***************************************************************** 09/09/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.230 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 British Energy to Get $640M Loan 2 TEPCO execs covered up crack problems 3 British Energy gets £410m state loan 4 UK: Power failures 5 Customs Service Steamed Over ABC's Uranium Smuggling 6 US: The Return of Helen Caldicott 7 British Energy to get £500m bail-out 8 British Energy to get £450m bail-out NUCLEAR REACTORS 9 US: Plant security is no drive-through 10 US: Davis-Besse: Don't hurry back 11 US: ‘As safe as we can be’ NUCLEAR SAFETY 12 US: Heavy metal may be linked to leukemia outbreak* 13 Mayak's Power Supply Unsafe 14 UK: Probe into security lapse at nuclear plant * NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 15 US: Meeting set Tuesday on NFS mixed-waste permit 16 US: WIPP suffers second traffic accident 17 International Conference on Use of Irradiated Nuclear Fuel Opens 18 US: A threat to the health and safety of Crownpoint (mining) NUCLEAR WEAPONS 19 [southnews] UN Atomic Agency: No Evidence of Iraqi Nuke Threat 20 [southnews] Journalists tour former Iraq nuke site 21 Iraq could build nuclear bomb within months -IISS* 22 IISS REPORT CONTAINS NO NEW EVIDENCE - 23 Arafat accuses Israel of using weapons of mass destruction, but 24 Blair Looks to Rally Allies on Iraq 25 Iraq Needs Fissile Material for Nukes 26 US: Cheney Defends Pre-Emptive Doctrine 27 U.S. Warns World: Don't Wait on Iraq 28 Report: Iraq Could Assemble Nukes 29 Rejects complaint against secret decree 30 Nuclear weapons for Sydney is a possibility 31 Iraq 'Close To Nuclear Bomb' 32 Expert: Iraq could build bomb in months, but lacks uranium US DEPT. OF ENERGY 33 ACTION ALERT: DOE/OSTI TO ELIMINATE PubSCIENCE 34 Feds investigating Livermore lab nuclear waste OTHER NUCLEAR 35 Insider: Bin Laden is dead 36 Editorial: Costly conversation / A useful but expensive development ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 British Energy to Get $640M Loan Las Vegas SUN: Today: September 09, 2002 at 7:25:03 PDT By BRUCE STANLEY ASSOCIATED PRESS LONDON- The government agreed Monday to make an emergency loan of about $640 million to British Energy PLC, a distressed company that generates a fifth of the nation's electricity. The loan of 410 million pounds will enable the former state-run firm to continue operating while it studies its financial condition and determines its long-term needs, the Department of Trade and Industry said. British Energy has suffered a cash squeeze due to a sharp drop in electricity prices and technical problems at its power stations. It said Thursday it might go have to file for bankruptcy if the government didn't help. Privatized in 1996, British Energy has eight nuclear power stations and employs 5,200 people in the United Kingdom. Earlier this year it reported full-year losses of nearly 500 million pounds ($780 million). Environmental groups had urged the government not to bail out the company. The loan must be repaid with interest by Sept. 27, the DTI said. A department spokeswoman said on customary condition of anonymity that British Energy would be charged interest, though she was unable to say what the rate would be. The government hasn't ruled out extending the loan after its expiration date, she added. The London Stock Exchange resumed trading in the shares Monday after having suspended such trading last week pending clarification of the company's financial position. Despite the government loan, the company's shares plunged 68.1 percent to 25.75 pence (40.17 cents) in midday trading in London. British Energy's shares traded three years ago at more than 700 pence. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 2 TEPCO execs covered up crack problems Mainichi Interactive - Top News Several Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) executives have played a major role in covering up several incidents of trouble that occurred at its nuclear plants, it was learned Monday. The findings by TEPCO's in-house probe panel on the scandal contrast starkly with a separate investigation conducted by the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, which concluded that senior TEPCO officials "knew little" about the cover-ups. TEPCO covered up a total of 29 cases of trouble, including cracks appearing in reactor parts at two nuclear power plants in Fukushima Prefecture and another in Niigata Prefecture from 1987 to 1995. The work to cover up the trouble had been handed over to a number of TEPCO officials since 1995, the probe panel has found. When the plants' repair teams encountered troubles that they had never dealt with before, they reported them to TEPCO headquarters' nuclear power division to learn how similar problems were resolved in the United States, sources at the power company said. However, these troubles were often not reported to the government. Several people in charge of the nuclear power division from 1987 to 1995 have since become members of the executive board, according to the in-house probe panel. TEPCO plans to take punitive action against over 50 employees, including several executives, over the scandal. After nuclear safety agency inspectors raided TEPCO head office on Sept. 6, they concluded that people in charge of the power plants had virtual arbitrary powers to deal with trouble at their facilities and officials at the headquarters were not aware of the trouble in detail. (Mainichi Shimbun, Sept. 9, 2002) Related stories: Nuclear inspectors raid TEPCO head office [http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/archive/200209/06/20020906p2a00m0dm027000c.html ] TEPCO inspectors admit to covering up nuclear reactor problems [http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/archive/200209/04/20020904p2a00m0fp020000c.html ] Tokyo Electric fixed nuke reactors without authorization [http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/archive/200209/02/20020902p2a00m0dm023000c.html ] Heads to roll over reactor cracks [http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/archive/200208/31/20020831p2a00m0fp027002c.html ] Cracks in nuclear plants hidden to avoid downtime [http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/archive/200208/30/20020830p2a00m0dm018000c.html ] Cracks revealed in nuclear reactor inspections [http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/archive/200208/29/20020829p2a00m0fp024002c.html ] © 2002 The Mainichi Newspapers Co. ***************************************************************** 3 British Energy gets £410m state loan BBC NEWS | Business | Monday, 9 September, 2002, 15:43 GMT 16:43 [Dungeness B Power Station] British Energy provides a fifth of the UK's power The UK Government is to lend struggling nuclear power company British Energy £410m, granting the stricken company a temporary reprieve. The company had been in talks with the government since last Thursday, when it warned that it faced insolvency unless it got help. British Energy, which provides a fifth of the UK's power, has been hit by a drop in the wholesale price of electricity and by a shutdown at one of its power stations. Trading in British Energy shares restarted after the package was announced, but they closed down 65% at 28pence.The shares had been suspended since last Thursday. Insolvency threat remains The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said that the support package would last until 27 September "pending clarification of the company's full financial position". We now need a complete rethink of the role of the private sector in major UK utilities John Edmonds, GMB Union "No decisions have been taken, and no commitments have been given about support beyond this period," the DTI said in a statement. British Energy said the loan would enable it to continue trading, and added that talks on a long-term restructuring of the business would start soon. While the company said there were "reasonable" grounds for believing that the talks would succeed, it warned that "there can be no certainty that this will preserve value for investors". And it said if the talks failed "the company may have to take appropriate insolvency proceedings". 'Rethink' needed Unions welcomed the move, which they hoped would protect the 5,200 people employed by British Energy in the UK. British Energy's UK Nuclear Power Stations Hinkley Point B Hunterston B Dungeness B Hartlepool Heysham 1 Heysham 2 Torness Sizewell B "This is a welcome announcement to provide a short-term lifeline for the industry," said the general secretary of the GMB, John Edmonds. "But we now need a complete rethink of the role of the private sector in major UK utilities. "We cannot continue to gamble the future of such an important sector on the roulette wheel of the Stock Exchange." Doug Rooney, national officer at Amicus, said the government should think about renationalising the company. "If we get to the end of the month and the company has not secured a long-term financial settlement, we will be saying that rather than put the company into voluntary liquidation the government should put it back into public ownership." Under investigation On Friday the UK's financial watchdog said it had launched an investigation into the company's finances. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is concerned that British Energy may not have kept investors properly informed of its worsening financial position. News of the company's dire situation came as a shock to many analysts, who say they had little warning of the extent of the company's problems. But British Energy said its financial situation rapidly deteriorated after negotiations with state-owned British Nuclear Fuel failed. It had hoped to take over the running of six of BNFL's reactors in return for a management fee. ***************************************************************** 4 UK: Power failures Sunday Herald With Britain's largest electricity generator facing financial ruin, Environment Editor Rob Edwards [rob.edwards@sundayherald.com] asks if the dream of a nuclear future is over British Energy, the corporate nuclear giant based in East Kilbride, had a dream. It wanted, it proclaimed, 'to be the world's leading nuclear energy company'. But now that dream has died. Facing bankruptcy, it was forced late on Thursday to cease trading its shares on the stock exchange and to beg the government to bail it out. The company's controversial plans to build up to 10 new nuclear stations, including two in Scotland, look dead in the water. British Energy is also under investigation by the City's watchdog, the Financial Services Authority, for allegedly misleading investors. Just last month the company's executive chairman, Robin Jeffrey, reassured everyone that there was no problem. 'We do not face a financial crisis and we have a clear and well thought-out way forward,' he said. Ministers want Jeffrey's head on a plate and he looks likely to go. But the affair could also claim some ministerial reputations, particularly that of pro-nuclear energy minister Brian Wilson, who has long been a defender of British Energy. The company operates Hunterston B nuclear station in his Cunningham North constituency. Reports yesterday suggested the government had already decided in principle on a rescue package. It will involve giving the company a short-term loan, and exempting it from paying the climate-change levy, a tax on the pollution that is wrecking the climate. Taxpayers, in other words, will have to fork out to save the ailing nuclear giant. But it will only be a short-term solution. The underlying problem -- the hopelessly uneconomic nature of nuclear power -- will persist. The pitiful plight of British Energy is a direct result of the high cost of ensuring nuclear safety and of dealing with the dangerous radioactive wastes reactors inevitably create. 'Nuclear power is extremely inflexible and it has a relatively high cost structure,' said Gordon MacKerron, the government's leading nuclear economics advisor. 'In the UK we have never built a nuclear power station that could compete with contemporary alternatives.' Generating electricity by burning coal, oil or gas or by tapping the power of the wind has nearly always been cheaper. What's amazing is that nuclear power has survived so long. British Energy, which provides 25% of the UK's electricity, was privatised in 1996. It operates all eight of Britain's second and third generation nuclear stations. In the last three years it has also bought a big stake in three nuclear stations in the US and one in Canada, as well as a coal-fired station in Yorkshire. On Thursday, the company announced it was seeking 'immediate financial support' from the government 'to enable a longer term restructuring to take place'. It had 'reasonable grounds' for believing the discussions that had commenced would have a successful outcome. But a carefully worded statement added: 'The board anticipates that if these discussions are not successful, the company may not be able to meet its financial obligations as they fall due and therefore the company may have to take appropriate insolvency proceedings.' British Energy needs to find at least £475 million by the middle of next year in order to pay off money it has been lent by banks. Several factors have combined to bring the company to this pass. The first is a drive from the energy regulator, Ofgem, to cut power prices for consumers using a new system of trading arrangements known as Neta. The company has been forced to cut its prices to compete with much cheaper power from alternatives, particularly new gas-fired stations. In the last 18 months this has seen the price at which British Energy could sell its electricity fall from £25 to £16 per megawatt hour. This is less than the cost of producing the power and means nuclear stations have been running at a loss. MacKerron, who was a member of the government's energy review team last year, pointed out that in such circumstances, nuclear companies have very little room to manoeuvre. They cannot cut back on staff or safety procedures because they would then face legal action from the government's health and safety watchdog, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate. While the price of power has been falling, the nuclear stations that generate it have become less reliable. In May, at Torness in East Lothian, a gas circulator vital for cooling the intensely hot nuclear reaction broke, causing one of the two reactors to be unexpectedly shut down. This was followed last month by problems with vibrations in another gas circulator, which prompted the second Torness reactor to be switched off. The day that happened, British Energy's share price dropped by 30%. Both reactors at Torness have since remained closed, with some experts suggesting it could be months before they are back on line. Two other reactors at Heysham, near Lancaster, are now under close supervision. Because they are a similar design and age to those at Torness, they risk the same problem. British Energy has also been complaining about the high price it has to pay Britain's other nuclear company, British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), to reprocess the uranium fuel burnt in reactors. Reprocessing, which takes place at the Sellafield complex in Cumbria, separates the spent fuel into high, medium and low level wastes while extracting plutonium, which was once seen as the nuclear fuel of the future. But grandiose plans for dedicated plutonium-burning reactors, pioneered at Dounreay in Caithness, have long since evaporated because they were far too costly and uncertain. Now Britain has one of the world's largest civil stockpiles of plutonium, and no clear idea of what to do with it. In this context, British Energy has been pressing BNFL to cancel its reprocessing contract which costs £300m a year. The alternative would be to build dry stores for the spent fuel, which would only cost about £50m a year. But BNFL has steadfastly refused to cancel the contracts, because it too is in such dire financial straights that it needs every penny it can get. The Sunday Herald revealed in July that the state-owned company made a massive £2.1 billion loss last year because of the huge cost of dealing with radioactive waste. Nevertheless, environmentalists have called on trade and industry secretary Patricia Hewitt to ease the pressure on British Energy by ordering BNFL to cancel the contracts. A report by the Socialist Environment and Resources Association (Sera), the green lobby within the Labour Party supported by more than 100 Labour MPs, concluded this would save up to £250m a year. 'Patricia Hewitt could take one simple step to put British Energy out of its financial misery: end its reprocessing contracts with BNFL,' said Sera's chairman, Bill Eyres. 'The Secretary of State as sole shareholder of BNFL can do this at the stroke of a pen. It can be justified on environmental grounds.' But this would mean the government would have to rewrite its existing plans to bail out BNFL, which is technically bankrupt. Losing the income from the reprocessing contracts would force the taxpayer to meet virtually all of the staggering £20bn bill for cleaning up the mess created by 50 years of nuclear research and development. British Energy has also been lobbying to exempt nuclear power from the climate-change levy, though this would only save £80m a year. The company wants its rates cut too, which would save £20m a year. In addition, the company is 'exploring the possibility' of selling off its 50% stake in three US plants, which still make a profit. This could raise between £200m and £300m. The trouble with all these solutions is they amount to little more than short-term sticking plasters. None of them would remove the high cost of generating nuclear power or of storing and disposing of the radio active waste. No solution can overcome the technology's inherent unreliability. Renationalising the nuclear industry, though unlikely, has not been ruled out. A more radical option would be to simply let British Energy wither on the vine. Its plans for new nuclear stations could be abandoned, and its eight existing stations closed down in a phased programme. Environmentalists argue there is so much surplus electricity generating capacity that this would be possible without the lights having to go out. The peak demand for electricity on the coldest day in Scotland is around five gigawatts. Yet the combined output of the coal-fired stations at Longannet and Cockenzie on the Forth and the oil and gas station at Peterhead is six gigawatts. And this does not include the numerous hydro stations in the Highlands. 