense system in Europe, saying that while Washington would try to work with Russia to overcome objections, Moscow could not stop the program from going ahead. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried told reporters in Berlin that the U.S. was determined to try to work with the Russians and develop common ground on missile defense. "We explained this to the Russians," Fried said, adding "that doesn't mean that they get a veto over our programs." The Pentagon wants to install 10 interceptor rockets in Poland which, when linked to a proposed tracking radar in the Czech Republic and to other elements of the existing U.S. missile defense system based in the United States, is designed to defend all of Europe against a long-range missile fired from the Middle East. There had been some confusion this week over whether the United States might delay activating its proposed missile defense sites in Europe to placate Russian opposition. U.S. Defense Secretary Gates told a news conference Tuesday in the Czech Republic that the administration might delay activating the proposed missile defense sites until it has "definitive proof" of a missile threat from Iran. However, U.S. President George W. Bush said later on Tuesday that the plans for a missile defense system in Europe are urgently needed to counter an emerging threat of attack by Iran. "The need for missile defense in Europe is real, and I believe it's urgent," Bush said in Washington. The president tried to placate the Russian concerns, however, emphasizing again that the Russian nuclear arsenal could easily overwhelm the small defense system. Copyright © 2007 the International Herald Tribune All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 55 Reuters: Northrop gets $191 mln U.S. Navy nuclear deal Wed Oct 24, 2007 5:36pm EDT WASHINGTON, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) has won a $190.7 million U.S. Navy deal to continue planning a reactor overhaul aboard the nuclear-powered Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, the Pentagon said Wednesday. The deal represents the exercise of an option of a previously awarded contract. Work is to be performed in Newport News, Virginia, and is expected to be wrapped up by October 2008, the Defense Department said in its daily contract summary. (Reporting by Jim Wolf) © Reuters2007All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 56 AFP: India test fires nuclear-capable missile - Wed Oct 24, 11:56 AM ET NEW DELHI (AFP) - India on Wednesday test fired its nuclear-capable Agni-1 ballistic missile for the second time in less than a month and said the latest experiment was a "major success." The Agni-1 has a range of 700 kilometres (420 miles), making it capable of striking at most targets in rival and neighbouring Pakistan. It was launched from a missile test range in the eastern state of Orissa, officials from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said in New Delhi. "The system that we tested today has more manoeuvrability and better re-entry technology than the missile that was launched on October 5," said a DRDO official who asked not to be named. "It is a major success," the official added. The launch was conducted by India's recently-established strategic armed forces, signalling Agni-1's official induction into the million-plus military, defence experts said. "The performance parameters of the missile were as expected and the desired objectives have been met", a defence ministry spokesman added. The Agni -- Sanskrit for fire -- is a 12-metre (39-foot) medium-range ballistic missile that can be fired from mobile launchers and can carry a one-ton warhead. In April, India staged a successful test of Agni-III, its longest range ballistic missile capable of transporting a nuclear warhead more than 3,000 kilometres (1,860 miles) deep in China. India, which held nuclear weapons tests in 1998, has developed a series of nuclear and conventional missile systems as part of a missile development programme launched in 1983. Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan routinely carry out missile tests and normally notify each other in advance. Two of their three wars have been over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir. Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 57 TheDay.com: Rickover Would Not Be Happy By The Day Published on 10/24/2007 It was disconcerting to read reports of sailors aboard the USS Hampton attack submarine cutting corners when it came to nuclear safety. From the very start of the nuclear Navy, Adm. Hyman G. Rickover demanded the highest standards of performance. That legacy is the major reason why the nuclear Navy has never had a reactor accident. But somehow six sailors missed the boat. According to results of a preliminary investigation, the nuclear personnel skipped the required analysis of the chemical and radiological properties of the Hampton's reactor for more than a month. A daily check is required. Lt. Cmdr. Ryan Perry, a Navy spokesman, said there was never any danger to the submarine due to the lax performance. While true, the Navy needs to send a strong message that any such corner cutting is absolutely unacceptable. The late Adm. Rickover knew that any relaxation in performance standards could begin an erosive process that ultimately leads to conduct that does endanger safety. Reportedly ship logs were filled out to make it appear that the required checks were done. The Navy did not disclose the punishment the sailors have received and the investigation continues. Those responsible should be thankful the old admiral is not around to deal with the matter. On a positive note, the slipshod performance was discovered by an examination that double-checks record keeping. It is part of the redundancy built into nuclear Navy operations as a way of assuring safety. The