*****************************************************************
11/04/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.285
*****************************************************************
RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE
*****************************************************************
Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject
line and first line of body
NUCLEAR POLICY
1 Russia Rejects U.S. Resolution on Iraq
2 NK Editorial: A way out of nuclear crisis
3 NK Willing to Negotiate Nuclear Program
4 China and Japan Call for End to Nuke Development
5 US: Workers called to testify about Paducah plant
6 Recalcitrant North Korea
7 British Energy to increase borrowing
8 UK mulls extending loan to crisis-hit nuclear firm
9 1994 Agreed Framework Should Be Maintained
10 Seoul to Hold Series of Talks on Nukes
11 N.Korea daily spurns guns-for-butter nuclear solution
12 US: 'End hostilities, or else'*
NUCLEAR REACTORS
13 US: BCS faces temporary cash-flow problem*
14 Canada: Bill eases privatizing of nuclear plants
15 US: Forums to review Ginna
NUCLEAR SAFETY
16 Malta: No danger of radioactivity from residual material
17 US: Vehicles vs. tractor-trailers
18 US: Local sick workers dismayed with Wamp
19 US: Guardsmen paying dues in Utah desert
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
20 US: Discussion of Yucca Mountain, nuclear waste muted in campaigns*
21 US: Utah: Charities in Fear of Initiative 1
22 US: Fate of radioactive waste tax initiative in voters' hands*
23 US: Low-level nuke waste shipments a minor worry
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
24 The Chirac Doctrine France’s Iraq-war plan.
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
25 Plutonium shipping to SC delayed by faulty Colorado machine*
26 Grand jury to probe plant -
27 Plutonium Packaging System Frustrates Flats Managers* *
28 Richardson Defends DOE Record * *
OTHER NUCLEAR
29 Energy Policy on the Ropes* *
30 7.9 Quake Rattles Remote Area of Alaska
31 Alaska Quake's Force Felt in La.
32 Iraqi Children Suffer Amid War Fears
33 Magnitude 7.9 quake rocks Alaska
*****************************************************************
*****************************************************************
FULL NEWS STORIES
*****************************************************************
*****************************************************************
1 Russia Rejects U.S. Resolution on Iraq
Go To Original
[http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-102202russiraq_wr.story]
From Associated Press
Conflict: Russian foreign minister announces Moscow's position
after talks with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and French
Foreign Minister Dominque de Villepin.
Tuesday, 22 October, 2002, 11:25 AM PDT
MOSCOW -- Russia rejected the new U.S. draft resolution on Iraq
Tuesday, dealing a sharp blow to American efforts to gain U.N.
backing for the automatic use of force if weapons inspectors are
thwarted by Baghdad.
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov's statement said the U.S. document
failed to meet Russian criteria.
His comments to Russian reporters were the Kremlin's first
official reaction to the U.S. proposal presented on Monday to the
other four permanent members of the Security Council.
"The American draft resolution...does not answer the criteria
which the Russian side laid out earlier and which it confirms
today," Ivanov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
Ivanov made the statement several hours after meeting with Hans
Blix, the chief U.N. weapons inspector.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Negroponte gave the
complete U.S. draft to envoys of the four other permanent council
members -- France, Russia, China and Britain.
Blix, meanwhile, said he thought war with Iraq could be avoided
if Baghdad proves it does not have weapons of mass destruction.
France and China remained guarded about using force against
Hussein.
"They may have evidence, I am not brushing it aside, but in our
archive there is no clear-cut evidence. There are many questions,
however, that we would like to have answered by them (the Iraqis)
and there are also many places we would like to visit," Blix
said.
Ivanov made his comments after separate meetings with State
Department Undersecretary John Bolton as well as with Blix.
Russia, which holds veto power in the Security Council, has
opposed unilateral military action against Iraq. It criticized an
earlier version of the draft that would have envisaged the use of
force if Baghdad failed to comply with U.N. weapons inspectors.
White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said the United States
would continue to push for one resolution.
"It's a fact that they don't have forever. The United Nations is
entering the final stages on this and we'd like to see a
resolution reached," he said. "Our position remains the same --
one resolution is appropriate."
China "will take seriously" any measure supporting U.N. weapons
inspections and leading to a peaceful settlement of the standoff
between Iraq and the United States, Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokesman Liu Jianchao said at a regularly scheduled briefing.
However, he added: "We have always held that the U.N. weapons
inspectors should return to Iraq as soon as possible and the
Security Council should consider its next move according to the
result of the inspection." French President Jacques Chirac did
not react directly to the draft but suggested the French were not
close to supporting it.
"We have our own appreciation of things, and we tell (the United
States) that," Chirac said, even if "we don't say it in an
aggressive way." He spoke to reporters after a meeting with
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen whose country holds
the rotating European Union presidency.
Earlier, before seeing the draft, French U.N. Ambassador
Jean-David Levitte said he did not think an agreement was close.
Washington's staunchest ally on the council, Britain, voiced its
support. Prime Minister Tony Blair said he hoped the U.S. draft
would be approved. At the same time, Ivanov said Friday that the
Security Council could consider authorizing the use of force
against Iraq if the inspectors report "problems" in searching for
weapons of mass destruction.
Meanwhile, Blix, who said he thought a team of weapons inspectors
could be in Iraq within two weeks, issued his assessment as U.N.
Security Council members studied the revised U.S. draft of a
resolution on Iraq.
"I think that if Iraq helps create confidence that there are no
weapons of mass destruction, then I think there will be no war,"
Blix said.
Blix said he would like to see the inspectors go to Iraq as soon
as possible, but that it was best for them to wait for the
expected U.N. Security Council resolution rather than receive new
instructions after they had started work. He said it was
important for the inspectors to travel to Iraq to provide a
clearer picture of the state of its weapons programs. Some
countries, including the United States and Great Britain, have
said that Iraq has made strides in developing weapons of mass
destruction that pose a grave threat to mankind.
Also Tuesday, Turkey warned Iraq to comply with U.N. resolutions
to avoid possible military action, and in an apparent message to
Washington, said any action ought to have U.N. approval.
At the end of a four-hour meeting, Turkey's National Security
Council -- made up of the country's military and civilian leaders
-- issued a statement saying that "Iraq should behave responsibly
to avoid the necessity of military intervention."
Turkey, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, has
repeatedly spoken out against any military campaign in Iraq,
fearing it could destabilize the region and harm the Turkish
economy, which is suffering from its worst recession in decades.
*****************************************************************
2 NK Editorial: A way out of nuclear crisis
Korea Herald!!_Oped
http://www.koreaherald.com
Inter-Korean relations are proceeding with ups and downs as if it
were business as usual, despite the intermittent exchanges of
barbed diatribes between Pyongyang and Washington over the North
Korean program of enriching uranium to build atomic weapons.
Last week, South and North Korea held their Red Cross talks on
family reunions, as scheduled, in the North Korean tourist resort
of Mt. Geumgang. Though the South Korean delegation returned home
empty-handed, this should not be a cause of concern because
chances are still high that the two sides will be able to pull
off accords on some, if not all, of the major pending issues
during the next round of talks.
In fact, the South and North Korean teams came near an accord on
the main issue - building a permanent reunion post in the North
for families that have been separated by the Demilitarized Zone
since the end of the fratricidal 1950-53 Korean War. The North
Koreans appeared to be demonstrating their sincerity about the
project when they offered to guide their South Korean
counterparts to the site selected for construction.
But the talks were derailed over the weekend when the South
Korean delegates raised the issue of South Koreans abducted to
the North after the war - many of them fishermen. It was a thorny
issue that had been drawing greater public attention since North
Korean leader Kim Jong-il confessed to and apologized for the
kidnapping of Japanese citizens when he met with Japanese Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi in September.
North Korea should have come clean about its past wrongdoings
against the South Korean abductees for the sake of a fresh start
in inter-Korean relations, as it did for the normalization of
relations with Japan concerning the abduction of Japanese
citizens in the 1970s and 1980s.
But it insisted, as it had done in the past, that the South
Koreans defected to the North of their own volition. That was one
of the most unwelcome setbacks for the South Korean government,
which came under renewed attack from its detractors, who claimed
it provided lavish aid to the North for nothing in return - all
the more unwelcome because it had greater expectations this time
about progress being made on the issue.
The dispute over the abduction cases, however, was outshined by
the outcome of separate talks in Pyongyang on the establishment
of an industrial park for South Korean business concerns in North
Korea's southern city of Gaeseong.
In the initial phase of the project, the two sides agreed to
develop 3.3 million sq. meters of land by the end of this year
and sell plots of land for factory construction at reasonable
prices beginning in March next year. North Korea is reportedly
planning to proclaim a law on the industrial complex this month
and make decisions on the details concerning entry, exit,
communications and quarantine when road and rail links are
connected to South Korea early next year.
These moves deserve keen attention from South Korea as they may
demonstrate North Korea's earnest desire to boost its barren
economy with help from the South Korean private sector. North
Korea appeared to be sending a similar message when it dispatched
a high-powered mission of economic experts to observe South
Korea's industrial prowess with their own eyes.
Before returning home Sunday, the delegation, which included one
of Kim Jong-il's closest relatives and a top economic policymaker
equivalent in status to the South Korean deputy prime minister in
charge of economic affairs, inspected South Korean global players
including Samsung Electronics, POSCO and Hyundai Motor. They
visited smaller corporations and a research and development park
in Daejeon as well.
During the nine-day tour, the mission leader repeatedly expressed
the hope that South and North Korea will advance their economic
relations based on their June 15 joint declaration, which was
announced by South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean
leader Kim Jong-il at the end of their summit in 2000.
His hope, by extension that of the North Korean regime,
presupposes peace on the Korean Peninsula. And apparently to the
relief of North Korea, there is no sign of a crisis developing
into a war yet, unlike in the early 1990s when the United States
once contemplated a precision-guided attack on North Korean
nuclear facilities suspected of producing weapons-grade
plutonium.
But peace may not last if North Korea holds on to its nuclear
weapons program indefinitely. It should seek a peaceful way out
before time runs out.
2002.11.05
(C) Copyright 2000 Digital Korea Herald. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
3 NK Willing to Negotiate Nuclear Program
Digital Chosunilbo (English Edition) : Daily News in English About Korea
Updated Nov.4,2002 15:43 KST
North Korean Ambassador to the United Nations Han Song Ryol said
in an interview with the New York Times and subsequent written
statements to the US daily last week, that Pyongyang was willing
to negotiate with Washington on the nuclear issue. Han said North
Korea would abandon its nuclear weapons program and even allow
international inspections of its uranium facilities, if
Washington ends its hostile policy towards the Stalinist regime.
Ambassador Han also expressed Pyongyang's desire for dialogue,
saying the matter can be resolved peacefully and quickly if the
two sides sit down for talks. However, the paper reported the US
State Department has yet to show an official response to the
North's offer, in an apparent sign that there is no change in the
Bush administration's stance that the nuclear issue is not up for
negotiation.
Since Pyongyang's admission of having a secret nuclear program
last month, the country has repeatedly cited its willingness to
abandon its nuclear ambitions, if the United States signs a
non-aggression treaty.
(Arirang TV)
*****************************************************************
4 China and Japan Call for End to Nuke Development
Digital Chosunilbo (English Edition) : Daily News in English About Korea
Updated Nov.4,2002 17:01 KST
by Jang Il-hyeon (ihjang@chosun.com)
On the sidelines of the ASEAN+3 Summit in Cambodia, Prime
Minister Kim Suk-soo, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi
and Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji agreed Monday that problems
with North Korea's enriched uranium nuclear weapons program
should be solved peacefully through dialogue. The three also said
that each nation would exert efforts to this end.
