***************************************************************** 09/08/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.229 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 FSA investigates British Energy 2 Nuclear bail out? No thanks 3 UK: Gov to rescue stung BE 4 UK: TEPCO HQ officials 'ordered cover-up' 5 OPINION > Top 10 bizarre quotes in Japan (nuke is #8) 6 Japan: Agency searches TEPCO offices 7 TEPCO searched as scandal widens 8 Republicans for Loose Nukes * 9 State-run nuclear company placed under investigation for alleged 10 Agency lets TEPCO headquarters off the hook in cover-up probe 11 BE locked in cash talks with government 12 30 TEPCO head office officials may be involved in cover-ups 13 UK: Ministers vow energy jobs are safe 14 UK: Power company crisis puts nuclear future in doubt * 15 British Energy chief faces axe 16 French nuclear giant under investigation for pollution. 17 Eerie glow from British Energy figures 18 UK: New plant fault could kill off BE NUCLEAR REACTORS 19 US: NRC Oversight Panel to Hold Three Meetings on Davis-Besse Reacto 20 'No design flaw' at nuclear plant 21 CAN: Nuclear Watchdog Seeks Bruce Power Guarantee 22 AU: Lucas Heights reactor faces further hurdle NUCLEAR SAFETY 23 UK: Reporter got into reactor room 24 US: Poorly Secured Nuclear Materials Are Bombs Waiting to Happen 25 US: Radiation Pill Distributed in Ill. 26 UK: Cullen says nuclear risk must cease 27 US: Hundreds show for radiation pill giveaway at Ill. nuclear plant 28 US: Day-cares not included in TMI evacuation plan 29 US: Journalists Smuggle Depleted Uranium Into New York NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 30 Nuclear Waste Storage - CDI Russia Weekly #221 31 US: Yucca: Over the fence 32 US: Utah's Waste Lands: Where Hazardous Materials Are Stored, 33 US: This Is The Place For Waste 34 USEC promises 2005 start of gas centrifuge test plant 35 US: Plumsted mayor tours BOMARC cleanup site* NUCLEAR WEAPONS 36 The Sunflower August 2002 (No. 64) 37 Ex-arms inspector defends Iraq 38 U.N.: Iraq Sites Under Construction 39 Analysis: Is Iraq rearming? 40 Arabs doubt Iraq dossier 41 US: Lawmakers debate new nuclear bomb that burrows 42 Inspectors Step Up Iraq Preparation 43 Pak Air Force establishes nuclear-armed strategic command: Air Chief 44 Dossier proves Saddam must be stopped 45 How did Iraq get its weapons? We sold them 46 U.S. agrees with Israeli assessments on Libya's efforts to get nucle 47 The Saddam Debate 48 Iraq accused of trying to smuggle parts for enriching uranium 49 Bush, Blair: World Must Act Vs. Iraq 50 Iraq could be nine years from nuclear capability: Powell 51 Seoul, Washington, Tokyo laud N.K. moves 52 Iraq Said to Step Up Bid for Nukes 53 Libya rejects Israeli accusations on mass destruction weapons US DEPT. OF ENERGY 54 Group's proposal requests SRS land OTHER NUCLEAR ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 FSA investigates British Energy Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Watchdog examines electricity generator's relationship with City financiers Jill Treanor Saturday September 7, 2002 The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk] Cash-strapped British Energy's woes deepened last night as the financial services authority launched an investigation into the way it kept the City informed about the dire state of its finances. The country's biggest electricity generator needs £250m from its banks by Monday morning so that it can pay suppliers. If it fails to find financial support, the former state-owned utility that owns 15 nuclear reactors has warned it faces insolvency. It is asking the government for a financial bailout, which could ultimately require long-term loans of up to £1bn. The banks want guarantees from the government before putting up any money. News of the move led the FSA to suspend BE's shares late on Thursday. Yesterday, the FSA confirmed that it was examining the timing of announcements issued by BE after it appeared to reassure investors on August 14 that its financial health was not in a perilous condition. "We are looking into the circumstances of the last few weeks," an FSA spokesman said. The company's shares are suspended at 80.75p, well below the 700p at which they traded three years ago, but above the levels below 55p in late August. The shares were first sold to the public at 100p but the company has warned that "there can be no certainty" that the talks with government will "preserve value" for investors. The sudden deterioration in the company's financial position has stunned some investors, including the agencies that provide ratings on the company's debt, which was yesterday downgraded to "junk" status. In mid-August, the agencies assigned the company solid investment grade ratings. S&P's admitted yesterday it was "not aware of any recent event that could have caused a dramatic change in the company's prospects, and which led the board of British Energy to make the announcement". BE refused to comment last night, referring only to the statement issued on Thursday when it said there were "reasonable grounds" for reaching an agreement with government over its financial future. Robin Jeffrey, the embattled BE chairman and senior members of his executive team, yesterday remained locked in talks with the government, including Patricia Hewitt, the industry secretary, and its bankers, led by HSBC. Brian Wilson, the energy minister, was returning from a business trip in South America. Credit Suisse First Boston is advising the government on the best way to keep the company afloat but within the terms of state support set out by the European Union. BE has been dogged by the falling prices of electricity in the wholesale market but also by the specific problem of having to close four of its 15 reactors this year. This has left it short of its output target and cost it £250,000 a day. It had been trying to improve its financial position in the past few days by negotiating a deal with British Nuclear Fuel over the terms under which it reprocesses its radioactive waste. In return, BE would have run BNFL's Magnox reactors. It is thought that these talks may be resurrected. [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ***************************************************************** 2 Nuclear bail out? No thanks Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | John O'Farrell Saturday September 7, 2002 The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk] Yesterday panicking crowds headed for the hills holding up flimsy umbrellas and clutching handkerchiefs over their mouths. The newspapers had carelessly printed the terrifying headline: "Britain's nuclear industry - collapse imminent." It turns out that British Energy, which runs Britain's eight nuclear power stations, is on the brink of insolvency. Apparently the Sellafield Visitor Centre gift shop is not selling quite as many Chernobyl shaky-snow fallout scenes as they'd hoped. The sealed nuclear waste paperweights just aren't shifting and the kiddies' glow-in-the-dark plutonium bars are down to half price. Although we are not about to be poisoned by a Chernobyl style explosion, to listen to the shareholders in Britain's nuclear industry you'd think the reality was even worse. On the Today programme yesterday, British Energy shareholder Malcolm Stacey was incandescent that a government rule change had resulted in a 20% drop in electricity prices for the consumer. Cheaper electricity for the masses or greater profits for shareholders... hmmm, that's one of those really tricky moral issues isn't it; the sort of thing that would have kept Keir Hardy wrestling with his conscience for years. Mr Stacey called on the government to bail out investors whose shares had fallen in value. On hearing this Gordon Brown must have leapt out of bed and straight into action. What greater priority can there be for a Labour government than compensating speculators who've lost money on British Energy shares? "You know all that money we were going to give to schools and hospitals?" says the chancellor. "Forget all that; this is the reason I went into politics, to compensate nuclear shareholders. These are the real heroes of our society. Sorry, nurses! Sorry, teachers! I need that money to hand out to City speculators who gambled and lost." Until this happens, Labour party activists should be forming nuclear shareholder support groups, sending food parcels and organising benefits for the impoverished stockbrokers who have been so viciously persecuted by this government and its nutty idea of "lower electricity prices". British Energy was privatised the year before Labour came to power, but although the nuclear industry has been receiving massive subsidies for 50 years it is still not profitable. Last year BE lost £518m and remains heavily in debt. It tried to get a mortgage on Sellafield but the valuation had to be halted when the surveyors kept banging their little hammers on the side of the reactor. BE also owns nuclear power stations overseas and is hoping to raise money by selling those. Apparently there's a man from Iraq who's very interested. At last the nuclear lobby is no longer getting everything its own way. They knew they were in trouble when Tony Blair's Jaguar was replaced by a purple 2CV with a smiley sticker saying "Atomkraft? Nein Danke!" It all started to go wrong for them when John Prescott was at Environment. They explained to him the complex nuclear physics that made atomic power possible and he just said: "Right, but what if the pilot light blows out?" Despite support from the Conservative energy spokesman, British Energy has failed in its campaign for exemption from the £80m climate change levy. For some reason the government does not see nuclear power as especially environmentally friendly. Nuclear power can affect climate change: it got much, much hotter around Chernobyl a while back. The chairman of British Energy, Robin Jeffrey, Britain's very own Mr Burns from The Simpsons, claims that nuclear is the greenest form of power because it doesn't emit any greenhouse gases. "Doh!" as Homer would say. Yes, apart from the deadly toxic waste that remains radioactive for thousands of years, it really is a very green form of energy; apart from endlessly producing one of the most lethal substances known to man which has to be dumped underground to leak into the water supply and poison future generations, it's as green as an organic mung bean farm. But these bearded sandal-wearers always accentuate the negative when it comes to nuclear power, don't they? The environmentalists never talk about all those years when Chernobyl was supplying clean renewable energy as bunnies nibbled daisies in the surrounding fields. No, they always have to focus on that one particular day when its reactor exploded and contaminated hundreds of square miles with highly toxic radioactive fall-out. Amazingly, BNFL has been lobbying to be allowed to construct a new generation of nuclear facilities. They might as well build power stations that burn £20 notes. But in the minds of the British public, the biggest worry will always be safety; no matter how many times we simple folk are told that British nuclear reactors are completely safe, that there is absolutely no possibility of an accident here. So what do we know? Maybe we should take their word for it that more nuclear power stations across Britain would be a good idea. Because it's not just the nuclear lobby's safety experts who say this. Pilots at the al-Qaida flight school think so too. comment@guardian.co.uk Useful links British Nuclear Fuels Ltd [http://www.bnfl.co.uk/website.nsf/default.htm] Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament [http://www.cnduk.org/] HSE nuclear glossary [http://www.hse.gov.uk/nsd/ilrwglos.htm] UK atomic energy authority [http://www.ukaea.org.uk/] National Radiological Protection Board [http://www.nrpb.org.uk/] World Nuclear Association [http://www.uilondon.org/] [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ***************************************************************** 3 UK: Gov to rescue stung BE Sky News - [http://www.sky.com] Dungeness nuclear plant Nuclear 'Bail-Out' Plan Ministers are preparing to rescue the country's biggest electricity generator from the brink of collapse. But bosses' heads will roll over the crisis at British Energy. The Government is reported to have decided it would be too dangerous and expensive to allow the company's nuclear power plants to go bankrupt. British Energy's senior managers will be told to resign as part of the bail-out, according to the Financial Times. The newspaper says ministers are "enraged" at the company's downfall, but have agreed in principle to extend a short-term loan to the company. Suspended The firm has been hit hard by the slump in electricity prices and the closure of two Scottish reactors, causing its value to drop by £1.5bn to just £500m over the past year. British Energy shares were suspended from trading on Thursday as the company started high-level talks with the Government to sort out the crisis. The Government has stressed there will be "no blank cheques" for the struggling group and it is thought re-nationalisation will be ruled out. Help could come in the form of exempting British Energy from the climate change levy or reducing its local authority rates. Unions are seeking assurances there will be no job losses among the 5,200 staff. Last Updated: 07:44 UK, Saturday September 07, 2002 © 2002 BSkyB | Privacy Statement | Terms and Conditions | UK | ***************************************************************** 4 UK: TEPCO HQ officials 'ordered cover-up' Daily Yomiuri On-Line Yomiuri Shimbun High-ranking officials at Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) headquarters were involved in systematically falsifying inspection records for 13 nuclear reactors at the company's three nuclear power plants in Fukushima and Niigata prefectures, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Saturday. Company sources said TEPCO's in-house investigations had found that 30 to 40 company employees, including some officials in charge of nuclear power plants, systematically altered inspection records over 16 years from 1986. The sources said those leading the investigation were considering suitable punishments, including demotion and pay reductions, for those responsible. They added they plan to release the details of the investigation and punishments on Sept. 20. According to the sources, TEPCO records were inconsistent with 29 items of a report made by General Electric International, Inc. (GEII), based on an inspection it made of the nuclear power plants during the late 1980s and 1990s. The GEII report noted cracks and other damage to shrouds that encase fuel used in a reactor and jet-pumps that circulate coolants, but the TEPCO records did not report these problems. This and other factors lead the officials to believe the records were altered. The sources said they initially believed the records were altered from the late 1980s into the 1990s, but after more investigations they concluded the records were changed from 1986 to 2001. TEPCO then reportedly made a list of more than 100 employees who worked at its nuclear facilities during that period, including employees at the Nuclear Power Division at TEPCO headquarters who were charged with supervising the plants. It also included people in departments in charge of inspections and repairs at the company's No.1 and No.2 Fukushima power plants in Fukushima Prefecture and Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Power Plant in Niigata Prefecture. Officials conducting the internal investigation questioned all employees on the list and compared the information they received with inspection records and other data. They concluded that 30 to 40 employees were involved in the alterations. According to the sources, engineers at nuclear power plants are either charged with construction and other work or inspections and repairs. The sources added that mostly those in the latter group were involved in the deceit. The sources said there were cases in which officials of the latter group bypassed plant managers of the former group and ordered maintenance workers and inspectors to alter records. Some officials had admitted making such orders, the sources said. TEPCO officials said they were ready to severely punish inspection and repair officials who were charged with overseeing alterations, including the highest ranked official, by such means as making their names public. The officials added the company plans to reform the repairs and inspections division and departments at each power plant. Copyright 2002 The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 5 OPINION > Top 10 bizarre quotes in Japan (nuke is #8) The Manila Times"> [http://www.manilatimes.net] Saturday, September 7, 2002 COMMENTARY By William Pesek Jr. Tokyo — For people who love to see Finance chiefs put their feet in their mouths, Japanese officials are the gift that keep on giving. Every day, sometimes several times a day, policy makers in the world’s second-biggest economy say things that make observers wonder just who’s in charge. More often than they’d like to admit, investors and traders read quotes from Japanese officials and think: “What?” The irony, of course, is that few have more sensitive jobs than economic policy makers. Markets rise and fall by their words. Investors consume, digest, mull and sleep on their every syllable. Financial officials, suffice to say, need to watch what they say. Yet Japanese officials seem to raise a disproportionate number of eyebrows and undermine confi­dence in their economy every time they open their mouths. So, with apologies to David Letterman, here’s a list of the top 10 bizarre things said recently by Japanese economic bigwigs. Drum roll, please. The top 10 bizarre things said about Japan’s economy 10. “We should focus on reform instead of focusing on something just in front of us,’’ Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said, when asked about the benchmark Nikkei 225’s slide to two-decade lows. Uhh, what reforms, Mr. Prime Minister. We see you were in Johannesburg earlier this week and are planning trips to New York and Pyongyang, North Korea. All important and well-intentioned globetrotting, but a bit peripheral to your mandate from voters to fix the economy and end the nation’s 11-year slump. Happy travels, sir. 9. “We need to find the reason stocks are decli­ning, and then decide what to do,’’ said Finance Minis­ter Masajuro Shio­kawa, adding that “hasty measures” shouldn’t be taken to address the slide in stocks. Soooooo, “hasty measures” would be any­thing implemented in the next dozen years? That is, after all, how long stocks have been tumbling. And if you’ve got a few hours, investors could certainly enlighten you as to why the Nikkei is revisiting levels last seen in 1984, Mr. Finance Minister. 8. “We have no change at all,” said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda on whether Japan will improve nuclear safety policies. "Scaaaaaaaaaaaaary! You’d think there’d be major ones following news " Tokyo Electric Power Co. shut a nuclear reactor after detecting the first radiation leak in 20 years. That, after it admitted it falsified two decades of safety reports. We won’t need lights Tokyo soon — we’ll all be glowing. 7. “Behind the decline in stocks lies the current world situation, especially the trend in the US,” said Japan Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe. And the fact Japan’s bad-loan crisis is worsening by the day, deflation is accelerating and the government is at a loss to fix things wouldn’t have anything to do with it? It surely would be better for Japan if the US, its largest export market, were booming, but please. 6. “We don’t intend to change our policies for the time being,” Fukuda again, said when asked about efforts to stop prices falling. That, in a nutshell, is why investors are fleeing Japan. Credit ratings companies are threatening additio­nal downgrades because deflation increases the inflation-adjusted value of debt. And Fukuda’s answer, just don’t do anything. 5. “We don’t have any plans to prop up stock prices,” said Shiokawa. “Stock prices are determined by selling and buying. Their prices are rising and falling just as an elevator goes up and down.” Trouble is, Japan’s elevator is stuck in the basement. 4. “Given the current economic situation, I think the government should seriously consider’’ measures to boost the economy, said Trade Minister Takeo Hiranuma. Uh, isn’t that part of the job description? 3. “As the summer vacation is over and people are coming back to the stock and currency markets, we are watching movements very closely,’’ said Haruhiko Kuroda, vice finance minister for international affairs. Currency traders must be thinking: “Damn! If only we’d traded more over the summer, when no one was looking.’’ 2. “If funds want to do business in Japan they not only have to focus on returns but also on the public good,’’ Masaki Suzuki, who oversees banks at the Financial Services Agency, told Bloomberg’s Brett Cole. “They have to modify their business model to adapt to cultural differences.’’ Translation: Forget about making a profit. 1.“I can’t think of immediate and effective measures to boost the economy, but we must think of something.” Shiokawa again, of course. Hmmmm, so, you admit you have no idea what to do, but you’ll slap something together because those stupid markets won’t know the difference. No wonder Japan has lost favor with investors. --Bloomerg tc "Bloomerg " (William Pesek Jr. is a columnist for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.) (c) 2001 The Manila Times | Terms of Service ***************************************************************** 6 Japan: Agency searches TEPCO offices Daily Yomiuri On-Line Yomiuri Shimbun The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency searched the headquarters of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, on Friday in connection with false reports on cracks at its nuclear power plants. The inspection was performed based on the law controlling nuclear reactors as well as the Electric Utility Law. The agency inspected TEPCO's No.1 and No.2 Fukushima nuclear power plants in Fukushima Prefecture and Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture on Sept. 2-3. The agency will question executives including Toshiaki Enomoto, vice president in charge of the firm's nuclear business, in connection with 29 alleged false reports. Among these reports include a suspected cover-up of cracks in reactor housings. The agency will investigate how deeply the firm was involved in the series of false reports at the nuclear plants and ask it to submit inspection records. Yasuhisa Komoda, the agency's deputy director general for the nuclear fuel cycle, and 15 other officials arrived at the headquarters about 8:30 a.m. on Friday, and met with 28 TEPCO executives. "You will be subject to punishment if you refuse to submit records or to answer questions. I expect you to sincerely deal with this inspection," Komoda cautioned. The agency then began its on-site inuestigation of each nuclear-power division. Following the inspection, which took the whole day, the agency will analyze the findings along with those obtained at the three nuclear plants. The agency also will consult with nuclear experts to check if any laws were violated. An interim report will be completed by the end of the month. Panel to discuss nuclear safety The Economy, Trade, and Industry Ministry on Friday set up a special panel in the Nuclear Industrial Safety Subcommittee of the Advisory Committee for Energy in order to prevent a reoccurrence of cover-up cases. The panel will hold its first meeting on Sept. 12. The panel will submit an interim report on its discussion later this month. Prof. Shunsuke Kondo of Tokyo University graduate school of engineering was nominated as chairman of the panel, which is comprised of technological law specialists. The panel will discuss measures to tighten controls against irregularities in the nuclear-power business as well as efficient use of information obtained by the companies for investigation. The panel also will discuss revisions of the law controlling nuclear reactors as well as the Electric Utility Law with an eye to submitting bills to revise the laws. Copyright 2002 The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 7 TEPCO searched as scandal widens Asahi Shimbun [http://www.asahi.com/] The Asahi Shimbun Employees are warned to be helpful and truthful or face the full might of the law. Inspectors from the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency searched the Tokyo head office of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) on Friday amid new disclosures of an eight-year cover-up of damage to a shroud covering the core of a nuclear reactor in Fukushima Prefecture. The 20-strong investigation team was led by Yasuhisa Komoda, deputy director-general in charge of nuclear safety and nuclear fuel recycling, who announced to TEPCO employees on his arrival, ``If you deny access to evidence or make false statements, you will be penalized. We look forward to your sincere cooperation.'' TEPCO's Tokyo main office is in Chiyoda Ward. Investigators said they intended to question company executives to determine the extent of the cover-up. The agency so far has uncovered 29 false reports dating from the 1980s through the 1990s concerning three TEPCO nuclear power plants in Fukushima and Niigata prefectures. It was also revealed Friday that an ``indication of a crack'' in the shroud covering the core of the second reactor at the Fukushima No. 2 facility was first reported eight years ago, but nothing was done because of the cost of shutting the plant. It also emerged that TEPCO did not inspect the shroud while conducting its own independent inspection in May as mandated by the central government. The company later informed the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency that no problems were uncovered. General Electric International Inc. (GEII) first alerted TEPCO to the crack in a welded section of the shroud at the reactor at the second Fukushima plant in 1994. But TEPCO chose to do nothing to do nothing. Not only did it fail to inform the government but it decided to wait until fiscal 2003 to act on the information. Instead, company inspectors focused on another area of the facility so they could report that no problems were found. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency instructed TEPCO to carry out an independent inspection after a crack was discovered in the shroud at the No. 3 reactor at the Fukushima plant in July last year. The company was ordered to check the welding on all similar type reactors. The agency allowed TEPCO to carry out the checks over two inspection sessions. Officials said they believe TEPCO took advantage and knowingly postponed the discovery. The No. 2 reactor shroud at the second Fukushima plant was made from a new type of stainless steel that was thought to be effective in preventing corrosion.