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line and first line of body
NUCLEAR POLICY
1 British Energy reveals big loss, says at 'bleak point'
2 US: Iran building nukes: report
3 S Korea calls emergency meeting
4 US: Probe of energy panel unlikely to be revealing
5 Report: N. Korea to Revive Nuke Program
6 Indian Vajpayee criticizes inaction over boosting Russia ties
7 Disarm North Korean threat
8 BBC NEWS | Business | British Energy losses soar
9 UK: COUNCILLOR CALLS FOR NUCLEAR EXPERTISE UNIVERSITY SPIN-OFF -
10 North Korea issues nuclear threat
11 US: Halting Iran's nuclear ambitions
12 Nuclear research site passes inspection
13 Gaping hole in British Energy nuclear cleanup fund
14 Iran Orders Nuke Plant Feasibility Study
15 DPR of Korea informs IAEA of intent to lift 'freeze' on nuclear
16 *N.Korea Says It's Reactivating Nuclear Plant*
17 North Korea escalates nuclear crisis
18 Gaping hole in British Energy nuclear cleanup fund
19 Guardian Unlimited | World Latest | Nuclear Panel Chairman to
20 British Energy's losses mushroom to £337m
21 Nuclear Company British Energy Losing £2M A Day
22 US: U.S. has photos of secret Iran nuclear sites
23 Blix to give arms report by Monday
24 A war for fools and cowards
25 UK: Energy group facing fallout
26 Global N-power industry on revival path
27 Nuclear research site passes inspection
28 N.Korea Says It's Reactivating Nuclear Plant*
29 U.S. Calls N.Korea Nuclear Move Regrettable*
30 US: Op: Longevity: Weinberg's new standard for nuclear power plants
NUCLEAR REACTORS
31 US: NRC: 2002-144 - Chairman Meserve to Leave NRC in Spring
32 US: Seabrook accident plan in the mail
33 TEPCO punishes 9 for fake leak rates
34 N-store plan attacked by Snowdonia watchdogs
35 Nawash band fighting restart of nuclear reactors
36 US: Nuke free, but slowly
37 Tepco/Reactors -2: To Burn More Oil,Seek Pwr Conservation
NUCLEAR SAFETY
38 US: Officials seek source of flier that has nuke workers nervous
39 UK: END IN SIGHT FOR RADIATION TABLETS -
40 UK: MUF figures are announced*
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
41 US: Radon being removed from contaminated wastes
42 Mutations theory lacking in logic
43 Sellafield to cut waste discharges by 80%
44 Editorial: State must witness all cask tests
45 UK: STAFF MOVE SPARKS BNFL SAFETY FEARS - The Whitehaven News
46 The Yucca conundrum
47 UK: SELLAFIELD JOB AND SAFETY FEARS -
48 Cuts in nuclear waste planned
49 UK: BNFL UNDER ORDERS TO SOLVE BIRD HAZARD -
50 UK: CONTAMINATION INCIDENTS CAUSE CONCERN -
51 US: Sen. Warned About Threat Of Radioactive Waste Along Coast
52 Beckett plan for cleaner Irish Sea
53 Researchers say nuclear canisters may corrode in Yucca Mountain*
54 Sellafield to slash nuclear waste levels*
55 Radioactive emission from Sellafield to be reduced
56 Minister hails Sellafield moratorium
57 US: Judge refuses to dismiss lawsuit against NFS*
58 US: Officials Outline Plan for Nuclear Waste Cleanup
59 Continued discharges of Tc-99
60 Brazil opens uranium enrichment plant
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
61 EPA: New DOE attitude is promising
62 DOE: Waste cell condition 'intolerable'
63 DOE deserves pat on back for efforts
64 Contemporary Technologies (DOE N-WSTE SOFTWARE CONTRACTOR)
65 Livermore is core of key homeland security vision
OTHER NUCLEAR
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 British Energy reveals big loss, says at 'bleak point'
Scottish business news - updated throughout the day - Business
by Philip Howard [feedback@businessam.co.uk]
Last update: 08:58, Dec 12, 2002
BRITISH Energy, the struggling nuclear group, said today it was
at a “bleak point” in its fortunes as it unveiled pre-tax losses
of £337m for the last half year.
