***************************************************************** 12/02/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.312 ***************************************************************** 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 [southnews] Aussie PM faces Asian backlash over pre-emptive 2 Pakistan is not exporting its nuclear technology: Ambassador 3 Westinghouse Wins Major Contract to Supply Nuclear Fuel to EdF 4 US: Office of Nonproliferation Policy; Proposed Subsequent Arrangeme 5 US: IAB IAE meeting on China 6 Uranium Clouds Gather Over Kiev 7 Pakistan's nuclear weapons could fall into hands of 'bandits,' 8 Yuschenko to turn Ukraine into a full-fledged nuclear state 9 China Russia's strategic nuclear industry partner - minister* 10 Navy Chief wants the strongest of the nuclear triad at sea : 11 Westinghouse sells nuclear fuel to French utility - 12 China, Russia Urge N.Korea to Drop Nuclear Program 13 Jiang and Putin Urge NK to Drop 'N' Program 14 Christiane Amanpour: Iraq says it sought weapons components NUCLEAR REACTORS 15 US: Nuclear, Free!* 16 Buffett eyeing Ontario nuclear operator: report 17 'Oracle of Omaha' said eyeing a chunk of Bruce Power* 18 US: NRC: Leyse petition comment period 19 US: Davis-Besse photo reveals reactor lid corrosion 20 US: D-B staff under fire over photo - NUCLEAR SAFETY 21 US: N-sub chief punished after crash 22 Opposition exposes lucrative radioactive wheat export scam 23 Putin's concern over nuke safety rejected NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 24 US: Uranium mill remains hot issue 25 US: Nevada says DOE must get state hazardous waste permit 26 US: Yucca assurances aren’t reassuring 27 US: Nuclear waste containers called hazardous waste 28 US: DOE to seal underground nuclear waste sites NUCLEAR WEAPONS 29 Nuclear Duplicity From Pakistan 30 Spy chief urged Churchill to threaten Nazis with atom bomb 31 India's strongest nuclear platform should be "undersea": Singh 32 Ja takes spotlight in effort to enforce nuclear test ban treaty 33 India voices nuclear weapons fear 34 India 'should store nuclear arms underwater' 35 India says Western nations must note Putin's concern over 36 Naval chief won't confirm whether India will lease nuclear 37 Russian spy scandals since end of the Cold War US DEPT. OF ENERGY 38 UC to take action on Los Alamos * 39 Wigner played important role in creation of ORNL 40 Watchdog: NM Right to Push for Lab Cleanup * * 41 DOE cranking up nickel recycling OTHER NUCLEAR 42 Kissinger Is Back in an Ugly Deja Vu 43 Grant Helps Penn State Nuke Program* ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 [southnews] Aussie PM faces Asian backlash over pre-emptive Date: Mon, 2 Dec 2002 00:15:08 -0600 (CST) Australian PM faces Asian backlash over pre-emptive strike warning AFP Monday December 2 Prime Minister John Howard faced a storm of protest by Asian neighbours and political opponents over his threat to launch pre-emptive strikes overseas to prevent a terrorist attack on Australia. His comments in a televised interview Sunday drew immediate condemnation by Southeast Asian nations which warned against the use of military action in another country. The federal Labor opposition accused Howard of using bold language intended to appeal to his domestic audience, but seen by Asian countries as provocative and a threat to attack them. Green Senator Bob Brown on Monday urged Howard to retract his comment, saying: "This is a major gaffe by a prime minister who has been caught out by jingoism." Howard said the most likely threat to a nation's security was from non-state terrorist groups, and international law could no longer cope with the changed circumstances confronting the world. Asked if he would be prepared to act if he knew terrorists in a neighbouring country were planning to attack Australia, he said: "Oh yes, I think any Australian prime minister would." He said any prime minister who had the capacity to prevent an attack against Australia would be failing the most basic test of office if he did not use it, as long as there was no alternative. "It stands to reason that if you believe that somebody was going to launch an attack on your country, either of a conventional kind or a terrorist kind, and you had a capacity to stop it and there was no alternative other than to use that capacity, then of course you would have to use it," he said. A spokesman for Indonesia's foreign ministry told ABC radio that Australia did not have the right to launch military strikes in other countries and warned that countries could not "flout international law and norms willy-nilly". The Thai government said no country should do anything like Howard suggested. Each country had its own sovereignty that must be protected, a government spokesman told the radio. The Philippines national security adviser Roilo Golez said Howard's comments were completely unacceptable. "That's a very surprising statement, to say the least, in fact bordering on shocking," Golez said. "I can't believe that it would come from a supposed friendly country in the neighbourhood. You are talking about a region with very strong government, the ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region. "This is the 21st century, not the 19th century." Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said Howard was using language designed to make him look "hairy-chested" to his domestic audience. "But I really question the wisdom of the prime minister using this language in terms of how it is read in terms of our neighbours and friends in the region," Rudd said. "As it is being read, it is seen as Australia under John Howard is contemplating a possibility of an attack on our neighbours in Southeast Asia." Howard made the comment as he elaborated on his call last week for a change in international law to allow pre-emptive strikes against terrorists in other nations. He said the world was confronted by a problem that had not been imagined when the UN charter on self-defence was drawn up to resolve problems between nations. Now, the major threat was from non-state terrorist groups but the danger was just as high, he said. Australia is tightening its anti-terrorist laws and has stepped up internal security following the October 12 bombing on the Indonesian island of Bali in which almost half of the 190 or more victims were Australian. ---------- 'Pre-emptive' strikes would legitimise terror Monday, 2 December 2002, 10:01 am Press Release: NZ Green Party 'Pre-emptive' strikes would legitimise terror France's raid on the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland would have been legal and appropriate under John Howard's rationale for "pre-emptive" strikes on countries that harbour groups seen as a threat to another country's national interests, Green Foreign Affairs spokesperson Keith Locke said today. "It is a recipe for international chaos," said Mr Locke, who is calling on the Labour government to denounce the Australian leader's remarks. "The Green Party agrees with those Asian governments who have already criticised Mr Howard's words. The people of South East Asian struggled long and hard to become independent of the Western powers and are rightly outraged at the threat of another round of military interventions. "What makes this statement even more contemptible is that Mr Howard is not talking about giving his neighbours reciprocal rights to carry out pre-emptive strikes in Australia against groups that they might consider threaten their rights. "Would he accept Indonesian forces raiding Australian-based West Papuan independence groups? Would it be acceptable for China to 'strike' against Tibetan nationalist leaders in Australia and New Zealand? "The UN Charter and international law have been constructed to prevent aggression by one country against another, whether or not it is under the guise of a 'pre-emptive strike.' "No nation can be allowed to be judge, jury and executioner in another country. The appalling thing is that the United States has been blatantly flouting international law, in one recent case launching a missile that killed six people travelling across Yemen in a car. "New Zealand must stand firm for countries solving differences through peaceful negotiation and cooperation between police forces to catch terrorists, and we want our Government to convey that message to Mr Howard." ---------- Malaysian minister slams Australia for treating her like terrorist AFP Saturday November 30, 13:05 PM Malaysian Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz has slammed Australia's security officials for treating her like a terrorist during a visit there a fortnight ago. Rafidah said airport security officials gave her a hard time upon her arrival in Sydney for a World Trade Organisation meeting, demanding her hand-luggage be checked by sniffer dogs twice at different locations. "I told them that I would not allow that, as I am a Muslim," she was quoted as saying by New Straits Times. "How could they do such a thing particularly during the fasting month and when the animal is 'haram' (dirty) to Muslims? They were so insensitive." Rafidah said she had pointed out that she was a guest of the Australian government, and told them that they could open and check her bag if they suspected anything. They relented and let her go but upon reaching the hotel, she said security officials tried for a third time to use dogs to screen her bag. "This time I blew my top. I told them if they were to touch my bag, I would take the next flight home," Rafidah said, describing the events as "ridiculous" as she was not subjected to such harassment even in New York. The Malay-language Berita Harian quoted her as saying: "Their action showed they have no confidence... as if I was carrying drugs or bombs. I will not harm Australia or myself. I am not a terrorist." She questioned why Muslims from Malaysia were targeted, noting that the Indonesians were not asked to submit their luggage to sniffer-dog checks. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has slammed Australia and the United States for singling out Southeast Asia in their travel advisories after the October 12 Bali blasts, which killed more than 190 people. Mahathir, who has pledged to step down in October 2003, said Australia had gone too far in identifying with US aims and tactics in the war against terrorism. The veteran Southeast Asian leader warned that Australia could not be accepted as an Asian country if it played "deputy sheriff" to the United States. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: southnews-unsubscribe@egroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 2 Pakistan is not exporting its nuclear technology: Ambassador Ali Sarwar -- Detail Story* *ISLAMABAD:* Pakistan has once again reiterated its commitment that its nuclear technology will not be exported to any third country. This was stated by Pakistan's ambassador Ali Sarwar Naqvi while addressing a meeting of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). According to reports from Vienna, Pakistan's ambassador while rebutting a baseless allegations made by India during an IAEA meeting, exposed Indian double standard on nuclear technology. The ambassador said Pakistan is a responsible state and had in place a strong export control regime and added that the record in its regard is unquestionable. Informed sources giving details of the meeting said Pakistan highlighted India's role and said that India was the world's largest and worst proliferator of nuclear, biological and chemical materials and technology of weapons of mass destruction. It was informed in the meeting that India is well known to the international community for its duplicity, for aggravating regional and international tensions, and for its cynical disregard of international norms and agreements. Pakistan's representative while addressing the meeting had fully detailed India's transgressions. When the IAEA was being set up, and the debate on its future role and charter was taking place, and countries such as Pakistan supported proposals for peaceful uses of fissile material, India constantly opposed such proposals in view of its nuclear ambitions which were clearly spelt out from the early days of India's independence. It is open to every one that in the 50s and 60s India violated its agreement for peaceful uses of the Trombay reactor with Canada, which supplied this research rector, and its safeguards agreement with the United States which supplied the heavy water for this reactor, to produce the fissile material for its nuclear explosion in 1974. After the Indian explosion in 1974 the Indian Governor in the IAEA assured the IAEA board that India would never go in for a nuclear weapons programme and would never develop or explode a nuclear device. In 1998, against the wishes of the entire international community, India masked its imminent plans for conducting nuclear explosions, claiming to be in the process of carrying out a strategic review, and then going for its series of nuclear weapon explosions, and thereby bringing the specter of nuclear proliferation further into the region and the world. It is well known that compounding its violations of Canadian reactor technology provided for peaceful purposes, India has further transgressed by using this technology for the production to produce an extract tritium for the development of fusion-boosted fission weapons, and fusion/hydrogen bomb capability. In the field of chemical weapons, India violated its 1992 bilateral agreement with Pakistan not to produce or stockpile chemical weapons by convention as a state not in possession of chemical weapons. It reluctantly was forced to reveal its secret chemical weapons stocks ultimately some time after becoming part to the CWC. It is well known that India is conducting an active biological weapons programme in complete contravention of its obligations and commitments under the BWC. Indian companies have been violating UN Security Council resolutions by supplying prohibited items to Iraq. The British government has documented these serious violations in its dossier on Iraq. NEC Engineers Limited, an Indian chemical engineering firm provided illicitly the technology for new plant at Al-Mamoun in Iraq, for indigenously producing ammonium perchlorate, which is a key ingredient in the production of solid propellant rocket motors. The same Indian company, NEC, has extensive links in Iraq, including to other suspect facilities such as the Fallujah 2 chlorine plant. The U.S. has also taken up these concerns with India. India is in no position to talk about regional peace an stability as it itself has been the main factor against peace and stability in South Asia and Asia as whole. Its policy of state terrorism, genocide, rape torture and the killing of 80,000 innocent Kashmiris is an affront to the principles of the UN Charter, and the norms and laws of international humanitarian and human rights, particularly the Geneva Conventions. Therefore, Pakistan's representative emphasized to the IAEA, that rather than making such baseless innuendoes against Pakistan, it is India with its perfidious record of broken commitments, which should be censured, investigate and restrained. Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 3 Westinghouse Wins Major Contract to Supply Nuclear Fuel to EdF PITTSBURGH, Dec. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Westinghouse Electric Company has been awarded a contract to provide nuclear fuel to Electricite de France (EdF) for use in their nuclear power stations located throughout France. As a major customer, EdF will have access to a full range of nuclear technology available from Westinghouse. The contract will give Westinghouse the opportunity to provide up to 20 percent of EdF's total nuclear fuel requirements over several years and is part of EdF's program to fulfill European Commission directives regarding international competition within the French nuclear market. Westinghouse, through the European Fuel Group, will manufacture the fuel assemblies at its existing facility in Vasteras, Sweden and at the ENUSA plant in Juzbado, Spain. Most components will be manufactured at the Westinghouse fuel fabrication facility in Columbia, S.C., with others originating from the Westinghouse specialty metals plant in Blairsville, Pa., and from the ENUSA plant in Juzbado. The Westinghouse Springfields facility near Preston, U.K. will provide conversion services. The associated field and operation services will be offered via existing BNFL-Westinghouse French infrastructures. Steve Tritch, Westinghouse President and CEO, said: "This contract is significant for Westinghouse and the nuclear power industry. EdF is the largest and certainly one of the most respected nuclear generators in the world. We are delighted to be working with them on this program. "Nuclear power is fast becoming one of the world's most global and competitive industries. Our entry into the French nuclear fuel market strengthens the industry as it will drive every supplier, including Westinghouse, to continually improve quality and efficiency which will in turn make nuclear power even more competitive across the world." Mike Saunders, Westinghouse Senior Vice President of Fuel, said: "We are committed to assisting in further improving the competitiveness of nuclear generation. The establishment of this long-term arrangement to deliver advanced fuel products is a further step towards this goal." The European Fuel Group is an alliance between Westinghouse and ENUSA. Westinghouse Electric Company, wholly owned by BNFL plc of the United Kingdom, is the world's pioneering nuclear power Company and is a leading supplier of nuclear plant products and technologies to utilities throughout the world. Today, approximately one-half of the world's operating nuclear plants are based on Westinghouse technology. SOURCE Westinghouse Electric Company ***************************************************************** 4 Office of Nonproliferation Policy; Proposed Subsequent Arrangement FR Doc 02-30410 [Federal Register: December 2, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 231)] [Notices] [Page 71539] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr02de02-65] DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY AGENCY: Department of Energy. ACTION: Notice of subsequent arrangement. SUMMARY: This notice has been issued under the authority of Section 131 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (42 U.S.C. 2160). The Department is providing notice of a proposed ``subsequent arrangement'' under the Agreement for Cooperation Concerning Civil Uses of Atomic Energy between the United States and Canada and Agreement for Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy between the United States and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM). This subsequent arrangement concerns the retransfer of 180,038 kg of U.S.-origin natural uranium hexafluoride, 121,706 kg of which is uranium, from the Cameco Corporation, Ontario, Canada to Urenco Capenhurst, England. The material, which is now located at Cameco Corp., Port Hope, Ontario, will be transferred to Urenco for enrichment. Upon completion of the enrichment, the material will be retransferred to Commonwealth Edison Company, Downers Grove, Illinois for use as fuel. The uranium hexafluoride was originally obtained by the Cameco Corp. from Power Resources, Inc. pursuant to export license number XSOU8744. In accordance with Section 131 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, we have determined that this subsequent arrangement is not inimical to the common defense and security. This subsequent arrangement will take effect no sooner than fifteen days after the date of publication of this notice. For the National Nuclear Security Administration. Trisha Dedik, Director, Office of Nonproliferation Policy. [FR Doc. 02-30410 Filed 11-29-02; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P ***************************************************************** 5 IAB IAE meeting on China FR Doc 02-30411 [Federal Register: December 2, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 231)] [Notices] [Page 71545-71546] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr02de02-70] DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY International Energy Agency Meeting AGENCY: Department of Energy. ACTION: Notice of meeting. SUMMARY: The Industry Advisory Board (IAB) to the International Energy Agency (IEA) will meet on December 9-10, 2002, at the Chinese State Development Planning Commission in Beijing, China. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Samuel M. Bradley, Assistant General Counsel for International and National Security Programs, Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20585, 202-586- 6738. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In accordance with section 252(c)(1)(A)(i) of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (42 U.S.C. 6272(c)(1)(A)(i)) (EPCA), the following notice of meeting is provided: A meeting of the Industry Advisory Board (IAB) to the International Energy Agency (IEA) will be held at the Chinese State Development Planning Commission, 38 Yuetannanjie, Xicheng District, Beijing, China 100824 on December 9 and 10, 2002, commencing at 9 a.m. on December 9. The purpose of this notice is to permit attendance by representatives of U.S. company members of the IAB at a meeting of the IEA's China Seminar on Oil Stocks and Emergency Response, which is scheduled to be held at the same time and location. The Agenda for the meeting is under the control of the IEA. It is expected that the IEA will adopt the following Agenda: Monday, December 9, 2002 I. Introduction II. Opening Remarks and Keynote Speeches --Opening Remarks--Mr. Zhang Guobao, Vice-Chairman, SDPC --Opening Remarks--Amb. William Ramsay, Deputy Executive Director, IEA --China's Energy Security Challenges and Progress in Meeting Them --Oil Emergency Challenges: Introduction and Video Presentation of a Hypothetical Disruption Scenario III. IEA Oil Security Policies and Procedures --Overview of IEA Oil Emergency Response Policies --An Industry Perspective on IEA Oil Emergency Response Policies --IEA Oil Data Reporting System and Oil Emergency Data Collection --Oil Information and Data Collection in China IV. Oil Disruption and Response Simulation Exercise --Replay of the Video Presentation of a Hypothetical Disruption Scenario --Oil Disruption and Response Simulation Exercise --Presentation on the Lessons Learned from Previous IEA Emergency Response Simulation Exercises --Key Points Learned from Today's Simulation Exercise --Case Study of the U.S. Oil Disruption Simulation Model V. IEA Members' Experience in Emergency Response --Overview of Oil Emergency Procedures and Measures in IEA Countries --Japan's Experience in Emergency Response --The UK's Experience in Emergency Response Tuesday, December 10, 2002 I. Introduction II. IEA Experiences in Building Oil Stockholding Facilities --German Experiences in Building the German Independent Stockholding Agency (EBV) --Hungarian Experiences in Establishing the Crude Oil and Oil Product Stockholding Association (KKKSZ) --Korean Experience in Building Emergency Oil Stocks by Utilization of Stocks and Facilities --SINOPEC Experience in Building Oil Stockholding Facilities and Managing Commercial Stocks III. Technical and Operational Aspects of Emergency Stockholding --U.S. Experience in the Operation of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve --Budget and Operation of a Government Stockholding Agency --French Government Experience with the Government-Industry Relationship in the Professional Committee for Strategic Petroleum Stocks (CPSSP) --A Major Oil Company's Experience in Managing Commercial and Strategic Oil Stocks --CNPC/PetroChina's Experience with the Technical and Operational Aspects of Emergency and Commercial Oil Stockholding V. Summary and Closing Remarks As provided in section 252(c)(1)(A)(ii) of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (42 U.S.C. 6272(c)(1)(A)(ii)), this meeting is open only to representatives of members of the IAB and their counsel; representatives of members of the SEQ; representatives of the Departments of Energy, Justice, and [[Page 71546]] State, the Federal Trade Commission, the General Accounting Office, Committees of Congress, the IEA, and the European Commission; and invitees of the IAB, the SEQ, or the IEA. Issued in Washington, DC, November 25, 2002. Samuel M. Bradley, Assistant General Counsel for International and National Security Programs. [FR Doc. 02-30411 Filed 11-29-02; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P ***************************************************************** 6 Uranium Clouds Gather Over Kiev Monday, Dec. 2, 2002. Page 12 By Joby Warrick The Washington Post Joby Warrick / wp Alexei Yegorev said that the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology intends to keep the cache of uranium for research purposes. Enough weapons-grade uranium to build three nuclear bombs is sitting in a poorly guarded laboratory in Kharkiv -- and both Iraq and the United States would like to get their hands on it. Joby Warrick of The Washington Post reports from Kharkiv, Ukraine. In 1994, a senior Ukrainian nuclear scientist offered U.S. officials a chance to buy a cache of weapons-grade uranium held by an obscure defense laboratory in Kharkiv. It was a significant cache -- 75 kilograms, enough for three nuclear bombs -- and the scientist said Ukraine might be willing to give it up. "It's lightly guarded," the scientist said, according to two officials from former U.S. President Bill Clinton's administration present at the meeting, "and I'm worried about it." The deal never happened. Eight years later, with new concerns about nuclear terrorism, the U.S. government would like nothing better than to buy Ukraine's uranium. But the opportunity appears to be slipping away. Relations with Ukraine recently have taken a confrontational turn, and the laboratory, the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology, now insists the material is urgently needed for civilian research. Meanwhile, despite elaborate physical protections for the uranium, U.S. weapons experts see new reasons to worry about its safety: The lab is facing extreme financial pressure at a time when Iraqi officials have been openly pursuing trade deals with local companies and paying visits to Kharkiv's Soviet-era weapons factories and research centers, including the institution where the uranium is kept. Iraq two years ago appointed an "honorary consul" in Kharkiv, a Ukrainian exporter who keeps an office not far from the institute -- and openly displays an Iraqi flag on the front door. "We would be far better off today if we had just gotten rid of the stuff," said Matthew Bunn, a former White House nonproliferation policy adviser who argued unsuccessfully for a U.S. purchase of the uranium eight years ago. "Insecure nuclear material anywhere is a threat to people everywhere." The highly enriched uranium at Kharkiv is emblematic of a global proliferation threat that has now become a top priority for the United States: the vulnerability to theft or misuse of weapons-grade uranium kept in scientific institutions such as research reactors. An estimated 18 metric tons of highly enriched uranium currently is stored at such locations in about 40 countries, from Russia and other former Soviet republics to Libya and Congo. In the last decade, efforts to protect against the theft of nuclear materials largely focused on military installations. But weapons experts say that the research facilities are lightly guarded in comparison with military stockpiles. Some terrorism experts regard them as the most vulnerable repositories of nuclear material in the world. "We are talking about the raw material of nuclear terrorism stored in hundreds of facilities in dozens of nations," former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, a Georgia Democrat and long-time arms control advocate, told a conference of nuclear terrorism experts this month. "Some of it is secured by nothing more than an underpaid guard sitting inside a chain-link fence." In August, President George W. Bush's administration achieved a dramatic breakthrough when it persuaded Yugoslavia to give up 45 kilograms of highly enriched uranium from the Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences near Belgrade. But the deal required more than a year of complicated negotiations involving Yugoslavia, Russia and the U.S. State Department. As a clincher, the United States pledged $5 million to be paid to the institute by the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a nonprofit group co-founded by Nunn and billionaire entrepreneur Ted Turner. Afterward, the State Department announced it had targeted two dozen other research institutions as "priority sites," most of them in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. But while progress has been made in the negotiations, several countries have balked, refusing to give up what they see as a powerful bargaining chip that could be used to extract money, technology or other concessions, according to administration officials and weapons experts familiar with the talks. Two of the countries most opposed to giving up uranium -- Ukraine and Belarus -- also happen to own some of the largest stocks of the metal. Both countries are under increased scrutiny by U.S. intelligence officials because of alleged attempts by local businesses to sell weapons or military supplies to Iraq or Iran. "They were once willing to help us, but they may not be so willing anymore," said Bunn, now a senior researcher for Harvard University's Project on Managing the Atom. "We can only hope that someone eventually can put together a package that will change the answer from nyet to da." A Dangerous Asset The gravest nuclear threat in Ukraine is housed in a crumbling institution that struggles in most years to pay its heating bills. Two-thirds of its staff have been laid off, and the remaining workers scrape by on the equivalent of about $150 a month. Scientists with two Ph.D.s spend their days in freezing-cold buildings, sometimes as caretakers for such technological dinosaurs as the institute's 40-year-old linear accelerator, once the world's largest but now permanently idled in a building that is kept dark to save on electricity bills. By almost every measure, the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology, or KIPT, bears scant resemblance to the bustling weapons lab that existed here in Soviet times. Before the breakup of the Soviet Union, the lab had 6,000 workers and a mission to develop special materials for the most advanced weapons in the Soviet arsenal -- from nuclear warheads to the missiles that carried them. The institute's two campuses were part of a larger weapons-research complex in Kharkiv that collectively employed 50,000 scientists, giving this city of 2.5 million the distinction of having one of the greatest concentrations of weapons expertise in the world. Exactly how the institute came to acquire 75 kilograms of highly enriched uranium is unclear. The lab has never owned a nuclear reactor and was never directly involved in weapons fabrication. In contrast with similar labs in other former Soviet republics, the Kharkiv institute has clung to a tradition of secrecy about many aspects of its past and will not even discuss the amount of uranium it has. This much is clear: More than a decade after the institute was converted to civilian research, the uranium remains one of the lab's most significant and dangerous assets. "The uranium at Kharkiv has at best little relevance to Ukraine's peaceful nuclear energy needs and has been untouched for over a decade," said William Potter, director of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, a Monterey, California, weapons think tank that has studied the lab and its holdings. "It represents a major terrorist and proliferation target and also poses a residual 'breakout' threat should Ukraine ever seek to repudiate its commitments" renouncing nuclear weapons. U.S. Energy Department officials apparently shared those concerns, agreeing in 1995 to help the UN-chartered International Atomic Energy Agency build a multimillion-dollar security system for the uranium. In 1999, the agency completed work on a double vault -- an outer shell of concrete, an inner shell of hardened steel -- and installed security cameras and fences to guard against intrusion. Once a month, IAEA inspectors check the uranium to ensure none is missing. Today, officials at the institute cite security concerns in refusing to allow visits to the storage facility, even by Ukrainian government ministers. They boast of a fail-proof system equal to the finest in Europe and North America. "It is not possible to remove from our institute even one single milligram," deputy director Alexei Yegorev said in an interview at the lab's main administration building, an office tower in a suburb of Kharkiv. U.S. energy officials familiar with the upgrades agree -- to a point. But they assert that there is no reliable defense against a future government decision to thwart the safeguards. "It's just like the bank manager who turns off the alarm and takes the money," said an official of the Energy Department's national nuclear security administration. "There's no system in the world that can protect against that." The Iraq Connection From the start of Iraq's quest for a nuclear bomb in the 1970s until the present, the