(IHT/Asahi: September 7,2002) (09/07) [Copyright Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction ***************************************************************** 8 Republicans for Loose Nukes * Sat 7 Sep 2002 /Andrew Murray-Watson senior business reporter/ BRITAIN?S biggest electricity generator, nuclear power firm British Energy, was locked in talks with the government last night after warning it would go bust if it did not get a handout from the taxpayer. The company said it needs hundreds of millions of pounds to keep its reactors running. Scotland relies heavily on BE as it produces 45 per cent of its electricity compared to 23 per cent across the UK. BE is a major Scottish employer with 1,350 staff at its East Kilbride headquarters and its nuclear power stations at Torness in East Lothian and Hunterston in Ayrshire. A government spokesman said: "We said there were talks yesterday and you can assume they are continuing." The company?s shares and bonds have been suspended from official trade since Thursday, when it first announced it was in talks . Debt rating agency Moody?s Investors Service cut the company?s debt rating by four notches yesterday to "junk" status at Ba3. Last year British Energy posted a £518 million loss. It faces more years in the red unless there is a dramatic recovery in wholesale prices, which have slumped since the introduction of a new competitive trading system for wholesale electricity to a market that was already saddled with over-capacity. Analysts say the breakeven level for its nuclear power production is about £19 per megawatt hour. UK prices have hovered around £16 in the last two months. But wholesale prices leapt 50 per cent to £25.30 yesterday morning, largely due to British Energy?s financial plight. Analysts said the government could provide an immediate loan or allow the firm to go into insolvency - a move that could spell the end of the company but ensure the business survives, as was the case with Railtrack. The affair has echoes of Railtrack - the failed British rail operator that collapsed amid mounting debts and safety worries less than a year ago. Many British Energy shareholders are ordinary people who bought into Britain?s sell-off of state assets in the 1980s and 1990s. Some blamed what they saw as a clumsy government attempt to bring more competition to the industry by making it harder for big power producers to manipulate wholesale prices. BE said it was reasonably confident the government would provide a handout. Sources close to the company said it wanted a decision before next week and needed the money to see out 2002. ©2002 scotsman.com | contact ***************************************************************** 12 30 TEPCO head office officials may be involved in cover-ups Sunday, September 8, 2002 at 18:00 JST TOKYO ? Some 30 officials at the headquarters of Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) are suspected of having been involved in cover-ups of damage at nuclear plants, company sources said Sunday. TEPCO's in-house investigation committee found that about 30 officials in charge of management of nuclear power plants at the company's headquarters were involved in the falsification of inspection records of its nuclear plants in the late 1990s, the sources said. TEPCO, Japan's largest power utility, earlier submitted to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency a list of 29 inspection reports from the late 1980s to the 1990s that may have been falsified. The reports cover 13 of the 17 reactors at the firm's Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 plants in Fukushima Prefecture and its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture. It subsequently admitted to falsifying records. The committee investigated about 100 officials who could have been involved in the cover-ups and confirmed the involvement of about 30 officials, the sources said, adding it will continue the probe to shed more light on systematic wrongdoing by the company. As a result of the investigation, the panel found a case in which some headquarters officials instructed continuation of the cover-ups despite inspection records showing cracks on a reactor, the sources said. If TEPCO headquarters officials gave active instructions for cover-ups rather than just tacit approval, that would mean they were involved in a malicious and systematic cover-up, the sources said. TEPCO had outsourced inspections to General Electric International Inc (GEII), the Japan unit of General Electric Co (GE). (Kyodo News) Japan Today Discussion ***************************************************************** 13 UK: Ministers vow energy jobs are safe Scotsman.com Sat 7 Sep 2002 /Alison Hardie and Alastair Dalton/ MINISTERS yesterday pledged that no Scottish jobs would be lost in the aftermath of the privatisation debacle that left British Energy on the brink of collapse. Senior government sources said Scotland?s huge reliance on nuclear power would be protected despite warnings that the East Kilbride-based company could not expect "blank cheque" financial support. Talks between the beleaguered energy company and senior figures in the Department of Trade and Industry continued throughout yesterday, with signs emerging that deals would be done to protect jobs and the future of British Energy. The company announced on Thursday that it was slipping towards insolvency after falling victim to depressed wholesale power prices. In a statement, the firm said yesterday it had reasonable grounds for believing the discussions would be successful. But it warned shareholders: "There can be no certainty that this will preserve value for investors." Shares have been suspended in the group, which operates eight power stations in the UK. Dougie Rooney, national official at the engineering union Amicus, said: "Obviously, we are worried about the possible impasse on jobs but we believe that the business is too important to the infrastructure of the country for it to go under. Brian Wilson, the energy minister, was due back in London last night for talks with Patricia Hewitt, the Trade and Industry Secretary, after cutting short a trip to Bolivia." A source said: "Talk of massive job losses in Scotland is completely premature and misguided. It would be ridiculous to imagine the government would stand by and let the nuclear energy industry wither on the vine." It had been widely speculated yesterday that up to 1,500 jobs in Scotland could be put in jeopardy by the financial disaster being suffered by British Energy. However, amid the positive noises being made about British Energy?s future, environmentalists last night called on the government not to revive the fortunes of Britain?s nuclear energy capability. Kevin Dunion, chief executive of Friends of the Earth, said: "Any handouts or take-back should be tied up with a promise by government to begin the complete phase-out of nuclear power in this country. Not a single penny more of taxpayers? money should go to supporting a new nuclear build." Scotland relies on nuclear power for 45 per cent of its electricity compared to 23 per cent across the UK. British Energy?s plight is especially significant for the Scottish economy as 25 per cent of the energy produced north of the Border is exported to England and Northern Ireland. *Related Articles: British Energy in crisis * ©2002 scotsman.com | contact ***************************************************************** 14 UK: Power company crisis puts nuclear future in doubt * /online.ie 06 Sep 2002/ British Energy's financial crisis highlights the problems facing the electricity industry ? and raises question marks over the future of nuclear power in the UK. At the heart of the problem is a massive slump in electricity prices, which has meant generators struggle to make money in Britain. Prices have fallen 40% in the last four years, partly due to overcapacity in the generation market and greater competition, as well as the introduction of the New Electricity Trading Arrangements (NETA) last year. Analysts say loss-making British Energy is in a worse position than its rivals. Other companies, such as Scottish Power, Scottish & Southern, Innogy and PowerGen, have a retail customer base, which gives them the benefit of a hedge against falling prices. British Energy sells straight into the market to industrial customers and is more exposed. It also faces higher bills because it is a nuclear generator ? the company is charged twice as much on its local authority rates as non-nuclear electricity generators. In addition, a number of other firms are more diversified, with a larger proportion of their operations overseas or more businesses in different sectors. And other issues are specific to the company. British Energy has faced problems at its plants ? it was forced to shut down its Torness station in Scotland last month as a result of technical problems. That move sent its share price plummeting. So what are the solutions? The problem of British Energy's future has now been handed squarely to the government ? and observers say the last thing the government will want to do is re-nationalise. Analysts agree that ministers will not let British Energy close down ? the group supplies a fifth of the UK's energy and lights cannot be allowed to go out. "With 20% of the UK's electricity, something has to happen. It can't be left. Nobody's going to turn the lights out," said Andrew Fisher, analyst at fund manager Gerrard. Angelos Anastasiou, utilities analyst at Williams de Broe, agreed it was inconceivable. "If it stopped generation, prices would shoot up and we would probably have some lights out," he said. "I think British Energy one way or another will be rescued. There is quite a lot of capacity for the Government to do this without having to dig directly into its pockets." In the short term, the Government could help the company get through its immediate crisis by relaxing some charges and reducing British Energy's outgoings. The company could be excluded from the climate change levy, which could save it £80m. Nuclear power could also be treated as a renewable energy source ? which would allow the company to charge more for its electricity. Or it could have its local authority rates reduced, saving £30m. Other options could be brokering a settlement in the dispute between British Energy and state-owned BNFL. A deal between the two could save British Energy up to £250m a year by storing its spent fuel instead of reprocessing it. It could also receive a fee by taking over the running of BNFL's Magnox nuclear power stations. But these are immediate solutions and do not tackle the longer-term question marks hanging over nuclear energy in Britain. The UK faces the problem of how to replace its ageing nuclear stations, of which all but one are due to close by 2023. But analysts say the UK simply does not have enough spare generation to make up for a fifth of its electricity supply to be switched off and nuclear power does have a future here. Mr Fisher said: "We haven't got the generation to replace that 20% and let's not forget we have got certain environment targets. If we replace it with fossil fuels, it has environmental implications." ***************************************************************** 15 British Energy chief faces axe This is Money /by Tom McGhie, Mail on Sunday/ BRITISH Energy chairman Robin Jeffrey is expected to be ousted as the price of a Government rescue of the crippled nuclear generator whose shares were dramatically suspended last week. He is asking for £300m to keep British Energy afloat - just three weeks after assuring investors that there was no risk of the company going into financial meltdown. Ministers are furious about British Energy's demand. The Financial Services Authority is launching an inquiry because it is concerned about the rash of conflicting statements coming from British Energy that may have misled investors. To make matters worse for the generator, there are now grave doubts over the running of one of its biggest nuclear power stations, Heysham 2 in Lancashire. Greenpeace believes Heysham 2 is facing the same technical problems that caused both reactors at its sister plant in Torness, East Lothian, to be shut down last month. One Department of Trade and Industry adviser close to the talks between the Government and British Energy said: 'It beggars belief that three weeks after saying there was no cash crisis, one suddenly appears.' It is less than three weeks since Jeffrey reassured investors about the state of British Energy's finances. On August 14 he told analysts: 'I want to emphasise to you that we do not face a financial crisis and that we have a clear, well thought out way forward.' But after issuing its plea for state funds, Jeffrey said last Thursday: 'We had no alternative other than to seek Government support.' There is growing suspicion at the DTI that he is trying to force the Government into a bail-out by playing up the risk of insolvency for British Energy. After the fiasco of Railtrack, where the Government forced the track operator into administration when it was making a profit, ministers dare not risk the lights going out if the company, which supplies one fifth of the UK's electricity, went bust. The Government is so alarmed that Energy Minister Brian Wilson has cut short a trip to South America to take command of crisis talks. This week, Wilson will demand to know exactly what has led to the unexpected cash crisis. The DTI refused to endorse Jeffrey. 'Let's wait and see what happens after the talks,' it said. 'They must show us all their books so we can see what happened.' British Energy is believed to have been advised by its lawyers that it was not able to use £261m of overdraft facilities because directors were aware of an impending cash crunch. Heysham 2's closure would add to the company's financial crisis. A spokesman said the checks were taking place with the knowledge of the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate: 'It is running normally while we do some checks into giant circulator fans.' Shares were suspended at 80 1/2p on Thursday, valuing the company at £526m, but some analysts say they may be worthless. It was privatised by the Tories in 1996 and at its peak was worth £4.7bn. Any bail-out is likely to involve cutting the cost of a £300m fuel-reprocessing contract with state-owned British Nuclear Fuels, saving £80m a year with an exemption from the climate levy, and finding a buyer for its US business, which includes a sister plant to Three Mile Island, the power station that escaped meltdown by a whisker in 1979. © Associated Newspapers Ltd., 08 September 2002 This Is London ***************************************************************** 16 French nuclear giant under investigation for pollution. 7/9/2002. ABC News Online The French state-owned nuclear fuel company Cogema is being investigated for complaints of water pollution from disused uranium mines in the Haute-Vienne district of west-central France. The investigation follows a suit filed in March 1999 by a regional environmental group, Springs and Rivers of Limousin, accusing Cogema of having polluted several water courses in the region. "This pollution also affects Saint-Pardoux lake, one of the main Limousin recreation areas," said France Nature, one of the civil plaintiffs. He also said contamination of the rivers was affecting local drinking water. © 2002 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ***************************************************************** 17 Eerie glow from British Energy figures Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Notebook Saturday September 7, 2002 The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk] There is clearly rather more to the sudden, shocking crisis at British Energy than the bald threats of insolvency issued on Thursday night suggested. Back in the middle of August, chairman Robin Jeffrey was sounding ever-so jolly in a couple of Sunday newspaper interviews, saying - in so many words - how robust British Energy was and how unfair it would be to compare the company with Railtrack. It was thoroughly up-beat stuff, so much so that British Energy's share price began to rise at an eye-catching rate. Between August 20 and August 30, the stock gained more than 50%, peaking at 84p. Yesterday, following Thursday's suspension of formal trading, the shares were valued at 40p on the grey market run by spread-betting firms. According to usually knowledgeable City sources, Mr Jeffrey's comments in August caused a few eyebrows to be raised in Whitehall. At the time, Rothschild, the investment bank, was busy working with British Nuclear Fuels on the deal to prop British Energy up - Railtrack style - with government guarantees. Documentation was sitting ready to be signed and published, but the government had become leery of Mr Jeffrey's overly laid-back attitude. Meanwhile, incredulity has been expressed in other corners of the City - but for entirely different reasons. Some of British Energy's commercial bankers wonder the company is facing short-term cash pressures at all. In fact, the company's borrowing facilities - running to around £1bn - were completely untouched. It is true that two thirds of these facilities were up for renewal next year and the bankers would have sought some sort of government-backing. Some wonder why the idea of insolvency for British Energy was ever on the agenda. It is all very mysterious. The inquiry by the financial services authority promises to make interesting reading. [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ***************************************************************** 18 UK: New plant fault could kill off BE Guardian Unlimited | Archive Search · Reactor problem hits Heysham 2 · Stricken firm faces £25m repair bill Nick Mathiason Observer Sunday September 8, 2002 Insolvent British Energy faces a potentially fatal blow to its finances amid new concerns that it may be forced to close another nuclear reactor. Heysham 2 nuclear plant, in Lancashire, is at the centre of an urgent probe. It faces the same technical problems that have shut reactors at its sister plant at Torness, in East Lothian, whose closure escalated the company's financial plight. The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate has confirmed that it is monitoring the situation at Heysham and is talk ing to BE about the plant. John Large, one of the world's most respected independent nuclear safety experts, warned that Heysham 2 was built by the same company and to the same design as the Torness plant. It could cost £25 million to fix. Large, who advised the Russian government about the stricken nuclear submarine Kursk, said: 'If a plane develops a crack on its wing, you ground the whole fleet. The same applies here.' Torness and Heysham 2 have two advanced gas-cooled reactors. Torness failed because an impeller blade sheared off a fan, bringing the risk of a serious release of radiation. A Greenpeace campaigner said: 'If BE won't shut the plant immediately, then the Government must intervene to avoid a serious accident.' The worries about Heysham surfaced as Ministers contemplate a £260m rescue plan for BE. They have ruled out a renationalisation of BE. They say that the company will have to sell its North American businesses, which could fetch £300m. Senior Whitehall officials have hinted that a future financing arrangement could see BE receive more for the electricity it produces. Senior advisers say Britain's nuclear energy pol icy has not been compromised by BE's plight. 'BE is just one company. It's not the whole sector,' said a source. There is speculation that BE chairman Robin Jeffrey will leave this week. The company collapsed last week after failing to arrange a new contract with British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) to take over the daily operation and management of its reprocessing contracts. When it failed to receive cash from BNFL it tried to tap its £260m over draft facility but the company's lawyers discovered this was not allowed. BE is Britain's largest electricity generator, providing 25 per cent of its power. [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ***************************************************************** 19 NRC Oversight Panel to Hold Three Meetings on Davis-Besse Reactor Vessel Head Damage in Oak Harbor, Oh NRC: Press Release Region III - 2002 - 50 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region III 801 Warrenville Road, Lisle IL 60532 www.nrc.gov No. III-02-050 September 6, 2002 CONTACT: Jan Strasma (630) 829-9663 Viktoria Mitlyng (630) 829-9662 E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov [opa3@nrc.gov] The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will hold two meetings on Tuesday, September 17, and one meeting on September 18, in Oak Harbor, Ohio. The September 17 meetings will review the status and adequacy of recent activities at the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station as a result of the corrosion damage to the reactor vessel head. The September 18 meeting will review the plants proposed plan for correcting the organizational and human performance issues presented to the NRC during the public meeting of August 15, 2002. The plant, which has been shut down since February 16, is operated by FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company. SEPTEMBER 17 MEETINGS Both September 17 meetings will be at the Oak Harbor High School Auditorium, 11661 West State Route 163, in Oak Harbor. The first meeting will begin at 2 p.m. (EDT), when the NRC oversight panel, set up to coordinate the agency's activities associated with the corrosion damage to the reactor vessel head, will meet with utility officials to discuss the status of repairs at the plant and upcoming activities. The public is invited to observe the business portion of the meeting and will have an opportunity to make comments and ask questions of the NRC staff before the meeting is adjourned. The second meeting will begin at 7 p.m. (EDT) to update the public on NRC's activities related to the reactor vessel head degradation and will provide a summary of the earlier meeting. The public will be invited to ask questions and make comments. SEPTEMBER 18 MEETING The third meeting will be held at 9 a.m. (EDT) at Davis-Besses Energy Education Center, 5501 North State Route 2, in Oak Harbor. The meeting will focus on the licensees proposed plan to address management, organizational effectiveness and human performance issues that were discussed during the August 15 public meeting in Lisle, Illinois, as the root causes that are believed to have led to the degradation of the reactor pressure vessel head. Transcripts of all three meetings will be posted on the NRCs web site. The NRC oversight panel, created on April 29, includes NRC management and staff from its Region III office in Lisle, Illinois, the NRC Headquarters office in Rockville, Maryland, and the NRC Resident Inspector Office at the Davis-Besse site. Documents on the Davis-Besse corrosion issue, including meeting transcripts and further details on NRC's oversight panel activities, are posted on the NRC's web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/ops-experience/vessel-head-degradation.ht ml. ***************************************************************** 20 'No design flaw' at nuclear plant BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Friday, 6 September, 2002, 21:03 GMT 22:03 UK [Inside Torness] Two reactors at Torness have been shut down The Torness nuclear power station should be producing electricity again before the end of the year, according to a local MP. Labour's John Home Robertson said he had also received assurances that there are no design faults at the East Lothian plant. The area's MP was speaking after a meeting with operators British Energy and the Torness local liaison committee. It seems the welds were not quite as good as they should have been on one or two of these impellers - that's certainly not the same as a design fault John Home Robertson The company, which made a loss of £500m in its latest financial year, is seeking government cash to save it from insolvency. British Energy runs the Hunterston plant in Ayrshire and Torness, which employs 450 people and produces 1,200 megawatts of electricity if both reactors are in use. The company has been hit by a sharp drop in electricity prices and by problems at some of its power stations - including Torness. Reactor 1 at the East Lothian plant was closed down automatically last month due to vibrations in the gas circulation system, which cools the reactors. A second reactor has been out of action since May because of a similar problem. Shut down British Energy said there was no "incident" in either case and no escape of radiation at the plant, which accounts for about 12% of its annual energy output. The Scottish Green Party has called for the station to be shut down indefinitely, claiming that it may have design flaws because of compromises during construction. The party said it had obtained information indicating that the big fans inside the reactor cooling system were made from forged metal rather than cast metal, which is apparently used in other nuclear stations. [Torness sign] The plant has been closed for several weeks It said this was because no supplier could reach the stringent safety requirements for the cast components. MSP Robin Harper said concerns that the new material used may be susceptible to vibrations were raised at the time even though it passed safety tests. "I am calling for Torness to stay shut down until the full report on these fans [is published] and then for them to be replaced," he declared. Mr Home Robertson said this was an "irresponsible" demand. Speaking after a special meeting of the local liaison committee, he said the recent problems were not related to the design. No further problems "It seems the welds were not quite as good as they should have been on one or two of these impellers - that's certainly not the same as a design fault," he said. Mr Home Robertson said no further problems had been found during checks on more than half of the 16 impellers used in the two reactors. In any restructuring, we want to make sure our members are not casualties Danny Carrigan Amicus "They are continuing to check the remaining impellers, and while safety remains the watchword, I'm hopeful that a case can be made for Torness to re-open sooner rather than later," he said. He predicted that the power station should be up and running again by Christmas. It has been suggested that it could cost British Energy at least £25m to repair the problems. Meanwhile, unions are calling for the jobs of nuclear workers in Scotland to be protected as efforts continue to save British Energy from collapse. Amicus is seeking an urgent meeting with the company's Scottish management to discuss the company's future. Public control "We want reassurances that workers' terms and conditions of employment prospects will not be weakened in any way," said the union's regional secretary Danny Carrigan. "In any restructuring, we want to make sure our members are not casualties." Scottish National Party MSP Alex Neil urged the UK Government to bring British Energy back under public control. [Robin Harper] Robin Harper: "Stay shut" Mr Neil said it was vital that government ensures the safety of all nuclear stations, but said that it must be done on the condition that British Energy be renationalised. Scottish Enterprise Minister Iain Gray said that while energy policy was a matter for Westminster, the firm was a major employer and major generator in Scotland. "Officials from the Scottish Executive will remain in constant contact with officials from the DTI as the situation progresses," he said. "It is, however, important to recognise that the prime concern of government in intervening in this matter is one of maintaining security of supply and safety in production." ***************************************************************** 21 CAN: Nuclear Watchdog Seeks Bruce Power Guarantee Sun, September 08, 2002 By Scott Anderson TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's nuclear watchdog called on Bruce Power on Friday to prove it has the finances to keep running its Ontario nuclear plant, after British Energy PLC, Bruce Power's largest stakeholder, said it was seeking a huge bailout from the British government. British Energy holds an 82 percent stake in Bruce Power, which operates eight reactors at the Bruce nuclear plant in western Ontario on Lake Huron. In a letter to Bruce Power in late August, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission called for a guarantee that the power plant could operate safely for a six-month period if troubled British Energy ceased operations. CNSC, which licenses nuclear operations in Canada, requires this type of assurance every three months as part of its standard licensing agreement. "As one of the conditions of its operating license, Bruce Power is required to have financial guarantees that if ever they should have to cease operations there would be financing available to them to cover their operations for six months to ensure a safe shut down," Michel Cleroux, a spokesman for the CNSC told Reuters. "We have asked them to provide assurances that either British Energy can continue to meet this guarantee or else to explain how such financing would be available to them in the event that British Energy can't." Britain's biggest electricity generator was locked in talks with the British government on Friday, after saying it faced liquidation and needed hundreds of millions of pounds to keep its reactors running. The company produces about 25 percent of Britain's electricity. Bruce Power, a joint venture between British Energy and uranium miner Cameco Corp., holds an 18-year lease on the Ontario facility, formerly part of the giant Ontario Hydro provincial power monopoly. Cleroux said Bruce Power must guarantee its financial ability by Sept. 10, but refused to say what action the agency would take if it did not meet the conditions. "I cannot speculate on future decisions that the commission would make, except that the safety of Canadians would be our foremost consideration," he said. Steve Cannon, a media relations officer with Bruce Power, said the firm would meet the agency's deadline, but refused to comment on what the company's answer would be. "At Bruce Power we are going through business as usual. We are continuing to deliver our business plan as usual and our primary focus is on safe and reliable generation of electricity to Ontario," Cannon said. ($1=$1.56 Canadian) Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 22 AU: Lucas Heights reactor faces further hurdle AM - 7/9/2002: AM - Saturday, September 7, 2002 0850 HAMISH ROBERTSON: The Federal