During the meeting at the Intercontinental Hotel in Phonm Penh,
the capital of Cambodia, the three said the nuclear problem
needed prompt resolution and expressed their support for the
statement issued at the October APEC forum in Los Cabos, Mexico.
They also decided to open free trade agreement talks for joint
economic cooperation next year, and will create a joint research
team to monitor and control sand storms that develop in China and
then blanket Korea and Japan.
In related news the ASEAN+3 Summit issued a statement calling for
the North to promptly scrap its nuclear weapons program, peaceful
settlement of problems on the peninsula, and the realization of
nuclear-free peninsula.
*****************************************************************
5 Workers called to testify about Paducah plant
Lexington Herald-Leader | 11/03/2002 |
[heraldleader.com - The heraldleader home page]
LAWSUIT SAYS FALSE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORTS WERE FILED
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PADUCAH - A lawyer who filed a "whistle blower" lawsuit alleging
false environmental reports at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion
Plant said workers who may have witnessed violations have been
subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury, The Paducah Sun
reported yesterday.
Washington environmental lawyer Joe Egan told the newspaper he
learned late Thursday that subpoenas were being issued for
several current and former workers.
Lockheed Martin Corp., which operated the plant from 1982 to
1992, has strongly denied the allegations.
Harold Hargan of Pulaski County, Ill., who worked at the plant
for 39 years, said he was notified late Friday that he will be
subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury Wednesday morning in
Louisville.
Hargan said that while working at the plant, he witnessed workers
and supervisors diluting samples of chemicals and radionuclides
for dumping purposes, leaving deteriorating drums of highly
radioactive substances leaching into a ditch, handling a
hazardous degreaser carelessly throughout the plant and drinking
on the job.
He said his complaints about such activity were ignored and that
he often was chastised for raising his concerns. "It looks to me
they are finally looking into what went on," Hargan said.
Since retiring, Hargan has been outspoken about former plant
operations and has talked with federal investigators who have
been looking into allegations made in the suits, including the
one filed by Egan.
One of the people with whom Hargan met was Assistant U.S.
Attorney Bill Campbell, who on Friday would not comment on
whether a grand jury is being impaneled to investigate the
claims.
He noted that it is the policy of the Department of Justice not
to confirm or deny whether investigations were in progress.
Egan's suit received national attention, and Energy Secretary
Bill Richardson came to Padu-cah and admitted that workers in the
past had been exposed to toxic chemicals that caused illness and
death.
Congress then approved a compensation program to pay sick workers
$150,000 each.
Bill McMurry, a Louisville attorney who has filed a separate
class-action suit seeking $10 billion for workers who became ill
because of contamination at the plant, said he also had been
informed that a grand jury will launch a criminal investigation.
"It is very refreshing that government officials are finally
realizing the criminality of the conduct of those who have
operated the plant," McMurry said.
*****************************************************************
6 Recalcitrant North Korea
The New York Times
*November 4, 2002*
North Korea now says it may be willing to shut down its newly
revealed nuclear weapons program, if Washington negotiates with
it on this and other issues. The Bush administration insists that
the North act first. The White House should explore the offer,
reported by Philip Shenon in yesterday's Times. Yet recent
history, particularly North Korea's evasion of a 1994 nuclear
agreement with Washington, shows how frustrating diplomacy with
Pyongyang can be.
Fortunately, there is no immediate danger to South Korea or the
United States, so the world need not act precipitously. North
Korea is in desperate economic shape. Pyongyang cannot feed its
people, and neither its leaders nor its neighbors want to see it
crumble into dangerous chaos. It has no chance without
substantial outside help and therein lies potential leverage. In
return for their help, other countries must insist that the North
eliminate its unconventional weapons and long-range missiles.
Progress so far has been disappointing. Last week's talks between
North Korea and Japan went nowhere when Pyongyang refused to
discuss its nuclear bomb-making. South Korea's outgoing
president, Kim Dae Jung, dedicated his term to improving ties
with the North. Pyongyang barely reciprocated.
The United States has also been treated shabbily. The 1994
agreement succeeded in freezing the North's reprocessing of
plutonium for nuclear bombs and shutting a power reactor that had
been providing the raw materials for this bomb fuel. North Korea
later suspended long-range missile tests. But it now turns out
that North Korea has been running a parallel bomb program based
on uranium.
Despite the frustrations, patient diplomacy remains the best ?
really the only ? available course. Military action risks a
response that would endanger millions of Japanese and South
Koreans and tens of thousands of American troops. A new Korean
War could devastate two of Asia's biggest economies, Japan and
South Korea, and poison American relations with China and Russia.
Washington and these four interested neighbors must together
convince North Korea that its only hope lies in eliminating its
unconventional weapons programs. This will not prove easy, but it
is truly the only alternative for now.
*****************************************************************
7 British Energy to increase borrowing
Ananova -
British Energy shareholders have voted in favour of increasing
its borrowing provision to £1.6 billion.
More then 96% of investors voted by proxy for the measure at an
extraordinary general meeting at Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh,
which was attended by 63 shareholders.
Earlier, British Energy chairman Robin Jeffrey warned that
without the increased provision, the company "may not be able to
continue trading".
Speaking in favour of a planned restructuring of the company,
which the increased borrowing would allow for, he added: "It is
the board's view that there are reasonable options for solvent
restructuring.
"That is what we will be doing. We are very focused and very
determined."
Finance Director Keith Luff told shareholders that restructuring
the company would allow it to be more competitive in the market
place.
He said: "The £1.6 billion figure has been set to allow us to get
through this restructuring. We do not want to be put into a
situation where we are not trading lawfully."
He also stressed British Energy would not necessarily make use of
the full facility but that it would allow the company
flexibility.
The proposal was approved despite a demonstration by Friends of
the Earth Scotland outside the venue.
Shareholders arriving at the EGM were greeted by the sight of a
'radioactivity toilet' into which money was symbolically thrown.
Friends of the Earth chief executive Kevin Dunion said: "Allowing
British Energy to increase its borrowing limit to a staggering
£1.6 billion cannot hide what everyone, apart from the nuclear
industry and some in Government, already know.
"That is that nuclear power is unsafe, unreliable and
uneconomic."
British Energy recently received a £450 million loan from the
Government, which was increased to £650 million last month.
The company has also asked local authorities where it has plants
to allow them to defer payment of rates until next February.
Story filed: 13:17 Monday 4th November 2002
Ananova - About Ananova
*****************************************************************
8 UK mulls extending loan to crisis-hit nuclear firm
Planet Ark :
UK: November 4, 2002
LONDON - The UK government was considering this week whether to
extend its emergency loan to stricken nuclear firm British Energy
for a second time as a four-week countdown began to deciding the
company's future.
A 650 million-pound ($1.02 billion) state-bailout loan to the
producer of a fifth of Britain's power is due to expire on
November 29. Privatised British Energy cannot make money at
current electricity prices, which have dropped below its cost of
production after market reforms exposed industry overcapacity.
Other British power generators are in financial trouble too, but
ministers happy to let market forces do their work elsewhere have
acknowledged that they cannot walk away from British Energy for
reasons of safety and security of supply.
Forcing the firm into administration and potential insolvency by
withdrawing support at the end of this month will not make the
problem go away. Analysts said it could prove even costlier in
the long run because the state's own loss-making nuclear fuels
arm BNFL depends on British Energy.
But propping it up indefinitely with taxpayers' money is not an
easy option either. EU rules against state subsidy are getting
stricter and other power producers would have a case for subsidy
as well. Meanwhile environmentalists and supporters of renewable
energy who want to phase out nuclear power are planning court
action against the current loan.
"They (the government) just don't want this thing on their
balance sheet," said a senior industry executive involved in
wide-ranging talks about the future of the UK's power industry.
"Next year's energy policy review is the key to resolving this
whole thing. A debt rollover until the government is clear about
where this (policy) is going is where I think things are
heading."
A source close to the government said a decision on whether to
roll over the loan - extended and increased once already in
September - would be taken "very close indeed to November 29".
Ministerial minds have not been made up, he said. "But if there
is an extension on November 29 the decision will have been taken
that British Energy should survive."
CAPACITY PAYMENTS
According to the industry source, one likely change to energy
legislation next year that could alleviate British Energy's
difficulties is a return to "capacity payments" - where wholesale
power prices include a fee paid to generators for making capacity
available.
Capacity payments were abolished with the reforms that introduced
New Electricity Arrangements (NETA) last year.
Although regulator Ofgem and many customers are happy with the 40
percent slide in wholesale prices since 1998, generating firms
say a power market needs spare capacity, and that there is no
longer any incentive to own capacity that is not in use.
They say the situation could end in a capacity shortage. Capacity
payment would apply to all types of power producer, so
discrimination in favour of nuclear energy would not be an issue.
Another key element to the British Energy puzzle is the future of
BNFL, whose contract to recycle fuel costs British Energy 300
million pounds ($469 million) a year.
One neat way to cut the cost of that contract might involve BNFL,
which has its own privatisation plans, taking an equity stake in
British Energy, possibly swapped for easier contract terms.
Sources have said this is also among the ideas on the table in
ongoing talks between industry and government.
Industry sources said Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown,
who runs the nation's finances, will have the final say on
November 29 even though the Department of Trade and Industry
(DTI) is officially in charge.
The DTI said talks were continuing, and the Treasury said British
Energy was a matter for the DTI.
Story by Andrew Callus
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE [http://www.reuters.com]
*****************************************************************
9 1994 Agreed Framework Should Be Maintained
KoreaTimes :
[KoreaTimes National]
Following is a contribution by Prof. Kim Sung-han of the
Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security to commemorate
the 52nd anniversary of the founding of The Korea Times. _ ED.
Despite the recent exchange of harsh words between Washington and
Pyongyang, they have appeared to be sticking to one arms control
agreement: the Geneva Agreed Framework. Under the agreement
signed in 1994, North Korea froze its suspected nuclear
development program in exchange for receiving two safer
light-water reactors that are being constructed by a U.S.-led
international consortium.
However, the agreement is now under the threat of collapse. In
early October, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly
visited Pyongyang to begin talks on a wide range of issues that
include North Korea¡¯s nuclear, missiles, and conventional threat
reduction issues. During those talks, James Kelly and his
delegation presented recently acquired information indicating
that North Korea has been running a program for several years to
enrich uranium for nuclear weapons in violation of the U.S.-North
Korea Agreed Framework and other agreements. Surprisingly,
however, North Korean officials acknowledged that they have a
nuclear development program and considered the Agreed Framework
nullified.
Before this incident, the Bush administration had been demanding
North Korea to comply with the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) safeguards agreement and accept ``special inspection¡¯¡¯
by the end of this year at the latest. The Agreed Framework
provides that North Korea must come into full compliance with its
safeguards agreement with the IAEA when a significant portion of
the Light Water Reactor (LWR) project is completed, but before
delivery of key nuclear components. As for major milestones in
the LWR project, completion of the significant portion of the
first light water reactor is expected in the first half of 2005.
The KEDO construction schedule assumes about a couple of months
between the completion of a significant portion and the shipment
of the components, but it is likely to be a significantly longer
period of time, which could be very disruptive for the whole
process. The best compliance review took two years in South
Africa, while unofficial IAEA estimates are as high as three to
four years for North Korea. In the case of South Africa, it
actually took three years from the time they agreed to
inspections under the non-proliferation treaty until the process
was finished. The North thus had to be convinced to start the
compliance process soon to avoid the schedule delay. North Korea
refused, however.
To make matters worse, North Korea¡¯s clandestine nuclear
development program has been disclosed. North Korea has now an
additional burden of dismantling the nuclear program to enrich
uranium for nuclear weapons in a prompt and verifiable manner.