'Scotland has twice as much electricity generating capacity as it needs,' said Dr Richard Dixon, head of research at Friends of the Earth Scotland. 'The loss of Torness has not caused the lights to go out, and there would be few problems if Hunterston shut down as well.' A rapid expansion of clean, renewable power from the wind, waves and tide, combined with a crash programme in improving energy efficiency in industry and the home, is seen as a healthier alternative. 'Renewable energy is the future. The uncertainties are only over how long we take to build it up and whether we create Scottish jobs and export industries in the process,' Dixon argued. 'Nuclear power has shown its true colours -- too expensive, too dangerous and too unreliable. It is rapidly heading for extinction.' British Energy's power stations 1. Torness, East Lothian: Two reactors started producing up to 1250 megawatts (MW) of electricity in 1988. Both have been unexpectedly closed this year because of problems with gas circulators, the first in May and the second in August. They remain closed. 2. Hunterston B, Ayrshire: Two reactors started producing up to 1190MW in 1976. The plant faced legal action in 2000 after four radiation sources went missing. It is in the constituency of the UK energy minister, Brian Wilson. 3. Heysham 2, Lancashire: Two reactors started producing up to 1250MW in 1988. They are similar in design to Torness, and are under close examination in case they experience problems with gas circulators. 4. Heysham 1, Lancashire: Two reactors started producing up to 1110MW in 1983. 5. Hartlepool: Two reactors started producing up to 1210MW in 1983. 6. Sizewell, Suffolk: One reactor started producing up to 1188MW in 1995. It is a pressurised water reactor, a completely different design from British Energy's other nuclear stations in the UK, which are all advanced gas-cooled reactors. 7. Dungeness B, Kent: Two reactors started producing up to 1110MW in 1983. The plant has been plagued with technical problems in the past and was shut in August 'for refuelling and routine work on plant systems'. 8. Hinkley Point B, Somerset: Two reactors started producing up to 1220MW in 1976. Plans to build another nuclear station here were abandoned in 1995. 9. Eggborough, Yorkshire: This is British Energy's only coal-fired power station, bought in March 2000. It can produce 2000MW, but has to be back-fitted with scrubbers to cut its emissions of sulphur in order to comply with air quality standards. What do you think about this article? Have your say in the forum [http://www.thesundayherald.com] ©2002 smg sunday newspapers ltd. no.176088. all rights reserved. contact ***************************************************************** 5 Customs Service Steamed Over ABC's Uranium Smuggling The Salt Lake Tribune -- Monday, September 9, 2002 BY DAVID BAUDER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 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. Correspondent Brian Ross' investigation will air as part of ABC's Sept. 11 anniversary coverage this week. Federal authorities are angry that they have had to spend time on ABC's experiment. "The U.S. Customs Service is engaged in a deadly serious business," said spokesman Dean Boyd. "The American public wants us to focus on real threats, not fake ones." ABC said it borrowed 15 pounds of depleted uranium from an environmental group, the Natural Resources Defense Council. 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, 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 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 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." © Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on Utah OnLine is ***************************************************************** 6 The Return of Helen Caldicott East Bay Express | eastbayexpress.com | News : Feature After setting aside her antinuclear struggle in the '80s, the doctor has restarted her crusade here in the East Bay. But it's a very different world than the one she left behind. BY KARA PLATONI The time is seven minutes to midnight. Details: Helen Caldicott will give a lecture,"Leadership &Hope in the Age of Terrorism," on September 11 at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco. For ticket information, call 415-392-4400. E-mail [kara.platoni@eastbayexpress.com] All Helen Caldicott wants to do is save the world. Her personal mission began with a paperback novel. Caldicott recalls the horror she felt as a teenager when she read Nevil Shute's On the Beach, a novel set in her home country of Australia after nuclear war has erupted in the northern hemisphere. The final chapter describes the last days of Melbourne's residents as they suffer from radiation illness and give their children cyanide capsules to spare them the same fate. "That image never left me," she says with the brisk delivery of someone who has often told this story. "I lost my innocence when I read that book." Caldicott's reaction to On the Beach set the tone for her later speeches: urgent, visceral, and outraged. Coming from a nation without a nuclear arsenal, Caldicott was appalled that the United States, representing only five percent of the world's population, had the power to destroy humanity at the touch of a button. From the beginning, she says, she was motivated by an intense physical fear. "I was obsessed," she says. "I could feel the heat of the nuclear weapons." From that point on, her life would be devoted to banning the bomb. In the late '70s and early '80s, the Australian-born pediatrician gained international fame and notoriety as a charismatic public speaker who traveled the globe preaching the gospel of nuclear disarmament. Her passionate, graphic speeches instilled the horror of nuclear holocaust in hundreds of thousands of listeners, as her campaign took her to venues as disparate as the Playboy Mansion and the Reagan White House. She wrote several highly influential books and helped found two prominent antinuclear groups, starting chapters and recruiting new members wherever she went. She was the Johnny Appleseed of antinuclear activism. Caldicott's globetrotting helped ignite a powerful mass crusade against nuclear weaponry and the escalating arms race between the United States and the former Soviet Union. But when the Soviet Union disintegrated and the Berlin Wall was sledgehammered down by jubilant Germans, Caldicott was among the legions of antinuke activists who believed disarmament could not be far away. Convinced that the world's people would no longer live with the threat of instant and total annihilation, Caldicott returned home to Australia and unpacked her suitcase. Thousands of activists inspired by her did likewise. Now, a decade later, this mass retirement seems overly optimistic. And Caldicott is back, bearing tidings worse than ever. Her latest book, The New Nuclear Danger, warns that while public attention was focused on glasnost or peace dividends, the risk of nuclear engagement was actually increasing. In particular, Caldicott claims the United States has quietly continued to develop the nation's nuclear arsenal in violation of international arms control treaties. She points an accusing finger squarely at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the high-powered research facility managed by the University of California. Caldicott and others charge that Livermore scientists are not only researching a new generation of nuclear weaponry, but are modifying existing weapons to develop capabilities more suited to the political aims of the Bush administration. Bay Area watchdog groups such as the Western States Legal Foundation and Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment (Tri-Valley CAREs) have been sounding this alarm for years. Both keep a wary eye on Livermore, which they say continues to fund weapons development. But the public isn't really paying attention. There was barely a peep of reaction from Americans this spring when the Bush administration was revealed to be considering instances in which it might use nuclear weapons as something other than a last resort. Nor were there mass protests this June when the United States abrogated the Nixon-era Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The September 11 attacks have given the Bush administration leeway to pursue increases in military might that few have challenged. By returning to the public speaking circuit, Caldicott is giving national voice to these concerns. Backed up only by her book and a planned think tank she hopes to finance on a scant $1 million a year, Caldicott proposes to do what she does best -- rouse the rabble. She wants to establish her new Nuclear Policy Research Institute as a "full-frontal" challenge to the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank that she says is driving US foreign policy. Caldicott prematurely touted efforts to locate her think tank at Oakland's Mills College; the plans fell through, although she says she is looking for another Bay Area site. But finding a home for her institute will be a cinch compared to her ultimate goal: stirring up a mass movement robust enough to end the nuclear arms race for good. To even dream of scratching the nation's consciousness, Caldicott must prove that she is more than a one-trick pony, and is capable of adjusting her message for the times. She's reentering a profoundly changed world, even in the lefty Bay Area. More countries than ever have the bomb; we have "rogue states" and "asymmetrical threats" instead of superpowers; people have turned commercial airliners into weapons and office buildings into military targets. Some of the people Caldicott once inspired have become complacent, and a new generation has grown up since the end of the Cold War having never cowered beneath their elementary-school desks during a bomb drill or bit their nails through a showing of The Day After. Can Caldicott rally the troops again, reactivating a movement that faded during the '90s and convincing younger activists that the battle against the bomb is worth fighting? And can she alarm Bay Area residents about the new generation of nukes developed in their backyard while they were looking the other way? * Helen Caldicott's entry into political activism came in 1971. Despite the International Test Ban Treaty, which forbade atmospheric testing, the French government had been blowing up weapons over the Pacific atoll of Mururoa, and radioactive fallout blew towards Australia. Caldicott sent a letter to the Adelaide Advertiser warning about the medical dangers of radioactive isotopes turning up in breast milk, and from that letter sprang a series of invitations for television interviews and public-speaking opportunities. As a rookie orator, sometimes her numbers were off, and sometimes she was accused of being too emotional. But public sentiment warmed to her cause, and Caldicott was sent with a delegation to take the Australians' complaints to Paris. The French government was resistant, but popular opinion ultimately became so critical that eventually the country moved its tests underground. Caldicott considers this her first big victory. After that, Caldicott soon took on two more public health issues, one nuclear and one not. She founded Australia's first cystic fibrosis clinic at the Adelaide Children's Hospital; treating the common but often fatal disease had been a lifelong desire of hers. She also led a national battle to ban uranium mining, a potentially lucrative Australian export that could provide fuel for nuclear power plants, leaving behind radioactive waste. At first the miners' unions were hostile, fearing for their jobs, but they ultimately enacted a five-year ban after she spelled out the effects of radiation on mine workers' testicles. eastbayexpress.com | originally published: September 4, 2002 ***************************************************************** 7 British Energy to get £500m bail-out /by Ben Leapman Political Reporter/ Ministers are today preparing to unveil a bail-out worth up to £500 million to save nuclear generator British Energy from collapse. The financial guarantees could be followed within weeks by a further cash injection to help the privatised firm, hit by falling energy prices. The company told the Government last week it needs at least £280 million in cash to allow it to stave off creditors. Trade Secretary Tessa Jowell has been forced to pay out because the company produces a quarter of Britain's electricity, and its demise could jeopardise supply and put public safety at risk. However, the bail-out will anger many Labour MPs and trade unionists who do not want the company's shareholders to be helped from the public purse. The knives are out for British Energy's executive chairman Robin Jeffrey, who told City analysts last month that the company was not in crisis. The Financial Services Authority is examining whether the company was sufficiently open about its problems. British Energy said Mr Jeffrey had not learned the full scale of the crisis when he talked to analysts on 14 August. This Is London ***************************************************************** 8 British Energy to get £450m bail-out Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Charlotte Denny Monday September 9, 2002 The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk] The Department of Trade and Industry is set to announce a £450m bail-out for British Energy today, after ministers decided that public safety could be threatened if the struggling nuclear power operator was allowed to collapse. Officials spent the weekend in emergency talks with BE executives and their advisers, following the company's admission late last week that it was on the brink of bankruptcy. A source close to the DTI said: "The government is moving with some urgency to put in place a package to allow British Energy to continue trading." While the decision to under write BE will avert an immediate crisis at the firm, which produces about a quarter of Britain's power, it represents a serious embarrassment for the DTI just months after the failure of Railtrack, another industry which was quickly packaged up and privatised in the dying days of John Major's government. BE blames the collapse in wholesale electricity prices over the past year for its financial difficulties. Ministers, however, are said to be furious that the company is appealing for government assistance within months of paying out a large dividend to shareholders. Trading in the company's shares and bonds was sus pended after it announced late on Wednesday night that it was seeking government cash. The financial services authority, the City watchdog, has launched an investigation into whether BE misled investors when it reassured them about its financial health only three weeks ago. The BE chairman, Robin Jeffreys, is likely to face particular scrutiny for a briefing he gave to City analysts in August, and any long-term bail-out of the company is likely to cost him his job. Details of the financial lifeline have yet to be finalised, but sources close to the company said it could include an exemption from the government's climate change levy. BE has been lobbying for some time to be let off tax which costs it £80m a year, arguing that nuclear generation does not produce the greenhouse gases which contribute to global warming. Other options include reducing the firm's business tax rates. Last week's crisis is thought to have been triggered after BE's advisers, the City bankers Lazards, warned that the deal the firm was discussing with British Nuclear Fuels to reduce the costs of cleaning up its radioactive waste would not fill the hole in its balance sheet. BNFL, which runs the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant, claims it bent over backwards to accommodate its largest customer, but even a sizeable reduction in the annual £300m bill it charges for cleaning up BE's spent fuel was not enough to save the company. "It is in our interests that BE survives," said one BNFL insider. Industry experts said yesterday that this week's credit line would provide only a stopgap solution for a company which employs 5,200 staff in Britain. Oversupply in the wholesale electricity market has caused a 40% collapse in prices over the past four years, increasing pressure on BE, which faces higher costs than other operators. While gas and coal generators can be mothballed when prices fall, BE's 15 nuclear reactors must run 24 hours a day for safety reasons. It needs wholesale power prices of £19 per megawatt hour to break even, but UK prices have been around £16 over the past couple of months. Ofgem, the electricity regulator, has ruled out calls to rig the market in favour of nuclear power, even though the government is relying on the industry to help meet its targets for cutting carbon dioxide emissions. BE declined to comment yesterday on either the rescue package or the FSA investigation. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ***************************************************************** 9 Plant security is no drive-through 101 North 6th St. Allentown, PA 18101 (610) 820-6500 *Home Delivery Info* Local: (610) 820-6601 Toll-free: (800) 666-5492 From The Morning Call -- September 9, 2002 But critics say higher alert status at nuclear sites is not enough. By Christian Berg Of The Morning Call Ask the waitresses at MelRoe's Family Restaurant if you want to know how nuclear power plant security has increased since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The eatery sits across the street from PPL Corp.'s Susquehanna Steam Electric station, a two-reactor plant northwest of Hazleton. MelRoe's is a popular lunch spot for PPL employees, and many workers have take-out orders delivered to the plant. Before Sept. 11, waitress Layla Evina would hop in her car and drive the food half a mile to the plant's main gate. Today, the road is blocked by a check station, which is protected by state troopers and National Guardsmen. Evina drops the food at the station, where it is examined by private security guards and put through X-ray and explosive-detection machines before being picked up by plant workers. High-tech scanning of hamburgers and onion rings shows that plant officials are taking nothing for granted. Like the 64 other nuclear power plants in the nation, the Susquehanna facility went on high alert immediately after the terrorist attacks and has remained there since. Nuclear power plants were among the nation's most secure industrial facilities even before Sept. 11. Since then, plant owners and government agencies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to beef up security. Despite the precautions, one main question remains: Can a nuclear reactor withstand the crash of an airliner such as the Boeing 767s that slammed into the World Trade Center? The Nuclear Regulatory Commission acknowledges that nuclear plants weren't designed to withstand such attacks. The commission is studying the potential impact of such a crash and might recommend changes to plant design. Nuclear plant security is important in Pennsylvania, which ranks second in the nation in the number of nuclear power plants, with five. Only Illinois, with six, has more. Almost 690,000 Pennsylvanians ? about 5.6 percent of the state's population ? live within 10 miles of a nuclear plant. Those areas, commonly known as the ''emergency planning zones,'' are most susceptible to radioactive fallout and would be evacuated in the event of an attack. That includes more than 244,000 people who live within 10 miles of Exelon Corp.'s Limerick nuclear plant, southeast of Pottstown in Montgomery County. When it comes to nuclear plant safety, the concern is radioactivity, not the possibility of an atomic explosion. Uranium used in power plants is nowhere near as unstable as that used in nuclear weapons. But industry officials acknowledge that a powerful conventional explosion could release radioactive material into the atmosphere. People exposed to the fallout would have a greater risk of developing several types of cancer. In an extreme case involving the release of high levels of radioactive materials, people near the nuclear plant could develop almost immediate radiation sickness. That's what happened in 1986 when an accident destroyed a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in the former Soviet Union. Thirty-one people ? most of whom had been involved with fighting fires at the reactor ? died within days of the accident. Besides the 10-mile evacuation zone, a 50-mile radius is drawn around nuclear plants to indicate possible food contamination from radiation. Milk, livestock and produce from farms would be considered unfit for human consumption. If a nuclear accident occurred at the Limerick plant, the danger area would include the Lehigh Valley. In response to the Sept. 11 attacks, the NRC in February ordered nuclear plants to increase security. The details are classified, but they include establishing wider security perimeters, increasing the number of guards and severely restricting visitor access. At Pennsylvania's nuclear facilities, the state has provided troopers and National Guardsmen, who conduct patrols of the plant grounds. In the days after Sept. 11, nuclear plants were protected by Air Force and Air National Guard fighter jets. Those patrols have been scaled back, prompting calls from watchdog groups and some members of Congress for anti-aircraft guns and surface-to-air missiles at nuclear sites. The NRC objects. It says the proper response to the aerial threat lies in strengthening airport and airline security. The agency said last month the probability of terrorists using a large airliner to damage a plant ''remains acceptably low.'' At Susquehanna, each of the two reactors contains 132 tons of uranium encased in concrete and steel. The first line of defense is a 3-foot-thick concrete wall on the reactor containment building. Inside, the reactors are protected by an additional 6 feet of concrete poured over a dome of intertwined steel reinforcement bars. There is a total of 120 miles of steel reinforcement bars inside the walls of each containment building. ''It's a very, very strong facility,'' PPL spokesman Herb Woodeshick said. ''We're confident it will be effective in preventing any massive release of radiation.'' Some watchdog groups fear that spent uranium fuel stored in pools of water and huge concrete bunkers could be attacked with handheld rockets launched from outside a plant. ''These reactors have spent-fuel pools above ground,'' said Danielle Brian, executive director of the watchdog group Project On Government Oversight. ''In these cases, a certain kind of explosive could even be launched from outside the fence line into the side of the pool.'' If that happened, she said, the pool could drain, release high levels of radiation and set off a radioactive fire. Susquehanna is one of 21 U.S. nuclear plants in which spent fuel pools have reached capacity. Since 1999, the plant has stored used uranium in huge steel containers, which are locked inside concrete bunkers on the plant grounds. ''Every bit of fuel that we've used for 19 years is here,'' Woodeshick said. ''There's nowhere else to go with it.'' The federal government is establishing a national repository for nuclear plant waste in Nevada. But that facility is not expected to open until at least 2010. Critics contend that the spent-fuel containers could be a more attractive terrorist target than the reactors, because they are more accessible and less protected. ''I would certainly agree that there's not as much concrete as there is around the reactor,'' Woodeshick said. ''But there's still several feet of concrete.'' Government officials say the odds of any successful nuclear plant attack are low. Earl Freilino, Pennsylvania director of homeland security, stresses that no credible threats have surfaced since Sept. 11. ''Residents should feel reassured that federal, state and local agencies are doing everything they can to ensure their safety,'' said Freilino, a former FBI agent who specialized in anti-terrorism. ''The preparations and resources are as high as ever.'' Plant owners and government agencies are preparing for the worst. Last month, state officials offered potassium iodide tablets to residents who live and work within the 10-mile emergency planning zones. About 34 percent of eligible residents picked up the tablets, which provide a measure of protection against thyroid cancer in the event of a radioactive release. ''Evacuation is always going to be our best method of protection, but residents can have the pills there as an extra measure of security,'' said April Hutcheson, press secretary for the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. Three companies operate the five nuclear plants in Pennsylvania. Exelon Corp. of Chicago, the nation's largest nuclear power plant operator, owns Limerick, Peach Bottom in York County and Three Mile Island in Dauphin County. (Exelon operates Three Mile Island in a joint venture with British Energy.) FirstEnergy Corp. of Akron, Ohio, owns a plant in Beaver County, northwest of Pittsburgh. PPL Corp. of Allentown runs the Susquehanna plant on Route 11 in Salem Township, Luzerne County. At Susquehanna, the Sept. 11 response has included closing all but one access road to the plant. All other access points, including a rail line into the property, are blocked with concrete barriers. No one except the 1,100 plant employees is allowed inside. Tours for school groups and other organizations are no longer permitted. Company-trained security forces patrol the 110-acre reactor complex, while state police and National Guard troops cover the 2,500-acre property outside the main security fence. Similar plans are in place at Pennsylvania's other nuclear plants. Freilino has formed a task force to coordinate anti-terrorism strategies among plant owners and federal, state and local agencies. ''There was a high level of security before 9-11,'' Freilino said. ''Since 9-11, the planning and cooperation among agencies is as it's never been before.'' Nuclear industry officials say the post-Sept. 11 initiatives complement what was the best corporate security program in America. Susquehanna plant employees, for example, had to undergo FBI background checks, psychological evaluations and random drug testing. Workers entering the plant place their hands in a palm geometry scanner to verify their identities. Security forces at nuclear plants participate in NRC-sponsored war games that simulate attacks, including the potential for plant employees who act as ''insiders.'' Critics say those war games have pointed out weaknesses in nuclear security. A group of U.S. senators said nearly half of the nation's nuclear power plants failed recent mock-terrorist attacks, despite six months of advance warning. A Senate panel approved a bill this summer that would give the NRC additional responsibilities to monitor plants, aided by the formation of a federal Nuclear Infrastructure Antiterrorism Team. Critics say the NRC and the nuclear power industry have been slow to respond to security threats, especially after diagrams of American nuclear plants were found in the al-Qaida caves in Afghanistan. Though the proposed Nuclear Security Act will go to the floor of the Senate, companion legislation might face a tougher battle in the Republican-controlled House, which has shown little interest in the matter. christian.berg@mcall.com 610-820-6517 The Chicago Tribune contributed to this story. Copyright © 2002, The Morning Call ***************************************************************** 10 Davis-Besse: Don't hurry back The Plain Dealer Editorials 09/09/02 Now the General Accounting Office is launching an investigation into the Nu clear Regulatory Commission's handling of the Davis-Besse nuclear plant. This is the seventh probe of Davis-Besse, and Rep. Dennis Kucinich's recent admonition is beginning to sound quite wise: "There's no way that plant should be permitted to restart without the GAO having investigated and presented its report." Kucinich has raised his voice - as he is wont to do - because the GAO report may not be completed before FirstEnergy Corp. restarts Davis-Besse, near Toledo. FirstEnergy hopes to get NRC approval to restart the plant by December. But the GAO report team is slated to begin its work within the next three months. Even if Davis-Besse risks missing its December deadline, it should be sidelined until the report is ready. Without the report in hand, we fear that FirstEnergy's eagerness to get back in business and put this embarrassing incident behind it might overshadow key lessons about plant inspections. The NRC, too, which failed to follow up with tougher inspections in 1998 despite signs that Davis-Besse's staff wasn't doing its job, might be in too big a hurry for "closure." It took up to eight long years for boric acid to bore through Davis-Besse's reactor lid. Despite long rust streaks and huge lavalike boric acid deposits, the experts didn't notice a thing. In short, that rotted lid is a symbol of a rotten system of inspections by the company and the NRC. And if it's rotten in Toledo, are there problems elsewhere, too? The probes by the GAO and others may not answer that question, but the question must at least be treated seriously. The NRC and FirstEnergy botched critical safety inspections, and it would be well worth knowing how to prevent such a thing from happening again. FirstEnergy may not think that information is worth waiting for, but we do. © 2002 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission. © 2002 cleveland.com. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 11 ‘As safe as we can be’ Green Bay Press-Gazette - [http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/] Posted Sep. 08, 2002 Nuclear power plants’ neighbors feel secure after 9/11 By Nathan Phelps nphelps@greenbaypressgazette.com [nphelps@greenbaypressgazette.com] CARLTON — Farm fields and the green-blue waters of Lake Michigan surround the concrete- and turquoise-colored nuclear plant. Around the facility, boulders and concrete barricades restrict access to the grounds. The concrete and stone are the security changes you can see from the road near the Kewaunee Nuclear Plant in the town of Carlton in Kewaunee County. Other changes aren’t visible to passers-by. It’s those security changes, and the rural location of the plant, that have made residents living around the plant feel secure in a post-Sept. 11 world. Bonnie Wotachek can look down her street and see the plant at Nuclear Road and Wisconsin 42. Although she lives less than a mile from the plant, she said nothing about her life changed after the attacks “Right after it all happened … the cops were always there and that raised my eyebrow a little bit,” she said. “I know they’re guarding it good, so we’re as safe as we can be.” That’s the sentiment of many neighbors. At Gib’s On the Lake, about a mile from the Kewaunee Nuclear Plant and about 2 miles from the Point Beach Nuclear Power Plant in Manitowoc County, Kelly Greenfield said she hasn’t lost sleep over living near the plant. “There are too many other things out there in this world. I don’t think that’s too high on their list,” she said. Her father, Robert, said the possibility of a terrorist attack is part of life after Sept. 11. “As far as the 9/11 thing, you can’t worry about that because that can happen anywhere,” he said. “They could pick a spot, it could be Chicago, it could be Omaha. It’s just all part of living in this day and age.” Living in this day and age is what security staff for the Kewaunee and Point Beach plants has prepared for. “Within a few minutes of the second plane hitting the World Trade Center, we already instituted our security plan, and within a couple hours we had extended our security perimeter. We had additional staff, we were doing additional searches,” said Doug Day, communications manager for the Kewaunee and Point Beach plants. “It was just part of our plan. It was something we were ready for before September 11th even occurred.” Since that Tuesday morning almost a year ago, both plants have increased their security and the number of security personnel, adding to a ring of detection equipment already around the plants. “The things we have done since September 11th are not unlike what the military has done, that is pushing our perimeters further out away from our vital equipment,” said Mark Findlay, security director for Nuclear Management Co., which runs both plants. “You’ll see a checkpoint where we have armed security officers. We also have a perimeter that is ringed with real big rocks … these things weigh anywhere from 8 to 12 tons.” Jay Blomquist runs Snug Harbor Antiques, north of the Kewaunee plant on Wisconsin 42 and almost 4 miles of farm fields from the plant. He’s confident in the steps that have been taken. “If you’re going to worry about something like that, there’s a much greater danger driving up and down the road here than there is from the plant,” he said, pointing toward the highway. “Both of these plants have been as good of neighbor, perhaps our best friends, in this area, and I’m certainly not afraid of them. “I’ve been out there, and I’ve seen the security and I know they have really beefed it up from what it was. … I’m sure our security here is as good as any nuclear power plant is going to have,” Blomquist said. Kewaunee County Sheriff Dennis Zuege said his officers pay more attention to the area around the plant since Sept. 11. “Now if there’s a car parked there it’s not just, ‘It’s a guy fishing.’ It’s more or less checked out a lot more than it was before,” he said. But the department continues to take care of its day-to-day operations. “We’re still running law enforcement, trying to stay normal like we were before,” Zuege said. Rose Krofta said the attacks haven’t changed how she or her husband, Kenneth, live. “Why should we? We’re not worried,” she said. Both of the Kroftas said they weren’t concerned anything would happen, but they took the step of buying 100 potassium iodide pills for $24.95, just to be prepared. The pills are touted as protecting the thyroid from some radiation exposure. “That’s just like insurance,” Kenneth Krofta said. “You don’t plan on them because you want to use them. You plan on them because it’s protection just like you get car insurance or homeowners insurance.” Wotachek has lived by the plant for a number of years with her family. Life hasn’t changed after Sept. 11. “There’s nothing we really could have done about it, and there’s nothing we can do about it,” she said. “We keep going.” ***************************************************************** 12 Heavy metal may be linked to leukemia outbreak* the Arizona Daily Star / ***************************************************************** 13 Mayak's Power Supply Unsafe Reprocessing at Mayak The Mayak plant (South Urals) reprocesses fuel deriving from civilian and naval PWR type reactors. Power transmission lines built in 1930 CHELYABINSK - A blackout cut off electricity at the Mayak reprocessing plant in the southern Urals two years ago. Today, the power transmission lines, supplying electricity to the plant, are still in a bad condition. Electricity lines on old woden props, hidden in thick forest, fail to ensure energy supply to nuclear industry plants. Rashid Alimov, 2002-09-09 15:16 Situated in Chelyabinsk county, Mayak keeps on being one of the main plants of Russia's nuclear fuel cycle. In the beginning of September, a big shipment of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from nuclear submarines was sent from Kamchatka in the Far East to be reprocessed at the plant. In addition to the SNF from the Pacific Fleet, Mayak receives trainloads with spent fuel from the Northern Fleet, and from July to December 2002 ten trains are to arrive at the infamous plant. Furthermore, by the end of 2002 a warhead storage facility, built for US-allocated funds, is to be launched at Mayak. In the meantime, according to information, granted to Bellona Web by Natalia Poteryaeva from Chelyabinsk-based Movement for Nuclear Safety (MNS), accidents are well possible at Mayak, because of shocking insecurity of its power supply. "Power transmission lines, supplying Mayak, were built on wooden props in the 1930s and 1940s. They are absolutely out-dated," Natalia Poteryaeva says. Power grid failure Exactly two years ago, on September 9th 2000, Mayak was cut off of the electricity supply for more than for 40 minutes. Disconnection was caused by a fault of personnel of the Sverdlovenergo power circuit operating company, which resulted in a power grid accident. Besides Mayak, generators of Novo-Sverdlovsk and Argayash heating plants, one power unit of Reftinsk hydro plant, and the fast neutron reactor BN-600 at Beloyarsk NPP were halted. Fortunately no