Opposition is claiming that the latest hurdle facing the proposed new Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in Sydney means the project is in deep trouble. The Science Minister, Peter McGauran, is currently in Argentina, lobbying Parliamentarians there to agree to reprocess spent fuel rods from the reactor. Louise Yaxley reports. LOUISE YAXLEY: Building work is underway at the Lucas Heights site, but political answers have to be found at the same time. The Science Minister, Peter McGauran is trying to convicne Argentinians to accept Australian nuclear waste for reprocessing. Labor's Kim Carr says the Minister's dash to Buenos Aires is an indication the Government is in trouble on two fronts. Firstly, it hasn't yet locked in a back-up nation prepared to accept material for reprocessing if France stops taking it. KIM CARR: What's apparently happening, is that the Government is very concerned about its failure to develop a nuclear waste strategy. What the regulatory authority APANZA has said, is there has to be written in blood by the time of operation of the new reactor, a reprocessing strategy for spent fuel and the Government hasn't got one. And so it seems to me that this is a measure of desperation on behalf of the Government to try to shore up what is a crimbling position. LOUISE YAXLEY: Senator Carr says a much bigger stumbling block is a failure to find a long-term site to house the waste, because wherever it's reprocessed, it will have to be returned to Australia eventually for permanent storage. KIM CARR: The problem is the Government has said repeatedly that it will develop alternative sites for the depositing of high level radioactive waste. In an unexplained way they have delayed that process for another year, they have said that they will identify sites, they have yet to do so, they are a long way short of developing a viable strategy. LOUISE YAXLEY: Senator Carr places much store in comments from John Loy, the Head of the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, ARPANSA, who will eventually decide whether to grant an operating licence for the new reactor. Dr Loy is reported to have said he wouldn't give an operating licence until the long-term waste storage arrangements are properly settled. KIM CARR: Look, ARPANSA is an independent statutory authority, I'm not one that doubts their credibility, I think that Mr Loy is an effective regulator. The question arises when he says that these things should occur, I think the Government should take notice. LOUISE YAXLEY: The Government has said it will release a short list of possible sites for the waste storage facility by the end of this year. HAMISH ROBERTSON: Louise Yaxley reporting. [http://abc.net.au] ***************************************************************** 23 UK: Reporter got into reactor room Headline news from Sky News - Witness the event [http://www.sky.com] Nuclear Plant Security Alert Weapons Smuggled On To UK Plane Managers at a nuclear power plant have defended their security procedures after they employed an undercover journalist who gave them false references. Despite security being at its height in the run-up to the September 11 anniversary, the reporter gained access to the most sensitive areas of the Dungeness plant in Kent. False addresses He claims he was given a job, despite providing a false address and bogus referees. The News Of The World journalist then filmed his exploits with a hidden video camera and walked unchallenged into the reactor room. He says the camera could have been bomb, but experts say a determined terrorist would not not need a bomb - sabotaging the cooling system alone could cause a catastrophic nuclear meltdown. The camera could have been bomb Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, security was supposed to have been stepped up at Britain's 15 nuclear sites. Rigorous checks Public tours of the plants were curtailed and rigorous checks were supposed to have been imposed. Station Director at the Dungess plant, Mark Gorry, says managers have begun an urgent investigation. "We have controls in place to prevent undesirable people getting into sensitive areas in the power plant and I think we have some very thorough practises. "It remains to be seen whether this guy who came in gives us an issue to look at those practises again." Last Updated: 16:03 UK, Sunday September 08, 2002 © 2002 BSkyB | Privacy Statement | Terms and Conditions | UK| ***************************************************************** 24 Poorly Secured Nuclear Materials Are Bombs Waiting to Happen The Salt Lake Tribune -- Sunday, September 8, 2002 BY MATTHEW BUNN Terrorists with the makings of a nuclear bomb represent the worst homeland security nightmare. So last month's removal of enough highly enriched uranium, or HEU, for 2 1/2 bombs from the poorly guarded Vinca research facility in Yugoslavia is a dramatic step toward making the world a safer place. But it is only the first step. Today, plutonium and HEU -- the essential ingredients of nuclear bombs -- are in hundreds of facilities, in scores of countries. Because obtaining such materials is the hardest part of making a nuclear bomb, vulnerable nuclear material anywhere is a threat to everyone everywhere. Yet there are no binding global nuclear security standards, and the security for these materials ranges from excellent to appalling. Vinca was so impoverished it had dead rats floating in its spent fuel pool. There are more than 300 civilian research facilities such as Vinca around the world fueled with HEU, which is the easiest material for terrorists to make into a nuclear bomb. Many of these sites do not have enough HEU to pose a serious security threat. But there are others like Vinca: poorly secured and with enough material for a nuclear bomb. Rather than trying to beef up security everywhere, we need a focused "global cleanout" program targeted on getting rid of bomb material from as many sites as possible around the world and then effectively securing the sites that remain. The surest form of prevention is to ensure there is no bomb material to steal. Such a global cleanout effort would be feasible and cost-effective. Like Vinca, many of the facilities containing potential bomb material have no genuine need for it anymore, recognize that they cannot afford to secure it effectively for the long haul and can be persuaded to give it up if the right incentives are offered. The program should have the flexibility to tailor its work to the needs of each site -- from paying the cost of shipping the material away, to buying the material outright, to helping to convert research reactors to use fuel that cannot be used in bombs, to paying scientists to do research that no longer requires a research reactor. A program funded at perhaps $50 million per year would have the potential to eliminate essentially all of the most serious threats -- the facilities that are both poorly secured and have a substantial amount of bomb material -- within a few years. The Vinca operation vividly demonstrates why such a focused, flexible program is needed. While ultimately successful, pulling it together required more than a year of secret interagency and international negotiations. And when the U.S. government found that it did not have the authority to spend money on one part of the job crucial to sealing the deal with Yugoslavia, it had to reach out for $5 million from the private Nuclear Threat Initiative, founded by Ted Turner and Sam Nunn. It was a similar story when the United States airlifted nearly 600 kilograms of vulnerable HEU from Kazakhstan in 1994: more than a year of interagency debate to pull the mission together while the material remained insecure. Post-Sept. 11, we no longer have time for that, and we cannot afford to force the government to go to the private sector for handouts to get these vulnerable bomb caches secured. We need to create one office with all the authority needed to get the job done and to move as fast as we possibly can to reduce this urgent risk to U.S. security. Now that Congress has returned from its August recess, the House and Senate will be debating language in the Senate's defense bill that would authorize such an effort (although the Senate failed to provide new money to carry it out). In the interest of securing ourselves and our children from terrorist nuclear attack, Congress and the Bush administration need to work together to launch a fast-paced effort to clean out all of Vinca's vulnerable cousins, wherever they might be. Matthew Bunn, a former White House adviser on nuclear materials, is with the Managing the Atom project at Harvard University. © Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on ***************************************************************** 25 Radiation Pill Distributed in Ill. Las Vegas SUN September 07, 2002 By JAY HUGHES ASSOCIATED PRESS CLINTON, Ill.- A year ago, Charles and Deborah Bateson may have disregarded a chance to stock up on pills that help block radiation in case of an accident at the nuclear plant near their home. They were among the first to get the pills Saturday. "The way the world is right now, you never know what's going to happen," Charles Bateson said. Hundreds of residents within 10 miles of the Clinton nuclear power plant took advantage of a weekend giveaway of potassium iodide pills. The pills can block buildup of one type of radiation in the thyroid gland, but do not guard against other radiation. Clinton-area residents are the first in Illinois to be offered the pills by the state Department of Nuclear Safety. The agency later plans to offer potassium iodide to residents near Illinois' five other working nuclear plants. DNS spokeswoman Patti Thompson said the giveaway allows the department to address safety and emergency concerns. Since Sept. 11, federal nuclear regulators have made potassium iodide available to the 33 states with nuclear plants; three other states have distributed pills to those who live in the shadow of nuclear plants. In those states, officials say, between 10 and 34 percent of those eligible chose to stockpile the medication. On the Net: Department of Nuclear Safety: http://www.state.il.us/idns/ [http://www.state.il.us/idns/] All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 26 UK: Cullen says nuclear risk must cease Waterford news - Irish news, South east news, news from Waterford, news from Ireland. Report by Jamie O'Keeffe [jamie.okeeffe@munster-express.ie] Minister for the Environment Martin Cullen returns from South Africa tomorrow (Thursday) ready to renew the fight against Sellafield - and determined that the two shiploads of deadly nuclear fuel on course for the Irish Sea will be the last. The Waterford TD, who has been a central figure in the Irish negotiations at the World Earth Summit in Johannesburg, has made clear his outright opposition to the BNFL freighters, which are due to enter Irish waters within the next fortnight. The cargo of potentially lethal MOX fuel has been under the international spotlight since it left Japan under armed guard six weeks ago. Carrying enough plutonium to make up to 50 nuclear bombs, the vessels will pass about 30 miles from our east coast of Ireland. The shipment - the exact route of which has been kept secret by the British for security reasons - has provoked a storm of protest from environmental groups, here and overseas. Greenpeace flagship, the Rainbow Warrior, led a Flotilla of protest boats out of Dublin Port on Sunday. They will be joined by a convoy of Welsh vessels to mount a peaceful protest when the Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal reach the Irish Sea in or around the middle of this month. Mr. Cullen isn't at all convinced at the security assurances given by the UK authorities, with whom he's been keeping ''close contact.'' He says ''the shipment of such materials through the Irish sea represents an unacceptable risk . . . there is also the enhanced risk of being the target of a terrorist attack.'' He says ''any of us, no matter where we live will be deeply concerned about the possibility of something going wrong with one of these shipments, given what the cargo is on board and the potential damage to the environment and human life. This is totally unacceptable to the world at large and the international community.'' While Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny yesterday described the Government's Sellafield policy as ''a flop,'' the Minister insists that the authorities here ''have been putting enormous pressure, both legal and diplomatic,'' on the UK ''with regard to the whole issue of Sellafield. There are two legal cases running, and what Ireland has to do now is bring on board the international community on this.'' Greenpeace, who have been monitoring the ships' movements since they began their 15,000-mile voyage on July 4, say they are ''a floating target for terrorists . . . To send highly radioactive materials on a six-week trip on the high seas was a stupid idea before September 11. In today's context it can only be described as insane.'' [http://www.munster-express.ie/ads.htm] | X-WATERFORD FILES ***************************************************************** 27 Hundreds show for radiation pill giveaway at Ill. nuclear plant September 7, 2002 CLINTON, Ill. (AP) -- A year ago, Charles and Deborah Bateson may have disregarded a chance to stock up on pills that help block radiation in case of an accident at the nuclear plant near their home.  They were among the first to get the pills Saturday.  "The way the world is right now, you never know what's going to happen," Charles Bateson said.  Hundreds of residents within 15 kilometres of the Clinton nuclear power plant took advantage of a weekend giveaway of potassium iodide pills. The pills can block buildup of one type of radiation in the thyroid gland, but do not guard against other radiation.  Clinton-area residents are the first in Illinois to be offered the pills by the state Department of Nuclear Safety. The agency later plans to offer potassium iodide to residents near Illinois' five other working nuclear plants.  DNS spokeswoman Patti Thompson said the giveaway allows the department to address safety and emergency concerns.  Since Sept. 11, federal nuclear regulators have made potassium iodide available to the 33 states with nuclear plants; three other states have distributed pills to those who live in the shadow of nuclear plants. In those states, officials say, between 10 and 34 per cent of those eligible chose to stockpile the medication.  On the Net:  Department of Nuclear Safety: http://www.state.il.us/idns/ Copyright [http://www.canoe.ca/copyright.html] © 2002, CANOE, a ***************************************************************** 28 Day-cares not included in TMI evacuation plan LancasterOnline.com Friday, September 6 By Ad Crable New Era Staff Writer If there were an emergency evacuation because of an accident at the Three Mile Island or Peach Bottom nuclear plants, would area day-care centers and nursery schools be able to whisk children to safety? Currently, those facilities within the 10-mile emergency planning zone around the plants aren't required to have evacuation plans. Some might have them, but they're not required, officials confirmed today. A Cumberland County father and the Three Mile Island Alert anti-nuclear group want to change what they see as a dangerous oversight. "It's just real common sense and logic," says Eric Epstein of TMI Alert, which filed a petition for rulemaking Thursday with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The petition asks the NRC to include day-care centers and nursery schools in formal emergency evacuation planning for all 103 operating nuclear plants in the United States. The petition's author is Lawrence Christian, a Cumberland County father with two children in nursery schools near TMI. "Since 1980, emergency preparedness plans were supposed to adequately protect the public health and safety by providing reasonable assurance that appropriate measures would be taken off-site in the event of a radiological emergency," Christian said. "Yet day-care centers and nursery schools have been left out of these requirements for 22 years," he said. Such facilities within the planning zone of TMI in northwestern Lancaster County and in Solanco near Peach Bottom may or may not have evacuation plans in place, said Phil Colvin, deputy director of the Lancaster County Emergency Management Agency. But he confirmed they are not required by the state Department of Public Welfare, which manages the facilities. "They have a fire drill plan but are not required to have a comprehensive plan that includes all hazards, such as (nuclear) plant evacuation routes. Some of them may very well have them in place, but they are not required to." In contrast, public schools are required to have detailed plans where students would be taken in a nuclear plant emergency, how they would get there and how parents would be notified so they could pick up their children, Colvin said. Of the effort to require day-care and nursery facilities to have nuclear evacuation plans, Colvin said, "It probably wouldn't hurt." He added that county emergency officials have long encouraged nursery schools and day-care centers to come up with such plans. Epstein said that "Federal regulations are needed to address existing gaps and provide a reasonable measure of care and planning for our most vulnerable populations." Diane Screnci, a spokeswoman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said the agency would review the petition and act on it. Emergency evacuation plans are spelled out jointly by the NRC and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Lancaster County municipalities that fall within the 10-mile emergency evacuation zone of TMI include Elizabethtown Borough and East Donegal, West Donegal, Mount Joy and Conoy townships. In southern Lancaster County, Quarryville Borough, and Drumore, East Drumore, Fulton and Little Britain townships, as well as parts of Martic and Providence townships fall within the evacuation zone from the Peach Bottom plant. ©2001 Lancaster Newspapers, Inc. ***************************************************************** 29 Journalists Smuggle Depleted Uranium Into New York FOXNews.com Friday, September 06, 2002 NEW YORK — While some news organizations have tried to sneak material through airport screeners, ABC News thought bigger: the network smuggled depleted uranium into New York. ABC conducted its operation to test how authorities are guarding against the possibility of a nuclear "dirty bomb" attack. Correspondent Brian Ross' investigation will air as part of ABC's Sept. 11 anniversary coverage next week. Federal authorities are angry that they've had to spend time on ABC's experiment. "The U.S. Customs Service is engaged in a deadly serious business," said its spokesman, Dean Boyd. "The American public wants us to focus on real threats, not fake ones." The story comes amidst controversy over stories in the New York Daily News and on CBS this week about how journalists tried to test airport security by trying to pass items that should have set off alarms. ABC said it borrowed 15 pounds of depleted uranium from an environmental group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, to send on its journey. The network said it consulted with experts to make sure it was safe; the Customs Service said such material has less radiation than a typical chest X-ray. Ross carried it by train from Austria to Istanbul, Turkey. The contents clearly marked, it was packed in a container with wooden horse carts and terra cotta vases and shipped overseas to New York. Through it all, the uranium went undetected. "Seven countries, 25 days and 15 pounds of uranium," Ross said, "and not a single question." The network was careful to obey all laws, federal and international, he said. The route and manner of transport followed a path outlined in court documents by an Osama bin Laden associate, who was investigated for his role in a plot to smuggle nuclear material, he said. "One of our big concerns going into this was that we didn't want to teach terrorists something they didn't already know," he said. ABC sent the container from Istanbul, a known smuggler's hotbed, to an address that had never received overseas shipping before because, in both cases, that should have made authorities suspicious, he said. ABC and Customs differ on how authorities responded to a potential threat. Of 1,139 containers on the vessel, the ABC package was one of fewer than a dozen identified for closer inspection before the ship even reached port, Boyd said. It was inspected by X-ray equipment and a separate device that tests for radiation and was found to pose no threat, he said. Ross said, however, that the suitcase of depleted uranium would emit about the same radiation as live uranium would if it had been shielded in a lead-lined case. The container should have been opened and checked, he said. "They missed it," he said. "They could say that it was no danger, which is true because we made sure there was no danger. But I think that misses the point." Boyd insisted inspectors have ways to determine without opening the container whether the uranium was live or not. "It was a fake threat that we were forced to divert resources and manpower to address," he said. Responded Paul Friedman, executive vice president of ABC News: "When did they divert any resources? They didn't catch a thing." Friedman said the press plays an important role in testing how well government is protecting its citizens. [comments@foxnews.com] ©Associated Press. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 30 Nuclear Waste Storage - CDI Russia Weekly #221 The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists http://www.thebulletin.org/ September/October 2002 Minatom: The Grab for Trash By Paul Webster (webster@co.ru [webster@co.ru] ) Paul Webster, a journalist who has reported on nuclear issues in Canada, France, Russia, Ukraine, and the United States, is currently based in Moscow. Of all of Siberia's far-flung nuclear cities, Krasnoyarsk-a gritty industrial hub 1,500 miles east of Moscow-holds pride of plapreeminent nuclear town. Surrounded by a maze of uranium mines, a massive under-ground plutonium plant, the country's largest spent-fuel storage facility, a large uranium enrichment plant, and two spent fuel-reprocessing plants, Krasnoyarsk is nuclear to its core. Stalin chose this remote city as a nuclear center in 1950. Ever since, its fate has been inextricably tied to the labyrinthian Moscow office block near the Kremlin that was home to the Soviet, now Russian, Ministry of Atomic Energy (Minatom). Two years ago, when Minatom officials put Krasnoyarsk at the center of a bold, $20 billion plan to reprocess spent nuclear fuel imported from around the world, few in the city were surprised-and, after years of starvation wages at nuclear plants impoverished after the Soviet collapse, most were relieved. When a petition signed by millions that called for a referendum on Minatom's plan to import and reprocess spent fuel was rejected by the courts early last year, people in Krasnoyarsk started believing that the local nuclear plants might really be on the verge of a major comeback. Once the plan was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin last July, Minatom moved quickly, pursuing contracts to import spent fuel from across the former Soviet Union and opening talks with Britain and Finland. According to Minatom, these early contracts are merely the prelude to the big prize-contracts to take in the 33,000 metric tons of U.S.-origin spent fuel piled up in Brazil, the Czech Republic, India, Japan, Mexico, Slovenia, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the European Union. This spent fuel, which the United States originally pledged to take back, is still governed by a 1954 U.S. nonproliferation law. But taking back all this waste is no longer politically feasible in the United States. Having conquered Moscow, Min-atom is now marching on Washing-ton. And opinions at the State and Energy Departments suggest that its overtures are not unwelcome, despite objections centering on the lack of a "peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement" between the United States and Russia. "We are in favor of trying to see if the conditions can be met," Alex Burkart, deputy director of the State Department's Office of Nuclear Energy Affairs, says about the possibility of sending U.S.-origin spent fuel to Russia. "There are no naysayers here." U.S. nuclear programs in Russia are already spending millions of dollars on research in preparation for what could be the only politically acceptable solution to America's international nuclear waste problem. "The notion is taken seriously," Burkart says. "Generally, it's a good idea." As the word has spread, however, that the United States controls more than 85 percent of the world's spent fuel, and therefore the terms of Min-atom's spent fuel plan will be dictated not in Moscow, but in Washington, views have shifted in Krasnoyarsk. In a remarkable twist that reveals as much about the persistence of the Cold War mentality in Russia's nuclear heartland as it does about environmental logic, Krasnoyarsk has become the rallying point for opposition across Russia to Minatom's grand grab for dominance in the global spent fuel market. "Lots of people in Krasnoyarsk have supported importing spent fuel if it makes money," explains Vladimir Sliyvak, a leading national critic of Minatom's spent fuel plan. "But as it becomes better known that Minatom needs the U.S.-owned material to really make money, things are changing. Because when you ask the people who support Minatom' plan whether they'd accept American nuclear imports, they utterly reject it. After helping build the Soviet nuclear shield through the Cold War, people in Krasnoyarsk can't accept that." IN DECEMBER 2000, MORE THAN 150 environmental groups-led by activists in Krasnoyarsk, Moscow, and Washington-petitioned the State Department to block plans to ship U.S.-origin spent fuel to Russia. Last fall in Krasnoyarsk, 40,000 people followed up on this request with a petition calling for a regional plebiscite on Minatom's plans. When that died in court in February-on the same signature-counting technicality that defeated the national petition last year-hundreds of protesters denouncing Minatom's import plan marched along the frigid rail from town to the gates of the Minatom reprocessing plant. Sympathet-ic rallies were held on the trans-Siberian railway line in Novosibirsk, where protesters symbolically focused on Minatom's intention to use the world-famous railway to ship spent U.S.-origin nuclear fuel from Pacific-rim nations. In Krasnoyarsk, Minatom's opponents posted a key U.S. study promoting their region for a geologic repository site for U.S.-origin fuel on their web site. Vladimir Mikheev, leader of the Krasnoyarsk group protesting Min-atom's plans, notes that Minatom intends to build a 33,000-metric-ton dry storage facility for spent nuclear fuel-exactly the size needed to handle the U.S.-origin inventory. Mikheev says the Siberian campaign will intensify this June. "We plan major protests near the reprocessing facility," he says. Despite the tension in Krasnoyarsk, in Moscow Minatom's focus remains intently fixed on Washington. So far, the State Department has cited two fundamental obstacles to approving spent fuel export contracts with Russia. First, says Burkart of the State Department's Office of Nuclear Energy Affairs, plutonium proliferation concerns preclude U.S. acceptance of any plan to reprocess U.S.-origin spent fuel. Second, Minatom's dealings with Iran, where Russians are building a power plant at Bushehr, which the United States alleges is connected to a weapons program, are a major "tripping point." Minatom spokesman Yuri Bespalko says that conditions are not yet ripe to overcome U.S. objections. But, he says, the ministry will eventually succeed. In a meeting with Russian environmental groups in early April, Min-atom head Alexander Rumyantsev said the new war on terrorism shows the importance of Minatom's plan to import U.S.-origin fuel. Rumyantsev said he renewed negotiations with U.S. officials after September 11 by arguing that Minatom needs funds from spent fuel contracts to improve the protection of its facilities against terrorists. Foreign Minister Sergei Ivanov, who is also working to win spent fuel contracts, recently reassured Washington that Minatom's exports to Iran are for peaceful purposes. Beyond lobbying, Minatom has moved to overcome State Department opposition by bolstering nuclear co-operation and by offering a moratorium on reprocessing U.S.