***************************************************************** 09/04/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.226 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Westinghouse Wins $15 Million Fuel Contract in Germany 2 UK: 'War' on nuclear industry call 3 Is nuclear power sustainable?* 4 Cabinet briefed on Koeberg 5 SA: Nuclear parastatal to divide operations 6 Cheney Won't Release Energy Papers 7 Green fury over energy statement 8 US: Nuclear energy -- 9 Westinghouse Wins $15 Million Fuel Contract in Germany 10 Pakistan to install two more nuclear power plants 11 Japan: Internal rivalries simmered as TEPCO hid defects 12 EDITORIAL: TEPCO execs on way out 13 Japan: New law hopes to avert nuke disaster 14 Japan: Cutting corners: At TEPCO, saving costs took priority over 15 UK: Nuclear power as energy 'quick fix' NUCLEAR REACTORS 16 TEPCO boss' reforms failed / Closed corporate culture blamed for NUCLEAR SAFETY 17 On a Balkan War's Last Day, Trouble From the Sky 18 US: NY: 'Radiation pills' offered 19 US: Nuclear-accident pills are still undistributed 20 Japan: METI seeks law revision to beef up N-plant safety 21 Radiation exposure still worries locals NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 22 US: Corbin Harney Event 23 UK: Navy and airforce to monitor radioactive fuel * 24 Greenpeace welcomes decision to monitor nuclear shipment * 25 UK: Stop nuclear shipments call* 26 UK: 'Huge blow' for Mox, say campaigners 27 World: Private Foundation Helping Countries Secure Nuclear Fuel 28 US: S.C. man key in U.S. nuclear waste plan 29 US: Editorial: Legal fight over dump to kick in 30 UK: Dept of Defence to monitor plutonium ship 31 Call for urgent check on Sellafield * NUCLEAR WEAPONS 32 Israel Helps South Africa Develop A-Bombs* 33 Defectors and spy satellites hold key to finding evidence of 34 Navy Holds Vieques Bomb Exercises 35 U.S. May Offer More Iraq Evidence US DEPT. OF ENERGY 36 LANL awards $20M contract to joint venture - 37 With DOE, take a healthy dose of skepticism OTHER NUCLEAR 38 SA: Earth Summit Dumps On Climate 39 Gerhard Schroeder: Create an Earth our children will thank us for ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Westinghouse Wins $15 Million Fuel Contract in Germany <#> PITTSBURGH, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Kernkraftwerk Brunsbuttel GmbH in Germany has selected Westinghouse Electric Company in Sweden to supply reload fuel for the Brunsbuttel nuclear power plant. The contract, valued in excess of $15.5 million, encompasses four deliveries of fuel, with the first scheduled for 2004 and the final set for 2007. Westinghouse in Sweden, with primary operations in Vasteras, has been the main supplier of fuel to Brunsbuttel since 1988. Since then, Westinghouse has delivered about 1000 fuel assemblies to the plant. Brunsbuttel is an 806 MW boiling water reactor owned by Hamburgische Electricitats-Werke AG and E.ON AG. It is located northwest of Hamburg. Westinghouse Electric Company LLC, wholly owned by BNFL plc, offers a wide range of nuclear plant products and services to utilities around the world, including fuel, spent fuel management, service and maintenance, nuclear automation, and advanced nuclear plant designs. Westinghouse supplied the world's first commercial pressurized water reactor nuclear power plant in 1957 and has designed the world's largest installed base of operating nuclear power plants. Today, approximately one-half of the world's more than 430 operating plants are based on Westinghouse designs. BNFL is a leading specialist in nuclear technology and a global supplier of nuclear fuel, products and services. Currently, around a third of BNFL's sales comes from the Westinghouse business; a quarter comes from the recycling of UK and overseas customers' fuel; a further quarter of sales comes from operating the UK's Magnox power stations. The remainder of BNFL's business is in waste management and decommissioning. SOURCE Westinghouse Electric Company ***************************************************************** 2 UK: 'War' on nuclear industry call u.tv Enda Kenny TUESDAY 03/09/2002 17:46:20 2 comments The Irish Government must declare ''immediate unconditional war'' on the British nuclear industry, the leader of the Republic's main opposition party said today. Enda Kenny, of Fine Gael, said British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL), which operates the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant, could not be trusted and was putting Irish lives at risk. Mr Kenny was speaking aboard the Greenpeace flagship, the Rainbow Warrior, docked in Dublin, just days before it leads a flotilla into the Irish Sea to protest at a shipment of radioactive fuel to the Cumbrian installation. A spokesman for BNFL said: ``Our business is legitimate and safe. It is very heavily regulated. Everything we do is reviewed by independent nuclear security and safety regulators. We do not set our own standards.`` He added: ``Our security arrangements have been reviewed by the Office of Civil Nuclear Safety in the UK in the light of September 11 and they have been judged to be adequately robust to withstand any credible threat.`` He said: ``The government must declare immediate and unconditional war on the British nuclear industry in the interest of public safety and national security.`` Mr Kenny added: ``With the first anniversary of the terror attack imminent, and speculation of renewed attacks rife internationally, dramatic political intervention at the hightest levels can be the only adequate response to the potentially catastrophic threat posed by the British nuclear facility to the people and the very island of Ireland.`` He called on Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern to visit Sellafield - as BNFL offered last year - and to seek reassurances from his British counterpart, Tony Blair, that security at the plant had been stepped up. BNFL has insisted that extra safety measures were taken following September 11 but could not disclose the confidential details. But Mr Kenny said: ``Sellafield is vulnerable to attack by road, sea, air, rail and by pedestrian access. ``Given the BNFL`s track record, I believe paranoia to be the only adequate response to the magnitude of the Sellafield threat. It`s no exaggeration to call it apocalyptic. ``We`ve crept around BNFL for too long. It`s a matter of fact - not opinion - that BNFL cannot be trusted.`` He added: ``I`m not happy to put the lives of any Irish child, including my own, in the hands of BNFL.`` Two ships, the Pacific Pintail and the Pacific Teal, will deliver their five-tonne cargo of plutonium and uranium mixed oxide (MOX) to Sellafield under armed guard within the next few weeks. A spokesman for BNFL said: ``Our business is legitimate and safe. It is very heavily regulated. Everything we do is reviewed by independent nuclear security and safety regulators. We do not set our own standards.`` He added: ``Our security arrangements have been reviewed by the Office of Civil Nuclear Safety in the UK in the light of September 11 and they have been judged to be adequately robust to withstand any credible threat.`` _Nuclear - BNFL_ _Nuclear - Faslane Peace camp_ _Nuclear - Anti-nuclear site_ Copyright © 2002 UTV Internet and the UTV plc Group. All rights ***************************************************************** 3 Is nuclear power sustainable?* United Press International By Roger Bate Published 9/3/2002 7:02 AM JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- The U.S. delegation managed to indirectly include nuclear power into the final text promoting renewable energy at the U.N. sustainable development conference, drawing the ire of environmental groups. Remi Parmentier, head of Greenpeace, called the move, "absolutely outrageous," saying the language proposed would open the way to increasing nuclear power. Even with the warnings, when the final text emerged late Tuesday, the United States had won a considerable victory with its wording's inclusion. The paragraph in question is supposed to boost solar and wind energy, but was amended by the United States and a few oil-producing G77 countries. Brazilian delegate Suami Coelho said "the problem with this paragraph is that it doesn't specifically exclude nuclear" and has an open-ended reference to "energy technologies." A U.S. delegation spokesman had earlier said "it is fair to say we advocate all forms of energy technologies," which started the debate about nuclear energy on Sunday. Most environmental non-governmental organizations say that nuclear is not only unsafe but produces waste that lasts for millennia. Others disagree saying that fewer people die from the use of nuclear than from mining coal or drilling for oil. Furthermore, pro-technology advocates say, nuclear does not contribute to global warming. In some countries, such as France, nuclear energy provides a majority of power, and around the world it provides about 7 percent. It's use for developing countries is in question. According to South African NGO energy specialist Kelvin Kemm "developing countries are often incapable of widely using coal, oil and gas because they do not have the wealth to build significant power grid systems, even when they can afford a power station." And it's the grids that are required to transmit electricity from fossil-fuel power stations to towns and villages across Africa. As a result, rural communities often use biomass fuels such as wood and dung. In small amounts these biomass fuels are sustainable, but NGOs are concerned that for large communities they are environmentally destructive, since they lead to deforestation. They also pose health hazards when burned in rural houses. More than 4 million people die from respiratory diseases, which are exacerbated by indoor fires. As a result, Kemm and many energy economists discuss the advantage for developing countries of using fuels that are less harmful to environment and health, but don't require grid systems. The NGOs think that there is room for technologies like solar as a solution in this regard. The discrepancy comes in the scope of these fuels in the future. Many of the pro-market NGOs see solar as a "bridge fuel," which will fall by the way side when poor countries get richer. The anti-globalization NGOs say that solar should not be just a bridge fuel but is the fuel of the future. Into this discussion of technologies appropriate to Africa came the discussion of nuclear energy. Kemm suggests that nuclear power could be a bridge fuel as well for these nations. New forms of nuclear power station, which are being developed in South Africa, are, he claims, inherently safe. The nuclear lobby is obviously arguing vehemently that this technology should be considered renewable because it could massively expand their markets. And they go further than Kemm and argue that nuclear is not only a bridge fuel for Africa, but the solution to supposed climate change. Experienced conference delegates were sanguine about the American-inserted paragraph, in the end "renewables will increase regardless of the nuclear inclusion," said one European delegate. Of course the "Green" groups are dismayed. "This proposal, which could be seen as opening the door for more nukes, is making a farce of this entire summit," said Parmentier. Kemm, along with the pro-market NGOs, argue that Africans should decide what fuels mix they use in the future. Copyright © 2002 United Press International ***************************************************************** 4 Cabinet briefed on Koeberg [http://www.news24.com] Eastern Cape 03/09/2002 15:27 - (SA) Cape Town - The briefing by the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) to the Western Cape cabinet regarding concerns over safety at the Koeberg nuclear power station on the Cape west coast had been "very constructive", the province's premier Marthinus van Schalkwyk said on Tuesday. He said the Western Cape government appreciated the co-operative spirit in which the discussions were held. "The NNR is aware of the concerns of the people of the Western Cape," Van Schalkwyk said. "The Western Cape government appreciates the responsiveness of the NNR and the spirit in which we can jointly tackle the concerns," the premier said after the briefing. The briefing follows a protest by Greenpeace activists on August 24 when six activists scaled the five-storey wall of the nuclear power station and unfurled a green banner with the words "Nukes out of Africa" before they were arrested by police. The activists were found guilty in the Atlantis magistrate's court on Monday and fined. Van Schalkwyk said after visiting Koeberg to evaluate security after the Greenpeace protest that Koeberg was "vulnerable" from the sea. He told the media after the visit that the problem should be addressed immediately and that concerns over the storage of high-level nuclear waste at Koeberg over the past 18 years should receive attention. Van Schalkwyk said on Tuesday that a number of issues were discussed with the NNR on Tuesday. These included the Greenpeace security breach at Koeberg and the storage of spent nuclear fuel at Koeberg. Development issues relating to emergency and evacuation planning and population densities in the various safety zones and possibilities for additional safety measures were also highlighted. Other issues discussed concerned late-phase emergency planning. Van Schalkwyk said the cabinet and the NNR shared the view that Koeberg was an integral part of the Western Cape economy and that safety of the people should not be compromised. It was agreed that the developmental needs of the province would be continually considered. "With regard to the storage of spent nuclear fuel, the NNR is aware of the concerns in the Western Cape," Van Schalkwyk said. "We were assured that proposals for a national policy in relation to this will be published within 30 days. This will be followed by a process of public participation." Van Schalkwyk said the Western Cape government would engage national government on the continued and future store of spent nuclear fuel at Koeberg. The premier said the NNR had also been asked to investigate possible additional safety measures and design improvements, or combinations of a range of options that could be implemented by Eskom. These included the possibility of building a second containment facility at Koeberg to make it even safer. About News24 - ***************************************************************** 5 SA: Nuclear parastatal to divide operations Lynda Loxton South Africa Business Report September 04 2002 at 07:53AM Cape Town - The lossmaking Nuclear Energy Corporation of SA (Necsa) would split into two corporations covering nuclear and non-nuclear activities to maximise commercial opportunities, but it would remain dependent on "an acceptable level of state support", it said yesterday. In its annual report, tabled in parliament, Necsa said it would continue to operate and manage all nuclear-related activities while non-nuclear activities would be hived off to HTP Marketing and Manufacturing, a 100 percent owned subsidiary. This would limit the commercial liability for the capital-intensive nuclear activities and allow the new company to raise capital in its own name for expansion and the capital leverage required for greater competitiveness in the open market. Necsa reported that in the year to March, its annual grant from the government fell 12.2 percent in nominal terms to R129 million and by 17.2 percent in real terms. Despite slightly higher revenue from commercial activities at R279 million, with export earnings hitting R175 million, and tight cost controls, it slipped from a profit of R4.3 million to a loss of R4.3 million. But its cash on hand in the bank had increased from a budgeted R500 000 to R18.8 million. "Capital and reserves are negative to the amount of R2.9 million but proposals have been forwarded as to boost the issued share capital of the corporation by approximately R230 million, which have been positively supported but not yet finalised," said Senti Thobejane, the chief executive. He warned that the continued cuts in government grants had reached a point where without adjustments on an annual basis for inflation, Necsa would have to fund the shortfall from other sources, which posed a challenge over the short term. ***************************************************************** 6 Cheney Won't Release Energy Papers Las Vegas SUN Today: September 04, 2002 at 13:40:13 PDT By PETE YOST ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON- Citing constitutional concerns, Vice President Dick Cheney and the White House are refusing to turn over information in two lawsuits against the Bush administration's energy task force. In court papers filed this week, the Justice Department said that requiring Cheney's energy task force to produce documents and provide written answers to Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club would interfere with the executive branch's authority to give confidential advice to the president. "Further responses" by Cheney and the task force "would impose upon the Executive unconstitutional burdens," the Justice Department wrote. The information the two private groups are seeking is "under the direct control of - and therefore from - the president of the United States." Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club are attempting to learn the details of industry influence on the national energy plan which Cheney's task force formulated more than a year ago. The results of that plan, a comprehensive energy package, are before a House-Senate conference committee. The latest move by the Bush administration in the two court cases will require further rulings by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who has already ordered evidence-gathering to proceed in the lawsuits. The judge has said he wants the process to be narrowly focused to avoid raising constitutional issues. Sullivan had given the administration until Tuesday to file any objections. The next hearing is scheduled for Sept. 13. Various federal agencies that are also defendants in the two cases have produced thousands of pages of documents to the two private groups. The administration is objecting to the requests to Cheney, two assistants to the president, the former executive director of the energy task force and the task force itself. "Judge Sullivan made it clear that he would not tolerate this type of gamesmanship," Larry Klayman, chairman and general counsel of Judicial Watch, a conservative group, said Wednesdsay. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 7 Green fury over energy statement - theage.com.au By Stephanie Peatling Johannesburg September 4 2002 Non-government organisations are threatening to walk out of the United Nations Earth Summit after the finalisation of the statement on renewable energy that environmentalists claim capitulates to the oil industry. The renewable energy issue was the most fraught item on the agenda, with talks deadlocked over the European Union's proposal for an increase of renewable energy sources to 15 per cent of global energy use by 2010. But in negotiations late on Monday, the EU was rolled by the US and the oil-producing countries, led by Saudi Arabia. The renewable energy statement does not have any targets or a timetable for implementation. Instead it says countries should "diversify energy supply by developing advanced, cleaner, more efficient, affordable and cost-effective energy technologies". Countries should "with a sense of urgency, substantially increase the global share of renewable energy sources with the objective of increasing its contribution to total energy supply". The renewable energy agreement leaves the water and sanitation target as the summit's only significant resolution. Targets on fish stocks and biodiversity have already been dismissed as too weak. ");document.write(" advertisement "); } } // --> The environmental movement was stunned by the statement that will allow countries to include nuclear energy, fossil fuels, so-called "clean coal" and large hydro developments, as renewable energy. Greenpeace policy director on climate, Steve Sawyer, said: "The Americans, Saudis and Japanese have got what they wanted. It's worse than we could have imagined." Matt Phillips, of Friends of the Earth, accused the EU of giving in to America on the target for renewable energy in return for agreement on the sanitation target. The agreement was a defeat for the EU Environment commissioner, Margot Wallstrom, said: "This is not ideal text for us." The agreement came at the end of the first day of the participation of the heads of state. The leaders of France, Germany and Britain spoke out strongly in favour of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, which is directed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Canada's move to have its parliament vote on the issue by year end leaves Australia and the US, as two of the developed world's harshest critics of the protocol, refusing to sign it. In a another blow to Australia's position, China announced yesterday that it had ratified the Kyoto Protocol. Australia has argued that it would not ratify because developing nations such as China and India had not committed to the protocol. Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown, who will participate in any action taken by non-government organisations this morning, accused Australia of being the "chief villain" on renewable energy. "The summit has backflipped into a sell-out of the planet's natural resources," he said. "No one is more culpable than the Australian Government." But the official Australian delegation was happy with the eventual wording of the renewable energy target. Environment Minister David Kemp said it was "a very strong statement of which we can be very proud". Copyright © 2002 The Age Company Ltd ***************************************************************** 8 Nuclear energy -- The Washington Times September 4, 2002 Gordon Prather The objective of the World Summit on Sustainable Development just held in South Africa was to find ways "to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Alas, some conferees seemed more concerned about future generations than ours. Take energy, for example. The conferees assume the world's supply of fossil fuels will soon be exhausted. So, they want us to shift to inexhaustible sources of energy. The greens even demand that 15 percent of the world's total energy production be produced by renewable energy sources by 2010. Now, "renewable" is not synonymous with "inexhaustible." Cow dung may be in some sense "renewable," but hardly inexhaustible. In any case, cow dung, when burned, produces carbon dioxide, which, according to the greens, causes global warming. That would compromise future generations, so burning anything with carbon in it is out. What about nuclear power? Once we have got "breeder" reactors on line, our supplies of uranium and thorium will be practically inexhaustible. Furthermore, nuclear power plants don't emit any cow dung gases. So, why didn't the Sustainable Development conferees fall in love with one of the world's most promising nuclear power developments — South Africa's Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR)? The PBMR technology was developed and successfully prototyped in Europe and was licensed in 1996 to the South African utility Eskom. The PBMR consortium was formed to construct — beginning this year — a commercial 120 MW demonstration plant in South Africa. The consortium intends to manufacture PBMRs for export. The South Africans estimate that manufacturing and exporting just 10 PBMRs a year would create 57,000 jobs and add nearly $700 million to South Africa's gross domestic product. South Africa alone will need about 200 of them just to meet domestic electricity needs in 2025. Until April of this year, Exelon — a U.S. utility that owns 17 nuclear power plants — was a member of the PBMR consortium. Exelon had intended to submit a license application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission this year for the sequential construction of ten PBMRs. Once approved by the NRC, Exelon hoped to have the first module constructed in only 20 months. It would take eight to 10 years to construct a conventional 1,200 MW nuclear power plant. The PBMR gets its name from the fuel. Uranium, plutonium or thorium-sintered microspheres are coated with pyrolytic carbon and silicon carbide. Thousands of these microspheres are then incorporated into billiard-ball-sized pebbles, which are similarly coated. Gaseous or metallic fission products are prevented from escaping, even at 1,650 Celsius, far above the temperatures obtainable in the reactor core itself. The PBMR reactor core is a cylinder filled with hundreds of thousands of these billiard balls. A small fraction of the billiard balls in this bed are continually withdrawn from the bottom of the cylinder and nondestructively tested for burn-up. If there remains unburned fissionable material in a pebble, it is then dumped back into the top. The PBMR can run its entire 40-50 year life on one load of pebbles, and does not have to be periodically shut down for refueling. The reactor uses helium gas — which cannot become radioactive — as a coolant to keep the operating temperature at about 950 degrees centigrade. Then the 950-degree helium — which is also chemically inert — is fed directly into a high-pressure gas turbine to generate electricity. The thermal efficiency for the high-temperature gas-cooled PBMR is very high, about 45 percent. So why did Exelon pull out of such a promising venture? Well, earlier this year Rep. Henry Waxman — ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee — found a favorable reference to the PBMR in the Bush-Cheney energy plan. Mr. Waxman charged it was there because Exelon had made contributions to the Bush-Cheney campaign. Within a matter of days, Exelon notified the PBMR consortium that it was withdrawing. So, what is Exelon going to do, now? Shift to renewable sources of energy? No cow dung, of course, but lots of windmills?      And what will happen to the PBMR consortium? Well, the Russians, who have got a lot of weapons-useable plutonium to get rid of, have shown interest in the PBMR for that purpose. Furthermore, they already have a factory producing barge-mounted nuclear power plants. The Russian KLT-40 reactors, designed to power ice-breakers, use fairly highly enriched (60 percent U-235) uranium. From the standpoint of meeting this generation's energy needs — while preventing nukes from getting loose — it would be a good thing if PBMRs could be mounted on those barges. • Gordon Prather has served as a nuclear physicist at Sandia National Laboratory, as a national security adviser to Sen. Henry Bellmon, and as a Reagan appointee in the Pentagon. ***************************************************************** 9 Westinghouse Wins $15 Million Fuel Contract in Germany [http://www.prnewswire.com/gh/cnoc/comp/127481.html] PITTSBURGH, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Kernkraftwerk Brunsbuttel GmbH in Germany has selected Westinghouse Electric Company in Sweden to supply reload fuel for the Brunsbuttel nuclear power plant. The contract, valued in excess of $15.5 million, encompasses four deliveries of fuel, with the first scheduled for 2004 and the final set for 2007. Westinghouse in Sweden, with primary operations in Vasteras, has been the main supplier of fuel to Brunsbuttel since 1988. Since then, Westinghouse has delivered about 1000 fuel assemblies to the plant. Brunsbuttel is an 806 MW boiling water reactor owned by Hamburgische Electricitats-Werke AG and E.ON AG. It is located northwest of Hamburg. Westinghouse Electric Company LLC, wholly owned by BNFL plc, offers a wide range of nuclear plant products and services to utilities around the world, including fuel, spent fuel management, service and maintenance, nuclear automation, and advanced nuclear plant designs. Westinghouse supplied the world's first commercial pressurized water reactor nuclear power plant in 1957 and has designed the world's largest installed base of operating nuclear power plants. Today, approximately one-half of the world's more than 430 operating plants are based on Westinghouse designs. BNFL is a leading specialist in nuclear technology and a global supplier of nuclear fuel, products and services. Currently, around a third of BNFL's sales comes from the Westinghouse business; a quarter comes from the recycling of UK and overseas customers' fuel; a further quarter of sales comes from operating the UK's Magnox power stations. The remainder of BNFL's business is in waste management and decommissioning. Copyright © 1996-2002 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 10 Pakistan to install two more nuclear power plants Xinhuanet 2002-09-03 18:37:41 ISLAMABAD, Sept. 3 (Xinhuanet) -- Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) would install two more Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) at Chashma and Karachi in the coming years to meet the growing energy demand of the country, said PAEC chairman Parvez Butt Tuesday. Talking to a group of journalists on a study tour to the Chashma Nuclear Power Plant (CHASNUPP) arranged by PAEC, he said, the projects namely NUPP-2 and CHASNUPP-2 will be constructed withthe installed capacity of 600 MWe and 300 MWe respectively. "The projects are under consideration for formal approval with the government and the construction activity will commence in nearfuture," he said. Currently, the two PAEC's NPPs are fulfilling 3 percent of the total energy requirement of the country and with the installation of two more units, this contribution will be nearing to about 10 percent of the current demand. The Chairman further informed that the new tariff of 2.25 rupees per KWh will enable PAEC to cover its operating cost and return the government investment with profit in due course of time.This rate previously stood at 1.75 rupees per KWh. The Chairman said NPPs epitomize mastering of high technology and their operations are economical in countries having adequate indigenous resources in fuel production, installation know-how andrunning capabilities. Earlier, giving briefing, General Manager, CHASNUPP, Zia H. Siddiqui said that CHASNUPP is still in its early years of operations and it has worked well at comparable world standards. It has produced 3.57 billions