President George W. Bush, President Kim Dae-jung, and Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi in their October 27 trilateral summit
meeting called upon North Korea to dismantle the program and to
come into full compliance with all its international commitments
including the Agreed Framework, the Non-Proliferation Treaty,
North Korea¡¯s IAEA safeguards agreement, and the South-North
Joint Declaration on Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
But still, it is somewhat unclear what has motivated North Korea
to acknowledge the existence of a secret nuclear weapons program.
There must be a particular reason for North Korea to take the
risk of setting the rest of the world against itself, especially
at a time when it is becoming more dependent on outside help for
food and energy.
Some say that it is related with North Korea¡¯s recent trend
toward ``confessional diplomacy.¡¯¡¯ Their point is that
Pyongyang¡¯s acknowledgement of the secret nuclear program
appears to have been intended to convey the message to the world
that Kim Jong-il is now a new kind of leader who does not resort
to secrecy any more. The same approach was already tried in
September when Kim Jong-il, faced with Japanese demands for an
explanation of eleven missing Japanese citizens in the late
1970s, apologized for what he acknowledged were official
kidnappings. But, it is hard to say that North Korea tried the
same approach, or repeated the same mistake, with the United
States while the confession to Japan was producing a lot of
criticism in the Japanese public against the North Korean regime.
The most plausible explanation is that Pyongyang reached a
conclusion that securing nuclear weapons was necessary not only
to ensure its survival, but also as indispensable bargaining
leverage in dealing with the United States. With the time
approaching under the Geneva Agreed Framework to comply with the
IAEA safeguards agreement and to lay bare their past nuclear
activities, which presumably included the clandestine production
of plutonium, Pyongyang must have felt that it needed another
nuclear weapons program to be taken seriously by the United
States.
In addition, Pyongyang did not necessarily choose the timing of
its admission, or confession. Presented with irrefutable evidence
by visiting U.S. special envoy James Kelly, North Korea must have
decided to take the gamble of trying to turn adversity into
advantage. Pyongyang must have concluded that, if it could no
longer hide its new nuclear program, it would use it instead to
draw the United States into talks and make a big deal.
But, the United States maintains a very firm position by saying
that it will not resume dialogue with North Korea until when the
North dismantles its nuclear program.
II
What if North Korea is not dissuaded? Will President Bush launch
a ``preemptive attack¡¯¡¯ on North Korea? Yes and no. The United
States will be handling the North Korean question in the similar
context of Iraq if North Korea is not dissuaded until the Iraqi
situation is concluded and all possible diplomatic options are
exhausted. It could beef up U.S. forces in South Korea to
whatever extent necessary. But, this will face a very negative
reaction from South Korea not because the South denies its
alliance with the U.S. but because South Korea cannot be another
Pakistan who permitted the October 2001 U.S. attack to the
Taliban regime, formerly a protege of Pakistan.
Anyhow, the foreign and security policy ideology of the United
States has been shifted from ``offensive liberalism¡¯¡¯ of the
Clinton era to ``offensive realism¡¯¡¯ under the Bush
administration. The former President Clinton seemed to believe in
a liberal grand strategy of the United States, thereby making him
interested in U.S. initiatives for resolving humanitarian crises.
It was offensive liberalism in the sense that it was aimed to
nurture and disseminate ``democratic peace¡¯¡¯ around the world
and the United States sometimes resorted to military force to
stop humanitarian crises, such as the one in Kosovo.
On the other hand, President Bush after the September 11 terror
attacks, has taken up offensive realism. The United States may
have realized that it needs to maximize its relative power to
other great powers. It has withdrawn from the ABM treaty;
confirmed a more aggressive posture in its nuclear policy; and is
preparing to launch a full-scale ``preemptive attack¡¯¡¯ on Iraq
regardless of the positions of other powers. In addition,
President Bush is rather indifferent to humanitarian crises and
believes that geopolitical priorities were absent during the
Clinton administration.
Is President Bush¡¯s offensive realism also to be applied to
North Korea? It seems that the Bush administration has decided to
explore ways to resolve bilateral issues through ``peaceful
means.¡¯¡¯ But, North Korea¡¯s ``salami tactics¡¯¡¯ are being
denied. It thus depends on North Korea whether future talks will
end up with tangible outcomes that will lead to significant
improvements in the U.S.-North Korea relationship.
III
What should we do about North Korean nuclear problems? Scrapping
the Agreed Framework will allow North Korea to resume its nuclear
activity with a degree of legality and legitimacy. With the 1994
Agreed Framework scrapped, there is nothing to stop the North
from converting the stored fissile material at Yongbyon into up
to ten nuclear weapons and restarting its plutonium program.
Thus, the Geneva Agreed Framework should be maintained as long as
North Korea¡¯s earlier (pre-enriched uranium) nuclear activity is
not resumed.
However, the supply of heavy oil and continued construction of
light water reactors should be contingent upon North Korean
willingness to address the enriched uranium issue. To the Bush
administration¡¯s credit, it has not stopped shipment of heavy
oil even after North Korea¡¯s uranium enrichment program became
known. Handling the Agreed Framework will require close
coordination and careful consideration among the United States,
Japan and South Korea.
In the meantime, South Korea is required to play, between North
Korea and the United States, the meaningful and constructive role
of persuading North Korea to forgo its nuclear development
programs. The three leaders of the United States, Japan, and
South Korea agreed that South-North dialogue could serve as
important channel to call upon the North to respond quickly and
convincingly to the international communities¡¯ demands for a
denuclearized Korean peninsula. South Korea needs to deliver
three key messages to North Korea clearly.
First, none of the five permanent member countries of the UN
Security Council, including Russia and China, want to see a
nuclear-armed North Korea. If North Korea resists, it will be
facing a situation in which it has to choose between isolation
and explosion. Either one will be deadly to the North.
Second, the United States will go to the UN Security Council and
obtain political and economic sanctions against North Korea if
the North does not respond properly to the international
communities¡¯ request to dismantle its nuclear program. Compared
with how it was in 1992-3, North Korea is now more dependent on
the international community for its food and energy. This means
that it is more vulnerable to economic sanctions than ten years
ago and that the United States will be sticking to peaceful
solutions and does not have to resort to military means.
Finally, the biggest threat to North Korea is not a hostile
policy or a possible attack from the United States, but its own
structural contradictions that need to be resolved through
appropriate reforms. In this light, weapons of mass destruction
cannot be an effective leverage or a bargaining card anymore. The
former Soviet Union and its East European communist camp
collapsed due to their own internal systemic problems, not due to
the attacks from the United States or its West European allies.
ÀԷ½ð£ 2002/11/04 18:02
[webmaster@hankooki.com]
*****************************************************************
10 Seoul to Hold Series of Talks on Nukes
Digital Chosunilbo (English Edition) : Daily News in English About Korea
Updated Nov.4,2002 15:27 KST
Seoul plans to hold a series of talks with its neighboring
nations and allies to seek a peaceful solution to Pyeongyang's
nuclear weapons program. Prime Minister Kim Suk-soo is currently
in Cambodia to attend the annual ASEAN plus three meeting. There,
he is scheduled to hold a tripartite meeting with Chinese Premier
Zhu Rongji and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on ways
to deal with the North's nuclear ambitions.
The issue will also top the agenda during the two-day Trilateral
Coordination and Oversight Group, or TCOG meeting scheduled to
begin in Tokyo next Friday, as well as foreign ministerial talks
slated for November 11 in Seoul between Foreign Affairs and Trade
Minister Choi Sung-hong and his US and Japanese counterparts,
Colin Powell and Yoriko Kawaguchi.
(Arirang TV)
*****************************************************************
11 N.Korea daily spurns guns-for-butter nuclear solution
04 November, 2002 19:18 GMT+08:00
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea's ruling party newspaper said on
Monday international talk of economic benefits in exchange for
scrapping Pyongyang's nuclear arms programme were an "unbearable
insult" to the reclusive communist state.
The Rodong Sinmun daily attacked the United States for bringing
pressure to bear on North Korea after the shock October
revelation that Pyongyang had been pursuing a clandestine nuclear
weapons programme.
The Workers' Party organ took special umbrage at statements by
Washington and other Asia-Pacific states that Pyongyang would
secure economic benefits if it abandoned the arms project.
"This means that if the DPRK puts down arms, it will receive
sugar. This is an unbearable insult to the DPRK," the daily said,
using the acronym of the country's official name, the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea.
"It is the faith and will of the Korean people that they can
survive without sugar but not without arms. The DPRK cannot
sacrifice its army for a piece of gold," it said.
The editorial repeated Pyongyang's demand, first aired on October
25, that to solve the nuclear weapons problem, the United States
must sign a non-aggression treaty with North Korea and guarantee
the sovereignty of the isolated state.
In Phnom Penh on Monday, the leaders of Japan, South Korea and
China held talks on how to tackle the threat posed by North
Korea's nuclear programme, stressing that regional stability and
good behaviour would benefit Pyongyang.
On Sunday, the White House dismissed a report in the New York
Times that carried statements by a North Korean diplomat calling
for talks on its uranium reprocessing scheme and offering to
consider international inspections of the nuclear facilities.
North Korea admitted on October 4 it had a clandestine weapons
programme, putting Pyongyang in violation of at least four
international commitments, including the 1994 Agreed Framework
under which it promised to halt its nuclear efforts.
*****************************************************************
12 'End hostilities, or else'*
*by Ser Myo-ja * November 03, 2002
North Korea threatened to take strong military measures if
Washington continues to ignore Pyeongyang's proposal for a
nonaggression treaty, North Korean media reported Saturday. The
country is facing growing international pressure to dismantle its
clandestine -- until last month -- nuclear program.
Rodong Shinmun, a North Korean government newspaper, said in an
editorial Saturday that unilateral coercive measures and pressure
on the North would complicate the current nuclear crisis even
further.
After the revelation of its program last month, Pyeongyang has
been pushing hard for a nonaggression pact with Washington, but
the Bush administration said it would talk with Pyeongyang only
after the North scraps its nuclear program in a verifiable
manner.
"If Washington continues to ignore our proposal and to threaten
us with its nuclear weapons, we will have to adopt comparable
measures," the newspaper said. "In response to the reinforced
U.S. nuclear threat, we will take stronger military measures. The
Americans' unilateral demand to abandon our nuclear program will
lead the already-hostile U.S.-North Korean relations to an armed
clash."
The North Korean Foreign Ministry reiterated Pyeongyang's stance
through other media.
"Taking into account the hostile confrontation between Washington
and Pyeongyang, it is natural that we are producing weapons
through all possible means to arm ourselves," a foreign ministry
spokesman told the official Korean Central News Agency. Admitting
to economic hardships, the spokesman said Pyeongyang had no
reason to persist with its military programs if there were better
relations between it and the United States. That theme was also
sounded by other North Korean representatives in calling for
dialogue.
"Everything will be negotiable," North Korean Ambassador to the
United Nations, Han Song-ryol, was quoted as saying in the New
York Times. "Our government will resolve all U.S. security
concerns through the talks, if the [U.S.] government has a will
to end its hostile policy."
In a follow-up e-mail exchange with the newspaper, Mr. Han said
the North is willing to consider shutting down its uranium
enrichment program and allowing international inspections of the
concerned facilities, the newspaper said Saturday.
International disapproval of the North's nuclear program has
intensified recently, with criticism coming even from Russia and
China, North Korea's longtime allies.
The future of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development
Organization's light-water reactor project in the North is in
question. The organization was formed to build two civilian power
reactors in the North as a part of the 1994 Geneva Agreed
Framework that defused an earlier confrontation with Pyeongyang
over its nuclear programs.