-origin spent fuel imports. The moratorium offer was easy; in any case, Minatom's plan calls for spent fuel to be stored for 30 years before reprocessing. But Russian critics of the plan pounced on the moratorium offer as evidence that the program was merely a dumping plan in disguise, intended to persuade the Russian law-makers who overwhelmingly voted to support it last year that it represents a massively profitable venture into international reprocessing rather than a politically unpalatable dumping plan. Vladimir Kuznetsov, a nuclear engineer who left the Russian nuclear regulatory agency GAN to join Mikhail Gorbachev's Green Cross environmental group, says he opposes spent fuel reprocessing because of the sizable radioactive waste byproducts it creates. But he thinks Minatom may have no intention of reprocessing anyway. "Minatom says its plan is to store imported spent fuel for 30 years, then reprocess it. But these people won't be running the operation 30 years from now. This stuff could all quite easily end up in a permanent repository here." Indicating it might indeed offer permanent guarantees that spent fuel will not be reprocessed, Minatom is also researching the development of a permanent geological facility near Krasnoyarsk. And Minatom has suggested that U.S. policy-makers should recognize that a Russian solution to the U.S.-origin spent fuel problem would repay the billions invested by U.S. agencies in Russian nuclear security over the last decade. In return, U.S. agencies have done much more than offer encouraging words for Minatom's effort. As part of a program born out of the U.S.-Russian Excess Weapons Plutonium Disposition Program, the Energy Department has been helping to fund Russia's geological repository investigation since 1995. Thanks to a prolific collaboration between Les Jardine of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Tatiana Gupalo of the All-Russian Research and Design Institute of Production Engineering (Vnipipt) in Moscow, Energy has helped produce numerous studies that expand the very substantial research base already created by Soviet investigators. While the first U.S.-Russian studies focused on geologic disposal of plutonium-containing materials and immobilized plutonium waste forms, between 1996 and 2001 a series of four Energy-funded studies looked at aspects of plutonium migrations, other radionuclide migrations, engineered barrier materials, and com-puter modeling approaches. Recent experiments tested radionuclide and plutonium migration in un-derground rock at facilities in Krasnoyarsk, using plutonium encased in glass along with other fission prod-ucts and a simulated engineered barrier. Another Livermore-Vnipipt contract produced an integrated plan for developing Russian geologic reposi-tories at two sites near Krasnoyarsk and Mayak. A Livermore contract with the Khlopin Radium Institute in St. Petersburg researched the geological plan for the Krasnoyarsk site. According to Jardine, the final reports from these studies were approved by Minatom and represent the "current approved Minatom plan for developing geologic repositories in Russia at these two sites." All that's needed to get started on building a facility, Jardine suggests, is a legal charter from the Russian government and the necessary funds. According to a feasibility study that Jardine prepared for the Energy Department in 2000, if the U.S.-origin spent fuel in Taiwan were disposed of in Russia, the billions Taiwan has in reserve for its disposition would pay for building the repository. As Energy's recent statement of de-cision on the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada emphasizes, the department is keen to see Russia build a repository as well. Energy Secretary Abraham described Yucca Mountain as "an important signal to other nuclear countries." He added, "We can't expect them to site a facility if we, with more resources, won't." Jim Werner, until last year director of the Office of Long-Term Stewardship in the department's environmental management program, says Energy knows too well that repatriating U.S.-origin spent fuel would be next to impossible. Enthusiasm about a Russian geologic repository, in tandem with evidence of support within the department for Minatom's offer to accept U.S.-origin spent fuel, can be partly explained by Energy's experience with the bitterly contested 1993 plan to repatriate U.S.-owned spent fuel from foreign research reactors. Although that reactor fuel was considerably more dangerous from a proliferation point of view, Energy still faced bitter opposition when the department decided to bring it home, says Werner. "Little did I know how complicated it would be," Werner says of his ultimately successful five-year effort to overcome opposition. That's a point the State Department also keeps in mind, says Alex Burkart. "We cannot expect to see the United States giving consideration to taking irradiated U.S.-origin fuel supplied for electricity generation back for storage and disposition, of spent fuel into Russia. Twenty billion dollars in income. The U.S. owns 90 percent of it. There's a bunch of land mines there." SEIZING ON JARDINE'S FEASIBILITY study as evidence of a U.S. plan to dump spent fuel, environmentalists in Krasnoyarsk translated it into Russian and posted it on their Website. According to Vladimir Mikheev, head of the Citizen Center On Nuclear Non-Proliferation in Krasnoyarsk, Jardine's work provides key evidence of the danger his group warns against. "The United States would like to use Krasnoyarsk to solve its foreign nuclear waste problems," he says. "And as far as we can tell, Minatom will happily oblige." One U.S. non-governmental organization promoting the idea of a Russian solution for U.S.-origin spent fuel got a sense of the emotions surrounding the issue recently when its concept was greeted with angry reactions in both countries. That plan, developed by Tom Cochran, a physicist at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, D.C., is known as the "Non Proliferation Trust." Cochran proposes that Russia store 10,000 metric tons of spent fuel from nuclear reactors worldwide for 40 years, at a price of $1.5 million per metric ton of fuel. The money would be held by the Trust, and be used to "finance a future geologic repository in Russia to permanently house the spent fuel rods." Although enthusiasm for Cochran's idea has waned in Washington since the State Department raised concerns about Minatom's reprocessing program and its dealings with Iran, Cochran argues that the Trust proposal "is consistent with the State Department's position" on nonproliferation questions. "The principal obstacle is not a reprocessing moratorium," which Minatom will agree to, he says, "but Russia's cooperation with Iran on nuclear matters." RESEARCH ON A GEOLOGICAL repository is by no means Energy's only program in harmony with Minatom's push to store U.S.-origin spent fuel. Energy's $419 million request for nuclear programs in the former Soviet Union next year increases funding for a multitude of programs delivering invaluable insight into, and influence within, the still-secretive Russian nuclear industry. While continued U.S. funding for Russian geological repository research was not included in next year's budget request, Energy has substantially in-creased funding for a program to repatriate highly enriched uranium from Russian-supplied research reactors around the world, boosted a program securing Russian nuclear fuel sites, and generously expanded programs to consolidate and enhance the physical security of other Russian nuclear material sites. Vast infusions of funds, year after year, have given Energy remarkable power and reach across a wide spectrum of program areas in which the United States is testing its confidence in Minatom as a business partner. Like Energy, the Defense and State Departments, which together requested $537 million for nuclear programs in the former Soviet Union next year, also have important programs that dovetail with Minatom's push to import U.S.-origin spent fuel. These programs principally focus on Minatom's need to improve nuclear transportation and border controls. For 2003, Defense has re-quested $19.7 million for a Nuclear Weapons Transportation Security program to help move nuclear weapons from Russian defense sites to Minatom facilities. In 2001, Defense funded 53 nuclear warhead rail shipments and paid for the maintenance of 79 Russian railcars and specialized emergency response vehicles. For 2003, Defense and State have re-quested $57.4 million for programs to enhance nuclear safety around Russia's borders. Seen as a whole, the Defense and Energy Departments are engaged in an impressive array of programs that could have big spin-off impacts in helping make Russia safe for American spent-fuel imports. Leonard Spector, who served as deputy assistant secretary of energy for arms control and nonproliferation until 2001, says that Energy followed the progress of the Minatom plan into law very closely. Once Russia was ready to do business, "We were prepared to support the legal steps necessary to permit U.S.-origin spent fuel to be imported," he says. According to Spector, the hope was that the prospect of winning the U.S. spent fuel business would make Minatom see the wisdom of U.S. op-position to reprocessing and Russia's exports to Iran. "Our principal hope was that the revenue potential of the initiative would lead Russia to give up nuclear dealings with Iran. The fact that spent fuel might be taken from politically sensitive areas, such as Taiwan, was also appreciated," Spector says of Energy's policy through the Clinton era."Regarding ultimate disposition, we began talks aimed at seeing whether joint research on geologic disposal would be mutually beneficial. So, we were definitely thinking about this approach." Overcoming Minatom's reprocessing strategy through a permanent geologic repository in Russia, however, is only half the problem facing proponents of U.S.-spent fuel exports. The State Department's insistence on signing a nuclear cooperation agreement is another story. And the hardening of the U.S. position on Iran after the September 11 attacks was something Minatom obviously couldn't have foreseen. For Minatom to overcome U.S. objections to its exports to Iran, it will have to back away from current discussions about building a second reactor, and wait for history to intervene. In a business with timelines notched by the decade, Minatom may calculate that a regime change in Iran will sooner or later pave the way for the agreement it needs before U.S.-origin spent fuel can be imported. In the meantime, many Russian nonproliferation experts believe that U.S. objections based on exports to Iran are unfair. Vladimir Orlov, director of Moscow's PIR Center for Policy Studies, a nonproliferation think tank funded by U.S. foundations, argues that "strict compliance with the nonproliferation regime does not preclude Minatom's nuclear export activities." In Orlov's view, "There is no reason why Russia should not proceed with the Bushehr plant in Iran." In a major report urging the United States to expand nuclear relations with Russia, Sigfried Hecker, director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory until 1997 and a key architect of nuclear cooperation with Russia after the Soviet collapse, argues that while differences over Russian ex-ports including missile technology and the Bushehr reactor have created friction, more recently Russia has made important moves addressing State Department concerns. Export control laws have been tightened considerably, Hecker notes, and Minatom officials and Russian specialists have promoted greater collaboration on proliferation risk analysis and nuclear power safety research.Hecker says there is "reason to hope" that recently appointed Min-atom head Alexander Rumyantsev "will be more attuned to U.S. concerns in this realm" than were his predecessors, Viktor Mikhailov and Yevgeni Adamov. According to Hecker "Russia will most likely pursue its own development of nuclear power and expand its exports regardless" of U.S. demands. But, he says, U.S. control over much of the spent fuel Russia wants to import gives the United States "significant leverage." Hecker recommends a joint technical evaluation of Minatom's offer to accept U.S-origin fuel. Aware that its missile and nuclear deals with Iran are denying it a potentially huge financial windfall, the Russian government is using diplomatic pressure to urge the State Department to accept that its nuclear involvement with Iran is peaceful. Foreign Minister Ivanov has repeatedly urged the United States to re-member that Russia is far closer to Iran than the United States, and that the power plant Russia is building there closely resembles the plant that the United States, Japan, and South Korea are building in North Korea. Although North Korea, unlike Iran, pledged to abandon nuclear weapons development in return for foreign nuclear assistance, Minatom spokesman Bespalko points out that Iran is a long-time member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and therefore subject to international proliferation controls. "We are sure Iran's nuclear program is peaceful," he says. He also points out that as an IAEA member, "Iran is not obliged to give further guarantees concerning weapons proliferation." According to Minatom, sending U.S.-origin spent fuel to Russia would benefit international nonproliferation efforts. "We are trying to convince them that it's better to have this material under international control in Russia," Bespalko says, in an echo of the Non Proliferation Trust's thesis, "than it is to have it scattered around the world." Confident that sooner or later it will succeed, Minatom seems to be banking on a deal with Taiwan, where, says Jardine, storage space will run out in 2007. According to a series of documents leaked to Minatom's Russian critics, the Russian parliament is being lobbied to okay the importation of low-level waste from Taiwan. Bespalko confirms that Taiwan is an early candidate to sign the first contract. AS AWARENESS GROWS IN Krasnoyarsk that this seemingly remote region is at the center of a global plan that would lay some of the most troubling U.S. nuclear ghosts to rest while refinancing the Russian nuclear industry, observers like Vladimir Mikheev say they'll fight Minatom every step of the way. Indeed, Minatom's very first success in promoting its plan is still contested. Russian environmentalists continue to protest the Central Election Commission's rejection of the petition they presented bearing 2.5 million signatures calling for a national referendum on Minatom's plan in late 2000. Environmentalists have appealed that decision to the European Court of Human Rights, and they expect hearings to begin next year. Minatom's opponents say they will also appeal the rejection of the petition signed by 40,000 in Krasnoyarsk on similar grounds by a regional court last winter. In the end though, and perhaps rather surprisingly for observers who watched President Putin sign Minatom's plan into law last summer, U.S. spent-fuel imports may face the toughest scrutiny of all in the Kremlin, where Putin's national security advisers two years ago tucked a blunt expression of concern about Minatom's import plan into Russia's National Security Concept, a major policy document released by the government shortly after Putin took office. Among the numerous threats Russia faces, the president's advisers warned, along with terrorism, separatism, and foreign encroachment, is one tellingly specific environmental threat. "There is a trend for Russia to be used as a place for reprocessing and burying environmentally dangerous materials and substances," they said. An updated version of the National Security Concept is expected soon. People on both sides of Krasnoyarsk's nuclear divide will be watching carefully for revisions. CENTER FOR DEFENSE INFORMATION 1779 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20036-2109 Ph: (202) 332-0600 · Fax: (202) 462-4559 ***************************************************************** 31 Yucca: Over the fence September 8, 2002 [online@rgj.com] Q: Ignoring Yucca Mountain’s location in Nevada, is deep burial the best solution for disposal of nuclear power plant waste, or is there a better solution? The United States is the only nuclear power producer that is storing and attempting to bury its nuclear waste. All of the other main nuclear power producing countries, such as France, reprocess and reuse their nuclear waste. Why don’t we? The technology is available, but it would add costs. The nuclear industry would rather Americans think of nuclear power as clean and cheap. In truth, it is neither. Nuclear energy isn’t clean. It’s a source of carbon dioxide pollution (the main cause of global warming). Without reprocessing, it’s also a source of everlasting toxic waste. Nuclear energy isn’t cheap. It doesn’t pay its own way, as it doesn’t charge its customers the full cost of generating power. All U.S. citizens heavily subsidize it whether or not we have nuclear plants in our state. If the industry would follow Europe’s lead in reprocessing and reusing fuel, it would go a long way towards pulling its own weight. Janice Flanagan is a retired businesswoman and a Reno resident. Very deep and very secure storage is ideal for nuclear waste. That said, a perfect site without geological faults has yet to be found and nuclear waste should not be placed or disposed in an area where there is the slightest chance of mishap. Coupled to any disposal area is the danger in transporting the waste over roads, rails, or water. We’ve seen and read far too many stories about accidents to be comfortable in the knowledge that some of the world’s most potent material is waiting to travel. An alternative to Yucca Mountain and other quasi-secured repositories is the positioning of nuclear waste on one of the U.S. islands in the Pacific. Johnston Atoll, about one square mile in area, is under the control of the Defense Nuclear Agency, is fairly remote and sparsely populated. While the hazards of transporting the waste would still exist, more direct routes from the source to the port of embarkation could provide limitations on the danger. Whichever way the government chooses, there is no fail-safe solution to this predicament. Sam Curry is a retired U.S. Navy captain who served 34 years and a Reno resident. As a non-scientist I believe the answer would be “yes,” although we will apparently be treated to a variety of expert witnesses in the future as Nevada prepares to sue the federal government to prevent shipment of green-glowing materials to Yucca Mountain. Integrity of the container appears to be the key to containing leaks. Deep submergence in the ocean and surface storage would both seem to pose a danger of eroding and corroding the container. Deep burial would seem to be preferable but I look forward to the court testimony of scientists. Jim Clark is a businessman and Incline Village resident. Deep burial offers various advantages and certainly is preferable to doing nothing. The radioactive pollution, which occurred after the Chernobyl disaster, was the result of wind dispersal. Underground storage reduces those risks. Most scientists are concerned about the migration of nuclear pollution in ground water, as has happened at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington, contaminating the Columbia River. For deep burial of waste to be secure, measures must be taken against ground water movements. Of course, ground water, along with seismic movement, is universal across North America. Such problems exist wherever the site and whatever the method. Any waste repository must gauge these tradeoffs. There is something to be said for siting such facilities in deserts such as the Great Basin with an internal drainage. While transportation contains an element of risk, the process of organizing the waste for transportation and storage is an inevitable step in cleaning up. Most Superfund sites are cleaned up in this manner. Anyone who has moved a household can attest to the organizing value of a move. The alternative, doing nothing, is a formula for entropy, disorganization and widespread dispersal of pollutants. Frank Patten is a former government employee and a Reno native. First, let’s find a way to recycle the stuff. Second, keep it buried by the plants that use the stuff. Finally, how about sending it into space on the shuttles and send it towards the sun? That would seem to give more money to the space agency? Gene Newhall works for a local tour bus company and is a Sparks resident. © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett ***************************************************************** 32 Utah's Waste Lands: Where Hazardous Materials Are Stored, Disposed, Emitted The Salt Lake Tribune -- Sunday, September 8, 2002 1. Name: Utah Test and Training Range Owner: U.S. Defense Department What's there: Thousands of tons of bombs, missiles, artillery shells, both exploded and unexploded. 2. Name: Dugway Proving Ground Owner: U.S. Defense Department What's there: Laboratories to test defenses to chemical and biological agents, including the germs that cause anthrax and bubonic plague. 3. Name: Grassy Mountain landfill Owner: Safety-Kleen Corp., Columbia, S.C. What's there: Hazardous wastes, such as pesticides and PCBs, buried in "cells" lined with several layers of low-permeable plastic. 4. Name: Clive incinerator Owner: Safety-Kleen Inc. What's there: Former hazardous-waste incinerator, now dismantled. Site is a temporary storage facility for hazardous wastes bound for nearby disposal facilities. 5. (Photo not available) Name: Vitro tailings landfill Owner: U.S. Department of Energy What's there: Low-level radioactive tailings from former Vitro uranium mill in South Salt Lake 6. Name: Envirocare of Utah landfill Owner: Khosrow Semnani, Salt Lake City What's there: Millions of tons of low-level radioactive wastes, mostly soils, and radioactive wastes also tainted by hazardous chemicals. 7. Name: Aragonite incinerator Owner: Safety-Kleen Inc. What's there: An incinerator that annually burns about 50,000 tons of hazardous chemicals such as PCBs and solvents. 8. Name: MagCorp Owner: Ira Rennert, New York What's there: A factory that produces magnesium from the Great Salt Lake, emits large quantities of chlorine and small amounts of dioxin. 9. Name: Goshute-PFS project Owners: Skull Valley Band of Goshutes; Private Fuel Storage What's there: Proposed temporary storage site for up to 40,000 metric tons of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel. 10. Name: Deseret Chemical Depot Owner: U.S. Defense Department What's there: An incinerator to dispose of nation's largest stockpile of munitions filled with nerve and mustard gas. © Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on Utah OnLine is ***************************************************************** 33 This Is The Place For Waste The Salt Lake Tribune -- Sunday, September 8, 2002 BY BRENT ISRAELSEN SKULL VALLEY -- Venturing through this dry, mostly barren place, visitors might think they are in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a vast wasteland. They would be only partially correct. Skull Valley is not nowhere. It is home to a tiny band of Goshute Indians. But their reservation is in the middle of a wasteland. Within a 30-mile radius of Skull Valley is a bombing range, a testing ground for chemical and biological defense, a chemical-weapons incinerator, a hazardous-waste landfill, a low-level radioactive waste landfill, two hazardous-waste incinerators and a magnesium plant that is among the nation's biggest air polluters. Led by tribal Chairman Leon Bear, the Goshutes hope to become part of this toxic industrial complex with a proposal that would bring much of the nation's high-level nuclear power plant waste to Skull Valley. The proposal, designed and backed by a consortium of out-of-state utilities known as Private Fuel Storage (PFS), is fiercely contested by the state, with Gov. Mike Leavitt taking an "over my dead body" posture. Truth be known, Utah has in the past willingly partnered with the nation's nuclear and military complex. Utah leaders embraced the Department of Defense when it set up shop during World War II and the Cold War and later encouraged waste-related and polluting enterprises in Tooele County, giving the rest of the nation the impression that this is the place for waste. An examination of modern history in Tooele County shows an evolution of events and policies that makes the Goshute initiative appear perfectly natural. When Brigham Young declared the Salt Lake Valley "the right place" for the new Mormon Zion, several thousand Goshute Indians roamed about 7 million acres of the Great Basin to the west, hunting and gathering food in a series of valleys and mountain ranges. As Mormon settlers moved into what is now Tooele County, the Goshutes, having already survived frequent raids by slave traders serving Spanish markets in New Mexico and California, began feeling a major squeeze on their delicately balanced way of life. The settlers diverted streams for agriculture, turned livestock onto the range and cut down trees for lumber. The "spread of Mormons throughout the region . . . had a pronounced effect on the Indians," wrote Dennis Defa in A History of Utah's Native Americans. Trails to California and the transcontinental railroad further fragmented the Goshute lands, leading to armed conflict and a marginalization of the Indians. Eventually, they were confined to two reservations. The Confederated Tribe of the Goshutes occupies a 412,000-acre reservation near the Utah-Nevada border at Ibapah. The Skull Valley Band's land totals 18,000 acres. The plight of the Goshutes was noted by a mid-19th-century writer, who called them "the wretchedest type of mankind" inhabiting "one of the most . . . repulsive wastes that our country or any other can exhibit." By "repulsive wastes," of course, Mark Twain was referring to the harsh landscape. As time went on, and non-Indians began heaping all manner of dangerous material into a desert that once sustained an American Indian culture, the term would take a more literal meaning. Of Guns and Germs: A year after the United States was thrust into World War II, President Roosevelt deeded 127,000 acres of land around Dugway to the War Department for weapons testing. Dugway Proving Ground's mission quickly expanded to include chemical and biological weapons. For the past 60 years, Dugway, 10 miles southwest of Skull Valley, has played host to the nation's top biologists and chemists, who have conducted thousands of classified experiments. The experiments sometimes have involved animal and human subjects. And sometimes, they have gone awry. In 1968, for example, a fighter jet sprayed nerve gas that drifted onto a nearby grazing allotment, killing 6,000 sheep within days. The military quietly gathered the carcasses and buried some of them in Skull Valley, without the tribe's permission. Dugway continues to play a key role today in the nation's defense against biological and chemical attack. Dozens of deadly microbes, including the germs that cause anthrax and the plague, are stored in the facility's laboratories. To the north and west of Dugway, millions of acres of federal lands were designated bombing ranges for air-to-ground combat practice and medium-range missile launches. Each year, millions of rounds of ordnance are fired into the desert, mostly from jet fighters based at Hill Air Force Base, northern Utah's biggest employer. As the nuclear-arms race with the Soviet Union reached a crescendo in the 1970s, the Defense Department proposed locating the MX program, a network of underground intercontinental ballistic missiles in western Utah. The proposal died after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints publicly opposed it. But in the chemical-arms race, about 42 percent of the nation's stockpile -- more than enough to kill every human on the planet -- was stored in bunkers at the Army's Deseret Chemical Depot, about 15 miles southeast of Skull Valley. Munitions filled with nerve and mustard agent are now being destroyed in a controversial incinerator that has been plagued with technical difficulties, including a handful of small accidental releases that have exposed workers and the environment to nerve gas. Farther south, Utah reaped the benefits of numerous uranium mines and mills, which fed the nuclear-weapons program in neighboring southern Nevada. While state officials later decried above-ground nuclear testing when it was discovered to be a likely cause of cancer in southern Utah, the state has been relatively quiet in its criticism of what has occurred in the basins and ranges of Tooele County. "That was in an era when we were pretty poor and desperate for revenue and jobs. We welcomed" military activity, says Chip Ward, an activist from Grantsville and author of Canaries on the Rim, an environmental history of Utah's western desert. Milking the Magnesium: In Tooele County, the military use of the desert for dangerous activities encouraged