main obstacle has been the lack of fissile material -- enriched uranium or plutonium needed for a nuclear explosion. Western intelligence agencies estimate that if President Saddam Hussein could buy or steal a quantity of fissile material one-third the size of Kharkiv's 75 kilograms of uranium, Iraq could become a nuclear power in less than a year. The possibility that Iraq might try to cut a deal for the uranium partly explains the intense U.S. interest in recent Iraqi trade missions to this city. Encouraged by Kharkiv businessmen, Iraq opened a consular office in this city in December 2000 and dispatched at least three official delegations since 1998 to explore trade opportunities. At least one of the delegations toured the institute, laboratory officials confirmed. "The Iraqis were interested only in an overview -- they made no requests," said Yegorev, the institute's deputy director. Yegorev said there were no other official contacts with the Iraqis, although individual scientists recalled being approached by Middle Eastern businessmen who claimed to represent Iraq or Iran. Concerns about possible Iraqi overtures to the institute first arose in the early 1990s, when documents obtained by UN weapons inspectors in Iraq pointed to alleged trafficking of weapons materials between Kharkiv and Baghdad. The key Ukrainian figure in the documents was Yury Orshansky, a businessman with a Ph.D. in electrical engineering. At the time, Orshansky was the head of a loose confederation of Ukrainian businesses called Montelekt that included several of the KIPT's sister institutions in Kharkiv. Documents found in Iraq included an agreement signed by Orshansky and Iraqi Brigadier General Naim Bakr Ali, then one of the leaders of Iraq's ballistic missile program, to provide Iraq with guidance systems and parts for advanced missiles, according to Timothy McCarthy, a former UN weapons inspector who investigated Iraq's Ukrainian connections in the mid-1990s. A third party to the protocol was a Kharkiv company, Khartron, a neighbor of the KIPT and an institution best known for designing Soviet ballistic missiles. "We found a copy of Orshansky's passport in Baghdad with the documents describing the deal," said McCarthy, now the director of the Proliferation Research and Assessment Program at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies. "The Iraqis basically gave him up." McCarthy said UN inspectors never were able to determine whether missile parts actually were delivered -- nor could the inspectors directly link Orshansky to any other technology sales to Iraq. The chances of finding hard evidence linking any foreign supplier to Iraq are always small, he noted, because Iraqi officials often use middlemen and obscure delivery routes to mask smuggling. "Getting the goods into Iraq is never the problem," McCarthy said. Meanwhile, Orshansky's continuing efforts to build ties between Iraq and Kharkiv businesses earned him two years ago the special title of "honorary consul" of Iraq in Kharkiv. In an interview last year with the Ukrainian defense news service Defense Express, Orshansky boasted of making 40 trips to Baghdad since 1993 and said he had embarked on a "constant study of Iraq's needs in all areas," working within the boundaries of Ukraine's export laws. "On some issues we have begun to work with Iraq in order to create conditions so that orders are placed with Ukraine," Orshansky was quoted as saying. "Even if they want to create a nuclear bomb, we will study this." In the months following U.S. allegations of illegal sales of Ukrainian air defense radars to Iraq, Orshansky has kept a lower profile. Contacted at his Kharkiv office last month, he declined to meet with a reporter or discuss any aspect of his business ties with Iraq. "If you've come to talk about Montelekt, I have nothing to say," he said, referring to the Ukrainian business confederation. Orshansky's choice of office decor, however, was itself a bold statement. In place of a sign announcing the name of his company, Orshansky displayed a large tricolor Iraqi flag with the familiar stars and the words "God is Great" written in Arabic. Above the door was an Iraqi eagle, the preferred symbol for Hussein's Baathist government. In 1994, a chance to eliminate the risks posed by the Kharkiv institute's enriched uranium was briefly dangled before Clinton administration officials, some of whom had never heard of the facility. The possibility of a sale grew out of a meeting in Washington with a visiting Ukrainian nuclear scientist who mentioned the KIPT's supply of weapons-grade nuclear material in a discussion of problems facing Ukraine's nuclear industry. Security for the enriched uranium was a big worry, the Ukrainian scientist said, according to those who heard him. "But your people already know this," he said. Bunn, then an adviser on nuclear terrorism in the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, made a few phone calls and learned that Energy Department officials had indeed visited the facility and had agreed to an IAEA plan that called for securing the material, not removing it. The notion of a deal to purchase the uranium was initially welcomed by State Department officials but ultimately went nowhere. At the time, Bunn explained, the administration was more concerned about removing the Soviet nuclear warheads still on Ukrainian soil. "The wheels of bureaucracy failed to turn," Bunn said. Wheels Failed to Turn Today, much has changed. The former Soviet republics outside Russia have given up their nuclear warheads and delivery systems. The United States is spending billions of dollars to help Russia dismantle nuclear weapons. Now, fresh attention is being devoted to new threats, such as the fissile material in Kharkiv. The United States favors removing enriched uranium from dozens of research reactors around the world, using a combination of money, technology transfers and political pressure as leverage. U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said in a speech Nov. 14 that a major factor in the new approach is that Russia has agreed to accept nuclear fuel returned from Soviet-designed reactors around the world. "This fuel needs to be repatriated to Russia, where it will be safer from the risk of theft or diversion," Abraham said. So far, such arguments have failed to sway the keepers of Kharkiv's uranium. Top managers of the Kharkiv institute said that there is no interest in selling the uranium because it is vital to the institute's plans to develop a new line of commercial fuel for nuclear power. "It is not possible for us to sell it," said Yegorev, the deputy director. "You would not only need a special order of the Ukraine government, but special permission of the IAEA because it is under their control. "Without this we can do nothing," he said. U.S. officials aren't convinced that this is the final word. Although relations occasionally have been rocky, Ukraine's leaders have almost always sided with the United States and NATO in deciding whether to scrap weapons systems that are deemed proliferation threats. At the beginning of November, senior Ukrainian officials stood with their U.S. counterparts to watch the destruction of the first of Ukraine's 225 Soviet-built Kh-22 missiles, medium-range weapons that potentially can carry nuclear, biological or chemical warheads. "You'll hear mumbling now and then from the military, but ultimately the cooperation is always fairly good," said a U.S. official. "Ukraine doesn't need these weapons anymore. And as the leaders know, if you let something lay around long enough, eventually it will disappear." © Copyright 2002, The Moscow Times. All Rights Reserved. Visit ***************************************************************** 7 Pakistan's nuclear weapons could fall into hands of 'bandits,' warns Putin [http://www.etaiwannews.com/] 2002-12-02 / Agence France-Presse / NEW DELHI Weapons of mass destruction in Pakistan could fall into the hands of "bandits and terrorists," Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday in an interview with an Indian newspaper. Putin, who arrives for a three-day official visit to India on Tuesday, told the Hindu newspaper that the international community needed "to have a clear picture of where those weapons are, in what status, in what condition they are and what will happen to them in future." Putin said Russia was worried that the weapons of mass destruction "could fall into the hands of bandits and terrorists." "Not only is that dangerous, but we also have concerns that they (terrorists) could obtain information concerning production techniques of even simple means that could be equal to weapons of mass destruction in their destructive potential." Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has said the military potential of his country is safely protected and strictly under control, but Putin said: "To be frank, our concerns, our anxiety still persists. "Our position is such that we believe that practical action should be taken to prevent the dissemination of WMD," he added. Referring to reports that Pakistan had helped North Korea develop nuclear weapons, Putin said he had no evidence that Islamabad was transferring military technology or weapons' systems to other countries. "Therefore any speculation on this matter could only be theoretical," he said, but added "if it was in fact happening, that would be regrettable." © 2001-2002 Taiwan News. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 8 Yuschenko to turn Ukraine into a full-fledged nuclear state December, 2nd, 2002 ForUm According to Our Ukraine’s Viktor Yuschenko, Ukraine should “resume a complete cycle of nuclear fuel production.” In particular, he said, “The respective studies were done several years ago, but they have not been put into life so far.» In addition, Yuschenko said the bloc Our Ukraine jointly with Russia’s Rightwing Forces’ Union initiated conducting bilateral negotiations on forming the international gas consortium to operate the Ukrainian gas transportation system. Attending the Central and Eastern European ForUm of Rightwing and Centrist Parties in Saint Petersburg on Friday, Yuschenko told a news conference that such consultations will be targeted at clarifying the common positions and designing legislative documents, which would later be considered on the parliamentary level. He said such negotiations would be started very soon. Commenting on Our Ukraine’s standpoint on the gas consortium, Yuschenko said that the project of its formation should be trilateral, that is besides Ukraine and Russia, Europe should participate in it, too. Yuschenko approved of the project of Russian electric power delivery through Ukraine’s territory. He said, “We have already done a lot in this respect.” According to him, Ukraine and Russia do not use all their opportunities in the fields of economics and trade. When he was a premier, he said, the trade turnover between Ukraine and Russia increased 37 percent, and Russian investors activated their businesses in Ukraine. “Unfortunately, today this dynamics is being lost,” said Yuschenko. In late October Russia’s Gazprom and Ukraine’s Naftohaz Ukrainy signed the articles the limited liability corporation “The International Consortium for Operating and Developing Ukraine’s Gas Transportation System.” The companies, members of the consortium, are supposed to invest in its authorized fund $1 million in equal shares to complete the pre-investment research by the summer of 2003, Interfax-Ukraine reported. The consortium members will also conduct a feasibility study for the joint investment projects, find the acceptable ways of attracting investments in the Ukrainian gas delivery system and give an account of anticipated tax payments to the Ukrainian budget. the indication of the address http://for-ua.com. Edition: mail@for.com.ua. ***************************************************************** 9 China Russia's strategic nuclear industry partner - minister* 02.12.2002 04:34:01 BEIJING. Dec 2 (Interfax-China) - The Russian atomic energy minister on Monday called China a strategic partner of Russia's as regards nuclear power engineering. "Cooperation between Russia and China in the field of nuclear power engineering is forever," Alexander Rumyantsev told Interfax- China. He said Russia was currently building two generating units for the Tianwan nuclear power plant in China. This, he said, was a deal that would bring Russia about $1 billion. One of the units was to go into operation in December 2004 and the other one about 18 months thereafter, he said. [RU EUROPE EEU EMRG POWR ELG CN ASIA] as <> ** ** FSB, Audit Chamber find that over 700 mln rubles were misappropriated in Chechnya © 1991-2002 *Interfax, All rights reserved* News ***************************************************************** 10 Navy Chief wants the strongest of the nuclear triad at sea : National News : IndiaExpress.Com 18.04 IST 02nd Dec 2002 By IndiaExpress Bureau Navy Chief Admiral Madhvendera Singh stressed the need for India to have the strongest of the nuclear triad at sea, preferably underwater. Mr. Singh justified the secrecy surrounding the acquisition of these nuclear capable weapon platforms saying that they were "for good reason". He, however, declined to confirm or deny whether India was acquiring Russian Nuclear Akula II submarines and long range nuclear capable TU- M Bombers. "But conceptually, India being a declared nuclear state with a 'no first use' doctrine, it must have a nuclear triad with the strongest arm being at sea – underwater," the Naval chief said in his customary news conference two days before the Navy Day on December 4. "These would be a qualitative force multipliers for the Indian Navy" Admiral Singh declared. ***************************************************************** 11 Westinghouse sells nuclear fuel to French utility - 2002-12-02 - Pittsburgh Business Times Westinghouse Electric Co. announced a contract Monday to provide nuclear fuel to Electricite de France, one of the world's largest nuclear power generators. Under the contract, Westinghouse Electric, based in suburban Pittsburgh, will provide up to 20 percent of EdF's nuclear fuel requirements over the next several years. Further terms were not disclosed. Westinghouse Electric said its European fuel group will manufacture the fuel assemblies at facilities in Sweden and Spain. Some components for the assemblies will be produced at Westinghouse Electric's fabrication plant in Columbia, S.C., and its specialty metals plant in Blairsville, Pa. A facility in England will provide additional services. Westinghouse Electric, of Monroeville, is a subsidiary of BNFL plc, a United Kingdom-based supplier of nuclear plant products and technologies. © 2002 American City Business Journals Inc. ***************************************************************** 12 China, Russia Urge N.Korea to Drop Nuclear Program December 2, 2002 [Reuters] — By Richard Balmforth BEIJING (Reuters) - Russia and China urged North Korea Monday to drop its nuclear weapons program in the strongest call ever by Pyongyang's allies for detente on the Korean peninsula. But a joint declaration after a Beijing summit also sent a strong message to the United States, urging Washington and North Korea to normalize ties and stick by a 1994 pact which each accuses the other of breaking. Analysts say China and Russia have only limited influence over fiercely independent North Korea -- officially called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) -- and the statement was consistent with recent policy toward their tiny neighbor. But China, which fought with the North in the 1950-53 Korean War, holds more sway than any other nation as a provider of most of its fuel oil and non-aid food imports as well as being a possible model for gradual economic reforms. And the statement from its two Cold War-era "big brothers" raised diplomatic pressure on North Korea, which stunned the world in October by admitting it had a nuclear weapons program. "The sides consider it important for the destiny of the world and security in Northeast Asia to preserve the non-nuclear status of the Korean peninsula and the regime of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," said the joint declaration. "And in this context, they stress the extreme importance of normalizing relations between the United States and the DPRK on the basis of continued observation of earlier reached agreements, including the framework agreement of 1994." Under the 1994 "Agreed Framework," North Korea promised to halt plans to develop nuclear weapons in exchange for light water nuclear reactors and fuel oil, but Pyongyang told a visiting U.S. official in October it had a nuclear arms program. Following the admission, the United