The group said the losses, for the six months to 30 September,
were due to lower UK output, lower electricity prices, and
one-off costs.
Last month the government extended another lifeline to the ailing
East Kilbride company by backing a restructuring plan in which
bondholders and creditors will take control of the company.
British Energy, which supplies a fifth of the UK's electricity,
fell into trouble in September when it warned the Government it
could face insolvency unless it received immediate financial aid.
The group has been battered by the steep decline in electricity
prices in the UK.
The chairman, Adrian Montague, who replaced Robin Jeffrey who
departed last month, said: “I take up the position of chairman at
a bleak point in our company's future.
“The combination of high fixed costs for our nuclear stations and
low power prices, coupled with our lack of tied retail outlets
and a high level of unscheduled outages, has inflicted terrible
damage on our company.”
He said these factors lay behind the group's decision to seek
government assistance.
He added: “The restructuring proposals agreed with the Government
offer our company the opportunity to start on the long path to
recovery.
“It will involve considerable sacrifice on the part of the
company's major creditors and shareholders.
“However these creditors have yet to agree to participate in the
restructuring scheme, and if they do not, or if the restructuring
cannot proceed for some other reason, the company is likely to
have to seek the protection of administration. The next few
months will be decisive.”
He added the immediate future was “uncertain” and said market
conditions remained “extremely challenging”.
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2 Iran building nukes: report
NEWS.com.au |
(December 13, 2002)
From correspondents in Washington
December 13, 2002
THE United States has evidence that Iran is building nuclear
facilities that were secret until now, senior US officials are
reported as saying.
Commercial satellite photographs taken in September show a
nuclear facility near the town of Natanz and another one near
Arak, the officials told CNN.
US officials say the nuclear facilities are of a type and size
that strongly suggest it may be on course to build a nuclear
weapon.
The large facility at Natanz appears to US intelligence officials
to be a uranium enrichment plant and civilian experts agree with
that assessment.
A spokesman at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna
confirmed the agency is seeking access to the two sites and has
so far been put off by Iran.
*****************************************************************
3 S Korea calls emergency meeting
Herald Sun:
[12dec02]
[http://www.heraldsun.com.au]
This story is from our news.com.au network Source: AFP
From correspondents in Seoul, Korea
THE South Korean government has called an emergency security
meeting in response to a North Korean pledge to reactivate its
nuclear program because of a US decision to cut off fuel aid.
South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung convened the meeting of his
security council after the North Korean foreign ministry
announced Pyongyang would scrap a 1994 arms control agreement to
freeze nuclear facilities and would reactivate the program.
The North's foreign ministry statement said Pyongyang would
"immediately resume operation and construction of nuclear
facilities necessary for electric power generation".
Senior South Korean intelligence, foreign policy and security
officials attended the meeting that began at 5pm (7pm AEDT)
chaired by Unification Minister Jeong Se-Hyun.
A cautious spokesman from the ministry, which handles policy on
North Korea, said it was too early to speculate on the impact of
the announcement.
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"It came as a surprise to our government. We didn't expect North
Korea to take such an action," said Hang Sang-In.
"It is too soon to predict what could happen or whether it will
heighten tension on the Korean peninsula."
The North's stunning announcement came just a week ahead of
elections in the South to replace President Kim, whose five year
term expires in February.
And it came a day after US concerns about North Korea's nuclear
and missile programs were highlighted by the seizure of a North
Korean consignment of Scud missiles bound for Yemen.
Ruling party candidate Roh Moo-Hyun immediately issued a
statement expressing concerns about the North's threat to nullify
the 1994 Agreed Framework.
"If North Korea restarts operation and construction of nuclear
facilities as announced, it would isolate the country from the
rest of the world," Roh said.
He urged Seoul, Pyongyang and Washington to "solve the issue
through dialogue" in a peaceful manner.
Pyongyang's move to reactivate its suspected nuclear program
would effectively kill off the Agreed Framework, but the
communist regime still left wiggle room to negotiate a new
freeze.
"It is totally up to the United States whether we will re-freeze
our nuclear facilities again," the statement said.
The accord has been on the brink of collapse since the US-led
international consortium decided in November to cut off fuel
supplies to punish Pyongyang for its suspected nuclear weapons
program.