the private sector to look there for opportunity. In the early 1970s, a group of investors, including the former owner of The Salt Lake Tribune, built a magnesium plant on the southwestern shore of the Great Salt Lake, about 25 miles north of Skull Valley. Far from heavily populated areas, the site was perfect for a "dirty" industry that extracted magnesium from the briny waters of the nation's largest inland sea. The plant, which came to be known as MagCorp, spews copious quantities of chlorine into the air and lands frequently at the top of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's list of air polluters. In the late 1990s, the EPA also discovered the plant was emitting dioxin, a highly carcinogenic compound. MagCorp (reborn as U.S. Magnesium) has begun cleaning up its chlorine and dioxin emissions, but bankruptcy and a recent reorganization have put those efforts into question. DOE Cleans Up: From 1951 to 1968, a uranium processing plant known as the Vitro mill operated near what is now 3300 South and Interstate 15. In the 1970s, as suburbia approached, the abandoned mill site's tailings became a health and environmental risk. Under pressure from the state and Salt Lake County governments, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) decided to remove the tailings. The state's suggested destination was Clive, about 55 miles west of Salt Lake City, and about 15 miles northwest of Skull Valley. The state viewed the western desert, with its low precipitation and distance from water sources and population centers, as an ideal place for dangerous materials. "What really brought [the hazardous waste industry] to Tooele County was the state," says county planner Nicole Cline, who is compiling a history of the county's waste industry. "Tooele County didn't want Vitro waste out here. The state did quite a bit to get [the county] to buy into it." The Vitro tailings project later inspired an enterprising immigrant to capitalize on the nation's newfound interest in disposing of hazardous wastes and cleaning up DOE sites from around the country. One Man's Waste: As Vitro tailings were being entombed at Clive, Khosrow Semnani, a Utah-educated native of Iran, opened a hazardous-waste landfill at Grassy Mountain, about eight miles north, on the other side of Interstate 80. The landfill disposed of nonradioactive chemicals. such as paint and pesticides. too dangerous to be disposed of in city dumps. He later sold the facility to U.S. Pollution Control Inc. (USPCI), which subsequently built a hazardous-waste incinerator near Clive to compete with one that Westinghouse had built at Aragonite, about 10 miles away. (The incinerator at Clive closed in 1997 for lack of business.) A few years after the Vitro project was completed, Semnani purchased lands surrounding the disposal site and sought state and federal licenses to develop a commercial landfill that would accept similar radioactive wastes. He named his operation Envirocare of Utah, which began accepting wastes in 1988. Today, Envirocare is the largest private disposal site in the country for low-level radioactive wastes and "mixed wastes," such as soils tainted by both radiation and hazardous chemicals. It has been highly profitable, both to Semnani and to Tooele County, which reaps 5 percent of the Envirocare's gross revenues, last year estimated around $120 million. Laidlaw, which owned the Grassy Mountain landfill in the late 1990s, tried to compete with Envirocare for low-level radioactive waste disposal but was rebuffed by the Tooele County Commission, which ruled the market could not support two such facilities. Semnani, one of the most active players on the Utah political campaign-finance scene, has sought to expand his business to include "hotter" low-level wastes, such as construction material, clothing and tools contaminated by nuclear power generation. Though Tooele County has approved Semnani's latest proposal, the state has put it on hold, mainly out of concern that state support of Semnani's proposal would make its opposition of the Goshute proposal less credible. Meanwhile, the Goshutes: To Bear -- whose tribe has realized few rewards from the Tooele County waste industry and has been prevented by state law from capitalizing on casino gambling -- the state's opposition to the Goshute venture is perplexing. "The [county] has designated [parts of Tooele County] as an industrial waste zone," Bear says. "We've found something that fits in with that designation, and the state doesn't like it." In its urgency to find a place for its waste, the nuclear power industry views Utah's west desert as an ideal site -- much the same way the state viewed Tooele County when it had to rid Salt Lake County of the Vitro tailings. But Leavitt argues that the high-level nuclear waste, which remains dangerous for at least 10,000 years, is significantly more hazardous than anything that has been disposed of before in the western desert. Besides, he says, Utah already has its share of the nation's waste and nuclear fallout and should not be the resting place for spent nuclear fuel the state did not even consume. John Parkyn, chairman of Private Fuel Storage, finds Leavitt's arguments disingenuous, noting Utah's economy has benefitted from mining and processing much of the uranium that has nourished the nuclear industry. Nuclear power, he says, has played a significant role in meeting the nation's demand for electricity, driving the national economy. For decades, residents living near the plants have endured the risks of that power. Now, it is Utah's turn to share the burden, Parkyn says. "We're all in this together." Tribune reporter Judy Fahys contributed to this story. © Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on ***************************************************************** 34 USEC promises 2005 start of gas centrifuge test plant The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Saturday, September 07, 2002 Two years later, construction of an enrichment plant is to begin either in Paducah or Piketon, Ohio. By Joe Walker jwalker@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650 USEC Inc. has told world nuclear industry leaders that in 2005, it will be running a test facility that will lead to starting construction of a gas centrifuge uranium enrichment plant two years later in either Paducah or Piketon, Ohio. Dennis Spurgeon, USEC executive vice president and chief operating officer, told members of the World Nuclear Association on Friday in London that the test plant will showcase improvements in the technology, using centrifugal force to separate useful and non-useful isotopes of uranium for nuclear fuel. He said USEC is confident the technology will be the world's most efficient. The Bethesda, Md.-based firm, which operates the 1,500-employee Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, will spend about $150 million during the next five years on a test plant using as many as 240 machines that previous performance shows will be the most economical in the world, Spurgeon said. "We don't have to develop a new technology; it is already proven ...," he said. "With the lowest unit-cost basis, our technology will yield the best return on investment of any centrifuge being deployed." One of USEC's chief competitors is Urenco, a European consortium that has used gas centrifuge for decades. Urenco leads an American group, Louisiana Energy Services, that is expected to announce next week whether it will build a gas centrifuge plant in Hartsville, Tenn., or Bellefonte, Ala. USEC is racing with LES to deploy the technology, which is far cheaper and more efficient than the outdated diffusion process used at Paducah. USEC is reviewing economic proposals from Kentucky and Ohio for the test plant, and will provide feedback before the two states submit final proposals by Oct. 25. By year's end, USEC will decide whether to build a 50-job test plant in Paducah or Piketon, where it has a closed diffusion plant. By the end of the decade, one of the communities will get a $1.5 billion commercial centrifuge plant requiring about 1,000 construction workers and 500 permanent jobs. Spurgeon told the London gathering that USEC is improving "an already impressive" technology on which the Department of Energy spent $3 billion during more than two decades. Thousands of centrifuge machines were built and operated for thousands of hours at performance levels superior to today's best-installed centrifuge technology, he said. DOE built a centrifuge plant in Piketon but stopped the process in the 1980s just as it was ready for commercial use. At the time, the government opted for a laser-based process called AVLIS that USEC abandoned a few years ago as not cost-efficient. In conjunction with the University of Tennessee and Batelle Corp., USEC is finalizing an agreement for DOE approval to continue centrifuge work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Many of the lab's scientists and engineers who developed the original U.S. centrifuge technology are working on the USEC test-plant program, Spurgeon said. Besides returning to centrifuge, USEC continues investing in SILEX, a laser-based technology developed in Australia. Although SILEX still is in the research and development stage, it has promise as a third-generation technology, Spurgeon said. His London speech is available at www.usec.com. ***************************************************************** 35 Plumsted mayor tours BOMARC cleanup site* By Bob Vosseller September 06, 2002 *Plumsted Mayor Ron Dancer and Deputy Mayor Joseph Przywara felt like they walked back four decades in time as they toured the Boeing Michigan Aeronautical Research Center (BOMARC) on the rainy morning of August 29. The tour involved observing the cleanup operation of the facility which should be complete by early to mid November but the sight of the old facility (one of only eight located around the country and the only one to still remain intact) stirred images of 'Cold War' ghosts and an era long past in United States history. The officials joined area representatives and also joined Col.James Pugh, 305th Air Mobility Wing Vice Commander and Col.Bob Griffin Chief Environmental Programs Division Headquarters Air Mobility. The clean up project at the facility is about 10 percent complete to date. The contractor, Duratek, has passed the first two big milestones, sending off the first shipment and demolishing the shelters. Of the 12,000 cubic yards of soil and 440 cubic yards of building debris originally estimated, approximately 2,000 cubic yards of material have been shipped out in the steel containers (seen in our page one photo) The first shipment left for Envirocare, the disposal facility in Utah on June 25. All three of the contaminated shelters have been demolished and the contractor is now working on the apron, the concrete barrier poured in front of the contaminated shelter to "immobilize" the radioactive alpha particles, and the soil.The concrete apron and foundation of the shelters were thicker than estimated, and have taken longer than expected to remove. "The project has encountered minor delays in t he shipping schedule, but we are optimistic that this won't affect the project in the long run,"Col.Pugh said."All of the delays we've encountered have been typical of a project of this magnitude." Following a briefing at McGuire AFB which recapped the project, guests were bused to the rail station area and later to the BOMARC facility which was closed down in 1972. On June 7, 1960, a fire destroyed a nuclear warhead-equipped missile in Shelter 204 at the facility. Although no nuclear explosion took place, the fire badly damaged the missile and shelter. The accident released plutonium, a radioactive material, into t he environment. Heat from the fire and fire suppression activities aided dispersion of plutonium over a 7-acre area (in front of the shelter, along a drainage ditch and a portion of a drainage creek near Route 539. Assured that all safety measures are in place and that progress has been made for the removal of the material set to conclude during November, Mayor Dancer was in awe of the historic aspects of the facility. "It was like taking a step back in time to the Cold War era of the 1960s. This is the first time I've been here and I've lived in Plumsted Township all my life," the mayor said. The mayor and Deputy Mayor Przywara who also heads the Ocean County Health Department would like to see some effort made in the historic preservation of the site "to preserve a piece of the Cold War. All the other facilities like this across the country have been demolished. It is ironic but if it wasn't for that fire in 1960, this one would probably have been demolished also but it has remained essentially the same for decades." /©New Egypt Press 2002/ ***************************************************************** 36 The Sunflower August 2002 (No. 64) Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2002 11:53:05 -0500 (CDT) The Sunflower Online monthly newsletter of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation September 2002 (No. 64) The Sunflower is a monthly e-newsletter providing educational information on nuclear weapons abolition and other issues relating to global security. Back issues are available at I N T H I S I S S U E PERSPECTIVE WAR ON IRAQ NUCLEAR SECURITY MISSILES & MISSILE DEFENSE NUCLEAR MATTERS NUCLEAR WASTE NUCLEAR INSANITY ARMS SALES FOUNDATION NEWS RESOURCES QUOTABLE ************ PERSPECTIVE ************ Looking Back on September 11th By David Krieger As we approach the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, it is worth reflecting on how little has been accomplished and how much has been lost in the past year. We have demonstrated that our military machine is powerful and can smash poor countries farther back into the stone age, but we are not capable of finding Osama bin Laden, nor of putting an end to terrorism. We have demonstrated that civil liberties can be curtailed in the effort to combat terrorism, but our airports seem no safer today than they were on the day of the terrorist attacks. We have an administration committed to perpetual war, an administration busy seeking new targets for attack. We have a new doctrine of "pre-emption," one that the Bush administration is pushing to engage in "regime change" in Iraq, with little regard for the consequences. In the past year, the Bush administration has become even more disdainful of international law than it was previously. The administration seeks cooperation only on its own terms, and primarily for our wars on terrorism, on drugs and on the Bush-designated "axis of evil." When it comes to arms control and disarmament, sustainable development and environmental protection, and support for human rights, the Bush administration is AWOL. To read this article in its entirety, please visit: *************** WAR ON IRAQ *************** No War Against Iraq By Richard Falk and David Krieger The Bush administration's apparent resolve to wage war against Iraq, tempered for the moment by conservative critics, violates the spirit and letter of the US Constitution, as well as disregards the prohibitions on the use of force that are set forth in the UN Charter and accepted as binding rules of international law. Article 2(4) of the UN Charter states: "All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations." Nothing in Iraq's current behavior would justify a preemptive attack against Iraq based upon self-defense as set forth in Article 51 of the Charter. Even Henry Kissinger has stated, "The notion of justified pre-emption runs counter to modern international law, which sanctions the use of force in self-defense only against actual not potential threats." The proposed war would also have dangerous, destabilizing and unpredictable consequences for the region and the world, and would likely bring turmoil to the world oil and financial markets. While certainly not endorsing the current repressive governments in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, a war against Iraq could likely produce militantly anti-American governments in these countries that would intensify the existing dangers of global terrorism. The acquisition of nuclear weaponry, prohibited to Iraq by United Nations Security Council resolution, is not itself an occasion for justifiable war. After all, the United States, along with at least seven other countries, possesses and continues to develop such weaponry. There are good reasons for supposing that Iraq can be deterred from ever using such weapons, or from transferring them to al Qaeda or other terrorist groups. The government of Iraq, notwithstanding its record of brutality and regional aggression, has shown a consistent willingness to back down in the face of overwhelming force, as it did in the Gulf War and during the subsequent decade. Also, Iraq has had a general posture of antagonism toward political Islam, and as a radical secular state is a target of al Qaeda rather than an ally. The alleged prospect of a transfer of weapons of mass destruction by Baghdad to those engaged in global terrorism is either an embarrassing display of ignorance about the politics of the Islamic world or it represents an attempt to arouse the fears of Americans to win support for war. Granting the concerns of the US government that Saddam Hussein possesses or may obtain weapons of mass destruction, there are available alternatives to war that are consistent with international law and are strongly preferred by America's most trusted allies. These include the resumption of weapons inspections under United Nations auspices combined with multilateral diplomacy and a continued reliance on non-nuclear deterrence. This kind of approach has proved effective over the years in addressing comparable concerns about North Korea's pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability. To read the full version of this article, please visit Also read the Foundation's "Statement Opposing War in Iraq" at: Talking Points: Why Not to Wage War with Iraq By Stephen Zunes Despite growing opposition, the Bush administration is pushing for a U.S. invasion of Iraq. Before the public and Congress allow such a dangerous and unprecedented use of American military power, they should seriously consider the following: 1. A War Against Iraq Would Be Illegal 2. There Is No Hard Evidence Linking Saddam Hussein to Al Qaeda 3. There Is No Firm Proof that Iraq Is Developing Weapons of Mass Destruction 4. Regional Allies Widely Oppose a U.S. Attack 5. Iraq Is No Longer a Significant Military Threat to Its Neighbors 6. There Are Still Nonmilitary Options Available 7. Defeating Iraq Would Be Militarily Difficult The talking points were compiled by Stephen Zunes and are available at ********************* NUCLEAR SECURITY ********************* Report Finds Slashed Security At Nuclear Facilities Representative Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts) released Department of Energy (DoE) figures on 19 August demonstrating that the number of security guards protecting nuclear materials at facilities nationwide has been slashed from 7,091 employees in 1992 to 4,262 in 2001, a 40 percent reduction. Security personnel at the Nevada Test Site were cut from 276 to 115. Rocky Flats, a former nuclear weapons plant outside Denver, had security forces cut from 380 to 154. Rep Markey stated, "It is clear that DOE has continued its long tradition of aggressive indifference to the security of its nuclear weapons facilities." Defending the figures, Bryan Wilkes, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, said the figures don't paint an accurate picture. He said security has been scaled back as facilities shut down after the Cold War, but hundreds of guards have been hired since 11 September, which is not reflected in Markey's figures. Markey also said documents obtained from the DoE showed computer hackers have broken into DOE computers numerous times since 1999. The breaches varied in their severity, but some were "root-level" compromises, which meant the hacker had enough access that a virus could be installed. According to Wilkes, the DoE has added "firewalls" between computer systems and patched holes in computer security and continually re-evaluates its system. (source: AP, 20August 2002) Department of Energy to Move Weapons-Grade Materials for Security Reasons Pending a final environmental impact review, the US is moving rapidly toward shipping tons of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico to a complex at the Nevada Test Site. According to Department of Energy officials and internal documents, the waste is being moved to reduce the risk of terrorists stealing it. On 28 June, the director of Los Alamos wrote to a deputy administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration that the laboratory supported moving the material as "the best overall decision to meet the post-September 11th challenges for the long-term security of nuclear activities." The National Nuclear Security Administration is the part of the Energy Department that manages the inventory of weapons, weapons components and weapons fuel. The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) obtained the documents revealing the plans to transfer the weapons-grade materials. POGO has previously released documents that show that T.A.-18, the area at LANL that holds the weapons-grade materials, has performed poorly in security drills. According to one document, a team sent in 1997 to simulate terrorists used a cart from Home Depot to remove 200 pounds of simulated bomb fuel. According to Peter Stockton, who was a special assistant to former Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson, "[This] is the first time that [weapons-grade material has] ever been moved for security reasons. There are multiple tons of plutonium and high enriched uranium, certain other things down there you wouldn't want a terrorist to get his hands on." (source: New York Times, 12 August 2002) Enrichment Plants Told to Beef Up Security On 22 August, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) ordered two uranium fuel plants in Virginia and Tennessee to immediately adopt stricter anti-terrorist measures. The NRC did not disclose details of its order, but said it included requirements for "increased patrols, augmented security forces and capabilities, additional security posts, installation of additional physical barriers, vehicle checks at greater standoff distances, enhanced coordination with law enforcement and military authorities, and more restricted site access controls." (source: AP, 22 August) Pakistan Rejects UN Inspection of Nuclear Plants Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said on 16 August that he will not allow UN monitors to inspect his country's nuclear facilities. Musharraf stated, "Our nuclear facilities are fully secure and there's no need for inspection by UN experts." In the same interview, Musharraf also said his country's nuclear capabilities were meant "only for deterrence," dismissing speculation about a nuclear confrontation with rival India as "irresponsible." Musharraf repeated Pakistan's offer to sign a no-war pact with India, which, he said, would "preclude all use of force in our region." After being asked if India and Pakistan would transfer their nuclear arsenals to an international trusteeship, Musharraf said Pakistan had a robust command and control system and "therefore, do not see the need or the possibility of involving any other country in these matters." (source: UPI, 17 August 2002) Russian Nuclear Scientist Disappears On 22 August, Russian police announced that a scientist who works on issues related to the reprocessing of nuclear fuel disappeared in the Siberian city of Krasnovarsk on 18 August. Sergei Bakhvalov heads the department of physical chemistry at Krasnovarsk State University and the Kristall research center. He has developed a method of reprocessing nuclear fuel from submarines. Last year, Bakhvalov won a grant to do work involving the Kursk nuclear submarine. The reason for Bakhvalov's disappearance is unknown. (source: AFP, 22 August 2002) ************************** MISSILES & MISSILE DEFENSE ************************** India to Upgrade Missile Programs According to officials, the Indian Defense Ministry plans to start production of a nuclear-capable intermediate range missile. A more advanced version of the Agni missile is currently undergoing tests to be introduced into the nation's armed forces. Currently, the most advanced version of the Agni missile can reach some 1,500 miles (2,500 kilometers). Additionally, the Indian government announced that it will begin production and deployment of the Brahmos supersonic cruise missile. The Brahmos is capable of being launched from ships, submarines and planes. The Brahmos has a range of 185 miles (300 kilometers) and can fly to a height of 9 miles (14 kilometers) at twice the speed of sound. The Brahmos cruise missile was developed jointly by India's Defense Research and Development Organization and Russia's Mashinostroyenia, both state-run companies. The announcements came on the 55th anniversary of India's independence. India claims that its missile and nuclear programs serve as deterrents against China and Pakistan. Since conducting five nuclear tests in 1998, India has been working to perfect its missile delivery system. It has conducted several tests of the Agni missile in the past few years. India is also developing army and air force versions of the short-range, nuclear-capable Prithvi ballistic missile; the surface-to-air Trishul missile; and the anti-tank Nag missile. (source: AP, 16 August 2002) Missile Defense Agency Postpones Missile Defense Test The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency (MDA) was scheduled to conduct the 7th intercept test of the Ground-Based Missile Defense (GMD) system (formerly known as the National Missile Defense system) on 24 August. However, the test was postponed 30-45 days so MDA can replace the rocket motors on the booster of the two-stage, ground-based interceptor. The interceptor, which uses modified Minuteman II rocket motors, houses the Raytheon-produced exo-atmospheric kill vehicle used to track, target and destroy intercontinental ballistic missiles. According to the Pentagon, the Minuteman II missiles will only be used for two more tests before they are replaced by more modern rockets. Of the six tests to date, each of which cost some $100 million, the GMD system has had four "successful" tests (they were all rigged) and two misses. Scientists and technical experts have repeatedly claimed that the system is fatally flawed because it is bound to an unrealistic testing schedule. As of this year, the MDA is no longer required to report missile defense schedule information or program costs to Congress. Frida Berrigan from the World Policy Institute states, "Between the major role reserved for defense contractors Boeing and Lockheed Martin and the exclusion of the Pentagon's independent testing office from a meaningful role in evaluating the program, no one without a vested interest in seeing the program move forward will be involved in evaluating its capabilities." (source: AP, 20 August 2002) ******************* NUCLEAR MATTERS ******************* US Undersecretary of State Condemns North Korea On 28 August, US Undersecretary of State John Bolton condemned North Korea as "an evil regime that is armed to the teeth, including with weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles." According to Bolton, North Korea must quickly allow UN inspectors to determine whether it has been building nuclear bombs or place at risk the 1994 Agreed Framework, an agreement that includes the construction of nuclear reactors to supply it with electricity. Bolton urged North Korea to stop developing and exporting missile parts and technology to "notable rogue state clients such as Syria, Libya and Iran." He said North Korea was "the world's foremost peddler of ballistic missile-related equipment, components, materials, and technical expertise." Giving a stark assessment of North Korea's programs to develop long-range missiles and weapons of mass destruction, he also said there is "little doubt" North Korea has an active chemical weapons program and has "one of the most robust offensive bioweapons programs on earth." Bolton called on the North to open up to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which wants to determine how much weapons-grade material North Korea had extracted before it froze its nuclear system under the 1994 accord with Washington. The agency also wants to find out if the country maintains a clandestine weapons program. Under the 1994 Agreed Framework, a US-led consortium is building two light-water reactors in North Korea. In return, North Korea agreed to freeze its nuclear programs. US officials had hoped to build the first of the two reactors by 2003, but the project