Navy's perfect record of reactor safety is one record no one ever wants to see broken. Privacy Policy | Contact Us at 1 (860) 442-2200 | New London, CT | © 1998-2007 The Day Publishing Co. 101 ***************************************************************** 58 AFP: Pentagon seeks urgent funding for massive bunker busting bomb - by Jim Mannion Wed Oct 24, 6:14 PM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - Citing an "urgent operational need," the Pentagon is seeking funds to modify B-2 stealth bombers to deliver an experimental 30,000 pound (13.6 tonne), satellite-guided bunker busting bomb, officials said Wednesday. The likely purpose of the new weapon is to strike Iran's underground nuclear facilities, experts said. "It raises a red flag," said Representative Jim Moran, a Democrat from Virginia who called for hearings on the request. "My immediate assumption is that it is a target in Iran, rather than Iraq or Afghanistan." The air force has asked Congress for nearly 88 million dollars to complete development of the so-called Massive Ordnance Penetrator and modify B-2 bombers so that they can deliver it, an air force spokeswoman said. "This program is an effort to satisfy an urgent operational need for the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, a 30,000 pound (13,608 kilogram) GPS guided penetrator weapon on B-2 for hard and deeply buried" targets, the air force's request budget said. The item was buried in a 42.3 billion dollar request for "war on terror" funding submitted by the administration last week, raising suspicions about the rush to field what would be the largest satellite guided conventional bomb in the US arsenal. "It's a capability that has some relation to the capabilities in the Centcom AOR," a senior defense official said, referring to the US Central Command's area of responsibility. "You have buried targets, particularly in Afghanistan, that you are concerned about," the official told reporters last week, referring to cave systems that insurgents have used in Afghanistan. But some experts believe the bomb, also known as "Big Blue," was developed with Iran's deeply buried nuclear facilities in mind. "I do know they got interested in this around the time the Iranians began backfilling the large uranium enrichment facility at Natanz," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.Org, which follows military issues. The bomb is currently under development by Boeing under a "technology demonstrator" contract with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency that concludes this fiscal year. A first test was conducted in March at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico using a "statically emplaced conventional weapon within a DTRA tunnel," according to the agency. Tests from a B-52 bomber are planned for next month and in July 2008, the agency said in a fact sheet on the bomb. Pike described the bomb as "a big dart. It's basically just a long skinny pointy chunk of steel." Its massive weight would drive the weapon through rock and reinforced concrete, he said. Fuzes could be used to detonate the explosives as it breaks through a ceiling into a void. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency said the MOP is approximately 20.5 feet (6.25 meters) long, with a 31.5-inch (80 centimeter) diameter and a total weight of slightly less than 30,000 pounds. "The weapon will carry over 5,300 pounds (2,404 kilograms) of explosive material and will deliver more than 10 times the explosive power of its predecessor, the BLU-109," it said. It has been designed to be carried inside B-52 and B-2 Stealth bombers. The funding request includes 83.5 million dollars to continue development of the weapon and 4.2 million dollars to modify the B-2s so that they can carry it, an air force spokeswoman said. The biggest US bunker busting bomb now in the US arsenal is the 5,000 pound (2,3 tonne) GBU-28. The biggest US conventional bomb is the 21,000 pound (9.5 tonne) Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, also known as the Mother of All Bombs. MOAB is a demolition bomb that explodes on the surface. Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 59 GU: US tries to placate Moscow with offer of missile delay | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited Julian Borger and Luke Harding in Moscow Wednesday October 24, 2007 An activist stands in front of a banner during a protest in Breznice against the proposed US anti-missile radar base in the Czech Republic. Photograph: Michal Cizek/AFP/Getty Washington has offered to delay the "activation" of its proposed missile defence sites in eastern Europe which have caused a serious rift with Moscow, the US defence secretary said yesterday. Russian officials said the proposal fell short of Moscow's demands but described it as a "positive signal" which could be the starting point for further negotiations. The US offer was raised when Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, and Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, visited Moscow last Friday, meeting Vladimir Putin in his dacha. The proposed construction of a missile interceptor site in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic, ostensibly to target incoming Iranian ballistic missiles, has enraged Moscow, which believes the system could undermine Russia's nuclear deterrent. The issue has contributed to the deepest chill in US-Russian relations since the cold war, but yesterday's announcement marked the first sign of a thaw. Speaking in Prague, Mr Gates said: "We would consider tying together the activation of the sites in Poland and the Czech Republic with definitive proof of the threat, in other words, Iranian missile testing and so on." Mr Gates said the proposal had not been fully worked out but added: "We would develop the sites, build the sites but