Washington did not send a delegation to a recent working-level
meeting of the KEDO, the group which is in charge of the project.
A decision on whether or not to halt shipments of heavy fuel oil
to the North, a part of the 1994 agreement, will be decided at
KEDO's board meeting on Nov. 14 in New York, Japan's Mainichi
Shimbun reported.
The European Union has already withheld its administrative
funding for the KEDO project for next year.
¨Ï 2002 JoongAng Ilbo , Joins.com
. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
13 BCS faces temporary cash-flow problem*
Regional News | Article published Monday, November 4, 2002
*Predicament traced to tax-filing timing*
By JIM SIELICKI
BLADE STAFF WRITER
OAK HARBOR, Ohio - The Benton-Carroll-Salem school district is
facing what could be a temporary, $1 million shortfall because of
a change in the way taxes are assessed on the Davis-Besse nuclear
power plant.
Jeff Dornbusch, treasurer of the Ottawa County school district,
said the district was told it could lose about $1 million from
tangible personal property taxes collected from FirstEnergy
Corp., parent of Toledo Edison Co., the nuclear plant?s operator.
The loss could result in a cash-flow problem. But most of the tax
loss is expected to be recovered after June 30, in a new school
fiscal year, because of a change in the way taxes are assessed on
public utilities, he said. The result could be a wash for the
school district.
"What we?re finding is that it looks like a delay in the timing
of tax returns," Mr. Dornbusch said.
Benton-Carroll-Salem, which has a $16 million annual budget and
about 2,000 students, said it was notified last month of the
potential loss. Its financial oversight committee met last week
to discuss the implications.
"We have a very aggressive finance committee," Mr. Dornbusch
said. "At this point, we?re not really addressing it until all of
the numbers come in."
Tax valuations have been a moving target for Ottawa County?s
auditor?s office this year.
Auditor Jo Ellen Regal said her office received two amended tax
returns in October governing the plant and has not completed the
tabulations to determine the changes.
Tax valuations on the utility are assigned by the Ohio Department
of Taxation and provided to the county auditor?s office, which
collects and distributes the money to schools and municipalities.
Ms. Regal said other taxes collected from Toledo Edison and
Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co., a sister utility under
FirstEnergy and part-owner of the plant, show a substantial
increase and are expected to make up most of the loss.
She said it is unlikely the school district will receive more
money under the tax change.
The school treasurer and the county auditor attributed the $1
million loss to the method and source of taxes on the plant?s
nuclear fuel.
Officials with the public utilities tax division could not be
reached for comment.
A year ago, the school district suffered a $600,000 loss caused
by a drop in the plant?s tax valuation.
FirstEnergy is the district?s largest taxpayer, supplying about
75 per cent of its budget.
Because of tax revenue generated by the plant,
Benton-Carroll-Salem was once one of the state?s most prosperous
school districts. But electric deregulation has led to revised
valuations for Davis-Besse and the Perry nuclear power plant east
of Cleveland.
As a result, some tax revenue has fallen sharply.
Most losses in taxes to districts such as Benton-Carroll-Salem
will be made up by the state for about 15 years, officials said.
But they have no control over power-plant devaluations, which are
expected to continue.
©2002 The Blade. Privacy Statement . By using this service,
The Toledo Blade Company, 541 N. Superior St., Toledo, OH 43660, (419)
*****************************************************************
14 Canada: Bill eases privatizing of nuclear plants
canada.com » National » Story
Sunday » November 3 » 2002
Lenders, investors to be absolvedof responsibility for nuclear disasters
Kate Jaimet The Ottawa Citizen
The federal government is pushing forward a new bill that will
make it easier for private companies to own and build nuclear
generating stations in Canada.
The bill, which passed second reading in the House of Commons
last week, changes only seven words of the existing Nuclear
Safety and Control Act. But that seemingly small change will mean
banks, lending institutions and individuals who invest in nuclear
reactors cannot be held liable for radioactive contamination or
catastrophes.
"It's a tiny little bill with enormous consequences," said NDP
leader Alexa McDonough, who opposes the legislation.
Under the existing Nuclear Safety and Control Act, any person who
has a "right or interest" in a nuclear reactor can be ordered to
clean up radioactive contamination.
However, when the Ontario government sought in the spring of this
year to privatize operations of its Bruce A and B nuclear
facilities, potential purchasers complained they could not get
financing to take over the nuclear stations because banks feared
being held liable for nuclear accidents.
"The effect is significant, because it puts up a barrier to
private-sector investment in the nuclear industry," said Al
Shpyth, director of regulatory and environmental affairs for the
Canadian Nuclear Association, an industry group for nuclear
energy suppliers and operators. "With other provinces looking at
the possibility of private-sector partners, this would be an
issue there as well."
The nuclear industry argued the law was unfair because in no
other industry are private-sector lenders liable for
environmental damage caused by private companies. They argued for
a change to the law, and the federal government agreed by
introducing Bill C-4, which would absolve lenders of liability.
The bill is now slated to be studied by the House of Commons
natural resources committee.
Both proponents and opponents of the legislation agree the law,
if passed, will make it easier for private companies to obtain
credit, in order to buy and operate nuclear power plants.
"Governments are encouraging more private-sector participation in
the ownership and management of facilities in all energy
sectors," said Natural Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal in a
speech to the House of Commons last month. "Companies with
nuclear operations need access to the same financial instruments
available to other companies."
Mr. Shpyth said if and when the Kyoto Protocol comes into effect
there will be more demand for nuclear energy, which produces no
greenhouse gas emissions.
But Charles Hubbard, a Nova Scotia Liberal MP who voted against
the bill, believes it is not a good idea to facilitate private
ownership of nuclear power plants.
"I maintain that nuclear energy is so disastrous in terms of the
possibility of problems that we shouldn't absolve investors of
that liability," Mr. Hubbard said. "Maybe I'm too close to Nova
Scotia and the (Sydney) tar ponds. The government is left holding
the bag when the company forfeits its business ... My concern is
the past of these multinational countries that come to our
country, take the gravy, and leave Canadians holding the bag."
Mr. Shpyth said there are already laws that hold private
operators of nuclear facilities to account for environmental
damage. He said operators must pay a deposit for future cleanup
when sites are abandoned. As well, they can be ordered to clean
up any extraordinary damage from leaks or accidents. However, the
law limits accident liability to $75 million -- an amount that
critics say is not nearly enough to cover the effects of a
nuclear meltdown.
"There is no private-sector facility that has the ability to deal
with a major cleanup," said NDP environment critic and leadership
candidate Joe Comartin, who opposes privatizing nuclear plants.
"Any profits or lowered energy rates (from nuclear generation)
should be going to the taxpayers of this country, because
ultimately they're going to have to foot the bill when this stuff
is cleaned up."
The only nuclear power plant in Canada operated by a private
company is the Bruce plant, under lease to Bruce Power, which is
majority-owned by British Energy.
British Energy is in imminent danger of bankruptcy and is seeking
to borrow $3.9 billion, in addition to a $1.5-billion loan from
the British government, to stay in business. Bruce Power must
also put up $222 million in financial guarantees by Nov. 12, in
order to renew its license to operate with the Canadian Nuclear
Safety Commission.
Norman Rubin, director of nuclear research for the
public-interest group Energy Probe, said he supports
privatization of generating stations because he believes it will
kill the nuclear industry. He said no private company can make a
profit in nuclear energy without massive public subsidies and
protection from environmental liability.
Between 1970 and 1999, the federal government alone gave $5.1
billion to nuclear generation.
"Let them go bankrupt," Mr. Rubin said.
But Mr. Shpyth defended nuclear subsidies. "Right now, every
project in the country is getting subsidies because it's good for
the environment."
© Copyright 2002 The Ottawa Citizen
*****************************************************************
15 Forums to review Ginna
Democrat &Chronicle:
[Democrat and Chronicle]
Public comment invited on nuclear plant's license renewal
By Daryl Bell
Democrat and Chronicle
(November 4, 2002) WEBSTER Opponents of the Ginna nuclear
power plant in Ontario, Wayne County, are planning to voice their
displeasure with the facility Wednesday in Webster.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will conduct two public
hearings on environmental issues pertaining to the plants
license renewal.
The hearings will be held at 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. at the Webster
Public Library, Webster Plaza, 980 Ridge Road.
Weve been saying all along that all nuclear plants should be
shut down, said Jason Crane, chairman of the Green Party of
Monroe County.
Our position is that if they didnt think nuclear waste was an
environmental concern, why would they ship it all the way across
the country to bury it? Evidently, theres a problem somewhere
thats not being discussed.
Energy East Corp., the parent company of Rochester Gas and
Electric Corp., operates Ginna, which is located 25 miles east of
Rochester.
We havent experienced much in the way of opposition, said Mike
Power, a spokesman for RG.
I think we have worked well with communities. The application
gives us another option, should we continue operating (Ginna).
Were not only concerned with the environment, were also
concerned about safety.
Lake Ontario is home to 16 commercial nuclear reactors.
Four are located in upstate New York; the remaining 12 are in
Canada.
Ginna, which began operating in 1970, applied for a 20-year
license renewal with the NRC on Aug. 1. The present 40-year
license doesnt expire until Sept. 18, 2009, but the application
process for renewal takes about 30 months.
We didnt know about the hearing, but now that we do, well be
attending, said Susan Peterson Gately, a member of Lakeshore
Environmental Action, a Wayne County environmentalist
organization.
I think its important to get information out to everyone about
the effects Ginna and the other nuclear plants have had on Lake
Ontario. Were very much interested in voicing our concerns.
E-mail address: dwbell@DemocratandChronicle.com
[dwbell@DemocratandChronicle.com]
*****************************************************************
16 Malta: No danger of radioactivity from residual material
[http://www.scripps.com] . All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
20 Discussion of Yucca Mountain, nuclear waste muted in campaigns*
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Associated Press
11/3/2002 01:55 pm
Yucca Mountain and nuclear waste transportation have been largely
overshadowed by other environmental concerns on the campaign
trail, but political analysts said some groups are still hoping
to spotlight the issue in the run-up to Tuesday's general
election.
Western Democrats had hoped to highlight their opposition to the
planned federal radioactive waste repository in Nevada, but Yucca
Mountain has been mentioned only infrequently after the Senate
voted in July to finalize the plan, analysts said.
"You saw (nuclear waste) play a lot before the (Senate) vote, and
then it disappeared,"said Jennifer Duffy of the Cook Political
Report."People just figured it wasn't that topical anymore."
Duffy said environmental groups in some states through which the
waste would be shipped to Nevada have focused instead on more
immediate issues, including clean air and water. Yucca Mountain
could open at 2010 at the earliest.
The League of Conservation Voters tried and failed to present
Yucca Mountain as a key issue in the election, said spokesman Dan
Vicuna.
"For the most part it hasn't worked very well as a wedge
issue,"Vicuna told the Las Vegas Review-Journal."We made our
arguments but they didn't resonate the way we would have liked."
The Energy Department wants to entomb 77,000 tons of the nation's
highest-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles from Las
Vegas.
Dump opponents see potential danger as the radioactive cargo
moves past cities, over bridges and through tunnels on its way to
Nevada. But the Bush administration and other supporters of the
site said waste has been transported for years without radiation
releases.
Because the route waste would take to Yucca Mountain has not yet
been finalized,"it's become a non-issue with the voting
public,"said Mitch Singer of the Nuclear Energy Institute.
Nuclear waste has surfaced as an immediate concern in one House
race for a newly redrawn Minnesota district that includes a power
plant running out of waste storage space. Republican John Kline
criticized Bill Luther, D-Minn., for voting against Yucca
Mountain.