is several years behind schedule because of funding difficulties and tension on the Korean peninsula. North Korea demands that the United States compensate for the loss of electricity caused by the delays, and it rejects UN inspections before "substantial progress" has been made in building the reactors. Bolton dismissed such a demand, saying that North Korea was "overwhelmingly" responsible for the delays. Bolton declined to comment on when Washington will dispatch a special envoy to Pyongyang to discuss curbing the North's weapons program and reducing what Bolton called "the most massive concentration of tubed artillery and rocketry on earth along the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea. " Dialogue between the United States and North Korea came to a halt and relations have worsened since President George W. Bush took office. In January, President Bush said that North Korea was part of an "axis of evil," along with Iran and Iraq. (source: AP, 28 August 2002) US Conducts 18th Subcritical Nuclear Test On 29 August, the US conducted its 18th subcritical nuclear test at an underground test site in Nevada. The test was the fifth since President George W. Bush has taken office. The previous test was conducted on 7 June and was described as the ninth and final test in the so-called Oboe series of relatively small-scale experiments. Dismissing charges that the tests contradict the spirit, if not the letter, of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), the US Department of Energy said subcritical tests are necessary to collect scientific data and technical information to maintain the safety and reliability of US nuclear weapons. According to the DoE, the test, called Mario, was "designed to answer questions about ejecta and spall associated with plutonium." Ejecta is a forceful spray of particles propelled from a material's surface when it is compressed by a powerful shock wave. Spall is the breakup of material from the explosive shock wave reflected back from the surface. (source: Yahoo news, 30 August 2002) For more information on subcritical nuclear testing, please visit: Central Asian Nuclear Free Zone Treaty May Be Signed This Year At the end of a Central Asian tour to persuade regional leaders to speed up talks on a Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, UN Undersecretary-General for Disarmament Affairs Jayantha Dhanapala said that a treaty may be ready for signing this year. The Central Asian nations agreed to create a nuclear free zone at a summit in Kazakhstan in 1997. The United Nations backed the idea by a special resolution. At a press conference in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Dhanapala stated, "We in the United Nations think that the present historical moment is an opportune one to conclude the treaty in order to signal the stability, the unity and prospects for the future in this Central Asian region." Since the breakup of the USSR in 1991 there have been widespread attempts to smuggle radioactive materials out of impoverished Central Asian countries, which have been unable to ensure a proper shut down and security for the radioactive facilities they inherited from the Soviet Union. The Soviet military heavily used Kazakhstan for nuclear tests and part of the Soviet Union's nuclear arsenal was stationed there. In recent years, the region's proximity to Afghanistan has increased the potential threat of some nuclear materials falling into the hands of terrorists. The signing of the nuclear free zone treaty is expected to lead to international efforts to identify all radioactive sources in Central Asia and to tighten control over such sources. The treaty also envisages cleaning up the environmental damage caused to the region by the use of radioactive materials. (source: AP, 23 August 2002) *************** NUCLEAR WASTE *************** Top Ten Reasons to Oppose the DoE's Yucca Mountain Plans Nuclear energy has always been promoted to the public in fraudulent ways. At the outset, it was claimed that it would be "too cheap to meter," a claim that was far from true even without taking into account large government subsidies provided to the nuclear industry. Later, and still today, nuclear energy is promoted as being "clean, safe and environmentally friendly." This claim should have been definitively laid to rest with the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. Now the proponents of nuclear energy are pushing for long-term storage of highly radioactive nuclear wastes at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The $7 billion that the Department of Energy (DoE) has spent on researching the suitability of Yucca Mountain, Nevada as a radioactive waste storage site has only served to prove that the volatile Yucca Mountain itself is a terrible place to dump the 77,000 tons of nuclear waste that has been building up at nuclear power plants. It is a shortsighted and dangerous scheme that would endanger tens of millions of Americans now and for generations to come. There are many sound reasons to oppose the Department of Energy's plan to transport nuclear wastes from throughout the country to Yucca Mountain. The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation has composed the "Top Ten Reasons to Oppose the DoE's Yucca Mountain Plans." Read the full article at: ******************* NUCLEAR INSANITY ******************* Israel Prepared to Use Nuclear Weapons If Iraq, or anyone else for that matter, seriously threatens Israel, it will in all likelihood unleash its nuclear arsenal, which is now thought to be the fourth largest in the world after the US, Russia and China. This fact was revealed earlier this year when news was leaked that three new submarines Germany built for Israel were carrying nuclear-tipped missiles, deployed in launch-on-warning posture despite all the previous assurances given to Germany in the past that Israel would not do so. The Ha'aretz, Israel's prestigious daily newspaper, reported on 15 August that if Iraq strikes at Israel with non-conventional weapons, causing massive casualties among the civilian population, Israel could respond with a nuclear retaliation that would eradicate Iraq as a country. In a document submitted by military expert Dr. Anthony Cordesman, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Cordesman states Israel could face an existential threat to important urban areas such as Tel Aviv or Haifa. Under such conditions, it would threaten nuclear retaliation against Iraqi cities and military forces to cease the [Iraqi] attack. Cordesman says that if the Iraqi attack were to continue, and there was a lethal biological strike on an Israeli city, Israel would certainly respond with nuclear strikes against Iraqi cities that were not yet in the hands of American forces, and that such an Israeli reaction could destroy Iraq as a state. (source: Ha'aretz, 15 August 2002) ************* ARMS SALES ************* US Still World's Biggest Arms Dealer According to the Congressional Research Service, international arms sales declined substantially in 2001 to almost $26.4 billion compared with about $40 billion in 2000. It was the first decrease in international arms sales since 1997. The Congressional Research Service reported that the US retained its position as the world's biggest arms dealer, despite its arms transfer agreements declining to nearly $12.1 billion in 2001 from $18.9 billion in 2000. US arms sales in 2001 accounted for nearly 46 percent of all weapons sales. Russia was the second largest arms dealer with $5.8 billion in 2001 and India and China are Russia's main customers. France was the third with $2.9 billion. For countries classified as "developing," the United Arab Emirates was the leading purchaser of arms and India was second. Saudi Arabia dropped arms purchases from $12.4 billion over the years 1994-1997 to $1.7 billion in the years 1998-2001. A contract with France to upgrade the Saudis' Shahine SAM missile system helped ease sagging French weapons sales to developing nations. France's sales to developing countries dropped to $400 million from $2.2 billion in 2000. Germany's sales to developing countries declined from more than $1 billion in 2000 to nearly zero in 2001. Britain and Italy did almost no business with those countries in 2001 or 2000. According to the report, uncertain economic conditions are likely to limit purchases of new and costly weapons by developing countries over the next few years. US weapons agreements with developing nations fell significantly in 2001 to $7 billion from $13 billion in 2000. Israel bought 52 combat fighter aircraft for more than $1.8 billion, Egypt reached an agreement worth more than $500 million to co-produce Abrams tanks, and Singapore agreed to purchase 12 Apache helicopters for $379 million. Russia sold 310 tanks to India for about $700 million; about 40 fighter aircraft to China for more than $1.5 billion; and about $600 million in helicopters and other military equipment to South Korea. (source: AP, 15 August 2002) ******************** FOUNDATION NEWS ******************** Foundation Board Selects New Chair Richard Falk, Professor Emeritus of International Law and Policy at Princeton University, has become the new chair of the Foundation's Board of Directors. He succeeds Wallace Drew, one of the founders of the organization, who moves to the position of Chair Emeritus. David Krieger continues to serve as the president of the Foundation. Foundation to Present Awards in October On October 24th, the Foundation will present its 2002 Distinguished Peace Leadership Award to His Excellency Arthur N.R. Robinson, President of Trinidad and Tobago, for his critical role in the creation of a permanent International Criminal Court (ICC). Robert Woetzel, founder of the Foundation for the Establishment of an International Criminal Court, will be honored posthumously. The Foundation will also present its 2002 World Citizenship Award to Dr. Robert Muller, Chancellor Emeritus of the UN University for Peace and a former Assistant Secretary-General of the UN, for his efforts in global education and humanitarianism. The following day, the Foundation will host a full-day symposium on International Law and the Quest for Security. For information or reservations for the dinner and/or symposium, contact the Foundation at (805) 965-3443. Speaking Engagements Foundation President David Krieger will conduct an all-day seminar on Ending the Nuclear Weapons Threat to Humanity on September 21st in Goshen, IN. For information, contact the Fourth Freedom Forum at (800) 233-6786. David will also be speaking at the Earth Charter Community Summit in San Francisco, CA on September 28th. For information, contact SGI Culture Center at (415) 492-2880. ************ RESOURCES ************ New Book: Choose Hope, Your Role in Waging Peace in the Nuclear Age by David Krieger and Daisaku Ikeda, published by Middleway Press, is now available at at a 30 percent discount. A Discussion Guide for group discussions about the major points raised in the book is available from the Foundation. Visit the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation's completely redesigned Nuclear Files website. Visitors can now easily navigate the site, take a journey through the Nuclear Age and learn about key issues. The site also contains a section for educators with sample course syllabi that incorporates lessons from our nuclear history into the classroom. Visit the redesigned and user-friendly Nuclear Files at Visit the ever-evolving website of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation at We encourage you to check in frequently at the "New to Site" link on the home page, the Activities Calendar, the Action Page and all the other great sections on the site. "Russia's Nuclear Forces 2002" is now available to download online from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in pdf format at The latest news on the International Code of Conduct (ICoC) for Ballistic Missiles is available online at "Welcome to the Future of Space" by Sean Gonsalves is available to read online at "Bunker Busters: Washington's Drive for New Nuclear Weapons" prepared by Mark Bromley, David Grahame and Christine Kucia is available online from the British American Security Information Council at "Disarmament Diplomacy No. 65" is now available online from the Acronym Institute at ************ QUOTABLE ************ "The United States has no right to force Pax Americana on the rest of us, or to unilaterally determine the fate of the world; on the contrary, we, the people of the world, have the right to demand 'no annihilation without representation.'" Tadatoshi Akiba, Mayor of Hiroshima From Hiroshima Peace Declaration, August 6, 2002 "Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means." Martin Luther King, Jr. ************************************************************* ********** EDITORS ********** Carah Ong David Krieger ***************************************************************** 37 Ex-arms inspector defends Iraq BBC NEWS | Middle East | Sunday, 8 September, 2002, 13:29 GMT 14:29 [UN weapons inspectors in Baghdad in 1998] Inspectors have been barred from Iraq since 1998 A former senior UN weapons inspector in Iraq, Scott Ritter, has told the Baghdad parliament that Iraq is not a threat to the outside world and that military action against the country would not be justifiable. Iraq today is not a threat to its neighbours and is not acting in a manner which threatens anyone outside its own borders Scott Ritter US President George Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair have said they are determined that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction must be eliminated, but Mr Ritter said he did not believe there were such weapons. But Mr Ritter, who is on a private visit, said Iraq had to allow weapons inspectors back into the country to prove to the outside world that this was the case. This was the only way now to avoid war, he said. "Nothing else will be acceptable," the American told Iraqi deputies. "Iraq cannot attempt to link the return of the weapons inspectors with any other issues, regardless of justification. Unconditional return, unfettered access, this is the only acceptable action." Weapons inspectors have been barred from the country since 1998. Vocal critic As a prominent American who opposes a US strike on Iraq, Mr Ritter's visit is a boost to the regime in Baghdad and will not help current efforts being undertaken by Mr Bush and Mr Blair to garner support for their campaign. On Thursday, one day after the anniversary of the 11 September terrorist attacks, Mr Bush will address the United Nations in a speech US officials say will demand fast, decisive action to minimise the threat of Iraq. Mr Ritter said Iraq was not a sponsor of the kind of terror perpetrated against the US on 11 September and indeed that Baghdad was "active in suppressing the sort of fundamentalist extremism that characterises those who attacked the US on that horrible day". During the seven years the UN was allowed to carry out inspections, Iraq had been certified as being disarmed to a 90-95% level. Mr Ritter was not always popular with the Iraqi authorities - as head of the inspection team until 1998, he was renowned for his tough line and intrusive searches. But he later accused Washington of using the UN mission to spy on Iraq. He has since been a vocal critic of US policy. Iraqi warning The crucial question now is whether Iraq will invite the current UN weapons inspectors back. Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said Iraq might consider doing so, but only as part of what he called a comprehensive settlement. But, speaking in Jordan on Saturday, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said the Americans did not care about inspections. What they wanted was a change of the political regime - but their ambitions would be smashed, he declared, at the gates of Iraq. ***************************************************************** 38 U.N.: Iraq Sites Under Construction Las Vegas SUN September 06, 2002 By GEORGE JAHN ASSOCIATED PRESS VIENNA, Austria- The head of a U.N. weapons inspection team banned by Baghdad said Friday that satellite photos of Iraq show unexplained construction at sites the team used to visit in its search for evidence that Saddam Hussein was trying to develop nuclear arms. Jacques Baute did not offer details about the construction or the sites, and he and other U.N. inspections experts emphasized that no conclusions on whether Iraq had restarted nuclear weapons programs could be deduced from the images. "We can't draw any conclusions from a new building or a new road," said Mark Gwozdecky, a spokesman for the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, a U.N. agency that oversees inspections of nuclear programs. However, the White House expressed concern, and independent experts said the images were a worrisome indication of how little control the outside world has over potentially lethal developments in Iraq since Baghdad banned outside inspectors four years ago. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the photos could indicate the Iraqi president "may seek to develop nuclear weapons and may be making progress." He called the agency's comments "troubling." Independent Iraq analysts said while the existence of such images was common U.S. government knowledge, the photos would be welcomed by the Bush administration as it seeks to wear down worldwide resistance to the idea of toppling Saddam by force. "I think that this is basically a preview of ... the type of information that the U.S. government is going to be using to make the case for doing something about Iraq," said John Pike, of the nonprofit group GlobalSecurity.org, based in Alexandria, Va. The last U.N. inspectors pulled out of Iraq in December 1998, ahead of bombing by the United States and Britain. But even though Baghdad has refused to let U.N. teams looking for nuclear or other prohibited weapons programs back in since then, monitoring has continued through satellite photography and other intelligence gathering. Baute, a French physicist and leader of the U.N. nuclear inspection team, said in a telephone interview that reviews of commercial satellite images since 1999 show "some buildings that have been reconstructed ... and some new buildings (that) have been erected" at sites its team visited before the ban. Without identifying them, Baute described the sites as having potential "dual-use capabilities," meaning they could potentially be locations for both civilian and military nuclear programs. In a related development, a report made available to The Associated Press on Friday and drawn up by Hans Blix, chief inspector of the team assigned to look for chemical and biological weapons, said Iraq has not been reporting to the United Nations its "dual-use" imported goods - items that can be used in peaceful and military nuclear programs. In a related development, a report released on Friday and drawn up by Hans Blix, chief inspector of the team assigned to look for chemical and biological weapons, said Iraq has not been reporting to the United Nations its "dual-use" imported goods - items that can be used in peaceful and military programs. In the absence of inspections, Blix said, the U.N. inspection agency is stepping up other ways of monitoring Iraq - including investigating new sources for commercial satellite imagery and seeking more photos from governments on activities and changes at suspected weapons sites. The United States has accused Iraq of trying to rebuild its banned weapons programs and of supporting terrorism, and has called for Saddam's ouster. In seeking international support for a military strike on Iraq, the Bush administration contends Saddam's pursuit of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in defiance of his disarmament pledge after the Gulf War is a powerful case for a regime change. Facing opposition from traditional allies to such an attack, Bush has scheduled consultations with heads of countries sitting on the U.N. Security Council to establish whether new U.N. pressure can be brought to bear that would force Baghdad to again allow weapons inspectors in. On Friday, Bush telephoned leaders of China, Russia and France. Fleischer, the White House spokesman, said the president stressed that "Saddam Hussein was a threat and that we need to work together to make the world peaceful." Bush was scheduled to meet Saturday with Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, the only major U.S. ally supporting Saddam's ouster through military means. In comments broadcast Friday, Blair reiterated his backing, saying Britain was prepared to shed blood to support the United States. But other traditional allies remained defiant. A large delegation from Turkey arrived in Baghdad on Friday, just a day after Arab states declared their allegiance to Iraq and called U.S. threats against Saddam threats against the whole Arab world. The U.S. administration is likely to ask the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution setting a deadline for Iraq to admit weapons inspectors or risk punitive action. Officials of the Vienna-based U.N. agency declined to give details about the sites or when the images were taken, saying only that satellite photos of previously inspected areas were continually being upgraded. But Gary Napier of Space Imaging in Thornton, Colo. - one of the companies on contract with the U.N. inspection agency - said his company's satellite photos are able to provide close-up details of objects a little larger than a yard, as long as the backdrop is a contrasting color. He said a single image covers an area nearly seven miles in length. Pike, of GlobalSecurity.org, said the images from Iraq will not provide "a smoking gun image that clearly ... shows they're working on atomic bombs." "What we are going to see is a lot of buildings with a lot of locations associated with their (suspected) missile program or their nuclear program, and these buildings have either been rebuilt or continue to be used," he said. "All of it proves that they have a lot of facilities where you would suspect they would be working on prohibited weapons." On the Net: IAEA, www.iaea.org Global Security, www.GlobalSecurity.org All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 39 Analysis: Is Iraq rearming? BBC NEWS | Middle East | Friday, 6 September, 2002, [Weapons inspectors search a building in Iraq] Weapons inspectors did restrict Iraq's weapons programme By Paul Reynolds BBC News Online world affairs correspondent The British Government is preparing its dossier outlining Iraq's efforts to rebuild its weapons of mass destruction. Other published information is ambiguous about the extent to which Iraq has managed to overcome years of sanctions and destruction by UN weapons inspectors. But, according to most assessments, there is no doubt that it is trying. Under UN Security Council Resolution 687, Iraq is not permitted to have chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, and missiles with a range greater than 150km. It faces a dual problem if it seeks to defy the UN. One is to develop the weapons. The other is to deliver them. From a variety of sources, these are the general assessments of the state of play: + Nuclear weapons Iraq's biggest problem is in getting hold of the fissile material needed to make a nuclear bomb. This would probably have to come from the black market or a rogue government. The British Government published a document in 1998 saying that had it not been for the Gulf War Saddam Hussein would have had the bomb by 1993. It said he could build a "crude air-delivered nuclear device in about five years" if he got the right equipment and material from abroad. [Saddam Hussein] Analysts say Baghdad has the desire and resources to build a nuclear weapon The US Defense Department said in 2001 that "Iraq would need five or more years and key foreign assistance" to enrich enough uranium for a device. German intelligence said in 2001 that it could take between three and six years. However, a new assessment from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington concludes: "If Iraq were to acquire material from another country, it is possible that it could assemble a nuclear weapon in months." Charles Duelfer of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington and former deputy executive chairman of the UN weapons commission Unscom told a US Senate Committee in February: "While precise estimates of the Iraqi nuclear programme are impossible, what is certain is that Baghdad has the desire, the talent and the resources to build a nuclear weapon given the time to do so." + Chemical Iraq has used chemical weapons in battle, both against Iranian troops and against its own population in Halabja. Huge numbers of chemical weapons were destroyed by the UN after the Gulf War. But not all, it seems. The Carnegie report suggests: "Rough estimates conclude that Iraq may have retained up to 600 metric tonnes of agents, including mustard gas, VX and sarin. Approximately 25,000 rockets and 15,000 artillery shells with chemical agents also remain unaccounted for." [chemical warfare agent filled aerial bombs] Iraq has previously used chemical weapons in battle The 1998 British report said that 31,000 munitions and 4000 metric tonnes of precursor chemicals had not been properly accounted for. As there has been no UN monitoring since 1998, it is impossible to determine exactly how much effort Iraq has put into the further development of chemical weapons but it clearly has the ability to produce them. + Biological In 1996, Unscom destroyed a factory designed to make up to 50,000 litres of anthrax, botulin toxin and other agents a year. The Institute of International Studies at Monterey in California estimates that Iraq retains the ability to resume production but it is unclear as to whether this has happened. [possible biological weapons are destroyed] Possible biological weapons were destroyed Until 1995, Saddam Hussein even denied that he had a biological weapons programme but the British government report says that Iraqi production of BW agents had been "clearly understated." Iraq presumably has the ability to produce BW again. However, some sources question whether Iraq really intended using BW in battle. Charles Duelfer of the CSIS suggested that it might have been keeping them to use secretly against an enemy city "that would be near impossible to connect to Baghdad as the responsible actor." + Delivery systems By 1997, 817 of the 819 Scud rockets Saddam Hussein had were known to have been accounted for. The former UN inspector Scott Ritter has said that Iraq might have salvaged and manufactured enough components to build up a store of between five and 25 missiles. Overall, it should be added, Mr Ritter does not believe that Saddam Hussein has the ability to rebuild his weapons programme to any significant degree. [Former weapons inspector Scott Ritter] Mr Ritter says Iraq isn't capable of rebuilding its weapons programme The Carnegie assessment quoted an unclassified CIA report to Congress that Iraq "probably retains a small covert force of Scud type missiles." Charles Duelfer told the Senate that in his view the number could be about 12 to 14. Iraq has developed, as it is allowed to, two shorter range missiles - the al-Samoud and the Ababil which have ranges below 150 km. The technology involved could later be used to develop longer range rockets. It is unclear, though, whether Iraq has solved the problems of using such missiles to deliver weapons of mass destruction. It seems to have been working on developing shorter range means of delivery. The Washington Post has reported that in Operation Desert Fox in 1998, an RAF Tornado blew the roof off an Iraqi hanger to reveal a number of Czech made L-29 training jets which had been converted into pilot less drones. There are also reports that Iraq still has chemical "drop tanks" to be used by its Mirage F-1 jets. Four of these were found and destroyed by Unscom. Eight others were never found. ***************************************************************** 40 Arabs doubt Iraq dossier BBC NEWS | Monitoring | Media reports | Saturday, 7 September, 2002, 07:39 GMT 08:39 [Mr Blair speaks in Sedgefield] Blair: Accused of slavishly following Bush Arab commentators have derided the promises made by US President George W Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair to reveal a dossier detailing Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction programme. A front-page editorial in the Iraqi official newspaper Al-Thawrah on Friday said the dossier consisted of "mere lies" to justify an attack on Baghdad. Blair invites ridicule for being Bush's poodle and lapdog The Gulf Today "Blair claims his alleged dossier proves that Iraq is seeking to develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, but how can Iraq attempt this when it lacks the ability, equipment, machinery or intention to produce them?" it said. "His alleged dossier is nothing but a collection of reports assembled in the corridors of the intelligence services and lacks evidence," the editorial said. Al-Thawrah again challenged Mr Blair to send British experts and reporters to Iraq to check out the veracity of the dossier. "Blair is dishonest, and his alleged dossier is mere lies fabricated to justify a disgraceful policy that harms not only Iraq but also Britain, and pushes it into this escapade," it said. 