perhaps we would delay activating them until there was concrete proof of the threat from Iran." A Russian foreign ministry spokesman said yesterday that Moscow would only respond to offers made through "official channels". But a Russian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "We believe that the outcome of the talks is promising. We think a number of ideas the Americans raised in Moscow merit careful consideration. For example, we believe there is a need for a joint discussion of the Iranian missile threat." However, the official added that Moscow wanted work on the Czech and Polish sites to be put on hold while the issue was negotiated, and in that respect the offer "falls short of what we would like from the Americans". Speaking after the Moscow talks, Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, had been blunter, warning that if the United States did not freeze its missile defence plans while the issue is still under discussion Russia would "take measures to neutralise the threat". Jonathan Eyal, the director of international security studies at the Royal United Services Institute, said the American offer was too one-sided to form the basis of a sustainable agreement. "All the American concessions are reversible, literally with a switch of a button, but the concessions the Americans are asking of the Russians are irreversible," he said. Those concessions include a harder line on Iran and acceptance of independence for Kosovo. Useful links Itar-Tass news agency Moscow Times Russia Today St Petersburg Times Caucasian Knot Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 60 www.kansascity.com: Nuclear weapons plant in south KC picks up key endorsement 10/24/2007 | By KEVIN COLLISON The Kansas City Star A plan to build a $500 million nuclear weapons plant in south Kansas City to replace the facility at the Bannister Federal Complex received a pivotal endorsement today. The federal Office of Management and Budget has accepted the plan and sent it to Congress for consideration. Brad Scott, the regional administrator for the General Services Administration, said the prospect for Congressional approval appears solid, assuring the continuation of at least 2,000 well-paid jobs in the area. “This is a significant hurdle having the OMB sign off on the package,” Scott said. “It’s an important step, but we believe we have all the support we need….It looks very good, almost assured, but anything can happen in Congress. We’re elated.” The local Congressional delegation and GSA officials have been working since early last year on a plan to keep the nuclear weapons facility in Kansas City. The plant is currently housed in a sprawling complex on Bannister Road originally built in 1943 to manufacture engines for fighter aircraft. After World War II, the facility evolved to become a major facility where non-nuclear parts for nuclear weapons were manufactured. At the height of the Cold War in the 1980s, more than 8,000 people worked there. In recent years, however, that work force has dwindled to 2,600 people and there had been active consideration to close the plant and relocate its work to other weapons facilities around the nation. In April, the GSA announced it had obtained preliminary approval for a plan to build a new facility near the former Richards-Gebaur Memorial Airport, northwest of Missouri 150 and Botts Road. The plant would be operated by Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies, which has the contract to manufacture the weapons parts. The new facility would occupy a 185-acre campus and include buildings totaling up to 1.5 million-square feet, according to the GSA. If Congress approves the plan, construction would begin in late 2008 or early 2009 with completion in the fall of 2010. The new plant would not be fully occupied until 2012. The plant’s payroll last year was $193 million, and the plant operators purchased $41.9 million in goods from Missouri businesses and $15 million from Kansas merchants. U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, a Missouri Republican, released a statement that described the plant as a tremendous asset to Kansas City and said the new plant should allow future growth. “This project now needs Congress to sign off, and I look forward to leading the charge with the Kansas City congressional delegation to move it forward,” Bond said. To reach Kevin Collison, development reporter, call 816-234-4289 or e-mail kcollison@kcstar.com. * About www.kansascity.com | ***************************************************************** 61 DOE: DOE's Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) Program October 24, 2007 "It is in our vital interest to diversify America's energy supply — and the way forward is through technology.” - President George W. Bush, 2007 State of the Union Address DOE’s Commercialization Team The Commercialization Team is focused on broad market adoption of clean energy technologies. Crucial to this effort, is supporting the move of these technologies from DOE’s National Laboratories to the private sector. About the EIR Program The Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) Program will bring venture capital sponsored entrepreneurs into three of DOE’s National Laboratories to develop plans to commercialize new clean energy technologies. The entrepreneurs in residence will identify technologies that, when commercialized in private sector companies, will contribute to DOE’s mission to promote America’s energy security through reliable, clean, and affordable energy. The EIR program seeks to identify and develop business cases to commercialize promising laboratory technology and give proven start-up entrepreneurs the opportunity to work directly with technical management and staff at a National Laboratory. Selected entrepreneurs would conduct technology assessments, evaluate