***************************************************************** 01/04/08 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 15.277 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 US: GoErie.com: Whistle-blowers get needed support 2 US: Most censored in 2007: Silencing of traditional Indigenous Peopl NUCLEAR REACTORS 3 US: Houston Chronicle: Opposition stirring against new reactors | 4 FT.com: Nuclear go-ahead to face legal battle 5 IO; Nuclear power to get green light despite legal challenge - 6 US: Rutland Herald Online: Greenpeace has disowned Moore 7 US: JOURNAL NEWS: Nuke plant foes want tougher regs on license renew 8 US: UCS: Nuclear Power in a Warming World 9 US: Bennington Banner: Nuke plant story was biggest in state in '07 10 Ria Novosti: Russia offers Uruguay floating nuclear power plant 11 Reuters: Nuclear power consultation flawed 12 Reuters: New Finnish nuclear reactor start-up delayed 13 Reuters: New Finnish nuclear reactor start-up delayed 14 BELARUS NEWS: Association set to defend right of Belarusian Chernoby 15 US: MHNN: Citizens groups file petition to halt NRC relicensing revi 16 UK: Telegraph: Government to go ahead with nuclear stations - 17 Telegraph: The burning question of nuclear energy - 18 The Guardian: Scientists take on Brown over nuclear plans 19 US: Newsday.com: Oyster Creek to temporarily reduce power to prevent 20 US: IEER: Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Po 21 US: Business: Utilities push limits of nuclear plants 22 CTV Toronto: Ontario politicians debate nuclear power spending - NUCLEAR SECURITY NUCLEAR SAFETY 23 US: Houston Chronicle: Nuclear Workers Eligible for Payments | 24 US: OpEdNews: Veterans of nations "secret experiments" need help now 25 US: Reuters: Whistleblower Rewards Top $2 Billion | 26 US: UPI.com: High cost of nuclear medicine weighed - 27 VietNamNet: 173 oilrig workers contaminated after radioactive leak 28 US: Indybay: California's Radiation Laboratory Near SF Creates Anxie 29 Scotsman.com: MP's blast at nuclear safety - 30 HEALTH: Nuclear Plants Raise Leukaemia Threat 31 MidLothian Today: SNP call for nuclear safety records - 32 US: Indybay: Depleted Uranium at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard and th 33 US: PittsburghLIVE.com: NUMEC workers win special status - 34 UK: News & Star: Body parts inquiry NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 35 US: Courier-Mail: McGrady backs uranium push 36 Nevada Appeal: Separating Yucca Mountain facts from fiction | 37 US: Houston Chronicle: Uranium exploration sees revival in Zambia | 38 US: BillingsGazette.com: Official sees interest in uranium 39 Technology News Daily: The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) 40 US: Tennessean.com: Activist, state spar over radioactive dumping - 41 US: Washington Post: Uranium Lode in Va. Is Feared, Coveted 42 Infoshop News: Department of Energy Moves Forward With Yucca Mountai 43 US: Salt Lake Tribune - Nuke panel: Utahns have a say over foreign j 44 US: NMBW: Uranium workers getting on-site assistance from gov't - 45 US: The Watch Online: Navajo Nation Grapples With Past, Present Effe 46 US: Vail Daily: Grand Junction woman fights uranium mine 47 globeandmail.com: High levels of radioactive tritium found in Pembro 48 US: Knoxville News Sentinel: Questions over waste remain 49 US: Washington Post: Uranium Lode in Va. Is Feared, Coveted 50 US: NewsAdvance.com: Virginia Uranium drilling plans denied 51 US: The Telegraph: Green light to uranium mining 52 Ottawa Citizen Home: Tritium levels in Pembroke landfill raise conce 53 Whitehaven News: Crunch year for Sellafield bid 54 US: casper star tribune: Groups fight uranium mine expansion PEACE 55 [NYTr] India, Pakistan swap nuclear info; Mush to Address Nation Jan 56 [southnews] US Special Forces on standby Over Pakistani Nukes 57 Pakistani Nukes: US Special Forces on Standby Over Nuclear Threat 58 BBC NEWS: Russia tests ballistic missiles 59 GU: Underground testing of nuclear warheads was kept secret from cab 60 UPI: Outside View: MIRV-ing Topol -- Part 1 61 UPI: Outside View: MIRV-ing Topol -- Part 2 62 Greenpeace UK: New Trident too big for subs US DEPT. OF ENERGY 63 SPI: Closed Hanford reactor fuel being sent to Idaho for recycling 64 Indybay: The Precautionary Principle and Hunters Point Naval Shipyar 65 knoxnews.com: Y-12 worker's parting shot 66 The Bulletin Online: Misadventures at the U.S. Energy Department ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 GoErie.com: Whistle-blowers get needed support Published: December 31. 2007 6:00AM Congress, responding at last to seven years of bullying and intimidation by the Bush administration, is preparing to offer stronger protections to federal employees willing to report government abuse and waste. This is a significant moment for citizens here and across the country who want to know what's going on inside their government. The best news is that both chambers passed bills with veto-proof majorities that could override a likely veto by President Bush. Both the House and Senate passed legislation to bolster the 1989 whistle-blower protection law. Congress is finally reacting to forceful Bush administration tactics aimed at silencing federal employees who are brave enough to reveal government misdeeds. The bills would make it harder for this and future administrations to threaten workers with losing their security clearances if they go public with information you deserve to know. Perhaps most significantly, both the House and Senate legislation make it easier for federal employees to reveal classified information to Congress that uncovers abuse and fraud while establishing a court-review process that protects federal employees from administration retaliation. The House's whistle-blower bill is stronger than the Senate's. The House's legislation would extend whistle-blowing protections to employees in the FBI and national intelligence agencies. The House bill also provides protection for airport baggage screeners and workers for private contractors, such as those in Iraq. It's unfortunate Congress was compelled to confront the administration on this issue. But whistle-blowers need more protection for the sake of all of us. Copyright © 2007 CyberInk LP 814/878-1967 and Erie Times-News ***************************************************************** 2 Most censored in 2007: Silencing of traditional Indigenous People Censored and under-reported news: brendanorrell@gmail.com Monday, December 31, 2007 By Brenda Norrell http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/ The most censored issue of Indigenous Peoples by the media in 2007 was the “Silencing of traditional and grassroots’ voices by those in power,” according to readers voting on a poll at the Censored Blog. The elected councils in the United States and band councils in Canada attempted to silence Indian spiritual leaders and traditional people by way of silencing and distorting the news in 2007. Elected leaders also threatened and oppressed Indians speaking out in their own communities. Tailgating by tribal police, threats of harm and threats of membership removal increased for Indian activists, according to reports from across North America. “Nuclear, uranium and coal genocide on Indigenous lands,” was the second most censored issue. Throughout the Americas, Indigenous lands and people are targeted by coal, uranium, copper and gold mining and toxic dumping that will poison their air, water and land. Navajos are fighting the new proposed power plant, Desert Rock, in New Mexico. While the power plants on the Navajo Nation continue to send electricity to non-Indian communities, many Navajos do not have electricity and their children must study by dim lantern light at night. Still, Navajos live with the pollution and sickness of unreclaimed uranium mines, power plants, coal mining and hundreds of oil and gas wells in the Four Corners area alone. The 88-member Navajo Nation Council, which enters into energy leases, relies on the revenues of polluting development to pay their salaries and travel expenses. While Navajos in local communities fight the power plants and mining, they battle the Navajo government and the Navajo president’s highly-paid press officer. The Algonquin, Pueblos, Navajo, Lakota and others are also battling new uranium mining, while Goshute and Western Shoshone fight nuclear dumping on their lands which will be detrimental to future generations. Yaqui in Sonora are opposing the use of pesticides in agricultural fields which are banned in the United States, but are still produced in the US and exported to other countries. These pesticides are causing deaths and “jelly babies,” Yaqui babies born without bones. O’odham are fighting a proposed waste dump in Sonora in their ceremonial community of Quitovac. Indigenous Peoples from Guatemala and Peru, now fighting copper, gold and coal mining in their communities, met with Navajos, Acoma Pueblo, Western Shoshone and others to create solidarity in action in 2007. As efforts intensified in the Americas, nuclear and mining corporations began targeting more communities in Africa. “Where are the warriors?” asked Janice Gardipe, Paiute-Shoshone, during the Alcatraz Sunrise Gathering in November, urging a new wave of resistance to Yucca Mountain nuclear dumping and the gold mining that is now coring out the mountains and poisoning the water on Western Shoshone lands. As the pollution from power plants increases and the black carbons are carried by the winds to the north, the Arctic ice melts and destroys the homeland and lives of polar bears, walrus and seals. Ultimately, it will kill the birds and fishes. Even there, the Bush administration rushed to capitalize on the misfortune and the deaths of endangered species. The Bush administration rushed to claim the thawing Northwest Passage for oil and gas drilling. “Border deaths, abuse of Indigenous Peoples at the border and racism in border news,” was the third most censored issue. As television news increased the racism and xenophobia toward migrants, the Bush administration and Congress layered on millions of dollars for private prisons to incarcerate migrants, with millions of fresh dollars for Texas and private border prisons. These included the T. Don Hutto prison for migrant and refugee infants and children in Taylor, Texas. In Arizona, Mohawks joined Tohono O’odham at the US/Mexico border on Tohono O’odham land in November. Mohawks rushed to intervene in the arrests of Mayans on O’odham land as the US Border Patrol sped quickly away. “These are your people,” Mohawk Kahentinetha Horn said, igniting a new wave of thought at the southern border. “As the Great Law says, you don’t ask for permission to save someone’s life,” Kahentinetha said of the large number of people, including Indigenous Peoples, dying each year on O’odham land. Mike Wilson, Tohono O’odham, continued to put out water for migrants, and search for bodies, including those of Mayan women who died walking to a better life with their children. “No one should die for want of a drink of water,” Wilson said. The most censored news articles at the border included the digging up of the O’odham ancestors’ graves for the border wall on Tohono O’odham land, the spy federal spy towers in border communities and the corporate profiteering by US corporations and foreign corporations. The foreign corporations benefitting from the new border hysteria include the Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems subcontracted by Boeing under the Secure Border Fence contract. Another is Wackenhut, whose buses wait at the border to be filled with migrants. The Wackenhut buses are owned by G4S in England and Denmark. (Earlier, Halliburton’s Kellogg, Brown and Root received a $385 million contract from Homeland Security for migrant prisons in 2006.) In 2007, the majority of the media censored the fact that all environmental laws, and federal laws protecting American Indian remains, were waived by Homeland Security to build the US/Mexico border wall. Dozens of endangered species are at risk as Homeland Security voids court orders, citing national security. Already, the building of the wall at the Arizona border has been detrimental to the endangered jaguar which migrates between Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. The Sonoran pronghorn, which does not jump fences or anything else, will also be affected. Only a few dozen Sonoran pronghorns remain in the US, while several hundred are found to the south in Sonora, Mexico. A new barbed wire fence was recently added alongside the border wall on O’odham land which will harm the jaguars, pronghorns and other endangered species. Destruction of the habitat, particularly in the San Pedro area of Arizona where Homeland Security voided all laws, will destroy fish and migrating birds. “Leonard Peltier,” was the fourth most censored issue. As Peltier’s legal challenges continued and censorship increased, there was a theater production of his life in Boulder, Colorado. Another censored issue was the efforts made on behalf of all American Indians inmates’ religious and ceremonial rights. Further, the censorship of the injustice by police and courts was widespread. The arrests and racism of police in border towns around Indian communities continued. With the oppression of Indian youths by police and prosecutors, pushing them into rage, prisons continued to be filled with America Indians. The US military recruiters continued to target American Indian youths, considering them as “expendables,” to fight and die in Iraq. The “American Indian delegations in Venezuela,” was the fifth most censored issue according to Censored Blog readers. Indian delegations from North America met with Indigenous leaders in Venezuela to form solidarity in action. The effort by Vernon Bellecourt, attending in a wheelchair and in frail health, was his last. He died after returning to the United States. The sixth most censored issue was the “Zapatistas meetings at the US/Mexico border.” Subcomandante Marcos and the Mayan Comandantes held meetings near the US border as part of the Other Campaign, beginning in April of 2007. Just two hours’ drive south of the Arizona border, Marcos and the Comandantes met several times with O’odham, upheld the fishing rights of the Cucapa in Baja, Mexico, and met with Yaqui, Mayo, Seri and other Indigenous communities in northern Mexico, culminating in the International Intercontinental Encuentro in the Yaqui Pueblo of Vicam in the state of Sonora, Mexico. While the media in the United States increased its censorship of these issues in 2007, the alternative national media and international online media continued to provide coverage. It was the international online media that covered the Indigenous Peoples’ Border Summit of the Americas 2007. While upholding the right of Indigenous Peoples to freely pass in their ancestral territories, they opposed the US/Mexico border wall, militarization of border lands and new passport requirements. They opposed the corporate profiteering at the border for the border wall, private prisons and private security firms such as Blackwater now planning a border training camp in Kumeyaay territory at the California border. Mike Flores, Tohono O’odham organizer of the summit, told the gathering, “The United States is going to continue to build walls and close us all in, or close us all out, and privatize our lives.” The international media, from China to Taiwan, Russia to Belgium, extensively covered the Lakota Freedom Delegation’s announcement of withdrawing from the treaties and declaring sovereignty on Dakota lands. The Mohawk warriors responded in support of the Lakota Freedom Delegation. Then, Kahentinetha Horn, publisher of Mohawk Nation News, responded to readers’ who said she should tell both sides of the story. “I am not neutral. I am on the side of the traditional Indigenous people, not tribal council sell-outs and those who get a government ‘handout’ and do the bidding of their ‘masters.’ I am not objective. I am for Indigenous law, international law and human rights. For me, there is only one side to this -- the side of right which is being exercised by those who have no fear of doing so. The rest have been scared into fear of changing a life deforming colonial system. Yes, I am very subjective on the issue of Indigenous sovereignty. I will never support illegal and genocidal federal Indian law. I will never be on the side of promoting colonial lies. I will not give them the time of day!" Kahentinetha said. While the media in the United States continued its pathetic and manipulated news coverage, the international media covered the fact that four countries voted against the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The countries are the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand followed by arresting Maoris in the sovereignty movement. The United Nations declaration upholds the rights of Indigenous Peoples to their aboriginal lands. Both New Zealand and Australia’s mainstream media continued biased and racist coverage. More recently, a new censored topic has emerged: the seizure of private lands of Apaches and other residents in Texas for the US/Mexico border wall, using the law of eminent domain. Since Homeland Security has issued a 30-day notice, Texas mayors and residents are now mobilizing to stop the border wall, militarization and occupation of the Texas border. Bill Means, cofounder of the International Indian Treaty Council, spoke of the fire of resistance and resilience at the Alcatraz Sunrise Gathering in November. "We consider it relighting the fire of Indian survival, Indian resistance here in this hemisphere. To remind people that first of all, John Wayne didn't kill us all. That we're still alive, distinct cultures that are thriving here in America." Censored Blog Poll 2007: What is the most censored issue? Silencing of traditional and grassroots’ voices by those in power: 90 (55%) Nuclear, uranium and coal genocide of Indigenous lands: 48 (29%) Border deaths and abuse of Indigenous; racism in border news 40 (24%) Leonard Peltier 37 (22%) American Indian delegations in Venezuela 29 (17%) Zapatistas’ meetings at US/Mexico border 27 (16%) For articles on all these topics, please see the Censored blog and use the keyword search for the blog, in the upper left corner. http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/ Photo: Ofelia Rivas with Marcos and the Zapatistas in Sonora, Mexico 2007/Photo Brenda Norrell ***************************************************************** 3 Houston Chronicle: Opposition stirring against new reactors | Chron.com - Dec. 29, 2007, 11:34PM Coalition plans to fight project in Matagorda County By TOM FOWLER Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Texas anti-nuclear activists are rallying their forces to challenge the so-called nuclear renaissance that could see the state become home to the country's first new nuclear power plant project in nearly 30 years. On Friday a coalition of groups said it will intervene in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's review of NRG Energy's application to build two new reactors in Matagorda County, next to the existing South Texas Project nuclear plant. The commission filed notice this week that a 60-day public comment period is now open for groups to intervene in the review for the joint construction and operation permit. Austin-based officials with the Sierra Club, Public Citizen and the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Coalition said they don't yet know if they will intervene in the review separately or under one name. But they don't plan on sitting on their hands. "We need to draw a line in the sand here in Texas and create a new nuclear resistance movement to say no to the nuclear regurgitation," said Karen Hadden, director of SEED. Princeton, N.J.-based NRG, which already owns a 44 percent stake in the two existing reactors, filed the application in September. CPS Energy, San Antonio's public utility, owns 40 percent of the existing project and said it plans to participate in the new one. Austin Energy, which owns 16 percent of STP, has not yet decided if it will take part in the new project. Several other companies have expressed interest in either expanding existing plants around the country or building new facilities. Dallas-based Luminant, a part of the former TXU Corp., said it may expand its Comanche Peak nuclear plant in North Texas, while Chicago-based Exelon said it may file an application for a plant near Victoria. NRG spokesman David Knox said building new nuclear plants like the one his company is planning will be major steps toward battling global warming. "Nuclear is clean, safe and secure and will be critical to help meet rising electrical demand without contributing to global climate change," Knox said. The environmental groups are challenging the project on several fronts in addition to the long-standing complaints about the dangers of storing nuclear waste indefinitely and the role it may play in nuclear weapons proliferation. The groups point to the industry's last round of construction in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when projects regularly ran over budget and schedule, as proof new projects will also be costly. They also criticize the industry's reliance on government incentives and subsidies — including $2 billion in risk insurance, billions in construction loan guarantees and a production tax credit for power generated in the first eight years of a project. The groups also raise security and equipment safety issues. South Texas was the subject of a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists in 2006, a Washington-based nonprofit advocacy group, that alleged there were problems such as security guards failing to properly search vehicles and broken surveillance cameras and radio equipment. Officials with the plant have told the Chronicle they had addressed the concerns raised in the report. Neil Carman, director of the clean air program for the Sierra Club in Texas, said the state's environmental community hasn't addressed nuclear energy for many years. In Texas organizers spent a lot of time and effort in the past two years fighting TXU's plans to build nearly a dozen new coal-fired power plants. "But it's been quite amazing to see a lot of people coming out of the woodwork and wanting to work on this," Carman said. "I think you will see a very strong anti-nuclear movement in Texas." tom.fowler@chron.com ***************************************************************** 4 FT.com: Nuclear go-ahead to face legal battle Financial Times FT.com By Jean Eaglesham, Chief Political Correspondent Published: January 2 2008 22:03 | Last updated: January 2 2008 22:03 A legal challenge to the imminent government decision in favour of a new generation of nuclear power stations is inevitable, according to the cabinet minister in charge of the process. John Hutton, the business secretary, told the Financial Times a threatened application for a judicial review “was always going to happen. I don’t think there’s any surprise in that.” But he rejected claims by the Liberal Democrats and green campaigners that a second government consultation on the issue has been a “sham”, with the decision to go ahead with nuclear already taken. * © Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2008. "FT" and "Financial ***************************************************************** 5 IO; Nuclear power to get green light despite legal challenge - Independent Online Edition > UK Politics By Brian Brady and Geoffrey Lean Published: 30 December 2007 But Greenpeace, which overturned the Government's last attempt to usher in a new atomic age when a judge ruled that the decision-making process had been flawed, is confident of repeating the successful tactic. And Britain's top nuclear energy economist, who recently headed a key government advisory committee, has demolished the case for the atom and lent his support to the legal action. Last night a senior source in Mr Hutton's department told The Independent on Sunday that the pro-nuclear decision, which follows a five-month public consultations, would be made "within days". He added: "Dozens of individuals and organisations have contributed to the consultation and we have taken account of everything they said. Given the circumstances we will be facing over the coming years, it is inconceivable that we should prevent nuclear from being part of our energy mix." Mr Hutton will avoid giving any details of the numbers of reactors the Government would like to see built – or even give a cast-iron undertaking that any will actually be constructed – instead stressing that it will be up to the nuclear industry to come forward with proposals. Any new atomic stations are expected to be sited at existing ones in southern England, such as at Sizewell in Suffolk, Dungeness in Kent, Hinkley Point in Somerset and Bradwell in Essex. But ministers' hopes that this will put an end to their accident-prone attempts to ensure an atomic future are likely to be confounded. Greenpeace has already written to the Treasury solicitor with evidence that the process has been marred by similar flaws that caused the last decision to be invalidated. The Government, while confident that it would win any new court case, is resigned to having to fight a new legal action – and fears that, if it were defeated again, the whole enterprise will start to unravel. Professor Gordon MacKerron of Sussex University – who until last year headed the Government's committee on radioactive waste management – has lent his weight to the Greenpeace challenge, telling ministers that he has "serious misgivings about the legitimacy of the consultation process". He adds, in a new report, that "the Government's position on the economics of nuclear power is overly optimistic" and that "the risks are very substantial". © 2007 Independent News and Media Limited ***************************************************************** 6 Rutland Herald Online: Greenpeace has disowned Moore January 01, 2008 The Rutland Herald failed its readers by not identifying Patrick Moore as a paid spokesman for the U.S. nuclear industry. On Dec. 27, the Herald published Moore's commentary titled "Vermont's Low Carbon Leadership," which encouraged relicensing the Vermont Nuclear Plant. Instead of accurately identifying Moore, the Herald used the titles that Moore and his nuclear lobbyist employers prefer: "advisor to the Vermont Energy partnership, co-founder and former leader of Greenpeace, and chairman and chief scientist of GreenSpirit Strategies Ltd.," (Moore's small consulting firm). Patrick Moore has not been involved with Greenpeace for 20 years, and the current leaders of Greenpeace completely disavow Moore's present work. Currently, Moore is collecting large sums of money to promote nuclear power from the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the Washington-based lobbying group for the nuclear industry. Moore has been the most visible feature of an $8 million public relations campaign funded by NEI and run by Hill & Knowlton (an international public relations firm) that has booked countless Moore speeches and planted countless Moore editorials, all trumpeting his ancient association with Greenpeace and failing to disclose his payments from the nuclear lobby. In this way, Hill & Knowlton has misleadingly implied, again and again, that Moore is an aging greenie or some type of local activist, rather that what he really is ... a man bought and paid for by a national lobbying group. Too many media outlets, including the Rutland Herald last week, have inexplicably let Moore and Hill & Knowlton get away with this deception. In a July/August editorial, the Columbia Journalism Review called it "maddening" that Hill & Knowlton "should have had such an easy time working with the press," namely in keeping mention of Patrick Moore's nuclear industry payments out of news coverage. We, the readers of the Rutland Herald lost again last week and Hill & Knowlton won. As an important gatekeeper for honest debate, I ask the Herald to be more vigilant in covering the Vermont Yankee relicensing debate. BRENNAN MICHAELS Salisbury © 2007 Rutland Herald ***************************************************************** 7 JOURNAL NEWS: Nuke plant foes want tougher regs on license renewal Thursday, January 3, 2008 By GREG CLARY TARRYTOWN - Riverkeeper and a group of nuclear watchdogs want federal regulators to suspend license renewal reviews of Indian Point and three other plants in the Northeast until an independent investigation examines what the advocates say is a "cut-and-paste" approval process. The group filed a petition to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, basing much of its argument on the agency's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) audit in September which "identified areas where improvements would enhance program operations," Riverkeeper officials and their supporters said the OIG audit showed the NRC had failed to verify the authenticity of technical safety information and lifted whole sections of text from the applications themselves to put into the agency's safety reviews. "The results of the NRC Inspector General's internal investigation confirm what Riverkeeper and other nuclear watchdog groups have been saying all along," Lisa Rainwater, the organization's policy director, said in announcing the action. "The NRC is rubberstamping license renewal applications and failing to verify that these plants will be run safely during a twenty-year license extension." NRC spokeswoman Diane Screnci said the watchdogs' language in what was released to the press mischaracterized the inspector's findings, noting that the "OIG findings were specific to the documentation,...not the sufficiency of the technical review." Screnci said the agency would have more comment on the petition after officials had time to review it in detail. She said the agency would make a final determination, but no date for that has been set. The OIG report, available on the NRC's Website, does state in its executive summary that the NRC "has developed a comprehensive license renewal process to evaluate applications for extended periods of operation." Indian Point and the other three sites have applied for 20-year extensions to their original 40-year operating licenses to generate and sell electricity. Riverkeeper has been joined in its opposition to the re-licensing of Indian Point by New York, the first time a state has officially opposed a renewal. The license renewals of the other plants that are being challenged include New Jersey's Oyster Creek, Massachusetts' Pilgrim and Vermont's Yankee nuclear power plants. All but Oyster Creek are owned by Entergy Nuclear, the company that owns and operates Indian Point. 