A Minneapolis newspaper listed nuclear waste storage as the most
divisive environmental issue among the candidates for Minnesota
governor. Democrat Roger Moe and Ken Pentel of the Green Party
oppose adding storage at the Prairie Island nuclear power plant.
Republican Tim Pawlenty and Tim Penny of the Independence Party
favor allowing more nuclear waste to be produced and stored in
the state until it can be moved to Nevada or to a possible
temporary storage site in Utah.
Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
21 Utah: Charities in Fear of Initiative 1
The Salt Lake Tribune --
Monday, November 4, 2002
BY LINDA FANTIN
Pamela Atkinson is in a bind.
As a longtime advocate for Utah's homeless population, she
knows how much they need the money that would be generated by
Initiative 1.
Titled the Radioactive Waste Restrictions Act, the ballot
measure calls for higher taxes on radioactive waste and pegs any
revenue to help education and homeless Utahns. But it also would
hurt Khosrow Semnani, owner of Utah's only radioactive waste dump
and a frequent contributor to local charities.
Semnani said the initiative will bury his company -- a claim
proponents refute -- and he has spent $3 million to defeat it.
For this and other reasons, Atkinson and several other
members of Utah's humanitarian community have opted out of the
debate. But unlike lawmakers who have received tens of thousands
in campaign donations from Semnani, Atkinson does not deny that
the money has colored her view of Initiative 1.
"I'm really struggling with it," Atkinson said. "I don't want
more of this stuff [nuclear waste] coming here, and I would be
delighted if there were more money for the homeless.
"But that man really cares about people and I don't want to
see his company shut down," she said. "I don't want to see us
lose that funding source."
Proponents of the initiative are frustrated that Atkinson and
some other Utah social service providers have not embraced the
proposal.
"For years these groups have been begging the Legislature for
a dedicated funding source and for the first time in the state's
history, we have an opportunity to create one. And here they are
on the sidelines. It's outrageous," said former state senator
Frank Pignanelli, an attorney and spokesman for the initiative.
Since 1998, the nonprofit Semnani Foundation has given more
than $2 million to charitable causes, according to tax records.
Foundation director John Pingree says 70 percent of the money is
earmarked for international charities and 30 percent stays in the
United States.
Although the foundation's incorporation papers say donations
are for educational programs, especially projects "to preserve
and/or improve the environment," most of the money now goes to
help women and children, particularly in Iran, Afghanistan, South
America and Africa, Pingree said.
The list of local organizations receiving money from the
Semnani Foundation includes the battered women's shelter South
Valley Sanctuary, Utah Boys Ranch, Crossroads Urban Center,
Utahns Against Hunger, Catholic Medical Mission Board and LDS
Charities.
The latter is a charitable giving arm of The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose newspaper, the Deseret News,
has editorialized against the initiative.
Deseret News Editorial Page Editor Jay Evenson said he was
unaware the Semnani Foundation had given $85,000 to LDS Charities
and that it had no bearing on the editorial.
"We met with people on both sides of the issue, we studied it
extensively, and we took a long time making our decision,"
Evenson said. "The church had nothing to do with it."
The Salt Lake Tribune has editorialized in favor of the
initiative. The paper's former publisher, Jack Gallivan, is among
those campaigning for it.
Tribune Editorial Page Editor Vern Anderson said he has never
spoken to Gallivan about the issue and his involvement did not
influence the Tribune's position "in any way."
For his part, Gallivan said he has not noticed any lack of
support for the initiative.
"I know Semnani has made contributions to some of the same
groups that we support, but not enough to frighten anybody,"
Gallivan said.
Crossroads Urban Center director Glenn Bailey agreed.
"We value those donations very much, we string them together
in order to stay open, but it's not a deciding factor," he said
of the $1,300 the center has received from Semnani.
© Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on
Utah OnLine is
*****************************************************************
22 Fate of radioactive waste tax initiative in voters' hands*
HarkTheHerald.com
DONALD W. MEYERS The Daily Herald on Monday, November 04
Utahns will have a chance to raise taxes on low-level radioactive
waste to help the homeless and education, ban higher levels of
radioactive waste that already are accepted in the state and
impose ethics regulations on industry regulators.
Proponents say Initiative 1, the Radioactive Waste Restriction
Act, will allow Utah to be adequately compensated for accepting
low-level radioactive waste at Envirocare's dump in Clovis. Doug
Foxley, a lobbyist with Utahns for Radioactive Waste Control,
said Utah's existing tax structure makes it the cheapest place in
the nation for disposing of nuclear waste.
"Utah charges 10 cents a cubic foot, and only on new contracts,"
Foxley said. "And Utah took in 14.4 million cubic feet of
radioactive waste." By contrast, the other two states that take
radioactive waste, South Carolina and Washington, took in 120,000
and 58,000 cubic feet respectively while charging $235 and $20 a
cubic foot respectively.
But opponents, led by Envirocare, say the initiative is an
attempt to put the company out of business. They also argue that
the initiative violates the U.S. and state constitutions.
"You could pick an industry, tax it and put it out of business,"
said Senate Minority Leader Mike Dmitrich, D-Price.
The initiative would raise Utah's tax on Class A radioactive
waste -- uranium mill tailings, used smoke detectors and some
hospital waste -- from 10 cents per cubic foot to between $4 and
$150 per cubic foot. Legislative fiscal analysts estimate it will
raise $200 million a year in taxes, the proceeds of which
proponents would use for public education, an endowment fund to
help the homeless as well as pay for Envirocare's eventual
closing and maintenance.
The education and homeless funds would be supervised by two
appointed boards.
The initiative also would ban Envirocare from accepting B and C
classes of nuclear waste, which have higher levels of
radioactivity. The state only allows those classes of nuclear
waste with approval from the Legislature and the governor.
It would also bar employees from the Department of Environmental
Quality from having any business dealings with the radioactive
waste industry and require DEQ employees to wait three years
before going to work for companies like Envirocare.
Proponents say the changes are necessary to ensure that Utah gets
its fair share of taxes and that there is adequate funds to cover
the cost of cleaning up Envirocare, should the company go out of
business.
Foxley said the group chose to use the initiative process because
Envirocare's lobbyists have too much sway with lawmakers. He said
the Legislature watered down the tax it imposed on Envirocare
after industry lobbyists applied pressure to lawmakers.
But Bette Arial, Envirocare's spokeswoman, and Ken Alkema,
Envirocare's senior vice president for licensing and compliance,
said the initiative would literally tax the company out of
business. They said the company only made an average of $120
million in annual revenue from 1998 to 2000, while the tax would
take $200 million a year from the company.
Arial said Envirocare already has a projected $16 million annual
tax bill, and contributes an estimated $8.8 million to Utah's
economy. It employs 400 people.
But Jason Groenwald, head of Healthy Alliance Utah, said
Envirocare tried to make the tax burden argument before when the
Legislature considered taxing the company in 2000. And then,
fiscal analysts said there was no danger of the company going out
of business because of taxes.
Initiative proponents said they do not know what Envirocare's
true level of revenue is since the company will not open its
books to public inspection.
Alkema and Arial said the company is covering the cost of
cleanup, through a $400,000 annual payment and a $35.4 million
secured letter of credit issued by Wells Fargo Bank.
But initiative proponents pointed out that the letter of credit
is only good for one year and would be unacceptable in other
states that accept radioactive waste.
Arial said while Utah accepts more cubic feet of radioactive
waste, it accepts less radiation than South Carolina and
Washington, which accept B and C classes of waste as well.
Jan Graham, a former attorney general retained by the
anti-initiative Utahns Against Unfair Taxes, said the initiative
violates provisions of the U.S. and Utah constitutions. She said
the initiative illegally regulates nuclear waste more strictly
than the federal government and interferes with interstate
commerce.
Graham also pointed out that it violates the state's rule that
legislation can only cover one topic. She said Initiative 1
covers several areas -- tax code, environmental regulations and
government conduct.
Frank Pignanelli, campaign director for Utahns for Radioactive
Waste Control, said the lieutenant governor's office and the
attorney general both reviewed the initiative and did not cite
those legal problems.
The Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel, the
Legislature's legal staff, did point out possible free speech
restrictions by restricting state employees from working in the
waste disposal industry within 3 years of leaving the state's
employ and creating nonlegislative bodies to administer the tax.
Pignanelli said the appointed boards would be similar to the
board overseeing the Utah Transit Authority.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A3.
*****************************************************************
23 Low-level nuke waste shipments a minor worry
Story comments are now ON (you will see reader comments) Click
here to turn comments OFF
*NOTE:* You might turn comments off if you find them offensive,
intrusive, or simply don't want to be bothered with folks'
opinions. Once off they will remain off for the duration of your
session. Once your browser window is closed, however, this option
will be reset to its default state (comments on).
© 2000-2002 Arizona Daily Sun
*****************************************************************
24 The Chirac Doctrine France’s Iraq-war plan.
Amir Taheri on France & Iraq on National Review Online
November 4, 2002, 9:00 a.m.
By Amir Taheri
rance's President Jacques Chirac is "determined" to prevent the
United States from removing the Iraqi regime of President Saddam
Hussein by force.
Sources in Paris insist that Chirac has decided to use the French
veto in the United Nations Security Council, if necessary, to
derail American plans for an attack on Iraq.
"If you ask me what will happen next I can tell you there will be
no war," a senior French official told me on condition of
anonymity. "President Chirac has taken personal charge of the
Iraq dossier with the clear aim of preventing an unnecessary war
that could destabilize the whole of the Middle East."
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin says the status quo
in Iraq is "unsustainable." But he insists that the use of force
is not the only means of changing it.
On the basis of interviews with various sources in Paris, it
looks as if the French leader's plan is devised in two phases.
The first phase consists of efforts to prevent the passage of a
Security Council resolution that would give the U.S. a legal
basis for removing Saddam Hussein from power.
Chirac wants the U.N. weapons' inspectors to return to Iraq and
operate within a timeframe determined by themselves, not
Washington.
Hans Blix, the Swedish diplomat who heads the team of inspectors
says he may need up to 18 months before he could report to the
Security Council.
Assuming that the inspectors are in Iraq by Christmas, the Blix
timetable would take us into the summer of 2004. Even if he
reports at that time that the Iraqis have not cooperated with his
team, the issue would have to be raised by the Security Council
so that a new resolution, authorizing the use of force, is
discussed.
By then we would be right in the middle of the American
presidential election.
French official sources believe that if there is no Iraq war
within the next 10-16 weeks there will be none for another two
years, at least.
If President George W Bush is reelected in 2004 he may well have
less of an incentive to act against Saddam Hussein. If, on the
other hand, he loses to a Democrat candidate, the new U.S.
president might not want to adopt one of the Republicans' most
controversial policies immediately.
All but one of the likely Democratic presidential candidates have
already said they are opposed to war without the full backing of
the Security Council.
The second phase of Chirac's strategy consists of efforts inside
Iraq to persuade Saddam to change certain aspects of his domestic
and foreign policies.
"The Americans want regime change in Baghdad," says a senior
French source. "But should this mean a change of personnel only?
What if we could bring about significant policy changes without
installing a totally new leadership that might or might not be
acceptable to the Iraqi people?"
The source adds: "Chirac is convinced that he can persuade Saddam
to talk the right talk and walk the right walk."
Chirac is the only Western leader to have a personal knowledge of
the Iraqi president.
The two first met in 1975, when Chirac was prime minister for the
first time, and almost instantly warmed up to one another.
Chirac became the first French leader to make an official visit
to Baghdad that year, and to deepen his ties with Saddam who was
vice president and "strongman" at the time.
Saddam showed his appreciation by approving a deal under which
Iraq committed to granting French oil companies a number of
privileges plus a 23 percent share of Iraqi oil.