accidents happened either at Beloyarsk NPP or at Mayak. Backup diesel generators were eventually switched on. But investigation of the power grid accident, made by Unified Energy Systems, state energy utility, revealed serious defects in Mayak's power supply. Power transmission lines 110 kW transmission lines, supplying Mayak, were built in 1930s and 1940s on wooden props. Life-term of the props expired in 1970s and 1980s, and they do not meet present day safety requirements for nuclear industry plants. One of the lines even lacks required carrier-current protection. And these are the lines that have to stand long periods of hot weather, thunderstorms and high winds. Wires may be broken by fall of the trees, which has grown around the lines since the time they were built. Any accident in the lines may result in an accident at the reprocessing plant. But today the local Chelyabenergo energy utility has no plans to upgrade them. An out-dated high-voltage line of 110 kW goes to the substation of the warhead storage facility, built at Mayak for US-allocated funds. And any simple break of the wires may question expediency of spending of $400m, which have been invested into the storage during the past ten years. Power company answers, but accidents keep occurring Answering to inquiries of MNS, chief engineer of Chelyabenergo said, that the lines may be reconstructed only in 2014. The administration of the power circuit operating company claims, that in 2003 they think it is realistic to start reconstructing only of two sections out of the six, mentioned in the MNS inquiry. The answer also reads, Chelyabenergo cannot solve the problem sooner, because of the arrears of payments for electricity. And Mayak is one of the late payers, Chelyabenergo says. Russia today goes through an electricity system reform. Unified Energy Systems, which monopoly is being liquidated, does not rush to repair the out-dated power lines. Nuclear authorities also do not seem to be concerned with the situation. It looks like that to convince anybody to make safe power supply, Mayak needs to suffer a new grid accident. Meanwhile, on July 10th this year, because of grid errors, another nuclear industry plant — Ural Electrochemical Combine, owned by Rosenergoatom — was fully cut off for 12 minutes. This event made Nadezhda Kutepova from Chelyabinsk region-based organization Planet of Hopes harshly criticize Ministry for Nuclear Energy. The notorious ministry claims it made a lot to develop Russia's power system, but at the same time, it cannot provide its own plants with non-interrupting supply. "One time it's an accidental error, but further it is a system. Where will it happen next time?" she asks rhetorically. Mayak's outdated system But the question of Mayak's safe power supply would not be fully settled even if the lines are reconstructed. Natalia Poteryaeva says, a 220 kW substation must be built at the plant. This substation should be simultaneously connected with substations of two operating companies — Sverdlovenergo and Chelyabenergo. "Main circuits of Mayak need to be reconstructed, while they are using cut-outs of an out-dated design. Relay protection should be changed. Also, present-day requirements say systems of automatic load transfers should have two devices of power-up, and not one, as now," says Poteryaeva. She also says that the most serious attention must be paid to power supply of the warhead storage facility: "To ensure its safety, storage's power transformers should be correctly connected to the main Mayak's substation. Just remember, that this autumn Mayak's storage is going to begin receiving weapons-grade plutonium from dismantled warheads." 2000-09-12 Accidents and Incidents Three reactors black out 2002-06-19 Mayak US Official Says Mayak Warhead Storage Facility to Open in November Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] , President: Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] Information: info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] , Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no [webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 14 UK: Probe into security lapse at nuclear plant * online.ie home /The Irish Examiner 09 Sep 2002/ *By Matt Adams* AN investigation was underway last night into security at a British nuclear power station after an undercover reporter used false references to gain a job working close to the main reactor. A spokesman for British Energy, which runs Dungeness B nuclear power station on the south coast, said the probe could lead to stricter controls on staff. The review was prompted by a News of the World reporter who gave a false address and two bogus references on his application form for a job as a fire watcher at Dungeness in Kent. Morson International, a Suffolk-based recruitment firm advertising for the post, which involved checking for potential fires caused by workmen, phoned the referees to make sure they at least knew the applicant, but, according to the newspaper, went no further. The reporter was given the job but, British Energy said yesterday, was never allowed to roam unescorted within the power station and would even have been accompanied to the toilet. The company spokesman said a second round of far more thorough checks on the bogus fire watcher were being carried out which would have exposed his references as fake. At that point he would have been dismissed. However, the News of the World said its man was given access to the power station's nuclear reactor and was carrying a tiny video recorder, which could have been a bomb all part of an alleged major security breach just before the first anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks in America. The newspaper claimed the reporter was given a "reactor-side" pass by the firm managing his fire watcher post, Mitsui Babcock Engineering Services, even though they were aware that the Office of Civil Nuclear Security had not cleared his vetting form. He claimed he was allowed to wander close to the reactor and study detailed plans of the plant. British Energy said they were taking the situation "very seriously" but were confident the system of checking staff would eventually have discovered the breach. The firm said they would be working with the relevant authorities to decide if action needed to be taken, which may include tighter security controls. Dungeness has been on a higher state of alert since September 11 and all tourist visits have been suspended. The Examiner Logo ***************************************************************** 15 Meeting set Tuesday on NFS mixed-waste permit Elizabethton Star - Online Edition By Kathy Helms-Hughes STAR STAFF khughes@starhq.com A public meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Large Courtroom of the Unicoi County Courthouse, 100 N. Main, Erwin, to receive comments on a proposal by Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation to reissue a mixed waste storage and treatment permit to Nuclear Fuel Services Inc. of Erwin. The Mixed Hazardous Waste Container Storage and Tank Storage and Treatment permit also includes conditions for corrective action of Solid Waste Management Units and Area of Concerns at the facility. TDEC's Division of Solid Waste Management officials will explain the proposal after which NFS officials will describe the proposed scope of the permit renewal, followed by oral comments from the public. The public also will have the opportunity to tape or write their comments from 6:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. According to TDEC, NFS first was issued a mixed hazardous waste storage and treatment permit in March 1991. The permit was due to expire March 28, 2001, however, NFS submitted a permit renewal application six months prior to expiration. Mixed waste -- a combination of radioactive waste and hazardous waste -- is jointly regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or Agreement States and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Commercial generators such as NFS have no option but to store those wastes for which treatment technology is not available. Certain types of mixed wastes, however, are sent to Envirocare in Clive, Utah, for disposal. According to the NFS application, the company will not store or treat any types of mixed wastes different from those already generated or stored at the facility. The company also is not seeking any increase in capacity, according to TDEC. NFS is permitted to store a maximum of 28,276 gallons of mixed waste in the Building 310 Warehouse and 5,453 gallons in the Building 304 West End storage area. NFS is allowed to shred mercury contaminated material and treat up to 3,675 gallons per day of mercury mixed waste in Building 304. The draft permit also includes conditions for continuing cleanup of portions of the facility no longer in use. Operations include removal of contaminated soils, sediments, debris, and disassembly of equipment and buildings as well as management of contaminated groundwater. A copy of the draft permit and fact sheet is available for review at the Johnson City Environmental Assistance Center, 2305 Silverdale Road; the Unicoi County Public Library, 201 Nolichucky Ave., Erwin; and at the Johnson City Public Library, 100 West Millard St. Written comments may be submitted to: Ms. Dilraj Mokha, Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Section; Division of Solid Waste Management; Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation; 5th Floor, L&C Tower; 401 Church Street; Nashville, TN 37243-1535; or e-mail to: dilraj.mokha@state.tn.us. Comments must be received by 4:30 p.m. Sept. 16. Copyright © 1996 - 2002 Elizabethton Newspapers, Inc. Direct questions or comments to webmas [webmaster@starhq.com] ter@starhq.com [webmaster@starhq.com] Elizabethton Newspapers, Inc., 300 Sycamore Street Elizabethton, Tennessee 37643 - 423.542.4151 ***************************************************************** 16 WIPP suffers second traffic accident The Current Argus Monday, September 09, 2002 - 9:06:45 AM MST By Victoria Parker-Stevens Current-Argus Staff Writer CARLSBAD - A truck carrying nuclear waste from Idaho left the road in Wyoming Saturday morning, less than two weeks after the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant's first traffic accident. The Aug. 25 incident near Carlsbad, which was allegedly caused by a drunk pickup driver, also involved a shipment from Idaho. No one was injured in either accident, and there was no release of contaminants, WIPP officials said. On Saturday, all shipments to WIPP were suspended for about 24 hours, while the incident was reviewed with all WIPP drivers, said Ines Triay, manager of the federal Energy Department's Carlsbad Area Field Office. An Energy Department team was also heading to Idaho to check the TRUPACTs involved. The accident occurred at 12:50 a.m. Saturday, when the driver of a WIPP truck said he felt ill and attempted to pull over to the side of the road. The truck was headed eastbound on Interstate 80, 11 miles west of Green River, Wyo. Before the driver made it to the roadside, he blacked out, said Kerry Watson, assistant manager for the federal Energy Department's National TRU Waste Program. The truck crossed the median, headed across the westbound lane and left the road. The driver did not have a known ailment and had recently passed a physical required by the Department of Transportation, Watson said. The truck's second driver was in the cab's sleeper compartment and woke up when the truck went off the road. It is permissible for the second driver to be in the sleeper, Watson said. The second driver saw the driver slumped over the steering wheel and made sure the truck's brakes were set. He notified the WIPP central monitoring room, which contacted Wyoming state police about the accident. The driver of a vehicle on the highway that witnessed the accident also called 911, Watson said. State police and an ambulance crew responded, and the driver, who had regained consciousness, was taken to a nearby hospital. There was some minor damage to the tractor, but not to the trailer or the TRUPACT-II shipping containers, Watson said. The tractor was towed out of a field along the road and taken - with a state police escort - via an access road to a nearby state police facility in Rock Springs, Wyo. There, drivers and state police conducted a Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance-6 inspection, the highest inspection level, which includes radiological testing. It is the same inspection given to WIPP trucks when they cross state lines. The inspection verified there was no damage to the TRUPACTs nor any release of contaminants, Watson said. A truck that was heading back to Idaho from WIPP with empty TRUPACTs was diverted to Rock Springs, and the TRUPACTs with waste were placed on the undamaged trailer. Instead of continuing on to WIPP, the shipment of waste was returned to Idaho. Watson said this was the most prudent course of action in light of the return of a TRUPACT to Idaho after the Aug. 25 accident. Possible contamination had been detected on the interior of that TRUPACT at the WIPP site, although WIPP officials have said they do not want to connect the two events, especially since the outside of the TRUPACT was not damaged in the accident. The second driver involved in Saturday's accident went to a motel to rest, while another trailer was taken to Wyoming to transport the empty containers to Idaho today, Watson said. As a precautionary measure, an Energy Department team from Carlsbad is also being sent to Idaho to re-inspect the TRUPACTs to make sure there is no internal contamination, he said. Shipments from all sites were also halted for about 24 hours, while the incident was reviewed with all drivers. "We want to make sure everybody understands this incident, Triay said. "We want to talk to them about the importance of keeping the excellent safety record we have to date. The drivers involved in Saturday's accident are based in Carlsbad. One lives in Carlsbad, and one in Jal, according to the trucking company. No further information was available. State police declined to release information about the incident over the weekend. © 1999-2002 MediaNews Group, Inc. ***************************************************************** 17 International Conference on Use of Irradiated Nuclear Fuel Opens in Moscow Pravda.RU Sep, 09 2002 An international conference entitled 'The Use Of Irradiated Nuclear Fuel -2002:New Tendencies for Russia' opened in Moscow today. The conference is organised by Russia's Atomic Energy Ministry and the Tekhsnabexport company. The conference will continue through September 12. Its principal objective is extending internationakl cooperation as concerns the use of irradiated nuclear fuel. The participants represent over 100 Russian and foreign organisation and companies engaged in atomic energy and Russian and US officials. Discussed will be national programmes related to the use of irradiated nuclear fuel, related international legislation concerning trade transactions and the spread of nuclear materials and international cooperation protecting environment. © RosBalt [http://bbs.newsfromrussia.com/cgi/Ultimate.cgi] ***************************************************************** 18 A threat to the health and safety of Crownpoint (mining) Navajo Times Online: Guest Column [Navajo Times: The tribal newspaper of the Navajo people. Welcome! Ya'at'eeh!] We are Part of This Earth Guest Column By Ann Reitz, M.D. Crownpoint, N.M. I am writing to urge you to respond promptly to a matter threatening the health and safety of my community, Crownpoint. I am a physician, board certified in family medicine. I have worked for the Navajo Area Indian Health Service for 12 years; in Crownpoint for 10 years. As a physician, I cannot in good conscience ignore this threat, the threat of in-situ leach (ISL) uranium mining and processing in our community. The eastern Navajo reservation stands to lose our water supply to contamination and depletion. We face increased risks of elevated radon levels in our air. We face exposure to toxic wastes during their transportation, processing, storage, and disposal. ISL mining in Crownpoint and Church Rock would involve pumping sodium hydroxide into the Westwater Aquifer to dissolve uranium. Millions of gallons of water containing uranium and dozens of other minerals in toxic levels (known as pregnant lixiviant) would be pumped from our aquifer daily. Uranium and the other toxic minerals would then be extracted from the lixiviant in a processing plant located one quarter of a mile from the center of Crownpoint. Hydro-Resources, Incorporated (HRI), then proposes to pump 90 percent of the "purified" extracted water back into the aquifer in a "potable" state. Then, acres of open drying ponds would be used to concentrate through evaporation the uranium containing slurry in preparation for sale and shipping to remote markets. In spite of nearly 30 years of ISL mining, there is overwhelming technical evidence that restoration of ground water to pre-mining, baseline conditions has never been achieved at any commercial ISL mine. HRL purposes to extract uranium and toxic minerals to "safe" levels, however these levels still far exceed current levels in our high quality drinking water, as well as exceeding current United States EPA recommendations. ISL mining has never been applied to an aquifer of potable quality. No other municipality in the United States shares its drinking water source with an ISL uranium mine. Currently, the water in the Westwater Aquifer drawn from Crownpoint's wells is the primary source of drinking water for 15,800 people. No alternative water source has been proposed, nor have its quality or cost been defined. By the end of the 20-year HRI license to mine uranium, assuming the project is flawless in execution and "on schedule," our aquifer will be depleted below the level at which the quality of water will be potable. If we choose to drink our Westwater Aquifer water during that minimum of 20 years proposed for active mining, we must trust HRI that "lateral excursions" of "pregnant lixiviant" containing highly toxic level of uranium, radium, selenium, arsenic, molybdenum, and other toxic minerals will not "laterally excurse" beyond pressure gradients dependent on a constant supply of electricity. Our rural electric line loses power completely six to eight times per month. HRL's model also claims that a continuous shale layer will protect our nearby