kilowatt-hours of electricity since its connection to National Grid with effect from June 13, 2000. The General Manager said CHASNUPP site was thoroughly examined by the local experts with all possible angles with respect to its safety against earthquakes and the findings were fully endorsed byexperts in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and as a result of these studies necessary safety factors had been incorporated in the design. Enditem Copyright © 2000 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 11 Japan: Internal rivalries simmered as TEPCO hid defects Asahi Shimbun [http://www.asahi.com/] JAPANESE The Asahi Shimbun Observers say the utility's nuclear power division acted like a company unto itself. In trying to cover up defects at its nuclear power plants, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) unwittingly exposed deep organizational flaws at the root of the company's latest scandal. The company from which Nobuya Minami said Monday he would step down as president, to take responsibility for the cover-up, has long been plagued with internal rivalries. Chief among the squabbling factions is the nuclear power division, an untouchable that has been described by executives at other utilities as a company unto itself. ``In particular, there was poor interaction among divisions of the company, with the flow of information being delayed,'' Minami said Monday at a news conference. The nuclear power division is composed mainly of nuclear engineering graduates, who are posted almost exclusively to positions at TEPCO headquarters and the company's two nuclear power plants in Fukushima Prefecture and its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture. They have little interaction with other divisions of the company. The nuclear power division's insularity is further strengthened by perceptions of a widespread public animosity toward nuclear power. Observers say a similar phenomenon occurred in the other divisions, where people with similar educational backgrounds tended to form into groups of their own. The planning division, the general affairs division and the facilities division, for instance, all turned inward, looking out for their own interests first. The nuclear power division was only the most elite of these groups. Exacerbating TEPCO's problems was the pressure the nuclear power division found itself under to keep costs down. The situation at TEPCO closely mirrors that of Nippon Meat Packers Inc., observers say. An inward-looking meat division at the latter was at the source of a scandal involving the intentional misrepresentation of meat products. Kazuya Suzuki, a chief consultant at Japan Research Institute with experience in corporate governance, said: ``There are limits to the autonomy of employees. Under the pressure of an inward-looking structure, information will not move upward. Structures that allow the functioning of oversight systems, such as whistleblowers, ought to be put in place.'' Labor unions, meanwhile, appear equally powerless-or unwilling-to prevent such corporate abuses. Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) President Kiyoshi Sasamori, a former leader of TEPCO's labor union, told a gathering of metalworkers' unions Monday: ``The very ground under my feet has come under attack.'' Sasamori served as secretary-general, deputy chairman and chairman of the TEPCO labor union during a seven-year period from 1986-the same time the company began its cover-up of the reactor defects. ``That was the period immediately after the Chernobyl accident in the former Soviet Union, and our union went any number of times into the nuclear plants, but we didn't notice anything amiss at all,'' he recalled. Executives of virtually all labor unions in Japan find themselves dealing with management counterparts for whom they still feel some loyalty as seniors. The result is a conflict of interest when the time comes for the union to assume a watchdog role. Outgoing President Minami, meanwhile, pledged to break down the walls separating the various divisions before he leaves the company in mid-October. Until then, he will take over as head of the nuclear power division. (09/04) [Copyright Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction ***************************************************************** 12 EDITORIAL: TEPCO execs on way out Asahi Shimbun www.asahi.com [http://www.asahi.com/] Habit of hiding problems must be eradicated. Deceit and wrongdoing have been exposed at company after company-in the Snow Brand group, Nippon Meat Packers and Mitsui & Co.-all big companies in their respective fields. Nobuya Minami, the president of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), will resign along with other executives to take the blame for trying to cover up fractures at its nuclear power plants. There is no excuse for hiding safety problems at nuclear plants for so many years. Of course the president and past TEPCO executives should leave any position they hold with the utility to hasten change. Minami and the other departing executives should leave behind an honest account of the coverup. He should frankly address the corporate health of a company that permitted such misdeeds. And TEPCO must urgently examine its safety inspection capabilities and other organizational elements. If senior executives were told of cracks and other equipment problems at their nuclear plants and covered up the information, that represents a flagrant disregard for public safety. If important information about problems was contained in reports that did not make it all the way to top executives, however, the TEPCO crisis-management procedures are seriously flawed. Such problems are not unique to TEPCO. Since such serious wrongdoing was kept hidden at the nation's biggest power utility, it is no surprise that people suspect similar deceits are being hidden at other utilities, too. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry should waste no time in conducting a thorough investigation of nuclear power plants run by other utilities. Deceit and wrongdoing have been exposed at company after company-in the Snow Brand group, Nippon Meat Packers and Mitsui & Co.-all big companies in their respective fields. In other organizations apart from the corporate world, it has become common to hide irregularities from the public. The interests of insiders have been allowed to take priority over the public good, with wrongdoing hidden and misdeeds tolerated as ``facts of life'' even when the problems had a direct effect upon consumers and the general public. This latest coverup by TEPCO suggests the same malaise in our society. Minami admitted at his press conference that the latest coverup was unacceptable. But he said the prospect of having to deal with shutting down power plants if even a tiny crack was discovered might have put pressure on the employees involved and ultimately led to the coverup. But it must be noted that the electric power companies themselves have oversold the idea that nuclear power generation is safe. It seems the myth of safe nuclear power generation was a key factor in this affair. New TEPCO executives must change the utility's traditional attitude of hyping the safety of nuclear power plants and disclose all pertinent information, including the risk. This is not just for the sake of safety. The economic realities of nuclear power, including the cost of dismantling reactors and disposing of radioactive waste, should also be presented to the public. Many technological advances have been made in energy, as typified by fuel cells. At the same time, though, the government and the electric utilities have argued that nuclear power generation is essential in addressing global warming. To build a national consensus on nuclear power generation and to remove public doubts, the government and the electric utilities need to make all the details public. --The Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 3 (09/04) [Copyright Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction ***************************************************************** 13 Japan: New law hopes to avert nuke disaster Asahi Shimbun www.asahi.com [http://www.asahi.com/] The Asahi Shimbun It now takes up to two years to inspect a suspicious nuclear power plant. The government wants to make it easier to inspect nuclear plants after receiving tips reactor operators are engaged in dangerous practices. According to sources, the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency is taking a look at amending the Electric Utilities Law to allow inspectors immediate access to nuclear plants under suspicion. Agency officials are also considering stricter penalties for violators. The government's move is in reaction to cover-ups by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) of damage to its nuclear reactors. Under current law, it can take as long as two years for inspectors to gain access to a nuclear reactor, sources said. The law allows the government to force power companies to answer questions and submit related records but only up to a point. There are no provisions allowing the government to take action following tips from whistle-blowers. The Nuclear Reactor Regulation Law allows on-site inspections based on tips only when it is too late-after an accident has occurred. The TEPCO scandal began with a letter in July 2000 tipping off the Ministry of International Trade and Industry that the company was falsifying reports of damage to the Fukushima First Nuclear Power Station. Two months later government inspectors visited the site. But by this time faulty equipment had been replaced and relevant documents made no mention of equipment failure and government inspectors found themselves stymied. In response, the ministry sent a letter to TEPCO in December 2000 demanding it identify the whistle-blower or any other employee with knowledge of the incident. TEPCO's response was just short of belligerent, saying the employee involved had left the company and was unavailable for questioning. TEPCO managed to keep the situation swept under the rug until a General Electric Co. subsidiary that subcontracted regular inspection and maintenance for TEPCO provided the information to the Japanese government. This revelation served as a breakthrough and accelerated the government's investigation into the cover-up. In addition to expediting inspections of suspect power plants, the envisioned law would significantly raise fines for violators. As it now stands, these multibillion yen corporations face fines of up to only 300,000 yen for submitting false reports to the government. (09/04) [Copyright Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction or ***************************************************************** 14 Japan: Cutting corners: At TEPCO, saving costs took priority over repairing cracked equipment. Asahi Shimbun [http://www.asahi.com/] The Asahi Shimbun ``The workers took such action because of the possible negative effects on power supply during the asset-inflated bubble economy.'' NOBUYA MINAMI TEPCO president The question facing workers at Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) in 1996 was simple: Do we spend billions of yen to repair a tiny crack in a nuclear reactor? Or do we do nothing, please our bosses and protect the name of the company? The answer was obvious. Workers said Tuesday the corporate atmosphere discouraged any prolonged shutdown of TEPCO's nuclear reactors for inspections or repairs. So faking reports on damages and repairs was an instant solution to keep the plants running. The workers resorted to that solution at least 29 times at three TEPCO nuclear plants in the late 1980s and early 1990s, they said. ``The workers took such action because of the possible negative effects on power supply during the asset-inflated bubble economy,'' TEPCO President Nobuya Minami told a news conference Monday, when he announced his resignation. Minami said government requirements in the nuclear power industry fueled this efficiency culture. ``We are required to not to have even the smallest of scratches. Operations must be stalled to use the newest available technology to make repairs. That put workers under great pressure and they decided not to make such problems known as long as there was no threat to safety,'' Minami said. A utility must conduct a regular inspection on a nuclear reactor every 13 months in Japan, compared with once every two years in the United States. Shutdowns for these inspections are not cheap. The cost of suspending operations for a single day at a 1-million-kilowatt nuclear reactor can reach 100 million yen because electricity to clients during such periods must be generated through thermal and other forms of power generation, sources said. The Unit 1 reactor at TEPCO's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station in Niigata Prefecture is a 1.1-million-kilowatt reactor. Toshiaki Enomoto, a TEPCO vice president, told reporters Tuesday he recalls receiving a report about a small crack on the shroud on the Unit 1 reactor in 1996. Enomoto was the plant's chief at the time. Enomoto said he was reassured by company-hired inspectors that the crack had not expanded and that the reactor was functioning smoothly. TEPCO did not mention the crack in its report to the government. It is the first time a top TEPCO executive has admitted direct involvement in the cover-ups. Other TEPCO workers have admitted failing to report cracks on other shrouds, the parts that control the flow of water inside the reactors, sources said. The workers said they ignored the cracks because the faulty parts were scheduled to be replaced the following year and that they foresaw being told to ``check further.'' In the background of these decisions is the cost. Exchanging a shroud costs about 10 billion yen and requires the reactor to be shut down for about 10 months. Repairing a crack on a shroud takes weeks. TEPCO's announcement Monday that five of its leaders, including the president and chairman, will resign was swift by Japanese standards, considering the scandal was made public only last Thursday. But during that period, the company showed once again that public concerns are not TEPCO's main priority. The company initially planned to delay punitive measures until the government completed its investigations in the middle of this month. Although President Minami told reporters Friday the company was doing everything possible to shed light on the allegations and improve the situation, adviser Sho Nasu suggested the company leaders put off their resignations until the investigation was completed. The mood within the leadership was that the employees must be reassured before the consumers, sources said. TEPCO executives were not that concerned about the public because consumers cannot boycott electricity as easily as food produced by scandal-ridden firms, the sources said. But Minami changed his mind after taking heat from the public and local governments in areas housing the nuclear plants. As soon as Chairman Hiroshi Araki returned from a business trip Saturday, an executives meeting was called. On Monday morning, Minami met with Araki and proposed their resignations, stressing, ``The management's