Chirac repaid the favor by approving the construction of Iraq's
first nuclear-power center, Tammuz, near Baghdad. The project,
which subsequently emerged as the core of Iraq's efforts to
develop nuclear weapons, was destroyed in an Israeli air raid in
September 1980.
In 1976 Saddam paid an official visit to France, his first and
last to any Western country, and was received by Chirac as a head
of state.
It was not until 1991 that Chirac broke contacts with Saddam as a
result of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
The friendship forged between the two men proved profitable for
both sides. France sold an estimated $20 billion worth of
weapons, including Mirage fighters, to Iraq, and emerged as
Iraq's biggest trading partner, in a wide-range of civilian goods
and services, after Russia. In exchange, Iraq focused on France
as its largest oil market in Europe.
During five of his seven-year first term as president, Chirac was
unable to pursue an Iraq policy of his own because he had to
contend with a Socialist-Communist cabinet headed by his then
political rival Lionel Jospin.
Since last April, however, Chirac, with his supporters in control
of both the parliament and the cabinet, has assumed personal
charge of the Iraqi issue by setting up a special "policy cell"
within the Elysee Palace. Chirac has dispatched a special
emissary to Baghdad to sound out "the possibility of change
without war."
The emissary is Pierre Delval, described by many as a brilliant
young diplomat.
He first went to Baghdad using as cover the post of director of
the French state-owned National Printing Company, but has since
been seconded to the Quai d'Orsay, the French foreign office.
The Delval mission is designed in a way as to allow him to spend
ten days in Iraq each month, thus giving Paris a direct
diplomatic presence in the absence of an ambassador.
According to sources Iraqi response to Delval has been "more than
encouraging."
This was symbolized by the fact that Saddam Hussein invited the
French diplomat to attend a four-hour session of the Iraqi
government last month when the latest threats from Washington
were debated.
Delval's main Iraqi contact man is Tareq Aziz, the veteran
Baathist leader who has been close to the French for years.
In recent months, however, Delval has also forged links with
Qussai, Saddam Hussein's younger son. The two have met on at
least six occasions and held "very broad discussions on all
aspects of policy."
French sources believe that Qussai, unlike his elder brother Uday
whom they describe as "unpredictable," could play a central role
in a period of transition.
One idea is for Qussai to be appointed prime minister, a post now
held by Saddam himself, so that he can form a cabinet of new
generation and bring in new faces, mostly technocrats.
Another French idea is that the Baath party, now controlled by
Uday, should be revived under a new leadership.
Delval has met several Baath leaders to evoke the possibility of
a congress in which the Iraqi ruling party could "carry out major
reforms of policy and personnel."
The French believe that the Baath remains a real political force
in Iraq and should not be dismissed out of hand.
Paris sources claim that Saddam's decision to announce a general
amnesty, including the release of all political prisoners, is a
response to French suggestions.
Another French suggestion is that Saddam should announce an
amnesty, perhaps next April, for Iraqis in exile, inviting them
all to return home and help rebuild the country.
Another part of the plan is to hold fresh parliamentary
elections, perhaps next autumn, so that a more credible
legislature could be formed. The French want the new parliament
to include members from the two principal Kurdish parties plus
the Iraqi Communist party, and independents, especially women.
Unlike Washington that presents Iraq's leadership as a coterie of
war criminals, Paris insists that the Iraqi ruling elite includes
many "valuable individuals".
One senior French official even told us that Paris believed that
Iraq had "potentially the most effective leadership group in the
whole of the Arab world."
Apart from Qussai and Tareq Aziz, Iraqi officials who appear to
be supporting the French initiative include the National Assembly
Speaker Saadoun Hammadi, diplomatic advisor Nizar Hamdoun,
Commerce Minister Muhamamd Mahdi-Saleh, head of the Central Bank
Muhammad al-Hawwash, presidential adviser Abdulrazzaq al-Hashemi,
Industry Minister Amer al-Rashid, and Foreign Minister Naji
al-Sabri.
To these are added a number of technocrats, senior civil
servants, university teachers, and private businessmen with links
to France.
"We can change Iraq without war," says a French source. "All we
need is time to show that our scenario works better than that of
Washington."
What France is proposing in Iraq is already seen in Paris as "the
Chirac Doctrine" which is aimed at persuading "trouble-making
regimes" to accept peaceful change.
The question is: Will Washington stand back and watch while the
Chirac doctrine is pout to its first major test?
— Amir Taheri is editor of the French quarterly Politique
Internationale and is reachable through
www.benadorassociates.com. [http://www.benadorassociates.com]
[http://www.nationalreview.com
*****************************************************************
25 Plutonium shipping to SC delayed by faulty Colorado machine*
(Golden, Colorado-AP) Nov. 4, 2002 - Experts say a temperamental
machine could slow down shipments of weapons-grade plutonium from
the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant to South Carolina.
The semi-automated machine is designed to tuck the plutonium
safely into shipping containers, but plutonium removal manager
Dave Hicks says one in five containers is failing safety checks.
The machine was previously shut down for three weeks in September
due to malfunction.
Rocky Flats managers have said they need to ship away the last of
their weapons-grade plutonium by the end of 2003 to get the site
cleaned up and closed down by a 2006 deadline.
Hicks says Rocky Flats will have no problem shipping the
plutonium by the end of next year if packaging is completed by
summer. Hicks says he's confident the machine will be fixed and
the packaging finished by then.
The shipments had been held up for nearly ten months between the
fall of 2001 and last summer by a dispute between the state of
South Carolina and the federal government. The federal government
won the lawsuit to clear the way for the shipments.
/posted 2:26pm by Chris Rees /
*WIS News 10 Headlines*
All content © Copyright 2000 - 2002 WorldNow
*****************************************************************
26 Grand jury to probe plant -
The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Saturday, November 02, 2002
Focus placed on alleged pollution at DOE site
By Bill Bartleman bbartleman@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650
A federal grand jury apparently will investigate allegations that
past operators of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant
intentionally violated environmental laws while they operated the
plant for the U.S. Department of Energy.
"The case has gone criminal," said Joe Egan, a Washington
environmental lawyer who filed a whistleblower suit in 1999
alleging that Lockheed Martin Corp. filed false environmental
reports when it operated the plant from 1982 to ’92. Egan said he
learned late Thursday that subpoenas were being issued for a
number of current and former workers who may have witnessed
alleged violations of environmental laws.
Lockheed Martin has strongly denied the allegations.
Harold Hargan of Pulaski County, Ill., who worked at the plant
for 39 years, said he was notified late Friday that he will
receive a subpoena today to appear before the grand jury at the
federal courthouse in Louisville at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.
He said he was informed of the grand jury investigation in a
telephone call from Andy Castro, who identified himself as a
criminal investigator for the U.S. Department of Energy.
Hargan said that while working at the plant, he witnessed workers
and supervisors diluting samples of chemicals and radionuclides
for dumping purposes, leaving deteriorating drums of highly
radioactive substances leaching into a ditch, handling a
hazardous degreaser carelessly throughout the plant, and drinking
on the job.
He said his complaints about such activity were ignored and that
he often was chastised for raising his concerns. "It looks to me
they are finally looking into what when on," Hargan said.
Since retiring, Hargan has been outspoken about former plant
operations and has talked with federal investigators who have
been looking into allegations made in the suits, including the
one filed by Egan.
One of the people with whom Hargan met was Assistant U.S.
Attorney Bill Campbell, who on Friday would not comment on
whether a grand jury is being impaneled to investigate the
claims. He noted that it is the policy of the Department of
Justice not to confirm nor deny whether investigations were in
progress.
If a grand jury finds that environmental or other laws were
violated at the plant, criminal charges could be filed against
the plant operator or against managers who allowed the violations
to take place.
Egan said he didn't know whether the criminal investigation would
cause further delay of the lawsuit, but said that the
investigation could proceed at the same time his suit is
litigated.
Egan's suit received national attention, including numerous
stories in The Washington Post. As a result, Energy Secretary
Bill Richardson came to Paducah and admitted that workers in the
past had been exposed to toxic chemicals that caused illness and
death.
Congress then approved a compensation program to pay sick workers
$150,000 each.
Bill McMurry, a Louisville attorney who has filed a separate
class-action suit seeking $10 billion for workers who became ill
because of contamination at the plant, said he also had been
informed that a grand jury will launch a criminal investigation.
He said he had a message from Castro and at least one former
worker who has been ordered to appear before the grand jury.
McMurry said, "It is very refreshing that government officials
are finally realizing the criminality of the conduct of those who
have operated the plant."
*****************************************************************
27 Plutonium Packaging System Frustrates Flats Managers* *
November 3, 2002
* G OLDEN, Colo. ? Experts say a temperamental machine could slow
down shipments of weapons-grade plutonium from the former Rocky
Flats nuclear weapons factory to South Carolina. *
The semi-automated machine, designed to tuck the plutonium safely
into shipping containers, is acting up. It was shut down for
three weeks in September, and one in five containers is still
failing safety checks, said Dave Hicks, a plutonium removal
manager with the Energy Department, which owns Rocky Flats.
"The machine is still temperamental ... but there's every reason
to believe we will finish, probably in the summer," Hicks said.
Rocky Flats managers have said they need to ship away the last of
their weapons-grade plutonium by the end of 2003 to get the site
cleaned up and closed down by a 2006 deadline.
"If we complete packaging by summer, we will have no problem
supporting the shipping campaign," Hicks said, adding he's
confident the packaging will be done by then.
But the plutonium-packing machine has definitely has been
disappointing, he said. The machine automatically tucks the metal
into double-barreled containers, sealing each with a laser weld.
And the laser has needed continual adjustment, Hicks said.
He and his colleagues had hoped to be done sealing the expected
total of 1,900 barrels by January 2003 ? that was based on the
machine finishing 140 barrels per month. In the 17 months the
system has been operation, however, it has completed just 1,050
barrels ? an average of 62 per month.
But apart from the recent breakdown, monthly production numbers
have been higher recently, about 100 since spring, Hicks said.
Workers are getting better at adjusting the machine, explained
Allen Schubert, a manager with Kaiser-Hill, the company cleaning
up Rocky Flats for the Energy Department. "We're making
progress," he said.
The shipments were held up for nearly 10 months between the fall
of 2001 and last summer by a dispute between the state of South
Carolina and the federal government.
The federal government won the lawsuit, clearing the way for
shipments to South Carolina, where the Energy Department wants to
build a $4 billion factory to convert the plutonium into fuel for
nuclear reactors.
/©Santa Fe New Mexican 2002/
*****************************************************************
28 Richardson Defends DOE Record * *
November 3, 2002
By RICHARD BENKE | Associated Press 11/04/2002
* A LBUQUERQUE ? Former U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson
came under attack during the final televised debate of the
gubernatorial race, defending his oversight of nuclear
laboratories and saying the labs are the safer for his tenure. *
Republican John Sanchez contended during a segment in which
candidates posed questions to each other that Richardson, the
Democratic nominee, had dodged a confrontation with Congress over
energy issues during the Clinton administration.
And Sanchez alleged Richardson had been responsible for
"mismanagement and security lapses" at the labs.
"I appeared before the Congress and took the heat for decades of
mismanagement at the Department of Energy. ... I appeared before
the Congress whenever they asked me to appear," Richardson
replied, and "testified hundreds of times before congressional
committees, and I believe we reformed the security system at the
national laboratories."
He said he had 100,000 employees.
"Sometimes you take heat, and I made mistakes, too," he said,
"but I take full responsibility for everything I did." He said he
felt he enhanced lab management during his tenure.