Under the accord, Pyongyang pledged to freeze its atomic
ambitions in return for the consortium's assistance in building
two light-water reactors and the annual delivery of 500,000
tonnes of heavy fuel oil.
Revelations in October by US envoy James Kelly after a visit to
Pyongyang related to a new and separate program based on enriched
uranium.
The United States has been leading an international drive to
force North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons ambitions.
In Beijing earlier today, Deputy Secretary of State Richard
Armitage said China agreed with the United States that ways
should be found to denuclearise North Korea.
"I think China shares the same concerns the US has, South Korea
has and our Russian friends have and the Japanese have and that
is we have to find a way to denuclearise the peninsula of Korea,"
Armitage said before the latest North Korean announcement.
*****************************************************************
4 Probe of energy panel unlikely to be revealing
Published Dec. 11, 2002
Although some in Congress are complaining, the decision by a
Bush-appointed federal judge to deny access to the details about
Vice President Dick Cheney's energy policy panel really makes
little difference.
Judge John Bates told the General Accounting Office it had no
standing to sue for details about closed-door sessions when the
Bush administration was forming its energy policy. The GAO is the
investigative agency for Congress. It was asked to find out who
met with Cheney and what they told him.
The judge's dismissal said, in effect, let Congress file its own
lawsuit for the details.
But it's unlikely there really are any secrets left. At least not
important ones.
It is general knowledge that although the meetings were behind
closed doors, the only people in the room were administration
people and the oil and energy executives who helped get them
elected. Ken Lay, Enron's CEO, was prominently featured.
You don't need Tarot cards to figure out the message there.
Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved. This
*****************************************************************
5 Report: N. Korea to Revive Nuke Program
Las Vegas SUN
December 12, 2002
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEOUL, South Korea- North Korea said Thursday that it will
immediately reactivate its frozen nuclear facilities, South
Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.
A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said his country
would revive a program that it froze in a 1994 deal with the
United States, Yonhap said.
The declaration could not be independently confirmed. However,
if true, it would signal a major escalation in North Korea's
confrontation with the United States, which is trying to
pressure the communist country to abandon a more recent nuclear
program.
The North Korean announcement also followed the seizure and
release of a ship carrying what U.S. officials said were North
Korean missiles bound for Yemen.
--
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All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
6 Indian Vajpayee criticizes inaction over boosting Russia ties
Islamic Republic News Agency ( I R N A )HeadLines News
About IRNA Sitemap Links IRNA College
Tourism ADS
New Delhi, Dec 12, IRNA -- No concrete steps have been taken to
further trilateral cooperation among India, Russia and China,
India's Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said in the Upper
House of
Indian Parliament on Wednesday.
Responding to questions on a statement he made during recent
visit of the Russian President Vladimir Putin, Vajpayee said the
FMs of the three countries had called for bolstering joint
cooperation during a recent meeting in New York, but since then
no concrete steps had been taken.
The Indian premier stressed that there had been no change of
policy as far as weaponization of outer space was concerned.
Vajpayee was responding to a question on the joint statement by
India and Russia on the need to prevent the weaponization of
outer space.
Earlier, Vajpayee said in both Houses of Parliament that Putin's
visit underlined Moscow and New Delhi's "mutual commitment" to
constantly strengthen their strategic partnership, intensify
political consultations and give a new dimension to economic
relations.
"We will continue to attach the highest importance to our
relations with Russia. In keeping with our commitment to annual
summits, I have accepted President Putin's invitation to visit
Russia next year," he remarked.
Vajpayee and Putin decided that the international regime on
civilian applications of nuclear energy needed reforms.
"President Putin confirmed Russia's interest in continued
cooperation with India on civilian applications of nuclear
energy. In the joint press interaction after our talks, he
expressed the view that the international regime on these matters
needs reform. We fully agree with this," Vajpayee said.
On defense cooperation between the two countries, he said this
now included joint research, development and production. The
state-of-the-art Brahmos missile was the result of their joint
collaboration, Vajpayee added.
"India and Russia are now embarking on the co-production of this
(Brahmos) missile system for its induction into the armed forces
of both countries. President Putin and I agreed that a number of
other projects hold promise for future cooperation," Vajpayee
maintained.
He said that the "Delhi Declaration" reaffirmed that neither
country would take any action which may threaten or impair the
security of the other.