States and its allies, including South Korea and Japan, decided to suspend the fuel oil shipments from December. BALANCED MESSAGE The joint declaration after a meeting between visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Jiang Zemin was also meant to warn the United States not to bully Pyongyang, analysts said. "It's a balanced message. It is consistent with their long standing positions, but it's significant that they are saying it together and so publicly," said one Western diplomat. "They do not want to see North Korea collapse because of fuel shortages or anything else, nor do they want it threatening its neighbors with nuclear weapons because that destabilizes the region." Putin's visit was designed to seek common ground with China's retiring and incoming leaders, especially on security issues such as North Korea, Iraq and the war on terrorism, as Moscow and Beijing both forge closer ties with the United States. Putin chatted with Jiang, a Russian speaker who once worked in the Soviet Union, as they walked past an honor guard before talks in the Great Hall of the People beside Tiananmen Square. The two leaders later toasted each other with champagne. "China and Russia will be good neighbors, friends and partners forever," Jiang said after the meeting. "There are no longer any more or less irritating questions left in our relations," Putin told reporters. "On the contrary, we have become partners in a strategic partnership that is beginning to give real results." PUTIN MEETS HU Putin became the first major world leader to meet Vice President Hu Jintao since he replaced Jiang as head of China's Communist Party last month. Hu is due to succeed Jiang as head of state at a parliament meeting in March. Putin said Hu, who visited Russia last year, had helped to build solid foundations for the new bilateral relationship. "I want to express the hope, the certainty, that future Russia-China relations will be based precisely on that foundation and will be strong and reliable and our cooperation will be effective," he said. Analysts say the two sides want to dispel the view that their relationship plays second fiddle to ties with the United States. "The reality is that each of the two countries sets greater priorities to relations with the United States than they do to relations between each other," said a Western diplomat in Moscow. Both countries are veto-wielding permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, which has sent inspectors to Iraq to hunt for weapons of mass destruction. But Moscow and Beijing have stressed the importance of the United Nations in authorizing further action against Baghdad. The joint declaration said the Iraq question should be resolved by political and diplomatic means and "on the basis of rigorous observance of the resolutions of the Security Council." It also said Russia backed China's struggle against Muslim separatists in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, and Beijing supported Moscow's campaign against Chechen rebels. The two sides have built a new strategic partnership over the last few years based partly on common opposition to human rights critics and interference in other countries' internal affairs, fearing humanitarian intervention within their own borders. But Putin has leaned toward a pro-Western foreign policy since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. And Beijing too has warmed to Washington since then. In October, Jiang followed in Putin's footsteps by becoming one of the few world leaders to enjoy a visit to Bush's Texas ranch. photo credit and caption: Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) chats with Chinese President Jiang Zemin before they sign a joint statement and documents on bilateral cooperation at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, December 2, 2002. Putin and Jiang met in China's capital on Monday to explore ways to strengthen ties as both warm up to the United States. Photo by Viktor Korotayev/Reuters Copyright 2002 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 13 Jiang and Putin Urge NK to Drop 'N' Program Digital Chosunilbo (English Edition) : Daily News in English Updated Dec.2,2002 16:30 KST by Yeo Shi-dong (sdyeo@chosun.com) BEIJING - Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Russian President Vladimir Putin held official talks Monday morning, during which they urged North Korea to halt its nuclear weapons program, supporting a nuclear free Korean peninsula. The two leaders also reached a convergence of views on US-North Korean relations on the basis of adherence to the 1994 agreement. They said the US should supply light water reactors to the North which should immediately drop its nuclear program. The two also shared in depth views on economic reform by the North. In the Great Hall of the People, the two leaders signed a joint statement reaffirming the past 10 years of bilateral relations and planning for a new strategic partnership Chinese state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. XNA also reported the two reached agreement on major international issues, and at the same time confirmed the direction and scope of long term friendship and cooperation between the two. The two leaders also agreed to consult closely on international issues, including a possible US led attack on Iraq and anti-terrorism efforts, and initialed a treaty regularizing Sino-Russian prime ministerial talks to build a regular cooperative relationship. Topics for the talks will include ways of cooperating with each other in the international affairs, economics, and military sectors based on the 1996 strategic partnership and the 2001 treaty pledging friendship and cooperation. The Chinese Foreign Ministry commented President Putin's visit will have a significant impact on upgrading the bilateral relationship. Holding the second official talks in Beijing following the 2000 talks, Putin looked at ways of cooperating with the new Chinese leaders, in a meeting with Chinese Vice President and Communist Party General Secretary Hu Jintao, who took over as head of China's Communist Party this month after Jiang retired from the post. ***************************************************************** 14 Christiane Amanpour: Iraq says it sought weapons components Monday, December 2, 2002 Posted: 9:57 AM EST (1457 GMT) CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour *LONDON, England (CNN) --* *Iraqi officials have told U.N. weapons inspectors that Iraq tried to import aluminum tubes in violation of U.N. sanctions, CNN has learned.* But the Iraqi officials said the tubes were not intended for use in a nuclear weapons program, as U.S. and British officials have charged. CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour spoke Monday from London with CNN anchor Bill Hemmer about Iraq's admission. *AMANPOUR:* Officials (say) they are awaiting ... further information by the time of the December 8 declaration -- when Iraq has to come up with a full, formal and credible list of information about its weapons of mass destruction program. But what we've been told by a high-ranking official is that Iraq, during meetings with U.N. weapons inspectors in Baghdad two weeks ago, did admit to having tried to import aluminum tubes. This would amount to a violation of the existing U.N. sanctions. When Iraq made this confirmation, it did say to these officials that these tubes were not intended for any nuclear weapons program. Rather, the tubes would have been intended for (Iraq's) conventional rocket program. The Iraqi officials said that their efforts to procure these aluminum tubes -- they tried about six times -- were unsuccessful. They had not managed to get these tubes, according to the official who spoke to CNN. The official also said that the Iraqis presented details of what they said were the diameter, the thickness (and) the size specifications of the aluminum tubes. And weapons experts are saying that if this does turn out to be true -- that these sizes they were trying to procure are as Iraq says they were -- then these tubes could not have been used as centrifuges for the enrichment of uranium. As I say, the officials are waiting for more and detailed explanations and more information. But this is the first time we're hearing weapons inspectors or officials close to them saying that they got certain, substantial information out of the Iraqis ahead of this December 8 declaration. The whole issue of these aluminum tubes, when (the issue) first surfaced about three months ago, was used by the U.S. and ... British administrations (as) evidence that Iraq was trying to build and ... increase its nuclear weapons capabilities. Again, Iraq is saying that it did try to import these tubes, it was not successful, but that they were not intended for nuclear weapons production, rather for production of their conventional missiles. *© 2002 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.* ***************************************************************** 15 Nuclear, Free!* Friday, November 29, 2002 21:44:35 Howard Fienberg Contributor, TCS By Howard Fienberg 12/02/2002 TCS At 4 A.M. on March 28, 1979, the Three Mile Island (TMI) Unit 2 nuclear power plant malfunctioned. The reactor suffered a partial meltdown, but it could not compare to the one suffered by news media, anti-nuclear activists and public opinion. It should be easier now, after more than two decades, to gauge the impact of the TMI accident. Was there a measurable public health impact? Did it lead to an epidemic of early deaths from radiation-induced cancers? Judge Sylvia Rambo of the U.S. District Court in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, trained a skeptical eye on the effects of TMI when faced with the anti-nuclear vanguard - trial lawyers. In June, 1996, she dismissed a class action lawsuit linking the accident to adverse health effects: "The parties to the instant action... have had nearly two decades to muster evidence in support of their respective cases... The paucity of proof alleged in support of plaintiff's case is manifest. The court has searched the record for any and all evidence, which construed in the light more favorable to plaintiffs creates a genuine issue of material fact warranting submission of their claims to a jury. This effort has been in vain." Translation from legalese to English: after all this time, there is not the slightest evidence of so much as a cold linked to the TMI accident. Both the U.S. Department of Energy and the state Department of Environmental Resources tested hundreds of air samples in the vicinity of TMI shortly after the accident. They discovered only average levels of radioactivity. Writing a few years after TMI, University of Pittsburgh professor Bernard Cohen asserted that, "the average person living near Three Mile Island received as much extra radiation from that accident as he would get from a one-week visit to Denver." Indeed, separating the impact of any radiation emitted from TMI from the many other sources of background radiation would be quite difficult. The results of a study released at the beginning of November should effectively close the book on the TMI story. (The study will be published in the Environmental Health Perspectives journal, but were posted online early). Conducting a 20-year follow-up study of mortality data on the 32,135 people resident within a five-mile radius of TMI (within two months of the accident), researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found no increase in overall deaths from cancer. Lead researcher Dr. Evelyn O. Talbott explained they found "virtually no difference" when they compared observed cancers with the expected rates, after controlling for background radiation, educational level and smoking. The study covered what Talbott said was the normal latency period for most cancers. Talbott's team found a slight increase in the risk for lymphomas, leukemia and other blood system cancers among men exposed to radiation released by the accident, but conceded that it could have easily arisen from later exposure to other potentially cancerous agents or risk factors. "You would expect, really by chance, when you do 20 or more analyses, you're going to have a couple that by random chance come up," she said. The results of this latest study further discredit the main pillar of our fears of radiation: the linear no-threshold hypothesis (LNTH). The LNTH presumes that with each incremental rise in radiation exposure, the health effects will increase by an equal amount. It also assumes that any exposure to radiation is harmful to human health, even the smallest measurable amount (hence the "no-threshold"). But many scientists question the validity of the hypothesis. In April 1999, the American Nuclear Society concluded that "there is insufficient scientific evidence to support" the LNTH "in the projection of the health effects of low-level radiation." In addition, there is a growing body of evidence showing that exposure to low level radiation may provide some benefits to health. Nuclear power has been trumpeted for decades as a threat to our health for decades, but it never spawned the development of any Godzilla-like disaster. Even the meltdown of the Chernobyl plant in 1986, one with few of the safeguards and protections of American plants, killed only 41 people, not the 2,000, 15,000 or 110,000 rashly predicted at the time. There is no evidence that TMI led to increased cancer risk or that American nuclear plants are linked to local increased infant mortality (rates actually have decreased in their vicinity). Nuclear power is pretty safe and our country's worst nuclear "accident" seemed to have no practical health effects. Anti-nuclear activists appear to be running out of viable targets. Given the increased threat to our fuel sources from unsteady or unsavory suppliers in the Middle East, Americans may not stand for anti-nuclear grandstanding for very long. Perhaps it is time for the activists to find a new crusade - maybe even one with scientific backing. ***************************************************************** 16 Buffett eyeing Ontario nuclear operator: report CTV.ca Canadian Press Warren Buffett, the U.S. investment billionaire, may be interested in buying a piece of Bruce Power, the Ontario nuclear power operator that is being sold by British Energy, which is struggling to avert bankruptcy, a news report said. The Business, a U.K. newspaper, reported Sunday that Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett's prime investment vehicle, had made a proposal to the consortium led by Cameco Corp. of Saskatoon, Sask., which is so far the sole bidder for Bruce Power. Berkshire Hathaway proposed it would merge some of its energy and mineral resources with the Cameco-led consortium in return for a stake in Bruce Power, said the report. One player was quick to deny the story. "The story is inaccurate," Julie Lea, a spokeswoman for British Energy told the Globe and Mail. "As far as we're concerned, we've had no approach and the story is not correct." Lea said she did not know whether any approach had been made to Cameco, which already owns a minority stake in Bruce Power. Cameco officials were not available for comment Sunday, the Globe said. Cameco, which owns 15 per cent of Bruce, a nuclear station on Lake Huron, and has expressed an interest in increasing its stake, has the right of first refusal on British Energy's share. British Energy, Britain's largest single electricity supplier, last week unveiled a wide-ranging restructuring package as a condition for the British government to extend its $1.58-billion loan, essential to keeping the company alive. A major plank of the package is the sale, by mid-February, of British Energy's 82.5-per-cent stake in Bruce Power, with the proceeds going to pay down the government loan. Until now, the only known bidder for Bruce Power has been a consortium of Cameco, TransCanada PipeLines and Borealis, an investment bank. The National Post reported Monday that the three partners are nearing a deal to acquire Bruce Power. The deal, expected by Christmas, would see Cameco purchase 20 per cent of the 82-per-cent block owned by British Energy, while Borealis and TransCanada would each take 40 per cent of the BE holding. The rest is held by two groups representing Bruce Power employees. © 2002 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. Bell Globemedia ***************************************************************** 17 'Oracle of Omaha' said eyeing a chunk of Bruce Power* The Globe and Mail /globeandmail.com *POSTED AT 8:14 PM EST* *Sunday, December 1* By ALAN FREEMAN From Monday's Globe and Mail London ? Warren Buffett, the wily U.S. investor, may be interested in getting a chunk of Bruce Power LP, the Ontario nuclear