'Lapdog Blair' The Dubai-based newspaper The Gulf Today was equally scathing about Mr Blair's dossier. In a commentary on Thursday it said the dossier was unlikely to contain any new information, as was the case with previous claims of new evidence against Osama Bin Laden. Intelligence services have failed to find a single barrel of chemical materials or weapon of mass destruction. Qatari commentator Mazin Hammad "Blair invites ridicule for being Bush's poodle and lapdog," it said. "When Britons saw him with thumbs tucked in his belt cowboy-style ahead of his news conference on Iraq, his political stance on the Iraq issue crumbled... A body-language expert even suggested that Blair is subconsciously mimicking Bush." The Gulf Today says US Congressional pressure is mounting on President Bush to produce ironclad evidence before risking American lives, and that only Mr Blair still backs his "cowboy trail to war". Anti-Arab grudge Jordanian commentator Khalid Mahadin sees the dossier as part of a plot by the Christian Right and Israel to destroy Arab, Muslim and "true Christian" culture. [Saddam Hussein] Saddam: Targeted as part of an anti-Arab grudge some papers say Writing in the partly-government-owned Al-Ra'y on Thursday, he said Mr Blair's "fantastic announcement only shows the extent of the grudge the United Kingdom, United States and the Israeli entity harbour towards everything Arab and Muslim". The dossier, he said, was a British intelligence fabrication aimed at portraying enfeebled Iraq as a "formidable power capable of destroying any capital oppose to its colossal force". He asked why the UK government had not produced a similar report on Israel's weapons of mass destruction and the "crimes committed every hour against the Palestinian people". 'Babylonian revenge' Qatari commentator Mazin Hammad wasted little time in dismissing the dossier. "Tony Blair is busy collecting evidence to justify the use of force, but we do not know where he will find this evidence when all the intelligence services in the West have failed to find a single barrel of chemical materials or any weapon of mass destruction," he wrote in Al-Watan on Thursday. Mr Hammad sees President Bush as acting on behalf of Israel and the "Israeli-occupied Congress" in launching a series of wars in the Middle East to destroy all states that oppose Israel. He suggests sarcastically that if the US were to step aside and allow Israel to carry off Iraq's head on a platter itself, this "moment of revenge for the Babylonian Captivity might satisfy Sharon's blood lust". [http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk] , based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. ***************************************************************** 41 Lawmakers debate new nuclear bomb that burrows Mercury News | 09/06/2002 | [http://www.bayarea.com] GOP WANTS TO STUDY `EARTH PENETRATOR' IDEA By Dan Stober Mercury News Behind closed doors, Republicans and Democrats are battling over whether to develop a new hydrogen bomb designed to smash through dozens of feet of dirt, rock and concrete before destroying underground targets. Republicans argue that the bomb -- called the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, or RNEP -- is needed to destroy buried, hardened targets in countries such as Iraq, which may have placed biological or chemical weapons in fortified bunkers. Democrats say that such a battlefield nuclear weapon is not needed and that developing it could provoke a new arms race. The skirmish highlights the ideological rift about the future of nuclear weapons and comes as Congress struggles to fashion a compromise military-spending bill for fiscal 2003, which begins Oct. 1. This summer the GOP-controlled House approved $15 million to study the weapon, while the Democratic-led Senate voted down the proposal. The GOP wants scientists at the U.S. nuclear laboratories in Livermore and New Mexico to begin studying whether RNEP could be built. The feasibility study draws support from the military's Strategic Command in Nebraska and from conservative civilian Pentagon officials such as Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. Republican Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas argued during congressional debate that RNEP may be needed to deter other countries from burying their most valuable facilities. If U.S. weapons cannot reach deep targets, he said: ``Then we are simply saying, `Go to it. We'll leave you alone.' We are encouraging people to bury their communication, their factories, their silos, and we will not be able to do anything about it.'' Democrats are against the study and the weapon itself. One opponent is Rep. Ellen Tauscher, whose East Bay district includes Livermore. A member of the House-Senate conferees trying to find a compromise, Tauscher said the Pentagon has refused to tell her what countries might be targeted with RNEP. ``This is just a little too much overkill,'' she said. ``We have a menu of options that satisfy our need to penetrate some of these hardened targets. Putting nuclear tips on them would certainly satisfy those who would put the nuclear tip on everything, including ice cream cones.'' The Bush administration says the feasibility study would provide interesting ``advanced concept'' work for physicists and engineers at the nation's three labs: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and Sandia National Laboratory, which has its headquarters in New Mexico and a branch lab in Livermore. Much of the excitement has gone out of nuclear weapons work since President Bush's father ended underground nuclear testing in 1992. For these scientists, the technical challenge of RNEP is to modify an existing bomb casing so that the nuclear explosive can survive a brutal deceleration and harsh trip through rock. ``You can make this very rugged. Steel is rugged, and thick steel is more rugged,'' said a weapons designer. ``How do you deliver a Christmas ornament through the U.S. mail? That's probably a more challenging problem than putting a penetrator though concrete.'' Tauscher and other nuclear opponents are suspicious that the penetrator project might be used as a reason to return to nuclear testing, but some scientists familiar with the project believe that it can be accomplished without a nuclear test. Arms-control advocates say the introduction of a new battlefield nuclear weapon would buck a decades-old trend to withdraw such weapons and lower the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons in general. But RNEP supporters say it's just another form of deterrence. ``I think a lot of people realize the current stockpile we have was developed for the Cold War and doesn't meet the needs of the 21st century,'' said Doug Henson, the director of weapons engineering at the Sandia lab in Livermore. ``You may need to design a new weapon to take into consideration new targets.'' Often mentioned are command bunkers that might be buried 100 yards deep, beneath granite, or built in tunnels burrowed into mountains. An earth penetrator may bury itself 30 feet beneath the surface, but its shock waves could crush a bunker at much greater depths. A Pentagon report last year titled ``Defeat of Hard and Deeply Buried Targets'' claimed there could be as many as 10,000 hardened targets in the world. Earlier this year, the Bush administration's Nuclear Posture Review suggested that new nuclear weapons were needed to target sites in China, Russia, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Libya and Syria. If the feasibility study survives congressional negotiations, the Livermore and Sandia scientists would look at modifying the B-83 bomb, originally built to be dropped on Soviet targets. Los Alamos researchers would work on the B-61, a bomb that already has been modified into an earth penetrator. The B-61 Mod 11, as the penetrator version is known, has been test-dropped with a dummy warhead in Alaska, where the frozen tundra is similar to parts of Russia. The RNEP study, however, would look at tougher terrain, especially rock. Both the B-83 and B-61 are high-powered thermonuclear weapons that would leave enormous craters and throw up tons of radioactive fallout into the atmosphere. ``They are not mini-nukes,'' said a weapons scientist. ``There will be collateral damage.'' Designing an earth penetrator is a tricky business. Long and skinny shapes shatter rock and penetrate farther than blunt shapes, but they are not as strong and tend to snap in half if they come in at the wrong angle or speed. ``Imagine trying to push an arrow through a very hard target,'' said Al Baker, a Sandia engineer who recently won a award for his work on earth penetrators. Baker has seen a test penetrator ``that went into the ground, made a U-turn and came back out again. . . . It was in the shape of a banana.'' Modifications to the B-83 would involve taking the largely intact ``physics package'' -- the nuclear explosive -- and repackaging it in a redesigned casing. Scientists would use supercomputers to simulate impact. Instrument-laden mock-ups of promising designs would then be rammed into concrete walls in the New Mexico desert. Work on U.S. nuclear penetrators began in the early 1950s. ``Smart bombs'' dropped on Iraq during the 1991 Persian Gulf War proved precision bombing was possible, prompting enthusiasm for small nuclear earth penetrators, dubbed ``mini-nukes'' in a paper co-written shortly after the war by Los Alamos scientist Joseph Howard. If Saddam Hussein knew he could not safely hide in an underground bunker, he would be reluctant to attack other countries, Howard reasoned. ``Ultimately, what deters a Third World nation rogue is saving his own back end,'' Howard said in an interview this week. Mini-nukes were pursued by the labs in Project PLYWD, which prompted a 1994 law banning further research on mini-nukes, those with warhead yields of less than five kilotons. House Republicans are attempting to loosen those restrictions. In Washington, as the fight over RNEP and mini-nukes heats up, Democrats are demanding answers from the Pentagon. ``The real question is, who is the target?'' said a congressional staffer. Contact Dan Stober at dstober@sjmercury.com [dstober@sjmercury.com] or (650) 688-7536. ***************************************************************** 42 Inspectors Step Up Iraq Preparation Las Vegas SUN Today: September 07, 2002 at 4:50:02 PDT By EDITH M. LEDERER ASSOCIATED PRESS UNITED NATIONS- U.N. weapons inspectors are stepping up preparations for a possible return to Iraq, seeking new sources for satellite photos, scouting laboratories to test samples, and pressing friendly governments for more intelligence reports. In a quarterly report to the U.N. Security Council, chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said unnamed nations were quietly briefing the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission "on activities and infrastructural changes" at sites in Iraq. The commission, known as UNMOVIC, "will continue to seek presentations and products from supporting governments with access to satellite imagery," Blix said. On Friday, the head of a U.N. atomic weapons inspection team banned by Baghdad said that satellite photos of Iraq show unexplained construction at sites the team used to visit in its search for evidence that Saddam Hussein was trying to develop nuclear arms. The Bush administration contends Saddam is trying to obtain chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in defiance of his disarmament pledge after the Gulf War. It wants to oust him and is seeking international support for a military strike. Iraq says it wants to continue negotiations with the United Nations, but has not responded to Secretary-General Kofi Annan's request for permission for the inspectors to return. The Bush team is at work on a proposed resolution setting a deadline for Iraq to admit weapons inspectors or risk punitive action. The inspection commission has recruited a new manager to help collect information from public documents and looking at ways of better analyzing such data, Blix said. The inspectors use California's Monterey Institute of International Studies to review publicly available documents and has signed a new contract with the French Research Institute for similar material, "with particular emphasis on European, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern sources," he said. UNMOVIC is also looking for new sources for commercial satellite imagery, he said. The agency has a contract with Space Imaging, a Denver-based company that own the world's first high-resolution commercial earth-imaging satellite. To plan for inspections, team members have visited 11 laboratories that could analyze samples and received contract proposals from six, Blix said. Blix also said Friday that Iraq has not been reporting its "dual-use" imports - which can be used in peaceful and military nuclear programs - to the United Nations. The inspectors left Iraq in December 1998, just ahead of allied airstrikes launched to punish Iraq for blocking inspections. Iraq has not allowed them to return. On Friday Jacques Baute, head of the inspection team for the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that reviews of commercial satellite images since 1999 show "some buildings that have been reconstructed ... and some new buildings (that) have been erected," at sites his team had visited in the past. Though the agency said no conclusions could be drawn from new buildings or roads, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the photos could indicate the Iraqi president "may seek to develop nuclear weapons and may be making progress." He called the agency's comments "troubling." All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 43 Pak Air Force establishes nuclear-armed strategic command: Air Chief / Updated on 2002-09-08 10:27:14/ *SARGODHA, September 08 (PNS): Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshall Mushaf Ali Mir Saturday said Pakistan Air Force has established its strategic command with reference to nuclear arms and "if war between India and Pakistan occurs now, it will be short, swift and intensive." * However, he made it clear that the nuclear deterrence is "political deterrence." "Only conventional force is the military deterrence," the PAC chief senior journalists of the national press during an address and later a briefing at Sargodha Air Base. Advocating the need for adding more strength to Pakistan Air Force, Air Chief Marshall, Mushaf Ali Mir has said that Pakistan should not rely only on US for defense and military cooperation, adding that there are the broader prospects for enhancing defense cooperation with other countries as well. Appreciating the high spirits and marked level of professional training of PAF, he said these are the factors which have given edge to PAF over India despite the latter's numerical superiority. "We know how to yield India-matching response in the face of its numerical superiority," he remarked. The full fledged preparations on our part act as deterrence, as the enemy is aware of the fact that if it attacks, it will face an appropriate response from Pakistan. The PAF chief maintained that PAF has full capability to inflict maximum loss on India. Despite the fact that India has more prospects to cause loss to Pakistan because of its numerical superiority, the important objective of Pakistan is that the enemy does not win the war and Pakistan doesn't face defeat. Air chief martial pointed out that PAF has evolved a strategy to assess the weakness of enemy and target it in an effective manner. If the enemy is capable of destroying 10 Pakistani targets, we have also potential to destroy four effective targets. As compared to India, one warplane of Pakistan can carry out more missions daily, he explained. He held that despite the decade long restrictions, Pakistan has succeeded in keeping its air force more stable and effective. He noted that if India disturbs the balance of power with securing more sophisticated planes then the US would have to come forward with assistance to Pakistan to marginalize the difference. Whatever differences lies between Pakistan and India with regard to air power, Pakistan is fully able to deal with them, he asserted. However, the difference should not be allowed to further widen, he cautioned. He stressed that government should continue to take measures to build air force on modern lines. If Pakistan wants to keep maximum traditional military deterrence, it can be achieved only by making the air force stronger, he suggested. Citing restrictions on PAF, he said that sometimes the external embargoes create positive effects, which leads to establish more contacts with the friendly countries and self-reliance. Pointing to various defense plans of Pakistan, he said that the largest joint defense project with China concerns Super-7 planes. A prototype model will fly on experimental flight in June 2003, he stated. Pakistan has equipped fifty Meraj aircrafts obtained from Australia with sophisticated radar system by overhauling them with its own resources. He revealed that Pakistan has 114 Meraj planes and the work of overhauling of aircrafts is going at full capacity in Kamra. Responding to queries from the journalists, he said that China is Pakistan's trustworthy friend and it is not facing any negative pressure from its cooperation with Pakistan. The Avionics (Surveillance) system of planes has progressed in a big way in China and Pakistan is contemplating to secure this system from China. No problem is there for cooperation in traditional defense field with China, he observed. Hinting at positive results of the war games 'Sabat Qadam-2' which took place last year, he said that the objective could be achieved for which defense preparations had been made. He indicated that talks would be held with US to boost traditional defense cooperation. The meeting of Pak-US defense consultative group will be held on September 25. This event in itself is an important matter, he remarked. About F-16 aircrafts, he said that Pakistan should not restrict itself to F-16 planes adding if the political relations with the world countries are better, it can acquire planes and traditional defense equipment from anywhere in the world. Pakistan does not need to remain confined to US, but it should develop defense links with other countries as well, he noted. It is however established fact that the military equipment of US is superior, he added. Responding to a question about the strategy of PAF, he said that it is based on the policy of forward attacks besides defense. He said that prospects of Indo-Pak war are not over. End. ***************************************************************** 44 Dossier proves Saddam must be stopped Scotsman.com Sat 7 Sep 2002 /FRASER NELSON WESTMINSTER EDITOR/ THE dossier on Iraq which Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, has promised to print in the next few weeks will be his case for war. His task is to prove that Saddam poses such a grave threat to world peace that he must be stopped before he finds the last piece in his nuclear weapons puzzle. There will be no smoking gun. No-one, in either London or Washington, is understood to have incontrovertible proof that Saddam is developing weapons. The dossier is compiled from defectors? statements, satellite photographs and a list of what UN weapons inspectors believe still exists. The Scotsman has devised its own dossier, drawing on UN reports, statements from defectors, the defence industry trade press, US military think-tanks, CIA statements to US Congress and evidence given to Capitol Hill committees. The results certainly paint a picture of a dictator bent on acquiring weapons of mass destruction, with a disturbing degree of success, and going to extraordinary lengths to conceal his plans. Worst of all, Mr Blair will argue, Saddam is now breaking free of the shackles which the UN sanctions are supposed to impose on him. He has a proven appetite for building weapons, and with $2.2 billion earned from illicit trade last year, he has the money to pay for them. Whether there is enough to justify military action is the question Britain must now answer. Iraq now has all the elements of a workable nuclear weapon, except the fissile material needed to fuel it, according to defectors. In July 2002, Khidir Hamza, a defecting Iraqi nuclear science director, told the US Congress that "with the workable design and most of the needed components for a nuclear weapon already tested, Iraq is in the final stages of its programme to enrich enough uranium for the final component needed in the nuclear core". Before UN inspectors left Iraq, they had found out: Iraq had developed a blueprint for a nuclear bomb. It is a sphere 32-35 inches in diameter, with 32 detonators. It would weigh less than a tonne and fit on a Scud missile. Iraq has already tested a nuclear bomb dummy, with a non-nuclear core. Iraq was running 30 nuclear research and production facilities. It had laboratory-scale plutonium separation programme and was also working on a radiological weapon; scattering nuclear material with no explosion. In August 1995, Saddam?s son-in-law, Lt General Hussein Kamil, defected to the US and provided substantial evidence which forced Iraq to admit that it started a fast-track nuclear programme in 1990, and hoped to complete a bomb within a year. This involved diverting nuclear fuel from power stations to the weapons laboratories. Its nuclear programme continued. In May 1998, it ordered six "lithotripter" machines, saying they would be used to treat kidney stones. Each machine contains a high-precision electronic switch which triggers atomic bombs. It ordered six extra switches. In May 2000, inspectors discovered an Iraqi nuclear centrifuge which had been stored in Jordan. The rhetoric from Saddam showed he had not dampened his ambition - in September 2000, he publicly called for his "nuclear mujahideen" to "defeat the enemy". In December 2001, A former Iraqi nuclear scientist, Adnan Ihsan Saeed al-Haideri, said Iraq has reactivated 300 secret weapons laboratories since the withdrawal of UN weapons inspectors. Nuclear production and storage facilities are being hidden to the rear of government companies and private villas in residential areas. Weapons are being stored underground in water wells, lined with lead-filled concrete. Several facilities have been prepared, so projects can be on the move and withstand the bombing of one facility. In March 2002 , August Hanning, the head of Germany?s Federal Intelligence Services (FIS), told the New Yorker magazine: "It is our estimate that Iraq will have an atomic bomb within three years." Iraq?s skill at hiding its weapons factories is demonstrated by the fact that the UN took four years of inspections to find out about its biological programme. Its scope is immense; UNSCOM (the United Nations Special Commission) found evidence of 38,500 chemical and biological munitions and 690 tonnes of chemical agents. Iraq?s chemical and biological arsenal includes: Botulinum: one of the most poisonous substances known. A fatal dose can be 70 billionths of a gram. It is estimated that 80 per cent of those who inhale it will die within three days. Clostridium: A bacteria which can cause gas gangrene. It can result in acute lung distress, leaking blood vessels, breakdown of red blood cells and liver damage. VX: A nerve agent, so advanced that the smallest concentration against the skin can kill. Iraq initially told the UN that it had not attempted to produce VX. It later admitted to owning 3.9 tonnes of it. None of it was ever accounted for. Mustard Gas: Iraq is understood to have stockpiled 550 mustard-gas bombs. It told UNSCOM it destroyed them, but provided no evidence. In February 1998, UNSCOM tests on shells taken from Iraq produced in 1996 found 96 per cent pure mustard gas. Iraq?s story on its development of chemical and biological weapons has changed repeatedy. In April 1991, it told the UN it has never had any biological materials, weapons, research or facilities. In August of the same year, it admitted to a biological weapons research programme. In July 1995, Iraq admitted having made substantial progress in its biological weapons programme, making just under 30,000 litres of biological agents and filled munitions. This included 19,000 litres of botulinium, 8,400 litres of anthrax and 2,000 litres of clostridium The following month, it conceded it had produced 191 biological bombs. In July 1998, Iraq confiscated documents from UNSCOM weapons inspectors documents, suggesting that it overstated by 6,000 the number of bombs it had used in its war with Iran. It allowed inspectors to make notes, but kept the original document, infuriating the UN and the US. This event triggered what was to become Operation Desert Fox. In August 2000, the CIA reported that Iraq was converting an L-29 trainer jet into an unmanned aircraft which could spread chemical and biological weapons. In May 2001, Iraq took over several crop-dusting helicopters from the UN. At the same time, the head of Germany?s FIS said in a newspaper interview: "New chemical weapons are being developed in Iraq. German companies apparently tried to deliver important components for the production of poison gas to Iraq?s Samara plant." In December last year, a raft of evidence was delivered by Mr al-Haideri. He said bio-weapons were being developed at the back of the Saddam Hussein hospital in Baghdad, and biological and chemical weapons were tested on Kurdish and Shiite prisoners in 1989 and 1992. In July 2002, the Washington Post ran a detailed report suggesting that the CIA has found a laboratory on the west bank of the Tigris river, where 85 scientists were working on a viral strain code-named Blue Nile. In the Iran-Iraq war, in 1980, Iraq deployed chemical weapons against Iranian troops. In 1988, they used chemical weapons against Iraqi Kurdish rebels in Halabja, killing an estimated 5,000 and causing numerous birth defects. Fraser Nelson's report can be seen in full at www.news.scotsman.com ©2002 scotsman.com | contact ***************************************************************** 45 How did Iraq get its weapons? We sold them Sunday Herald - 08 September 2002 By Neil Mackay and Felicity Arbuthnot THE US and Britain sold Saddam Hussein the technology and materials Iraq needed to develop nuclear, chemical and biological wea pons of mass destruction. Reports by the US Senate's committee on banking, housing and urban affairs -- which oversees American exports policy -- reveal that the US, under the successive administrations of Ronald Reagan and George Bush Snr, sold materials including anthrax, VX nerve gas, West Nile fever germs and botulism to Iraq right up until March 1992, as well as germs similar to tuberculosis and pneumonia. Other bacteria sold included brucella melitensis, which damages major organs, and clostridium perfringens, which causes gas gangrene. Classified US Defence Dep-artment documents also seen by the Sunday Herald show that Britain sold Iraq the drug pralidoxine, an antidote to nerve gas, in March 1992, after the end of the Gulf war. Pralidoxine can be reverse engineered to create nerve gas. The Senate committee's rep orts on 'US Chemical and Biological Warfare-Related Dual-Use Exports to Iraq', undertaken in 1992 in the wake of the Gulf war, give the date and destination of all US exports. The reports show, for example, that on May 2, 1986, two batches of bacillus anthracis -- the micro-organism that causes anthrax -- were shipped to the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education, along with two batches of the bacterium clostridium botulinum, the agent that causes deadly botulism poisoning. One batch each of salmonella and E coli were shipped to the Iraqi State Company for Drug Industries on August 31, 1987. Other shipments went from the US to the Iraq Atomic Energy Commission on July 11, 1988; the Department of Biology at the University of Basrah in November 1989; the Department of Microbiology at Baghdad University in June 1985; the Ministry of Health in April 1985 and Officers' City, a military complex in Baghdad, in March and April 1986. The shipments to Iraq went on even after Saddam Hussein ordered the gassing of the Kurdish town of Halabja, in which at least 5000 men, women and children died. The atrocity, which shocked the world, took place in March 1988, but a month later the components and materials of weapons of mass destruction were continuing to arrive in Baghdad from the US. The Senate report also makes clear that: 'The United States provided the government of Iraq with 'dual use' licensed materials which assisted in the development of Iraqi chemical, biological and missile-system programmes.' This assistance, according to the report, included 'chemical warfare-agent precursors, chem ical warfare-agent production facility plans and technical drawings, chemical warfare filling equipment, biological warfare-related materials, missile fabrication equipment and missile system guidance equipment'. Donald Riegle, then chairman of the committee, said: 'UN inspectors had identified many United States manufactured items that had been exported from the United States to Iraq under licences issued by the Department of Commerce, and [established] that these items were used to further Iraq's chemical and nuclear weapons development and its missile delivery system development programmes.' Riegle added that, between January 1985 and August 1990, the 'executive branch of our government approved 771 different export licences for sale of dual-use technology to Iraq. I think that is a devastating record'. It is thought the information contained in the Senate committee reports is likely to make up much of the 'evidence of proof' that Bush and Blair will reveal in the coming days to justify the US and Britain going to war with Iraq. It is unlikely, however, that the two leaders will admit it was the Western powers that armed Saddam with these weapons of mass destruction. However, Bush and Blair will also have to prove that Saddam still has chemical, biological and nuclear capabilities. This looks like a difficult case to clinch in view of the fact that Scott Ritter, the UN's former chief weapons inspector in Iraq, says the United Nations des troyed most of Iraq's wea pons of mass destruction and doubts that Saddam could have rebuilt his stocks by now. According to Ritter, between 90% and 95% of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were des troyed by the UN. He believes the remainder were probably used or destroyed during 'the ravages of the Gulf War'. Ritter has described himself as a 'card-carrying Republican' who voted for George W Bush. Nevertheless, he has called the president a 'liar' over his claims that Saddam Hussein is a threat to America. Ritter has also alleged that the manufacture of chemical and biological weapons emits certain gases, which would have been detected by satellite. 