BH/AR
last Update Friday, 13-Dec-2002 00:03:11 PST
©2000 Islamic Republic News Agency ( IRNA). All rights reserved
Best viewed by IE 5,5 and 800*600 resolution.
*****************************************************************
7 Disarm North Korean threat
Daily Yomiuri On-Line
[EDITORIAL]
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Yomiuri Shimbun
North Korea's latest change in its nuclear policy poses a
renewed threat to global peace.
On Thursday, a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said his
nation would revive a nuclear program frozen under a 1994 accord
with the United States, with the aim of immediately restarting
the construction and operation of nuclear facilities to produce
electricity.
The communist regime's new policy, if implemented, would
reactivate its graphite-moderated nuclear reactor program--which
could readily produce weapons-grade plutonium. In that event,
Pyongyang could develop the capacity to produce more than 100
nuclear arms a year within 10 years.
The North Korean announcement is, in effect, tantamount to
scrapping the Agreed Framework the energy-starved country signed
with the United States.
The framework stipulated that North Korea freeze its
graphite-moderated nuclear reactor program and dismantle related
facilities. In return, the accord required the United States to
give the communist state two modern, light-water reactors that
North Korea would find very difficult to use to produce
weapons-grade plutonium.
To justify its decision to reactivate its plutonium-based
program, Pyongyang cited the recent U.S.-led decision to
suspend, in December, annual shipments of 500,000 tons of heavy
oil under the 1994 agreement.
North Korea, however, only has itself to blame for the decision.
===
Outrageous attitude
In October, Pyongyang told U.S. Assistant Secretary of State
James Kelly that it had a secret program to enrich uranium to
make nuclear weapons, despite the 1994 accord.
North Korean's behavior was unmistakably in violation of a
safeguards agreement signed with the International Atomic Energy
Agency, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the Agreed
Framework and the 1992 Joint Declaration on Denuclearization of
the Korean Peninsula.
The decision by the Executive Board of the Korean Peninsula
Energy Development Organization to suspend oil shipments to
North Korea reflected KEDO's determination not to overlook
Pyongyang's dishonesty.
Nonetheless, Pyongyang is in denial about its own cheating and
singled out the United States for criticism. This attitude
should be dismissed as outrageous.
Under its resumed nuclear program, North Korea may prepare to
restart fuel production with the aim of reactivating an
experimental reactor. It may also resume work to build two large
graphite-moderated nuclear reactors.
There are also concerns that North Korea could choose to
reprocess spent nuclear fuel kept under IAEA control and use it
to produce enough weapons-grade plutonium for about six nuclear
weapons.
===
Futile brinkmanship
Eight years ago, a United States determined to prevent North
Korea from reprocessing its spent nuclear fuel was on the verge
of launching a strike against the country. Pyongyang's latest
hard-line policy may indicate that it trying to provoke
Washington into extending new aid, as it did in 1994.
If so, North Korea's tactics should be seen as a typical example
of brinkmanship. Pyongyang should realize that such ploys will
get it nowhere.
Spanish warships recently intercepted and inspected a North
Korean ship carrying hidden Scud missiles and heading for Yemen.
The incident serves as another reminder of the spreading threat
posed by North Korea in selling arms to other nations.
The international community must present a united front against
North Korea to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Dec. 13)
Copyright 2002 The Yomiuri Shimbun
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8 BBC NEWS | Business | British Energy losses soar
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EDITIONS
Change to UK
Thursday, 12 December, 2002, 18:23 GMT British
Energy losses soar
[Nuclear power plant, Dungeness] British
Energy runs eight power plants in the UK
Ailing nuclear power generator British Energy has
unveiled huge losses for the first half of its financial year,
underlining the full extent of its financial crisis.
The company said it had lost £337m ($518m) before taxes in the
six months to September, a twenty fold increase on the £15m it
lost during the same period last year, while sales fell 6.5% on
the year to £868m.
It said the loss reflected financial charges and restructuring
costs amounting to £213m, as well as a drop in output and lower
electricity prices.
The firm, the UK's biggest nuclear power generator, has been
surviving on emergency government loans since warning that it
faced insolvency in September.
Hard times
British Energy, which produces about a fifth of the country's
electricity, has been hit hard by a 40% decline in electricity
prices since the wholesale power market was liberalised last
year.