wells from lateral or vertical excursions, but their models lack any description that resembles the irregular broken sedimentary geologic layers which make up our corner of the Colorado Plateau. Air quality will be threatened by drying ponds for radioactive slurry located just a quarter of a mile southwest of the center of town. Schools, churches, and the largest concentration of homes are all downwind from these ponds. In addition to the environmental risks, there are risks incurred in locating such an industry in a community lacking in infrastructure, with a small rural hospital, and limited police, fire, and rescue services. Please review the enclosed materials, which describe these and other concerns. In spite of the fact that the majority of area residents have voted and/or signed petitions against the proposed mine, politicians continue to ignore the pleas of the community. The allottees who stand to benefit financially are, unfortunately, more vocal. Culturally, DinŽ avoid conflict. In a small community, close relatives are inevitably on opposite sides of this issue. Striving to maintain harmony, those against the mine do not always feel free to be open about heir opinions. Written responses are scarce from a community for whom English is a second language. A majority of the people live in poverty. Very few have phones. Yet, community meetings on the issue have brought hundreds of citizens, the majority of whom speak out against the mine. Hundreds of Navajo families bear the sorrow of loss of a loved one due to disease associated with exposure to uranium mining in the past. Hundreds of abandoned mines still exist in Navajo communities. Funds are lacking to conduct environmental assessments, health surveillance, or cleanup of these sites. Years of exposure to the consequences of uranium exposure make fear of future effects even more acute. Recently, in spite of the angst in the community over the proposed mine, Heather Wilson, Republican Congresswoman from Albuquerque, added Section 104 to the Energy Advancement and Conservation Act of 2001 to fund payments to uranium mining companies, providing $30 million to HRT to start operations in Crownpoint. It is outrageous to purpose huge federal subsidies to a private enterprise that brings only health hazards and resource depletion to a community in poverty. Representative Wilson also purposes to curtail the government's ability to sell off excess uranium by obstructing access to existing supplies. The Department of Energy's (DOE'S) current uranium inventory can meet the needs of nuclear reactors in this country reactors in this country for some time. Limiting the DOE's ability to sell the current inventory will only drive up electricity costs for consumers. It is urgent, therefore, that you speak out against the Section 104 amendment, and against all future efforts to begin uranium ISL mining in Crownpoint or Churchrock. It is imperative that the Navajo Nation take the lead in protecting the human health and scarce natural resources of Crownpoint and Churchrock educate the community about the risks the ISL mining presents. Only the Navajo Nation leaders can actually succeed in preventing the long-term consequences of the proposal. Editor's note: This letter was addressed to Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M. Reitz is a 10-year resident of Crownpoint. Copyright © 1999-2001 | Navajo Times/Navajo Nation ALL RIGHTS ***************************************************************** 19 [southnews] UN Atomic Agency: No Evidence of Iraqi Nuke Threat Date: Mon, 9 Sep 2002 09:16:54 -0500 (CDT) Home Selling? Try Us! http://us.click.yahoo.com/QrPZMC/iTmEAA/MVfIAA/7gSolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ---------- Doubt cast on PM's 'nuclear threat' claim Evidence inconclusive, say sources Richard Norton-Taylor Monday September 9, 2002 The Guardian The International Atomic Energy Agency has no evidence that Iraq is developing nuclear weapons at a former site previously destroyed by UN inspectors, despite claims made over the weekend by Tony Blair, western diplomatic sources told the Guardian yesterday. After his talks on Saturday with President Bush at Camp David, Mr Blair referred to the "real" threat of Saddam Hussein's nuclear programme. He said: "We only need to look at the report from the International Atomic Energy Agency showing what has been going on at the former nuclear weapons site to realise that." The prime minister was speaking after the agency issued a statement insisting it had "no new information" on Iraq's nuclear programme since December 1998 when its inspectors left Iraq. Only through a resumption of inspections in accordance with UN security council resolutions "can the agency draw any conclusion", it said. Sources said yesterday that claims made by Mr Blair and in the New York Times were based on commercial satellite pictures bought by the agency. The pictures showed a reconstructed building, a well-placed source who asked not to be identified said yesterday. But he added: "You cannot draw any conclusions. The satellites were only looking at the top of a roof. You cannot tell without inspectors on the ground." The New York Times also reported that Iraq had tried to procure special aluminium tubes US officials said were wanted as components to enrich uranium. Scott Ritter, former US marine and member of the UN inspectors team, said yesterday Iraq was incapable of producing weapons of mass destruction and should prove it by allowing in inspectors. Speaking in Baghdad, he said Iraq's cooperation on inspections would leave the US "standing alone in regards to war threats on Iraq and this is the best way to prevent the war". He added: "The truth is Iraq is not a threat to its neighbours and it is not acting in a manner which threatens anyone outside its borders. Military action against Iraq cannot be justified." It also appears the Bush administration is itself unsure as to how close President Saddam is to acquiring nuclear weapons. The US secretary of state, Colin Powell, said in an interview on the BBC's Breakfast with Frost: "You can debate whether it is one year, five years, six years or nine years; the important point is that they are still committed to pursuing that technology." Britain's defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, will today spell out the circumstances in which Britain will join an American-led attack on Iraq. A text of his planned speech to the Brandeis school of law, University of Louisville, where he was once a visiting professor, says: "Saddam Hussein has the opportunity now to eliminate his weapons of mass destruction and a further ultimatum may be issued." Mr Hoon adds: "Just like the international community's response to the events of September 11, diplomacy should and must come first. Military action, if needed, should follow diplomacy." British defence sources say the idea is to mount a "psychological squeeze" on the Iraqi regime. Pressure will be asserted incrementally, they say, insisting it will "not be a repeat of the Gulf war", with more emphasis this time on bombing by US and British aircraft of Iraqi air defence sites. The US is building up its forces in Kuwait and Qatar as well as weapons at its bomber base on the British Indian ocean island of Diego Garcia - a key facility for an American attack on Iraq. US troops - possibly with British paratroopers and special forces - would be ready to enter Iraq if it ignored an ultimatum and after a spate of US air strikes, according to one plan being drawn up by US military chiefs. Guardian Unlimited ) Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ---------- Don't look now: Saddam is drowning kittens The warmongers failed to win public opinion, so they're suddenly cobbling together 'evidence' By Mark Steel Independent UK 05 September 2002 So, they've got the evidence, about the weapons of mass destruction, but we can't see it just yet. Is it still at the printers? Is it being held up by a row about how you spell "aflatoxin"? Perhaps there's a problem with the plot, and the scriptwriters are refusing to let it go because the character of Tariq Aziz is left in the air and the relationship between Saddam and the scud missiles left hopelessly unresolved. If they know the evidence, why can't they tell us the main points until we have the dossier? Or at least make a trailer: "This is a story of a man for whom mass destruction was simply a hobby 'Soon all my chemical weapons will be in place' - and two men determined to stop him 'My God, there's enough uranium in there to murder every living thing in every country affiliated to Nato. And look at this delivery notice, it says he's getting his last crucial warhead in exactly three months' Together they have 90 days to stop the axis of evil." Or when it comes they might announce: "We don't have any photos of his weapons of mass destruction just yet but we have got drawings. In felt pen." And what a coincidence, that this evidence should promise to pop up now, just as it becomes clear public opinion is against a war. It all looks as desperate as a couple coming back from holiday and incompetently trying to carry out an insurance fiddle. Blair and Bush are almost kicking each other under the table as they mutter: "They've definitely got plutonium. Uranium. No, plutonium. Hang on a minute I thought we agreed uranium." In a couple of weeks Blair will hold another press conference and announce he's left the evidence on the Tube. But he has finished it, honest. Then that night he'll ring Bush and say: "Can I copy yours?" So for the time being we're left with statements such as the one by White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, who said the war must go ahead because "Saddam has not lived up to his promise to allow inspectors into the country". He was then asked if the war would still go ahead if Saddam did allow them into the country, and Fleischer answered: "The policy of the US is regime change, with or without inspectors." So if Saddam does admit inspectors, they'll be doing the most pointless inspecting in the world. You couldn't blame them if they sat in the shade for a fortnight and sent back a note saying: "He's got a machine that can turn us all into tadpoles.". Which would be at the level of one paper's cut-out guide to "Iraq's evil arsenal", pride of place going to "Scud missiles". It admits the accuracy of these things is less than a mile, so can we really go to war with someone for possessing a large firework? They might as well include "The Dead Leg. Evil thigh-tingling weapon that could numb several people in one day". The Scud, we are told, has a "range of 200 miles, making Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Iran and Kuwait possible targets". So either the demand is that Saddam gets rid of his Scuds, or that he moves Iraq to somewhere more than 200 miles from the nearest country. But the tabloid also mentions nuclear weapons. For, "if Saddam acquires enriched uranium, he could be just months from building a warhead". If the Women's Institute acquired enriched uranium, they could be just months from building a warhead. There is, however, a fair amount of evidence that Saddam doesn't have the military power that Blair and Bush claim. Scott Ritter, who led the UN inspections team, has stated repeatedly that any nuclear potential was destroyed. And the last bunch of inspectors eventually left because they admitted they were acting as spies. The other argument for war, that Saddam's evil is proved by his war against Iran and his treatment of Kurds, is poetic in its hypocrisy. It's true he did both those things but we were backing him at the time. The Americans shot down a civilian Iranian plane, vetoed a United Nations resolution condemning the attacks on the Kurds and dismissed anyone who pointed out this barbarism. It's as if Alex Ferguson decided to bomb Roy Keane, screaming "But this is a man prepared to hack down his own colleagues" at anyone who suggested he shouldn't. So it could be that because the warmongers are failing to win public opinion, they're suddenly cobbling together "evidence". And there will be piles of it. Just like the stories of Germans raping nuns in 1914 and Iraqis throwing babies out of incubators in 1990, admitted as lies once those wars were over. There will be grainy film of Saddam chucking kittens in canals and crackly tape of him threatening to ruin David Beckham's hair. But the football manager the Americans will try to copy once the war starts will be Arshne Wenger. Every time hundreds of civilians are slaughtered by wayward bombs, the US spokesman will look blank and say: "Well I didn't see that incident so I really can't comment. But aren't we doing well?" http://argument.independent.co.uk/regular_columnists/mark_steel/story.jsp?story= 330556 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: southnews-unsubscribe@egroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 20 [southnews] Journalists tour former Iraq nuke site Date: Mon, 9 Sep 2002 18:11:03 -0500 (CDT) Looking for a more powerful website? Try GeoCities for $8.95 per month. Register your domain name (http://your-name.com). More storage! No ads! http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info http://us.click.yahoo.com/aHOo4D/KJoEAA/MVfIAA/7gSolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ---------- Iraq denies resuming nuclear activity Monday, September 9, 2002. Posted: 22:33:31 (AEDT) Iraq is denying it has resumed activities at nuclear sites inspected by UN experts in the past, taking journalists on a tour of one of the sites in a bid to refute allegations to the contrary. Reporters have been taken to al-Toweitheh, 30 kilometres south-east of Baghdad, which is the site of the Tammuz Iraqi nuclear reactor, bombed out by Israel in 1981. Several buildings on the same site were also demolished by UN arms inspectors before they pulled out of Iraq in December 1998. Foreign Ministry official Said Hassan al-Mussawi, who led the tour, says the buildings have been reconstructed but not for weapons construction. "These buildings are either new or have been rebuilt but are being used in strictly civilian pursuits for humanitarian or economic purposes," he said. He says the "new or rebuilt" premises house a pharmaceuticals factory, a mushroom farm, and architecture and environmental research offices. The White House has voiced concern about the existence of new construction at sites known as Iraqi nuclear research centres. It said it would not be surprised if Baghdad had made progress on developing arms. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s671298.htm ) ABC 2002 | privacy [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: southnews-unsubscribe@egroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 21 Iraq could build nuclear bomb within months -IISS* Tue, September 10, 2002, 05:27 GMT UPDATE Reuters (Adds details on chemical and biological weapons, missiles) LONDON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Iraq could build a nuclear bomb within months if it obtained fissile material from abroad but lacks the ability to make its own nuclear material, a leading independent think-tank said on Monday. John Chipman, director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), told BBC radio that if President Saddam Hussein acquired enriched uranium with help from abroad, Iraq could put a nuclear warhead on a missile capable of hitting Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Israel, Turkey, Jordan and Iran within a year. "Were he able to obtain fissile material from abroad, steal it or buy it in some way, we certainly believe he has the ability to put together a nuclear weapon very quickly in a matter of months," Chipman said, ahead of the release of an IISS study on Iraq's suspected weapons of mass destruction. "They were always aiming to be able to arm their ballistic missiles with a nuclear weapon so it would be just a question of working on the physics for a number of months, maybe a year, to be able to marry the warhead to a ballistic missile," he said. The IISS report comes amid fierce debate about a possible U.S.-led war to oust Saddam. U.S. President George W. Bush, who will outline his policy in a speech to the United Nations on Thursday, highlighted Saddam's potential to develop nuclear weapons before talks at the weekend on tackling Iraq with Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair. British officials said on Sunday Blair, who also warned of the "real threat" Saddam posed, had seen a copy of the report. "LAST RESORT" Chipman said Saddam's use of chemical weapons in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war suggested "that he is building up his stockpiles in order to be able to use them as an instrument of last resort or alternatively to deter an attack on his country by threatening to use them in the event that the regime were challenged". He said Iraq had retained important stockpiles of both chemical and biological weapons from stocks built up before the 1991 Gulf War and the seven-and-a-half year United Nations weapons inspection regime. U.N. inspectors left Iraq in December 1988 before a four-day U.S.-British bombing campaign intended to punish Saddam for obstructing the inspectors' work. Chipman said Iraq's civilian infrastructure could be diverted to create new stocks of chemical and biological weapons in a matter of weeks or months. But his ability to use them in battle was limited. "(Iraq's) ballistic missiles have what are called impact fuses, which means that much of the agent would be destroyed on impact," he said. "So they would be important as a terror weapon but they would not be militarily all that significant in battle." ((Dominic Evans, Parliamentary newsroom 44 207 542 7767/8, fax 44 207 222 3072 dom.evans@reuters.com)) © Reuters Limited. Click for Restrictions . About zawya.com | Feedback ***************************************************************** 22 IISS REPORT CONTAINS NO NEW EVIDENCE - CAMPBELL Liberal Democrats Tuesday 10th September * Liberal Democrats 4 Cowley Street London SW1P 3NB Tel: 020 7222 7999 Email: info@libdems.org.uk Printed and hosted by Nextra, Global House, Ashley Avenue, Epsom, Surrey, KT18 5AD. Published and promoted by and on behalf of Liberal Democrats, 4 Cowley Street, London, SW1P 3NB. *09/09/2002* Commenting on the publication of the International Institute for Strategic Studies? report into Iraq?s nuclear capabilities, Menzies Campbell MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Foreign Secretary, said: "This report contains nothing startling, nor anything that could not be have been inferred from Iraq previous behaviour." "If the British Government is to persuade public opinion and the House of Commons, that Iraq not only possesses, but has the imminent intention of using, weapons of mass destruction, it will have to provide something rather better than the terms of this report." Copyright © 2001, Liberal Democrats. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 23 Arafat accuses Israel of using weapons of mass destruction, but willing to work for peace The Jerusalem Post Internet Edition JPost.com Sep. 9, 2002 By MATTHEW GUTMAN Addressing the Palestinian Legislative council on Monday, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat laid the blame for the conflict on the Israelis, yet said that he was willing to work towards a peace agreement. Opening his speech to the council, Arafat launched into a diatribe against Israel accusing Israel of using weapons of mass destruction against the Palestinian people, repeating an earlier charge that Israel used uranium weapons. Arafat said that since the beginning of the Intifada 66,000 Palestinians had been wounded by Israel, of which 20, 000 remained disabled. This was the first full meeting of the Palestinian Legislative Council since the beginning of the Intifada. 47 legislators attended the meeting including 10 from the Gaza Strip. Israel barred 12 legislators from the meeting, saying that they were involved in terror activities. Some other Gaza legislators chose not to attend. However, Arafat then adopted a more conciliatory tone and called on the Palestinians to cease attacks on Israeli civilian targets within the Green Line. Arafat said that the Palestinians were willing to do everything possible to achieve peace, but called for intervention in the region. Arafat accused Israel of using the September 11 attacks as an excuse to occupy the Palestinian people. He also added that the Palestinians were willing to join the international coalition against terror, saying that the Palestinians were opposed to all forms of terrorism. ***************************************************************** 24 Blair Looks to Rally Allies on Iraq Las Vegas SUN: September 08, 2002 By JILL LAWLESS ASSOCIATED PRESS LONDON- Fresh from talks with President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Sunday he believed those opposed to war against Iraq would change their minds when they saw evidence of Baghdad's threat. Blair, who has been Bush's strongest backer in Europe for action against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, returned to Britain from a hastily prepared meeting Saturday with Bush at Camp David to discuss Iraq policy. He returns to voices of stiff criticism - the latest coming from union and business leaders expressing qualms about a war against Iraq. Blair said critics "are asking what I call sensible questions" about the international impact of military action, but said he was sure they would be convinced. "I think people in that second camp can be convinced if they see the evidence, hear the arguments and realize that we're not simply ... striding out on our own, not bothering about other people, but realize that we're going out and trying to win as much support internationally as possible," Blair told Sky news television. 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. Bush said he aims to topple Saddam because of his alleged weapons programs, and his administration is debating a pre-emptive attack on Iraq, though Bush said his mind is not yet made up. At Camp David, Blair said the United States and Britain would rally "the broadest possible international support" for action to stop Saddam from maintaining biological and chemical weapons or acquiring nuclear arms. "This is a challenge not simply for America or for Britain but for the whole of the international community," Blair told reporters Saturday. Other European nations have expressed strong opposition to unilateral U.S. action against Iraq, and some voices in Britain have joined the criticism. Britain's main union federation, the Trades Union Congress, holds its annual conference beginning Monday and will consider a motion expressing "unequivocal opposition" to military action. John Edmonds, leader of the GMB general workers' union, said many union members were growing increasingly worried about the threat of war. "There is an unmistakable feel that the U.S. and U.K. governments are moving toward war," he told Sky News television. "And the overwhelming feeling of the delegates here is that this is not something we should contemplate without total U.N. support. Rod Eddington, chief executive of British Airways, said Sunday that a war in Iraq could hurt airlines already struggling in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 25 Iraq Needs Fissile Material for Nukes Las Vegas SUN: Today: September 09, 2002 at 8:23:52 PDT By BARRY RENFREW ASSOCIATED PRESS LONDON- Iraq could assemble a nuclear weapon within months if it could obtain radioactive material, and it is working to develop equipment to make bomb components, a leading think tank warned Monday. "War sanctions and inspections have reversed and retarded but not eliminated Iraq's nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and long-range missile capabilities," said the report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a leading independent center for strategic analysis. "There is a nuclear wildcard. If, somehow, Iraq were able to acquire sufficient nuclear material from foreign sources, it could probably produce nuclear weapons on short order, probably in a matter of months," the report said. The report echoes similar warnings from various government and private analysts and did not appear to contain much new information. John Chipman, author of the study on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction program, said the Iraqi leader is trying to build nuclear weapons. He said that the Iraqis are developing machines to make nuclear material for weapons, but would need assistance and material from foreign sources to build a nuclear bomb soon. "However, were he able to obtain fissile material from abroad, steal it or buy it in some way, we certainly believe he has the ability to put together a nuclear weapon very quickly, in a matter of months," Chipman told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. Iraq has a small force of missiles capable of delivering a nuclear weapon despite international efforts to destroy such weapons, Chipman said. The report estimates Iraq has up to 12 missiles with a range of about 400 miles. "Certainly we believe he has retained a small force of 650-kilometer range ballistic missiles. Those could hit Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Israel, Iran, Turkey," said Chipman. "I think it would take a little bit of time once he had got his fissile material and put together the physics package, so to speak, to be able to arm a warhead on a ballistic missile," Chipman said. "So until that time, he would have to deliver them from a plane or through some other terrorist (route)." Iraq has also probably managed to hide some chemical and biological weapons which pose a limited threat, Chipman's report concludes. Production of such weapons could be resumed within weeks or months at existing civilian facilities, it said. "The magnitude of Iraq's biological weapons threat depends on its delivery capability, which appears limited," the report said. It said Iraq's chemical weapons capability "does not appear to pose a decisive threat against opposing military forces who would be protected against CW attack." It said chemical weapons could disrupt logistical operations and threaten unprotected civilians "but are unlikely to cause mass casualties." Iraq is trying to build gas centrifuge machines that could produce weapons grade nuclear material, but is still far from success, Chipman said. "We certainly confirm that it would be difficult for him in the absence of substantial foreign assistance or the lifting of sanctions soon to be able to develop his own fissile material," he said. The United States has been calling for action to stop Iraq's efforts to build weapons of mass destruction, saying Baghdad poses a threat to U.S. and international interests. Britain has pledged strong support for Washington, but most of America's allies are hesitant, urging President Bush to work through the United Nations for a political solution. Terry Taylor, director of the IISS office in Washington, said Iraq was a threat to the world. "I have no doubt that Saddam Hussein's regime has nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs and missile programs which they are advancing and are a threat to the region and a threat to the world," he told GMTV television program. "That has to be dealt with properly." All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 26 Cheney Defends Pre-Emptive Doctrine Las Vegas SUN: Today: September 09, 2002 at 4:55:15 PDT By SCOTT LINDLAW ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON- Bush administration officials, trying to build a case for action against Iraq, are warning that the world can't afford to wait to see whether Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction. "The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Sunday on CNN's "Late Edition." President Bush is making his case Monday to Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who said last week he has yet to see evidence that would justify Canadian support for a military campaign against Iraq. Officially, the two leaders were meeting in Detroit to discuss border security. Vice President Dick Cheney said intelligence gathered in the last 12 to 14 months suggests the "the United States may well become the target" of an attack. Cheney and top administration officials took to Sunday's TV talk shows as part of Bush's effort to persuade the public, Congress and other countries that action against Saddam is urgently needed. The officials cited the Sept. 11 attacks in making the case that the world cannot wait to find out whether the Iraqi president has weapons of mass destruction "Imagine, a September 11 with weapons of mass destruction. It's not 3,000; it's tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said on CBS' "Face the Nation." In an interview published Monday in The New York Times, French President Jacques Chirac condemned as "extraordinarily dangerous" a pre-emptive U.S. strike against Iraq. "As soon as one nation claims the right to take preventive action, other countries will naturally do the same," the French president said. "If we go down that road, where are we going?" Chirac told the Times that he wants to see Saddam ousted, but said any military action must be approved by the U.N. Security Council. In London, the International Institute of Strategic Studies, a top independent think tank, reported Monday that Iraq is developing equipment to make nuclear bomb components and could have an atomic weapon within months if it could get its hands on radioactive material. Cheney told NBC's "Meet the Press" that the United States is justified in striking any country it believes is planning an attack against America. He said Iraq has the technical expertise and designs for a nuclear weapon, and has been seeking a type of aluminum tube needed to enrich uranium for a weapon. The tubes have been intercepted through one known channel, Cheney said. "We know we have a part of the picture, and that part of the picture tells us that (Saddam) is, in fact, actively and aggressively seeking to acquire nuclear weapons," Cheney said. Cheney said he did not know for sure whether Iraq already has a nuclear weapon. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he did not think so. Bush will address the United Nations on Thursday to build his case for action against Iraq. But Secretary of State Colin Powell said that whatever the world organization decides, Bush will reserve the right to go it alone against Iraq. "The president will retain all of his authority and options to act in a way that may be appropriate for us to act unilaterally to defend ourselves," Powell said on "Fox News Sunday." Bush outlined a new doctrine in June warning he will take "pre-emptive action, when necessary, to defend our liberty and to defend our lives." He mentioned no specific nations at the time. On Sunday, Cheney pointed a finger directly at Iraq. Critics, including some in allied nations, have questioned whether military action to achieve the U.S. goal of ousting Saddam is legal under international law. Asked about the criticism, Cheney said in the case of Iraq, such action is justified. "If we have reason to believe someone is preparing an attack against the U.S., has developed that capability, harbors those aspirations, then I think the U.S. is justified in dealing with that, if necessary, by military force," he said. Powell said, "When you can intercept a terrorist act that is heading your way or you can deal with a regime or a situation before it comes to a crisis level and threatens you, then it is an option that you should keep in mind and on the table." Iraq's vice president denied Sunday that his country is trying to collect nuclear material or building up sites that U.N. weapons inspectors used to visit. Taha Yassin Ramadan, speaking to reporters in Baghdad, charged that the United States and Britain are seeking an excuse to attack Iraq. "They are telling lies and lies to make others believe them," Ramadan said. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 27 U.S. Warns World: Don't Wait on Iraq Las Vegas SUN: Today: September 09, 2002 at 4:55:15 PDT By SCOTT LINDLAW ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON- Bush administration officials, trying to build a case for action against Iraq, are warning that the world can't afford to wait to see whether Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction. "The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Sunday on CNN's "Late Edition." President Bush is making his case Monday to Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who said last week he has yet to see evidence that would justify Canadian support for a military campaign against Iraq. Officially, the two leaders were meeting in Detroit to discuss border security. Vice President Dick Cheney said intelligence gathered in the last 12 to 14 months suggests the "the United States may well become the target" of an attack. Cheney and top administration officials took to Sunday's TV talk shows as part of Bush's effort to persuade the public, Congress and other countries that action against Saddam is urgently needed. The officials cited the Sept. 11 attacks in making the case that the world cannot wait to find out whether the Iraqi president has weapons of mass destruction "Imagine, a September 11 with weapons of mass destruction. It's not 3,000; it's tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said on CBS' "Face the Nation." In an interview published Monday in The New York Times, French President Jacques Chirac condemned as "extraordinarily dangerous" a pre-emptive U.S. strike against Iraq. "As soon as one nation claims the right to take preventive action, other countries will naturally do the same," the French president said. "If we go down that road, where are we going?" Chirac told the Times that he wants to see Saddam ousted, but said any military action must be approved by the U.N. Security Council. In London, the International Institute of Strategic Studies, a top independent think tank, reported Monday that Iraq is developing equipment to make nuclear bomb components and could have an atomic weapon within months if it could get its hands on radioactive material. Cheney told NBC's "Meet the Press" that the United States is justified in striking any country it believes is planning an attack against America. He said Iraq has the technical expertise and designs for a nuclear weapon, and has been seeking a type of aluminum tube needed to enrich uranium for a weapon. The tubes have been intercepted through one known channel, Cheney said. "We know we have a part of the picture, and that part of the picture tells us that (Saddam) is, in fact, actively and aggressively seeking to acquire nuclear weapons," Cheney said. Cheney said he did not know for sure whether Iraq already has a nuclear weapon. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he did not think so. Bush will address the United Nations on Thursday to build his case for action against Iraq. But Secretary of State Colin Powell said that whatever the world organization decides, Bush will reserve the right to go it alone against Iraq. "The president will retain all of his authority and options to act in a way that may be appropriate for us to act unilaterally to defend ourselves," Powell said on "Fox News Sunday." Bush outlined a new doctrine in June warning he will take "pre-emptive action, when necessary, to defend our liberty and to defend our lives." He mentioned no specific nations at the time. On Sunday, Cheney pointed a finger directly at Iraq. Critics, including some in allied nations, have questioned whether military action to achieve the U.S. goal of ousting Saddam is legal under international law. Asked about the criticism, Cheney said in the case of Iraq, such action is justified. "If we have reason to believe someone is preparing an attack against the U.S., has developed that capability, harbors those aspirations, then I think the U.S. is justified in dealing with that, if necessary, by military force," he said. Powell said, "When you can intercept a terrorist act that is heading your way or you can deal with a regime or a situation before it comes to a crisis level and threatens you, then it is an option that you should keep in mind and on the table." Iraq's vice president denied Sunday that his country is trying to collect nuclear material or building up sites that U.N. weapons inspectors used to visit. Taha Yassin Ramadan, speaking to reporters in Baghdad, charged that the United States and Britain are seeking an excuse to attack Iraq. "They are telling lies and lies to make others believe them," Ramadan said. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 28 Report: Iraq Could Assemble Nukes Las Vegas SUN Today: September 09, 2002 at 5:55:21 PDT By BARRY RENFREW ASSOCIATED PRESS LONDON- Iraq could assemble a nuclear weapon within months if it obtained radioactive material, and developing weapons of mass destruction remains one of its top priorities, a leading think tank warned Monday. The report by the respected International Institute for Strategic Studies said Iraq retains substantial chemical and biological weapons and the capability to quickly produce more. It said the regime has hidden away around a dozen medium-range missiles but that much is unknown about its weapon programs. "War, sanctions and inspections have reversed and retarded but not eliminated Iraq's nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and long-range missile capabilities," said the report. Evidence indicates that Iraq is trying to gain nuclear weapons, the report said. Its efforts to develop weapons-grade nuclear material on its own are still far from succeeding, and it probably isn't able to put a nuclear warhead on a missile. But it may have other options, the report's authors said. "There is a nuclear wildcard. If, somehow, Iraq were able to acquire sufficient nuclear material from foreign sources, it could probably produce nuclear weapons on short order, probably in a matter of months," the report said. Iraq retains significant biological and chemical arsenals with the means to quickly resume or increase production of such weapons, the report said. Its ability to deliver such weapons is limited, but they could pose a threat to any U.S. and allied forces in the event of a war, it said. Chemical weapons could disrupt logistical operations and threaten unprotected civilians "but are unlikely to cause mass casualties," it said. The report, presented as an impartial and technical analysis, echoed similar warnings from various government and private analysts and did not appear to contain much new information. Producing weapons of mass destruction is a top goal of Saddam Hussein's regime, the report warned. Left unhindered, it "seems likely that the current Iraqi regime will eventually achieve its objectives," it said. "There's a tremendous unknown," one of the authors, Gary Samore, told a press conference. Iraq has a small force of missiles capable of delivering a nuclear weapon despite international efforts to destroy such weapons, the report said. The force probably consists of 12 missiles with a range of about 400 miles, it said. "Certainly we believe he has retained a small force of 400-mile-range ballistic missiles. Those could hit Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Israel, Iran, Turkey," said the institute's director John Chipman. But even if Iraq is able to assemble some form of nuclear weapon, it still may not have the technology of developing a nuclear missile warhead. "I think it would take a little bit of time once he had got his fissile material and put together the physics package, so to speak, to be able to arm a warhead on a ballistic missile," Chipman said. "So until that time, he would have to deliver them from a plane or through some other terrorist (route)." Iraq is trying to build gas centrifuge machines that could produce weapons grade nuclear material, but is still far from success, Chipman told BBC radio. "We certainly confirm that it would be difficult for him in the absence of substantial foreign assistance or the lifting of sanctions soon to be able to develop his own fissile material," he said. The United States has been calling for action to stop Iraq's efforts to build weapons of mass destruction, saying Baghdad poses a threat to U.S. and international interests. Britain has pledged strong support for Washington, but most of America's allies are hesitant, urging President Bush to work through the United Nations for a political solution. The report said its aim was to provide an impartial assessment to allow officials and the public to decide the extent of any threat posed by Iraq. It said attacking Iraq risks incurring Iraqi retaliation with weapons of mass destruction, but doing nothing risks allowing Baghdad to develop more weapons. "Either course of action carries risks. Wait and the threat will grow. Strike and the threat may be used," it concluded. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 29 Rejects complaint against secret decree Nikitin case The Nikitin case - all about the process against Aleksandr Nikitin starting from October 1995 and until today. MOSCOW - Russia's Supreme Court Thursday threw out a complaint against the secret military decree 055 that has served as the basis for several treason cases — including those of Grigory Pasko and Aleksandr Nikitin. Photo: Vladislav Nikiforov Charles Digges, 2002-09-09 09:18 The basis for the Supreme Court decision was that the decree apparently already had been annulled and that it thus, is no longer valid. But both Nikitin — who with his lawyer Yury Schmidt — filed the complaint, and a Defence Ministry spokesman warned that another secret decree had already been installed to take its place, eroding hopes for many who have been prosecuted or imprisoned by the now cancelled Decree No. 055. The fight continues The treason conviction of Pasko, who reported on nuclear dumping by Russia's Pacific Fleet, relied extensively on Decree No. 055. So did the spy charges against Nikitin, who spent almost five years — including 10 months in jail — battling for his acquittal in September 2000. The decree also secured the conviction of businessman Viktor Kalyadin, who was found guilty of providing military information to the United States. "We will continue this fight," said lawyer Yuri Schmidt. "This is a fight against the arbitrary rule of government agencies." Nikitin seconded his lawyer's comments, but added that "we got what we wanted — [Decree No. 55] does not have the force of law." "But we don't know what the new decree says and the most important issue now is declassifying the new decree as well as many others," he said, indicating that he will be setting his sights on secret Defence Ministry decrees that govern atomic energy, education and other issues. Violates Constitution Nikitin, Pasko, Kalyadin and their lawyers have been fighting the 1996 decree for more than a year. The cancelled — and newly replaced — decree, defined classified information. Free-speech advocates say it violated the Constitution and the federal law on state secrets. Last year, the Supreme Court annulled 10 points of the decree in response to a complaint filed by Nikitin and Schmidt. After Pasko and Kalyadin filed separate complaints, the Court annulled the entire decree in February. However, those decisions were overturned after the Defence Ministry protested. Resubmission Schmidt and Nikitin resubmitted their complaint, but in May the Supreme Court refused to consider it on the grounds that the Defense Ministry had already cancelled the decree and issued a new list of state secrets, Schmidt said. He said the ministry is required to review all such decrees every five years. On Thursday, the Court's appeals board upheld the May decision. But as long as Decree No. 055 is not flatly ruled illegal, it can be used to support allegations of treason allegedly committed while it was in effect, Schmidt said. Furthermore, the new ministry decree — which is also classified — could be illegal as well, he said. The secret decree prohibits servicemen from revealing information listed as classified but "it affects any user of information," including civilians. Thus, its contents should be public information, Nikitin said. Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] , President: Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] Information: info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] , Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no [webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 30 Nuclear weapons for Sydney is a possibility PM - 9/9/2002: HAMISH ROBERTSON: The American Ambassador to Australia has raised the possibility of a nuclear bomb in Sydney Harbour. Tom Schieffer says Australians don't fully realise that terrorists could attack here. He says the United States is still laying out the case against Iraq, and there is evidence of Baghdad's links to terrorist groups like al Qaeda. As Louise Yaxley reports, the Ambassador has welcomed Australia's push for the United Nations to follow through with its Security Council resolutions against Iraq. LOUISE YAXLEY: The US Ambassador, Tom Schieffer, welcomes the debate now raging in Australia about whether the nation should participate in a strike against Iraq. He's aware of the sensitivities and says it's up to Australians to decide. But the Ambassador warns Australia is not immune to attack from terrorists. TOM SCHIEFFER: If terrorism is allowed to destroy American cities for whatever cause of the moment that exists, why wouldn't terrorists then think that it was alright to do those in Australia or any other place in the world. And what the President is saying is that no American President can be comfortable with the proposition that these weapons might be developed and then distributed to those who would detonate a nuclear device in New York Harbour or Sydney Harbour, or any number of places around the world. LOUISE YAXLEY: When pressed afterwards if that was scare mongering, the Ambassador didn't back away. TOM SCHIEFFER: I think it's the reality of the world of terrorism. We don't know why terrorists act, where they will act, and I think we have to recognise that they can act anywhere. And one of the things that I have been concerned about over the last year or so, and it's not a, I don't want it to be scare mongering or whatever, but I see in Australia much of the same attitude toward terrorism that I saw in the United States prior to September 11. And basically that was that it'll it happens in the Middle East or it happens in Northern Ireland, but it doesn't happen here. And I'm talking about America, well Americans realise that it does happen in America and I'm not sure that Australians have fully come to grips with the fact that it could happen here. LOUISE YAXLEY: Tom Schieffer says the US is still laying out the case against Iraq. He peppered his speech to a Canberra Rotary Club today, with references to weapons of mass destruction. At one point, asserting Iraq has such weapons. TOM SCHIEFFER: At the end of the day, what we have to confront is the realisation that weapons of mass destruction are possessed by Saddam Hussein, and that programs we believe that there are programs in which he is fostering biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. And the international community, not just the United States, has to decide what level of risk it's willing to assume. LOUISE YAXLEY: When asked to spell out the link between the September 11 attacks and the current attacks on Iraq and Saddam Hussein, Ambassador Schieffer put it this way. TOM SCHIEFFER: And we know that Saddam Hussein has been trying to acquire a nuclear device. We know that he's been trying to acquire biological weapons. We know he has been trying to acquire chemical weapons, because a terrorist by definition, if they can get a weapon of mass destruction, can have a bigger bang for their buck. So what we have in the person of Osama bin Laden is a willing buyer. LOUISE YAXLEY: But Australia's oldest foreign policy think-tank, the Australian Institute of International Affairs, says that's not enough. It says the case for early action against Iraq has been asserted, not proved, and there's been no evidence of any direct link between Iraq and the events of September 11. The Institute strongly favours a new round of tougher weapons inspections, and possibly new Security Council resolutions. On AM this morning, the Prime Minister was pushing for the United Nations to back the US. Ambassador Schieffer is clearly happy to hear that line from Australia. TOM SCHIEFFER: We have no better friend in the world than Australia, and Australians are going to have this debate and Australians are going to come to a conclusion as to whether they want to be a part of whatever action needs to be taken. But they certainly are giving their support in trying to get this matter resolved with the United Nations. HAMISH ROBERTSON: United States Ambassador to Australia, Tom Schieffer. ABC Online" border="0"> [http://abc.net.au] ***************************************************************** 31 Iraq 'Close To Nuclear Bomb' Iraq has the potential to build a working nuclear bomb within a year, a leading think-tank has warned. sky.com"> [http://www.sky.com] Reuters Saddam Hussein's government would have to buy or steal radioactive material from overseas but could then develop devastating weapons, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said. But some observers said the evidence was not new and did not justify an attack on Iraq. Missile John Chipman, director of the London-based institute, said it could soon be possible for Iraq to launch a nuclear strike on Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Israel, Turkey, Jordan or Iran. Mr Chipman said: "Were he able to obtain fissile material from abroad, steal it or buy it in some way, we certainly believe he has the ability to put together a nuclear weapon very quickly in a matter of months. Arms sites destroyed in Gulf War "They were always aiming to be able to arm their ballistic missiles with a nuclear weapon so it would be just a question of working on the physics for a number of months, maybe a year, to be able to marry the warhead to a ballistic missile," The London-based IISS also says Iraq has stockpiled "thousands of litres of anthrax". But Saddam only possesses a limited and uncertain capacity to deliver them, the report concludes. Ultimatum The British Government is due to publish within the next few weeks a file of evidence against Saddam which Downing Street claims will prove the need for swift action. It comes as Tony Blair and George W Bush lay down a final ultimatum for Saddam: comply with the UN or face attack. The pair, who met for talks at Camp David near Washington at the weekend, want UN weapons inspectors allowed in with unlimited access. Mr Blair is expected to outline his position in a speech to the TUC on Tuesday as efforts to build an international consensus continue. Last Updated: 15:54 UK, Monday September 09, 2002 © 2002 BSkyB | Privacy Statement | Terms and Conditions ***************************************************************** 32 Expert: Iraq could build bomb in months, but lacks uranium www.haaretzdaily.com> Last update - 13:22 09/09/2002 By Reuters John Chipman: Saddam's ballistic missiles would be 'important as a terror weapon.' (Photo: Archives) Iraq could build a nuclear bomb within months if it obtained fissile material from abroad but lacks the ability to make its own nuclear material, the director of a leading independent think-tank said Monday. John Chipman, director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told BBC Radio that if President Saddam Hussein acquired enriched uranium with foreign aid, Iraq could put a nuclear warhead on a missile capable of hitting Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Israel, Turkey, Jordan and Iran within a year. The IISS report, which says Iraq has chemical and biological weapons but only limited and uncertain capacity to deliver them, comes amid fierce debate about a possible U.S.-led war to oust Saddam. President George W. Bush is to outline his policy in a speech to the United Nations on Thursday. "Were he able to obtain fissile material from abroad, steal it or buy it in some way, we certainly believe he has the ability to put together a nuclear weapon very quickly, in a matter of months," Chipman said, ahead of the release of an IISS study on Iraq's suspected weapons of mass destruction. "They were always aiming to be able to arm their ballistic missiles with a nuclear weapon so it would be just a question of working on the physics for a number of months, maybe a year, to be able to marry the warhead to a ballistic missile," he said. Bush highlighted Saddam's potential to develop nuclear weapons before talks at the weekend on tackling Iraq with Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair. British officials said Sunday that Blair, who also warned of the "real threat" Saddam posed, had seen a copy of the report. Chipman said Saddam's use of chemical weapons in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war suggested "that he is building up his stockpiles in order to be able to use them as an instrument of last resort or alternatively to deter an attack on his country by threatening to use them in the event that the regime were challenged." He said Iraq had retained important stockpiles of both chemical and biological weapons from stocks built up before the 1991 Gulf War and the seven-and-a-half year United Nations weapons inspection regime. UN inspectors left Iraq in December 1998 before a four-day U.S.-British bombing campaign intended to punish Saddam for obstructing the inspectors' work. Chipman said Iraq's civilian infrastructure could be diverted to create new stocks of chemical and biological weapons in a matter of weeks or months, but his ability to use them in battle was limited. "[Iraq's] ballistic missiles have what are called impact fuses, which means that much of the agent would be destroyed on impact," he said. "So they would be important as a terror weapon but they would not be militarily all that significant in battle." © Copyright 2002 Ha`aretz. All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 33 ACTION ALERT: DOE/OSTI TO ELIMINATE PubSCIENCE Date: Mon, 09 Sep 2002 20:39:21 -0700 AALL ACTION ALERT: DOE/OSTI TO ELIMINATE PubSCIENCE September 3, 2002 BACKROUND: For over 50 years, the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) has been collecting, preserving, and disseminating scientific and technical information for DOE. From the beginning, the fundamental purpose of OSTI was to ensure that research results were reported and made available to the agency, to researchers in the physical sciences community, and to the broader scientific community. As described on the “About PubSCIENCE” section of the web site, PubSCIENCE is a natural evolution of OSTI tools dating from the late 1940’s, the Nuclear Science Abstracts and the Energy Science and Technology Database. DOE/OSTI distributed the Nuclear Science Abstracts to our Nation’s federal depository libraries at no cost “in order to ensure maximum public access and dissemination of the results of research and development projects of interest to the federal government program. PubSCIENCE continues that tradition. In essence, PubSCIENCE is a modernization of Nuclear Science Abstracts and the Energy Science and Technology Database.” (http://pubsci.osti.gov/aboutfrm.html Accessed August 29, 2002) OSTI's mission continues to this day to provide access to national and global STI for use by DOE, the scientific research community, academia, U.S. industry, and the public. PubSCIENCE is the culmination of the agency's lifetime tradition of providing scientific and technical information by bringing that information to the desktop. PubSCIENCE was created in 1999 to give physical scientists the capacity to search across the journal literature at no fee in response to the evolving opportunities presented by web-based technologies. Indeed, the Department of Energy in early 2001 recognized the importance of PubSCIENCE as an outstanding resource, stating that: “The DOE Web Council selected the PubSCIENCE Web site as the featured site on the DOE National Library page for the February 2001 edition of www.energy.gov, the Department's new homepage. This work was a valued example of DOE's commitment to build a rich Web site for the American public.