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. ***************************************************************** 8 UCS: Nuclear Power in a Warming World Global Warming Solutions butterfly links Full Report (PDF) Exec Summary (PDF) The life cycle of nuclear power results in relatively little global warming pollution, but building a new fleet of plants could increase threats to public safety and national security. Nuclear power is riskier than it should—and could—be. The United States has strong safety regulations on the books, but the Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not enforce them consistently. Current security standards are inadequate to defend nuclear plants against terrorist attacks. A major accident or successful attack could kill thousands of people and contaminate large regions for thousands of years. The NRC must require all new U.S. reactors to be significantly safer than ones currently in operation, otherwise safer reactors will not be economically competitive. Of the new designs under consideration in the United States, only one—known as the European Power Reactor or EPR—appears to have the potential to be significantly safer and more secure against terrorist attack. Minimizing the risks of nuclear power is simply pragmatic. Nothing would undermine public acceptance of a new generation of nuclear power plants as much as a serious accident, a terrorist strike on a reactor or spent fuel pool, or the detonation of a nuclear weapon made from stolen reactor materials. The 74-page report assesses nuclear power's key problems and offers recommendations to strengthen nuclear plant safety, better protect facilities against sabotage and attack, ensure the safe disposal of nuclear waste, and minimize the risk that nuclear power will help more nations and terrorists acquire nuclear weapons. It also evaluates new reactor designs. © Union of Concerned Scientists Page Last Revised: 12/11/07 ***************************************************************** 9 Bennington Banner: Nuke plant story was biggest in state in '07 BENNINGTON, VT JOHN CURRAN, Associated Press Article Launched: 01/01/2008 03:28:37 AM EST MONTPELIER ? For Vermont Yankee, it was not a very good year. A series of incidents and controversies ? including the collapse of a cooling tower structure ? shook public confidence in the aging nuclear power plant, prompting a new round of scrutiny as its owners pressed their case for extension of its operating license past 2012. The difficulties and their aftermath led Vermont news organizations to vote Vermont Yankee the year's top news story. Newsroom voting Also getting votes in the annual poll of newspaper editors and radio and television broadcasters were a Statehouse stalemate on climate change legislation, the launch of state-sponsored Catamount Health and a dispute over a pro-legalization prosecutor's decision in a marijuana case. It was also a year in which FairPoint Communications mounted a hotly-contested $2.7 billion bid to buy Verizon's landline service in northern New England, the state Senate voted in favor of impeaching President Bush and TV's "Simpsons" found a home in Springfield. For Vermont Yankee, the year began inauspiciously, with a stuck safety valve prompting a six-hour shutdown of the Vernon power plant Jan. 23 and a bitter battle ensuing in the Vermont Legislature. Lawmakers passed H-520, a climate change bill that called for expansion of the Efficiency Vermont conservation program and a new tax on the plant aimed at raising up to $35 million over five years to help pay for it. Owner Entergy Nuclear, Gov. Jim Douglas and others said the proposed levy would have unfairly singled out the plant. They fought the bill, which was passed by the Democrat-controlled Legislature but then vetoed by the Republican governor. In a victory for Vermont Yankee and Douglas, supporters couldn't muster the votes for a veto override. But the plant encountered more trouble a month later. On Aug. 21, a section of the plant's 50-foot tall cooling tower structure gave way suddenly in a shower of water, wood and metal, forcing the plant to cut power in half and bolstering criticism from Vermont Yankee opponents who say wear and tear on the 35-year-old plant make it unsuitable for re-licensing. Photographic images of the mishap showed water gushing out of a pipe and cascading down on the wreckage of the mishap, which plant officials said was unrelated to the plant's boost in power last year, from a 540-megawatt capacity to a 610-megawatt capacity. The same week, Vermont Yankee's union workers narrowly averted a walkout, reaching agreement on a contract hours before they were to go out on strike. Nine days after the cooling tower collapse, Vermont Yankee's woes continued: A stuck steam valve prompted an emergency shutdown of the plant, which was closed until Sept. 14. While the climate change bill stalled, there was no shortage of activity on the global warming front in Vermont in 2007. In April, a group of Middlebury College students led by author-activist Bill McKibben spearheaded a national day of action. Step It Up 2007 included more than 1,000 individual events across all 50 states that pushed the need for reduction of carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050. In September, the state of Vermont won a courtroom victory when a federal judge in Burlington ruled that state restrictions aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions don't conflict with federal rules. In a 16-day trial, auto industry executives suing the state had testified that the regulations ? adopted by California and 11 other states ? would not stop global warming but would wreak economic havoc on Detroit and the industry by forcing car makers to stop selling models that didn't get enough mileage. Catamount Health, a program designed to provide insurance to an estimated 65,000 Vermonters without it, kicked off Oct. 1, offering the uninsured the opportunity to buy insurance offered by private carriers. A month later, a $1.6 million outreach campaign designed to get word out started with a blitz of newspaper, TV and online ads. State officials hailed it as a milestone en route to universal health care for Vermonters, about 90 percent of whom now have health insurance. Windsor County State's Attorney Robert Sand was at the center of controversy in October, when he granted court diversion to a lawyer and part-time judge charged with felony possession and cultivation of marijuana, thereby averting prosecution. Concerned that Sand ? who favors decriminalization of marijuana possession ? was imposing his own views, Douglas ordered state law enforcement agencies handling "significant" marijuana cases with first-time offenders in Windsor County to refer them to the state or federal government for prosecution, bypassing Sand. But he later backed off, persuaded that Sand had no "blanket policy" opposing incarceration for such offenders. Copyright © 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 10 Ria Novosti: Russia offers Uruguay floating nuclear power plant Energy Environment Posted : Tue, 01 Jan 2008 11:26:04 GMT Buenos Aires, Jan 1 (RIA Novosti) Russia is looking for cooperation with Uruguay in the field of nuclear energy, the Russian ambassador to the Latin American state has said.'Our countries could maintain cooperation in the sphere of nuclear energy although Uruguay's legislation bans the use of nuclear energy,' Sergei Koshkin said Monday.The diplomat said Uruguayan officials had shown interest in a floating nuclear power plant (NPP), when the project's presentation took place at the Russian embassy recently.Russia is currently building the world's first floating NPP, which is planned to be commissioned in 2011 in Russia's Arctic.Russia hopes the new product will be in demand on the global market. Floating NPPs could be used in remote regions with power shortfalls and in projects requiring stand-alone and uninterrupted electricity supplies in the absence of a developed power grid.Koshkin said Uruguay's legislation would not have to be amended as Russian specialists could tow a plant to its coast and build a power line so that Uruguay could buy electricity. Russia could also undertake to provide maintenance of the plant and its subsequent disposal, he added.'This is a long-term plan, but it is being proactively discussed,' Koshkin said.The first floating plant will have capacity of 70 Megawatts of electricity, and about 300 Megawatts of thermal power. The cost of the first plant is estimated at $400 million, but could later be reduced to $240 million.This year marks the 150th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Russia and Uruguay. (c) Indo-Asian News Service (c) 2008 Earthtimes.org, All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 11 Reuters: Nuclear power consultation flawed Fri 4 Jan 2008 | 6:40 GMT By Jeremy Lovell LONDON (Reuters) - The government's public consultation last year on the need for new nuclear power plants to tackle climate change and bridge the looming energy gap was flawed and misleading, a group of academics said on Friday. The government, which has said repeatedly new nuclear power stations are needed, was forced by a legal ruling last February to undertake the consultation which ended in October. It is expected early next week to give the green light to a new generation of nuclear power plants to replace the ageing nuclear stations due to close by 2035 which currently supply nearly 20 percent of the country's electricity. "The government was in error in asking the public for a decision 'in principle', when the core 'what if' issues were not consulted on in any meaningful way, or resolved in practice," the academics concluded in an 80-page report. "These issues include nuclear fuel supply and manufacture, vulnerability to attack, security and nuclear proliferation, radiation waste, radiation risk and health effects, reactor decommissioning, reactor design and siting," they added. Environmentalists, who could have given a balancing view, pulled out of the public consultations in September, saying the process was clearly intended to produce a positive outcome. Greenpeace, which took up the legal case in February, said its lawyers would study the government's decision in detail and it reserved the right to go back to court. "We believe we have a very strong case but will not be bounced into taking a decision," Greenpeace campaigner Ben Ayliffe told Reuters. The main issue for the group of academics from universities including Oxford, Warwick, Sussex, Newcastle, Cardiff and Manchester is disposal of waste from the new nuclear plants. "The government consultation documents said this issue had been resolved. That is simply not true," said Paul Dorfman of Warwick University, one of the report's authors. CoRWM, the independent Committee on Radioactive Waste Management, said in 2006 nuclear waste, which remains toxic for centuries, should be kept forever in a specially built safe storage facility deep under ground. But while the government pointed to this as the solution to waste from any new plants, CoRWM said it only meant this solution to apply to waste from Britain's old military nuclear program dating back to the 1950s, so called legacy waste. The academics also accused the government of glossing over security considerations, the true costs of nuclear and alternative renewable energy sources, the availability of uranium fuel and the siting of new nuclear plants given sea level rises due to global warming. Underlying the objections is the fact that the government green light is not actually legally necessary -- there is no legal barrier to any utility now opting to build a nuclear plant, although there is a lot of planning red tape. "Although the government has said no public money will be involved in any new nuclear plants, a positive declaration must indicate government commitment in the final event and that can only mean taxpayers' money," said Dorfman. The report noted that a new nuclear plant being built in Finland was not only two years behind schedule but already 50 percent over budget, a fate it suggested would not be escaped by new plants in Britain to the detriment of alternatives. (Reporting by Jeremy Lovell; editing by Richard Williams) ***************************************************************** 12 Reuters: New Finnish nuclear reactor start-up delayed Fri 28 Dec 2007 | 19:26 GMT HELSINKI (Reuters) - The start-up of Finland's fifth nuclear power reactor, seen as a test case for Europe's nuclear future, has been pushed back and its operator said on Friday it now sees a commercial start in mid-2011. Start-up had originally been scheduled for 2009. French nuclear group Areva and Germany's Siemens are building the 1,600 megawatt Olkiluoto 3 reactor on Finland's west coast, the first new nuclear reactor to be constructed in Western Europe for more than a decade. "Areva-Siemens consortium has announced to TVO that the unit would be ready in summer 2011," plant owner Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) said in a statement. "The delay in the project causes extra work and costs." The 3 billion euro ($4.4 billion) project's start has been postponed before. TVO said in August that delays in construction had likely pushed the date into 2011 from 2009. The progress of the plant is being closely watched by older EU member states wary of piling back into nuclear projects. Finland, which is already importing power from neighbors such as Russia, is facing power shortages in coming years with electricity consumption forecast to grow a few percent each year. Teollisuuden Voima is owned by Finnish utility Fortum and Pohjolan Voima, a consortium of Finnish forestry and energy firms. (Reporting by Tarmo Virki; editing by James Jukwey) © Reuters2007All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 13 Reuters: New Finnish nuclear reactor start-up delayed Fri Dec 28, 2007 10:23am EST HELSINKI (Reuters) - The start-up of Finland's fifth nuclear power reactor, seen as a test case for Europe's nuclear future, has been pushed back and its operator said on Friday it now sees a commercial start in mid-2011. Start-up had originally been scheduled for 2009. French nuclear group Areva and Germany's Siemens are building the 1,600 megawatt Olkiluoto 3 reactor on Finland's west coast, the first new nuclear reactor to be constructed in Western Europe for more than a decade. "Areva-Siemens consortium has announced to TVO that the unit would be ready in summer 2011," plant owner Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) said in a statement. "The delay in the project causes extra work and costs." The 3 billion euro ($4.4 billion) project's start has been postponed before. TVO said in August that delays in construction had likely pushed the date into 2011 from 2009. The progress of the plant is being closely watched by older EU member states wary of piling back into nuclear projects. Finland, which is already importing power from neighbors such as Russia, is facing power shortages in coming years with electricity consumption forecast to grow a few percent each year. Teollisuuden Voima is owned by Finnish utility Fortum and Pohjolan Voima, a consortium of Finnish forestry and energy firms. (Reporting by Tarmo Virki; editing by James Jukwey) © Reuters 2008 All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 14 BELARUS NEWS: Association set to defend right of Belarusian Chernobyl cleanup workers to social benefits | 04.01 // 13:24 // English Soyuz Chernobyl Belarusi, a Ukrainian-registered association, plans to defend the right of former Chernobyl cleanup workers resident in Belarus to social benefits. The organization, which unites some 1,000 Belarusian residents who were involved in the large-scale cleanup effort after the 1986 nuclear accident, obtained legal status in Ukraine after it was denied registration by the Belarusian authorities in 2007. In an interview with BelaPAN, Alyaksandr Valchanin, leader of the association, said that it would deal with issues that government officials and lawmakers were reluctant to tackle. Soyuz Chernobyl Belarusi is expected to form an international union together with similar associations in Russia and Ukraine this year. Members of the organization will arrive in Kyiv this month to attend a conference looking at the plans by the United Nations and the European Union to cut back on humanitarian aid to Chernobyl-affected areas. Apart from this, the organization will send its representatives to a conference to be held by the Council of Europe in Madrid later this year. Mr. Valchanin stressed that the association would “insist on a dialogue” with authorities on the establishment of closer international ties in the sphere of Chernobyl-relief efforts. About 126,200 former Chernobyl cleanup workers live in Belarus at present, with 11,200 of them being disabled. http://naviny.by/rubrics/inter/2008/01/04/ic_news_259_283311/ ***************************************************************** 15 MHNN: Citizens groups file petition to halt NRC relicensing review January 4, 2008 Copyright © 2008 Mid-Hudson News Network, a division of Statewide Tarrytown – The Riverkeeper organization Thursday joined regional and national nuclear watchdog groups in petitioning the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to suspend current license renewal proceedings for the Indian Point, Oyster Creek, Pilgrim and Vermont Yankee nuclear power plants until what it calls “an objective and independent investigation” is conducted into the current license renewal process. The petition is in response to an NRC Regulatory Commission Office of the Inspector General audit in September 2007 which found the NRC staff failed to verify the authenticity of technical safety information in over 97 percent of the renewal applications audited by OIG; and NRC staff reviewers routinely ‘cut and pasted’ whole sections of the renewal application text into their own safety reviews, rather than write their own evaluations. Most recently, Entergy Nuclear Northeast submitted its application for a 20-year license extension of the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Buchanan. Riverkeeper and New York State have petitioned to intervene in the relicensing proceedings, raising a number of issues ranging from safety and security to environmental impacts. “For years, Riverkeeper has been gravely concerned about the NRC’s lackluster approach to regulating the nuclear industry,” notes Lisa Rainwater, Riverkeeper’s Policy Director. “The results of the NRC Inspector General’s internal investigation confirm what Riverkeeper and other nuclear watchdog groups have been saying all along--the NRC is rubberstamping license renewal applications and failing to verify that these plants will be run safely during a twenty-year license extension. This cavalier approach to public safety must end.” Riverkeeper’s announcement and claims “are more fear-mongering and name calling by Riverkeeper,” said Paul Steidler, director of Communications for the New York Affordable Reliable Electricity Alliance. “At the end of the day the NRC has an excellent track record. In more than 50 years of operation no worker or member of the public has ever died because of radiological missteps at a commercial U.S. nuclear power plant. If Riverkeeper has specific scientific or engineering concerns about Indian Point or any other plant, they should bring these to the attention of the NRC first, and save fear mongering press releases for later.” HEAR today's news on MidHudsonRadio.com, the Hudson Valley's only Internet radio news report. ***************************************************************** 16 UK: Telegraph: Government to go ahead with nuclear stations - By Andrew Porter Last Updated: 12:44am GMT 31/12/2007 The next generation of nuclear power stations is set to be given the go-ahead by the Government next week despite fierce opposition from environmentalists and MPs.Gordon Brown in sobering New Year message Following months of delays over a legal challenge, John Hutton, the Business Secretary, is expected to tell MPs that a new era of nuclear power can begin. Greenpeace forced the Government to launch a further study of the plans earlier this year after judges ruled that the initial decision-making process was flawed. Greenpeace is likely to try to halt the plans again. However, ministers are confident that their "wide-ranging" five-month consultation will lead to a pro-nuclear outcome. In his New Year's message, Gordon Brown pointed towards a nuclear future: "We will take the difficult decisions on energy security - on nuclear power and renewables - so British invention and innovation can claim new markets for new technologies and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs." Mr Hutton will not give details of how many reactors the Government would like to see built. Last night Steve Webb, the Liberal Democrat environment spokesman, said: "Nobody believes that this second consultation on nuclear power was any more genuine than the first. "It is obvious that the Government has already made its decision." A number of Labour MPs are also expected to oppose the plans. © Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2008 | Terms & ***************************************************************** 17 Telegraph: The burning question of nuclear energy - Last Updated: 11:04pm GMT 31/12/2007 RWE npower's Andy Duff was drawn to the business for its difficulties and challenges - and the global warming and nuclear power debate is just one of them, he tells Andrew Cave It's the hot question in the energy sector and Andy Duff is not going to duck it. Will nuclear power be the trade-off against carbon emissions that Britain chooses to make in the sustainability debate fuelled by climate change? ‘I’m very competitive by nature,’ admits Andy Duff, chief executive of RWE npower Duff, 48, is chief executive of RWE npower, the German-owned British power company. Parent RWE operates nuclear power stations in Germany but he knows public opinion is divided in Britain, where the Government is expected to publish its White Paper on nuclear power next month. "My views on nuclear power are that it's not certain yet that our population is convinced that it's the right solution to our sustainability and environmental challenges," he says carefully. "The question for us is whether we believe the known risks around nuclear are worth taking in order to give us time to deal with the potentially very substantial risks in relation to climate change and long-term energy security. "Across the country people are very, very much more aware of the threat posed by climate change and see the impact in more volatile and freak weather conditions, which increases their awareness. "But I don't yet know whether that takes them to the point where they're willing to make difficult choices over the supply of energy, the way they use energy and their lifestyles, for example access to cheap holiday flights and so on." Duff seems to be saying that people might get so scared by the prospect of climate change that nuclear power, hitherto regarded as the unacceptable face of power generation, could suddenly seem less frightening. Might there be a choice to make between emitting unsustainable amounts of carbon and taming our fear of nuclear in the UK? "I think that certainly is the case," he replies. "But I also think that, given the complexity and time and changes around investment in the nuclear power plant, there are a range of other technologies that may emerge that will form a part of the solution as well. "It's a public debate that needs to happen. We as a responsible energy company not only inform that debate but we will respond to where we think the weight of public opinion is." Phew. I'm glad we've got that one out of the way. Duff is much more comfortable talking about other shifts in his industry. One of them is the way that npower has been transformed from a former publicly owned power monolith into a commercial enterprise. When he arrived in 1998, Duff admits he thought the then National Power had made the difficult transition from public to private sector and was poised to become a leading global power player. "Actually it was anything but secure in the UK," he says. "Its business model was weak; its strategy was limited. It was trying to manage its own decline in the UK from an over-dominant position in generation. And it had no access to the retail market and customers that were going to be necessary in a deregulated competitive market." The solution was the 2000 division of National Power's domestic and worldwide operations into Innogy and International Power. Between 1998 and 2002, National Power and then Innogy sold half of its generation portfolio and acquired retail electricity customers in Yorkshire, the North East and the Midlands. Then in 2003, Innogy was bought by RWE. "There was just a phenomenal amount of structural change," says Duff, who was born in Leeds but brought up in Bangkok, where his father was an oil lubricant salesman. He didn't particularly want to follow suit but says he got drawn into energy because it's such a "difficult, complicated, challenging business" requiring trade-offs and compromises between shareholder returns, large-scale, high-risk investments and social and environmental challenges. "It's highly political, highly strategic, and it's also a highly competitive industry. I'm very competitive by nature so all of those things conspired to attract me to the industry," he says. Duff worked for BP in the Far East, joining National Power in 1998 in time to encounter another major shift - the way the climate change debate has transformed the power industry agenda. Serious investment is now needed to cope with the emission reductions needed to comply with EU legislation, says Duff. "The speed of change in environmental awareness, regulation and the expectation of our customers and society has been dramatic. "As a nation, we're no longer content to burn coal unconstrained and to emit the levels of CO2 we were emitting by the end of the 1990s. I don't think anybody in 2000 saw it moving that quickly." RWE npower is spending more than Ł1.7bn on renewing and modernising its UK infrastructure to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by one third by 2015, compared to 2000. It is closing coal-fired power stations at Tilbury, Essex, and Didcot, Oxfordshire; investing in new gas-fired power stations at Staythorpe, Nottinghamshire, and Pembroke, west Wales; and building the first carbon dioxide capture plant at a UK coal power station at Aberthaw, south Wales. It's also investing in four new onshore wind farms and a new Ł190m offshore wind farm at Rhyl Flats in north Wales. RWE npower already operates 20pc of the UK's wind power plants. In addition, it's investigating building high-efficient power stations at its existing sites at Tilbury or Blyth, Northumberland, and looking at ways of capturing carbon dioxide from new coal-fired plants and storing it under the North Sea in depleted gas reservoirs. RWE npower, based in Swindon, Wiltshire, has 12,000 employees and 7m customers, and five other gas and oil-fired UK power stations - which means Duff has to be concerned about security of gas supply. RWE owns gas reserves but most of its gas has to be bought in, with one third of npower's supplies still coming from the North Sea. "I don't think self-sufficiency is that important," says Duff. "We get very concerned in the UK about security of gas supply. But with access to liquefied natural gas, and other supply pipelines from Europe and elsewhere, we can ensure for some time to come that we aren't going to be ransomed by any particular supplier. In the medium term the UK is in a strong position." Somehow, with all these investment and supply issues, RWE npower has to make profits as well. Duff admits it hasn't done so for two years when investment spend is included but prefers the measure of earnings before interest, tax and amortisation but after depreciation - which worked out at €515m in 2006. As for the nuclear debate, that's another issue altogether. © Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2008 | Terms & ***************************************************************** 18 The Guardian: Scientists take on Brown over nuclear plans * Jan 4 2008: Today's paper Search: guardian.co.uk Environment Web Academics say safety concerns of new generation of plants not yet addressed o John Vidal, environment editor Sizewell B nuclear power station in Suffolk A group of scientists and academics today condemns as undemocratic and possibly illegal the government's plans to force through a new generation of nuclear power stations to meet Britain's energy needs for the next 30 years. They warn that questions about the risks from radiation, disposal of nuclear waste and vulnerability to a terrorist attack have not been addressed - even though the government was ordered last February to repeat a public consultation on energy supply, after its exercise was declared unlawful by a high court judge. Today the nuclear consultation group, made up of 17 energy economists and several of the government's independent advisers on nuclear waste, condemned the methods used in the second attempt to gather public and expert opinion. "We are profoundly concerned that the government's approach was designed to provide particular and limiting answers," said Paul Dorfman, a spokesman for the independent group, which includes professors of Oxford, Sussex, and Lancaster universities, and Rutgers in the US. "Those answers risk locking in UK energy to an inflexible and vulnerable pathway that will prove unsustainable," he added. In an 87-page report, the group says: "Significant issues were not consulted on in any meaningful way or resolved in practice. It has left the government vulnerable to legal challenge and may lead to hostility and mistrust of any future energy decision," the paper warns. Contributors include Andy Stirling, director of science at the Science Policy Research Unit, Jerome Ravetz, fellow of the Institute for Science and Civilisation at Oxford, Dave Elliott, co-director of energy and research at the Open University, Gordon Walker, chair of environment at Lancaster University, and Frank Barnaby, at the Oxford Research Group. The report comes as the government prepares to give the go-ahead next week for a major expansion of nuclear power, which could herald the building 20 reactors by private firms. Prime minister Gordon Brown is convinced, as was Tony Blair, nuclear power is needed to ensure energy security and to limit carbon emissions. The intervention could trigger fresh legal action, however. Yesterday Greenpeace, whose challenge to the energy review was upheld last year, said it would wait to see the government's formal response on Tuesday before deciding whether to return to the courts. A new court case could delay the start of building stations by a further year. The government is expected to insist it has a mandate. In meetings in the autumn, more than 1,000 people were asked their view of nuclear power after seeing videos and taking part in discussion: 44% said power firms should have the option to build nuclear; 36% said no. A Department for Business and Enterprise spokeswoman said: "We gave people five months to respond, longer than the average three to four month consultation period. We have received 2,700 responses from the extensive consultation, which included public meetings across the UK, a written consultation document, and a website. Time is pressing. We need to make a decision on whether we should continue to get some of our electricity from nuclear, which is a low carbon form of making energy." Green groups said the questions were loaded and the information presented biased and inaccurate. A complaint was made to the Market Research Standards Board alleging the market research firm involved broke the code of conduct. A Greenpeace letter sent to the Treasury solicitors before Christmas says: "It would be unlawful for the government to make a decision to build new nuclear power stations without knowing what will happen to the new radioactive waste." The consultation response will be a statement by energy secretary John Hutton, followed in days by an energy bill. * May 11 2005 Rapid return to nuclear power ruled out The government's main scientific adviser on energy policy yesterday ruled out an immediate return to nuclear power. Science news | Green politics * December 10 2004 Bury nuclear waste, says report The government's inability to deal with nuclear waste should not delay a decision on a new generation of power stations, a House of Lords committee will argue today. Science news | Green politics * August 26 2003 Decaying and dangerous, the legacy of a flawed nuclear vision Sellafield's building B277 is one of the UK's most hazardous radioactive sites. Paul Brown is the first journalist to be given access. Science news | Green politics * August 26 2003 Sellafield shutdown ends the nuclear dream ÂŁ1.8bn Thorp plant that promised limitless electricity to close by 2010. * Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008 ***************************************************************** 19 Newsday.com: Oyster Creek to temporarily reduce power to prevent fish kills -- 11:43 AM EST, January 3, 2008 LACEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) _ The Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station will reduce its power output by 8 percent for the next three months rather than run the risk of a fish kill by shutting down for repairs. On Dec. 19, operators manually shut the nation's oldest nuclear plant down after a pump failed during maintenance. It returned to full power two days later. But on Dec. 23, vibrations in the turbine control valves forced plant operators to reduce power output from 100 to 92 percent, said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The reduction in power was enough to stop the vibration in the control valves. Oyster Creek operator AmerGen Energy Co. is seeking NRC approval for a 20-year license renewal to keep the plant open until 2029. Its current operating license expires in April 2009. "AmerGen would like to shut down the unit and fix the valves," Sheehan told The Press of Atlantic City for Thursday's newspapers. "However, it cannot do that at this time of year without killing fish." During the winter, fish congregate in the warm water discharged from the nuclear plant. Last month's shutdown caused the deaths of more than 5,300 fish when water temperatures near the plant's discharge dropped. There are "no issues operating at 92 safely and reliably," Leslie Cifelli, an Oyster Creek spokeswoman, told the Asbury Park Press for Thursday's newspapers. Three years ago, AmerGen agreed to a $1 million settlement that stemmed from a fish kill in September 2002. In that instance about 6,000 fish died after a transformer that provides power to some pumps was turned off during maintenance. Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material ***************************************************************** 20 IEER: Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy For further information: Bob Schaeffer (239) 395-6773 For use after 10:30am, Thurs, Dec. 20, 2007 teleconference Slides to accompany Dec. 20 teleconference [1.9MB PPT] P R E S S R E L E A S E New Book Shows U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emissions Can be Completely Eliminated by 2050 A Roadmap for U.S. Global Climate Change Leadership after Bali Conference Nuclear Power Is Not Needed for an Economical and Reliable Energy System without Fossil Fuels The United States can become a global leader against climate change by phasing out nearly all carbon dioxide emissions by the year 2050, according to a newly published book. Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy demonstrates how the U.S. can eliminate the use of fossil fuels without sacrificing economic growth or building more nuclear power plants. "As the recent Bali conference indicates, the world is looking to the U.S. for leadership, which has not been forthcoming so far," said Dr. Arjun Makhijani, the book's author. "This book is a roadmap for transforming the debate about global warming from political rhetoric to practical policies that can be implemented immediately. Making a zero-CO2 emissions' commitment is the way the U.S. can bring India and China into a serious dialog. Nearly complete elimination of CO2 emissions by 2050 is also implied by U.S. treaty commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change." Dr. Makhijani holds a Ph.D. from the Electrical Engineering Department of the University of California at Berkeley, where he specialized in nuclear fusion. He is president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Takoma Park, Maryland. He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in November 2007 for his "outstanding contributions to physics" and specifically for "his tireless efforts to provide the public with accurate and understandable information on energy and environmental issues." Among the book's recommendations: * Enact a physical limit on carbon dioxide emissions (a "hard cap") for large users of fossil fuels that steadily declines to zero; * Eliminate all subsidies and tax breaks for fossil fuels, nuclear power and biofuels from food crops; * Build demonstration energy supply plants including solar thermal, solar photovoltaic, and carbon dioxide capture in microalgae for liquid fuel production; * Leverage government purchasing power to create markets for advanced technologies such as plug-in hybrid vehicles * Ban new coal-fired plants unless they include reliable carbon capture and storage * Create and enforce stringent efficiency standards for appliances, transportation and buildings "These approaches are all technologically feasible, economically viable and environmentally benign," Dr. Makhijani explained. "Nuclear power, on the other hand, entails risks of proliferation, terrorism and serious accidents." The analysis in Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free shows that a reliable electricity grid can be created entirely from renewable energy sources, despite the intermittency of wind and solar energy. "First of all, wind and solar development should be coordinated, since wind often predominates at night and solar, is, by definition, in the daytime," said Dr. Makhijani. "Then, hydropower resources can be used when neither is available, complemented by natural gas standby." In the long term, some baseload capacity would be created using biomass and geothermal resources, solar thermal power plants with heat storage, complemented by electricity storage technologies, according to the Roadmap. Natural gas standby capacity can be replaced by bio-methane standby. The book presents the first schematic of a reliable electricity grid based entirely on renewable energy sources. "A distributed grid will actually be more reliable and less vulnerable to terrorism and large-scale black-outs than the centralized grid we have today," Dr. Makhijani claimed. "And if we focus solar energy development on commercial parking lots and rooftops, the problem of transmission corridors will be much reduced." Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free has already been embraced by a wide variety of energy and environmental experts. In a foreword to the book, S. David Freeman, former Chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority, writes, "This Roadmap could liberate us from an energy policy that is trashing our climate and our mountain tops, that is polluting our land, sea, and air, that is trying to resurrect dangerous nuclear power, and that has America so dependent on imported oil that our foreign policy is the prisoner of oil. It shines a light on the path to a renewable energy economy." The president of Friends of the Earth, Brent Blackwelder, the most senior environmental lobbyist in Washington, also endorsed the book's agenda. The initial, overwhelmingly positive reaction to the Roadmap, which cuts across conventional lines of partisanship and ideology, has resulted in initial planning for a national campaign to implement its recommendations. A kick-off conference is planned for spring, 2008. Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free is published by RDR Books and IEER Press. The book was the result of a joint project of Institute for Energy and Environmental Research and the Nuclear Policy Research Institute.. Review copies are available on request. The text is also posted on the web at http://www.ieer.org/carbonfree/CarbonFreeNuclearFree.pdf and can be downloaded free. [PDF 4.4MB] --30-- Slides to accompany Dec. 20 teleconference [1.9MB PPT] Book also available in paperback. Also available: Executive summary [PDF 460kB] Science for Democratic Action [PDF 2.5MB] Press release, July 30, 2007 Related materials on this site: Insurmountable Risks: The Dangers of Using Nuclear Power to Combat Global Climate Change (IEER Press and RDR Books, 2006) Our Electric Future: A Non-Nuclear Low Carb Diet? Interview with Arjun Makhijani in the Fall 2005 New Hampshire Sierran Uranium Enrichment: Facts to Fuel an Informed Debate on Nuclear Proliferation and Nuclear Power, article in Science for Democratic Action, March 2005 Atomic Myths, Radioactive Realities: Why Nuclear Power Is a Poor Way to Meet Energy Needs (Journal of Land, Resources, & Environmental Law, 2004) List of selected IEER materials on energy issues Available at EggheadBooks: The Nuclear Power Deception: U.S. Nuclear Mythology from Electricity "Too Cheap to Meter" to "Inherently Safe" Reactors (Apex Press, 1999) Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Comments to ieer[at]ieer.org Takoma Park, Maryland, USA December 20, 2007 ***************************************************************** 21 Business: Utilities push limits of nuclear plants They're worked longer, harder. By ASJYLYN LODER, Times Staff Writer Published December 29, 2007 With new nuclear power plants still years away, the industry plans to push the nation's aging nuclear fleet to last longer and work harder. The industry says it's perfectly safe, but not everyone agrees. Here in Florida and across the country, utilities have asked federal regulators to extend their plants' 40-year operating licenses for another 20 years. Many of those utilities also want to alter their nuclear plants to produce more electricity. "From an engineering and technical standpoint, there is no reason not to extend the life of the plant," said Buddy Eller, spokesman for Progress Energy Florida. "And from an economic and environmental standpoint, in terms of emissions, it's a win-win for customers." The St. Petersburg utility has already won approval to increase the output of its Crystal River nuclear plant, and plans to ask for a 20-year license renewal, says the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Crystal River's 40-year license expires in 2016. "Our agency doesn't look at any other factor more than 'can it be done safely?'" said NRC spokesman Roger Hannah. But not everyone agrees that the commission's oversight is enough. Edwin Lyman, a senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said renewals don't take into account increased population around plants, terrorist attack risks or the effects of aging combined with making plants work harder. "If you don't have a perfect understanding of these aging issues, then are your inspection programs adequate?" Lyman asked. So far, the NRC has approved 20-year license renewals for 48 of the nation's 103 nuclear reactors, and has 10 more under review, Hannah said. Florida Power & Light, which provides electricity to most of southeast Florida and operates four nuclear power plants in the state, already received renewals for its Florida plants. Progress Energy Florida's sister utility in the Carolinas won renewals for two of its three nuclear facilities in North and South Carolina. The NRC said this week that there were no environmental reasons not to give the company's third plant, Shearon Harris, a renewal. While utilities push to make their plants last longer, they also want them to produce more electricity. In nuclear parlance, it's called an "uprate." Since 2005, the NRC has approved 11 uprates, has 13 more under review and expects about 25 more applications in the next four to five years, Hannah said. The uprates will increase electricity output anywhere from 3 percent to 20 percent. Crystal River is working on an uprate. Florida Power & Light won Public Service Commission approval for a 414-megawatt uprate at St. Lucie and Turkey Point earlier this month. Uprates don't compromise safety, because most plants were "over-designed," said Hannah. He likened it to driving a high-performance sports car at low speeds. It can go much faster. Lyman said the additional vibration and heat stress, combined with aging ,could cause equipment to fail. "The common thread is that we don't believe that the rules and oversight for these changes are adequate." Asjylyn Loder can be reached at aloder@sptimes.com or (813) 225-3117. Florida's nuclear reactors Progress Energy Florida - One reactor at its Crystal River power station in Citrus County. The original 40-year operating license expires Dec. 2016. It plans to ask in early 2009 for a 20-year renewal. Florida Power & Light - Four reactors: St. Lucie 1 and 2 and Turkey Point 3 and 4. St. Lucie 1 would have expired in March 2016, and St. Lucie 2 in April 2023. Granted 20-year license renewals to both plants in 2003. - Turkey Point 3 license would have expired in July 2012 and Turkey Point 4 would have expired in April 2013. It was granted 20-year license renewals to both plants in 2002. [Last modified December 28, 2007, 23:03:17] © 2008 · All Rights Reserved · St. Petersburg Times 490 First Avenue South · St. Petersburg, FL 33701 · 727-893-8111 Contact Us | Join Us | Advertise with Us | Subscribe to the Times ***************************************************************** 22 CTV Toronto: Ontario politicians debate nuclear power spending - Sun. Dec. 30 2007 7:33 PM ET Nuclear power plant in Pickering, Ont. NDP MPP Peter Tabuns speaks with the media regarding nuclear spending on Sunday, Dec. 30, 2007. Energy Minister Gerry Phillips discusses nuclear energy spending with the media on Sunday, Dec. 30, 2007. Ontario politicians debate nuclear power spending toronto.ctv.ca Nuclear power will be the big political debate in Ontario in the new year as the province will have to decide whether or not it should spend billions to keep the plants running. Ontario's nuclear power plants are aging and most have to be either renovated or rebuilt. The estimated cost of the overhaul is about $40 billion. NDP MPP Peter Tabuns said Ontario needs to think twice before investing in nuclear power. "We are taking a huge economic gamble with nuclear power that already has shown itself to be a loser," he said, using the Darlington plant as an example. That project was expected to cost taxpayers $3 billion but ended up costing $12 billion instead. "We're still carrying the debt," Tabuns said. It takes about 10 years to get the plants up and running, said Energy Minister Gerry Phillips. The province will rely on conservation but will also look at natural gas plants for power. "There's a plant under construction down in Toronto and others across the province," he said. A natural gas generating station will likely be built at the site of the old Lakeview coal plant in Mississauga. With a report from CTV Toronto's Paul Bliss © 2008 All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 23 Houston Chronicle: Nuclear Workers Eligible for Payments | Chron.com - Jan. 3, 2008, 11:08AM By KIMBERLY HEFLING Associated Press Writer © 2008 The Associated Press WASHINGTON — After a yearslong fight, tens of thousands of workers at a former nuclear fuel processing plant in Armstrong County are now eligible for government aid for their illnesses. To qualify for the $150,000 in compensation, the workers must have worked at the plant in Apollo for at least 250 days between 1957 and 1983 and have one of 22 different cancers. Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp., or NUMEC, began work in and around the tiny town of Apollo, about 30 miles east of Pittsburgh, in 1957. The plant, which changed ownership over the years, produced fuel for nuclear submarines and other purposes. Decades later, activists and former workers began questioning whether the plant had contributed to cancers among employees and townspeople. They petitioned the government for reparations. Lawsuits _ some still pending _ also followed. On Saturday, the Apollo workers became part of a special compensation class for sick nuclear workers. Congress had until then to act on a recommendation made Nov. 29 by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt that the workers receive a special status from Congress that would entitle them to $150,000 each under a government program that compensates former nuclear workers. Leavitt made the decision following the recommendation of two boards. Because Congress didn't act, Leavitt's recommendation became final. Sick workers who do not have one of the 22 cancers may be eligible for compensation, but must meet different criteria. More than 400 claims have already been filed by former workers or their beneficiaries, according to the Web site for the Department of Labor, which administers payments. Shelby Hallmark, director of the office of Workers' Compensation Programs, said the agency plans to have a town hall meeting in the area in February to answer questions. It is under review whether workers at a sister nuclear fuel processing plant in Parks Township will also be eligible for compensation under the program. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said in a statement on Wednesday that he was pleased with the decision because it removes a "significant hurdle" for the workers to receive compensation. Patricia Ameno, who grew up in Apollo and has advocated on behalf of the workers and townspeople, also praised the decision. But Ameno said the government hasn't gone as far as it should to compensate the former workers struggling with health problems and to pay bills. "I feel the government owes these workers who were essentially civilian veterans of a Cold War era who helped our country produce a product that they needed," Ameno said. ***************************************************************** 24 OpEdNews: Veterans of nations "secret experiments" need help now December 27, 2007 at 16:03:58 by Michael Bailey Page 1 of 2 page(s) http://www.opednews.com On December 17, 2007, I was invited to meet with President Clinton due to my participation in the Steering Committee for Military & Veterans for Hillary. I received the e mail on Sunday telling me when and where to be. It was not a campaign stop, rather he wanted to meet with and thank a group of homeless veterans that were in a VA sponsored program at the Alston Wilkes Society trying to get their lives back together. Some how I fell thru the cracks at the meeting, I arrived at the building at 3:30 and parked in the handicap spot right in front of the building, there were more police cars there than people it seemed. My wife and I went in the front door and they helped us get me and my walker down the stairs to the basement area where the meeting was to take place. I talked with some of the vets that lived there, and we were told the President was running about an hour late, so we grabbed some coffee and went to the smoking area and spent time telling war stories. Over the next half hour some well dressed people, other members of the Steering Committee a few of them introduced themselves to my wife and I. The veterans and I spent a lot of the time discussing filing claims with the Veterans Administration Regional Office (VARO) and the problems that are inherent in the process. Normally veterans need to select a Service Officer from one of the many accredited service organizations, like the Disabled American Veterans (DAV), The American Legion (AL) The Military Order of the Purple Heart (MOPH) and the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) these are just a few. There are many more out there that can and do handle claims, the one thing they all have in common, is over worked Service Officers, they do not have time to track down each piece of evidence a veteran will need to get a "win" on their claim award, so the veteran needs to spend time tracking down the papers needed to justify the favorable rating. The best advocate for a compensation claim is the veterans themselves, it is their claim. The Service Officers (SO) are juggling hundreds of open claims at any given time. Your file is not the most important thing to them, as it is to you. The VA measures time in months and years, in the meantime many veterans end up losing their cars, their homes and their families, due to financial problems. As if the stress from the medical problems are not enough, add some months with no pay checks into the mix, and you have a disaster developing. Veterans waiting on VA Compensation claims to be adjudicated have led to more than one divorce. About 4:30 the Director of the center asked all the people from the steering committee to go back upstairs as the police were bringing the police dogs thru doing the bomb search, also they wanted the "political types" separated from the veterans that the President was coming to meet and Thank them for their service to the nation. I tried explaining I was supposed to be with the "political types" and the Director told me not to worry about it, I was a disabled veteran and he wanted me to stay with the vets and meet President Clinton with them. I quickly learned why, the President spent 3-5 minutes speaking with each of us, there was a lot of laughter and plenty of pictures. I asked him to autograph my book about the Edgewood experiments written by DR James Ketchum, Chemical Warfare: Secrets Almost Forgotten that I had purchased from Dr. Ketchum and he had signed it. I just thought it was appropriate for the President that had finally acknowledged the immoral experiments and had publicly apologized for them should also autograph it. The apology can be viewed here" title="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTiONdJJRcw">here">http://www.yo utube.com/watch?v=cTiONdJJRcw">here it is about 30 seconds “She’s the best I ever saw at making people know she can make them better off than they were previously,” the former president said. In Columbia, he met with homeless veterans at the Alston Wilkes Society where he listened to the stories of several Vietnam veterans and toured the facility. Hillary Clinton, by most polls, is in a tight race for her party’s nomination in South Carolina, Iowa and New Hampshire, the critical early voting states. Bill Clinton is being dispatched in those states to help Hillary Clinton maintain shrinking leads that once looked insurmountable. Bill Clinton, introduced at one stop as the most popular and powerful Democrat in America, wooed voters here.“Nobody knows what’s going to happen in any election,” Bill Clinton told about 100 people at Orangeburg Technical College. “But I tell you this, if she does (win), you're going to be glad you were a part of it. Most of my regular readers know my wife is Republican (hey no marriage is perfect) but after meeting with Bill Clinton and watching him interact with me, and his offer to help with the Veterans Administration, followed up by his aide giving me his business card with an e mail address to contact them with the evidence and how they can help. She was very impressed, with him, which is to say a lot. She evens admitted as how she might even have to vote for Hillary, she feels if Hillary is even half the person Bill is then the nation will be far better off than in the hands of another republican. President Clinton's aide gave us a business card with an e mail address for contacting the former President about the situation I find myself in. It has now been more than 12 years since the President made the public apology for the Cold War experiments that happened long before he took office, but could have only happened with his predecessors approval, the highest levels of the government had to approve the funding for many of these expensive programs, and all of them were classified at the highest levels, many unknown outside the National Security Council level, other than by the people working the projects. To me it is amazing the people that were in government while these experiments were being conducted, some of them on the NSC, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Cheney and at the least did not object to human experimentation, if they did not fully support it. They now find themselves in a position to help correct some of the mistakes of the past and help the people or the military veterans involved in these "classified programs" such as the Nuclear tests, the biological tests at Fort Detrick, the chemical weapons and drug experiments conducted at Edgewood Arsenal, the Operation 112/SHAD experiments of the 60s and early 70s. They can have the Secretary of the Veterans Administration designate these men into a Category 6 level of eligibility for medical care, regardless of their present income levels, for treatment of all their medical problems. Many of the experiments these veterans were exposed to decades ago, have no tests available to see if there any direct links to the exposures then to medical issues now. The government should give these men the benefit of the doubt and since they were used in these immoral experiments, the government should keep the "Promise" and take care of them medically now. The VA Secretary has the power to make this happen. I indicated this in my communication to President Clinton: Mr. President, the other veterans I am in contact with are like me, no one expects the government to tell all the details of the experiments, yes a lot of the data is still classified we understand that, we do not understand why they refuse to address the environmental issues, what happened to the benefit of the doubt? At the very least all the veterans used in the experiments, SHAD, Edgewood, Nuclear and Fort Detricks Operation Whitecoat should be given a level 6 ID Card for the VA so they can obtain medical care from the VA, regardless of their income levels. Their are many widows of the volunteers that have never been told their husbands were used in the experiments due to National Security acts we could not tell our parents, our spouses, doctor's, anyone about the experiments, We all signed the agreements and we were promised 25 years in Leavenworth if we violated them. In the September 2006 notification letters from the VA/DOD informing us that we had been identified as test subjects we were reminded by the Pentagon that we could still not discuss the experiments and the national security agreements we signed. Congress has investigated this CBS news did a 60 minutes piece on it in Jan 1991 while I was gone to Desert Storm. The experiments are not secret anymore and the Pentagon is idiotic in trying to "put that genie back into the bottle now". The last health study did because you forced DOD to do it based on the Sarin exposures at Kamisayah Iraq in March 1991 used the Edgewood veterans as the study group after all we were the only men the nation had that had been exposed to Sarin by the Edgewood doctors, they found that 40% of the men were dead on FY 2000, 2098 men could not be found using IRS VA and SS databases, men aged 45-65 are paying taxes, drawing benefits either from the VA or SS, they don;t just disappear. The report also showed that 54% of the 4022 survivors are disabled yet, the report never explained what the cause of the disabilities were. The report also ignored a 1994 National Institute of Health report on sarin exposures showing known medical problems Toxicity of the Organophosphate Chemical Warfare Agents GA, GB, and VX: Implic I feel it is because it would open the VA to claims from more than 100,000 veterans to heart problems, lung problems etc very expensive for 100,000 veterans to be service connected at 100%, I feel the IOM and DOD are doing all they can to ignore evidence that shows the Gulf War veterans might be sick from exposures to Sarin after all. There was also mustard agents at Kamisayah as well. Mr President, I thank you for spending that few minutes with me in Columbia and giving me your card to contact you. We both know the VA Secretary has the ability to fix these things on his authority, the VA Secretary has enormous power granted by the President. I wish I had never raised my hand in 1974, I regret that the US did these experiments to it's own citizens and it's soldiers. My step father was in the Air Force and flew on a plane crew doing data gathering over the Nevada test site, he ended up having three kinds of cancer that is on the list of the RECA act, he died before the RECA was enacted. He never filed for Service connection from the VA because back then they would have taken away his retirement check and he did not want the problems. Mr. President my family has served in the Army going back to my great great great great grand father who served at Valley Forge in 1776 from Barre, Mass. My Grandfather served in the Cal 4th Volunteers in the Civil War and my father served in D Troop 7th Calvary in 1914-1916 at Douglas Arizona. If the VA quits helping veterans who will volunteer in the future, I have a 16 year old son, and I am not sure I want him to serve in the Army, he should. He would be the first Bailey male that didn't in over 225 years, but look at this mess I am in, and look how the VA is treating the Iraq war veterans, it's shameful. I am on the Steering Committee for Military and veterans for Hillary because I believe in your wife, and General Wes Clark, I was hoping he would run honestly. I have known General Clark since NTC in the 80s when he was a Colonel and I was in the 6/31st. He was at NTC when the 48th Brigade went there in 1991 and he was a one star. Many of us Clark supporters are hoping he is the VP choice. If not I am sure he will be an asset in the future Clinton Administration. Mr. President I hope you can help my family, and possibly the other "test vets" they at least deserve medical care from this nation at the very least. It has been more than 32 years since the human experimentation was stopped in 1975, isn't it about time the federal government, especially the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration stopped denying responsibility for the veterans and their families that were harmed by these experiments, the benefit of the doubt was designed for just these type of situations. There are no tests now that confirm exposure to hazardous substances months or years later, let alone decades. These men should have never been used in these hazardous experiments, and now in their later years the government does have an obligation to them and their families. http://vets4politics.blogspot.com/ Disabled Army Staff Sergeant who served from 1973 thru 1982 active duty and in the National Guard from 1988 thru 1992, I served on the DMZ in Korea and served in Oamn during the Gulf war. Copyright © OpEdNews, 2002-2007 ***************************************************************** 25 Reuters: Whistleblower Rewards Top $2 Billion | Wed Jan 2, 2008 9:05am EST LYNCHBURG, Va., Jan. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- The government reached an important landmark by topping $2 billion in rewards paid to citizens for reporting fraud. The average whistleblower reward was $1.5 million. The largest reward exceeded $100 million. Last year, the government spent more than $2.5 trillion dollars. Under many of its programs it is losing 10% to corporate fraud, with the total amount of fraud exceeding $150 billion each year. In response, Congress authorized the Department of Justice to create the Whistleblower Reward Program and pay up to 25% of what it collects against cheating companies as rewards to private citizens who report fraud. Without the help of whistleblowers, the government catches only 1% of corporations who defraud more than 20 government agencies, like the military, the post office, Medicare, and Homeland Security. Under the reward program, the Department of Justice has already recovered $12.5 billion. Whistleblowers are now responsible for one-half of all recoveries for fraud against the government. There is no limit to the amount of rewards paid and there is no cap to the dollar amount paid to an individual. The reward is a formula based upon the size of the fraud case you report. Recently, the IRS adopted its own whistleblower reward program. It hopes to be able to start paying billions of dollars in rewards because it estimates that companies are evading taxes by over $300 billion each year. There is a new book that walks you step-by-step through the process of determining if you are eligible for a reward and how to properly file your application. It is named Whistleblowing, A Guide to Government Reward Programs: How to Collect Millions of Dollars for Reporting Fraud, and is available at your favorite bookstore. The author, Joel Hesch, worked for 15 years as an attorney in the Fraud Division of the Department of Justice helping administer the National Whistleblower Reward Program. He is now a legal professor at Liberty University School of Law. His website offers free information and up-to-the-minute updates on reward programs at www.HowToReportFraud.com. Hesch is available for interviews, and can provide a review copy of his book to journalists. SOURCE Joel Hesch, Esq. Joel Hesch, Esq., 434-592-4251 (office) jhesch@liberty.edu © Reuters 2008 All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 26 UPI.com: High cost of nuclear medicine weighed - Published: Dec. 25, 2007 at 10:48 PM NEW YORK, Dec. 25 (UPI) -- U.S. advances in the use of nuclear accelerators to fight cancer are being tempered by concerns about the high cost of such equipment with uncertain benefits. Scientists say the particle accelerators target cancer cells more accurately than X-rays, The New York Times reported Tuesday. But some experts say the rush to newer, more expensive technology -- which can cost more than $100 million a pop -- is what is pushing the high cost of healthcare in the United States, the Times said. "I'm fascinated and horrified by the way it's developing," said Anthony L. Zietman, a radiation oncologist at Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital, which operates a proton center. "This is the dark side of American medicine." Proponents say the accelerators will ultimately mean better treatment for cancer patients. More than 800,000 Americans undergo radiation therapy each year. "Every X-ray beam I use puts most of the dose where I don't want it," said Dr. Jerry D. Slater, head of radiation medicine at Loma Linda University Medical Center in California. But opponents say the newest form of X-rays diminish any advantages from proton therapy. "There are no solid clinical data that protons are better," said Dr. Theodore S. Lawrence, chairman of radiation oncology at the University of Michigan. © 2007 United Press International. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 27 VietNamNet: 173 oilrig workers contaminated after radioactive leak 16:37' 30/12/2007 (GMT+7) VietNamNet Bridge - Following a radioactive leak at an oilrig off southern Viet Nam’s Vung Tau City on December 28, 173 workers were yesterday found to manifest signs of contamination including 28 who vomited, suffered from headaches and difficult breathing. The 173 were hospitalized and later sent to the Da Lat Institute of Nuclear Research in central highlands Lam Dong Province for further examinations. At 2:30 pm, experts from Alpha Company Limited which is being contracted to use radiographic equipment to check for cracks and welding deterioration at the Bunga Orkid D (BOD) oilrig off Ha Luu Port found a radioactive device missing. This bar-shaped device containing radioactive material is used to inspect the rig’s welding joints. Immediately, over 400 people working within a radius of over 1km were evacuated. It was suspected that a group of technicians from Alpha had accidentally dropped the radioactive source at roughly 11:40 am about 20 meters away from the rig. Since the device was dropped on the ground, it was easily located and retrieved after 3 hours. The oilrig is owned by M&C Petroleum Technical Services Company. Ho Minh Dan, Ba Ria Vung Tau provincial police chief told Sai Gon Giai Phong that there are no signs of sabotage. Alpha had a similar problem at Hyundai-Vinashin Shipyard Ltd. in central Khanh Hoa province in 2002. Viet Nam is upgrading security systems of its radioactive sources. The country currently houses 188 industrial and healthcare establishments having a total 1,961 radioactive sources. Viet Nam which boasts a sole nuclear reactor in Lam Dong province plans to build its first nuclear power plant between 2015 and 2020. (Source: SGGP) ***************************************************************** 28 Indybay: California's Radiation Laboratory Near SF Creates Anxiety by Cathy Garger ( savorsuccesslady3 [at] yahoo.com ) Tuesday Jan 1st, 2008 4:26 PM UC employees are reportedly anxious and upset over having to play a secondary role at the Livermore Nuclear Laboratory. Yet how do we, the ones breathing in the Depleted Uranium and other radionuclides, feel about what's going on with radioactive materials blasted into our air? lawrence_radiation_labora... The recent article at InsideBayArea.com, "Lab's Changes Cause Staff Anxiety," http://www.insidebayarea.com/dailyreview/localnews/ci_7731518 discusses the downgrading of the managerial role - and alleged lessened involvement - of the University of California at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory outside San Francisco. The slant of this piece tries to make us feel sorry for academia at the University of California who no longer get to boast about being Big Nuke Scientists on Campus and hog all the limelight for their role in genocidal weapons-making at the Lab! The federal Department of Energy, as obedient handmaidens for the DoD, along with the University of California, are designing - and exploding - radioactive weapons into the open air, about 40 miles outside San Francisco. Have you heard of "Depleted” Uranium before, the munitions made from nuclear processing that the US military fires in Iraq and Afghanistan from our aircraft, tanks, and guns? If not, simply do a search for “Depleted Uranium” plus “Doug Rokke” or “Leuren Moret” or “Rosalie Bertell” and you will get the education of a lifetime. Uh, yeah, there's certainly anxiety in California alright - at least among those who know what goes on at that nuclear weapons Laboratory - and it sure doesn't have much of anything to do with UC professors losin' academic notoriety or esteem. But first let's discuss the UC scientists who like to play with nuke bombs technology for a living. It now appears that UC is playing a more subdued role and is at least not as publicly showcased as manager of California's weapons lab any longer. The tone of this piece is such that we are almost moved to get out the violins and Kleenex for the poor, poor UC academics who now have to share some of the credit and glory for blowing up radioactively *hot* Uranium in our faces for a living. So while we are being made to feel sympathy for an institution of higher learning that does not get to star in a leading role for its diabolical work in genocidal orchestration? Let us not be taken as fools and believe for even a minute that the University's part in Livermore Lab's deeds has ended. Clearly, the skilled expertise of UC’s top scientists is very much needed and desired. Most assuredly, UC will go right on assisting the private firm running the weapons laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC and its partners, Bechtel National, BWX Technologies, Texas A & M University, Washington Group International, and national weapons laboratory manager, Battelle, as they perform their nuclear dirty work ensemble both at Livermore’s indoor laboratory and outdoor explosion areas. Putting a corporation in charge of the Lab - at least on paper - is obviously a much better "business" strategy for a federal government interested in maximizing profits and minimizing federal liabilities, health, disability, and death claims benefits. Privatization of US-manufactured casualties is, after all, what this administration is all about. With regard to UC scientists being played in this piece as "demoted," one surmises this is truly how it might feel to some academics there. Certainly one can understand why UC employees would find the twisted sense of glory and "perks" that radioactive weapons design and implementation has afforded them in the past to be immensely lucrative, desirable, and ego-swelling to boot. Getting a rise out of designing and using instruments of mass destruction, regardless of the number of higher degrees one may posses in disciplines like physics and nuclear science, does not, however, indicate the presence of normal psyche functioning. One does not need an advanced shrink degree, after all, to know that these guys are frickin' nuts! I mean, who in their right mind goes off to work in the morning with coffee and donut in hand, thinking, Hmm... after I help design an even more lethal nuclear bomb today and explode deadly radioactive materials outside in an open area where 7,000,000 babies, children, women, and men live, work, and play within 50 miles of San Francisco... I think I'll rent a movie and get a double-cheese, veggie lovers’ pizza tonight? Regardless of who receives - and who loses - all the credit and glory and prestige [sic] for playing the Lead Role in US poison gas weapons design and delivery? This supremely critical fact still remains: No matter who’s running the show, we are still nuking our own, in the open air, right here at home. As we speak, the greater San Francisco Bay Area nuclear weapons laboratory is still dispersing - via open air explosions - 1,000 lbs. annually (perhaps soon to be 8,000 lbs.) of lethal, chemically toxic, radioactive aerosols such as Uranium oxide into the air that 10 million people in the densely populated greater San Francisco Bay/San Jose area are trying to breathe. And while blasting one thousand pounds of “Depleted” Uranium into the air every year for 46 years straight may not seem like very much compared to the tons of it we are using on the Muslim world in the Middle East? Still, consider that just one invisible sub-micron size nano-particle we inhale that becomes lodged in our lung can stay there for decades, wrecking havoc on our bodies, causing cell death, mutation, and disease in the years to follow. The US has been using radioactive Uranium aerosol (gas) in our air since the 1940's right up to the current day. Is there any wonder that almost everybody we know and their brother's got some form of illness known to be caused by radiation, from diabetes to asthma to cancer to an autoimmune system disorder? These Uranium oxide aerosols (a gas) do not stay in a neat area around San Francisco, either. As Busby and Morgan demonstrated, these radioactive poison gasses travel thousands of miles in the winds in a matter of days. http://www.llrc.org/du/subtopic/aldermastonrept.htm Contrary to how the popular saying goes, what happens [at the outdoor explosion sites] in Vegas - and San Francisco- does not stay in Vegas - or in San Francisco, either. Livermore Laboratory has been detonating or blasting (yes, exploding!) thousands of pounds of the US Military Weapon Of Choice, "Depleted" Uranium, into our air since at least 1961 at its Site 300 at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, only about 40 miles west of San Francisco. But this is not *just* San Francisco's problem – nor even simply California’s problem - since these radionuclides travel in the winds across the US, much like the clouds of radioactive aerosols were carried, courtesy of atomic bomb testing back in the 40's, 50's, and early 60's. In other words, the radioactive bomb testing never ended... They simply conducted many more explosions, more frequently, and in smaller amounts, using many dozens of toxic and radioactive substances. And naturally, they never did advertise the fact. One can understand why the incessant explosions of radioactive materials into America's open air, starting with the Trinity Bomb on July 16, 1945, and extending over the next 62 years might be something Uncle Sam might not exactly want Regis and Kelly yapping about. When we were all told that atmospheric radioactive testing was stopped [wink, wink] outdoors in the 1960s? The DOE simply took over the job – in amended form - at federal Uranium gas dispersal sites, like Livermore, Los Alamos, and the Nevada Test Site. In the immediate vicinity of Livermore, CA, both from personal accounts of people who live in and near SF, as well as from perusing CA cancer websites, one discovers there actually are large numbers of very sick people in the Greater San Francisco Bay area. These illnesses include a great many people with strange autoimmune system diseases and inordinately high rates of cancers. This certainly all makes perfect sense because, after all, if you are blasting both chemically toxic and radioactive gasses into a highly populated area for over 45 years, what could you possibly expect in terms of great health for the residents of that area? The only thing that has changed with the privatization of LLNL is that a healthy buck can be made for corporate managers - not to mention a decreased liability for Uncle Sam, who doesn't have to worry quite so much anymore about paying the steep bill for "hot," dosed, sick, dead, and dying workers exposed to toxic and radioactively hazardous gasses in the workplace. So for those activists working hard to stop academia from playing a role at the weapons laboratories, the corporate handover of the Livermore Laboratory may, on the surface, seem like a victory. But let's keep thinking this through. If you and I are still breathing in the same (and maybe soon-to-be-increased) deadly, radioactive poison gas, what difference does it make if the UC plays a prominent role in managing Livermore - or if the University simply works in the background, behind the scenes, while still assisting in creating and exploding (oh, that's right, they call it "testing") lethal, toxic, radionuclides into our environment, polluting and contaminating our air, our water, our soils, and our food supply? http://0-http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/HAC/pha/li vermore2/liv_p3.html After all, any way you look at it? Being radioactively poison-gassed still does the same harm to us and to our families, whether at the hands of University psychopath scientists - or privately contracted ones. If you are unaware of how the Livermore National Weapons Laboratory’s Site 300 quietly, invisibly releases radioactive poison gasses into our air? Just do a Google search, putting in the exact terms, using the quotation marks as follows: "depleted uranium" + "livermore laboratory" Do write and tell me what you think in the comments section below. Does this bother you, too? I always thought that we pay our taxes in order to be protected from harm so we could enjoy health, happiness, and all that cool sounding jazz – not to be poison gassed! And maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I always thought our public universities were "in business" to ensure a great college education for our kids... not to design and use weapons of massive destruction in order to kill some fabricated foreign “enemy” - and American citizens, too. Maybe we just never got the memo that informed us that our state universities have a lucrative side-job of great importance to the Empire: the manufacture of wide scale, silent death? It must be a well-kept secret, as how many people do you know realize that US Universities work as a "major player" with private industries to blast toxic and environmentally hazardous contaminants out into our environment? Apparently, our state universities have been quietly doing so under the radar for quite some time... and can be predicted to continue to do so some time into the future. Bottom line is, while UC may be playing a more behind-the-scenes job at the Lawrence Livermore National [Nuclear Weapons] Laboratory? Our tax dollars are still effectively put to use quietly, invisibly "nuking" those of us who simply go about our normal day-to-day lives while breathing US air. Is there anyone else who resents the fact that their government is exploding so-called "Depleted" Uranium in liberal "doses" - out into America's air... the very same radioactive Uranium weapon of indiscriminate effects, illegal under international law, that the US military is using now in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and in testing sites all over the US and all over the world? I don't know. Maybe it's just me, but it sure does seem that the powers that be have gone absolutely, positively, psychopathically, stark raving mad. And judging by everything I am reading, it appears as if they will only continue their reign of silent, invisible, death-by-radiation
 that is, as long as we all remain very quiet. If we are going to stop these sociopaths, we are going to need to begin finding the courage necessary inside us to say - and do - whatever needs to be said and done. It's certainly not going to be easy - but historically, nothing worthwhile ever accomplished by vast numbers of outraged, citizens determined to make a difference ever was. Even if you share the information below widely, you will wake up many people who have absolutely no clue this is going on inside the United States. After all, prior to 2005, I had no idea about any of this, either. The radioactive poison gassing of America has been a well-guarded “dirty” secret that, for our children’s sake, must now see the light of day. It is time now to wake up our friends, family, and neighbors. America’s air and environment is being radioactively contaminated
 quite literally poisoned
 for literally billions of years – all under the false premise and guise of keeping our homeland “safe.” Video Clip: "Depleted Uranium Blasts to Increase At Livermore Lab" * http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/07/25/18437308.php Epidemiologist Sister Rosalie Bertell, Ph.D. and health effects of Depleted Uranium http://www.iicph.org/docs/host_response_to_du.htm To learn more, do a Google video search for Rosalie Bertell and Leuren Moret. Depleted Uranium Poison Targets US Citizens – Cathy Garger http://axisoflogic.com/cgi-bin/exec/view.pl?archive=151&num=23826 National lab blows uranium over Tracy, California - John Upton http://www.john-upton.com/lab.htm Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab's 200 Executioners Ready – Bob Nichols http://www.rense.com/general75/hyd.htm Tastes Like Burning – Mark Drolette http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Content?oid=335809 http://www.mytown.ca/garger © 2000–2008 San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center. Unless ***************************************************************** 29 Scotsman.com: MP's blast at nuclear safety - Friday, 28th December 2007 A NATIONALIST MP has called for more information to be made available on temporary closures at nuclear power stations such as Torness. SNP Westminster energy spokesman Mike Weir has lodged parliamentary questions on the issue, but said he was told that "planned or unplanned closures of this nature are commercial and/or technical decisions for the companies that own and operate the power stations". Mr Weir said: "There are real and serious concerns about the safety of nuclear power. We have seen shut downs at both Hunterston and Torness over safety concerns, yet the UK Government apparently does not keep records of such closures. That seems just extraordinary." In 2002, a reactor at the Torness power station in East Lothian was shut when a fan-side plate broke off and ended up inside the circulator casing. Reactor 1 at Torness was also closed during the same year after staff noticed vibrations in the fans which cool the reactors with pressurised carbon dioxide gas. The full article contains 168 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper. Last Updated: 28 December 2007 10:01 AM All rights reserved ©2007 Johnston Press Digital Publishing ***************************************************************** 30 HEALTH: Nuclear Plants Raise Leukaemia Threat Friday, December 28, 2007 09:09 GMT By Julio Godoy BERLIN, Dec 27 (IPS) - It has been a miserable month for the Brosowskys, a German family in the small city of Marschacht. On Dec. 8, physicians and health researchers from the University of Mainz, 425 km southwest of Berlin, said children living within a radius of five kilometres from nuclear power plants are at higher risk of contracting leukaemia. Marschacht, the Brosowskys' hometown, lies only 1.5 km from Kruemmel, one of the oldest German nuclear power plants. The town is half an hour's drive from Hamburg, 300 km northwest of Berlin. To the Brosowskys, the report from Mainz came as no surprise. The region has long been called a "leukaemia cluster". Since 1990, 18 cases of leukaemia have been reported among children in the vicinity of Kruemmel – three times the national average. The authors of the study, looking at data collected between 1980 and 2003, listed 77 cases of children suffering from cancer, including 37 cases of leukaemia, in regions around nuclear power plants. The national average for similarly sized groups is 48 cancer cases, and 17 of leukaemia. That indicates twice as many cases of leukaemia among children living near nuclear power plants. "Our study shows that the risk for children under five years of contracting leukaemia grows with proximity of their homes to nuclear power plants," Maria Blettner, director of the research group at the University of Mainz told IPS. "We all hope that our children will get away with it," says Sabine Brosowsky, mother of three. "But there is always anxiety at home." She and her family cannot leave Marschacht. "We were living here long before the nuclear power plant was installed," Brosowsky told IPS. "We want to still be living here well after the plant has been dismantled." But December brought bad news. On Dec. 16, Rambo, the family cat, had to be put to sleep. The cat had numerous tumours suspected to be cancerous. The Mainz findings are consistent with others in France and Britain. In France, one such study in 1997, and another in 2001, showed a higher incidence of leukaemia among children living near nuclear power plants. Jean Francois Viel, professor in public health at the France Comte university 300 km east of Paris, had found in 1997 that children frequenting the beaches at Cotentin on the Atlantic Coast, near the nuclear power plant of La Hague, or living within a radius of 35 km from the plant, suffered leukaemia well above the national average. The 2001 study, by Alfred Spira, researcher at the National Institute of Health and Medical Research, confirmed Viel's results. Spira, who had first rejected the results of Viel's study, found a disproportionately high number of cases of leukaemia among people below 25 living within 35 km of La Hague. When the sample was reduced to children between five and nine years of age living within 10 km of the nuclear facility, the cases of leukaemia were 6.38 times the national average. In Britain, a 2002 study confirmed an older one in 1990 that the incidence of leukaemia among children of workers at the Sellafield nuclear power plant 400 km north of London was twice the national average. As with Viel's study, health and nuclear authorities had dismissed the results of the older study. But the June 2002 investigation by Heather Dickinson and Louise Parker from the Children's Cancer Research Unit at the university of Newcastle confirmed the results. Using data from 1957 to 1991, the researchers found that children of workers at Sellafield were more likely to suffer leukaemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) -- a group of cancers affecting the white blood cells -- than the national average. In their study, Dickinson and Parker claim that the Sellafield workers' children born in Seascale (the village near the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant) ran on average 15 times higher risk of developing leukaemia and NHL, and that the Sellafield workers' children outside Seascale ran twice the risk. As with the studies in France and in Britain, the Mainz study has been dismissed by some as a statistical game. Minister for the environment Sigmar Gabriel, who opposes nuclear power, said he would order a review of the study, but conservative politicians criticised it as irresponsible and hysterical. In a debate in the German parliament, the Bundestag, Dec. 16, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) representative Georg Nuesslein said "the study only shows that there is need for more research." The CDU rules Germany in coalition with the Social Democratic Party (SPD). "You do not eliminate automobiles because every year 130 children are killed in traffic accidents," said CDU representative Jens Koeppen during the debate. Members of the opposition right-wing Liberal Democratic Party (FDP) argued similarly against the study. Under a decision taken by the former SPD-led government in 2000, Germany should phase out nuclear power by 2020. But now the FDP and the CDU want to extend the life of nuclear power beyond that year. Some statisticians have strongly criticised the study. "It is as with the Texan sharpshooter fallacy," statistician Hans-Peter Beck-Bornholdt was quoted as saying in the conservative weekly Die Zeit. "If you shoot at random at a barn, and draw a bulls-eye around the bullet holes afterwards, you have proof of a very high probability of hitting success." But the federal agency for irradiation protection has called the study a key argument against nuclear power. "Given the particularly high risk of nuclear radiation for children, and the inadequacy of data on the emissions of nuclear power plants, we must take the correlation between distance of residence and high risk of leukaemia very seriously," Wolfram Koenig, director of the agency, said at a press conference. Eberhard Greiser, member of the experts group tasked with review of the study, has said "the correlation is evident and very plausible." (END/2007) Copyright © 2007 IPS-Inter Press Service. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 31 MidLothian Today: SNP call for nuclear safety records - Friday, 28th December 2007 * Source: Press Association The UK Government has been accused of failing to keep up-to-date safety records on nuclear power station closures. In the wake of recent temporary closures at Hunterston and Torness, Nationalists are calling for official records to be kept on all planned and unplanned shut downs. However, UK Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks has said that decisions over closures are the responsibility of power station owners. In a reply to a parliamentary question from SNP Westminster energy spokesman, Mike Weir MP, the minister said: "Planned or unplanned closures of this nature are commercial and/or technical decisions for the companies that own and operate the power stations to take in conjunction wi th the relevant health and safety authorities. "My department therefore does not keep records of the operation decisions of individual power stations." Mr Weir claimed the minister's response highlighted the "disjointed" nature of the Government's policy on nuclear power. Mr Weir added: "There are real and serious concerns about the safety of nuclear power. "We have seen shut downs at both Hunterston and Torness over safety concerns, yet the UK Government apparently does not keep records of such closures. That seems just extraordinary. "For Malcolm Wicks to claim this is a matter for the companies is plainly ridiculous at the same time when the Labour Government is trying to push the concept of new nuclear power stations. "The record of the nuclear industry on openness does not inspire confidence." Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2007, All Rights Reserved. Last Updated: 28 December 2007 5:34 AM Johnston Press Digital Publishing ***************************************************************** 32 Indybay: Depleted Uranium at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard and thousands of cases of cancer too indymedia.org by Francisco Da Costa Wednesday Jan 2nd, 2008 2:29 AM There were experiments conducted with Depleted Uranium at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard from before 1976. Over the years thousands suffered from cancer and are suffering - even as we speak - all over Bayview Hunters Point and beyond. Of course Senator Diane Feinstein and Congressperson Nancy Pelosi are not cognizant of these facts. Mayor Gavin Newsom - a Racist - would not know. The Environmental Protection Agency and other Regulatory agencies are told to be mum - if they utter a word - they all are BLACKLISTED. Hunters Point Naval Shipyard is contaminated and is a Superfund Site. What really makes the issue very serious are the radiological elements. What makes Hunters Point Naval Shipyard a terrible place to be - are the worst types of experiments that were conducted. In recent years we have witnessed what happened to thousands of our soldiers that went to Desert Storm and Desert Shield. They went to war - bright and fine - healthy women and men and came out with ailments that still plague them. Depleted uranium played a role in ruining their health. Today in Iraq - thousands of innocent civilians suffer from multiple cancers. Just google Iraq and Depleted Uranium - and find out for yourselves. Most people that spend some time on Hunters Point Naval Shipyard - come down with cancer. The San Francisco Police Department has chosen to work at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard and has been there - for many years - closer to areas were Depleted Uranium experiments were conducted. How smart! Politicians are crooks - at least most of them are - Diane Feinstein is one of them - she better learn about Depleted Uranium that is found all over Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. Some folks want to build a stadium at Hunters Point - to shower upon the fan - some fancy radiation. One would have thought San Francisco a Green City would exercise the Precautionary Principle: http://www.coastalpost.com/06/01/03.html Francisco Da Costa Director Environmental Justice Advocacy http://www.hunterspointnavalshipyard.com © 2000–2008 San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center. Unless ***************************************************************** 33 PittsburghLIVE.com: NUMEC workers win special status - By Tribune Review News Service Thursday, January 3, 2008 Former Alle-Kiski area nuclear workers have received final approval as a special class nearly guaranteeing many of them payment from the federal government for covered illnesses. “It’s long overdue for the workers and their survivors,” said Patty Ameno, a Leechburg environmental activist who co-petitioned for the special status for workers of the defunct Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC). One of the early supporters of the local worker campaign, U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, added: “I’m pleased by this decision. It removes a significant hurdle for former Apollo NUMEC workers to receive the compensation and health care they rightfully deserve.” Former workers from NUMEC and its successors, including Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) in Apollo, now are considered a “special exposure cohort” class — the government’s term for a group of employees who sustained prolonged exposure to nuclear radiation. Congress had until Saturday to act on a recommendation made Nov. 29 by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt that the workers receive special status from Congress. Leavitt made the decision following the recommendation of two boards. Because Congress didn’t act, Leavitt’s recommendation became final. Final approval was confirmed Wednesday by a spokeswoman with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The workers are covered by the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA), which provides compensation and benefits to employees who became ill from working in the nuclear weapons industry. Representatives from the EEOICPA program will visit the Alle-Kiski Valley again in February to meet with workers to discuss their claims, according to David SanLorenzo, manager of the EEOICPA resource center outside of Buffalo. Former workers and their survivors are urged to telephone EEOICPA to check the status of their claims or enter a new claim. “We’ll explain what they’ll need in terms of verification of employment and illness,” he said. NUMEC is the 25th class of workers from 19 former atomic weapons employers in the country to gain special exposure status. The EEOICPA program has paid out $3 billion on claims to more than 32,000 workers across the country, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.Nationwide, there are 362 facilities with employees who are eligible for the special payments. “I personally feel that the government should pay every NUMEC employee who worked there regardless of their health status because of the amount of exposure they had,” Ameno said. “It’s not a matter if they get sick, it’s a matter of when. And that company paid peanuts to those workers who put their life on the line.” The Apollo site received the special designation because of the lack of historical records, questionable health monitoring by a contractor and worker overexposure to radiation, according to a NIOSH report. The company held numerous government contracts to produce nuclear fuel for submarines and other nuclear products for the military. The designation will nearly guarantee automatic acceptance of claims from NUMEC employees who develop one of 22 specific cancers and worked at NUMEC in Apollo for at least 250 days from Jan. 1, 1957, to Dec. 31, 1983. Workers and their survivors are eligible for a $150,000 tax-free payment from the government and coverage of medical expenses. Former employees with beryllium disease will continue to file through the traditional program. A former worker, disgusted with the denial of his and other NUMEC claims, petitioned for special status for all NUMEC workers a few years ago and was initially rejected. A kidney cancer survivor, Rich Parler, 62, of Coraopolis turned to Richard Miller, an early supporter of the EEOICPA legislation and policy analyst for the Government Accountability Project. The GAP is a government watchdog group that in 2002 conducted a preliminary review of NUMEC worker records for a Valley News Dispatch news story. The review found repeated health violations and a failure to correct problems. Parler gathered more firepower with support from Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Philadelphia, and Murtha, and enlisted the help of Ameno. Parler, Ameno, and former NUMEC engineer Tom Haley of Allegheny Township took their cause on the road, testifying before a NIOSH panel of health experts just outside of Chicago several months ago, on the working conditions and the radiological exposure to all employees. The Associated Press contributed to this story. Images and text copyright © 2008 by The Tribune-Review Publishing Co. ***************************************************************** 34 UK: News & Star: Body parts inquiry Published on 27/12/2007 By Julian Whittle THE Sellafield body-parts inquiry will be widened to include west Cumbrian coal miners, it has emerged. Michael Redfern QC is conducting an inquiry into the removal of organs without permission from the bodies of nuclear workers between 1962 and 1991. The Times reported yesterday that “industry sources” suggest his remit will be widened to include miners. The Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, which is overseeing the inquiry, declined to confirm or deny the claim. A spokesman said: “The terms of reference are as set out in a statement to the House of Commons in April. I can’t shed any further light.” It emerged earlier this year that the lungs of deceased miners were removed during autopsies at the request of the National Coal Board. A retired employee at the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven claimed that the practice was common from the 1960s to 1980s. The suggestion was that the National Coal Board wanted information on mining-related lung diseases such as pneumoconiosis and emphysema. The revelations prompted the National Union of Mineworkers to call for the Redfern body-parts inquiry to investigate. The Redfern inquiry is already examining whether non-nuclear workers – such as road accident victims and miscarried babies – had tissue or organs secretly removed to test for nuclear particles. The outcome of the investigation into the Sellafield allegations is expected to be published next year. ***************************************************************** 35 Courier-Mail: McGrady backs uranium push Peter Michael December 25, 2007 11:00pm THE State Government is under pressure to scrap bans on uranium mining in a high stakes push led by former Labor party heavyweight Tony McGrady. The Mount Isa-based former "Minister for Everything" is on the payroll of Toronto-based resources company Laramide Ltd and has emerged as a key player in the international bid to get the Bligh Government to overturn the bans. But the former Mines Minister who retired after 17 years as a state MP in September last year denied he would use his influence to exact change in the Queensland ALP. "No-one owes me any favours. I will simply go in and talk and explain the wisdom of adopting a policy of allowing uranium mines," Mr McGrady said. He said the change in the federal ALP policy on uranium mining before last month's election opened the way for Queensland to become a key player on the global uranium market. "The world is hungry for uranium . . . the world is ready for nuclear energy. "Anna Bligh has