power operator that is being sold by British Energy PLC, which is struggling to avert bankruptcy. The Business, a U.K. newspaper, reported Sunday that Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Mr. Buffett's prime investment vehicle, had made a proposal to the consortium led by Cameco Corp. of Saskatoon, which is so far the sole bidder for Bruce Power. But at least one player was quick to deny the story. "The story is inaccurate," said Julie Lea, a spokeswoman for British Energy. "As far as we're concerned, we've had no approach and the story is not correct." Ms. Lea said she did not know whether any approach had been made to Cameco, which already owns a minority stake in Bruce Power. Cameco officials were not available for comment. Cameco, which owns 15 per cent of Bruce and has expressed an interest in increasing its stake, has the right of first refusal on British Energy's share. British Energy, Britain's largest single electricity supplier, last week unveiled a wide-ranging restructuring package as a condition for the British government to extend its £650-million ($1.58-billion) loan, essential to keeping the company alive. A major plank of the package is the sale, by mid-February, of British Energy's 82.5-per-cent stake in Bruce Power, with the proceeds, expected to total at least £400-million, to be used to pay down the government loan. Until now, the only known bidder for Bruce Power has been a consortium of Cameco, TransCanada PipeLines and Borealis, an investment bank. According to the published report, Berkshire Hathaway has proposed that it merge some of its energy and mineral resources with the Cameco-led consortium in return for a stake in Bruce Power. Mr. Buffett, the "Oracle of Omaha," is known for his astute purchase of undervalued assets and has been showing increased interest in the energy sector. Berkshire Hathaway's MidAmerican Energy Holdings generates and distributes electricity and distributes natural gas in four U.S. Midwest states, and another subsidiary has 3.6 million electricity customers in Britain. Last month, Berkshire joined with Credit Suisse First Boston in providing a $1.3-billion (U.S.) loan to cash-strapped CenterPoint Energy of Houston. In August, Mr. Buffett and Lehman Brothers Holdings provided a $900-million loan to Williams Cos. Inc., secured by virtually all of the oil and gas assets of Barrett Resources, which Williams had bought just last year for $2.8-billion. Mr. Buffett reportedly showed interest earlier in buying Bruce Power but was frustrated by the bickering between British Energy and other partners. Bruce Power has welcomed British Energy's plans to sell its stake. Duncan Hawthorne, Bruce Power's chief executive officer, said last week that the proposal gives the Canadian subsidiary some stability. He added that British Energy had set itself a target date of Feb. 14 for selling its stake in Bruce Power, although he declined to reveal any potential purchasers. © 2002 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 18 NRC: Leyse petition comment period FR Doc 02-30417 [Federal Register: December 2, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 231)] [Proposed Rules] [Page 71490] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr02de02-26] Proposed Rules Federal Register This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules. [[Page 71490]] NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 10 CFR Part 50 [Docket No. PRM-50-78] Robert H. Leyse; Receipt of Petition for Rulemaking, Extension of Comment Period AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Petition for rulemaking; extension of comment period. SUMMARY: On October 31, 2002, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) published for public comment a notice of receipt of a petition for rulemaking (PRM) filed by Robert H. Leyse (PRM-50-78). The petitioner is requesting that the NRC regulations that govern domestic licensing of production and utilization facilities be amended to address the impact of fouling on the performance of heat transfer surfaces throughout licensed nuclear power plants. The comment period for this PRM was to have expired on December 16, 2002, after a 45-day comment period. The comment period is normally 75 days. The NRC has decided to extend the comment period for an additional 30 days. DATES: The comment period has been extended and now expires on January 16, 2003. Comments received after this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but assurance of consideration cannot be given except as to comments received on or before this date. ADDRESSES: Submit comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555. Attention: Rulemaking and Adjudications staff. Deliver comments to 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. on Federal workdays. You may also provide comments via the NRC's interactive rulemaking Web site through the NRC home page (http://ruleforum.llnl.gov [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://ruleforum.llnl.gov] ). At this site, you may view the petition for rulemaking, this Federal Register notice of receipt, and any comments received by the NRC in response to this notice of receipt. Additionally, you may upload comments as files (any format), if your web browser supports that function. For information about the interactive rulemaking Web site, contact Ms. Carol Gallagher, (301) 415-5905 (e-mail: CAG@nrc.gov [CAG@nrc.gov] ). Certain documents related to this action, including comments received, may be examined at the NRC Public Document Room, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. These same documents may also be viewed and downloaded electronically via the rulemaking website. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael T. Lesar, Office of Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555. Telephone: 301-415-7163 or Toll-Free: 1-800-368-5642 or E-mail: MTL@NRC.Gov [MTL@NRC.Gov] . Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 25th day of November, 2002. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Annette Vietti-Cook, Secretary of the Commission. [FR Doc. 02-30417 Filed 11-29-02; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 19 Davis-Besse photo reveals reactor lid corrosion AP Wire | 12/01/2002 | BEACON JOURNAL Posted on Sun, Dec. 01, 2002 Associated Press CLEVELAND - The operator of the Davis-Besse nuclear plant failed to provide federal regulators a photo that shows corrosion stains on its reactor lid, The Plain Dealer reported Sunday. The photo wasn't in the batch of images FirstEnergy Corp. provided the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in November 2001 to justify postponing a costly shutdown to inspect the lid. "It was there for the asking," company spokesman Todd Schneider said. "Being our regulator, the NRC has full access to the plant, to our documents, to just about every part of our operation." "I think that's a little bit disingenuous," said Brian Sheron, the NRC's associate director for project licensing and technical analysis. "We were asking them to provide us with all the information to support their argument to operate beyond Dec. 31. Apparently, we did not get everything." Davis-Besse, located along Lake Erie near Toledo, has been shut down since February. The NRC began investigating after leaks allowed boric acid to eat a hole almost through the 6-inch thick steel lid that covers the plant's reactor vessel. The leaks were discovered in March, during a maintenance shutdown. It was the most extensive corrosion ever at a U.S. nuclear reactor and led to a nationwide review of all 69 similar plants. The April 2000 photo shows rust trails the color of dried blood spilling from inspection ports on the reactor's sloping dome. The photo didn't surface until April, on page 93 of a thick FirstEnergy report. The document attempts to explain in hindsight how the company had allowed boric acid sludge left behind by leaking reactor coolant to eat a hole in the reactor lid. "If we knew they had three or four inches of acid caked on top of the head ... that would have started the chain" of more intense questioning, Sheron said. Digby Macdonald, an international corrosion expert who directs Pennsylvania State University's Center for Advanced Materials, said the photo would have told him that a serious corrosion problem probably existed. FirstEnergy is paying about $200 million to repair the plant, install a new lid and buy replacement power until Davis-Besse is restarted. A new reactor should be installed by early December. Initially, the company had hoped to restart the plant by the end of this year but has pushed that deadline back to January. ON THE NET Nuclear Regulatory Commission: www.nrc.gov FirstEnergy Corp.: [http://www.firstenergycorp.com] Information from: The Plain Dealer ***************************************************************** 20 D-B staff under fire over photo - portclintonnewsherald.com [http://www.centralohio.com] Monday, December 2, 2002 Feds say item should have been released sooner Associated Press CARROLL TOWNSHIP -- The operator of the Davis-Besse nuclear plant failed to provide federal regulators a photo that shows corrosion stains on its reactor lid, The Plain Dealer reported Sunday. The photo wasn't in the batch of images FirstEnergy Corp. provided the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in November 2001 to justify postponing a costly shutdown to inspect the lid. "It was there for the asking," company spokesman Todd Schneider said. "Being our regulator, the NRC has full access to the plant, to our documents, to just about every part of our operation." "I think that's a little bit disingenuous," said Brian Sheron, the NRC's associate director for project licensing and technical analysis. "We were asking them to provide us with all the information to support their argument to operate beyond Dec. 31. Apparently, we did not get everything." Davis-Besse has been shut down since February. The NRC began investigating after leaks allowed boric acid to eat a hole almost through the 6-inch thick steel lid that covers the plant's reactor vessel. The leaks were discovered in March, during a maintenance shutdown. It was the most extensive corrosion ever at a U.S. nuclear reactor and led to a nationwide review of all 69 similar plants. The April 2000 photo shows rust trails the color of dried blood spilling from inspection ports on the reactor's sloping dome. The photo didn't surface until April, on page 93 of a thick FirstEn- ergy report. The document attempts to explain in hindsight how the company had allowed boric acid sludge left behind by leaking reactor coolant to eat a hole in the reactor lid. "If we knew they had 3 or 4 inches of acid caked on top of the head ... that would have started the chain" of more intense questioning, Sheron said. Digby Macdonald, an international corrosion expert who directs Pennsylvania State University's Center for Advanced Materials, said the photo would have told him that a serious corrosion problem probably existed. FirstEnergy is paying about $200 million to repair the plant, install a new lid and buy replacement power until Davis-Besse is restarted. A new reactor should be installed by early December. Initially, the company had hoped to restart the plant by the end of this year but has pushed that deadline back to January. Originally published Monday, December 2, 2002 Copyright ©2002 News Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 21 N-sub chief punished after crash NEWS.com.au | (December 03, 2002) From correspondents in Washington A US Navy officer has been relieved of command of a US nuclear-powered attack submarine and punished for dereliction of duty following a collision with a Norwegian ship in the Mediterranean. Commander Richard Voter was relieved of command on Saturday of the USS Oklahoma City, which struck a Norwegian commercial vessel near Gibraltar on November 13, the navy said today. Rear Admiral Kirkland Donald, commander of Submarine Group Eight, "ordered him to be relieved after he lost confidence in Voter's ability to command", the navy said. Voter, another officer, and two enlisted crew members were charged with dereliction of duty and disciplined today in a non-judicial administration proceeding. The punishment ranged from punitive letters of reprimand to reduction in rank, the navy said. It was not immediately clear which punishment applied to Voter. "The officers were relieved of their duties and ordered to return to their parent squadron, Submarine Squadron Eight, in Norfolk, Virginia. The enlisted crew members will remain aboard the submarine," it said. The Oklahoma, which was assigned to the US Sixth Fleet, was surfacing near Gibraltar when it struck the Norwegian vessel. The collision damaged the submarine's periscope and sail, but caused no injuries aboard either vessel. The Leif Hoegh shipping company contacted the navy two days later to say its gas tanker, the Norman Lady, was apparently hit, suffering only slight damage to the outer layer of its double hull. The incident revived memories of the February 2001 collision off Hawaii between the submarine USS Greeneville and the Japanese fishing vessel Ehime Maru. The boat sank, killing nine people. That incident outraged Japan and led to a high profile investigation that ended the career of the submarine's commander. Agence France-Presse ***************************************************************** 22 Opposition exposes lucrative radioactive wheat export scam Sunday Herald Romanian officials claim ignorance of cheap Chernobyl-contaminated produce labelled safe and sold to the Middle East, finds Gabriel Ronay Radioactive wheat grown in Ukrainian fields poisoned by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster are being repackaged as 'Romanian-grown grain' and exported by Bucharest merchants to Arab countries in a lucrative multimillion pound scam. Radioactive fall-out from the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe in the now defunct Soviet Union on April 26, 1986, contaminated wide swathes of Europe and caused serious damage to crops and livestock as far west as the Scottish Highlands and Islands. For years afterwards, hill farmers could not sell their lambs and milk from cows that had fed on tainted grass. It is still casting a deadly shadow over the Ukraine, the former breadbasket of the region. The radioactive contamination of the soil, one of the long-lasting effects of the explosion of the fourth reactor, is crippling independent Ukraine . Because of evident contamination of Ukrainian wheat, and also of wheat and cereals grown in the neighbouring Republic of Moldova, Arab countries of the near and Middle East have now banned the import of grain from the two countries for fear of radioactive contamination of their people. Enter the new venture capitalists of Romania eager to make a quick buck. Valeriu Gheorghe, a Romanian opposition Liberal Party deputy, last week unmasked the profiteers in parliament, pointing a finger not only at Romania's Mammon worshippers, who allegedly buy up the condemned wheat of the Ukraine and Moldova, but also at certain government officials. He also revealed the modus operendi of the scam. He told parliament: 'Romania is a prime importer of Ukrainian and Moldovan grain and the two countries also use Romania for the transit of their wheat shipments to their traditional Arab markets. In the course of the transit, Ukrainian and Moldovan wheat gets relabelled 'Romanian wheat' and is then exported to foreign markets. In other words, radioactive wheat bought at bargain prices is being sold at full market price by Romanian entrepreneurs to unsuspecting foreign consumers as Bucharest officials avert their eyes. Although the public-spirited deputy did not touch on the moral dimensions of the trade in condemned wheat, he posed the question: 'Is there now, because of it, any possibility that consumers are eating radioactive bread?' And he justified his question by quoting from a formal statement issued by the Association of Romanian Cereal Wholesalers confirming that: 'In the financial years 2001 and 2002, Romania imported considerable quantities of radioactive wheat from the Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova.' Whether out of concern for the health of consumers, Arab or Romanian, or for fear of the collapse of the credibility of Romanian-grown wheat on the world markets, the deputy demanded to know from the agriculture minister what action, if any, he has taken to stop the illegal commerce in Ukrainian and Moldovan cereals and whether, in view of the Arab ban, any checks on radioactivity have been put in place at Romania's frontier entry points? In his reply, agriculture minister llie Sarbu tried to cover up the issue by denying that any Ukrainian wheat purchases have been authorised by his ministry. But he admitted that up to October 27 of this year, Romania had imported 19,079 tonnes of wheat from Moldova and reeled off a raft of other import statistics to support his whiter-than-white position. Minister Sarbu's reply would have been a triumph in obfuscation even in the days of Romania's Stalinist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Unfortunately for him, Ion Scurteli, the chairman of the Association of Romanian Cereal Wholesalers' reinforced deputy Veleriu Gheorghe's revelations and gave the lie to the agriculture minister's statement. In an interview with the Bucharest daily Ziua, he demolished Sarbu's plea of official ignorance of this nefarious trade: 'In the past two years, certain Arab countries have recorded that wheat imports from the Black Sea basin were radioactive. In this period, the Romanian agriculture ministry received a series of requests from Arab countries for wheat exports, with one of the key conditions being the exclusion of radioactive grain. 