(http://pubsci.osti.gov/aboutfrm.html, August 29, 2002) THE CURRENT CRISIS: The DOE posted a notice on the PubSCIENCE homepage in August, with a September 8, 2002 deadline for comments on its eliminations. PubSCIENCE was targeted in 2000 by a handful of publishers and the information industry who have declared that it competes with two private sector indexes that are currently provided at no cost to the public. However, both publishers could at any time change the no-fee status of these two services, Scirus (owned by Reed Elsevier) and Infotrieve, to fee-based subscriptions. AALL has joined other library associations in preparing joint library and public interest group comments. The following talking points explain the crisis further and may be useful in your comments to the agency and to your legislators: · The Federal Government has a responsibility, recognized by the Paperwork Reduction Act and OMB Circular A-130, to disseminate information about its work products, services, and information sources for the public benefit. Today, the Federal government funds most basic research in physics, matter, chemistry, and energy. Government agencies such as DOE have an affirmative obligation to the public to make information collected through taxpayer dollars available for public review and use. · There is a need for multiple channels for information and for a diversity of sources. PubSCIENCE provides information to DOE, other agencies, federal contract research, the research community and the general public. It serves a real and legitimate public need, and should not be discontinued because two private sector organizations have developed similar but not identical services. PubSCIENCE is a relatively small resource focusing on the needs of researchers and scientists in energy-related fields. PubSCIENCE has agreements with only 35 publishers, among who are many smaller publishers whose literature is important to scientists but who are not included in the databases of the other two commercial resources. · The discontinuation of PubSCIENCE will disable the indexing of a portion of the literature of the sciences (energy, matter, physics, etc.) relevant to private, not-for-profit, and public sector markets. PubSCIENCE provides a critical and voluntary service to 35 publishers in the public, private and not-for-profit communities by offering increased visibility for the journals of small to mid-sized publishers whose titles do not appear in ScienceDirect nor are they covered by the Scirus search engine. PubSCIENCE provides these publishers with an effective, no fee public awareness mechanism that helps these journals to remain competitive in their disciplines. ·PubSCIENCE is valuable to the scientific and research communities and important for progress in scientific inquiry, as well as for the continued competitiveness of our Nation. The elimination of PubSCIENCE will have a negative impact on scientific research as it will impede the sharing of information in the scientific community. Tools such as PubSCIENCE, Scirus, Infotrieve, and many fee-based commercial services that provide access to scientific information for which our Nation’s libraries spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year, combine to facilitate the process. · The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) recently concluded that a greater government investment in the physical sciences is required. Eliminating an information resource that supports access to physical sciences literature contradicts this recommendation. The DOE should be providing additional resources in this arena, not reducing those that promote access to government-funded scientific literature. ACTION NEEDED: The current crisis demands immediate action by as many librarians and members of the scientific and research communities as possible. If a small but powerful segment of industry succeeds in eliminating PubSCIENCE, they may be energized to attack more government databases on the basis of so-called “competition.” AALL and many other groups are submitting joint comments by the deadline of September 8, 2002, and it is very important that the DOE and members of Congress, particularly those on the Science Committees, hear from as many libraries and individuals as possible. Using portions of the background information and two or three of the talking points above as your guide, please submit comments on your own behalf as soon as possible. In addition, please discuss this crisis with your director and ask if she/he might be very willing to sign a short letter on behalf of your library. I will also be working with our chapters to have comments submitted by as many chapters as possible. Other important information, If your browser accepts forms, please submit your comments by September 8, 2002 to: http://pubsci.osti.gov/psfeedbk.html. Be sure to enter your e-mail address if you would like a response. If your browser does not accept forms, please send your comments to the following e-mail address: pubscience@osti.gov. Be sure to enter your e-mail address if you would like a response. And, please help us to educate your representatives in Congress by faxing them a copy of your comments along with a brief note about why this is so important to you, your library, scientific researchers and the public. If your representative(s) are members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, it is even more important that they hear from you. You’ll find their names and contact information at either of the following URLs: http://www.senate.gov/~commerce/members.htm http://energycommerce.house.gov/107/members/members.htm. Finally, if you have a good relationship with your members’ offices, please pick up the phone and call their staff after you have submitted your comments to DOE and to your members. Reiterate why the elimination of PubSCIENCE is bad for the tax-paying public, for library users, for the publishers who voluntarily partner with PubSCIENCE, for the research and scientific communities, and for all Americans. ***************************************************************** 34 Feds investigating Livermore lab nuclear waste Daily Review Monday, September 09, 2002 - 2:56:05 AM MST By Lisa Friedman WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- With nuclear waste still stashed in tents on the grounds of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, federal investigators have launched a formal inquiry to find out why. Independent government auditors with the General Accounting Office will travel to California this week to determine why a waste treatment and storage facility that cost $62.3million to build still isn't being used. "The new building currently stands empty while the waste remains under tents nearby," complained Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo, in an angry May letter to the GAO that touched off the investigation. Investigator Gary Boss, who is leading the inquiry, said the Department of Energy has provided monthly updates on the facility. This week his staff will be interviewing lab officials in person and touring the storage areas. "We'll meet with them generally and we'll meet with them separately to try to find out what's really going on here," Boss said. Department of Energy spokesman Joe Davis did not return calls about the storage facility. But earlier this year he said some safety features were overlooked in constructing the 87,000 square feet of buildings, rendering it unusable until fixed. Reviews are under way, but the facility will likely not open until 2003. In the meantime, DOE officials maintain the outdoor tents -- which hold drums of liquid and solid hazardous waste as well as contaminated articles of clothing -- are safe and secure. In her letter, Tauscher asked investigators to find out "what is suddenly 'inadequate' about the building" and why safety concerns were not raised during construction. Investigators will have other business while out in the Bay Area -- looking at ways to make DOE science facilities like Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory compliant with state nuclear and worker safety regulations. DOE laboratories are exempt from external regulators like the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. "They've never been held accountable to an outside force. We think that should change," Boss said. Congress, which last year asked DOE to submit a plan for bringing labs under external regulation, took the agency to task in a funding report passed by committee last week. Calling the document submitted by DOE "grossly inadequate," lawmakers blasted the agency for calling for still more studies instead of putting together a plan of action. "It is clear that the leadership of the Department is more interested in preserving the status quo of self-regulation than in making a serious effort to improve the safety and efficiency of its laboratory operations." * The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday took a step toward making the Amber Alert system national. The bill, sponsored by California Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein, would give $25 million in matching grants to help states buy the flashing freeway signs that helped police in Lancaster find two teenage girls who had been abducted at gunpoint, as well as several other kidnapped children in the state. It also establishes a national coordinator to help alert neighboring states if a kidnapper is believed to have taken a child across state lines. The Amber Alert system currently is used in 16 states and 32 local jurisdictions. * The town of Aachen, Germany, has honored Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, with a peace prize for her vote last year against military intervention in Afghanistan. The Aachen Peace Prize has been awarded since 1998 to "women, men or groups who, through their work at the grass roots level have contributed to a better understanding between nations, have dismantled enemy stereotypes and established trust." Lee was the only member of Congress last year to vote against a resolution authorizing armed force against anyone connected with the Sept. 11 attacks. ©1999-2002 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers ***************************************************************** 35 Insider: Bin Laden is dead Monday, September 9, 2002 Back The Halifax Herald Limited The slip about bin Laden is a serious lapse, considering al-Qaida wants people to believe the leader is still alive. Henchman's slip suggests bin Laden dead Secrets behind terrorist attacks revealed in al-Jazeera interview By Dominic Kennedy / The Times of London A slip of the tongue by one of Osama bin Laden's top henchmen seems to have betrayed al-Qaida movement's most potent secret: its charismatic leader is dead. The blunder was made by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has confessed to being the operational mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks. He made his mistake while disclosing many of the secrets behind the atrocities, which were plotted in Kandahar, the Taliban movement's Afghan spiritual home. The target of the fourth, thwarted hijack attack in Washington was Congress, not the White House; the original plan was to crash planes into atomic power stations; and the plotters used simple codes to keep in touch by Internet, he disclosed. Mohammed was speaking in a propaganda exercise organized by al-Qaida in time for the first anniversary of Sept. 11. A television journalist from al-Jazeera, the Arabic satellite television station that has previously broadcast exclusive footage of bin Laden, was blindfolded and taken to meet two al-Qaida chiefs. During two days of interviews, Mohammed referred to bin Laden, who has not been seen since the fall of the Taliban, in the past tense. The reporter, Yosri Fouda, London bureau chief for al-Jazeera, concluded that bin Laden is likely dead. The journalist was taken to the Pakistan city of Karachi, driven eight kilometres into the countryside, blindfolded, then brought to a clandestine rendezvous on the fourth floor of a sparsely furnished flat. He believes it was in Karachi. There he met Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh, a former flatmate of Mohamed Atta, the hijack ringleader. Binalshibh is a suspect in the bombing of U.S.S. Cole, when 17 sailors were killed in Yemen in October 2000. He described himself as head of al-Qaida's military committee. The two men spoke of Sept. 11 as "Holy Tuesday." They described the attacks using the Arabic word ghazwa, which means a raid against enemies of the Prophet, Fouda wrote in The Sunday Times. It took two years to plan the attacks, the men disclosed. Al-Qaida's military committee had decided there must be a "martyrdom operation" inside America. Nuclear targets were the first choice, but they were ruled out for now, Mohammed said. The hijackers were recruited from al-Qaida's "Department of Martyrs", which still has scores of volunteers for future suicide attacks, the men claimed. Atta, an al-Qaida sleeper agent studying town planning in Hamburg since 1992, was chosen as a pilot and Nawaf al-Hazemi as his second-in-command. Binalshibh wanted to be the twentieth hijacker. He applied for a visa for flight training three times, but was turned down on security grounds. The leading hijackers were summoned to Kandahar for a council meeting. Four advance reconnaissance units were sent to America. The chosen pilots enrolled in U.S. flight schools. Meanwhile, young Saudi volunteers were picked to act as muscle in the hijacking of the planes. Using an Internet chatroom, Atta sent messages in German from America, posing as a student, to "Jenny", his fictitious girlfriend. The real recipient was Binalshibh. In al-Qaida's code the World Trade Center was "the faculty of town planning" (Atta hated skyscrapers, preferring traditional Islamic architecture), the Pentagon was "the faculty of fine arts" and Congress was the "faculty of law." In a final telephone call Atta told Binalshibh the chosen date for the attacks. "Two sticks, a dash and a cake with a stick down," he said, meaning 11/9, British-style shorthand for Sept. 11. The news reached bin Laden on Sept. 6, giving him only five days warning of the horrors. Mohammed's slip of the tongue about bin Laden's demise was a serious lapse. Throughout their discussions with the reporter, al-Qaida operatives persistently sought to suggest that their leader was still alive, well and keenly following events. Al-Qaida's decision to bring a reporter from al-Jazeera to meet two of bin Laden's generals rather than the man himself adds to the impression he may be dead. Copyright © 2002 The Halifax Herald Limited ***************************************************************** 36 Editorial: Costly conversation / A useful but expensive development summit Monday, September 09, 2002 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg during the past two weeks aired several important questions, including how economic development can best be achieved without unnecessarily depleting environmental resources. The summit was marred, however, by the tendency of some participants to try to put the burden for solving all problems on America. America started the conference two strikes down with the third one whizzing toward the plate. Even though the United States sent a credible representative in Secretary of State Colin Powell, other states sent their presidents or prime ministers. Strike one. The Bush administration signaled just after coming to power in 2001 that it was not going to sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, sacred text to environmentalists and a convenient one-word indictment of U.S. environmental policy. Strike two. The third strike came in the form of general disapproval of a passel of U.S. policies and positions, some of which were not on the agenda at Johannesburg. One was the current U.S. effort to mobilize support for doing something about Saddam Hussein and Iraq's nuclear weapons capacity. Some at the summit expressed their emotional attachment to failure by booing Mr. Powell when he dared to criticize Zimbabwe's inept President Robert Mugabe. Actually, the United States put forward some constructive proposals for promoting sustainable development and conserving the environment. These include active support of partnerships between governments and the private sector in environmental and anti-poverty programs overseas. In the area where European Union countries deemed that they had suffered the most severe setback -- the failure to agree on deadlines for replacing fossil fuel-source energy by renewable sources such as wind and solar power -- they were saved from the results of their own proposals by a coalition that included Japan, Canada and the states of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries as well as the United States. To stage the summit, the United Nations and other countries, private companies, foundations and other nongovernmental organizations paid to fly some 40,000 delegates to Johannesburg, South Africa, for a 10-day-long conference -- this, in a region where an estimated 13 million people are believed to be in danger of starving. We'd like to say it was worth it for the exchange of views, but we are not entirely sure. Copyright ©1997-2002 PG Publishing Co., Inc. All Rights ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************