When Sanchez recalled that Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., criticized
Richardson's administration at DOE, the Democratic candidate
replied that Byrd and he had settled their differences and that
Byrd subsequently said that Richardson "would make a good
governor of New Mexico."
Sanchez, saying that he himself favored a nuclear waste site near
Carlsbad, asked Green Party nominee David Bacon what he would do
about nuclear waste. Bacon attacked the nuclear industry and the
DOE and said activities that generate nuclear waste have got to
be slowed down.
"Right now in Los Alamos we have an area called Area G. It is the
largest nuclear waste dump in the world. Area G has been
operating without a state license since 1984," Bacon said.
"Seventy million cubic feet of nuclear waste are due there in the
next 60 years. Area G is a hazard. It's a disaster waiting to
happen. Area G is simply taking mixed waste, putting it in
unlined pits, covering it with three feet of dirt."
"There are 2,000 waste sites in Los Alamos that haven't been
dealt with," Bacon said.
He accused the DOE of deliberately overriding science in
approving the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad and said
the state was unprepared to deal with waste that would come
through New Mexico en route to storage elsewhere.
Los Alamos lab spokesman James Rickman said LANL disagrees with
Bacon's characterization. The lab, he said, maintains there is no
immediate danger from Area G, and that lab officials are
carefully monitoring it to make sure it remains safe.
Rickman said there are not 2,000 undealt-with sites. More than
1,000 have been characterized as needing no remediation, and the
two-dozen top-priority sites will be cleaned up by 2008.
Lower-priority sites should be cleaned up by 2015, he said.
After the debate, after being asked about Bacon's comments,
Richardson spokesman Billy Sparks said: "Richardson will be the
first governor who truly understands the labs and will work for a
stronger partnership with the state of New Mexico, particularly
in attracting higher-paying jobs and technology transfers."
In another debate on Sunday, Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., and
Democratic challenger Richard Romero accused each other of
running an inaccurate, negative ad campaign - each denying their
own ads were improper.
"The ads that I'm paying for and I'm promoting are not negative,"
Romero said. "They're merely clarifying the record of the
incumbent here."
Romero suggested that Wilson's own description of the Medicare
prescription plan she favors was misleading.
"Frankly, all we did was clarify the record," he said.
The candidates were asked if, since studies have suggested
negative campaigns result in low voter turnouts, they were
concerned about their campaigns.
Both candidates said they believe the turnout will be a healthy
one this time.
Wilson said: "I am very sorry that my opponent did turn this
campaign negative, and he did that on the 26th of November."
On that date, she told Romero, "you started saying things that
were false and distorted my record. And the sad thing is that
does turn people off to the campaign. I wish we could have spent
more time talking about our issues and the dreams we have for New
Mexico."
"The good thing is though I think we will have very high voter
turnout here in New Mexico. I think two-thirds of voters have
already gone to the polls and voted," she said.
Romero agreed the turnout should be large.
Each was asked if they could say anything positive about the
other.
Wilson said: "Richard, you have a wonderful smile."
Romero said: "Heather, you're a very nice person."
/©Santa Fe New Mexican 2002/
*****************************************************************
29 Energy Policy on the Ropes* *
By JEFF TOLLEFSON | The New Mexican 11/04/2002
A s chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources
Committee, New Mexico's junior U.S. senator, Jeff Bingaman, has
played a central role in the debate over a new national energy
policy. But time is running out. *
House Republicans and Senate Democrats remain at loggerheads over
the 1,000-page bill that has been stuck in conference committee
negotiations for several months.
If Congress does not deal with the bill during the lame-duck
session, which begins Nov. 12, its fate could fall to a new crew
of lawmakers.
And, if Democrats lose control in the Senate, Bingaman, who has
been trying to forge agreements on everything from drilling on
public lands to requirements for renewable energy development,
will lose his chairmanship - and the national stoplight
The legislation has its roots in the electricity blackouts that
rolled across California two years ago. Although subsequent
investigations have determined that simple shortages of fossil
fuels were not to blame for the crisis, the Bush administration
called for a new national energy policy, one that opens public
lands to energy development and guarantees reliable, cheap and
long-term energy supplies.
Aiming to streamline federal regulations allegedly inhibiting the
production of oil and gas, the administration went about
implementing its policy at the federal level and proposed
legislation for actions that could not be taken care of
administratively. The centerpiece of the bill was a call for oil
development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The Republican-controlled House took up the administration's
cause, but everything fell apart when a Republican defection gave
the Democrats a one-person majority in the Senate. Bingaman
became chairman of the Energy Committee and quickly assumed
center stage in a Democratic effort to tame the administration's
energy policy.
"Senator Bingaman led the effort to craft a more balanced energy
proposal," said Alys Campaigne, legislative director for the
Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, D.C.
While the Senate proposal left much to be desired, Campaigne said
it was preferable to the House version, which pushed a "drill,
burn, pollute kind of attitude." The House bill proposed $36
billion in incentives, most of which went to fossil and nuclear
industries, while the Senate version split $20 billion in
incentives between traditional and clean energy sources.
Although Bingaman remains optimistic, many observers believe a
compromise is unlikely.
Many predict passage of some kind of "energy-lite" legislation.
Undoubtedly, this would be a far cry from what the Bush
administration intended when it a complete overhaul of the
nation's energy policy.
The oil and gas industry is still campaigning for passage. But
many environmentalists hope the bill never makes it out of
conference committee.
"The bill does have some problems, and it leaves some major
issues unaddressed," Bingaman conceded. "But I think the bill is
worth passing if we can get agreement on some of these key
issues."
Once a topic of national debate, the key issues have lost much of
their glamour during the last year. The debate over drilling the
ANWR has been relegated to the background, defeated, at least for
the moment.
These days, the negotiations are over issues such as the role of
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in overseeing mergers
and acquisitions. Negotiators are debating policy regarding
additives such as ethanol, often required in gasoline to reduce
tail-pipe emissions,
Another significant issue is global warming. Although the Bush
administration formally renounced an international climate change
treaty, the Senate included a provision in its energy bill that
would require the administration to establish a climate change
office and develop a national strategy for addressing the issue.
But both the House and administration oppose the language.
While environmental groups blasted Bingaman for supporting the
Bush administration's efforts to expand nuclear energy, which
provides roughly 20 percent of the nation's electricity,
renewable energy advocates lauded him for including language that
would require most utilities to provide 10 percent of their power
through renewables by the year 2020.
Bingaman also hoped to boost the "corporate average fuel
efficiency," known as CAFE standards, for all vehicles in the
nation.
Bingaman's office says the proposal would have conserved 1
million barrels of oil a day, addressing environmental problems
and the need for oil imports from the Middle East. This amounts
to roughly 5 percent of the nation's total oil consumption;
almost 10 percent of U.S. imports; and nearly double the 566,000
barrels of Iraqi oil shipped to the United States each day during
the first seven months of this year, according to the U.S.
Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration.
Opponents, notably Michigan Democrats, raised questions about
consumer safety, citing a National Academies report that smaller
vehicles - possibly the result of the current mileage standards
set in 1975 - might be responsible for increased fatalities in
automobile accidents.
The Senate bill also contains a provision that would ban oil
imports from Iraq - the United States' sixth largest supplier in
2001, according to DOE. Given that the United States imports 55
percent of its oil, and that one quarter of those imports come
from the Persian Gulf, energy debates always involve national
security. Domestic oil production peaked in the early 1970s.
Imports have been rising steadily ever since.
While the Natural Resources Defense Council is now lobbying
against the passage of any energy legislation, the legislation
still has broad support from both the fossil fuel industry along
with many advocates of alternative energy.
"I think now more than ever our country needs a blueprint for
energy development," said Bob Gallagher, president of the New
Mexico Oil and Gas Association. "And the goal of that plan ought
to be real simple: To be sure that the energy that the American
public deserves and needs is going to be available, affordable
and reliable today through the foreseeable future."
*****************************************************************
30 7.9 Quake Rattles Remote Area of Alaska
Las Vegas SUN
November 04, 2002 By DAN JOLING ASSOCIATED PRESS
ANCHORAGE, Alaska- A violent earthquake slammed a remote area of
Alaska's interior, shutting down the Trans-Alaska Pipeline,
opening 6-foot-wide cracks in highways and making lakes slosh in
Louisiana. The magnitude 7.9 quake was one of the strongest ever
recorded in the United States.
Only one minor injury was reported; a woman suffered a broken
arm. The quake, centered on the Denali Fault 90 miles south of
Fairbanks, struck Sunday at 1:13 p.m. Alaska Standard Time (5:13
p.m. EST) - its effects strongly felt in Anchorage about 270
miles to the south. It lasted at least 30 seconds.
"It shook so bad you could not stand up on the front porch," said
Jay Capps, a grocery store owner between Tok and Glennallen in
the southeastern part of the state. "It sounded like the trees
were breaking roots under the ground."
"A charging brown bear I can handle. This scared the hell out of
me," said Randy Schmoker of Porcupine Creek. He expected the
ground to crack open as it rippled with a series of 8-inch waves
in front of him. "They looked like ocean waves."
The quake did considerable damage to Alaska's infrastructure,
cracking highways and roads, shaking homes and damaging supports
for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.
Crews manually shut down the pipeline after the quake, and it was
still out of service early Monday. Mike Heatwole, spokesman for
the Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., said officials would know by
midmorning how long it will take to restart the pipeline. The oil
flow can be stopped for maintenance or other reasons without
affecting oil deliveries because reserves are stores in tanks at
the shipping terminal in Valdez.
More than 3,000 miles away from the epicenter in the New Orleans
area, the quake made lakes ripple and sloshed water out of pools.
In Mandeville, La., Carol Barcia, 47, saw boats bouncing around
and her own boat banging against its dock. "One poor guy across
the canal from us fell off his sailboat," she said.
On Seattle's Lake Union, more than 1,400 miles south, waves shook
some houseboats loose from their moorings and slammed them into
docks. At least one boat had thousands of dollars in damage.
Experts say the distant effect is common during powerful quakes.
"This earthquake was shallow and the energy went directly into
the surface and that is what causes these effects so far away,"
said Dale Grant, a geophysicist with U.S. Geological Survey's
National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo.
Grant said he received calls from nuclear power plants in states
including Minnesota and Washington reporting unusual water
movement.
However, the earthquake did not generate a tsunami, said Bruce
Turner of the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center.
Numerous roads developed wide cracks, including the Alaska
Highway near Northway, about 250 miles southeast of Fairbanks.
The Richardson Highway, which parallels the pipeline between
Valdez and Fairbanks, was closed near Paxson because of gaps 2 to
6 feet wide and 5 feet deep, state troopers spokesman Greg
Wilkinson said. About 20 miles north, the ground on one side of
the highway dropped more than 2 feet.
The worst reports of damage were along a two-mile stretch of the
Tok Cutoff, which had numerous rock slides and hundreds of yards
of 6-foot openings. Fuel tanks were knocked over in Slana, a
village with no electric utility. Families use diesel fuel to
power generators.
At Porcupine Creek, Randy Schmoker's 150-pound anvil slid 20 feet
across the floor of his metal working shop.
Moderate earthquakes also shook the U.S. Midwest, Indonesia and
Pakistan earlier Sunday, but the activity is not related nor
unusual, said Waverly Person, geophysicist at U.S. Geological
Survey.
"On any given day, we located about 50 earthquakes throughout the
world," Person said. "This to us is pretty normal."
Earthquakes above magnitude 7 are considered major - capable of
widespread, heavy damage.
In 1964, the "Good Friday" earthquake left 131 people dead in
Alaska. Current measurements put that quake's magnitude at 9.2.