While other power suppliers have been able to offset the weak
wholesale market by maintaining high retail prices, British
Energy has been unable to follow suit because it does not have a
retail arm.
British Energy chairman Adrian Montague, who succeeded Robin
Jeffrey last month, said he had taken up his position at a
"bleak" point in the firm's fortunes.
High costs, low prices, and unplanned stoppages at some of its
plants had inflicted "terrible damage" on the company, Mr
Montague said in a statement.
Restructuring struggle
British Energy is pinning its hopes for long-term survival on a
restructuring plan that would heavily dilute the value of its
shareholders' stake in the firm, and could also force creditors
to write off part of what they are owed.
The firm urged creditors and shareholders to back the deal,
saying it represented the best hope of limiting their losses.
The company said it may collapse if agreement on the overhaul
package is not reached, "in which case the distributions to
creditors may represent only a small fraction of their unsecured
liabilities, and there is unlikely to be any return to
shareholders."
As part of the overhaul strategy, the government would
underwrite British Energy's hefty nuclear waste processing
costs.
The company is also attempting to raise cash by selling off its
US and Canadian subsidiaries AmerGen and Bruce Power.
In the City, British Energy shares closed at 6.95 pence, down
from 7.85p the day before and from a peak of about 750p in
January 1999.
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minister
"We have put a loan in place...which we fully expect
to get back"
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See also:
28 Nov 02 | Business Q&A: British Energy's crisis
29 Nov 02 | Business Investors lose out in British
Energy deal
27 Nov 02 | Business British Energy 'bailout' cleared
22 Nov 02 | Business Brussels 'to back' British
Energy aid
04 Nov 02 | Business British Energy aid back in the
spotlight
19 Sep 02 | Business British Energy lifeline
'illegal'
27 Aug 02 | Business British Energy in talks with
BNFL
26 Aug 02 | Business Reform lifeline for British
Energy
25 Aug 02 | Business UK to 'bail out' British Energy
15 Jul 02 | Business Fears grow of BNFL losses
04 Jul 02 | UK 'Murky finances' of nuclear legacy
07 Mar 02 | UK Q & A: Britain's nuclear industry
Internet links:
[http://www.british-energy.com/index.html]
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sites
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Burger King sold for $1.5bn
Bush names new top economic aide
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C&W 'to wield axe in Europe'
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9 UK: COUNCILLOR CALLS FOR NUCLEAR EXPERTISE UNIVERSITY SPIN-OFF -
The Whitehaven News
Dave Siddall
CUMBRIA needs to shout louder and more effectively to be heard as
the government prepares to carry out a new carve up of the UK
nuclear industry, according to a county councillor who worked for
many years as a senior manager at Sellafield.
And he says the area must push hard for a Nuclear Expertise
University as spin off for the area. His comments come just as
Copeland this week holds private talks on the subject.
Coun Tim Knowles (Labour, Cleator Moor North &Frizington) said:
"BNFL will be transformed to the role of contractor on what is
now its own site once these changes are carried out. West Cumbria
will have to ensure that its biggest economic shake up in decades
doesn't leave its people worse off or less safe.''
The US styled Liabilities Management Authority (LMA), will take
over responsibility for the entire £20billion plus UK nuclear
liabilities bill in two years time.
Coun Tim Knowles feels that Cumbria must ensure that the highest
possible levels of investment in the local area go hand in hand
with any American style cost cutting. He sees West Cumbria and in
particular Westlakes as the best location for the LMA, which
would help the creation of a world class centre of excellence in
decommissioning with associated research and skills development
forming part of a university delivering new business and job
creation for the area." Maintaining safety, high quality
employment and producing world class opportunities for our young
people have to be our main drivers, we must not accept anything
less, but the West Cumbrian community, as stakeholders, must be
fully involved in this whole debate" he says. Last week Copeland
leader George Usher said talks were being held in private this
week on what the impact and benefits of the LMA should be.
n The LMA has just been handed a further £2 billion in
liabilities from post-privatisation collapse of British Energy.
*****************************************************************
10 North Korea issues nuclear threat
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific |
Thursday, 12 December, 2002, 17:19 GMT
[North Korean missile] Fears are mounting
over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions
North Korea has said it will immediately
reactivate a mothballed nuclear power plant, frozen under a 1994
agreement with the US.