'The association has received letters from Arab countries specifying the quality of cereals, especially of wheat. Wheat from the Ukraine and Moldova is expressly banned from the Arab markets because of fear of radioactive contamination. These exclusions were also spelled out in official letters to the Romanian ministry of agriculture, the ministry of foreign affairs and the local Romanian embassies.' Scurteli added that in spite of these formal requests, no Geiger-counter checks have been used on wheat imports from the Ukraine and Moldova at Romania's frontiers. 'We cannot stop the import of wheat from the Ukraine,' he admitted. 'But at least we could protect ourselves with proper checks against the import of radioactive cereals. This way, we could protect the health of our people and defend the good reputation of our wheat abroad.' In view of the shocking revelations of Gheorghe and the candid statement of the chief of the Romanian Cereal Wholesalers' Association official Bucharest's plea of ignorance of the commerce in radioactive wheat is untenable. But Romanian officials are not alone in putting profit before the health of consumers. The bankrupt regime of President Kuchma of the Ukraine must have sold its contaminated wheat in underhand deals knowing full well it was not fit for human consumption. [http://www.thesundayherald.com] - reports ***************************************************************** 23 Putin's concern over nuke safety rejected Gulf News Online Edition Dubai:Monday, December 02, 2002* Islamabad |By Shahid Hussain | 02-12-2002 * As a Pakistani delegation headed for Moscow for anti-terrorism talks, Islamabad yesterday dismissed Russian concerns over the safety of its nuclear weapons and instead questioned Russia's own safety record in this connection. "No one should have any fear about our nuclear assets. They are under very tight control," a foreign ministry statement said. Remarks made by Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview to the Indian daily, The Hindu, ahead of his visit to India beginning tomorrow have irked Pakistan. The newspaper quoted Putin as saying that Pakistani nuclear weapons "could fall into the hands of bandits and terrorists". The Russian leader also said Moscow also has concerns that that "they (the terrorists) could obtain information concerning production techniques of even simple means that could be equal to weapons of mass destruction in their destructive potential." Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has said that the country's nuclear arsenal is safely protected and strictly under control, but Putin said: "To be frank, our concerns, our anxiety still persist." Islamabad has already directly protested to Russia's ambassador over similar comments made by Putin last month, the foreign ministry statement said. The ambassador's attention was drawn to Moscow's "own system of safeguarding its nuclear assets, fissile material and sensitive technology" which "was a matter of serious concern to the international community," it said. "There were reports of over 200 cases of attempted smuggling of alleged nuclear material out of Russia," the ministry said without elaborating on where the reports originated. "Pakistan was, therefore, surprised that any concern about Pakistan should be expressed by Russia." The ambassador said that Putin had not been critical of Pakistan and wished to cooperate against terrorism, it added. Senior Pakistani and Russian officials are due to meet in Moscow today in a first meeting of a joint working group between the two countries on counter-terrorism. Officials here said the deliberations would focus on a joint strategy to counter the threat of terrorism. Meanwhile Pakistan has reiterated its commitment that its nuclear technology would never be exported to any country. Addressing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting in Vienna, Pakistani Ambassador Ali Sarwar Naqvi refuted allegations made by India. According to the extracts from the address officially available here, the Pakistani envoy said the allegations exposed Indian double standard on nuclear technology. He said Pakistan is a responsible state and had in place a strong export control regime, adding that the country's record in this respect is unquestionable. Naqvi stated that in the 50s and 60s India had violated its agreement for peaceful uses of the Trombay reactor with Canada and its safeguards agreement with the U.S., which supplied the heavy water for this reactor. India produced the fissile material from that reactor for its nuclear explosion in 1974, he said. After the Indian explosion in 1974 the Indian governor in the IAEA assured the agency's board that India would never go for nuclear weapons. But in 1998, it conducted a series of nuclear weapon explosions, thereby bringing the spectre of nuclear proliferation further into the region and the world, the ambassador said. He said it was well-known that India was conducting an active biological weapons programme in complete contravention of its obligations and commitments. Indian companies have been violating UN Security Council resolutions by supplying prohibited items to Iraq, he said. ***************************************************************** 24 Uranium mill remains hot issue Jobs, environment clash in Canon City Denver Post.com By Joey Bunch [jbunch@denverpost.com] Denver Post Environment Writer Sunday, December 01, 2002 - CANON CITY - Signs along the winding highway from Colorado Springs warn visitors of falling rocks, roaming deer and that the next city is 51 miles away. Post / Andy Cross The dashboard of activist Paul D. Kendall sums up his 25-year fight to shut down the Cotter mill in Cañon City. Nothing tells visitors that this town of 15,400, known for its prisons and as a filming location for John Wayne's "True Grit" and other epic Westerns, is deeply divided over the fallout from its economic past and its future course in the atomic age. Old Colorado and New Colorado are on a collision course in Canon City, where the town's roots in mining and radiation are under attack. Economic leaders and those whose lineage goes back generations in Fremont County say the uranium mill has been good to this region for a long time, and can be again. They favor good- paying jobs in a community that doesn't have many. Since 1958, the Canon City mill has crushed rocks, soaked the ore in acid, skimmed off most of the uranium and flushed the mud into holding ponds. Citizen opposition, state regulators and an abysmal market for uranium have kept Cotter Corp. from processing any new ore in months, and now the company wants to convert its processing equipment to mill zirconium, a nonradioactive metal with myriad uses. Once a significant employer in a then-booming industry, Cotter also has produced contamination and controversy, off and on, in its lifetime. To finance the move to zirconium, it needs one last radioactive score - the millions of dollars it will earn to dispose of 470,000 tons of low-level radioactive dirt from Maywood, N.J., on top of the 3 million tons of radioactive waste in its holding pond. Some residents, but probably not a majority, say lingering health risks and Fremont County's reputation as a dumping ground for criminals and radioactive waste make the price of keeping Cotter around too high. Cotter won't stop causing trouble until it's evicted, said Sharyn Cunningham, a psychotherapist who moved here eight years ago and discovered only recently that she and her family had been drinking and bathing in water from a well contaminated by Cotter waste decades ago. Cotter's woes began with sick cows in '70s The Cotter uranium mill opened just south of Canon City in 1958, bringing with it the nuclear age and years of controversy and contamination. The mill was located in Fremont County near the Arkansas River because of the region's rich ore, discovered by prospectors five years earlier. A subsidiary of U.S. defense contractor General Atomics, Cotter Corp. provided thousands of tons of processed uranium each year to the federal Atomic Energy Commission until the agency opened up the uranium business to noncontract suppliers in 1964. The company's business and its relationship with nearby residents soured in the late 1970s when a farmer first complained about sick cows. Since then, Cotter has been sued successfully five times by residents who claimed they were exposed to radiation poisoning from the Canon City mill. Cotter was forced to move its waste to a lined pond in 1979, after uranium, its byproducts and other contaminants seeped from Cotter's older, unlined holding pond into the soil and eventually the water wells for homes in the nearby Lincoln Park neighborhood. In 1984, Lincoln Park was put on the federal Superfund list of severely polluted sites as a result. Cotter agreed to pay $11 million to clean up the neighborhood after the state filed a federal lawsuit. Since it opened, the mill has been cited by the state health department for violations of state regulations more than 140 times, including a high of 16 safety and record-keeping infractions this year. Cotter hopes to switch to zirconium processing but won't be allowed to do any business until it corrects the violations cited by the state health department this year. The market is much better and production much easier for zirconium, which poses no radiation risk and has a multitude of uses, including dentures, electronics, deodorants, furnaces and ceramics. To help pay for new production equipment and technology, Cotter hopes to put 470,000 tons of mildly radioactive dirt on top of the waste already in its holding pond. The dirt will be part of the process to cap the pond and permanently monitor it for health risks to the community, Cotter contends. The state legislature, as well as state health regulators, have tied up the shipments until Cotter properly studies the impact of the shipments on the community. Canon City: From miners and 'lungers' to prison industry This scenic spot near the Arkansas River got its start from mining and sick people seeking comfort from its climate and hot sulfur springs, but for 131 years it has drawn its economic lifeblood from the jailhouse. A territorial prison opened here in 1871. Today, Fremont County is home to 13 state and federal prisons. More than 3,000 people, about one out of every six in Fremont County's workforce, earn a living in one of the county's 13 state and federal prisons. The prisons have held some of the most infamous criminals in American history, including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, 1993 World Trade Center conspirators Ramzi Yousef and Eyad Ismoil, and accused cannibal Alfred Packer. Chain gangs from the prisons in 1903 built the famous Skyline Drive, a scenic route 800 feet above the city. Since the official death row tally began in 1890, the government has put 78 men to death in Canon City. Before the prisons opened, miners once stopped here to stock up on goods before going off in search of gold in the Pikes Peak region. But in 1860 a consortium of businessmen formed the Canon City Claim Club to find and mine coal, iron, gypsum, marble and granite in the nearby hills. The permanent population quickly jumped to more than 700, and residents voted to name the settlement "Canyon City." The written record of the meeting, however, used the Spanish spelling of Canon. The city amid the lush, growing valleys, breathtaking mountains and mineral warm springs attracted wealthy "lungers," people with tuberculosis and other breathing ailments. Doctors believed that Colorado's dry air could cure tuberculosis and other serious ailments of the day. Despite its promise as a resort community, Canon City gave way to the Old West, replete with shootings and hangings. Court convened in a room over a downtown saloon, according to local history. In the late 1870s, outlaw mercenaries had a famous shootout there, during the Royal Gorge Railroad War between the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad and the Denver &Rio Grande Railroad in the battle to get the right of way and put a line through the canyon floor along the Arkansas River. When Zebulon Pike became the first known white explorer to visit the region in 1806, he said the gorge 12 miles outside Canon City was uncrossable. In 1929, Canon City proved him wrong with the construction of the Royal Gorge Bridge, 1,053 feet above the canyon floor. The world's highest suspension bridge remains the a major tourist attraction for the state. Fremont County also has been home to the movies, providing a setting for such classics as "True Grit," "The Cowboys," "How the West was Won," "Cat Ballou" and "The Duchess &The Dirtwater Fox." Many of the scenes were shot at Buckskin Joe, an Old West frontier town near Royal Gorge that's open to tourists. The state health department has cited Cotter dozens of times, including 16 times this year, for safety violations. Among the problems, inspectors found that one worker's urine sample had dangerously high uranium levels. In another violation, inspectors couldn't tell whether the fetus of a pregnant worker was properly tested for radiation. The mill also did a poor job keeping records on checking radiation exposure to delivery people and other visitors, as well as checking rented equipment or vehicles leaving the site. The state health department has suspended Cotter's license until it gets its house in order. In addition, the health department still hasn't approved Cotter's operating license, which was up for renewal in 2000. There is no specific timetable to approve or deny it. The shift in Cotter's business plan, processing zirconium instead of uranium, has prompted the state to hold off on a licensing decision, said Douglas Benevento, director of the state health department. Plant managers, however, describe violations as simple record- keeping mistakes. "We weren't doing anything wrong - we just couldn't prove we were doing it right, either," said plant manager Patrick Mutz. The mill's neighbors and former workers, however, have sued successfully five times since the late 1970s. The company is appealing its most recent loss, a $43.3 million judgment that a federal judge awarded a year ago to 25 Canon City residents. Water pollution from the mill's toxic-waste holding pond put Lincoln Park, a nearby neighborhood of about 3,000 residents, on the federal Superfund cleanup list of the nation's most polluted places in 1984. Cotter's radioactive mud and heavy metals already have tainted water wells and, according to lawsuits, brought illness and death to its neighbors and workers. "I know a lot of widows," said Deyon Boughton, a white-haired, plain-spoken grandmother. Her husband, Lynn, worked at Cotter for 21 years, and died of cancer at age 71 last year. Boughton can pick out homes where neighbors have gotten sick or died as if she were pointing out headstones in Lakewood Cemetery, a graveyard surrounded by a stone wall at the turnoff from Colorado 115 to the Cotter mill. Cotter says it hasn't killed anybody. Three state health department studies in the 1990s found that cancer diagnoses from doctors in Fremont County were not statistically higher than cancer rates in Denver. Doctors reported about 250 cancer victims from Canon City between 1979 and 1995. Of those, about 90 percent had a history of smoking. Boughton doesn't think much of the health department's assessments. "How many people have died of brain cancer in your neighborhood?" she said. "Seven have died in mine." Only one death in Canon City, her husband's, has been identified by the coroner's office as directly linked to radiation. Bowel tissue removed from Lynn Boughton during surgery in 1984 was found to have 700 times the normal exposure