market opportunities, formulate preliminary business cases, and propose business structures for start-up enterprises, as well as recommend policy and business practice modifications to the National Laboratories to refine their approaches to moving technology into the commercial sector. The National Renewable Energy Lab, Sandia National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory will be the first DOE laboratories to host entrepreneurs in residence. As a first step in the program, DOE will support the work of three entrepreneurs at National Laboratories. DOE will provide up to $300,000 funding to support this initiative. How to Apply The Funding Opportunity Announcement can be accessed, by visiting the Grants.gov homepage, clicking on "Find Grant Opportunities" and performing a "Basic Search" for Funding Opportunity Number DE-PS36-08GO98001. Applications are due December 21, 2007. EIRs would be expected to sign a non-disclosure agreement to facilitate full access to lab personnel, inventions, and data. After a technology is identified, the EIR would then be granted a 180-day first right of refusal to license the identified technologies. To streamline the intellectual property negotiation, the solicitation includes a standard equity-share license agreement. Media contact(s): Megan Barnett, DOE, (202) 586-4940 U.S. Department of Energy | 1000 Independence Ave., SW | Washington, DC 20585 1-800-dial-DOE | f/202-586-4403 ***************************************************************** 62 Hanford News: Science writers learn about east side This story was published Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 John Trumbo, Herald staff writer Eastern Washington's wines, diverse landscapes and the intellectual horsepower associated with Washington's universities and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory wowed some of the nation's science journalists this week. More than 300 of them toured Eastern Washington during a conference in Spokane and the Tri-Cities. Attendees included award-winning writers from major national newspapers and freelancers just beginning their careers. They spent Monday on the road, touring PNNL in Richland and Palouse Falls. The 45th annual conference, called New Horizons in Science, was held for the first time in Spokane, where participants heard about subjects as diverse as how DNA research can track the African source of poached elephant ivory, why understanding a baby's babbling is important to early diagnosis of autism and if it is possible for God and Darwin to coexist, philosophically speaking. The science was rich, but it was Eastern Washington that impressed. "Most of us probably have been to Seattle, but we had no idea what Spokane and Eastern Washington were like," said Cristine Russell, president of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing and a former national science writer for the Washington Post. She and about 160 others peered into the abyss at Palouse Falls on Monday, while PNNL researcher Bruce Bjornstad explained how Ice Age floods gouged and sculpted thousands of square miles from Montana to the Pacific Ocean. The show-and-tell continued at the Richland laboratory, which Battelle operates for the U.S. Department of Energy. Their visit included a cram course on science at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, where they were introduced to the world of proteins through proteomics, given a snapshot on visualizing massive amounts of information through graphics, told how an electricity infrastructure operations center can monitor demand for power and given a chance to be measured by millimeter wave technology that also can detect contraband. "We all belong to a community that wants to find out complicated information," said Joann Rodgers, an award-winning science and medical journalist from New York who oversees media relations at Johns Hopkins. Holding their conferences at far-flung places is important, too, to get out to where the science is being done, Russell said. "As science writers, we used to travel a lot and we did a lot of reporting. But now it is the Internet. Hearing a scientist talking and coming to PNNL to learn about their work helps us see why they are excited. This is the personality of science, and how it is done," Russell said. The conference ends today. One of Tuesday's speakers was PNNL's Benoit Mandelbrot, a Battelle fellow emeritus, who talked about fractals on Wall Street — his way of using mathematics to understand the dynamics of complex systems under constant change. Participants are scheduled today for an all-day tour of Hanford's Manhattan Project site, including the B Reactor, where plutonium was produced for the first atomic explosion and one of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan during World War II. © 2007 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 63 DOE: Office of Science; Climate Change Science Program Product Development Advisory Committee FR Doc E7-20916 [Federal Register: October 24, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 205)] [Notices] [Page 60330] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr24oc07-52] DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY AGENCY: Department of Energy. ACTION: Notice of teleconference meeting postponement. SUMMARY: On October 17, 2007, the Department of Energy published a notice of open teleconference meeting of the Climate Change Science Program Product Development Advisory Committee 72 FR 58836. Today's notice is announcing the postponement of the teleconference meeting scheduled for October 29, 2007. The next meeting will be scheduled for later this year. Issued in Washington, DC on October 18, 2007. Rachel Samuel, Deputy Committee Management Officer. [FR Doc. E7-20916 Filed 10-23-07; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P ***************************************************************** 64 Knoxville News Sentinel: British scientist named new SNS chief By Frank Munger (Contact) Updated 12:33 p.m., October 24, 2007 Ian Anderson OAK RIDGE - Ian Anderson, a 54-year-old physicist, today was named the new director of the Spallation Neutron Source and associate lab director for neutron sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Anderson has been serving in that role on an interim basis since mid-summer, when Thom Mason - the former SNS chief - was named director of ORNL. The British scientist came to Oak Ridge five years ago as director of the experimental facilities division, overseeing the development of research instruments for the SNS and creating a new system for scientific users. In a telephone interview today, Anderson said he never envisioned becoming director when he accepted the Oak Ridge job. But he said he had lots of ideas and wanted to see them implemented. In addition to running the Spallation Neutron Souce, a $1.4 billion science center that became operational in April 2006, Anderson will oversee the High Flux Isotope Reactor - another important research facility at ORNL. "We want to develop new science," Anderson said, noting that one of his goals is to better integrate the research operations at the SNS and HFIR will the rest of the laboratory. A new state-funded Joint Institute for Neutron Sciences is expected to be ready by late 2008, and Anderson said the goal is to use it as "an incubator for new science directions." The institute will provide research space and support for users from around the world, as well as solidify ORNL's relationship with universities. Before coming to Oak Ridge, Anderson was head of the Neutron Optics Laboratory at the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, France. The Spallation Neutron Source has already established world records for production of neutrons for materials research, and the facility is still nowhere near its full power. Peak operational capabilities are not expected for another year, although some significant science results have been achieved with early experiments. The SNS and the High Flux Isotope Reactor, combined with the capabilities at a new nanoscience center adjacent to the SNS, have made Oak Ridge the world's leading site for materials research using neutrons. The penetrating neutrons are used as tools to better understand the properties and structure of different materials. That knowledge enables researchers to restructure those materials at a nano level and achieve improved characteristics. More details online and in Thursday's News Sentinel. Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 342-6329. © 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 65 Munger: At the end of the day, it's all about science By Frank Munger (Contact) Wednesday, October 24, 2007 I won't say I haven't run across a few bloated egos at Oak Ridge National Laboratory over the past 25 years. I have. Indeed, some of them were entertainingly bloated. But the nice thing, or one of the nice things, about covering the grand research institution and its talented staff is that the emphasis generally is on the work, and that work is pretty doggone important. "It's all about the science." That's a phrase used often by Thomas Zacharia, an associate lab director in charge of ORNL's computing activities. When a reporter gets too fixated on the number-crunching capabilities of some of ORNL's supercomputers - such as the Jaguar, a Cray XT4 that's the second-fastest computer in the world - Zacharia wants to make sure the emphasis is on the research results that come from the trillions of calculations per second. The speed by itself is not so important. It's all about the science. Maybe that should be an underscore when branding ORNL. Oak Ridge National Laboratory: It's all about the science. Anyway, I was thinking about such things earlier this month after visiting with Ian Anderson, the interim director of the Spallation Neutron Source - the enormously important scientific tool that's situated on Chestnut Ridge about a mile from the lab's central campus. When I arrived at Anderson's corner office on the top floor of the modern office facility that's adjacent to the neutron-producing research complex, I was surprised to see Thom Mason's name still on a sign outside the office. That made me laugh because Mason hasn't been the SNS chief since July 1, when he succeeded Jeff Wadsworth as director of ORNL. What's up with that? Well, from Anderson's perspective, he's holding court in an acting role, and that's no reason to go changing names on doors. Besides, there are other things to be addressed at a world-class research center. For instance, Anderson wants to make something clear right off the bat: He's not Ian Anderson, the British rock star, lead singer and flutist for the legendary group Jethro Tull (that's, by the way, still making the concert rounds). "I'm not that Ian Anderson." Maybe Anderson felt compelled to make that quick disclaimer because of my age and gray hair, recognizing I was from that era. He was probably sparing me the embarrassment of asking for autographs and such. But, having seen Jethro Tull in concert five times during the 1970s and having witnessed firsthand Ian Anderson's athletic stage presence, I had already come to the right conclusion. Whew. The point is that Ian Anderson, the British scientist, doesn't take himself too seriously. He's fun and funny. He's serious, however, about the science, and we did manage to talk a bit about that. Early research at the Spallation Neutron Source has involved studies of polymers that may some day be used as the coating in drug-delivery systems. The idea is to encapsulate drugs with a layer of polymer material that's sensitive to acidity, disintegrating and releasing the