not put a foot wrong since she became Premier, and I think she will see the wisdom of lifting these administrative bans," Mr McGrady said. Figures show 251 uranium prospecting licences have been issued in resource-rich Queensland. The ALP dumped its longstanding no-new-mines policy at the national conference in April, potentially paving the way for a lifting on prohibition in Queensland and Western Australia. In a recent letter to investors, Laramide president Marc Henderson said the repudiation of the Three Mines Policy in April was a huge step forward. "We continue to believe that Australia will become the world's largest player in uranium production, but that any further clarity on the question of permitting in individual states like Queensland and Western Australia is off the table until after the federal election." Laramide has interests in a large deposit on the Queensland/Northern Territory border, north of Mt Isa, at Westmoreland – one of four major uranium deposits identified in the state. But Mines Minister Geoff Wilson said the Government had a long-standing policy against uranium mining in Queensland. "We also brought in new laws this year that ban nuclear facilities, including power stations and radioactive waste dumps in Queensland," Mr Wilson's statement said. © Queensland Newspapers. All times AEST (GMT + 10). ***************************************************************** 36 Nevada Appeal: Separating Yucca Mountain facts from fiction | Bob Loux For the Appeal December 27, 2007, 4:01 AM As someone who has been intimately involved with the Yucca Mountain project and Nevada's role in it since 1984, I am compelled to comment on Chuck Muth's recent article, "Should we allow Yucca for a mountain of cash?" The simple, unglamorous truth is that there have never been any large sums of money or outlandish benefits to be had for going along with Yucca Mountain. You've heard about "urban legends" - fictitious stories that float around on the Internet and develop whole cadres of gullible believers? Well, these stories about all of the great things Nevada has been offered to quit fighting Yucca Mountain are nuclear industry "urban legends." It's the U.S. Congress that would have to pay for any benefits awarded to Nevada for the repository, and in the over 20 years I've been involved in the issue, there has never been any money. Even if there were (and assuming Nevada were in a position to bargain for it - meaning that the Yucca site was really a safe one, which it isn't), there is no way to hold future Congresses and future Administrations to whatever deal might be cut. The reality is that promises of largesse and pie-in-the-sky benefits serve only one purpose - to get Nevada to drop its opposition to Yucca Mountain and agree to negotiate. Once that happens, the state will have forfeited any chance it has to stop this dangerous project. That's exactly the situation the nuclear industry and Congress would like to put Nevada in: Get the state to blink and agree to negotiate, recognizing that once Nevada makes such a concession, the ball game is over. But the most important reason why Nevada can never negotiate for Yucca Mountain is the fact that the proposed repository site cannot and will not isolate deadly nuclear waste from people and the environment for the time required. From the very beginning of this project back in the early 1980s, Nevada has consistently set forth one condition for DOE and the feds to meet in selecting a repository location: It must be demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that the chosen site would be able to isolate the waste and be benign in its effects on people and the environment. DOE's own data shows that Yucca Mountain site is so porous that the mountain contributes almost nothing to waste isolation. DOE relies almost exclusively on a system of 'Rube Goldberg' engineering fixes, the most outlandish of which are waste disposal containers that must last for at least 1,000,000 years! Never mind that Nevada and independent scientists who have studied the material these magic containers are to be made from have shown conclusively that they will corrode in a matter of just a few hundred years, or less. The question that should be asked is not why Nevada hasn't fallen for nonsensical proposals like Mr. Muth's, but just what price can and should Nevada's leaders put on agreeing to accept a facility that they know will fail and eventually cause great damage to the environment and to public health and safety for future generations of Nevadans and Californians. What's the going price these days for an ecosystem contaminated by radioactivity? What price compensates future residents, farmers and others in Amargosa Valley for a contaminated aquifer that will make the area unlivable? The answer, of course, is that no amount of so-called benefits could ever compensate for such folly. ? Robert Loux is executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, the state agency responsible for overseeing the Yucca Mountain project. All contents © Copyright 2007 nevadaappeal.com Nevada Appeal - 580 Mallory Way - Carson City, NV 89701 ***************************************************************** 37 Houston Chronicle: Uranium exploration sees revival in Zambia | Chron.com - Dec. 26, 2007, 8:38PM Zambia, nearby nations enjoy renewed interest in the mineral By JOSEPH J. SCHATZ Associated Press LUSAKA, ZAMBIA — Resurgent global interest in nuclear power has made Zambia, a southern African nation better known for its vast copper reserves, into a hotbed of uranium exploration. The activity is part of a larger wave of uranium exploration and mining across the mineral-rich region, raising hopes of new jobs and tax revenue, while sparking debates over safety and security. African Energy Resources Ltd., an Australian-owned mining outfit, is drilling on the southern border with Zimbabwe. Canadian-owned Equinox Ltd. said in November that there is high-grade uranium in the Lumwana open pit copper mine in northwestern Zambia and hopes to begin stockpiling it next year. After a slump lasting decades, uranium prices are high as countries look for cleaner and cheaper alternatives to fossil fuels. "We are assured of a market in the sense that demand for nuclear power is increasing," said Maxwell Mwale, Zambia's deputy minister of mines and mineral development for large-scale mining projects. In anticipation of rising demand, Zambia's government is completing new regulations to cover the mining, processing and export of uranium products in accordance with International Atomic Energy Agency standards, Mwale said. Exploration is also ramping up across the border in Botswana. And Namibia's uranium-exporting industry has seen a revival, too, with a $112 million expansion of the long-running Rossing open mine and the opening of a new mine in 2006 by Australian-owned Paladin Energy Ltd. It's the "biggest push on uranium exploration since the late '70s," said Alasdair Cooke, executive chairman of African Energy Resources, which has poured $8 million into its exploration project with Albidon Mining Ltd. in southern Zambia over the past three years. Faced with domestic energy shortages, the government of South Africa released a draft nuclear energy policy in August pledging a rebirth in the country's uranium mining, processing and enrichment industries, and the construction of new nuclear reactors over the next decade. The scramble for uranium marks a stark turnaround after a slump brought on by the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl and the end of the nuclear arms race of the Cold War. Concerns over climate change and pollution created by coal along with high oil prices have sent uranium prices from less than $10 per pound at the start of the decade to a current price of about $92 per pound. Many countries are planning to build new nuclear reactors, and China is looking to imported uranium for the many nuclear reactors it will use to help fuel its massive economic growth. ***************************************************************** 38 BillingsGazette.com: Official sees interest in uranium By Gazette News Services CASPER - A state official said interest in uranium mining in Wyoming remains strong. Robert Gregory, uranium specialist for the Wyoming State Geological Survey, said uranium operators have reported a shortage of drilling rigs. He said the Powder River Basin, the Gas Hills and Great Divide Basin are expected to remain hot spots for uranium production in 2008. Gregory said uranium remains attractive despite recent price fluctuations because production costs have been running around $40 a pound while the spot price has been much higher. The spot price was about $90 a pound last week. Published on Thursday, January 03, 2008. Last modified on 1/3/2008 at 12:12 am Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises. ***************************************************************** 39 Technology News Daily: The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) Published Sun, 2007-12-30 16:22 Energy The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership’s (GNEP) first Steering Group meeting last week concluded with measurable progress. Representatives from the GNEP nineteen countries developed and adopted an Action Plan detailing the groundwork for future Partnership cooperation and Members of the Steering Group elected the United States to serve as the chair of the group and China, France, and Japan to serve as vice-chairs. This three day meeting was held at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Headquarters in Vienna, Austria, with all of GNEP’s nineteen members, Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, China, France, Ghana, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Poland, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russia, Slovenia and Ukraine and three international organizations as observers in attendance. As a result of the meeting, the Steering Group’s Action Plan outlines initial priorities, mechanisms for executing cooperative efforts, and initial milestones for cooperative activities. Specifically, the Action Plan names two key working groups to address issues facing the safe and secure global expansion of civil nuclear energy: the GNEP Working Group on Infrastructure Development and the GNEP Working Group on Reliable Nuclear Fuel Services. Using the GNEP Statement of Principles as its guide, the Infrastructure Development Working Group aims to identify common interest among partners, recommend practical measures, and carry out activities necessary to address critical elements needed for the development and implementation of an effective nuclear energy infrastructure. The GNEP Working Group on Reliable Nuclear Fuel Services will identify common interest among GNEP Partners and recommend practical measures for moving towards reliable, comprehensive fuel arrangements, including spent fuel management. The United States will serve as Chair for two years and the Vice-Chairs – China, France, and Japan – will serve the same duration. The Chair and Vice-Chairs will support the stewardship of Steering Group activities responsibilities, including actions in response to the GNEP Executive Committee and activities carried out by the Working Groups. The Steering Group also discussed the ongoing expansion of the Partnership and heard presentations by the IAEA on nuclear energy subjects relevant to the future work of GNEP to help ensure that the Partnership’s efforts enhance, rather than duplicate, the work underway by the Agency. Contributing to the success of the Steering Group’s meeting, just in the last month three additional countries, Italy, Canada and the Republic of Korea, became official partners by signing the GNEP Statement of Principles, which serves as the framework for the Partnership. GNEP’s original sixteen partners include: Australia, Bulgaria, China, France, Ghana, Hungary, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia and Ukraine. GNEP seeks to expand the use of clean and affordable nuclear energy for peaceful purposes worldwide in a safe and secure manner and is working towards a closed nuclear fuel cycle that will both increase energy security and further nonproliferation goals. Worldwide Nuclear Power The US had 103 reactors providing 19 percent of the countryÂŽs electricity. For the last few decades the main developments have been improved capacity factors, power increases at existing plants and license renewals. Currently 48 reactors have already received 20-year renewals, so their licensed lifetimes are 60 years. Nuclear Weapons Waste Storage Chemical studies indicate that a number of contaminants, such as cesium, react strongly with Hanford sediments and move only under extreme conditions. Researchers found that another contaminant, uranium, reacts with the sediments in complex ways and its migration varies under different conditions. Computer Simulation and Nuclear Energy Research SHARP has been developed to fully leverage Argonne’s new Advanced Leadership Computing Facility, which is made up of the Blue Gene/P, an IBM computer that is designed to operate at a sustained rate of 1-petaflop per second and capable of reaching speeds of 3 petaflops. Nuclear Smuggling MOU NNSA works collaboratively with foreign partners to equip border crossings, airports and seaports with radiation detection equipment and to provide training so that the host government can assume operational responsibility for the equipment. To date, the program has equipped over 160 sites. Technology News ISSN 1911-1711 ***************************************************************** 40 Tennessean.com: Activist, state spar over radioactive dumping - Nashville, Tennessee - Tuesday, 12/25/07 - Agency says her report has errors By TURNER HUTCHENS Gannett/Tennessee The author of a report that shone a spotlight on low-level radioactive dumping in Rutherford County is defending her work and renewing her criticism of the dumping. In a letter sent Tuesday to the state's Municipal Solid Waste Committee, Diane D'Arrigo, author of the "Nuclear Information and Resource Service" report, renews that report's criticism of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation's "Bulk Survey For Release" program. "I stand by the report," D'Arrigo said. Under the program, the state allows for the dumping of very low-level radioactive materials in five Tennessee landfills, including the Middle Point Landfill near the Walter Hill community outside Murfreesboro. "We've found factual errors and misrepresentations in the report," TDEC spokeswoman Tisha Calabrese-Benton said. As an example of errors in the report, Calabrese-Benton said it confuses U.S. Department of Energy self-regulated practices with commercial nuclear energy activities. "During the three-year period 2004-2006, only 0.18 percent of all wastes processed through the BSFR program has any connection to DOE," she said. D'Arrigo said she doesn't consider that a factual error on her part and, regardless, the basic point is that radioactive materials are becoming unregulated, and the public is being exposed to them. "The message is still the same," D'Arrigo said. Calabrese-Benton said the materials in question, including construction debris, are no more radioactive than normal construction debris such as brick and cement. Since the publication of the report in May, there has been a public outcry against the dumping at Middle Point and a moratorium has been placed on the dumping there. Recommendation sought State legislators have said they will try to end the dumping in Tennessee, and the solid waste committee has been charged by the state legislature with making a recommendation on the program. In her letter, D'Arrigo said the criticism of the report was vague. The only factual error found, she said, was that she had identified the program as the only method by which TDEC released materials that had been formerly classified as radioactive in some way as though it were not radioactive. TDEC "gives over two dozen kinds of radioactive materials licenses and several of those are for 'Free Release' of radioactive materials as if not radioactive," she said in the letter. Only three of those licenses fall under the dumping program. "That raises the question of where are the rest of them going," D'Arrigo said. In her letter, D'Arrigo renewed her criticisms of the models used to determine the radioactivity of the materials being processed under the dumping program and the claim that any increase in the level of radiation presents a hazard to the public. D'Arrigo said she wants the current moratorium on dumping at Middle Point to be expanded to all of Tennessee and made permanent. Tennessean.com and its related sites are pleased to be able to offer its users the opportunity to make comments and hold conversations online. However, the interactive nature of the Internet makes it impracticable for our staff to monitor each and every posting. Since Tennessean.com does not control user submitted statements, we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted on our Web site. In addition, we remind anyone interested in making an online comment that responsibility for statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not Tennessean.com or its related sites. All comments posted should comply with the Tennessean.com's terms of service Billy Freeman of the state of Tennessee Division of Radiological Health measures radiation levels at the Allied Waste Middle Point Landfill in July in Rutherford County. (DIPTI VAIDYA /FILE/TENNESSEANF) Contact Turner Hutchens at 278-5161 or trhutchens@dnj.com. Copyright © 2007, tennessean.com. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 41 Washington Post: Uranium Lode in Va. Is Feared, Coveted Landowner Wants to End Ban on Mining Radioactive Element Sought for Energy By Anita Kumar Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, January 2, 2008; B01 CHATHAM, Va. -- Underneath a plot of farmland used to raise cattle, hay and timber in south central Virginia lies what is thought to be the largest deposit of uranium in the United States. Now, three decades after the deposit was found, landowner Walter Coles has set his sights on mining the 200-acre site despite concerns of environmental groups and residents about unearthed radioactive material that could contaminate the area's land, air and source of drinking water. As the United States searches for alternative energy sources, Virginia has a geological discovery in its back yard that could drastically change the nation's reliance on foreign oil. The estimated 110 million pounds of uranium in Pittsylvania County, worth almost $10 billion, could supply all of the country's nuclear power plants for about two years. There's a hurdle to clear before an ounce of the element can be mined: It's illegal to dig for the stuff in Virginia. But the General Assembly is considering changing that. Coles, 69, who recently retired from the federal government and moved from the Washington area back to the family farm, said mining companies have been offering to buy his land. Instead of taking the money, he decided to stay. He said he wanted to make sure that the mining was done safely and that it would benefit the community through jobs, taxes and economic development. "There's too much uranium here. Somebody's going to mine it," Coles said. "I felt like while I was alive, it was my duty to make sure it was done right." This month, Coles's company, Virginia Uranium, will try to persuade the General Assembly to take the first step -- approving a $1 million study that will explore whether uranium can be safely mined in Virginia. If the study shows that it can be done, the company will ask the legislature to lift a state ban on uranium mining. The issue is dividing lawmakers, who will begin their 60-day session Jan. 9, but company officials have reasons to be optimistic. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) supports a study, and a state energy report released this fall recommends one. Coles's brother-in-law, Whitt Clement, who served as a legislator and as state transportation secretary, is heading what is expected to be a strong lobbying effort. Henry Hurt, an investor and a childhood friend of Coles's, has a son Robert, a Pittsylvania delegate who won a state Senate seat in November. Virginia banned uranium mining in 1982, but Coles's company recently got a state permit to drill 40 holes to examine the material. A growing coalition of environmental groups and concerned residents, some of the same residents who helped institute the ban 30 years ago, have started spreading the word about their opposition and are planning to travel to Richmond to fight Coles. Elizabeth Haskell, a former state secretary of natural resources who served on a board that studied uranium mining in the early 1980s, said Coles is thinking about money, not safety. "He has got dollar signs in his eyes," she said. Uranium has never been mined in Virginia or on the East Coast, confined instead in the United States to drier, less populated areas such as Utah, New Mexico, Wyoming and Nebraska, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Uranium mining is more common in Canada, Australia, Eastern Europe and Africa.Support for a Study Two uranium deposits, which begin at the ground's surface and run about 800 feet deep, were found in Coles Hill, near Chatham, a town of 1,300 residents where old Victorian houses line the streets. Tobacco was once a booming business on nearby farms but has given way to soybeans, hay and cattle. A Canadian company, Marline Uranium, found the deposits in the late 1970s after the federal government had encouraged a search for alternative energy sources. It spent millions of dollars trying to get permission to mine the land, but interest waned after uranium prices dropped. Geologists think that smaller amounts of uranium can be found along the Piedmont from North Carolina to New York. Virginia Uranium is not interested in mining other parts of the state, but officials are passing nonbinding resolutions supporting the state ban for fear that another company might try to mine their land. Still, with accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl a distant memory and a growing global demand for alternative fuels, interest in uranium mining is peaking. "I believe we need to explore expansion of nuclear power," Kaine said in a recent interview. Dominion Virginia Power has four nuclear plants in Virginia that provide about a third of the state's energy, but the uranium used at the facilities is imported. The situation in neighboring states is similar, including in Maryland, which gets 31 percent of its electricity from nuclear power, according to the federal government. Virginia Uranium wants to mine and mill uranium that would eventually be sold to companies for use at nuclear power plants. The company was formed about a year ago by the Coles and Bowen families, which own adjoining property. Norman Reynolds, a former Marline president, was hired as chief executive. Thirty other people have invested in the company, several of whom live in the area, including Henry Hurt, a former editor for Reader's Digest. Hurt's son Robert served three terms in the House before winning his Senate seat. Coles's son Walter, who is executive vice president of Virginia Uranium, and Reynolds together donated $1,500 to Hurt last year, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. Robert Hurt, a Republican whose House and Senate districts include Coles Hill, said he supports a study but does not have enough information to know whether he favors mining. He said he does not need to recuse himself from a vote on the study because no profit is at stake for his father. "I take the responsibility given to me to represent 170,000 people very, very seriously," he said. He said he would not recuse himself from a vote and "leave those people voiceless without a very good reason." Virginia Uranium says it would pay for the study but would allow it to be conducted by an independent group or university. Del. John M. O'Bannon III (R-Henrico) said he supports a study and has spoken to Coles about sponsoring a bill in the House. "I don't think we should summarily dismiss utilizing that type of reserve," he said. "It makes sense to take a look at it in a responsible way."Safety Concerns Environmental groups, including the Piedmont Environmental Council and the Southern Environmental Law Center, say uranium should not be mined in Virginia's highly populated areas and relatively rainy climate. They say they are worried that radioactive materials could contaminate natural resources, cause cancer or other illnesses and have long-term effects on plants and animals. The Coles Hill area supplies drinking water locally and to parts of Hampton Roads and North Carolina. Del. Clarke N. Hogan (R-Charlotte), whose district gets some of its drinking water from the area, said Virginia Uranium has to prove how mining can be done safely. "They have a long way to go," he said. "They need to show what is different from 30 years ago." Company officials say that safeguards have been put in place since mining at Coles Hill was first considered and that the federal government regulates all mines and mills with regard to safety and homeland security. Uranium can be mined three ways: through an open pit, by miners underground or through a technology that involves pumping liquid underground and bringing it up to be processed. Company officials said they will not know which method would work best in Pittsylvania until a study is completed, although open-pit mining is the least expensive. They will not say how much money has been invested, but they estimate they will need at least $500 million to build a mine and mill. Jack Dunavant, a civil engineer who leads Southside Concerned Citizens, said Coles "keeps talking about new technology that can make it safe. There is no new technology. It's a pipe dream." No matter how the uranium might be mined, it would need to be processed at a local milling facility. The result, a sandy substance called "yellow cake" uranium, would be packed into 55-gallon drums for shipping. Company officials say the processed uranium is not hazardous. It doesn't become dangerous until it undergoes a later process that would be done elsewhere. Coles, whose family has lived in a historic brick house on the property for two centuries, said he and his family have never had health problems, although tests show the area has higher than normal levels of radioactivity. He said he plans to continue living at Coles Hill regardless of whether the uranium is mined. "I could have sold the land and moved to Florida. But I didn't," he said. "I want to stay and do something good for the community, something good for the state." Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report. © 2008 The Washington Post Company ***************************************************************** 42 Infoshop News: Department of Energy Moves Forward With Yucca Mountain Plans Thursday, December 27 2007 @ 03:50 PM PST Public hearings have not been well attended, statements mostly in favor of the plan to put all of the nuclear waste in the country in this one sacred place. Activists were told that if we do not go on record with a statement, we will have no legal recourse later on. Local papers & media spin have recently stated that opposition to the nuke dump had dropped of since the passing of Corbin Harney. The nuclear reps are confident to the point of acting like it's a done deal. URGENT ACTION ALERT!! DEADLINE APPROACHING! YUCCA MOUNTAIN, SACRED TO THE SHOSHONE & MAJOR FAULT ZONE, IN IMMINENT DANGER! DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY MOVES PLANS FORWARD TO TURN YUCCA MOUNTAIN INTO NUCLEAR WASTE REPOSITORY. PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD DEADLINE JANUARY 10, 2008. Public hearings have not been well attended, statements mostly in favor of the plan to put all of the nuclear waste in the country in this one sacred place. Activists were told that if we do not go on record with a statement, we will have no legal recourse later on. Local papers & media spin have recently stated that opposition to the nuke dump had dropped of since the passing of Corbin Harney. The nuclear reps are confident to the point of acting like it's a done deal. WE KNOW THAT'S NOT TRUE! LETS PROVE THEM WRONG! TAKE ACTION & MAKE YOUR COMMENT NOW!! Yucca Mountain is sacred to the Shoshone as an herb gathering site, for rituals, and as a part of their stories. Yucca Mountain is known in Shoshone language as Snake Mountain. Indeed it looks like a snake. It is said that the snake was headed north when it froze where it is. Further more it is said that it will move again and "flip around". Geologists say that there are thirteen different fault lines running through it. Citizens can make an oral statement at the scheduled public hearings or fill out a form and mail it in to EIS Office U.S. Department of Energy Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Mgmt, 1551 Hillshire dr. Las Vegas, NV, 89195-7308 or by e-mail at EIS_Office@ymp.gov. HERE ARE TALKING POINTS: http://www.h-o-m-e.org/Yucca/index.htm "The eyes of the elders are on us. The fate of the unborn is rolling toward the cliff, the voice of Corbin Harney is ringing in my ears, "It's on your shoulders now...". Info from Bear Dyken. mdyken@goldrush.com. YUCCA MOUNTAIN FACT SHEET, TALKING POINTS, & MORE INFO: Healing Ourselves & Mother Earth http://www.h-o-m-e.org/ The DOE released two Draft Supplemental Environmen-tal Impact Statements related to repository changes and rail transportation of high-level waste in Nevada. Inyo County CA- Excellent Draft Impacts Assessment Report Comments due by 1/10/08 * http://www.h-o-m-e.org/ Copyright © 2007 Infoshop News ***************************************************************** 43 Salt Lake Tribune - Nuke panel: Utahns have a say over foreign junk 20K tons of Italy's waste Nuke panel: Utahns have a say over foreign junk NRC, reviewing EnergySolutions' license request, faces more questions Article Last Updated: 12/25/2007 02:23:11 AM MST NRC letter Many Utahns began to complain last month about that familiar feeling of being dumped on. It started with the news reports about Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions asking for a license to import 20,000 tons of low-level radioactive waste from Italy. Opponents in recent years had beaten back plans for a national storage site for the nation's used-but-dangerously-nuclear reactor fuel, plans for more heavily contaminated waste at a low-level disposal site in Tooele County and plans to more than double disposal capacity at that landfill. EnergySolutions is now downplaying the foreign waste disposal as a routine practice of a worldwide industry and noted that just a small fraction of it will wind up buried at its Tooele County disposal site. But, beginning this summer, EnergySolutions will be the sole commercial option for waste generated in 36 states - and, if allowed, foreign countries - under the national system for managing low-level radioactive waste. The hot-waste crunch prompted lawmakers from Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas and South Carolina to question the wisdom of allowing the nation's limited disposal space to receive waste from foreign nations, like Italy, that have failed to develop their own disposal sites. In the end, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will decide what happens with the Italian waste, the largest request to date for an import license. The good news for Utahns and other Americans concerned about foreign waste imports is that the commission will take Utah's opinion into account. NRC Chairman Dale E. Klein emphasized that view over and over in a recent letter to U.S. Reps. Joe Barton of Texas and Ed Whitfield of Kentucky, who questioned the import request in their own November letter. "Absolutely, the NRC will consult with interested states and the [low-level radioactive waste compacts that govern this type of material in the United States] if applicable before issuing an import license for [low-level waste]," Klein's Dec. 13 letter says. "The NRC will only grant an import license for waste intended for disposal if it is clear that the waste will be accepted by a disposal facility, host state and compact [where applicable]." Klein seems to underscore that point by noting that South Carolina blocked a similar disposal plan for waste from Mexico back in 1995 by saying that foreign-generated material would not be accepted at the commercial site in its borders, a site operated by EnergySolutions since last year. EnergySolutions will import the 20,000 tons of waste - the cleanup waste from the decommissioning of Italy's defunct nuclear program - then ship it to an EnergySolutions incinerator in Tennessee for processing. Metal in the waste will be melted, recycled into shielding and sold for use in nuclear plants and hospitals. About 1,600 tons of ash will be disposed of in the company's mile-square hazardous and radioactive waste landfill in Tooele County. Any material that is too contaminated will be shipped back to Italy, according to the application. Greg Hopkins, communications vice president for the company, said the NRC's review process is "very rigorous" and "once the import license is granted," the Italy waste request will meet U.S. regulations. "For many decades, the world, with U.S. leadership, has embraced a global economy wherein the best practices and processes are utilized to most efficiently provide the services the modern world requires," he said in an e-mail responding to the Tribune's questions about the Italy waste. "That is the framework in which our company proudly provides its services." EnergySolutions has said it will analyze the material carefully before shipping it into the United States. Then it will closely check the material again after it goes through the Tennessee processing plant to make sure that it falls within Utah's limit of accepting nothing more radioactive than "Class A," material deemed by the NRC to lose its danger to humans and the environment within a century. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has said he would not object to material from any source - domestic or foreign - as long as it falls within the state's hazard standard and fits in the currently licensed site. Last spring, he imposed the first-ever cap on the EnergySolutions site - a limit on the volume of waste the site can take, at least as long as Huntsman is governor. Dianne Nielson, the governor's energy adviser, said the NRC has not traditionally been willing to defer to the wishes of the state. And whether Utah's low-level disposal site becomes a destination for the waste from Italy and for future shipments is not a decision that is in Utah's hands, she said. "At the end of the day," said Nielson, the director of the state Department of Environmental Quality for more than a decade, "the decision that has to be made is a federal decision." She said that the limits on disposal within the U.S. make the question of foreign waste significant nationally. "I think the NRC understands quite clearly what the impacts will be and the implications" of its decision on the Italy waste. "I don't want people to see this as Utah's problem," she added. "I want them to see this is a national-policy issue." The NRC sent a round of follow-up questions to the company about its applications, and the company has responded. In coming weeks, the NRC is expected to begin a public comment period. There will be at least one public hearing. And written comments - from regular citizens and the officials representing the State Department, states and other interested parties - will be taken for 30 days. One organization that is certain to voice its concerns is the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL). "We have long sought to prevent our state from becoming the nation's dumping ground," said Vanessa Pierce, HEAL's executive director. "And, with its history, it's critical that Utah lead the effort to prevent EnergySolutions from turning the U.S. into the world's dumping ground." fahys@sltrib.com ***************************************************************** 44 NMBW: Uranium workers getting on-site assistance from gov't - New Mexico Business Weekly: Wednesday, January 2, 2008 - 1:58 PM MST The U.S. Department of Labor's Traveling Resource Center will visit Shiprock, N.M., and Kayenta, Ariz., this month to help individuals interested in filing claims under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA). The act authorizes compensation and medical benefits to employees who became ill as a result of working in the nuclear weapons industry. It also authorizes benefits for surviving family members of deceased workers. Part E of the EEOICPA authorizes compensation for uranium workers, millers and ore transporters for illnesses that are linked to toxic substance exposure at workplace facilities covered by the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, said Shelby Hallmark, director of the Office of Workers' Compensation Programs, in a news release. "The Labor Department wants to make an extra effort to be accessible to the Navajo community, so we're taking the Traveling Resource Center to Arizona and New Mexico, where a large part of the Navajo Nation extends," Hallmark said. "We had a tremendous response to a recent town hall meeting in Shiprock, and this prompted us to return with more hands-on assistance for residents there and in Kayenta." Center representatives will visit the Shiprock Chapter of the Navajo Nation on Jan. 14-15 and move on to Kayenta on Jan. 16-17. © 2007 American City Business Journals, Inc. and its licensors. ***************************************************************** 45 The Watch Online: Navajo Nation Grapples With Past, Present Effects of Radiation Uranium's Aftermath By Amy Levek Part Two Wednesday, January 2, 2008 5:12 PM MST Uranium’s Aftermath Navajo Nation Grapples With Past, Present Effects of Radiation By Amy R. Levek SHIPROCK N.M. Ź Navajo miners suffered disproportionately from poor working conditions during previous uranium booms. While there were employment and income benefits from the uranium boom for the Navajo Nation, according to West Virginia University social scientist and developmental psychologist Professor Carol Markstrom, whose research centers on issues relative to American Indians and the impacts of uranium mining on the Navajo Nation, “Workers were not informed of the potential for loss of life and environmental contamination.” Due to the government’s failure to disclose the dangers of uranium to miners and the Navajo Nation at large, distrust of the federal government is huge. Particularly noteworthy is a U.S. Public Health Service study initiated in 1950, which looked at the effects of radiation on miners working in the Colorado Plateau, a region roughly centered on the Four Corners area. The study, in essence, used Navajo and white miners as guinea pigs by not informing them of the health risks being studied that they were exposed to on a daily basis. As a result, the Navajo Nation has banned the collection of specimens from human subjects unless the Navajo Nation has approved the protocol, according to scientist and activist Perry Charley, head of the Uranium Education Project at Diné College. Federal Compensation in Uranium’s Aftermath The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) enacted in 1990 finally acknowledged the role of the federal government in allowing the conditions that led to the epidemic of lung disease and other illnesses and established a means of compensating uranium miners for their illnesses. From 1948 to 1971, the U.S. government was the sole purchaser of uranium. For those miners working in the industry prior to 1971 who could show that their illnesses were related to mining, RECA provided up to $100,000 for their suffering and medical costs. Navajo Nation activists Perry Charley and Philip Harrison are credited for the passage of RECA. Both men directly experienced the tragic consequences of uranium mining; their fathers were victims of the radioactive ore and were killed by lung cancer, with Charley’s father ultimately lapsing into a coma for several years before he died. Working with former U.S. Interior Secretary Stewart Udall and others, they gathered the data necessary for understanding the ravages of uranium mining on the Navajo Nation and provided testimony that helped pass RECA. The two have organized the Navajo people and educated them about the long-term effects of uranium on their communities. “Without the Navajo Nation, we wouldnčt have RECA,” said Charley, who worked with Udall as a translator in the courts. Even with RECA in place, proving the link between uranium mining and Navajo miners who are sick or have died is difficult, due to cultural practices. For instance, if a miner died at home, a death certificate might never have been issued. And in families, marriage certificates may not be a part of their rituals or practices, leaving widows with no way to “prove” their relationships to their ill or deceased husbands. RECA provides compensation for “downwinders,” those affected by radiation that spreads downwind from nuclear tests. However, no compensation exists for those who live near abandoned mines, millsites, waste piles or other environmental degradation caused by uranium mining. Uranium’s Cultural Impact Even deeper, less visible scarring remains from the legacy of uranium mining, however, and Markstrom identifies post-traumatic stress disorder as the harshest and most insidious result. “People suffer from post-traumatic stresses from the events and their losses,” she noted. “The lack of resolution, the struggle for compensation, are the same as caused by disasters and environmental accidents.” While the intent of the industry and government was not to “cause accidents to the Navajo, the powers that be never considered what the lack of information would do.” Back at the meeting with the US EPA at Teec Nos Pos on the Rez, people question what will become of the data collected in the current round of studies. The pace of the meeting is slow, as everything is translated into Navajo. Words like “gamma rays,” “Congressman Waxman” and “EPA” pepper the rhythmic cadence of the Navajo language. Many homes on the Navajo Nation were built using tailings, exposing their residents unwittingly to radiation. Water supplies were contaminated by water flowing over waste piles, and those drinking the water developed cancer and other illnesses. Exposure to radiation or heavy metals from these sites is widespread and continuing. Representatives of the Navajo Nation and others are currently lobbying Congress for changes to RECA to help those sickened by living near uranium wastes. The differences in responses to mining’s legacy of illness and death between Anglo and Navajo miners and their families is often striking. “All people at the entry level probably did not get the information needed, but for the Navajo, that was probably more true because of language and cultural values,” said Teresa Coons, the senior scientist for the Saccomanno Research Institute in Grand Junction, who also directs the scientific research programs associated with St. Mary’s Hospital and also runs a medical screening program for former uranium industry workers. Colorado and Utah miners, for example, tended to value uranium work because it provided good wages, and they felt a patriotic duty to help their country. The death and suffering were just part of the package. “Uravan people remember their mining days as a wonderful time in their lives,” noted Susan E. Dawson, professor of social work at Utah State University who specializes in occupational and environmental health and has published articles on uranium mining’s impact on the Navajo Nation. “In Moab, people think, I’m sick, but the company did such a good thing.” The difference is cultural. She explained that while Anglos have an individual approach, and a sense of individual responsibility, the Navajo have “a strong collective, group view.” The Navajo have a very strong community connection, Dawson continued. And environmental justice is much more of an issue for them. Traditionally, ceremonies have been used to help restore balance back to Navajo life, both collectively and for the individual. However, as in many native cultures, the knowledge of traditional ways recedes as the elders pass. While the Navajo language is being taught in schools throughout the Nation, the background knowledge does not always get passed along with it. Further complicating the problems for individuals are other cultural issues, according to Dawson. “People didn’t understand that some of their illnesses were work issues,” she explained. “They thought they had broken some taboo.” The results of the individual health and environmental ills, according to Markham, “because of the belief system and loss of balance are devastating. It goes much deeper than just the environmental impact. The environment has been desecrated in a spiritual sense.” Sign From the Sky As I leave the Tees Nos Pos chapter house, the elderly woman sitting next to me, who appeared not to understand English when I asked questions earlier, and who listened intently throughout the meeting, leans over and says, “Thank you very much for being here.” The Navajo patience with their plight is as complex as their relationship with leetso, the Navajo word for uranium, and I ponder this as I drive towards Cortez, when all of a sudden a startling ball of green and pink light hurtles across the sky, disappearing behind a hill. Was that real? Was it an illusion? Was it more coyote trickster deception? Later I hear on the radio that a satellite went down nearby. Perhaps the Navajo would say it is a sign that the world has been disrupted and that we need to pay attention to bring it back into balance. Perhaps they see things more clearly than we understand. Reader Comments The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of . Cheryl Dyer, Ph.D. wrote on Jan 3, 2008 9:28 AM: " These are well researched articles on the health impact of exposure to uranium. I would like to draw attention to research done in my laboratory at Northern Arizona University. We have found that uranium in drinking water of mice, at levels called "safe" by the US EPA, causes reproductive tissues to respond as if exposed to estrogen. Our work was just published in the Environmental Health Perspectives, a free online scientific journal. The reference is, EHP 115:1711-1716, 2007. " Jon L, MPH wrote on Jan 3, 2008 10:31 AM: " Bravo for bringing these issues forward--not only highlighting the environmental/occupational health consequences, but also sharing implications this has on disrupting the social and cultural lifestyle of the Navajo people. I hope there is justice soon. " ***************************************************************** 46 Vail Daily: Grand Junction woman fights uranium mine Marija B. Vader Grand Junction Correspondent December 30, 2007 GRAND JUNCTION, Colorado — Janet Johnson believes the uranium mill tailings that had been used to help build her alma mater, Grand Junction High School, contributed to the cancer in some of her classmates. And perhaps even her leukemia. With a deep history in Grand Junction and western Colorado, Johnson has seen uranium and its effects threaten her life and the lives of other family members and friends. “There just seems to be a lot of people dead of cancer in that time period,” Johnson said. “There are two twins a year ahead of me in school, beautiful young women, and they’re both dead.” For those reasons and others, Johnson will rally other Grand Junction residents to fight a proposal to reopen two underground uranium mines on the Colorado Plateau. Canadian firm, Energy Fuels, wants to reopen the uranium mines at 30100 5/10 Road outside Gateway. According to its Web site, Energy Fuels is acquiring uranium properties on the Colorado Plateau in the Uravan Mineral Belt District and in the Arizona Strip District north of the Grand Canyon. Mesa County commissioners will hear the request to reopen Whirlwind Mine this week. According to one of the county planners, if the company gets the proper permits, it may begin mining early next year. One of Johnson’s concerns is John Brown Road. Uranium ore would be transported from the mine on 5/10 Road and continue down John Brown Road, a steep, narrow gravel road with drop-offs and hairpin turns. The road is popular with recreational users, and would be a primary transport route of the ore. Once ore trucks reach Highway 141, they would travel south at a rate of one truck an hour at the peak of operations. And while she’s never seen conclusive proof that moving uranium tailings causes cancer, Johnson doesn’t need to see proof because she’s lived it. “My first knowledge came after I graduated from Grand Junction High School (in 1963). They were removing tailings from the high school. Everyone knew by then they were not safe there,” Johnson said. “Where ever they have moved tailings, there is a cancer cluster,” Johnson said. “It’s so dangerous.” Uranium mines “have horrendously radioactive waste,” Johnson said. Where the mine’s proponents choose to mill the uranium is unclear, she said. Another concern relates to the sparse emergency medical services in the Gateway area, supplied by a volunteer force and one ambulance, Johnson said. If there is a forest fire, uranium mill tailings will smolder, releasing further danger into the atmosphere, she added. Late last month, the Mesa County Planning Commission voted 7-0 to approve the proposal. “I just feel like I can’t let this go without at least a whimper.” “It’s not safe. It’s never been safe. This will be the fifth uranium boom on the Colorado Plateau, if I remember correctly.” All contents © Copyright 2008 vaildaily.com Vail Daily - 40780 US Hwy 6 & 24 - Avon, CO 81620 ***************************************************************** 47 globeandmail.com: High levels of radioactive tritium found in Pembroke landfill MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT ENVIRONMENT REPORTER December 26, 2007 The Ministry of Environment has found elevated levels of radioactive tritium in ground water at the municipal dump serving Pembroke, Ont., and several other nearby Ottawa River valley communities. The dump, the Alice and Fraser Township Landfill, is not licensed to receive radioactive waste, and it is not known exactly how tritium, used to make glow-in-the-dark lights, among other products, and nuclear weapons, got into the dump. But the discovery, made earlier in December, is being played down by the ministry because the amount of radioactivity was well below Ontario's drinking-water limit. Ministry spokesperson Kate Jordan said the Pembroke finding wasn't high enough to warrant further action. "While there was tritium in the ground water at the site, [it was] well below our ministry standards," she said. "We don't feel that they pose a risk to the community or to the environment." Print Edition - Section Front   Enlarge Image  More National Stories * Fighting for the right to be cold * A warm welcome in the freezing cold * Troubled relationship ends in tragedy * Students of the weather had lessons to learn * Halifax police seek role in hearing on drinking laws * Algonquins on Quebec reserve close school * Go to the National section The highest level - 1,000 Becquerel/Litre - is one seventh Ontario's drinking water standard. One Becquerel is a radioactive disintegration per second. But Ontario's limit is lax by international standards and is currently under review by the government. The reading would have exceeded by wide margins California's goal of having no more than 15 Bq/L, and Europe's of having no more than 100 Bq/L, in water supplies. California's strict limit is based on the amount of tritium consumed over a lifetime that would cause no significant health risk, which it defined as one extra cancer in a million exposed people. Based on the California risk calculation, Ontario's limit deems acceptable about 466 extra cancer cases. The ministry testing is believed to be the first in Canada to find elevated amounts of tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, at a municipal landfill, and was prompted by a request from an environmental group in the community, located about 150 kilometres northwest of Ottawa. "If these levels were found in any other jurisdiction there would be an immediate investigation. Ontario Ministry of Environment staff are using permissive and outdated provincial tritium standards as an excuse to avoid action," contended Ole Hendrickson, a spokesman for Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County, the local group, in a statement. Elevated amounts of tritium have also been found at dumps in both the United States and the United Kingdom in water that collects under landfills, known technically as leachate. Studies in those countries suggest the radioactivity is coming from the disposal of glow-in-the-dark signs, such as emergency-exit lights used in buildings, and products such as luminous watch paints. A group of U.S. researchers warned earlier this year that landfill workers exposed to construction debris may be at high risk of tritium exposure due to releases from the signs. The only other testing in Ontario, at a landfill near Waterloo by the ministry in 2004, found low amounts of tritium around 10 Bq/L to 20 Bq/L. Some tritium is produced by natural processes and rain contains about 2 Bq/L. Although the ministry doesn't know precisely how the dump water got its radioactivity, Ms. Jordan said the source may have been glow-in-the-dark products. In response to written questions, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, the federal atomic watchdog, said it believes glow-in-the-dark signs caused the contamination. Canadian nuclear regulations allow the radioactive signs to be tossed into landfills, provided certain limits on their radioactive content are met. Mr. Hendrickson said he is not aware of efforts by the CNSC to see if discarded signs meet the regulatory conditions and the watchdog wasn't immediately able to confirm or deny his statement. Ministry staff also suspect that radioactive waste was dumped at the landfill before modern pollution regulations were adopted in the 1970s. The dump doesn't have radiation monitoring equipment, and is supposed to accept only non-hazardous household, commercial, and industrial waste, according to its licence from the ministry. The local citizens' group wants the ministry to do more testing to find out whether migration of radiation off the site poses any risk and to find the source of the tritium. Currently, technologies to economically remove tritium once it contaminates ground water do not exist and sewage treatment doesn't remove it. "There is tritium getting into that dump and it should be disposed of at a hazardous waste site," said Kelly O'Grady, another spokesperson for Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County. She said that if ground water leaves the site, it may pose a risk to those relying on well water. "I would be worried if I were living in that area," she said. A Pembroke company that makes glow-in-the-dark signs containing tritium said it hasn't been using the dump. The tritium is "not coming from the company," said Stéphane Lévesque, president of SRB Technologies (Canada) Inc. He said SRB ships all of its radioactive waste to a Chalk River disposal site operated by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. He said the company asks customers to return old signs to it, and to not throw them into landfills. © Copyright 2007 CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved. CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc., 444 Front St. W., Toronto, ON  Canada M5V 2S9 Phillip Crawley, Publisher ***************************************************************** 48 Knoxville News Sentinel: Questions over waste remain Mystery casks of highly radioactive material were found in October 2005 By Frank Munger (Contact) Wednesday, December 26, 2007 Bechtel Jacobs One of three casks found west of the K-25 uranium-enrichment plant is pictured. The casks contained radioactive cesium-137, and were found amid piles of metal scrap. OAK RIDGE - In October 2005, cleanup workers made an astonishing discovery at a Cold War scrap yard west of the K-25 uranium-enrichment plant. Three rusty casks containing thousands of curies of radioactive cesium-137 were found amid the mountainous piles of metal scrap. Nobody knew where they came from. The old casks were unmarked, and the highly radioactive material did not fit the profile of other junk that came to the site in the 1950s and '60s. There were plenty of questions and - more than two years later - they remain unanswered. If anything, officials are more tight-lipped than ever about the nuclear find. Everything seems to be a secret, including the whereabouts of the casks. "The location of the cesium casks is a security issue," said Dennis Hill, a spokesman for Bechtel Jacobs Co., the Department of Energy's cleanup manager in Oak Ridge. "However, they are in an approved secure storage facility and pose no threat to the community or the environment." Cesium is a product of nuclear fission that emits beta and gamma radiation. It is used in cancer treatments and industrial instruments. Cesium also is considered an optimum material for a radiological dispersal device - also called a dirty bomb - and thus coveted by terrorist groups. That probably explains why security is such a concern. There have been varying estimates of how much cesium was actually housed in the lead-lined casks. A state official last year said he was told one of the casks contained more than 200,000 curies, although others downplayed that report and suggested it was more in the range of 10,000 curies. Whatever the case, it was a staggering amount of cesium-137 to be sitting out in the rain. For several months after the discovery, Bechtel Jacobs had to increase security at the scrap yard until a new home could be found for the casks. Specialists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory were supposed to tap into the casks and fully characterize the contents, according to reports last year, but Hill said the analytical work has been postponed. "The characterization is now scheduled for 2012," he said without further explanation. "Once (the casks) are characterized and it is determined where they can go, they will be disposed of." The wrap-up work at the old scrap yard, known officially as the K-770 site, also has been put on hold. Washington Safety Management Solutions completed the scrap removal at a cost of $16.3 million, but the soil at the site has be studied to determine contamination levels. Hill said Remediation Services Inc. was conducting that survey, with a possible excavation of dirt to follow, but funding ran out. "The project has been pushed out to 2015 because of funding," he said. Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 342-6329. © 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. ***************************************************************** 49 Washington Post: Uranium Lode in Va. Is Feared, Coveted From: Matt Stern Date: Wed, 02 Jan 2008 12:38:33 - Landowner Wants to End Ban on Mining Radioactive Element Sought for Energy http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/01/AR2008010101811.html By Anita Kumar Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, January 2, 2008; B01 CHATHAM, Va. -- Underneath a plot of farmland used to raise cattle, hay and timber in south central Virginia lies what is thought to be the largest deposit of uranium in the United States. Now, three decades after the deposit was found, landowner Walter Coles has set his sights on mining the 200-acre site despite concerns of environmental groups and residents about unearthed radioactive material that could contaminate the area's land, air and source of drinking water. As the United States searches for alternative energy sources, Virginia has a geological discovery in its back yard that could drastically change the nation's reliance on foreign oil. The estimated 110 million pounds of uranium in Pittsylvania County, worth almost $10 billion, could supply all of the country's nuclear power plants for about two years. There's a hurdle to clear before an ounce of the element can be mined: It's illegal to dig for the stuff in Virginia. But the General Assembly is considering changing that. Coles, 69, who recently retired from the federal government and moved from the Washington area back to the family farm, said mining companies have been offering to buy his land. Instead of taking the money, he decided to stay. He said he wanted to make sure that the mining was done safely and that it would benefit the community through jobs, taxes and economic development. "There's too much uranium here. Somebody's going to mine it," Coles said. "I felt like while I was alive, it was my duty to make sure it was done right." This month, Coles's company, Virginia Uranium, will try to persuade the General Assembly to take the first step -- approving a $1 million study that will explore whether uranium can be safely mined in Virginia. If the study shows that it can be done, the company will ask the legislature to lift a state ban on uranium mining. The issue is dividing lawmakers, who will begin their 60-day session Jan. 9, but company officials have reasons to be optimistic. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) supports a study, and a state energy report released this fall recommends one. Coles's brother-in-law, Whitt Clement, who served as a legislator and as state transportation secretary, is heading what is expected to be a strong lobbying effort. Henry Hurt, an investor and a childhood friend of Coles's, has a son Robert, a Pittsylvania delegate who won a state Senate seat in November. Virginia banned uranium mining in 1982, but Coles's company recently got a state permit to drill 40 holes to examine the material. A growing coalition of environmental groups and concerned residents, some of the same residents who helped institute the ban 30 years ago, have started spreading the word about their opposition and are planning to travel to Richmond to fight Coles. Elizabeth Haskell, a former state secretary of natural resources who served on a board that studied uranium mining in the early 1980s, said Coles is thinking about money, not safety. "He has got dollar signs in his eyes," she said. Uranium has never been mined in Virginia or on the East Coast, confined instead in the United States to drier, less populated areas such as Utah, New Mexico, Wyoming and Nebraska, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Uranium mining is more common in Canada, Australia, Eastern Europe and Africa. Support for a Study Two uranium deposits, which begin at the ground's surface and run about 800 feet deep, were found in Coles Hill, near Chatham, a town of 1,300 residents where old Victorian houses line the streets. Tobacco was once a booming business on nearby farms but has given way to soybeans, hay and cattle. A Canadian company, Marline Uranium, found the deposits in the late 1970s after the federal government had encouraged a search for alternative energy sources. It spent millions of dollars trying to get permission to mine the land, but interest waned after uranium prices dropped. Geologists think that smaller amounts of uranium can be found along the Piedmont from North Carolina to New York. Virginia Uranium is not interested in mining other parts of the state, but officials are passing nonbinding resolutions supporting the state ban for fear that another company might try to mine their land. Still, with accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl a distant memory and a growing global demand for alternative fuels, interest in uranium mining is peaking. "I believe we need to explore expansion of nuclear power," Kaine said in a recent interview. Dominion Virginia Power has four nuclear plants in Virginia that provide about a third of the state's energy, but the uranium used at the facilities is imported. The situation in neighboring states is similar, including in Maryland, which gets 31 percent of its electricity from nuclear power, according to the federal government. Virginia Uranium wants to mine and mill uranium that would eventually be sold to companies for use at nuclear power plants. The company was formed about a year ago by the Coles and Bowen families, which own adjoining property. Norman Reynolds, a former Marline president, was hired as chief executive. Thirty other people have invested in the company, several of whom live in the area, including Henry Hurt, a former editor for Reader's Digest. Hurt's son Robert served three terms in the House before winning his Senate seat. Coles's son Walter, who is executive vice president of Virginia Uranium, and Reynolds together donated $1,500 to Hurt last year, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. Robert Hurt, a Republican whose House and Senate districts include Coles Hill, said he supports a study but does not have enough information to know whether he favors mining. He said he does not need to recuse himself from a vote on the study because no profit is at stake for his father. "I take the responsibility given to me to represent 170,000 people very, very seriously," he said. He said he would not recuse himself from a vote and "leave those people voiceless without a very good reason." Virginia Uranium says it would pay for the study but would allow it to be conducted by an independent group or university. Del. John M. O'Bannon III (R-Henrico) said he supports a study and has spoken to Coles about sponsoring a bill in the House. "I don't think we should summarily dismiss utilizing that type of reserve," he said. "It makes sense to take a look at it in a responsible way." Safety Concerns Environmental groups, including the Piedmont Environmental Council and the Southern Environmental Law Center, say uranium should not be mined in Virginia's highly populated areas and relatively rainy climate. They say they are worried that radioactive materials could contaminate natural resources, cause cancer or other illnesses and have long-term effects on plants and animals. The Coles Hill area supplies drinking water locally and to parts of Hampton Roads and North Carolina. Del. Clarke N. Hogan (R-Charlotte), whose district gets some of its drinking water from the area, said Virginia Uranium has to prove how mining can be done safely. "They have a long way to go," he said. "They need to show what is different from 30 years ago." Company officials say that safeguards have been put in place since mining at Coles Hill was first considered and that the federal government regulates all mines and mills with regard to safety and homeland security. Uranium can be mined three ways: through an open pit, by miners underground or through a technology that involves pumping liquid underground and bringing it up to be processed. Company officials said they will not know which method would work best in Pittsylvania until a study is completed, although open-pit mining is the least expensive. They will not say how much money has been invested, but they estimate they will need at least $500 million to build a mine and mill. Jack Dunavant, a civil engineer who leads Southside Concerned Citizens, said Coles "keeps talking about new technology that can make it safe. There is no new technology. It's a pipe dream." No matter how the uranium might be mined, it would need to be processed at a local milling facility. The result, a sandy substance called "yellow cake" uranium, would be packed into 55-gallon drums for shipping. Company officials say the processed uranium is not hazardous. It doesn't become dangerous until it undergoes a later process that would be done elsewhere. Coles, whose family has lived in a historic brick house on the property for two centuries, said he and his family have never had health problems, although tests show the area has higher than normal levels of radioactivity. He said he plans to continue living at Coles Hill regardless of whether the uranium is mined. "I could have sold the land and moved to Florida. But I didn't," he said. "I want to stay and do something good for the community, something good for the state." Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report. -- Matt Stern Campus Campaign Director Chesapeake Climate Action Network ***NEW NUMBER - 240-396-2149 matt@chesapeakeclimate.org Read - http://itsgettinghotinhere.org Join - www.climatechallenge.org Support me - http://urltea.com/2544 ***************************************************************** 50 NewsAdvance.com: Virginia Uranium drilling plans denied By Ray Reed rreed@newsadvance.com January 4, 2008 CHATHAM - Pittsylvania County’s Planning Commission was almost as evenly divided over uranium mining as one of its members said the public seems to be, although a crowd of about 100 applauded solidly when the commission voted 4-3 to recommend denial of a zoning request from Virginia Uranium Inc. Virginia Uranium, a company that two weeks ago started drilling for core samples in the richest-known uranium deposit in the eastern United States, wanted the county to zone the drilling site for an office trailer and storage containers to hold the samples. The vote’s effect on the zoning process isn’t final. The county’s Board of Zoning Appeals will consider Virginia Uranium’s request next week, using the commission’s recommendation as a non-binding guideline. Speakers who oppose Virginia Uranium’s plan to seek General Assembly approval for a study of uranium mining said the vote would be a signal to state officials. It would tell them whether citizens of the county really care about uranium mining. Jesse Andrews, a Halifax County resident who said he lives downstream on the Banister River from the uranium site, told the planning commission that the crowd’s size was evidence that people didn’t want uranium mined. Commission member Charles Miller, who made the motion to recommend against the zoning request, said the vote would be symbolic, although the state’s Department of Mining, Minerals and Energy already has issued a permit and has monitoring procedures in effect to look for radiation. “Shall we open this door, or shall we not?” Miller asked, while acknowledging that he had friends on both sides of the issue. Miller said he had received many phone calls from people who support mining the uranium, and had talked with people on the street who want to leave the uranium 1,000 feet underground. Between the phone calls and personal conversations, Miller said he felt the public was split 50-50 on mining. The deposit is estimated to be worth about $10 billion at current uranium prices. Miller, a minister and assistant principal of a school, said he noted a comment from Hurt resident Hunter Austin, who described Virginia Uranium is a limited-liability company. The potential effects of bringing uranium to the surface could have “limitless liability for citizens of this county,” Austin said. Miller said that “if it turns out that one person’s health is negatively impacted, that is too many.” Three commission members voted in favor of the zoning request because the drilling already is going on and they believed it would be safer to store the core samples in containers than to handle them some other way. Virginia Uranium’s representatives at the meeting, geological engineer Joe Aylor and attorney Neal Keesee of Roanoke, didn’t say how the samples are currently being managed. The state permit says the samples will be stored on site, but Aylor said the permit doesn’t actually require on-site storage. Commission Chairman Morris Stowe said core samples are being drilled anyway and the health of county residents probably is safer if the samples are stored in the metal containers the company wants to use. Commission member William Sterner, who also voted in favor of the company’s zoning request, said multiple decisions from many government bodies are yet to come on the mining issue. “This process is going to keep going,” Sterner said. “They are not easy decisions. But I look at this as just a zoning process.” A storage building already on the property holds core samples that were taken from the site 25 years ago after the uranium deposit was first discovered. After the meeting, people who opposed the mining lined up to express their appreciation to Miller. During that time, a telling conversation occurred between Aylor and Andrews, both Southside Virginia residents. “I can’t believe you’re doing this,” Andrews said as he and Aylor shook hands. “I’ve been doing it for 30 years,” Aylor, the geologist, replied. © 2008 Media General. Part of the GatewayVA Network. ***************************************************************** 51 The Telegraph: Green light to uranium mining Calcutta (Kolkata) | Northeast | Today's Edition | Monday , December 31 , 2007 | Advertise with us OUR CORRESPONDENT Shillong, Dec. 30: Cocking a snook at political parties and NGOs, the Centre has granted environment clearance for the uranium mining project in the West Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya. The proposed Kylleng-Pyndengsohiong uranium mining and processing plant of the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) has been accorded environment clearance by the ministry of environment and forest through a notification issued on Friday. The plant is to come up at Nongbah Jynrin in Mawthabah village. The Centre plans to use uranium from Mawthabah to boost the country’s nuclear capacity up to 20,000 mw by 2020. A public hearing was called by the Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board on June 12 at Nongbah Jynrin amid protests by the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) and Meghalaya Human Rights Council, an NGO. The KSU claims that the public hearing was an “attempt to mislead the people,” on the issue of uranium mining which is “hazardous to health”. A majority of those who attended the hearing opposed uranium mining in the state. Voicing concern over the Centre’s decision, KSU president Samuel Jyrwa today said they were surprised to learn that the ministry had totally ignored the voice of the people. “We will fight to the last to stop uranium mining.” India is planning to have 14 nuclear power stations. Of these, the construction of eight is under way and these will be commissioned at the earliest. At present, only the uranium mines at Jaduguda produces magnesuum-di-uranate known as “yellow cake” to feed the country’s nuclear reactors. Though India has a uranium reserve of 78,000 tonne, at least one lakh tonne is required to sustain the growth of nuclear power projects in India. According to the white paper prepared by the UCIL, uranium from Mawthabah in West Khasi Hills will be used as part of the expansion project to increase the country’s installed nuclear power capacity up to 20,000 mw by 2020. Copyright © 2008 The Telegraph. All rights reserved. Disclaimer | ***************************************************************** 52 Ottawa Citizen Home: Tritium levels in Pembroke landfill raise concerns Neco Cockburn , Ottawa Citizen Published: Thursday, December 27, 2007 A Renfrew County environmental group is calling for further investigation after elevated levels of radioactive tritium were found in groundwater at a Pembroke-area landfill. Ministry of Environment officials conducted tests after a request from the Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County (CCRC), and found the substance in water sampled from the Ottawa Valley Waste Recovery Centre in September. The discovery of tritium has not caused alarm in the ministry because the highest level found was about one-seventh the amount allowed in the province's drinking water. "Based on all the information we have at this point, there's no threat to the environment or human health, but we will remain committed to inspecting the landfill and responding to any concerns from the community," said ministry spokeswoman Kate Jordan, adding that there was no evidence of leachate migrating from the landfill. In a letter sent to the CCRC this month, a Ministry of Environment district manager wrote that the ministry does not intend to conduct further tritium assessments at the site. But group members have since sent the ministry a letter asking for further investigation. In an interview Thursday, spokesman Ole Hendrickson called for a "more thorough investigation of what's causing this, how extensive the contamination might be." It's believed that the elevated tritium levels may have been caused by the disposal of glow-in-the-dark signs. The landfill is not licensed for radioactive waste, but tritium can be contained in garbage such as exit signs. The CCRC, which in April asked the ministry to conduct the tests, has raised concerns that samples were only taken from five of a possible 50 monitoring locations. Ms. Jordan said the samples were representative of the site. The tests found levels of tritium, an isotope of hydrogen, ranging from 150 to 1,000 Becquerels of radioactivity per litre of water. (A Becquerel is the smallest measurable unit of radioactivity). A "background" sample taken in the vicinity of the site measured 9.5 Becquerels per litre. The accepted amount of tritium in drinking water has long been a contentious issue in the province. Ontario allows up to 7,000 Becquerels per litre of drinking water, although that standard is nearly 10 times more lenient than that enforced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "We've been challenging that standard as extremely permissive and if water levels ever got anywhere near that it would, in our view, create a major health issue," Mr. Hendrickson said. In the 1990s, an Ontario advisory committee wanted the safe level lowered to 100 Becquerels per litre, but changes were not made. Ms. Jordan said a current review of drinking water standards includes a tritium working group and is expected to provide recommendations to Environment Minister John Gerretsen next summer. Mr. Hendrickson said the CCRC asked the ministry to conduct tests after members found studies that indicated glow-in-the-dark signs were responsible for higher-than-normal levels of tritium in water at landfills in Scotland and the U.S. The ministry does not routinely check landfills for tritium, but has conducted tests at a Waterloo landfill after being made aware of similar community concerns. Ms. Jordan said radioactive waste may have been dumped at the Ottawa Valley Waste Recovery Centre, widely known as the Alice and Fraser Landfill, before the ministry's waste disposal regulations came into effect in the 1970s. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission said in an e-mail that there are no practical means of removing tritium from groundwater at the concentrations measured in landfill leachates. "The concentrations are too low to be removed by existing technology." © Ottawa Citizen 2007 ***************************************************************** 53 Whitehaven News: Crunch year for Sellafield bid Published on 27/12/2007 By Alan Irving THE race has hotted up to win the lucrative contract to run Sellafield, for the NDA is now asking the four preferred bidders which includes some major American companies to submit their final tenders. The tenders have to be back with the NDA by next spring and the winner declared during the summer. The successful bidder will become Sellafield’s new parent body organisation (taking over from BNFL) for a period of 17 years and own all the shares in Sellafield Ltd, the current site licence company which manages Sellafield, Calder Hall, Windscale and Capenhurst with an annual turnover (from the NDA) of ÂŁ1 billion. The four bidders in competition are: CH2Hill Nuclear Services Ltd Fluor Ltd in partnership with Toshiba SBB Nuclear comprising Serco, Bechtel, Babcock & Wilcox (recently re-branded from BWXT) Nuclear Management Partners Ltd (Washington International, Holdings Ltd, Amec. AREVA NC). Fluor this week strongly denied rumours that it was pulling out of the bidding. A spokesman for the American giants, which has offices at Westlakes Science Park, said: “Absolutely not – we are fully committed.” Mark Leggett, the NDA’s commercial director, said: “We are pleased to have reached this final stage on time and with a healthy field of four bidders who have all come through the competitive dialogue process.” Also in the final stage of negotiation is the contract to run the low-level radioactive waste repository at Drigg. The NDA’s preferred bidder is the Washington-led National Waste Management who hope to clinch the deal early in 2008. ***************************************************************** 54 casper star tribune: Groups fight uranium mine expansion Casper, Wyoming - Thursday, December 27, 2007 CRAWFORD, Neb. (AP) -- A plan to increase uranium mining near the South Dakota border has drawn a fight from a Pine Ridge environmental group that says the plan would take too much water and that the mine is contaminating groundwater. The uranium mine near Crawford is southwest of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and produces 800,000 pounds of uranium a year for use in the nuclear power industry. The Crow Butte Resources mine is owned by Cameco Corp. of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. A spokeswoman for the Pine Ridge environmental group Owe Aku said the mine's plan would need an extra 2.4 billion gallons a year from an aquifer with drought problems -- a 50 percent jump. Debra White Plume, who represents Owe Aku, said water carrying dissolved uranium has already contaminated aquifers in the area, including the Arikaree aquifer underneath the Pine Ridge reservation, across the Nebraska state line in South Dakota. Owe Aku and six other groups have asked to be heard by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which must review the company's expansion plans. Gord Struthers, a spokesman for Cameco Corp., said a broken coupling allowed contaminated water to reach the Brule aquifer in 1996 but that the spill was cleaned up. He also said monitor wells at Crow Butte have detected 23 incidents of mining water leaving the mine site, and he told the Argus Leader newspaper of Sioux Falls, S.D., that he was "fairly certain" there had been no groundwater contamination. He also said that if Cameco were allowed to expand its production, mining will double within give years and continue for 10 to 15 years. Then, he said, "We will recondition after that to restore the groundwater to baseline. "We will continue that until the regulator says the aquifer is restored," he said. Previously, the company said the expansion could add up to 25 people to the current mine staff of 75. Cameco's plans for Crow Butte and many of its other mines were spurred by rising uranium prices. Enriched uranium is used in both nuclear power generation and nuclear weapons. The mine near Crawford, which is in the Panhandle's Dawes County, employs the "in-situ leach" process. A sodium bicarbonate solution is pumped into an aquifer where the uranium is. The resulting chemical reaction releases the uranium, which is pumped to the surface and processed into uranium oxide. Crow Butte Resources Inc., the holding company for the mine, has asked the NRC and the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality for permission to add wells and raise the amount of solution it pumps into the ground. Copyright © 2007 by the Casper Star-Tribune published by Lee Publications, Inc., a subsidiary of Lee Enterprises, Incorporated ***************************************************************** 55 [NYTr] India, Pakistan swap nuclear info; Mush to Address Nation Jan 2 Date: Tue, 1 Jan 2008 18:34:20 -0600 (CST) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit [Major headlines from Pakistan include, perhaps most significantly, an exchange of nuclear sites between India and Pakistan, and the promise that this info will be exchanged annually on New Year's Day. Musharraf is to address the nation tomorrow, Jan 2. Bhutto's offspring have taken off for safer fields in Dubai and weirdly, the Irish are awarding the assassinated Benazir something called the Tipperary Peace Prize. ] Dawn (Pakistan) - Jan 1, 2007 http://www.dawn.com/2008/01/01/welcome.htm Pakistan, India swap nuclear lists ISLAMABAD, Jan 1 (AFP): Pakistan and India Tuesday exchanged lists of their nuclear sites under an agreement between the South Asian rivals to swap such information annually on New Year's Day, the foreign ministry said. The information was exchanged under a 1988 agreement on the prohibition of attacks on each other's nuclear installations, a ministry statement said. (Posted @ 14:55 PST) Irish peace prize for Benazir Bhutto DUBLIN, Jan 1 (AFP): Assassinated Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto is to be posthumously awarded Ireland's 2007 Tipperary Peace Prize, the organisers said Tuesday. Bhutto was recognised for her bcourageousb work for democracy and reconciliation, said the Tipperary Peace Convention which has in the past honoured South Africa's Nelson Mandela and Live Aid organizer Bob Geldof. bMs Bhutto fought all her battles through dialogue and political debate and was an example to all those who do not use or surrender to terrorism,b it said in a statement. bHer selection as Peace Prize recipient should act as an inspiration to those in Pakistan who seek to secure democracy and reconciliation for their country,b it added. (Posted @ 17:10 PST) Musharraf to address nation Wednesday: spokesman ISLAMABAD, Jan 1 (AFP): President Pervez Musharraf is to address the nation at 8:00 pm (1500 GMT) Wednesday, his spokesman said, days after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto caused mass unrest. bThe president will address the nation tomorrow at 8:00 pm,b presidential spokesman Rashid Qureshi told AFP Tuesday, without giving details of what Musharraf would discuss. (Posted @ 15:05 PST) Benazir's children leave for Dubai KARACHI, Jan 1 (Reuters): The children of slain PPP leader Benazir Bhutto left for Dubai on Tuesday, an airport official said. Her 19-year-old son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, left for Dubai on an Emirates flight with sisters Bakhtawar, 17, and Aseefa, 14. bThe three reached Karachi on a domestic flight from Sukkur this afternoon and then boarded the Emirates flight for Dubai,b an airport official told Reuters. (Posted @ 15:40 PST) Bhutto had bproofb state, spy agency rigging poll KARACHI, Jan 1 (Reuters): Benazir Bhutto was poised to reveal proof that Pakistan's election commission and shadowy spy agency were seeking to rig an upcoming general election the night she was assassinated, a top aide said Tuesday. Senator Latif Khosa, who authored a 160-page dossier with Bhutto documenting rigging tactics, said they ranged from intimidation to fake ballots, and were in some cases unwittingly funded by U.S. aid. Bhutto had been due to give the report to two visiting U.S. lawmakers over dinner on Dec. 27, the day she was killed in a suicide bombing. bThe state agencies are manipulating the whole process There is rigging by the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence), the election commission and the previous government, which is still continuing to hold influence. They were on the rampageb Khosa, a top Bhutto aide and head of her Pakistan People's Party election monitoring unit, told Reuters. (Posted @ 15:20 PST) Five militants killed, four soldiers kidnapped in Waziristan: military PESHAWAR, Jan 1 (AFP): Militants abducted four paramilitary soldiers in South Waziristan Tuesday in the first such incident since the death of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, officials said. Militants seized the soldiers as they descended from their observation post on a hill near Makeen in South Waziristan. The military said five rebels were killed and 20 others detained amid fighting following the abduction. Several militants were injured, but evacuated by their comrades, the official added. bThe rebels launched rocket and mortar attacks on a military base near Ladda town from rugged terrain bordering Afghanistan, a security official said. A local official said the attackers were loyal to Mehsud, who is alleged to be an Al-Qaeda leader in Pakistan. (First Posted @ 16:30 PST Updated @ 18:58 PST) Pakistan vote on Jan 8 'looks impossible': Election Commission ISLAMABAD, Jan 1 (AFP): The spokesman for Pakistan's election commission told AFP Tuesday that holding parliamentary elections as scheduled on January 8 blooks impossibleb. bIt looks impossible to hold elections on January 8. The elections can be delayed,b said Kanwar Dilshad, the commission's spokesman and secretary. Dilshad said he had informed Pakistan's political parties about the situation in 13 districts across the country where there were security problems following the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. bWe have also received reports from provinces about the situation and they have all mentioned the month of Muharram,b he said. bThe election commission will hold another meeting tomorrow (Wednesday) and a decision is expected then,b he said. (First Posted @ 09:40 PST, Updated @ 13:15 PST) Doctors cite pressure to keep silent on Benazir: Washington Post Rawalpindi, Jan.1 (PPI): The authorities pressured the medical personnel who tried to save Benazir Bhutto's life to remain silent about what happened in her final hour and removed records of her treatment from the facility, the Washington Post reported Tuesday. The report said doctors who were at Bhutto's side at Rawalpindi General Hospital said they were under extreme pressure not to share details about the nature of the injuries she suffered. bThe government took all medical records right after Ms. Bhutto's time of death was read out,b said a visibly shaken doctor who spoke on condition of anonymity. Sweating and putting his head in his hands, he said: blook, we have been told by the government to stop talking.b Babar Awan, a top PPP official who said he saw Bhutto's body after the attack and identified two clearly defined bullet wounds -- entry and exit points. He said the principal professor of surgery at the hospital, Mussadiq Khan, was bextremely nervous, but eventually told me that Benazir had died of a bullet wound. Why was this man so nervous?b Awan said. bHe told me firsthand he was under pressure not to talk about how she died.b Reached at his home in Islamabad, Dr Khan declined to comment. (Posted @ 16:20 PST) * ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us Our main website: http://www.blythe.org List Archives: http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ Subscribe: http://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================= ***************************************************************** 56 [southnews] US Special Forces on standby Over Pakistani Nukes Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 12:37:39 -0600 (CST) US special forces snatch squads are on standby to seize or disable Pakistan's nuclear arsenal in the event of a collapse of government authority or the outbreak of civil war following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Special forces on standby over nuclear threat IAN BRUCE, Defence Correspondent December 31 2007 The Herald (UK) US special forces snatch squads are on standby to seize or disable Pakistan's nuclear arsenal in the event of a collapse of government authority or the outbreak of civil war following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. The troops, augmented by volunteer scientists from America's Nuclear Emergency Search Team organisation, are under orders to take control of an estimated 60 warheads dispersed around six to 10 high-security Pakistani military bases. Military sources say contingency plans have been reviewed over the past three days to prevent any of Pakistan's atomic weapons falling into the hands of Islamic extremists if the administration of President Pervez Musharraf appears threatened by civil unrest. advertisement Some of the special forces are already believed to be in neighbouring Afghanistan and on alert for the mission. It is also understood that satellite surveillance of Pakistan has been stepped up to keep track of the possible movement of nuclear weapons and missile delivery systems. According to a US Congressional report published in November, Pakistan's nuclear deterrent consists of warheads for missiles and bombs dropped from aircraft. To maintain security, the weapons are not stored fully-assembled. Warheads, detonators and missiles are kept separately, but able to be married up "fairly quickly" in the event of a national crisis such as confrontation with India. While the US has stated publicly its confidence that Pakistan's military has the weapons "under effective technical control", Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice admitted two years ago that if there was a radical Islamic coup, the US was "prepared to try to deal with it". Internal security at Pakistan's nuclear storage sites is the responsibility of a 10,000-man security force commanded by a two-star general. Every member of the force is vetted with the aim of weeding out sympathisers of the Taliban and al Qaeda or anyone with extreme Islamic views. US diplomatic and military initiatives since 2001 have concentrated on trying to ensure that pro-western commanders were in charge at the most sensitive sites. There has also been pressure to keep Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency, thought to contain a number of high-ranking pro-Taliban supporters, out of the nuclear loop. http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/foreign/display.var.1933388.0.Special_forces_on_standby_over_nuclear_threat.php ***************************************************************** 57 Pakistani Nukes: US Special Forces on Standby Over Nuclear Threat Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 14:21:30 -0500 Special forces on standby over nuclear threat http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/foreign/display.var.1933388.0.Special_forces_on_standby_over_nuclear_threat.php IAN BRUCE, Defence Correspondent December 31 2007 Comment | Read Comments (1) US special forces snatch squads are on standby to seize or disable Pakistan's nuclear arsenal in the event of a collapse of government authority or the outbreak of civil war following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. The troops, augmented by volunteer scientists from America's Nuclear Emergency Search Team organisation, are under orders to take control of an estimated 60 warheads dispersed around six to 10 high-security Pakistani military bases. Military sources say contingency plans have been reviewed over the past three days to prevent any of Pakistan's atomic weapons falling into the hands of Islamic extremists if the administration of President Pervez Musharraf appears threatened by civil unrest. advertisement Some of the special forces are already believed to be in neighbouring Afghanistan and on alert for the mission. It is also understood that satellite surveillance of Pakistan has been stepped up to keep track of the possible movement of nuclear weapons and missile delivery systems. According to a US Congressional report published in November, Pakistan's nuclear deterrent consists of warheads for missiles and bombs dropped from aircraft. To maintain security, the weapons are not stored fully-assembled. Warheads, detonators and missiles are kept separately, but able to be married up "fairly quickly" in the event of a national crisis such as confrontation with India. While the US has stated publicly its confidence that Pakistan's military has the weapons "under effective technical control", Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice admitted two years ago that if there was a radical Islamic coup, the US was "prepared to try to deal with it". Internal security at Pakistan's nuclear storage sites is the responsibility of a 10,000-man security force commanded by a two-star general. Every member of the force is vetted with the aim of weeding out sympathisers of the Taliban and al Qaeda or anyone with extreme Islamic views. US diplomatic and military initiatives since 2001 have concentrated on trying to ensure that pro-western commanders were in charge at the most sensitive sites. There has also been pressure to keep Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency, thought to contain a number of high-ranking pro-Taliban supporters, out of the nuclear loop. ***************************************************************** 58 BBC NEWS: Russia tests ballistic missiles Last Updated: Wednesday, 26 December 2007, 01:25 GMT The RS-24 is designed to carry multiple independent warheads Russia has successfully tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles that are to replace ageing rockets from the Soviet era. A strategic missile known as the RS-24 flew 7,000 km (4350 miles) to hit targets on the Kamchatka peninsula. Later, a Russian submarine in the Barents Sea launched another new missile, hitting the same test site. Washington plans to site anti-missile facilities in central Europe, claiming that it will help defend against any possible future nuclear threat from Iran. The US missile shield system would see a radar site set up in the Czech Republic and a base in Poland for 10 missile interceptors. However, speaking in an interview to be published later this week in the Vremya Novostey daily, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it was clear the system is aimed at deterring Russia, rather than Iran. The US has said that the limited system it proposes could not threaten Russia's own missile arsenal. The Interfax news agency reported that the RS-24, the missile tested on Tuesday, is capable of carrying at least three nuclear warheads. Russia says they are able to penetrate any kind of defensive system. * BBC Copyright Notice ***************************************************************** 59 GU: Underground testing of nuclear warheads was kept secret from cabinet Guardian Unlimited Politics Owen Bowcott Friday December 28, 2007 Underground testing of British nuclear warheads was kept secret from most cabinet ministers after the US administration was persuaded not to publicise the event, government files reveal. The Labour government's internal debate on updating the United Kingdom's arsenal of Polaris missiles during the mid-1970s involved only the prime minister and three other senior ministers, according to archive documents released today. Their confidential deliberations were blown wide open, however, by an unusual journalistic scoop - based on a dream - that forced the government to adopt a more transparent policy. The problem, the prime minister, Harold Wilson, was told in a memo marked "Top Secret" in 1974, was that "we have to improve Polaris if we are going to retain a credible deterrent." Information from satellite photography indicated that the Russians were developing missile defences "to which the existing Polaris system would be vulnerable", the memo said. A meeting was held to discuss the issue involving the prime minister along with his foreign secretary, chancellor and defence secretary. "There is a long-standing convention," Wilson minuted, "that sensitive questions in the field of foreign affairs, defence matters and on security and intelligence are not necessarily brought before the cabinet for decision." The Polaris upgrade was first named Super-Antelope, but this was later changed to Chevaline. Roy Mason, the defence secretary, explained there would have to be new nuclear tests. "The Super-Antelope programme includes one, possibly two, underground nuclear