to radiation. Boughton was a chemist at Cotter for 21 years. He sued the company twice and won hundreds of thousands of dollars from the company in judgments and undisclosed settlements. Cotter says it hasn't harmed anyone, despite what's been claimed and paid for by the company in court. Opposition is driven by grief and unnecessary worry, not proof, mill officials say. "If someone in my family died of cancer, I'm sure I would have the same emotion," said Mutz. Mutz, however, plays in the yard with his 2-year-old son - only a couple of miles outside Cotter's fence - with no concern. And in a place without many good-paying jobs, support runs deep for any industry that provides a reliable payroll. A year ago, the uranium mill employed almost 150 people earning $10 to $15 an hour. Cotter has laid off about two-thirds of its workforce, citing delays forced by concerned citizens in closing the deal to take the contaminated dirt from New Jersey. The delays include legislation last spring that forced Cotter to consider the impact to its neighbors. "If we could go out and get an industry to come in here and hire 150 people, pay them a good wage and pay all these taxes for our communities and schools, we would be tickled to death," said George Turner, the Canon City mayor from 1979 to 1985, a local historian and now executive director of the chamber of commerce. "Why do we want to shut one down that's already here?" The chamber and elected leaders have stood by Cotter through all its troubles. The chamber, after all, lobbied to get a uranium mill here before the government gave Cotter a contract in 1956, when the potential of nuclear weaponry and power seemed endless. This year, the chamber named Cotter its business of the year, citing its support of the community and determination to stay put and thrive here as a zirconium mill someday. Cotter has the potential to once again become a significant employer in Fremont County, if it can make the switch, said Cotter vice president Rich Ziegler. Mutz predicted a potential annual payroll of $5 million if the plant processes zirconium. Somewhere between the Cotter opponents and business leaders who back the mill are people like Carrie Ary, who aren't sure what to believe. Ary is a parent of four healthy children and the president of the parent-teacher organization at McKinley Elementary School near the mill. "You've got people who are saying, 'Look, your kids are at risk,"' Ary said. "It's hard not to be concerned." Realtors, business promoters and tourism officials wish the controversy would just die down. "I think if the facts are discussed, the hysteria will fade," Turner said. He points to the subdivisions that have sprung up in the hills surrounding the mill over the past 15 years, and to a Shadow Hills golf course immediately west of the mill where weekend tee times are hard to come by in the summer. Tourism here is an emerging industry, one that Cotter opponents say will benefit from the closure of the mill and the required cap and cleanup around its toxic-waste holding pond. West of town, the 400-acre Royal Gorge park and a nearby frontier town draw thousands of tourists a month to walk across the magnificent suspension bridge that stretches across the gorge 1,000 feet above the Arkansas River. Thousands pay for whitewater-rafting thrills in the river near town. Though the Cotter fight brought Canon City loads of bad publicity this year, it did not appear to dissuade tourists, said Dorothy Day, a Canon City native who markets Royal Gorge. "Of course, there were always jokes when I was growing up: If you stomp a frog in Lincoln Park, it will glow," she said. Paul D. Kendall, a 55-year-old fourth-generation resident of Canon City, said the issue is far bigger than small-town jobs and a few cases of cancer. He has fought in vain against Cotter and the energy industry for 25 years. Kendall said he believes that fighting Cotter means fighting big business and big government, as well. Cotter is holding out until the Republican president and the Republican-held House and Senate renew interest in nuclear power, making uranium processing a gold mine in Canon City, he said. Until the public wises up and explores renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, it will remain economically subjugated to utilities' skulduggery, Kendall said. "It's about energy; it's about money," he said. "It's about isolation. The sources of energy we're using are killing us." Kendall recently asked the county commission to put up a sign warning visitors that Canon City boasts a toxic-waste dump. "Tell people the truth, and see if that affects tourism," he said. All contents Copyright 2002 The Denver Post or other copyright ***************************************************************** 25 Nevada says DOE must get state hazardous waste permit Las Vegas SUN: December 01, 2002 ASSOCIATED PRESS LAS VEGAS (AP) - Nevada officials say the Department of Energy acted improperly when it failed to obtain a hazardous waste permit for tons of dangerous metals proposed for storage at the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump. Bob Loux, Nevada's Nuclear Projects Agency chief, said the state would make that argument in legal papers it plans to file Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. State officials maintain an estimated 190 million pounds of metal known as Alloy-22, containing chromium, nickel and vanadium, require a state-issued permit for disposal. Another 310 million pounds of stainless steel, which contains chromium and nickel, also would require DOE to obtain a permit from Nevada environmental officials, they said. Earlier this year, President Bush and Congress approved the storage of highly radioactive spent fuel rods at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. But state officials contend the bill they approved over Nevada's strong objections does not cover the metals government scientists are relying on to hold this fuel. The first shipment of nuclear waste could arrive in 2010. State officials say the final environmental impact statement also lacks an adequate analysis of how spent fuel will be transported across more than 40 states to Yucca Mountain and ignores the metal dangers. In the state's view, Loux said, the final impact statement is legally defective. "We had to focus on the major defects," he said. "We could have written 200 to 300 pages of defects." Monday's filing will be the latest move by the state to determine whether the DOE followed proper procedures in deciding to build a repository in Nevada. A ruling in Nevada's favor could delay the project or force Congress to revisit the project considering the hazardous waste issues. Clark County and the city of Las Vegas are co-petitioners with the state in the appeals case. The case is a consolidation of three lawsuits Nevada has filed challenging the final impact statement, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham's recommendation of the site and guidelines for locating at Yucca. President Bush adopted the recommendation to build Yucca Mountain in February, and the House and Senate approved it over the veto of Gov. Kenny Guinn in May and July. Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 26 Yucca assurances aren’t reassuring RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL 12/1/2002 09:51 pm So, what happens if the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository can’t win a license? Ever since the infamous “screw Nevada” bill, which ended research at two other possible sites, the federal government and the nuclear energy industry have put all of their hopes into the southern Nevada mountain for getting rid of the waste that’s been building up at power plants for three decades. And, all the while, the Department of Energy has been assuring everyone that (1) sound science will determine whether Yucca Mountain is the right place for storing waste indefinitely, and (2) the government is confident that the site will meet the criteria that have been established for it to be licensed. Yet, increasingly it appears that the department will have a tough time meeting either of those assurances. Former Louisiana Sen. Bennett Johnston’s bill, which designated Yucca Mountain the only site to be studied for the repository (and eliminated a Louisiana site), all but guaranteed that science would not be the sole determinant of Yucca Mountain’s ability to isolate the radioactive waste. Since the bill was passed, the federal government has spent millions of dollars on research deep within the mountain. Meanwhile, a deadline for the government to start accepting the waste from power plants is fast approaching. Politics has eliminated the government’s ability to say no to the site and offered every incentive for it to say yes, even if there are questions about the site. And there are questions, despite the drumbeat from supporters of the dump to the contrary. Just last week, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that a former inspector at Yucca Mountain claimed serious flaws with the data that the Department of Energy has been collecting on earthquake hazards, volcanic activity and groundwater paths deep within the site. Bill Belke, a long-time Nuclear Regulatory Commission representative at Yucca Mountain, told the Review-Journal that the flaws in the data would make it difficult for the NRC to approve a license for the facility. That report came on the heels of another one — that two quality-assurance specialists at Yucca Mountain were fired or transferred because they voiced concerns about the site. Nevada Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign rightly have asked for a probe of those allegations, as well as others alleging lost documents at the project. Yet the Department of Energy continues to assure us that everything will be taken care of and all the data will be in order by the time the application for licensing is submitted in late 2004 or early 2005. Still, the question remains: What is DOE going to do if it’s wrong? Because it’s looking more and more like there’s a good chance that it is. © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett ***************************************************************** 27 Nuclear waste containers called hazardous waste Las Vegas SUN: December 02, 2002 SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS The high-tech metal containers that would be used to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain should be considered waste, too, Nevada officials say. And they say the Department of Energy failed to obtain a hazardous waste permit from the state for the tons of dangerous metals that would be used to fabricate the giant nuclear waste casks. The state planned to file legal documents today in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., alleging the department acted improperly in failing to get the permit. State officials say waste containers proposed for use at Yucca would contain an estimated 190 million pounds of metal known as Alloy-22, containing chromium, nickel and vanadium. That much metal would require a state-issued permit for disposal, they said. Another 310 million pounds of stainless steel, which contains chromium and nickel, also would require the Energy Department to obtain a permit from Nevada environmental officials, they said. Earlier this year President Bush and Congress approved the storage of 77,000 tons of highly radioactive spent fuel rods at Yucca Mountain. The dangerous waste is now piling up at commercial nuclear power plants and U.S. Defense Department sites nationwide. Nevada officials have long battled the project, which would not be complete until 2010 at the earliest, pending approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and project construction. Today's filing was Nevada's latest salvo in a long list of legal challenges to the Yucca project. Clark County and the city of Las Vegas are co-petitioners with the state in a complex case in federal appeals court. The case is a consolidation of three lawsuits Nevada has filed challenging the Energy Department's final environmental impact statement, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham's recommendation of the site and guidelines for locating the national dump site at Yucca. State officials say the Energy Department's final statement also lacks an adequate analysis of how spent fuel will be transported across more than 40 states to Yucca Mountain and ignores the metal dangers. A court ruling in Nevada's favor could delay the project or even force Congress to revisit the project and consider the hazardous waste issues. Bush adopted the Energy Department's recommendation to build Yucca Mountain in February, and the House and Senate approved it over the formal objection of Gov. Kenny Guinn. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 28 DOE to seal underground nuclear waste sites The Oak Ridger Online -- Area News -- p.m. on Monday, December 2, 2002 (AP) The Energy Department is sealing its underground nuclear waste sites. The DOE stopped pumping nuclear waste into underground rock formations more than 15 years ago. Now the agency's contractors are plugging injection wells with concrete and sealing dozens more used to monitor the possible migration of deep-lying contamination. The $45 million project in Oak Ridge will stop hydrofracturing -- a waste technology that Oak Ridge National Laboratory once used. It involved using deep-well injections to dispose of hazardous wastes about one-thousand feet underground. The injections also had concrete-based grout and were pumped into shale formations that were supposed to harden, forming a barrier from drinking water supplies and potential human exposure. The work was halted in 1986 because of concerns that some of the waste mixtures weren't solidifying correctly. Officials hope to complete the project to seal the wells by September. All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 29 Nuclear Duplicity From Pakistan The New York Times *December 2, 2002* Few countries have improved their standing in American eyes as dramatically as Pakistan has in the past two years. Long shunned by Washington for its links to terrorism, its nuclear weapons program and autocratic military rule, Pakistan became a valued ally, mainly by abandoning its support of the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. Now Pakistan's reputation is threatened once again. American intelligence agencies have recently confirmed that Islamabad provided indispensable help to North Korea's secret nuclear weapons program. That program threatens 100,000 American troops in Asia along with the people of Japan and South Korea. Pakistan secretly developed nuclear weapons in the 1980's and 90's, but lacked the longer-range missiles required to threaten India's main cities and military bases with nuclear attack. North Korea had such missiles, but it needed nuclear bomb-making technology that could be easily concealed underground to prevent American satellite detection. Pakistan provided Pyongyang with the perfect solution by sharing design plans of the uranium enrichment technology it had stolen from the West and used in its own secret nuclear program. In exchange, Pakistan got North Korean missile components, which Pyongyang also ships to Iran, Libya, Yemen, Syria and Egypt. Neither country has shown the least hesitation about placing unconventional weapons in the hands of dangerous dictators. Pakistan claims to have ended its exchanges with North Korea, but the United States spotted a Pakistani plane picking up North Korean missile parts as recently as last summer. The Bush administration has warned Islamabad of unspecified "consequences" of this reckless traffic. Pakistan's actions are not those of a reliable partner. Washington must make plain to its leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, that continued behavior of this sort will not be tolerated. Copyright The New York Times Company ***************************************************************** 30 Spy chief urged Churchill to threaten Nazis with atom bomb Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | John Ezard Monday December 2, 2002 The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk] One of Britain's most senior intelligence officers wanted the wartime leader, Winston Churchill, to threaten to drop atomic bombs on Nazi Germany a year before they were first used on Japan. The scheme was seriously intended to be urged on the US president, Franklin Roosevelt, as a retaliation if V2 rockets were fired on British cities. The call came from MI5's chief spycatcher, Guy Liddell, and revealed in his 12-volume private diaries, disclosed today by the public record office under the 60 year rule. Liddell was admired for setting up the wartime