drug at the right point in the human body. "By changing the pH you can release it whenever you wish," Anderson said. Scientists at SNS are studying the properties and structure of different polymers at varying pH levels and then, in conjunction with researchers at the nanoscience center next door, they can engineer and test new materials to develop the right characteristics. Researchers also are doing experiments with a manganese oxide that's supposed to be nonmagnetic, but studies indicate that, if loaded with a certain type of nitrogen, the result is a magnetic film with interesting properties. There reportedly are some exciting possibilities for recording devices and other applications. The Spallation Neutron Source is currently shut down for maintenance but will restart sometime in November. According to Anderson, four or five new research instruments will be installed in fiscal 2008, which began Oct. 1, and the power will continue to rise - perhaps to 800 or 900 kilowatts by next October (the eventual max is 1.4 megawatts). More power translates into more neutrons, and more neutrons translates into better research with materials. It's all about the science. Senior writer Frank Munger covers the Department of Energy for the News Sentinel. He may be reached at 865-342-6329 or at munger@knews.com. This column is also available in the opinion section of knoxnews.com. © 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 66 lamonitor.com: Safety board makes safety complaints formal The Online News Source for Los Alamos MONITOR STAFF REPORT A new disagreement has arisen about safety systems at Los Alamos National Laboratory, this one focused on the aging Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Facility (CMR). In a letter Tuesday to the administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, the chairman of a federal safety board wrote, "The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board believes that continued operation of the CMR facility in its current condition poses significant risks to workers and the public." The warning, calling for a response within 60 days, follows a letter last week that expressed the board's increasing concern about "the overall lack of progress with respect to safety improvements at LANL." While referencing some positive steps, Chairman A. J Eggenberger added, "However, none of these initiatives are mature, and continued federal and contractor management attention and support are needed to ensure their success." The Oct. 16 letter was based on results of a DNFSB review of safety systems at the Plutonium Facility, Weapons Engineering Tritium Facility and the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Facility. The exact nature of the problems cannot be revealed for security reasons, but they are important, said Don Ami, a spokesman for the NNSA in Los Alamos. The lab has a plan to address the problems and is in the process of hiring more people to put the plan in action, said Donald L. Winchell Jr., who heads the NNSA's Los Alamos site office. "We will continue to work with the laboratory to ensure speedy action on these important safety initiatives," Winchell said. The board raised many of the concerns at a public meeting in March 2006, Eggenberger said in the letter. The report noted two safety system deficiencies in the plutonium facility, one concerning an air system and another a water bath. The safety board site representative reported in September that some plutonium activities were stopped at the Plutonium Facility pending review of criticality safety. These include concerns that a worst-case scenario might cause an accident in the plutonium storage vaults. In expressing concerns about the CMR facility, the board noted that LANL had decided to abandon a complete facility upgrade of the building in favor of a brand new replacement facility, which was originally scheduled to be completed in 2010. Now, the board notes, funding for the replacement "has experienced significant delays, is now nominally projected for completion in 2016 and faces continued susceptibility to year-to-year budgetary uncertainty." Timely and adequate repairs to the present facility appear to be unlikely and the completion of the replacement uncertain, the safety board concluded, which creates a bind. "This timetable leaves little time for NNSA to complete any necessary safety system upgrades or identify alternative strategies for meeting national security priorities," Eggenberger wrote in his most recent letter. © 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 67 NewsBlaze : Energy Sec. Bodman Remarks about George Bush China-U.S. Relations Conf. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to be here with you this afternoon. Thank you, Rick & Ed for that generous introduction usually one person is more than sufficient to do the job of introducing me. I'd also like to extend my thanks to Texas A&M University, The Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation and the George Bush School of Government and Public Service for their support and sponsorship of this very important conference. The relationship between the United States and the People's Republic of China is critical for both our countries. As two of the world's largest economies and two of the largest energy consumers we face similar challenges because of the projected increase in global energy demand. It is my belief that we can and should find ways to confront these challenges together. The United States and the People's Republic of China are not competing, one against the other, for increasingly scarce energy resources. The projected rise in global energy demand presents common problems for all nations. And these problems require global solutions. We believe the answer lies in the development of energy alternatives and new technologies. We need