On the Net: Earthquake Center: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/
[http://earthquake.usgs.gov/] Pipeline:
http://www.alyeska-pipe.com/ [http://www.alyeska-pipe.com/]
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
31 Alaska Quake's Force Felt in La.
Las Vegas SUN
November 04, 2002 By CAIN BURDEAU ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW ORLEANS- When people saw water sloshing about in ponds,
bayous and pools, an earthquake more than 3,000 miles away seemed
an unlikely culprit.
"My neighbor actually thought there was an alligator in the
pond," said Dan Musmanno, 51, of the New Orleans suburb Belle
Chasse. "My neighbor's son went out there and said, 'It ain't no
alligator.' The water was going back and forth for about a half
hour. It was kind of spooky."
Musmanno said the waves in his pond came up 7 or 8 inches and
water sloshed out of his pool from what geophysicists say was the
awesome power of a 7.9 magnitude earthquake that rocked a remote
area of interior Alaska early Sunday afternoon.
The earthquake cracked highways and roads, knocking over fuel
tanks and shaking rural homes in Alaska. Its wake was felt over
much of the West and as far away as Louisiana.
"When you have an earthquake of this size, it generates what we
call surface waves," said Dale Grant, a geophysicist with U.S.
Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center in
Golden, Colo. He said waves of energy travel through the Earth's
crust and cause disturbances in water.
In Mandeville, across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, Carol
Barcia, 47, was sitting with neighbors on the deck of her house
around 5 p.m. when she saw boats bounce around.
"We noticed the sail boats started leaning over, going back and
forth, and the boats' lines were just banging up and down. My
boat was banging up against the dock. My neighbor's boat broke a
line," Barcia said.
"One poor guy across the canal from us fell off his sail boat,"
said Barcia, a pharmaceutical representative. She said a neighbor
rode a boat over and helped the man out of the water.
Grant said he received calls from nuclear power facilities in
various states - including Minnesota and Washington - that
reported unusual water movement. He said an Oklahoma state
geologist also reported that farmers there noticed water in ponds
sloshed about.
Throughout the New Orleans area, people were baffled and
frightened by what they saw. Paul Martin, Barcia's 59-year-old
neighbor, said an iron cleat bolted to the pier that he ties his
boat to was pulled out when his boat got tossed around.
"It was quite a sight," he said. "All the boats up and down this
bayou were being tossed around like little boats in a bathtub."
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
32 Iraqi Children Suffer Amid War Fears
Las Vegas SUN
November 04, 2002 By DUSAN STOJANOVIC ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq- Emira was a day old when she was abandoned by her
parents, who couldn't afford to keep her. She is one of tens of
thousands of Iraqi children suffering under U.N. sanctions and
the Arab country's general downslide amid fears of a new war.
Emira was taken from the hospital where she was born Saturday and
placed in a drab Baghdad orphanage, one of Iraqi capital's four
which house thousands of children. Many were abandoned by their
families while others lost both their parents, some during the
Gulf War.
"We have a dramatic increase in orphans here," said Aneeba Jabar,
the director of the Al-Najat orphanage on the garbage-strewn
banks of the Tigris River on the outskirts of Baghdad.
She blamed it on United Nations sanctions imposed on Iraq in
1990, speaking as a government minder monitored an interview.
"We had two orphanages in Baghdad before the sanctions and the
(Gulf) war. Now, we have four because the old ones became too
crowded," Jabar said, as Emira sucked formula from a bottle. She
shared her small bed with another, pale-looking infant.
"Emira's mother simply fled the hospital because the family has
no money to feed her," Jabar said. She would not provide the
exact number of orphans in Baghdad "because their number is
soaring daily."
U.S. and United Nations officials have repeatedly rejected
complaints about the humanitarian impact of the sanctions, saying
the sanctions could be eliminated if Iraq complies with demands
that it prove it has eliminated its weapons of mass destruction.
The United Nations has also criticized Iraq for spending only a
tiny fraction of its U.N.-approved oil proceeds on improving
nutrition for children. Also, medicine and food have never been
prohibited under the sanctions.
Many people in Iraq live below the poverty line, and as a result,
families who cannot afford to feed and clothe their children are
forced to give them up. Since 1990, when Iraq was one of the most
prosperous Arab nations because of huge oil reserves, living
standards have plummeted, and average monthly salaries dropped
from the equivalent of $500 to $10.
Washington has renewed accusations that Iraq is developing
weapons of mass destruction in violation of U.N. orders and of
sponsoring terrorists.
President Bush is pushing the United Nations for a tough
resolution that would allow an attack on Iraq, but has threatened
to act alone if the Security Council doesn't go along.
That is why the basement at Baghdad's Al-Mansour Teaching
Hospital for Children is being prepared to shelter 200 young
cancer patients, their families and medical staff in case of a
new war.
The hospital took similar precautions during the 1991 Gulf War
that was launched by a U.S.-led coalition to drive Iraqi forces
from Kuwait. The hospital was not hit during that war and is not
near any military installations, but is preparing for a hit by a
stray missile.
But fears of American strikes are not the only problems the Iraqi
health system faces.
The hospital's director, Dr. Luay Kasha, said that since the
sanctions were introduced, 1.6 million Iraqi children have died,
up to seven times more than in the same period before the
sanctions. This corresponds with U.N. figures, which also mention
that more than a million Iraqi children are malnourished.
Kasha said the American use of depleted uranium in its munitions
during the Gulf War was probably to blame. "After that there was
shortage in supply of proper food and medicines ... after that,
epidemics flared up, cholera, virus infections, tuberculosis,
chest infections, skin infections, water-born diseases."
"We are now reporting five to seven times increase of cancer
cases among children than before 1990," Kasha said, an Iraqi
government minder also present as she spoke. "Most of the cases
were caused by radiation ... like leukemia."
The Americans have challenged such claims and insist that there
is no proven link between use of depleted uranium munitions and
the diseases. Emin Fellah, a 5-year-boy pale boy of bare bones
and skin, is dying of leukemia, and his mother Fatima watches him
with teary eyes.
"If we had proper medicines, he might have had a chance," said
Dr. Lana Ahmed. "But with the situation like this, we had to
abandon his therapy."
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
33 Magnitude 7.9 quake rocks Alaska
CNEWS - News Ticker World -
Mon, November 4, 2002
Magnitude 7.9 quake rocks Alaska
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CP) - A major earthquake rocked a sparsely
populated area of interior Alaska early Sunday afternoon,
triggering an automatic shutdown of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline
and cracking highways and roads.
The magnitude-7.9 quake, centred 145 kilometres south of
Fairbanks, was strongly felt in Anchorage about 435 kilometres to
the south. It hit at 1:13 p.m. Alaska Standard Time, said Bruce
Turner of the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center.
Only one injury was reported; a 76-year-old woman in Mentasta
broke her arm after slipping on stairs during the quake, said
State Trooper spokesman Greg Wilkinson.
"It shook for a good 30 seconds," Turner said. It did not
generate a tsunami, he said.
The quake triggered the trans-Alaska pipeline's automatic
detection system, said Mike Heatwole, Alyeska Pipeline Service
Co. spokesman. Operators then manually shut the pipeline down
shortly after 2 p.m.
Heatwole said helicopters that flew the length of the
1,287-kilometre pipeline and ground crews found the pipe intact,
but support structures were damaged in 13 locations. Crews were
working to alleviate stress on the pipeline, Heatwole said.
"We'll also be mobilizing several additional crews at first
light," Heatwole said.
The earthquake occurred on the Denali Fault and had a shallow
depth, said John Lahr, geophysicist at the U.S. Geological
Survey's National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo.
Shallow earthquakes generally are felt over a wider area.
"We expected this would have surface rupture that geologists
could see on the ground and study," he said.
The temblor was also felt in Canada's Yukon, rattling Whitehorse
and surrounding communities.
"As of now, we haven't received any reports of any structural
damage or any injuries or anything like that," said RCMP Const.
Troy Byrt.
"I think in Beaver Creek, which is about five hours from here
(Whitehorse), I think it was a little more severe there. I think
some people actually had broken dishes."
Michelle Wingenbach, a clerk at the 1202 Motor Inn in Beaver
Creek, said the shaking lasted about a minute. The community of
120 is located about 30 kilometres from the Alaska border.
"Everything fell on the floor and the lights were swaying back
and forth," Wingenbach said. "There were people in the (motel)
restaurant and the water was splashing out of their glasses."
"It was a violent jerking. The ground was shaking, the buildings,
you could feel them moving. You had to sit down because it was
moving a lot."
Whitehorse firefighter Jack Boily was sitting in the downtown
firehall during the quake.
"I've been here 52 years and that's the worst one I've felt in
Whitehorse. It shook pictures on the walls," Boily said. "It was
very, very noticeable."
Meanwhile, Alaska State Troopers responded to several reports of
damaged roads in the area, including a 90-centimetre crack in the
main road between Fairbanks and Anchorage, said Lieut. Lee
Farmer.
"Anybody with one of those lowriders out of Anchorage probably
doesn't want to head that way," Farmer said.
Fuel tanks were knocked over in Slana, which has no electric
utility; families use diesel fuel to power generators. Sharrel
Webster said she was likely to lose food in her freezer. A
semitrailer the family uses for storage was tipped over on its
side.
Randy Schmoker, a metal worker in Porcupine Creek, was in his
shop when he felt the ground move.
"I thought, 'Oh good, an earthquake, ' and then it got worse and
worse," he said.
The quake tipped over a band saw and other heavy tools, his
1,135-litre outdoor fuel tank and moved a 68-kilogram anvil six
metres across the floor. Schmoker said he's a big game hunter and
usually enjoys short earthquakes.
"A charging brown bear I can handle," he said. "This scared the
hell out of me."
Jay Capps, who owns a small grocery store midway between Tok and
Glennallen, said he felt a low-level shaking for 15 or 20 seconds
before the quake hit.
"It shook so bad you could not stand up on the front porch,"
Capps said. "It sounded like the trees were breaking roots under
the ground." He said nearly everything fell off store shelves.
"My store smells like liquid smoke, picante sauce and
mayonnaise," he said.
Effects were felt all over the continent, from Seattle to New
Orleans.
"This earthquake was shallow and the energy went directly into
the surface and that is what causes these affects so far away,"
said Dale Grant, a geophysicist at the earthquake information
centre.
Grant said he received calls from nuclear power facilities in
various states - including Minnesota and Washington - that
reported unusual water movement.
On Seattle's urban Lake Union, more than 2,253 kilometres south
of the quake, waves shook houseboats loose from their moorings
and some slammed into docks, causing minor damage. Nobody was
hurt.
In Mandeville, across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans - more
than 4,830 kilometres from the quake - Carol Barcia, 47, saw
boats bounce around from the deck of her house.
"One poor guy across the canal from us fell off his sail boat,"
she said.
Earthquakes above magnitude 7 are considered major - capable of
widespread, heavy damage.
In 1964, the "Good Friday" earthquake left 131 people dead in
Alaska. Current measurements put that quake's magnitude at 9.2.
A moderate earthquake shook the central Plains earlier Sunday.
The 4.3 quake hit about 2:45 p.m., some 50 kilometres northwest
of O'Neill, Neb., the geological survey said.
Moderate earthquakes also shook Indonesia and Pakistan earlier
Sunday, but the activity is not related nor unusual, said Waverly
Person, geophysicist at U.S. Geological Survey.
"On any given day, we located about 50 earthquakes throughout the
world," Person said. "This to us is pretty normal."
He said the death toll from an Italian quake last week may have
made more people notice the quake activity.
"They begin to think all of this adds up, but it doesn't," Person
said.
[http://www.canoe.ca/copyright.html] © 2002, CANOE, a division of
*****************************************************************
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:
*****************************************************************