double agent network which crucially deceived Hitler about the site of the D-Day landings in 1944. But the diaries also indicate that MI5, MI6 and the US wartime intelligence service were at times astonishingly ill-informed or prone to bluff and wild schemes. Another scheme, reported by Liddell as under discussion with Roosevelt, was to attack Japan with inflammable bats. An entry for December, 1943 says: "The bats ... would be put on board aircraft. Attached to [their] feet and wings would be small incendiaries. "The bats were to be released from the planes near Tokyo - the idea being that they would fly down chimneys and all Tokyo would go up in flames." The idea of a nuclear threat figures in an entry on August 22, 1944. It was in response to warnings from agents that Germany was about to start attacking London with V2s, the most dreaded weapon used against civilians in the war. Britain had known the V2 was under development since 1942. Liddell wrote: "I told [TA Robertson, his head of double-agent activities] about the plan for threatening the Germans with the uranium bomb if they threatened to use the V2". On August 25, he saw the MI5 head, Sir Stewart Menzies, about the issue: "I put to him the suggestion that it should be used as a threat of retaliation to the Germans if they used V2. "[He] didn't think V2 use was imminent. However, [he said] there was nothing to lose and said he would put the suggestion to the PM, who might take it up on his visit to Roosevelt, which is due to take place early next month. On the other hand, he might decide to act more quickly." In advocating a nuclear threat, Liddell and Menzies were either apparently urging a policy based on sheer bluff - or were unaware that work to develop a uranium-based bomb was nowhere near ready. Liddell believed it was far advanced. But the first test explosion was not carried out till nearly 11 months later, in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Liddell won the Military Cross in the first world war. Joining Scotland Yard special branch in 1919, he was recruited to MI5 in 1927. After his achievements in the second world war, he was expected to be made head of MI5 but was passed over. In 1953 he left to work for the atomic energy research establishment. He died in 1958, aged 66. Useful links British army [http://www.army.mod.uk/] Royal Navy [http://www.royal-navy.mod.uk/] RAF [http://www.raf.mod.uk/] Ministry of Defence [http://www.mod.uk/] Nato [http://www.nato.int/home.htm] United Nations [http://www.un.org/] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ***************************************************************** 31 India's strongest nuclear platform should be "undersea": Singh November 29, 2002 Associated Press 12/01/2002 * LOS ALAMOS, N.M.?The state should enforce cleanup of dangerous waste at Los Alamos National Laboratory, said the head of a nuclear watchdog group. The state Environment Department last week issued an order that commits the lab to a schedule for investigation and remediation activities throughout the 43-square-mile facility. With this move, New Mexico is following in the footsteps of other states that have placed legally binding cleanup orders on nuclear facilities, leaders said. * "It's imperative that state government enforce cleanup at Los Alamos," said Jay Coghlan, head of Nuclear Watch. The lab filed for judicial review of the order two days after it was issued, claiming the final order is duplicative and unnecessary. Coghlan called the lab's response to the order, "a bunch of hooey." "We salute the Environment Department for having the guts to issue this final order in the face of the Los Alamos lawsuit," Coghlan said, "They definitely stuck to their guns." The establishment of a strict, enforceable schedule will make the Environment Department and the lab accountable to the public, he said. James Bearzi, chief of the department's Hazardous Waste Bureau, said the state's cleanup order remains largely the same as the initial draft, which was criticized by lab officials for characterizating waste as dangerous. "There really aren't any major changes," Bearzi said. "We still find that there may be imminent and substantial endangerment up there, and they still need to do stuff to change it." The lab has said the department does not have authority to regulate everything in its nuclear waste dumps, but the department's order asserts indirect authority over various nuclear waste sites at the lab - including Area G, the current radioactive disposal site. Coghlan called on Gov.-elect Bill Richardson to support the Environment Department in what could turn out to be a prolonged fight with the lab. "We trust this will lead to actual cleanup at the laboratory, and that Richardson will back up the department," he said. For More Information: The final order can be viewed at the Hazardous Waste Bureau, 2905 Rodeo Park Drive East, Building 1, Santa Fe or on the Internet at www.nmenv.state.nm.us/HWB/pubnotice.html /©Santa Fe New Mexican 2002/ ***************************************************************** 41 DOE cranking up nickel recycling The Oak Ridger Online -- Area News -- p.m. on Monday, December 2, 2002 by R. Cathey Daniels Oak Ridger staff With 15,700 tons of contaminated nickel on its hands, the Department of Energy is looking for companies that can turn scrap metal into economic development. Earlier efforts led to citizen concern and confrontation about products infused with contaminated recycled metals going to the commercial sector, which in turn led to the Energy Department's scrapping its scrap metal recycling initiative. This current effort limits the use of the metal to products supporting government and commercial nuclear industry applications, according to a DOE solicitation for expressions of interest released Nov. 15. The DOE's Oak Ridge Operations office could not be reached for comment prior to The Oak Ridger's morning deadline. Locally DOE is sitting on approximately 3,600 tons of shredded nickel scrap stored at the K-25 site, with an additional 2,400 tons expected when cleanup of the uranium enrichment facilities here is completed. Currently the nickel is in DOE's possession, mainly due to a snag in a cleanup contract with BNFL, the company holding decommissioning buildings K-29, K-31 and K-33. BNFL is the U.S. subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels. The nickel was supposed to go to BNFL as part of a recycling profit scheme touted at the time as a cost-saver, but when that fell through due to the Clinton administration's ban on the recycling, DOE was left to purchase the contaminated metal. All of the nickel is contaminated with uranium and trace quantities of technetium, neptunium and plutonium, according to the DOE solicitation, released Nov. 15. The shredded scrap nickel is also considered "classified confidential-restricted data." Critics of the recycling efforts to the commercial sector have said that allowing the metals to be recycled into other items puts the public's health at risk. Supporters of recycling have said it is a useful way to dispose of materials as Cold War-era facilities are shut down. They have argued that levels of contamination are too low to pose a health threat. "Custodial responsibility" of the metal will transfer to the winning contractor upon removal of the material from the site, and title will transfer upon elimination of all classified concerns, according to the Nov. 15 solicitation. The Energy Department released that request for expressions of interest from companies that can "transport, process and recycle" the metal from Oak Ridge and the Paducah, Ky., site. There are approximately 9,700 tons of nickel ingots stored at the DOE uranium enrichment facility at Paducah. DOE expects an additional 21,000 tons of shredded nickel scrap to become available from future shutdowns at the Oak Ridge site, the Portsmouth, Ohio, site and from future operations at Paducah, according to the DOE solicitation. A Dec. 5 meeting will be held for companies responding to the solicitation. "DOE is particularly interested in concepts that would result in beneficial impacts to local communities at Paducah, Portsmouth and Oak Ridge," the solicitation states. R. Cathey Daniels can be contacted at (865) 220-5515 or danielsrcd@oakridger.com [danielsrcd@oakridger.com] . All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 42 Kissinger Is Back in an Ugly Deja Vu Monday, Dec. 2, 2002. Page 10 By Matt Bivens WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration, after resisting it for more than a year, has finally ordered up an investigation into how Sept. 11 came about. The man in charge? A 79-year-old Cold Warrior infamous for dabbling in secret wars, coups and assassinations. I'm already bored with Henry Kissinger and the investigation-that-wasn't. Yes, it's off-putting to again see 9/11 exploited and Kissinger lauded. But Kissinger's political resilience was already legendary; it's long been clear that nothing, not even protecting Americans from terrorists, is too solemn to be gamed; and while Kissinger in his day had the decorum to hide his ugliest behaviors from the American public, the Bush administration has no such sliver of self-respecting shame. What was foul in fighting communism is now fair in fighting terrorists. During all the 50 years in which America competed with the Soviet Union, assembling tens of thousands of nuclear weapons, massing troops across Europe, and building enormous competing spy-and-cover-action networks around the globe, America never felt the need to, for example, set up a Pentagon office to spy on every American without a warrant; or to create camps to indefinitely jail Americans solely as "suspects." Or to detain hundreds of people in secret. Yet all of this unfolds today in America with barely a whimper. Consider John Poindexter, the Reagan administration security tsar who helped devise the notorious Iran-Contra scheme. (The White House illegally and secretly sold arms to axis-of-evil terrorist-sponsoring Iran, then gave the money to terrorists in Nicaragua seeking to overthrow the government, in the name of fighting communism.) Poindexter's career collapsed in ignominy when these crimes were unveiled, but Bush has brought him back to assemble -- get this -- a gargantuan computer database of citizen profiles built from records of our credit card purchases, travel and phone records and e-mails and Net surfing. It's called "Total Information Awareness," as in "totalitarian." And what are we to make of the Justice Department's insistence it can hold anyone without charges, without a hearing, without a lawyer, without even revealing their name or location, for as long as they choose to label that someone an "enemy combatant?" Or of revelations that camps for those "enemies" are already being chosen? Unnamed U.S. government officials have told the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times that a jail in Goose Creek, South Carolina -- one where dirty-bomber suspect-for-life Jose Padilla is held incommunicado -- has room to hold another 20 U.S. enemy-citizens. (Why 20?) In agreeing to head a 9/11 whitewash, Kissinger solemnly noted that "the president has promised us that all the facts will be made available." Which is good, since the president is the lone source of post-9/11 truth in America. "Dr. Kissinger and I share the same commitments," countered President Bush. And indeed, Kissinger's discredited decades-old war on communism looks surprisingly fresh and hip in 2002. "The secret bombing of Cambodia, which [Kissinger] orchestrated with Richard Nixon, could be argued to be the ultimate act of preemption, a concept on which the Bush administration's new national security doctrine is based," noted Julian Borger in The Guardian last week. "The same goes for his role in helping oust Salvador Allende from power in Chile, and his replacement by General Augusto Pinochet. The prevailing climate in national security circles in the age of terrorism favors early action against potential threats, before they pose direct danger." Matt Bivens, a former editor of The Moscow Times, is a Washington-based fellow of The Nation Institute [ [http://www.thenation.com] ]. © Copyright 2002, The Moscow Times. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 43 Grant Helps Penn State Nuke Program* By DAN LEWERENZ Associated Press Writer December 02, 2002 STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) - Jack Brenizer remembers the lean days in the nuclear industry, when one-third of university nuclear engineering programs were eliminated and more than half of the nation's on-campus research reactors closed their doors. As the nuclear engineering program chairman at Penn State University, he says his graduates today are virtually guaranteed jobs, and his research reactor was chosen to share in a $1.97 million grant that could keep it at the cutting edge of campus nuclear research. Nuclear power is making a comeback - at least at Penn State, where undergraduate enrollment in the program has doubled in the last three years. Nuclear engineers are in demand, and there's talk of building new nuclear power plants for the first time in decades. "This idea of building new reactors, to a student that's a very exciting prospect," Brenizer said. "And we're seeing a lot of students now who come in very excited about their prospects of being in on the renaissance of nuclear engineering." In a way, Penn State is an appropriate place for that renaissance to begin. The university's Breazeale Reactor Facility, part of the Radiation Science and Engineering Center, was the nation's first licensed nuclear reactor when it was brought on line in 1955 as part of President Dwight Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" program. The construction of nuclear power plants, the development of a nuclear Navy and the emergence of nuclear sciences in the 1950s, '60s and '70s fueled tremendous job growth in the industry. The federal government helped to build small reactors on 64 college campuses - smaller versions of their power-generating cousins - used mostly for training and research. "Our primary function is education," said Fred Sears, director of the Radiation Science and Engineering Center. "Here, students can learn how to conduct research using radiation. And by working at the facility, they learn the mechanics and the operation of a nuclear reactor." But by the 1980s, when no new nuclear power plants were being built, the demand for nuclear scientists and engineers began to fade. About 1,800 students were enrolled in undergraduate nuclear engineering programs in 1980. By the late 1990s, that number had fallen to fewer than 500. Over the same period the number of academic programs in nuclear engineering dropped by one third, from 57 to 38. And as student numbers shrank, so did support for expensive reactor facilities. "Obviously, when you have less than 500 at maybe 30 institutions around the country, university administrators start to see they're dedicating all these resources to very few students," said John Gutteridge, director of university programs for the U.S. Department of Energy. "A lot of these schools decided to cut their programs or close their reactors." At first, it was the smaller programs and reactors that were being shut down, Gutteridge said. But when Cornell University voted in May 2001 to close its reactor and officials at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Michigan talked about doing the same, DOE's Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee drew up a plan to keep existing reactors alive through a system of grants. Penn State joined with Purdue University and the universities of Illinois and Wisconsin, sharing $1.97 million in the first year of a five-year grant. Three other regional programs were funded, a New England program led by MIT, a Southwest program led by Texas A&M University, and a West Coast program led by Oregon State University and the University of California at Davis. With 65 juniors and seniors in nuclear engineering - more than double the number from just three years ago - Penn State hopes to enhance its classroom and laboratory facilities with the grant. Gutteridge said universities participating in the program would use their grants in different ways. Wisconsin planned to develop a distance-learning course that could be delivered over the Internet; the University of New Mexico, a partner in the Southwest group, will use most of its money for undergraduate scholarships. "We're a very small program, so being able to provide some money for three or four students per year is significant for us," said Bob Busch, director of the Nuclear Engineering Laboratory at New Mexico. yy ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************