to make America more energy efficient. We need to make America less dependent on imported energy, particularly that which comes from politically unstable areas of the world. And so, through the President's 20 in 10 plan to reduce projected gasoline consumption by 20 percent in 10 years, through his Advanced Energy Initiative and in other ways, we are taking steps to diversify America's energy supplies and energy suppliers. It is also true that a dramatic rise in energy demand has within it the potential to increase global tensions. In the United States we believe we need to plan for this by taking steps to become more energy secure. President Bush asked me to make this a central focus of my tenure at the Department. It took America a long time to create the energy problems now on its horizon; we're not going to overcome them in the blink of an eye. And this means our need for improved energy security is also a national security concern. In my view, we are not the only nation that has reached this conclusion. Fortunately, I believe the United States and China both recognize this. As the old saying goes, where some people see problems, others see opportunities. We both recognize that increased energy security, continued economic prosperity and national security are inextricably intertwined. The need to enhance our energy security presents an opportunity for us to work together, with a common purpose, toward common goals. At the end of the day no country not the United States, not the People's Republic of China can pursue its own energy security without, in my judgment, considering the global context. Access to secure, reliable and affordable energy sources are fundamental to both of our countries and to the world. I think we have the responsibility to do what we can, to act globally as well as in our traditional spheres of influence, to work together to bring stability and security to the world's energy future. And when you consider the projected changes in the world energy market over the next several decades, I think it is in our best interests to do so. For example, global energy consumption will increase by close to 50 percent by 2030 with 70 percent of that growth coming from the world's emerging economies; 30 percent of that growth will come from China alone. The demand for electricity is expected to rise by more than 100 percent over the next 25 years even though, today, 1.6 billion people around the world today do not have access to it. And the International Energy Agency estimates that the investment needed to meet projected demand growth is more than $20 trillion between now and 2030 with 60 percent of that investment coming in the power sector and 40 percent in oil and gas; This is just one part of the global "New Energy Reality." The large Asian economies all have legitimate energy needs. But, whether they are developed, for example South Korea's and Japan's, or those like India's and China's, that are still developing those economies must come to terms with the need for greater global energy efficiency, the need for environmentally responsible energy production and the need for new energy technologies. We are doing this in the United States and we welcome the opportunity to help other nations, including China, do this too. It is my belief that the United States and China, because of our relative positions in the global market, can lead the world toward a shared, secure energy future that includes traditional energy sources as well as clean, renewable and alternative sources of energy. And, because of changing world conditions, our countries must find ways to work together to confront resource nationalism, limited access and infrastructure constraints that effectively limit production to something less than what the world requires and what the world will require. And all of this must be done in a manner that accounts for global climate change and, as a result, a carbon-constrained future. The United States is making a sustained strategic investment to surmount these challenges. To that end, we approach China as a potential partner, a partner that can help us resolve the global energy issues that we collectively face. And we are doing this in a number of ways, multi-lateral and bi-lateral, with, I must add, encouraging results. China has joined with us and what are now five other nations Australia, India, Japan, South Korea and Canada in an Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development (APP). The purpose of the APP is to allow member countries to develop and accelerate deployment of cleaner, more efficient energy technologies to address pollution reduction, energy security, and climate change concerns in ways that reduce poverty and promote economic development. At the most recent APP meeting, which occurred last week, the member nations endorsed task force work plans with 110 projects and approved 18 new flagship projects that exemplify the partnership's focus and commitment. In part because of the APP, we've seen U.S. companies take the lead in bringing combined heat and power and distributed generation technologies to China. Through the partnership, Solar Turbines producing 35 megawatts of clean energy were installed in China's Shanxi province in less than a year's time. This represents some progress, but we must do more. And we are cooperating on securing the expansion of clean, safe nuclear power throughout Asia and the world. Expanding the availability of nuclear power is a critical part of any attempt to meet projected global demands for electricity in an environmentally responsible way. As one positive sign, the Chinese opted last December to buy several new nuclear reactors from Westinghouse. This is, I believe, a portent that our new strategic relationship on energy is of benefit to both countries. China is making nuclear power a