warhead tests," he recorded in March 1974, "the first one being due to be held at the Nevada test site within the next two months." He recommended Britain proceed with the warhead test "but ask the Americans to delay any announcement". On May 23 that year, the Ministry of Defence informed Downing Street that the test, codenamed Forrester, had been carried out: "There was negligible release of radio activity ... preliminary estimates show that the yield was close to the expected figures." But official satisfaction at keeping it secret was swiftly punctured. The next month the Daily Express revealed details of the test. The journalist who wrote the story was the veteran defence expert Chapman Pincher. A Foreign Office official, Crispin Tickell, was asked to investigate. He rang the Express's foreign editor, John Ellison. Tickell's record of the conversation went as follows: "Mr Ellison said, 'Believe it or not Mr Pincher's source was Mr Pincher himself. He had been on a fishing holiday in Scotland. One morning at breakfast he said he had had a particularly vivid nightmare about a nuclear explosion which he was sure was British. "'His companions told him that he was obsessed and should go back to fishing. He duly did for three days but on his return to London, he rang up his friends in the Ministry of Defence with some such question as: 'What was all that that about a nuclear test?' "'Eventually he got an answer which was sufficiently equivocal to convince him that he was on the right track. He then wrote his article.'" Other than forecasting a test which had already taken place, the article was accurate. As Tickell commented: "Against such extra-sensory perception, as well as the best contacts in Whitehall, I feel we are powerless. Mr Pincher remains the greatest." To avoid further political embarrassment subsequent tests were confirmed by the government within a few hours of taking place. By 1977 the cost of Chevaline had risen to Ł810m. Later British nuclear tests were brought to an end by US support for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Useful links British Energy Department of Trade and Industry British Nuclear Fuels Ltd Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament Greenpeace Come Clean WMD awareness programme UK atomic energy authority National Radiological Protection Board Friends of the Earth World Nuclear Association World Nuclear Transport Institute Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007 ***************************************************************** 60 UPI: Outside View: MIRV-ing Topol -- Part 1 International Security - Industry - Analysis - UPI.com Published: Dec. 31, 2007 at 8:00 AM By ANDREI KISLYAKOV UPI Outside View Commentator MOSCOW, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- An anti-missile shield, or America's ambition to establish one in Europe, has become the event of the year in security and strategic terms. The most discussed subject in Russia has been an adequate but asymmetrical response. To counter several interceptor missiles and a radar station in Europe, Russia has repeatedly said it will build up its strategic offensive capability. Now it is deploying a new intercontinental ballistic missile RS-24 with multiple individually targetable warheads. "The RS-24 will boost the Strategic Missile Force's ability to penetrate the missile defense system," Colonel Alexander Vovk, head of the Force's information service, said in mid-December. There is nothing surprising about the asymmetry: Russia responds with what it has. But one wonders about the cost and wisdom of such a reply. To begin with, the RS-24 is a converted Topol, only with a new nosecone. Remarks by Russian officials that the RS-24 was built around Topol elements are indirect, but there is substantial evidence in favor of that theory. On Dec. 19 First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov twinned the two missiles, saying the new Topol-M "will also have separable warheads." The RS-24 owes its origins to the START-I Treaty. Under it, neither Russia nor the United States has the right to change single for multiple warheads until 2009. New developments, however, are free from this restriction. Take a closer look at the Topol. It is a mobile solid propellant missile developed as an asymmetrical response to American strategic missiles with separable warheads and increased firing accuracy deployed in the mid-1970s. Russia did not have anything of the kind. So mobile Topols (or SS-25 Sickle according to the NATO reporting name) began to enter combat duty in 1984. In the 1990s Russia undertook a sweeping upgrading of Topols and in 2000 put in service a silo-based Topol-M (SS-27). About a year ago a mobile Topol-M2 went on operational status. Russian top planners give the new Topols the key role in the country's ground nuclear forces for years ahead. Now they are also to act as a counterweight to American missile defenses. Mobility is considered to be the Topol's main advantage. It hides its deployment and adds to its capability to pierce hostile missile defenses by using separable and maneuverable warheads. These are serious arguments. But there is another side to the matter. It would seem mobility is the answer to all prayers for camouflage and concealment. Unfortunately, ever since the United States developed Lacrosse imaging radar in the mid-1990s, darkness and cloud cover ceased to be an obstacle to missile detection. Any concealment is out of the question now, and the system's survivability is practically zero in a hostile missile attack. In passing it can be said that the United States decided against developing a mobile Midgetman strategic missile, concentrating instead on the survivability of its ground-based nuclear systems by hardening silos as part of the Minuteman-3 modernization program. Now let us have a look at multiple warheads, their range and accuracy. A host of information sources, from Encyclopaedia Britannica to such specialized magazines as Military Technology and Aviation Week, tell us that initially the Topol was fitted out with a single nuclear warhead with a TNT equivalent of 550 kilotons. Circular error probable was about 200 meters. At the same time, America's main intercontinental ballistic missile Minuteman-3, which entered service in 1970, was equipped with three Mk-12A individually targetable re-entry vehicles each with a TNT equivalent of 335 kilotons. Its CEP did not exceed 220 meters, and, following modernization, is estimated at 120 meters. The Minuteman has a range of up to 14,800 kilometers. Compared with that, the Topol's all-up weight is 12 tons more than the corresponding figure for the American missile, which, naturally, affects its range. As time went by, the single-warhead Topol-M, according, for example, to the Russian Military Parity Internet publication, "caught up" in many respects. Its sustainers now have better thrust characteristics, and CEP is reduced. The upshot, however, is that the modernized Topol does no more than come near the American missile of 40 years ago, inferior in range and warhead yield. But any modernization has its limits. Multiple warheads differ in principle from a single warhead, both in equipment and weight. The first requirement is a bus with an independent control system, whose electronics must be protected against the effects of a nuclear explosion and have special facilities to detect and counter noise. Another requirement is a propulsion unit with a fuel supply to alter speed and attitude before the separation of each warhead. Besides, all warheads are provided with several attitude engines. The necessary increase in weight can be achieved only by reducing the yields or reducing the range. The last factor is critical for the Topol-M. According to the Military Parity, the mobile system has a range not exceeding 5,760 miles, or 9,600 kilometers. This raises a question, or rather two questions. Does asymmetry devalue the concept of ground strategic nuclear forces, which have for a long time and through difficult years guaranteed the country's security? Would it not be wiser to develop an adequate and symmetric answer by deploying Russia's own anti-missile point defense alongside an intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with standard penetration aids based on individually targetable re-entry vehicles? But this is another story and another missile. -- (Andrei Kislyakov is a political commentator for RIA Novosti. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.) -- (United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.) © 2007 United Press International. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 61 UPI: Outside View: MIRV-ing Topol -- Part 2 International Security - Industry - Analysis - UPI.com Published: Jan. 2, 2008 at 10:29 AM By ANDREI KISLYAKOV UPI Outside View Commentator MOSCOW, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- It can be said that the United States decided against developing a mobile Midgetman strategic missile, concentrating instead on the survivability of its ground-based nuclear systems by hardening their silos as part of the Minuteman-3 modernization program. Now let us have a look at multiple warheads, their range and accuracy. A host of information sources, from Encyclopaedia Britannica to such specialized magazines as Military Technology and Aviation Week, tell us that initially the Topol was fitted out with a single nuclear warhead with a TNT equivalent of 550 kilotons. Circular error probable was about 200 meters, or over 600 yards. At the same time, America's main intercontinental ballistic missile Minuteman-3, which entered service in 1970, was equipped with three Mk-12A individually targetable re-entry vehicles each with a TNT equivalent of 335 kilotons. Its CEP did not exceed 220 meters, or 670 yards, and, following modernization, is estimated at 120 meters, or just over 360 yards. The Minuteman has a range of up to 8,880 miles, or 14,800 kilometers. Compared with that the Topol's all-up weight is 12 tons more than the corresponding figure for the American missile, which, naturally, affects its range. As time went by, the single-warhead Topol-M, according, for example, to the Russian Military Parity Internet publication, "caught up" in many respects. Its sustainers now have better thrust characteristics and CEP is reduced. The upshot, however, is that the modernized Topol does no more than come near the American missile of 40 years ago, inferior in range and warhead yield. But any modernization has its limits. Multiple warheads differ in principle from a single warhead, both in equipment and weight. The first requirement is a bus with an independent control system, whose electronics must be protected against the effects of a nuclear explosion, and have special facilities to detect and counter noise. Another requirement is a propulsion unit with a fuel supply to alter speed and attitude before the separation of each warhead. Besides, all warheads are provided with several attitude engines. The necessary increase in weight can be achieved only by reducing the yields or reducing the range. The last factor is critical for the Topol-M. According to the Military Parity, the mobile system has a range not exceeding 5,760 miles, or 9,600 kilometers. This raises a question, or rather two questions. Does asymmetry devalue the concept of ground strategic nuclear forces, which have for a long time and through difficult years guaranteed the country's security? Would it not be wiser to develop an adequate and symmetric answer by deploying Russia's own anti-missile point defense alongside an intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with standard penetration aids based on individually targetable re-entry vehicles? But this is another story and another missile. -- (Andrei Kislyakov is a political commentator for RIA Novosti. This article is reprinted by permission of RIA Novosti. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.) -- (United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.) © 2008 United Press International. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 62 Greenpeace UK: New Trident too big for subs Posted by joss on 4 January 2008. Reported in Scotland's Sunday Herald just before Christmas (but not seen by me until a few days ago, hence the delay in passing it on) was a tale to gladden the hearts of peaceniks everywhere - namely that the latest upgrade to the US designed Trident D5 nuclear missiles may not actually fit into British submarines. Clearly falling well within the parameters of the "you couldn't make it up" school of classic cock-ups, the Herald reported that tender documents for future underwater-launched nuclear missiles issued by the US Navy last November specify a missile diameter of up to 120 inches. The diameter of Trident's D5 missile tubes is 87 inches. When the decision to replace Trident was rushed through in the final days of the Blair administration, the government envisaged building a fleet of new subs which would initially carry existing Trident warheads, and upgrade later as the replacements came into service. At the time George Bush concurred that "any successor to the D5 system should be compatible with, or be capable of being made compatible with, the launch system for the D5 missile." This decision has now been changed unilaterally by the US, throwing our government's plans into confusion. So much for the 'special relationship'. The new subs will be designed for use until at least 2055, while the D5 missile system will be totally replaced in 16 years at the latest. So Britain's nuclear sub designers face some interesting challenges in keeping a working nuclear deterent on the road over the coming years. Let's hope those problems are never solved - we could be reduced to the status of a non-nuclear state by the incompetence of our military and politicians - inadvertently doing our work for us. ***************************************************************** 63 SPI: Closed Hanford reactor fuel being sent to Idaho for recycling Seattle Post-Intelligencer Last updated December 31, 2007 2:57 p.m. PT RICHLAND, Wash. -- The last nuclear fuel from a closed Hanford research reactor, known as FFTF, is being shipped to the Idaho National Laboratory for recycling. It could be used in commercial reactors. The Energy Department says 11 truck shipments of uranium began in October and should be completed in May. The uranium is transported in special casks. The Hanford test reactor operated from 1982 to 1992. Despite years of efforts by supporters in the Tri-Cities, the federal government was unable to find a use for the reactor. --- Information from: Tri-City Herald, http://www.tri-cityherald.com Send comments to newmedia@seattlepi.com Send investigative tips to iteam@seattlepi.com ©1996-2007 Seattle Post-Intelligencer ***************************************************************** 64 Indybay: The Precautionary Principle and Hunters Point Naval Shipyard - which a Superfund Site : by Francisco Da Costa Wednesday Dec 26th, 2007 12:51 PM The Bayview Hunters Point is the last frontier. The land once belonged to the Muwekma Ohlone and was stolen from them. Years later - the United States Navy - used Eminent Domain to take the land - to support World War II efforts. In the interim - the U.S. Navy conducted the most polluted experiments - depleted uranium, buried radiated large animals, radials, lead, mercury, and sand blasts polluted elements from the ships and submarines that were part of the Atomic Experiment - off the Bikini Islands. Numerous other experiments that left their toxic imprint all over the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. Once the land where now stands the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard belonged to the Muwekma Ohlone. They are the first people of San Francisco: http://www.muwekma.org Years later - the land was taken over - by the United States Navy using Eminent Domain. The U.S. Navy used the site for various very toxic experiments and operations. It used the land to support World War II efforts. We know large animals were radiated. We also know that toxic radials were buried. Lead, Mercury, Asbestos, and a host of other very toxic elements - were buried all over the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. We now have one site E2 that is very polluted and will take about $800 million to clean up this one area. Parcel E in general is very polluted. Even Parcel F which is the Bay is polluted. Parcel A had about 400 mature trees - now under the control of the City and County of San Francisco and the SF Redevelopment Agency - who in turn - turned it over to Lennar BVHP LLC. All the mature trees were clear cut. Even though Parcel A was handed over supposedly clean - when certain footprints were found - foundations - the sewer pipes were broken and were found to be polluted with Radiological Elements. The San Francisco Public Works knows about this - Tetra Tech who works for the U.S. Navy knows about it - the SF Redevelopment Agency - the SF Health Department - other Regulatory Agencies - know about the Radiological elements that were found on Parcel A. In San Francisco we have the Precautionary Principle. The Precautionary Principle is a LAW in San Francisco but has not been enforced. The Precautionary Principle has NOT been enforced and states simply that if there is any cause for any adverse impacts on any project that affects any living beings and that includes human beings - the work or project must be stopped. This has not been done on Parcel A. One would be enlightened to read the White Paper on the Precautionary Principle for now: http://www.rachel.org/library/getfile.cfm?ID=197 Further - read the Precautionary Principle - and its impacts on all living beings. Parcel A, has adversely affected - thousands all over Bayview Hunters Point. Right now our children, our Elders and those with compromised health are suffering. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the SF Health Department (SFHD) and other Regulatory Agencies have NOT done their job on Parcel A. http://www.hunterspointnavalshipyard.com Francisco Da Costa Director Environmental Justice Advocacy http://www.rachel.org/library/getfile.cfm?ID=197 © 2000–2007 San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center. Unless ***************************************************************** 65 knoxnews.com: Y-12 worker's parting shot Frank Munger's Atomic City Underground Glenn Bell is a hero to some people, a hellion to others. Count me among the admirers. I have nothing but respect for Bell, a long-time machinist at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant and an outspoken advocate for sick workers -- including those with chronic beryllium disease. Bell was diagnosed with CBD in 1993, and he spent the years thereafter researching the incurable respiratory illness and pushing for workplace changes to minimize exposures to the toxic metal. He retired at the end of 2007. Here's a copy of an exit letter he sent to Y-12's management: You may know that I’m retiring, effective December 31, 2007, following over thirty-nine years of service at Y-12. This is not a joyous decision, or one that I wanted to make at this time, as I had hoped to have a few more years of productivity before leaving. However, circumstances beyond my control have forced me to choose between my health and my job, and I have chosen my health. This is a decision being made by a growing number of Y-12 workers who, like me, have little trust that their health will be protected. As you are aware, I have dealt with significant health problems for a number of years, due to Chronic Beryllium Disease (CBD) contracted in my work at Y-12. My quality of life has been considerably worse than if I did not have this disease. The symptoms are worsening, and there is now heart involvement which both my pulmonary and heart doctors associate with CBD. I am also concerned that I will not be protected from further exposure to detectable beryllium, which could potentially worsen my condition even more. I have documented over thirty incidents where items were found in the ‘safe haven’ to which I have been assigned for over ten years to have detectable beryllium, some above the public release limit. One incident on October 30, 2007 was fifty times this limit. My immediate supervision has done an admirable job of trying to prevent such items from entering my workplace, and I am indebted for this. However, I do not feel that higher management has taken the issues nearly as seriously as they should have. My pulmonary doctor has advised no further exposure to detectable beryllium in any form, yet the potential for exposure is there. Following one incident in 2003, Industrial Hygiene recommended that air and surface monitoring for beryllium be conducted at least quarterly, but this was not done. Personal Air Monitoring has been done only once on me in the 10+ years I have been in the department. The week before I went out on sick leave in January 2007, equipment was found on the south dock of my building which had beryllium warning tags attached, at least two of which were above the public release limit. I have had skin reactions when much lower readings were present. I have taken steps to separate myself from potential beryllium exposure, without success. These have included several requests for permanent medical removal benefits under Federal Regulation 10 CFR 850 and Y-12 Procedure Y73-201. I received a formal written response from Y-12 management denying all requests. I have also contacted Y-12 management about how my CBD and associated restrictions would affect my acceptance of HRP (Human Reliability Program) status, which would involve premium pay, and also received a negative ruling on this issue. Management response is that they are meeting minimum regulatory requirements, and this appears to be all they are willing to do, regardless of the recommendations of treating physicians, and despite the flexibility of existing regulations. “Compliance does not necessarily mean Protection.” Compassion is not a management requirement, but it should be a basic concern of one human for another. I have seen little of this from Y-12 upper management, although there are a few noteworthy exceptions. For the most part, I have been ignored, and my concerns trivialized. The wealth of information and experience of beryllium exposure and health effects I have gained has been dismissed and belittled by upper management. I do not wish to continue a relationship such as this. I spent my entire adult life serving Y-12 and my country, and I feel I deserve better than what I have received after I became “damaged goods.” I have more resentment toward the current management than the ones who made me sick to begin with -- because the current leadership had a chance to actually make a positive difference. Although some effort has been made to correct some of the beryllium workers’ concerns, for me, it is too little, too late. And I wonder how much change has been made out of concern for the worker, and how much of this change was forced on the contractor as a result of actions such as the recent DOE Inspector General’s audit of beryllium surface contamination at Y-12. My feelings are shared by a number of long-time Y-12 workers, who feel taken for granted and not part of the team. “Y-12 is not a family anymore,” as one Beryllium Support Group member stated a year ago. Lack of trust in management has been brought up by support group members numerous times in the last few years, and this distrust has recently increased. I believe that management failed to recognize, or failed to accept, the structure and culture of Y-12’s established workforce, and alienated themselves by doing so. Also, unprofessional comments from management have not helped, such as a division manager telling my department head he would “buy a round for everybody (at the cafeteria) if they sold beer,” on confirming that I am retiring. I have worked hard to maintain credibility where the beryllium issues are concerned, and this comment is not appreciated. This is especially upsetting coming from one who said he was not interested in being beryllium-tested “until I found out there might be some money in it if I tested positive.” I am not a disgruntled employee, just a disappointed one. So it is with regrets that I leave Y-12. I will continue to do what I can to support those with beryllium-related illnesses. I will miss the many friends and supporters I have made over the years. But I somehow feel I will not miss the frustration of dealing with a system that really doesn’t seem to have care and respect for the individual worker. Posted by Frank Munger on January 02, 2008 at 02:49 PM Share this post: Digg It! | Add to del.icio.us | Submit to Reddit | I have known Glenn Bell for many years. His fight for better conditions at Y-12 are with much valor. The same plant which I retired from in 1999 cares less about any workers than can be estimated. Over the years there were people with police arrests which were not reported to plant security or D.O.E. & various other situations. I even took proof to D.O.E. which was printed in the Oak Ridger of certain arrests and they did -0-. Plant security was a joke all the time I worked there in my 22 1/2 years. Any time there was going to be an inspection we were told ahead of time and cleaned up everything so the area would pass inspection when the inspection team showed up. Promotions are mostly made to friends of management and not necessarily to the most qualified persons. If you made 'waves' you were transfered to the worst working conditions and harassed in many ways. Been there, done that. I was off for an extended time due to illness or operation. When I went back to work my clearance was supposed to have been pulled until a clearance could be done again. I 'badged in' and went on to my building in the secured part of the plant. I called Badge & Pass and they said to report to their office immediately and I'd be transfered to another area until my Q clearance was updated. Another worker in the building I was located in had been off longer than me and his clearance had not been pulled either. I used up my FMLA due to several opeations. When I returned to work I was told that I was going to be fired if I missed more time. I had several more operations and went on short term disability. When long term was to go into effect I retired rather than letting the plant fire me. This is only a tiny part of the iceberg of problems which have been going on at Y-12 for many years. Inadequate medical records were part of the problems also. One day while at medical I looked at my open records which stated I was a female and a smoker. I have never been a female nor have I ever smoked. I brought the point up but don't know whether the matter was corrected or not. Posted by: Joe C. Copeland at January 2, 2008 10:35 PM Glenn Bell is to be admired for having the "guts" to stand up for what is right. Many people knew that he was right, but they didn't have the "guts" to say so. Glen Bell tried to make conditions better for everyone. It is a shame that we don't have more Glen Bell's who believed workers should be taken care of at all cost. We need more Glenn Bell's in this world. Posted by: B.K. Mathes at January 3, 2008 06:05 PM Scripps Newspaper Group — Online © 2008 The E.W. Scripps Co. ***************************************************************** 66 The Bulletin Online: Misadventures at the U.S. Energy Department By Hugh Gusterson | 26 December 2007 I had intended to write this month's column about a talk given by Tom D'Agostino, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), on his plans to reorganize the nuclear weapons complex for the twenty-first century. Instead, I'm writing about why I wasn't allowed to hear D'Agostino's talk. A friend had forwarded an e-mail message from the NNSA saying that on December 18, D'Agostino would "announce his vision for the future of the nuclear weapons complex" at the Energy Department's headquarters in Washington. Since I'm in the midst of writing a book on the transformation of the nuclear weapons complex, this sounded like just the event for me. As the message took the form of a press release, I called D'Agostino's office and asked if university professors such as myself were allowed to attend. "Of course," I was told, "come on down." When I arrived at the Energy building, I was told to get a pro forma badge from the front desk. The guard put information from my driver's license into her computer and started to print my badge when she casually asked, "You're a U.S. citizen, right?" As it so happens, although I've lived in this country for 27 years and have possessed a green card for 14 of those years, I'm a British citizen. I knew from watching others that if I nodded, no one would check my citizenship and I could proceed unhindered to D'Agostino's talk; but, alas, my mother taught me to always tell the truth. (Many years ago, this is how I got a ticket for an illegal U-turn when the cop offered me an easy out by asking if I'd seen the no U-turn sign in the dark. But I digress.) The guard then said she would need to look for my name on "the list," reaching for a sheaf of printed pages. I hoped that this was a list of dangerous foreigners, and that my name was not on it. Instead, it was a list of approved foreigners, and my name was not on it. Another guard was called. He peered at my green card, turning it over and over; he then asked, "But are you a U.S. citizen?" Twice. This seemed an odd question to ask someone with a green card. He looked uncomfortable: He didn't want to turn me away, but he didn't want to let me in either. He started calling numbers in the building to find someone to tell him what to do. I protested that I’d been to a public hearing in the building just a few months earlier with no problem. The first guard then said that anyone was allowed in, even foreigners, if it was a public event. Was this a public event? I said yes. They looked skeptical. Neither guard had heard of D'Agostino, one of the five most important people in the building, or his speech, which made the front page of the next day's Washington Post. At this point, I spied George M. Bernier III, the NNSA's Congressional Affairs Officer, who I recognized from other Energy events. I asked him if he could vouch to the guards that this was a public event. Instead, he came over to the guards and announced that only media and Energy employees were allowed in. If this was so, Energy clearly had a problem since I had just seen an anti-nuclear activist get a badge and go through to D'Agostino's talk. It also meant that, even if I were a U.S. citizen, I was still barred from the event. New rules! In the course of a few hours, this event had gone from being open to the public to being open to the public except for foreigners to being closed to the public. Ironically, if I had stayed home, I could have listened to D'Agostino's talk without difficulty, since the press release gave instructions for tuning in by satellite dish, as well as an 888 number one could call to listen. Apparently foreigners are allowed to listen by phone--at the U.S. government's expense, no less. My misadventure on Independence Avenue was a trivial event, but it encapsulates in miniature everything that is wrong with Energy. There was disagreement among Energy employees on the basic rules of admission, so that whether you got in depended on which employee you asked; a rule against admitting foreigners that, in the absence of any checking mechanism, was left to the foreigners themselves to enforce; two guards who had no idea what was happening in the building they guarded, and who were clearly terrified of exercising discretion; one guard who didn’t know what a green card was; and an event that was being broadcast by satellite and over an 888-number but was closed to foreigners in the flesh. Even by the standards of the U.S. government, Energy is notorious for its mismanagement. While it keeps holding press conferences to announce new, more efficient organizational charts, the situation on the ground goes from bad to worse. The day I was turned away from Energy headquarters, the press announced a $2.8 million fine for an Energy contractor, the University of California, stemming from more than 1,000 pages of classified documents from Los Alamos National Laboratory found in a drug bust at a trailer park--the latest in a series of security lapses at Los Alamos that go back at least to the Wen Ho Lee case. Meanwhile, Energy's National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is about 300 percent over budget and six years behind schedule, while the dual-arm hydrotest facility at Los Alamos, more than $300 million later, failed when it was tested at full power. My comical experience at Energy's front door suggests a lumbering bureaucracy that doesn't know what it's doing and whose parts don't communicate with one another. How then can we expect such an agency to steward the nation's aging nuclear stockpile, solve the nuclear waste problem, and bring new energy technologies to fruition? © 2007 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Remote Address: 206.130.124.74 · Server: www.thebulletin.org ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************