'We have seen none of this,' he insists. 'If Iraq was producing weapons today, we would have definitive proof.' He also dismisses claims that Iraq may have a nuclear weapons capacity or be on the verge of attaining one, saying that gamma-particle atomic radiation from the radioactive materials in the warheads would also have been detected by western surveillance. The UN's former co-ordinator in Iraq and former UN under-secretary general, Count Hans von Sponeck, has also told the Sunday Herald that he believes the West is lying about Iraq's weapons programme. Von Sponeck visited the Al-Dora and Faluja factories near Baghdad in 1999 after they were 'comprehensively trashed' on the orders of UN inspectors, on the grounds that they were suspected of being chemical weapons plants. He returned to the site late in July this year, with a German TV crew, and said both plants were still wrecked. 'We filmed the evidence of the dishonesty of the claims that they were producing chemical and biological weapons,' von Sponeck has told the Sunday Herald. 'They are indeed in the same destroyed state which we witnessed in 1999. There was no trace of any resumed activity at all.' Copyright © 2002 smg sunday newspapers ltd. no.176088 ***************************************************************** 46 U.S. agrees with Israeli assessments on Libya's efforts to get nuclear weapons Back Home By Ze'ev Schiff and Nathan Guttman The U.S. agrees with Israeli assessments that Libya has renewed its efforts to acquire a nuclear bomb, and that those efforts have been stepped up since 1999, when the UN sanctions on the country were removed. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said this week that Libya is energetically seeking to develop a nuclear weapon. Israel believes that Libya is trying to acquire fissionable material for nuclear weapons through centrifuges, but that it is a slow process. Experts say that Libya may be cooperating with North Korea and Pakistan in the effort. The prime minister mentioned the same assessment, though he also raised the possibility the Libyans are getting aid from Iraqi experts. Sharon told media interviewers that it's possible that Libya will achieve nuclear status before Iraq. Libya is considered Egypt's "backyard," and it is doubtful that Egypt could miss spotting extensive nuclear efforts. The Egyptian leadership knows the American administration suspects Libya is making efforts in that direction, and in light of this, the question becomes to what extent Egypt is aware of the efforts and what Cairo plans to do about them. Will it regard it as a threat to be prevented, will it ignore it, or will Cairo try to make indirect use of it? The Libyan efforts came up in discussions between Israeli and American officials six months ago, when it became apparent to the Israelis that the Americans had acquired similar information to what Israel knows about Libya's nuclear ambitions. Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton said in Washington on May 5 that the U.S. "has no doubt" that Libya is continuing its efforts to acquire a nuclear weapon. He said the administration believes that with the sanctions lifted in 1999, Libya's access to nuclear technology was increased. But he added that while Libya needs foreign assistance to achieve its nuclear goals, there is reason to be concerned about the strengthening of Libya's nuclear infrastructure. Bolton noted that on March 25, Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi told Al Jazeera TV that "we demanded the dismantling of Israel's weapons of mass destruction, otherwise the Arabs have the right to be equipped with the same weaponry." He described Libyan chemical weapons development, and spoke about their purchases of chemical materials in the Middle East, Asia and Western Europe, and noted that the Libyans had developed a ground-to-ground missile with the help of Serbia, India, North Korea and China. But he also said that Libya condemned the terror attack on the U.S. last year and that there had been great progress in the state's reduction of support for terror. Bolton was recently in Israel, meeting with various people including Maj. Gen. Uzi Dayan, the outgoing head of the National Security Council. Libya has been prominently listed on the State Department list of states that support terrorism but there was talk about removing it from the list this year to prove that the U.S. has a carrot and stick policy and that those countries that cease support for terror will benefit. But with discussions of Libya now including its nuclear ambitions, the State Department was forced to note in its annual report on terror that while Libya "apparently" ceased support for international terror, there are still pockets of support for links with some groups. Libya's agreement for a compensation program for the families of the victims of the Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie has also helped its image in the U.S. in recent years. Nonetheless, the nuclear issue has now begun to overshadow that progress. Israel's concern is that Libya, which doesn't have long-distance missiles capable of reaching Israel, could use one of its planes, a ship - or perhaps most dangerous - a terrorist organization to deliver a nuclear weapon, if it does acquire one. © Copyright 2002 Ha`aretz. All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 47 The Saddam Debate The Salt Lake Tribune -- Utah's Statewide Newspaper Sunday, September 08, 2002 It is a relief to hear that President Bush will seek the approval of Congress before he takes military action against Iraq, but the American people expected nothing less. The constitutional power to declare war rests with the Congress, not the president, and though the two branches of government have wrestled over war powers for decades, it remains an important principle that the president should not act unilaterally except in an emergency. Whether an emergency now exists goes to the heart of the Iraq question. The president claims that the government of Saddam Hussein is an imminent threat to the United States and its allies. But he has offered little evidence to back that claim. We look forward, then, to the president's speech Thursday before the General Assembly of the United Nations, at which time he has said he will lay out his case. The debate in Congress should open the many questions about Iraq to wider scrutiny by the American people. Among those questions is how much the administration knows about Iraq's nuclear weapons program and whether there is any solid basis to believe Saddam has usable weapons at hand. Even if he does, President Bush must convince the nation and the world that the Iraqi dictator poses enough of a tangible threat to justify a pre-emptive allied attack on Iraq. The morality and legality of such a strike, unprecedented in American history, must be thoroughly examined. A pre-emptive attack could be justified only if President Bush were to prove with certainty that Saddam was preparing an assault on the United States with weapons of mass destruction. There are few imaginable scenarios in which such a standard of proof could be met, but there are some. One would be if Saddam were caught furnishing such weapons to al-Qaida. One danger of a pre-emptive strategy is that if the United States were to employ it, other nations would consider themselves justified in doing the same. China might use it against Taiwan or India against Pakistan. Remember, too, that there are other evil dictatorships in the world that possess nuclear weapons, but the president is not suggesting pre-emptive invasions against them. Exhibit A: North Korea. The president's tactic might be to support a U.N. ultimatum that Iraq re-admit international weapons inspectors unconditionally. If Saddam balks or interferes with the inspectors, President Bush then could argue for an invasion by an international coalition under the auspices of the U.N. Security Council. It's not a bad strategy, especially if it gets inspectors back into Iraq unfettered. But first, the president must answer basic questions about the nature of the Iraqi threat. Let the debate in Congress begin. © Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune ***************************************************************** 48 Iraq accused of trying to smuggle parts for enriching uranium [http://www.ptd.net] Sunday, 08-Sep-2002 3:10AM Story from AFP / Maxim Kniazkov Copyright 2002 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) WASHINGTON, Sept 8 (AFP) - Iraq has tried since the middle of last year to acquire from abroad thousands of pieces of equipment that could be used only to produce enriched uranium, which is needed to manufacture nuclear weapons, US officials disclosed late Saturday. The officials, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, refused to name the country or countries where the government of President Saddam Hussein went on a nuclear shopping spree, or to reveal how Iraq intended to bring the equipment into territory. But they said Baghdad was targeting aluminum tubes that are used exclusively in centrifuges that produce enriched uranium, a key component of any nuclear warhead. "In the recent months, Iraq has been trying to obtain these tubes for its uranian enrichment program, and some of these shipments have been stopped," said one US intelligence official, who declined to elaborate. Since the tubes have no other industrial use, administration officials see the smuggling effort as fresh evidence that, contrary to Baghdad's spirited denials, the Iraqi secret nuclear program is alive and well. "This is part of the record of Saddam Hussein's continuing efforts to acquire nuclear weapons," said one senior administration official. The Iraqi leader has also held several secret meetings in recent months with the country's top nuclear scientists, in what is seen as attempt to personally monitor Baghdad's resurgent nuclear program, the officials said. The Central Intelligence Agency has refused to comment on the evidence, which was first reported by The New York Times on its Web site earlier in the day. But the senior administration official indicated that "additional information will come to light" in coming days, as the debate over President George W. Bush's goal of seeking regime change in Iraq gathers momentum. The nuclear threat from Iraq was the focus of a meeting earlier Saturday between Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who described the threat as "real" and cited new unspecified activity at Iraqi nuclear sites. The head of a UN disarmament team said Friday that satellite images show new structures on many of the Iraqi nuclear facilities inspected in the past. "Images supplied by commercial satellites show that buildings have been built or rebuilt on the sites which we previously inspected," said Jacques Baute, who in the past led a number of teams to Iraq for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Baute refused to name the sites, but said they housed "joint civil and military nuclear installations." Blair, for his part, told reporters that the United States and Britain will be soon realeasing a dossier containing data confirming Iraqi nuclear designs. "There continues to be ample evidence that Saddam Hussein has relentlessly continued to seek to develop weapons of mass destruction, including chemical, biological, nuclear and the means to deliver them," said the administration official, who had been briefed about Bush's talks with Blair. Bush is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly on Thursday in a speech that is being billed a key part of his campaign to rally international support for his policy toward Iraq. UN weapons inspectors, who worked in Iraq until late 1998, have discovered two successful nuclear weapons designs, a neutron initiator, plutonium processing and triggering technology, at least 10 nuclear weapons-related facilities and three reactor programs, according to a recent report released here by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But many experts believe the Baghdad regime has managed to conceal significant parts of its program. Former top Iraqi nuclear scientist Khidhir Hamza, who defected to the West, believes Iraq now has 12 tonnes of uranium, 1.3 tonnes of low enriched uranium and will have three to five nuclear weapons by 2005, the report said. ***************************************************************** 49 Bush, Blair: World Must Act Vs. Iraq Las Vegas SUN Today: September 08, 2002 at 4:40:19 PDT By JENNIFER LOVEN ASSOCIATED PRESS CAMP DAVID, Md.- President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Saturday the world must act against Saddam Hussein, arguing that the Iraqi leader has defied the United Nations and reneged on promises to destroy weapons of mass destruction. "We owe it to future generations to deal with this problem," Bush said as he greeted Blair at Camp David for a hasty brainstorming session on Iraq. "The policy of inaction is not a policy we can responsibly subscribe to," Blair said as he joined Bush in trying to rally reluctant allies to deal with Saddam, perhaps by military force. "A lot of people understand that this man has defied every U.N. resolution. Sixteen U.N. resolutions he's ignored," Bush said. The meeting came five days before Bush addresses the United Nations. The president is expected to challenge the international community to take quick, tough action to disarm Saddam, saying that without allied help the United States will be obligated to act on its own to remove Saddam, according to advisers involved in writing the speech. Bush will tell the U.N. there is no time to waste; one early draft refers to Iraq as a "ticking time bomb." Senior Bush advisers acknowledge that Bush is setting the stage for a confrontation with Saddam, with the U.N. speech a last-ditch attempt to build an international coalition. The president assumes the showdown eventually will lead to military action, aides said. Key allies - including France, Germany and Russia - oppose the use of force against Iraq. Bush said U.N. weapons inspectors, before they were denied access to Iraq in 1998, concluded that Saddam was "six months away from developing a weapon." He also cited satellite photos released by a U.N. agency Friday that show unexplained construction at Iraq sites that weapons inspectors once visited to search for evidence Saddam was trying to develop nuclear arms. "I don't know what more evidence we need," Bush said. Still, more information will be presented as the president continues his effort to rally support at home and overseas for his views on Saddam, a senior White House official said Saturday. The official stressed the administration's view that Saddam's weapons capabilities have been consistently underestimated in the past. Dressed casually and preceded by a military escort in formal dress, Bush and first lady Laura Bush welcomed Blair as he got off a helicopter to a brilliant late-summer afternoon at the secluded presidential retreat in Maryland's Catoctin mountains. After less than four hours of one-on-one talks, as well as larger discussions and dinner at the compound's Laurel Cabin - which included Vice President Dick Cheney - Bush walked Blair on a wooded path back to his helicopter and the British premier headed off for London. The session was an excellent one that focused on "the importance of rallying the international community" behind dealing with the threat Saddam poses, said Bush spokesman Sean McCormack. Without specifying what course he prefers, Blair said the United States and Britain want the international community to form a broad coalition against Saddam but said it must achieve results not preserve the status quo. "The U.N. has got to be the way of dealing with this issue, not the way of avoiding dealing with it," the prime minister said. Bush is strongly considering a U.N. Security Council resolution that would set a deadline for Iraq to open its weapons sites to unfettered inspection and to apply punitive action if the Iraqi president refuses. Bush would not comment on his intentions. The two leaders agreed leaders said Saddam could not be trusted. "This man is a man who said he was going to get rid of weapons of mass destruction and for 11 long years he has not fulfilled his promise," Bush said. Said Blair: "The threat from Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction - chemical, biological, potentially nuclear weapons capability - that threat is real." Iraq has recently stepped up attempts to import industrial equipment that could be used to enrich uranium for use in nuclear weapons - new evidence Saddam is trying to revitalize his nuclear program, a U.S. intelligence official said Saturday. Several equipment shipments destined for Iraq have been stopped, the official said, declining to say by whom or where. Despite Saddam's efforts, Iraq is not believed to have obtained the material required to make a nuclear weapon, officials said. Bush said the U.S. policy continues to call for Saddam's removal from power, but that there are options short of military action to achieve that goal. "There's all kinds of ways to change regimes." Blair, nearly alone among world leaders as an unflinching ally with Bush against Iraq, cast doubt on whether Iraq would ever allow U.N. weapons inspectors the freedom to work effectively. "I have to point out that we have got to see this in the light of experience. Why did the inspectors go? It was because the inspectors found they couldn't do their work. Whatever weapons inspection regime is put in has to be one that's very effective," Blair told reporters as he flew to the United States. Saddam refuses to allow inspectors into his country and says Iraq has already destroyed its weapons of mass destruction. However, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said in Italy that he believed there is a "strong possibility" weapons inspectors will be allowed to return to Iraq and have unlimited access to "whatever sites" they wanted to see. Homeland security chief Tom Ridge said he had a "very appropriate" meeting with Moussa and that Bush had yet to decide on a possible U.S. attack. Russia's defense minister, Sergei Ivanov, told reporters in Moscow that his government believes a quick and unconditional return of the inspectors could ease the crisis. But Iraq's information minister said in Jordan that the United States only cares about "a change in the political regime in Iraq." "To hell with them," Mohammad Saeed Sahaf said of the U.S. government. "They, their sons and their grandchildren will be changed and the regime in Iraq won't be." In Blair, the U.S. president has an outspoken supporter of his Iraq policy despite criticism from the British public, his own party and others in Europe. Blair said last week his government hoped to soon publish a dossier of evidence on the Iraqi president's efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction. Britain released a similar paper against Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network just days before the start of the U.S.- and British-led strikes in Afghanistan. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 50 Iraq could be nine years from nuclear capability: Powell [http://www.ptd.net] Sunday, 08-Sep-2002 12:10AM Story from AFP Copyright 2002 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) LONDON, Sept 8 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Colin Powell said in an interview to be broadcast Sunday that Iraq was intent on acquiring nuclear weapons but could take up to nine years to achieve its aim. "With respect to nuclear, we know that at the time of the (1991) Gulf War... they (Iraq) were further along than we had thought. And so you can debate whether it is one year, five years, six years or nine years (before they have the capability)," Powell told BBC television. "The important point is that they are still committed to pursuing that technology. And if they're committed to pursuing that technology, then obviously they're committed to trying to have a nuclear weapon," added the secretary of state. His comments came as US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair held intense talks near Washington over how to deal with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, whom they accuse of developing biological and chemical weapons and of trying to acquire nuclear arms. Powell, considered a lone moderate in the US administration, claimed Bush was examining all options over Iraq -- "political, diplomatic, military". "The president has not decided to undertake military action. And the president is examining all of his options, and when he has completed that examination it will be as a result of consultation with friends, consultation within his administration. "The president will take the case to the public and to the international community," Powell told the Breakfast with Frost programme to be broadcast later Sunday. His comments were echoed by Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security adviser. In an interview for The Sunday Times, Rice said the US administration was not planning to act in isolation. "This administration is not one that just believes it ought to act on its own," she said. "There will be times when we have policy disagreements with our friends, but by no means is the United States simply running off on its own." Washington and London will seek "the broadest possible international support" in how they deal with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Saturday after talks with Bush at the presidential retreat of Camp David in Maryland. Meanwhile German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder warned the United States against taking unilateral action, at the conclusion of a summit with French President Jacques Chirac in Hanover. Powell underlined the importance of allowing UN weapons inspectors to re-enter Iraq -- from where they have been barred since exiting on the eve of US-British air raids in December 1998. "How much more they (Iraq) have done since 1998, what their inventories might be like now, this is what is not known and this is one of the reasons it would be useful to let the inspectors go in," he told the BBC. "They have to be able to go anywhere they need to, any time they need to, to see whatever they have to see to assure the world that these weapons are not there or are being brought under control." Powell added that Iraq was "much weaker" militarily than during the Gulf War. "I would guesstimate that the Iraqi army is perhaps at one-third or a little better than one-third of its capability of 12 years ago," he said. "It is not the same force." He didn't voice support for US Vice President Dick Cheney's call for a pre-emptive strike on Iraq but conceded that there was an imperative to do "something". "There is an imperative not to allow this regime, this regime which we characterise as evil and have every reason to characterise it as such, there is an imperative not to allow this regime to continue to stick its finger in the eye of the international community, to stick its finger in the eye of the civilized world," he said. But in a sweeping interview with The New York Times, Powell said that while preemptive use of force remained "an option that is available to a president or to a leader," it should not be used lightly. "It must be used with great care and judiciousness and with a clear understanding of the obligations that we have as a responsible member of the international community," stressed the secretary of state. ***************************************************************** 51 Seoul, Washington, Tokyo laud N.K. moves welcome to Korea Herald!!_National http://www.koreaherald.com South Korea, the United States and Japan agreed over the weekend to regard North Korea's recent diplomatic campaign as a positive move, saying it shows a "more constructive" attitude. "The three delegations reconfirmed the importance of the international community's engagement of North Korea," said a joint press statement issued at the end of two-day consultations among senior officials from the three countries in Seoul on Saturday. "In this regard, they recognized the more constructive attitude recently shown by North Korea in its talks with the international community," it said. North Korea recently resumed a series of talks with South Korea and is said to be promoting economic reforms. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il also agreed to hold a historic summit with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Pyongyang Sept. 17 to discuss normalization of bilateral ties. Welcoming the Koizumi impending visit to the North, the senior officials from South Korea and the United States expressed hope that the trip, the first by a Japanese premier, will help improve relations between the North and Japan, and stabilize the Northeast Asian region. In the three-way meeting called the conference of Trilateral Coordination and Oversight Group (TCOG), the United States reaffirmed its willingness to hold "comprehensive and unconditional talks" with North Korea, according to the statement. But Seoul officials said the United States did not disclose details of a possible trip to the North by a special U.S. envoy for talks aimed at improving relations between the two countries. Washington officials have said their administration will flesh out details after seeing the outcome of Koizumi's visit to the North. The three allies also called on the North "to move forward promptly to begin full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency" and allow inspections of its past nuclear activities. The United States has pressed the North to allow nuclear inspection from the U.N. organization, but the communist country has repeatedly refused to accept. The dispute has caused concerns in the South that a security crisis on the Korean Peninsula could arise next year. The TCOG meeting was attended by Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Tae-sik from South Korea, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James A. Kelly and Japan's Director-General of Asian and Oceanian Affairs Hitoshi Tanaka. The three countries regularly coordinate their policies on North Korea. (shinyb@koreaherald.co.kr) By Shin Yong-bae Staff reporter 2002.09.09 (C) Copyright 2000 Digital Korea Herald. All rights reserved. *****************************************************************