critical part of its energy future; it will be a major player in the world civilian nuclear power market. We, the United States, are ready to assist them with our technologies and our experts to help bring this about. That, in my judgment, is a good deal for both countries. But it is only part of the total picture. Again, there is much more to do. Through President Bush's Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) we have launched an international framework for sharing nuclear power with the developing world. This framework will allow for a greater global reliance on civilian nuclear power to produce the electricity needed to meet the expected growth in demand. And it does it in a way that safeguards against proliferation of materials and deals responsibly with spent fuel. China, along with Japan, France, Russia and the United States, is a founding member of the GNEP partnership. GNEP represents the future of global nuclear power cooperation. At the second GNEP ministerial in Vienna, Austria, we tripled the size of the partnership from the original five to 16. The partners were joined by 19 observing nations and we expect several of those countries to join the partnership soon. The need to find ways to share nuclear power with the rest of the world in a responsible way means we must address the issue of North Korea's nuclear program. China is working with us here as well. China has also joined us in the International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy, the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum, the GenIV International Forum, and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor or ITER. All of these efforts are intended to help us find ways to solve the shared problems our combined energy future presents. Equally important are our bi-lateral efforts, including the U.S.-China Energy Policy Dialogue, established in May 2004, and the Strategic Economic Dialogue, which began in December 2006. These efforts have allowed us to strengthen and deepen our energy relationship. There is also the U.S.-China Oil and Gas Industry Forum, begun in 1998, which serves to facilitate opportunities for government and industry leaders from both our countries to talk about our oil and gas-related energy needs. And these efforts are, as I said a moment ago, bearing fruit. Last year I went to Asia for five-party talks with the world's largest energy consumers: Japan, South Korea, India and China. One of the items up for discussion was the need for each nation to establish its own Strategic Petroleum Reserve to protect against supply disruptions. And, partially because of these talks, I believe China has embraced this idea and is now moving in the right direction and we will continue to support them in this effort. We've also found a way to cooperate on energy issues related to the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games. In January 2004 our two countries signed a protocol to promote the use of U.S. clean energy technologies to improve Beijing's environmental standards by the time the games begin. This includes the development of a renewable hydrogen facility that will provide fuel for a fleet of five hydrogen natural gas buses that will be cost-shared by the Department of Energy, U.S. industry and the Chinese government. Our two countries have established a working framework for future cooperation, but there is still a lot left to discuss, both where energy issues are concerned and on environmental issues related to energy. I believe we are well on our way to the strategic partnership that, in my judgment, is in our best interests. But there is still much to be done. We must find ways to work together to confront issues like resource nationalism, pollution and market transparency that I mentioned earlier. As far as the latter in concerned though, I do want to note that China is one of 96 countries participating in the International Energy Forum's Joint Oil Data Initiative (JODI). We welcome their membership in this effort to create a more transparent world oil market by providing, comprehensive oil data to the international JODI database. But we must continually be mindful of the energy-related environmental challenges ahead. As China's economy continues to grow, so will its energy consumption. China is projected to use 11 percent more energy than the United States by 2030 making it the world's single largest energy consumer. That same year, China's CO2 emissions are projected to account for 26 percent of the world's total and will exceed those of the United States' by 41 percent. If China wishes to demonstrate its responsiveness to world concerns, this would be a good place to do it and the United States is ready and willing to assist in providing access to clean energy technologies. Indeed we have the opportunity to share expertise, to share science and to share in our commitment to finding ways to develop energy solutions that allow for economic growth with minimal environmental damage. We have the opportunity for China to partner with us, for example, in a push for a worldwide reduction or removal of tariffs on clean energy technologies through the World Trade Organization and the Doha round of trade talks. We have much to do and many challenges ahead of us. The areas where our two countries are now working together put us on the right road to a stronger partnership; a partnership that will help us overcome our common energy obstacles and achieve energy security. But more than that, I believe it will take us to a brighter future, for our countries and for our children. And that, I believe, is our most important goal. Thank you. Source: U.S. Department of Energy judythpiazza@newsblaze.com Copyright © 2007, NewsBlaze, Daily News Copyright © 2004-2007 NewsBlaze LLC ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************