responsibility is greater than those of the individual worker.'' Araki in turn persuaded the other leaders to quit. At 1 p.m. that day, Minami told Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma, who oversees the industry, that the company's leaders would resign to take responsibility. (09/04) [Copyright Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction ***************************************************************** 15 UK: Nuclear power as energy 'quick fix' Times Online September 03, 2002 From the President of The Institution of Civil Engineers Sir, I am amused to see Ian Fells arguing for new nuclear power stations (report and letter, August 30) as a means of providing “reliable, secure generation” just two weeks after Torness was unexpectedly closed “indefinitely” after reactor problems (report, August 14), thus removing at a stroke 12 per cent of British Energy’s annual output. Professor Fells would have us abandon a commitment to meet 20 per cent of our electricity needs from renewable resources by 2020 and go for 10 per cent instead, making up the shortfall with increased nuclear power. It is, he says, naive to think engineering can overcome the constraints involved in deploying a large number of wind machines in the North Sea. There is nothing naive in this. British engineering has risen to greater challenges, in the North Sea and elsewhere. He cites the fact that the UK has only three large construction barges. I would build more. The 20 per cent target is achievable — a recent report for the Scottish Government reckoned that there is enough potential wind and wave power around Scottish coasts to supply 75 per cent of Britain’s electricity needs — and with it we have the opportunity to develop an export industry in wind machines and perhaps even green electricity. What may be naive in my view, however, is to think that nuclear power offers a quick fix: the granting of planning permission for new stations has historically been protracted, nuclear power is uneconomic, it is less reliable than we have been led to believe, our nuclear engineers are ageing, and we have not yet begun to address seriously the issue of nuclear waste. Yours faithfully, MARK WHITBY, President, The Institution of Civil Engineers, 1 Great George Street, Westminster, SW1P 3AA. August 30. From Dr Michael Madden Sir, I have extensive direct experience of nuclear power, having worked as a research scientist for more than 21 years with National Nuclear Corporation and a further nine years with the Central Electricity Generating Board. After more than 50 years of research the world has still not found a method of safe long-term storage for radioactive waste. Recent years have highlighted the problems of building and operating reactors with economic safety systems. After Chernobyl I spent three years leading a team validating the Sizewell B containment building against a range of core meltdown scenarios. Further, it is certainly not true that modern wind power systems are unreliable. Individual mills and wind farms may operate at full capacity for only 20 to 25 per cent of the time due to variations in local wind speeds, but by the end of a further year the UK may well have 2 per cent wind power, and within 20 years we should certainly be able to achieve the 18 per cent already attained in Denmark (report, August 12). Yours faithfully, MICHAEL MADDEN, Oaklegh Lodge, Barleycastle Lane, Appleton, Warrington WA4 4RG. August 30. The Sunday Times on Times Newspapers' ***************************************************************** 16 TEPCO boss' reforms failed / Closed corporate culture blamed for scandal at nuclear plant Daily Yomiuri On-Line Sachio Tanaka and Takashi Shimomiya Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers Nobuya Minami, president of Tokyo Electric Power Co., who will resign to take the blame for cover-ups of damage at the company's nuclear power plants, failed to carry out planned reforms to improve the utility's rigid bureaucratic corporate culture. "I've been attempting to make the corporate culture more open, but I was unable to do so," Minami said at a press conference Monday. He looked distressed and bit his lip. At the press conference, Minami admitted TEPCO employees were involved in the cover-ups, adding that TEPCO would announce punitive measures against those responsible after it had completed a full internal investigation. Minami, 66, said he would resign in mid-October, while Chairman Hiroshi Araki and Executive Vice President Toshiaki Enomoto will quit late this month. Advisers Gaishi Hiraiwa and Sho Nasu also will resign this month. Since assuming their current positions in June 1999, Minami and Araki have implemented drastic reforms, including major personnel changes and entry into the gas and communications businesses. Minami also tried to improve discipline within the company, which enjoyed a pampered position due to its monopoly of the utility business in the Kanto region. Minami attempted to move the entire industry out of this lackluster situation by introducing market mechanisms. At a meeting of the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry's energy panel to discuss the liberalization of the power market, Minami said he would accept full liberalization of retail sales of electricity, a first for any head of a power company. Minami and Araki appeared confident about their reforms. Following a major computer system breakdown at Mizuho Financial Group in April that prevented TEPCO from settling its customers' bills, Minami expressed his disdain for the banking group, saying, "It's not even worth commenting on." Araki recently referred to a series of corporate scandals in order to raise awareness of the issue among the upper management of various companies. "It's very regrettable that companies are involved in a spate of scandals," Araki recently said in a speech to the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren). Araki will resign as vice chairman of Nippon Keidanren to take responsibility for the most recent TEPCO scandal. The severity of the cover-ups, which could shake the foundations of the country's nuclear power policies, indicates reform-minded Minami took his task too lightly. This marks the first time in 44 years that TEPCO is shuffling its upper management in response to scandal. The company has not done so since 1958, when former President Ryotaro Takai stepped down after being indicted on charges of bribery. However, the latest scandal appears to have had an even greater impact on the company, as Minami and three former presidents are resigning all at once. Tsunehisa Katsumata, one of the company's five executive vice presidents, is expected to succeed Minami. He has been managing the planned liberalization of the power market and its full-scale entry into the communications business. As chairman of an in-house investigation committee, Katsumata is spearheading an probe into the irregularities at the company. The new president will be tasked first with improving the setup of the company's nuclear power division, which is often criticized for its closed nature and has been dubbed a "nuclear power village." The company is in what a senior TEPCO official admitted was the most serious danger it has experienced since its foundation. In order to manage the utility, Katsumata will need to smooth out the current confusion and make corporate culture more transparent, as its closed nature was apparently one of the causes of the latest scandal. Copyright 2002 The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 17 On a Balkan War's Last Day, Trouble From the Sky The New York Times *September 2, 2002* *By MARLISE SIMONS* KOTOR, Montenegro ? In the early morning hours, the scientists come to work on a small tongue of land with one of the loveliest views along the Mediterranean. Behind them is the stunning bay of Kotor and its crown of steep mountains, ahead is the shimmer of the open sea, a few hours' sail from Italy. But the men hunch down, their eyes fixed on the ground. They scoop up bits of soil and rock, moving slowly and meticulously like archaeologists. Protective clothing covers them from head to toe. The cape, closed off to tourists, is marked with signs saying "Radioactive Danger. Trespassing Forbidden." The scientists from Montenegro are searching for war debris, specifically bullets coated with slightly radioactive depleted uranium. American warplanes fired some 480 rounds at the cape on the final day of NATO's 1999 air campaign against Yugoslavia, according to NATO records. No one was killed. But to the scientists, the attack is inexplicable. The only tokens of past life are a collapsed bunker and some ruined walls more than a century old, leftovers from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. "We don't understand why anyone would want to attack and contaminate the place on the last day of the war," said Perko Vukotic, a professor of nuclear physics at the University of Montenegro at Podgorica who heads the 12-man cleanup team. The group has collected scores of bullets and fragments, some buried deep in the soil. But the main problem, they say, is that casings have broken and many uranium parts have disintegrated and turned into potentially toxic dust. "Water corrodes the uranium and it becomes powdery," said Dr. Perkovic. "It crumbles as easily as cigarette ash and spreads in the soil. People can touch it or inhale it. The wind blows it around." The work in Montenegro, the little state that with Serbia makes up the federation of Yugoslavia, is the first thorough cleanup of uranium in the Balkans. NATO has disclosed that it fired thousands of rounds of munitions with tips of depleted uranium, one of the hardest metals and therefore suitable for penetrating targets like tanks, against targets in Bosnia in 1995 and in Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro in 1999. Depleted of its most radioactive part for use in nuclear fuel, the material still emits low-level radiation. There have been heated debates in Europe over the use of this ammunition in the Balkans. The main concern was the risk that the material could have lasting ill effects on people and the environment. Pentagon and officials from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization acknowledge that depleted uranium, like other heavy metals, can be toxic, but insist that its low-level radiation is not harmful. Many civilian specialists agree, but some research in the United States, Canada and Britain has shown that uranium particles can be inhaled, enter the bloodstream and lodge in the bone, where they can deliver low but steady and potentially harmful radiation. There is no agreement on what is a harmful dose and some NATO countries want the ammunition banned. "We had to make a choice because nobody knows the truth," Dr. Vukotic said. "Either we say nothing about this and close Cape Arza. Or we decontaminate it." Industries that handle depleted uranium use special precautions to store it, he went on, so here it should not be lying around. The team is closely following the recommendations of the United Nations Environment Program, which conducted the only comprehensive study of the Balkan wars' environmental impact. In one of its reports, it said that "given the considerable scientific uncertainties" about long-term behavior of depleted uranium, the authorities should give the "highest priority" to forbidding public access, collecting and removing pieces and decontaminating areas where possible and store the material safely. Ground water should be monitored. The latest report, in March, said that, surprisingly, depleted uranium particles were "still in the air two years after the conflict's end." The decontamination team began work on the cape last year. The men move slowly, covering about 60 feet an hour, their instruments close to the ground. When a counter detects higher than natural radiation, the place is marked with a little yellow flag. Someone scoops up the soil and the stones. Each spoonful is put under the detector, then stored in boxes or bags, depending on its intensity. "It's very tedious, it's like detective work," Dr. Vukotic said. No one lives on the cape, but villagers have houses about a mile away and tourists visiting the ancient town of Kotor nearby come to hike here and visit the beaches. The team has sent its first cache ? 160 large bullets, scores of fragments, more than 100 pounds of depleted uranium and three tons of low-level radioactive soil ? in bags and boxes to Belgrade for temporary storage at the site of a research reactor. They estimate it will be twice that amount when they finish this fall. "We have no proper place to store this waste and we have to pay for this," said Ana Misurovitc, director of the Montenegro Toxicological Institute. The attack, she also noted, was May 30, 1999, the last day of the war. "Why did they bother then? It has already cost us more than half a million dollars in salaries, materials, equipment and storage, and we're not finished." This is a lot, she said, for a government with a budget of $300 million. In Brussels, a NATO spokesman said that "480 rounds were fired at a legitimate target on the cape, but we do not keep the targeting records." Villagers said that there was nothing to attack and that they had not seen soldiers around the site for more than a decade. A Western military official said he believed the site had a surveillance radar, but conceded this would have drawn fire at the start and not at the end of the air campaign. Serbia was hit by some 3,500 rounds of depleted uranium and its cleanup has only just begun. But Montenegrins feel wronged, Ms. Misurovitc explained, because they made it clear they were neutral in the war. She has tried to enlist the help of the United Nations and other international bodies with the uranium. Her message for NATO: "Come and take back your radioactive waste and pay for decontamination." Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company ***************************************************************** 18 NY: 'Radiation pills' offered Democrat &Chronicle: By John Kohlstrand Democrat and Chronicle (September 4, 2002)  Families who live within 10 miles of the Ginna nuclear power plant are being offered free pills that could help protect them in case of a radiation leak. The residents will soon receive letters from Monroe and Wayne County governments that include coupons redeemable at Wegmans Food Markets for one potassium iodide pill for each family member. The pills are being distributed on behalf of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which developed the program after Sept. 11. "It is only a precautionary measure," Monroe County Executive Jack Doyle said Tuesday at the Holt Road Wegmans. Four Wegmans stores in Webster and Penfield, and in Newark, Wayne County, will distribute the pills until Sept. 28. Some Wayne County schools will distribute them on weekends. Potassium iodide helps guards against thyroid cancer. The substance is absorbed by the thyroid gland, which becomes so saturated that airborne radioactive iodine is blocked. It's "the nuclear morning after pill," said Andrew Doniger, director of the Monroe County Health Department. But he added that it doesn't protect against other radioactive substances. Those who want more than one pill or live more than 10 miles from Ginna may buy them (14 for $9.25) at any Wegmans pharmacy. E-mail address: jkohlstr@DemocratandChronicle.com [jkohlstr@DemocratandChronicle.com] ***************************************************************** 19 Nuclear-accident pills are still undistributed The Plain Dealer Ohio News 09/04/02 Susan Jaffe Plain Dealer Reporter More than a half-million pills that can protect people in the event of a nuclear power plant attack or accident have been sitting in a warehouse somewhere in Columbus since June. The Ohio Department of Health received the free potassium iodide pills from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. State officials are still working on a plan to distribute the pills to county health departments in October. Ohioans living or working within 10 miles of a nuclear power plant are expected to receive the pills in January, said Roger Suppes, chief of the Ohio Department of Health's Bureau of Radiation Protection. The Perry nuclear power plant in Lake County is 35 miles east of Cleveland. The Davis-Besse plant is 70 miles to the west. But if there is a radiation release at the Beaver Valley nuclear plant, just across the border in Pennsylvania, residents there will have an advantage over their Ohio neighbors. More than 640,000 Pennsylvanians, including 18,000 near Beaver Valley, began receiving potassium iodide pills from the Pennsylvania Department of Health two weeks ago. Their neighbors in Ohio will have to wait. "We made a conscious effort once we had it [potassium iodide] to get it out there as quickly as we could," said Pennsylvania Department of Health spokesman Richard McGarvey. He added that Gov. Mark Schweiker "didn't want it sitting in a warehouse for six months." Even though the country's nuclear plants remain on the highest security alert following the Sept. 11 attacks, Suppes said it was not urgent to get 639,000 pills to the estimated 319,500 Ohioans eligible for them. "We want to make sure we do it right," he said. "We're trying to put together a plan that encourages participation." The plan will be a model for distribution of other drugs in the national pharmaceutical stockpile, such as the antibiotic Cipro, if necessary, he said. The potassium iodide pills prevent thyroid cancer by keeping the thyroid from absorbing radioactive iodine, one of dozens of radioactive gases that can be released from a nuclear reactor. The NRC first recommended the pills after the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania. The drug must be taken within four hours of exposure and loses its effect after eight hours. So far, 16 states have received the free pills from the NRC, said Patricia Milligan, an emergency-planning specialist at the commission. The pills have been distributed in Pennsylvania and parts of New York, New Jersey and Vermont. But Pennsylvania isn't about to share its supply. "What we got from the federal government was for residents of Pennsylvania," said McGarvey. To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: sjaffe@plaind.com, 216-999-4822 © 2002 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission. ***************************************************************** 20 Japan: METI seeks law revision to beef up N-plant safety Daily Yomiuri On-Line Yomiuri Shimbun The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry has decided to seek the revision of a law so that utility companies will be required to submit documents on internal tip-offs on problems at nuclear power plants when deemed necessary, ministry sources said Tuesday. The ministry's decision came after Tokyo Electric Power Co. was found to have falsified records of voluntary inspections at its nuclear power plants and to have taken more than two years to disclose the problem after receiving an internal tip-off. The scope of an existing regulation requiring utility companies to report problems occurring at nuclear facilities will be expanded to accommodate the measures. The tip-off came from a former engineer with the U.S. company General Electric Co. who lives in the United States and who was involved in TEPCO's voluntary inspection. The law regulating nuclear reactors and related facilities was revised after an accident at a nuclear power plant in Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, in the autumn of 1999. The revised law, which went into effect in July 2000, outlined rules for internal tip-offs. TEPCO's internal tip-off was made immediately after the law went into effect. The central government can order utility companies to report information about their companies under the current Electricity Enterprises Law and related regulations. Such orders, however, can only be made when the operation of a nuclear facility is suspended due to an accident or when a malfunction hinders the operation of a reactor facility. The government, therefore, cannot order utility companies to report information regarding issues raised by an internal tip-off, but has to rely on the voluntary compliance of companies. The ministry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency deemed TEPCO to have been extremely uncooperative in disclosing information on the cover-up in that it took more than two years for the agency to get to the bottom of the situation since the first tip-off reached the agency, the sources said. The revised law would enable the central government to gather information to confirm internal tip-offs. Copyright 2002 The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 21 Radiation exposure still worries locals Asahi Shimbun [http://www.asahi.com/] JAPANESE The Asahi Shimbun Two sue government over health complaints. Two residents who claim ill health as a result of a radiation accident at the Tokaimura facility in 1999 filed suit Tuesday blaming the government for their illnesses. The suit was filed a day after prosecutors demanded prison terms for officials of JCO Co. for the fatal accident. While the central government disputes claims of radiation-induced illnesses, the residents petitioned Mito District Court for compensation. There was a radiation leak following the critical accident at the Tokaimura nuclear power plant on Sept. 30, 1999, resulting in two deaths. In Tokaimura, a number of villagers attribute their symptoms to radiation exposure. A 65-year-old woman who worked 100 meters from the accident site was outside chatting with a friend when the 10:30 a.m. accident occurred. A week later she says she began to feel nausea and a ``heavy head.'' She was examined at three hospitals and the diagnosis was identical: cause unknown. Today she says she suffers from swollen joints, yet doctors have said her physical condition is fine. This has been of little comfort. ``I try to convince myself the cause is my age. But I lay awake at night worrying if exposure to radiation may have affected my health,'' she said. The Ibaraki prefectural government conducted health checks of Tokaimura residents in February. Sixteen individuals said they felt poorly, citing worry and sleeplessness. Some respondents appeared to be suffering from depression. A health official dealing with the JCO accident said, ``I cannot say for certain the residents are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but certainly their experience has had a negative effect on their mental health.'' The central government lists 667 people as nuclear accident victims, including residents near the facility. But there is no consensus on the extent of the damage. A government committee on health care reported in January 2000, ``There are no short-term physical effects on residents or long-term effects such as the onset of cancer.'' However, Hannan Chuo Hospital in Osaka independently studied 220 residents in Tokaimura. According to the hospital, local residents were exposed to more radiation than cited in the central government's research. Five residents were subjected to radiation exceeding the maximum annual permissible level of 50 millisieverts, the report said. Of the five, one showed exposure to 181 millisieverts. A doctor at the hospital charged that the government was minimizing the risk: ``Exposure to radiation was deliberately underestimated under the government's research. Residents are clearly victims of the accident.'' One of the two plaintiffs is a 62-year-old woman who has been diagnosed with PTSD. (09/04) [Copyright Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction or ***************************************************************** 22 Corbin Harney Event Date: Wed, 04 Sep 2002 13:32:54 -0400 You had emailed me a while ago, and I'm a bit delayed in getting back to you. I've actually been switched from nuclear issues to food irradiation (after the Yucca battle) but as a last hurrah I've been trying to pull together a brown bag lunch that Corbin Harney will be speaking at. I was wondering if you could put the announcement below on RadBull? I've also included a flyer. Thanks. Hope your work is going well. -Tracy +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ JOIN Corbin Harney, Newe (Western Shoshone) Spiritual Leader and Elder For a Brown Bag Lunch and Discussion about Yucca Mountain, the Dangers of Nuclear Power, and the Effects on the Western Shoshone People Friday, September 13, 2002 12 pm Public Citizen Office 1615 Broadway, 9th Floor Oakland For more info, or to RSVP, please call Tracy at 510-663-0888, x 103 Space is limited, so RSVP as soon as possible, and NO LATER THAN Tuesday, September 10th. Sponsored by Public Citizen, Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, and the Western States Legal Foundation BACKGROUND: Corbin Harney is a Newe (Western Shoshone) Spiritual Leader and Elder. The Western Shoshone are indigenous people whose homeland spans across five different states: Nevada, Utah, Idaho, California, and Montana. Corbin's work is devoted to saving the land that his people have lived on for millions of years. In the past 50 years, the United States Government has exploded countless numbers of nuclear bombs and dumped the resulting highly radioactive nuclear waste on Western Shoshone land. In July of this year, Congress voted to approve the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, despite widespread opposition from indigenous peoples, environmentalists, public interest groups, and disarmament organizations. Aside from the numerous concerns about Yucca Mountain's suitability (it sits atop a drinking water aquifer, in a dormant volcano, in an active earthquake zone) and the massive nuclear waste transport scheme launched by the Yucca Mountain Project, the mountain is on Western Shoshone Land and is a sacred site for the Western Shoshone people. Yucca Mountain is called "Serpent Swimming West" in the Shoshone language, a name borne out by scientific evidence that this mountain is, in fact, moving as a result of the region's seismic activity. For more info about Corbin Harney and the Western Shoshone nation, please visit www.shundahai.org For more info about Public Citizen's California Office, please visit www.citizen.org/california Attachment Converted: "c:\lib\news\attach\Join Corbin Harney.doc" ***************************************************************** 23 UK: Navy and airforce to monitor radioactive fuel * /online.ie 04 Sep 2002/ The navy and air force will be deployed to monitor a shipment of radioactive fuel as it makes its way through the Irish Sea to Sellafield later this month, it emerged today. Patrol ships and reconnaissance aircraft will watch over the five tonne cargo of plutonium and uranium mixed oxide (MOX) which is being shipped to the Cumbrian installation from Takahama in Japan. "The Department of Defence will be deploying resources as appropriate on an ongoing basis as regards the MOX shipment," a department spokesman said. "It would obviously involve the use of Naval Service ships and Air Corps reconnaissance aircraft." The decision, following a meeting of the Government's Emergency Task Force yesterday, comes amid public outcry about the shipment. It also marks a U-turn in Dublin as last week Marine Minister Dermot Ahern rejected calls by the environment group Greenpeace for the defence forces to be deployed. But the defence spokesman said today that the decision to deploy had been made following fresh consultation between Defence Minister Michael Smith and Mr Ahern. The spokesman was unable to confirm how many vessels or aircraft would be used, saying it was an "operational matter". But he said: "There will be some deployment." The cargo ships, the Pacific Pintail and the Pacific Teal, are to arrive in the Irish Sea within the next two weeks but are highly unlikely to enter territorial waters, which stretch 12 miles out to sea, as such a move would probably spark a diplomatic incident. The material on board was rejected by the Japanese nuclear industry when it arrived in 1999 after it emerged that quality control data at Sellafield, operated by British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL), was incorrect. Opposition groups in the Dáil have in recent days stepped up the pressure on Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to demonstrate Ireland's anger at the shipment. Enda Kenny, leader of Fine Gael, called yesterday for "immediate unconditional war" on the British nuclear industry. He said on board the Greenpeace flagship, the Rainbow Warrior, which is docked in Dublin: "We've crept around BNFL for too long. It's a matter of fact - not opinion - that BNFL cannot be trusted." He added: "I'm not happy to put the lives of any Irish child, including my own, in the hands of BNFL." The Rainbow Warrior is to lead a flotilla of boats which will protest in the Irish Sea when the nuclear cargo arrives. ***************************************************************** 24 Greenpeace welcomes decision to monitor nuclear shipment * /online.ie 04 Sep 2002/ Greenpeace has welcomed the Government's decision to send the navy and the air corps to monitor a nuclear shipment due to pass through the Irish Sea this month. The shipment of plutonium was originally sent from Sellafield to Japan, but the Japanese authorities sent it back after British Nuclear Fuels, the company which runs Sellafield, admitted falsifying safety data. The Government had previously ruled out sending the navy to monitor the shipment, but the Department of Defence said today that Irish patrol ships and reconnaissance aircraft will follow the five-tonne cargo through the Irish Sea. Greenpeace spokesman John Bowler said the decision is recognition that the plutonium poses a security risk. "That danger is borne out by the fact that both of the ships coming up are armed, they have 30mm cannon on board, plus armed police on board, so there is a great security risk and we are very delighted that the Government also recognises that threat," he said. ***************************************************************** 25 UK: Stop nuclear shipments call* u.tv TUESDAY 03/09/2002 15:16:34 Irish MEP's in Strasbourg are calling on the European Commission to stop shipments of nuclear waste travelling up and down the Irish sea. Two massive tankers, carrying MOX plutonoium are expected to reach Irish waters during next week. _Nuclear - Anti-nuclear site_ _Nuclear - BNFL_ _Nuclear - Faslane Peace camp_ Copyright © 2002 UTV Internet and the UTV plc Group. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 26 UK: 'Huge blow' for Mox, say campaigners BBC NEWS | UK | England | Tuesday, 3 September, 2002, 11:39 GMT 12:39 UK [The interior of the Mox plant at Sellafield] The Mixed-Oxide (Mox) plant opened earlier this year The largest potential customer of the Mixed-Oxide (Mox) plant in Cumbria has halted the first-ever loading of the fuel. Japanese power company, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), suspended its Mox programme after cracks were found in one of its nuclear reactors. British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) has played down the impact on the controversial facility at Sellafield which officially opened earlier this year. Mox is made at Sellafield from reprocessed Japanese nuclear fuel, which is then sent back to the Far East as Mox fuel rods. Maintenance work Greenpeace said the decision by TEPCO had dealt a potentially fatal blow to the Cumbrian plant. TEPCO announced last week there may have been problems with maintenance work at its nuclear power plants between the late 1980s and early 1990s. The company is conducting internal investigations to find out what took place during the maintenance work. The findings will be made public in mid-September. 'Inherently dishonest' TEPCO has decided that in its "present situation" it is unable to request permission to load Mox fuel into its reactors at the Fukushima and Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power stations. News of the suspension comes as Sellafield prepares to take back two shipments of Mox from Japan. Greenpeace nuclear campaigner Shaun Burnie said: "Once again it has been shown that the nuclear industry is inherently dishonest and cannot be trusted with the lives of millions of people. "With the Mox programme effectively frozen in Japan, no demand for this dangerous fuel in Britain and little elsewhere, BNFL has no hope of getting its beleaguered Mox business off the ground." ***************************************************************** 27 World: Private Foundation Helping Countries Secure Nuclear Fuel By Don Hill There's a type of nuclear fuel at hundreds of sites around the world that nuclear experts contemplate with dread. It's highly enriched uranium, or HEU, an essential ingredient for making a nuclear bomb. Fresh HEU -- material not yet used in a nuclear reactor -- is low in radioactivity, making it relatively easy for a terrorist to transport safely. RFE/RL describes how an international consortium and a private foundation formed an unprecedented team last week to safeguard enough HEU to make two nuclear bombs. Prague, 27 August 2002 (RFE/RL) -- Under heavy guard and security precautions, Russia reclaimed possession from Yugoslavia last week of 6,000 rods of fresh, highly enriched uranium, known as HEU. The shipment weighed only 45 kilograms but comprised enough nuclear fuel to make two nuclear bombs -- with some to spare. That the HEU is fresh, i.e., never used in a reactor, makes it especially dangerous because its low radioactivity renders it easier for a thief to transport without special precautions. The air transfer was the first project of its kind. It required the combined efforts of Russia, the United States, Yugoslavia, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and a private foundation established by Cable News Network founder Ted Turner. Turner and a former U.S. senator, Sam Nunn, formed the Nuclear Threat Initiative, or NTI, a Washington-based nongovernmental organization, in January 2000 to work to reduce nuclear-weapons threats. NTI's initial study discovered that there may be as many as 350 nuclear-research reactors around the world, potential sources of nuclear-bomb ingredients vulnerable to theft by extremists. The study particularly mentioned the Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences in Belgrade and its HEU. Melissa Fleming, a spokesperson for the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, said the IAEA had been keeping its eyes on the Vinca fuel for years, with inspectors making monthly visits. "However, it makes a lot of people nervous around the world to have weapons-grade material at any kind of facility in a nonnuclear-weapons state," Fleming said. Russia funded the Vinca Institute in the 1950s and built its nuclear reactor in 1958, and has been eager to recover the HEU. And the United States was prepared to finance its transport back to Russia. But there were complications. In addition to the HEU, Vinca was also burdened with nearly 2.5 tons of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel. Yugoslav authorities were willing to surrender the HEU, but only on condition that they receive international aid in decommissioning the Vinca reactor and getting rid of the nuclear waste. That's where NTI came in. The U.S. Congress has appropriated billions of dollars to secure nuclear fuels around the world. But U.S. legislators have sought to make sure that the money is not redirected into projects for which it was not intended. NTI Vice President Laura Holgate said that "the U.S. government funds that are aimed at addressing nonproliferation projects typically have prohibitions from Congress on using those [funds] to support any kind of projects that are perceived to be environmental." The congressional prohibition made no provision for nonproliferation projects like Vinca's, in which the nonproliferation goal wholly depended on environmental cleanup as well. Handcuffed by governmental inflexibility, U.S. authorities appealed to NTI to provide $5 million to help decommission the reactor and to deal with its nuclear waste. Holgate said NTI eagerly agreed. "We made this decision in five days. And it's our biggest single grant. And so this is definitely one [project] where the flexibility of the private sector was an important part of the mix," Holgate said. The IAEA's Fleming said she believes that moving the HEU back to Russia ensures a high level of security. "Russia has, of course, tremendous experience. It has all the facilities to reprocess this material [to reduce it to low-enriched uranium]. It does have secure facilities with its military. And we have, you know, every reason to believe that [the Vinca HEU] will be secure in Russia," Fleming said. Russia's Atomic Energy Ministry said last week that the U.S. fuel-rod transfer constituted an excellent example of international cooperation to protect against nuclear material falling into the hands of extremists. The G-8 -- the world's most industrialized countries, plus Russia -- pledged in a summit last June to raise $20 billion to secure weapons-grade nuclear-bomb materials around the world. Holgate of NTI said she hopes that NTI's flexibility will provide an instructive example. "The challenge of fissile material inadequately secured around the world was specifically mentioned as one of the goals that [the G-8 is] going to be creating a global partnership to solve. So we see this as sort of a model," Holgate said. She said that with possibly 350 research reactors on Earth that use or have used HEU, the problem is too huge for any private organization to solve. At the IAEA, Fleming said the next international project to safeguard highly dangerous nuclear materials is to be at a research installation near Tashkent in Uzbekistan, which is also Russian-built. Authorities expect to complete this operation before the end of the year, but are unwilling to say more because of political instability in the region. They have not called on NTI to help in the Uzbekistan operation. © 1995-2001 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc., All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 28 S.C. man key in U.S. nuclear waste plan The State | 09/04/2002 | [http://www.thestate.com] Clemson grad, 41, helped pave way for decisions aiding Savannah River Site By LAUREN MARKOE Washington Bureau WASHINGTON - For many in South Carolina, the phrase "nuclear material storage" likely evokes images of tractor-trailers rumbling into the state and a governor threatening to lie down in the highway. For at least one South Carolinian, though, that phrase conjures up a scene much farther west - Nevada, to be precise. Eric Knox - who once sold real estate in Seneca and helped the Republican National Committee raise millions of dollars while President Clinton was in the White House - worked at the heart of the effort to store the nation's nuclear waste in that underground repository in Yucca Mountain, Nev. Some give the 1989 Clemson University graduate much of the credit for helping President Bush win a key political victory this year, when Congress approved the plan to build the storage site. "Eric bird-dogged this thing; he really made it happen," said Van Hipp, Washington lobbyist and former chairman of the S.C. Republican Party. Knox, 41, is now the chief policy adviser for U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham, advising him on Yucca Mountain and some of the nation's most important energy issues. "He's a can-do type of person," Hipp said. "If you give him a task, he gets it done and that's what Spencer Abraham saw with Eric and Yucca Mountain." Promoted in May from the Energy Department's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, Knox is more circumspect about his role in the Yucca Mountain plan and at the Department of Energy. He prefers to see himself as part of a team that developed the policy, but he is proud of the administration's success. And South Carolina should celebrate it, too, said Knox, who spent the first 29 years of his life in Seneca, where his parents still live. "Yucca Mountain is the long-term key to success with environmental issues at Savannah River," he said. State and federal officials endorse a plan that would use the Savannah River Site, near Aiken, to turn plutonium into MOX, or mixed-oxide fuel, for use at nuclear plants. But Bob Loux, director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, said Knox has nothing to be proud of as far as Yucca Mountain is concerned. "The whole effort by the Department of Energy was pretty disingenuous and outright dishonest, including the recommendation by the secretary that there was sound science at Yucca," Loux said. He added the National Academy of Sciences and the Nuclear Waste Technology Review Board, charged to oversee certain Energy Department programs, did not endorse the Bush plan. "It was a political decision made under pressure of the nuclear utilities," he said. The nuclear energy industry sees the Yucca win as an important step to assure that it can continue to supply the nation with power, arguing it will lessen U.S. dependence on foreign oil. Knox, a political science and history major in college, didn't initially gravitate toward nuclear waste policy. While at Clemson, he devoted part of his life to real estate, working out of his family's Century 21 office in Seneca. Thanks to his work for the GOP, he earned a spot in the Energy Department of President George H.W. Bush - in its Civilian Radioactive Waste Management division. There he dealt less with policy and more with politicians, as a liaison from the department to elected and other public officials. Knox spent 1992, Bush's last year in office, in the White House as associate director of political affairs. After Clinton won the presidency that year, Knox moved to the Republican National Committee's corporate fund-raising office. "He was an outstanding fund-raiser; he was Haley Barbour's right-hand guy," Hipp said, referring to Knox's relationship with the former RNC chairman. When the current President Bush took office in 2001, Knox again won appointment to the Energy Department's Civilian Radioactive Waste Management division. Asked how he responds to criticism that he only got the job because of his work for the GOP, Knox said the administration knew he understood energy policy because of his previous work in the department. He added he had requested a job in the Department of State because he liked the idea of foreign travel. But the administration realized his resume made him a good choice for the energy agency, he said. "They were really trying to fit square pegs in square holes." Reach Markoe at (202) 383-6023 or lmarkoe@krwashington.com [lmarkoe@krwashington.com] .‘ About TheState.com ***************************************************************** 29 Editorial: Legal fight over dump to kick in Las Vegas SUN Today: September 04, 2002 at 9:17:15 PDT Earlier this year Congress approved President Bush's plan to bury 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain. But the Energy Department still must obtain a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission before it can build a dump in Nevada -- a license that Nevada is fighting. As part of that fight, the state has challenged revised federal rules for licensing a nuclear waste dump. To prevent the escape of radiation, the federal government now wants to rely on man-made barriers instead of the mountain's natural geology, as was originally proposed. Last week, in a hopeful development for Nevada, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected the federal government's motion to dismiss the state's challenge. The court's decision didn't address the heart of the state's case, so it doesn't qualify as a "victory," but it does point out just how important it is to mount the best legal strategy to fight the dump. On Thursday the state Board of Examiners -- the governor, secretary of state and attorney general -- is expected to approve a $4 million contract with Egan &Associates. The Virginia law firm, which specializes in nuclear issues, will represent the state in its Yucca Mountain legal fight. It's a pricey contract, but the stakes are high. If Nevada loses the legal fight, thousands of shiploads of nuclear waste will travel through our state for decades before it's buried just 90 miles from Las Vegas. When it's put like that, spending $4 million doesn't seem like such a big price tag. It's clear that Congress and regulatory agencies are ignoring the dangers of shipping and burying nuclear waste, but the nuclear power industry and the Energy Department can tap deep money reservoirs to hire a slew of attorneys to cloud the issue. The Energy Department alone is setting aside $16 million for legal costs to obtain a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build the dump. The state of Nevada, then, should spare no expense in fully funding its legal fight to protect the health and safety of this state's residents. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 30 UK: Dept of Defence to monitor plutonium ship [http://www.rte.ie/arts/] (20:35) The Department of Defence has confirmed that it will be "monitoring" the progress of a shipment of plutonium through the Irish Sea towards Sellafield, which is expected to arrive within the next two weeks. A spokesman refused to comment on the details of the operation, but confirmed that resources such as ships and aircraft would be used.The issue was raised at a meeting of the Task Force on Emergency Planning today, which was chaired by Defence Minister Michael Smith.There had been contact last week between the Departments of Marine and Defence at official level on this matter. The Department of Defence said that it will be deploying resources as appropriate to monitor the situation on an ongoing basis. Earlier, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny called on the Government to declare immediate and unconditional "war" on the British nuclear industry. "Sellafield vulnerable to attack" - Kenny Speaking on the Greenpeace ship, which is docked in Dublin, Mr Kenny claimed that British Nuclear Fuels could not be trusted, and said the terrorist threat against Sellafield had increased exponentially since 11 September. The Fine Gael leader attacked the Government for failing to reduce the nuclear threat on Ireland's doorstep. Mr Kenny called on the Taoiseach to use his relationship with Tony Blair to find out whether BNFL had increased security at the plant in response to the increased danger of terrorist attack. Mr Kenny claimed that Sellafield is vulnerable to attack by road, sea, air, rail and by pedestrian access, and that given BNFL's track record, paranoia is the only adequate response to the magnitude of the threat. He said he was not happy to put the lives of any Irish children, including his own, in the hands of BNFL. British Embassy "disappointed"A British Embassy spokesman expressed disappointment with the language used by Mr Kenny, in particular the call for an unconditional "war" on the British Nuclear Industry. The Rainbow Warrior is in Dublin to highlight the arrival of the plutonium shipment from Japan to Sellafield. "Spitting in the face of the victims of 11 September" - Ahern The Greenpeace boat, accompanied by a number of Irish ships, will shadow the shipment to ensure it does not enter Irish waters. It will not interfere with its progress. Mr Kenny said the shipment highlighted the dangers to Ireland posed by Sellafield. Meanwhile, the Green MEP, Nuala Ahern, has claimed that the movement of nuclear fuel from Japan to Sellafied by sea "is spitting in the face of the victims of 11 September". Ms Ahern claimed the two ships taking the cargo of MOX back from Japan are not capable of withstanding either a terrorist attack or fire and so "they are an invitation to terrorists to hijack material for the making of a nuclear bomb". She has urged the Irish government to take action to stop these shipments. British Nuclear Fuels has said that the container carrying the MOX has undergone extensive tests which prove that it is able to resist fire and say the shipments are armed to ensure that it cannot be taken over. Enda Kenny Fine Gael leader attacks British nuclear industry [http://wwa.rte.ie/] ***************************************************************** 31 Call for urgent check on Sellafield * online.ie home /The Irish Examiner 04 Sep 2002/ *By Fionnán Sheahan, Political Reporter* IRISH nuclear experts must be allowed to examine Sellafield immediately, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said yesterday. The Government must declare unconditional war on the British nuclear industry in the interest of public safety and national security, Mr Kenny said. "The post 11 September world increases exponentially the nuclear threat to Ireland's safety. With the first anniversary of the terror attack imminent and speculation of renewed attacks rife internationally, dramatic political intervention at the highest levels can be the only adequate response to the potentially catastrophic threat posed by the British nuclear facility," he said. Speaking at a meeting with Greenpeace representatives on board the Rainbow Warrior, the FG leader said the Government had failed to honour a pledge made five years ago to shut Sellafield. He said the Taoiseach must now use his special relationship with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. He urged the Taoiseach to demand that BNFL honour the invitation made last year to Ireland's nuclear experts, the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland, to visit Sellafield. "Given BNFL's track record, we must see for ourselves. The Taoiseach needs to announce a date for that visit as soon as possible," Mr Kenny said. The Rainbow Warrior is in Dublin to lead a flotilla of ships protesting against and monitoring the transport of nuclear material from Japan back to the MOX facility at Sellafield via the Irish Sea. Sinn Féin said the Government should send out an Irish Navy vessel to ensure that the two ships carrying the nuclear fuel do not enter Irish waters. Sinn Féin environment spokesman Arthur Morgan said direct action was needed to prevent the Irish Sea being used as a nuclear highway and dumping ground. The Government should take the lead from New Zealand, which supported a flotilla of small vessels against the passage of the fuel through the Tasman Sea, the Louth TD said. "Using a naval patrol vessel to ensure that these shipments do not enter Irish territorial waters would send a very powerful message around the world as well as providing a degree of safety and protection to the flotilla," he said The Examiner Logo ***************************************************************** 32 Israel Helps South Africa Develop A-Bombs* The Black World Today logo * September 3, 2002 * /*By Lorenzo Komboa Ervin * TBWT Guest Contributor // Article Dated 9/2/2002/ Israel was allied for many years with the white racist government of South Africa, going back to the 1970's. It did a massive trade in diamonds with the apartheid regime which undermined the international economic boycott, and it helped them develop an atomic bomb in the 1980's which threatened Africa and the world. This is important to bear in mind because Israel still refuses to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Agreement or allow itself to be inspected by the International Atomic Energy Agency, all while they and America protest hypocritically about Iraq. This is also important because we are being told that Iraq, the Muslim and Arab countries of the Middle East, and North Korea, are the greatest threats of nuclear proliferation and threat of nuclear attack in the world today. This is absolute nonsense. Yet, Israel armed the most dangerous regime in the world. How did all this come to pass? Two things to bear in mind; The apartheid regime had its own nuclear development program going back to 1969, but due to the international arms boycott and its own technical limitations, it was only when South Africa made a deal with the Israelis to swap uranium for the Israeli nukes, in return for expertise, that the program moved forward in earnest. The South African Atomic Energy Commission could not have moved as fast as it did otherwise. The effort required about a thousand experts, according to Dr. Waldo Stumpf, AEC project director, and to protect secrecy only white persons with a top secret clearance and born in South Africa were given access to project files or allowed to observe testing at Pelindaba, the main facility. But this has since been proven as a cover story, the truth is that almost from the beginning they had Israeli support, and lied about "program self-sufficiency" to protect Israel's involvement. After only a few years of work with Israel, the AEC had solved most technical problems. By 1977, the South Africans had a bomb that they could test, exploding it in the Kalahari desert. Both Americans and Russians were able to monitor the blast. In 1980, Israeli and South African nuclear scientists tested a 2-3 kiloton airborne weapon. From 1977 until 1989, the AEC produced seven nuclear devices, along with 10-25 nuclear tipped artillery shells believed to have been smuggled in by Israel. Strong evidence of South African-Israeli missile cooperation surfaced first in 1986, when Mordechai Vanunu, a technician in the Israeli nuclear program defected and went public; and later in 1989, when a powerful rocket took off from South Africa's Overberg Test Range. It turned out to be a South African version of Israel's Jericho-II missile. U.S. officials confirmed later that the CIA had obtained evidence of a full-scale partnership between the Israeli and South African governments to develop, test, and produce long-range missiles and rockets. A U.S. official who tracks missile proliferation told the Risk Report, a publication which tracks nuclear weapons violations, that South Africa's space launcher, the RSA-4, was built around the same engines that power Israel's Jericho-II missile and its Shavit space launcher. According to Roger Jardine, national coordinator of the African National Congress' Science and Technology Project, he believes that he is just one of many activists at the time who believed that the apartheid government would have dropped nuclear devices on black African countries to defend the Afrikaner way of life. It would not have mattered how many casualties this would have caused. South African officials threatened to drop a nuclear bomb on Angola when it became engaged in a war in that country on behalf of UNITA in 1983, and after Cuba had intervened on behalf of the Angolan government. Clearly, it was capable of mass murder if it thought this was the best option or only way out. Prime Minister Pieter De Klerk has stated that he only reason that the racist apartheid authorities did not use such weapons is because it feared Russian retaliation and even more instability in South Africa, but most believe that only because there was no invasion and there was no unity among the white ruling group to use such drastic measures to support the state, did they stop support for the nuclear weapons program. The point of all this is to demonstrate that Israel is a dangerous regime, which supported the most hated government in the world. It gave them nuclear weapons technology, and potentially the ability to kill millions. That is yet one more reason why we should not support any U.S. war against Iraq on behalf of Israel. Not because we want Iraq to have such weapons itself, but because we believe that the Middle East should be a zone free of all weapons of mass destruction. What we understand with Israel is that it will not only arm itself but its military and political allies. That is why its nuclear weapons plants must be inspected, and it must be made to sign the nuclear non-proliferation agreement without further delay. *For more discussion on this article and to see what others have to say click on the link below to go to discussion forums.* ** * *Commentaries Forum* ** *Send your comments and suggestions about this article to: editors@tbwt.net * **Copyright © 2002 The Black World Today.** All Rights Reserved. September 4, 2002 By Abby Johnson The news that nuclear weapons workers are fighting to receive compensation for their illnesses should be no surprise to a Department of Energy skeptic like me. But these hard luck health stories horrify me every time. The sad story of the nuclear weapons workers should be a warning to us, since most of DOE's work is done through contracts with private companies. The workers were exposed to radioactive and hazardous materials on the job. Because many of them worked for private contractors, who in turn worked for DOE, they were not covered for health problems in the same way as if they had worked directly for DOE. According to the article in Sunday's Appeal, "The Energy Department will reverse a decades-old policy and help people who worked for contractors at government weapons plants file for assistance under the nation's state worker compensation programs." Here's how DOE will help. "The Energy Department plans to tell contractors not to oppose claims if governmentÐappointed medical panels determine people got sick while working at DOE nuclear facilities. The agency will reimburse contractors who pay the compensation and will no longer reimburse them for fighting the claims." (emphasis added) How about this Catch-22? "The Energy Department currently has no authority to pay the claims outright since the workers were not technically federal employees." DOE had the authority all along to pay the contractors to fight the claims of employees sickened by making nuclear weapons. Presumably, DOE also had the authority from the start to tell the contractors to pay the claims. But it didn't choose to do so until forced by the sick and the dying. What a surprise. As my mother used to say, let this be a lesson to us. This is exactly the sort of treatment that workers and the public should expect from DOE with the Yucca Mountain project. DOE has assured Nevadans that the risks of exposure to radiation are lower than a snake's belly. They have asserted that workers at the Yucca Mountain site will be covered in the usual manner for nuclear workers, whatever that is. They tell the rest of us that the Price Anderson Act, liability insurance for the nuclear industry, will bail us out (along with an additional appropriation from Congress) if something really bad happens on our highways or railroads. But what we need to learn from the experience of the nuclear weapons workers is that the rules that may protect federal workers don't always apply to federal contractors or their employees. Energy Department representatives make promises about safety all the time. But over time, it will be contractors doing the work, hiring, firing, and implementing the policies of the DOE. Let's remember that DOE is proposing to ship nuclear waste using the private sector to the maximum extent. For truck shipments to Yucca Mountain, up to four private prime contractors could be involved in trucking waste from power plants to Nevada, depending on location. The Energy Department's safety record is already tainted by the government's lies and deception regarding nuclear weapons testing in Nevada. It is essential our state and national leaders make sure that Nevada workers and citizens don't end up having to sue the federal government or die trying in order to receive fair treatment for radiation-related health problems from the construction, operation and transportation impacts of the Yucca Mountain project. In order to protect ourselves, Nevada should demand a health insurance escrow account be established by the federal government, fully funded if the Nuclear Regulatory Commission licenses the repository for construction. The account would not be subject to de-funding by future Congresses or redirected to pay for titanium drip shields in 300 years. It would fund repository- and transportation-related health claims in perpetuity. In the meantime, since health care is the biggest issue facing the people of the United States, Nevada should volunteer (all for our country) to be the first state to pilot single payer universal health care. With the imminent health crises that our nation is facing, a new approach is needed. And besides, it's the health insurance that each of us will need if the unsafe Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project is to burden our home state. Abby Johnson consults on rural community development, public involvement and nuclear waste issues. She is married, lives in Carson City, and has one high school-aged child. /Copyright Nevada Appeal. Materials contained within this site may ***************************************************************** 38 SA: Earth Summit Dumps On Climate allAfrica.com: Friends of the Earth International (Amsterdam) PRESS RELEASE September 3, 2002 Johannesburg Environmental campaigners reacted with fury today to the news that no target for increasing renewable energy use has been agreed by Ministers. Following long and contentious negotiations, all reference to a target for renewable energy has been dropped from the section of the Action Plan dealing with energy and climate policy. Instead, the text calls for subsidies for "cleaner" fossil fuels and large hydroelectric schemes to be provided to developing countries. Campaigners, and a group of countries led by Brazil, had insisted that the minimum target necessary to combat man-made climate change was for 10% primary energy supply to be produced from new renewable sources by 2010. Despite ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, Japan played an important role in formulating the compromise text together with the United States and OPEC. The agreed text contains a reference to the ninth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD9). CSD9 identified both fossil fuels and nuclear power as types of energy that can support sustainable development. The deal also fails to identify a target and programme of action supporting the provision of energy services to the 2 billion people currently without access to these services. Some negotiators have speculated that an absurd horse-trade occurred between the water and energy targets. It will be impossible to deliver on the agreed water and sanitation target without providing clean and affordable energy services to the same people that need clean water. Commenting, Kate Hampton, Climate Campaigner for Friends of the Earth International said: "The Earth Summit has just seen a terrible betrayal of the fight against climate change. This is grim news for the millions of people across the world whose homes, jobs and lives depend on a reduction in human emissions of climate changing gases. Many of the most affected do not even have access to the kind of energy services this summit was supposed to provide." "We are bitterly angry that the OPEC countries, Japan and the United States have combined in this way to help wreck the world's environment and endanger the security of our common home. The deal is as stupid and self-destructive as the man who climbed into an oven and switched up the heat. The resulting text is so bad that those countries who care about the environment should simply refuse to have anything to do with it," Hampton added. Copyright © 2002 Friends of the Earth International. All rights ***************************************************************** 39 Gerhard Schroeder: Create an Earth our children will thank us for Asahi Shimbun www.asahi.com [http://www.asahi.com/] JAPANESE POINT OF VIEW/ Today humanity has the knowledge, wealth, technical possibilities, as well as the joint sense of responsibility, to solve our planet's problems. We must assume this responsibility. The participants in the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg bear a tremendous responsibility: safeguarding our planet's future. The devastating floods in Europe, as well as the flood disaster in China, are not just terrible forces of nature which, quite literally overnight, cost lives, wiped out livelihoods and wrecked the reconstruction of entire towns. They are also indicators or, rather, glaring warning signals from nature to the people who inhabit this planet and have to ensure that it remains worth living in. Before we become absorbed in a debate among experts on the actual extent to which humanity is responsible for these disasters-due to global warming, the straightening of rivers or the concreting over of natural areas-we should remember that we only have this one planet. Our survival, as well as that of our children and grandchildren, will depend on how carefully we treat its finite resources; how successful we are in safeguarding and equitably distributing the natural bases of life for everyone, as well as Earth's riches and development chances; and how we ensure that our common environment remains viable and habitable. In short, how we can bring the right to development and prosperity into accord with our responsibility to overcome hunger and to preserve Earth for ourselves and our children. How far we have advancedThese ideas were the focus of the Rio Earth Summit 10 years ago. At that time, the participating states agreed on ambitious goals: the vision of a world beyond war and conflicts, poverty and environmental destruction, seemed to have moved closer following the end of the Cold War and bloc confrontation. Ten years later, the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg is about much more than taking stock and examining together how far we have advanced along the path we agreed and embarked upon then. There is no question that we must do that: the Rio goals have lost none of their urgency. However, new challenges have arisen and known risks have grown into acute dangers. Individual and collective security has become a valuable commodity-threatened by regional conflicts, crime, terrorism, epidemics and global environmental risks. What we have achieved on the one hand-for example, the Europe-wide decontamination of the River Elbe-was washed away within a few days by the floods. Impressive progress in the field of environmental protection in the industrialized countries, as well as in the development of individual economies in the newly industrialized countries, are counterbalanced by sobering setbacks: Global climate changes have become a tangible reality for many people; poverty has continued to increase worldwide-more than 2 billion people, almost half of humanity, lives off less than 2 euro per day, while 1.5 billion men, women and children never drink a glass of clean water. The shock of the attacks of Sept. 11 made governments and societies all over the world move closer together in order to stand up to the threat of terrorism. At the same time, however, it has become clear that peace and security cannot be achieved and maintained with military and police resources alone. Even if there is no direct link between a globalized economy and international terrorism, there can be no global security without an agenda for global equity. We need a new concept of security that encompasses economic, ecological and social aspects. We are working on this and in Johannesburg we will have to map out a course for this, too. Naturally, globalization has become the defining feature of our world economy. However, it is not a phenomenon of nature on which we have no influence but, rather, a network of economic, trading and communications ties which we must shape politically. We must therefore elaborate rules and codes of conduct that will help us to ensure that the greatest possible number of people can share in the unquestionable advantages of globalization and that undesirable developments for us and future generations are averted. The markets cannot achieve this on their own. We know, for example, that people's prosperity has not sunk but, on the contrary, has risen in those countries which are completely open to world trade. Those who summarily dismiss the opening up of world markets are not helping developing countries but, rather, are blocking their way out of poverty. ``Trade is aid'' has proved to be a good maxim of development policy-fair trade, mark you. However, this means that the prosperous countries of the developed world bear a special responsibility. The industrialized nations must truly open up their markets to products from developing countries-even when, at first sight, it would be detrimental to their own privileges, for instance the agricultural subsidies in the United States and Europe. In the long term, we will all be able to benefit from truly open markets. Eliminating, or at least greatly reducing, the gap between rich and poor in the world, is also in the best interests of a country such as Germany, which lives more than other countries from the export of its goods and services. We want to expand and foster trade and exchange with the world's less developed countries. Protective tariffs and other trade barriers have no place in this day and age. On the other hand, national strategies, for example on reducing greenhouse gases, are of limited use. If only a few countries fulfill the goals we have set together while the release of carbon dioxide continues to rise steadily worldwide, the result will remain disastrous: Global warning simply does not stop at national borders. Ratify Kyoto ProtocolNevertheless, Germany will remain a trailblazer in climate protection. However, we urge the other member states of the United Nations to do everything they can to join us in ratifying the Kyoto Protocol as quickly as possible and in reaching the targets laid down in it. In particular, I call upon the United States to live up to its responsibility for climate protection and to make a contribution of equal value to reducing greenhouse gases. It remains our intention to encourage the United States in a second step to participate fully once more in the international agreements on climate protection. This applies in particular to the continued increase in energy efficiency. Germany is already top of the league among industrialized countries in this field. Improved efficiency in power stations, a reduction in waste, clean-exhaust vehicles on our roads and appliances that use considerably less energy than in our parents' age are investments in our children's future. Not only because we are phasing out obsolete forms of energy such as nuclear energy, whose risks represent an irresponsible burden for many generations, but also because, in their place, we are developing new, renewable sources of energy, which not only save considerable costs but will also lend a boost to industrial innovation. Even today, it is foreseeable that new energy technology in the industrialized countries could create an abundance of new jobs. I am convinced that in the future resource and energy efficiency will become a trademark of market economies with lasting success. We are thus also setting an example for countries with a less developed economy: A sustainable energy policy allows us to combine saving natural resources with successful economic development. We know that the developing countries cannot carry out such an ambitious energy program by their own efforts. Together with other European states, we are therefore providing funding for a replenishment of the central mechanism for global environmental protection. With an additional $2.7 billion, the European states want to ensure that the developing countries receive the means they need to develop a sustainable energy supply. What is more, I will be putting forward three concrete proposals in Johannesburg on how we can advance the use of renewable energies worldwide. First of all, taking the successful International Conference on Freshwater held in Bonn as a model. Germany will be hosting an international conference on renewable energies. Its aim will be to develop an international strategy on promoting these forms of energy. Secondly, I will propose that a U.N. organization be given a clear mandate to help developing countries in particular develop an energy supply that protects the climate and conserves resources. Renewable sources of energy should be one focus of this. Thirdly, Germany will form strategic partnerships with developing and newly industrialized countries and conclude concrete targets in keeping with conditions in the partner country in question, which we intend to achieve together. As well as developing renewable sources of energy, our task will be to modernize existing power stations and to identify areas where energy can be saved. These proposals fit in seamlessly with our National Strategy for Sustainable Development, which I will also be presenting in Johannesburg-not as a model that must be copied but as a possible path to growth, which can offer others orientation. Our strategy is based on four guiding principles: 1) Equity among generations: We want to shape our economic activities in such a way that the justified interests of our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren accord with the needs of today's generation. We therefore intend to reduce our national debt in order to safeguard the coming generation's scope for action. At the same time, we want to ensure that the natural bases of life are preserved by using natural resources with care. 2) Quality of life: This goal is about much more than preserving an intact nature and countryside. Satisfying work, good health and adequate housing are as much a part of this as personal and social security. The best possible vocational training, attractive and safe cities with a vibrant cultural scene, as well as the fostering of people and their diverse talents to enable them to shape their own lives in their families and surroundings, are what makes an environment worth living in. We are therefore in favor of the principle of an active, indeed of a proactive state. 3) Cohesion within our society: The rapid structural changes in our economy with all its consequences for jobs and the necessary adjustment to changed circumstances are regarded with fear by many people. Social reforms that both challenge and encourage people to take part in society will prevent a rift emerging between winners and losers. 4) International responsibility: Our future development is embodied in a European and international context. We know that no nation in the world can guarantee the welfare and security of its citizens on its own. EU's exemplary roleThe same goes for the conservation of the resources on which life depends. During the 10 years since Rio, the European Union has assumed an exemplary role in reconciling the interests of the industrialized states and those of the developing countries. We will continue to support the United Nations in its goals as we have done in the past and will strongly back its programs. And I expressly welcome the fact that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have recognized the sign of the times and have linked their assistance less to dogmatic ideas relating to market liberalization and more to the goals of sustainable development. Admittedly, in view of the considerable material and technical resources which such a summit requires, many people are wondering whether we are not wasting time, energy and material in Johannesburg in the name of saving resources. I would like to respond by saying that it would be so if we did not take advantage of our opportunities to share learning processes with one another and to achieve effective and visible progress. We have another task. Today humanity has the knowledge, wealth, technical possibilities, as well as the joint sense of responsibility, to solve our planet's problems. We must assume this responsibility-our children will thank us for it. * The author is chancellor of Germany. He contributed this comment to The Asahi Shimbun. (09/04) [Copyright Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction or ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************