We have to see if the North is actually about to implement
this or if it is using it as a negotiation tactic
South Korean official
The North Korean foreign ministry said it was responding to a
US-led decision to suspend oil aid to Pyongyang as a punishment
for a separate, alleged nuclear weapons programme.
North Korea said it was reactivating the plant to make up for
the electricity shortfall caused by the ending of the heavy oil
shipments.
North Korea's threat represents a major escalation in tensions
between Pyongyang and Washington.
The US and its regional allies - South Korea and Japan - are
worried that the plant could also be used as part of a wider
nuclear weapons programme, which North Korea has regularly
stated the "right" to possess.
US White House spokesman Ari Fleischer described the move as
"regrettable".
He said it "flies in the face of international consensus that
the North Korean regime must fulfill all its commitments, in
particular dismantle its nuclear weapons programme".
Click here to see a map of key nuclear sites
Mr Fleischer said the United States sought a peaceful resolution
to the North Korean dispute and would not enter into dialogue
with the North Koreans "in response to threats or broken
commitments".
Pyongyang's announcement follows the seizure and subsequent
release of a ship on Wednesday carrying what US officials said
were North Korean missiles bound for Yemen.
Both developments, says the BBC's Rob Watson in Washington,
represent a very low point in US - North Korean relations in
just one week.
'No choice'
The North Korean foreign ministry, in a statement carried by
state news agency KCNA, said the frozen nuclear reactor was
needed for power generation, following the US halt on heavy fuel
oil shipments to Pyongyang.
Text of North Korean announcement
"A spokesman for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
(DPRK) Foreign Ministry in a statement today said that the
prevailing situation compelled the DPRK government to lift its
measure for nuclear freeze taken on the premise that 500,000
tons of heavy oil would be annually supplied to the DPRK," said
the statement.
North Korea would "immediately resume the operation and
construction of its nuclear facilities to generate electricity,"
the statement added.
If you read the North Korean announcement carefully, their
consistent stance is to seek a peaceful resolution
Junichiro Koizumi, Japanese Prime Minister
Pyongyang's move threatens to kill off the 1994 Agreed
Framework, under which North Korea agreed to close down a
nuclear reactor suspected of producing weapons-grade plutonium
in return for two light-water reactors and US oil supplies.
But the US and its allies decided to halt oil shipments last
month after Washington's envoy, James Kelly, reported that Kim
Jong-il's secretive regime had admitted to pursuing an
alternative, enriched uranium programme.
US President George W Bush has maintained a much harder line
towards North Korea than his predecessor, Bill Clinton.
The US has been slow to respond to North Korean overtures to
improve relations. US officials have cited North Korea's nuclear
ambitions and its exporting of long range missiles as reasons to
keep the country in its "axis of evil".
North Korea's neighbours have reacted cautiously. South Korea's
National Security Council convened in emergency session to
express "strong regret and grave concern" over the development.
[North Korean orphan] North Korea badly needs foreign
aid
A South Korean unification ministry spokesman said: "North
Korea-US relations are heading toward the end of a cliff, but we
have to see if the North is actually about to implement this or
if it is using it as a negotiation tactic."
The BBC's Caroline Gluck, in Seoul, says the government will
come under renewed pressure to rethink its "sunshine policy" of
engagement and exchanges with the North.
Japan described the threat as "deplorable" - but Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi urged caution, noting the "consistent stance
... to seek a peaceful resolution".
Korea analyst Aidan Foster-Carter, recalling Pyongyang's
frequent brinkmanship, told the BBC: "What they say is one
thing, we have to see what they do".
Mr Foster-Carter, senior research fellow in modern Korea at
Leeds University, said that proof of action would be the
expulsion of two International Atomic Energy Agency monitors who
are based at the defunct nuclear reactor at Yongbyon.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Yongbyon: Site includes a 5-MWe experimental nuclear
power reactor and a partially completed plutonium extraction
facility. The US believes the reactor and extraction plant have
been used to produce plutonium - possibly enough for 1 or 2
nuclear weapons. Activities at site frozen under 1994 Agreed
Framework
Taechon: 200-MWe nuclear power reactor - construction halted
under Agreed Framework
Pyongyang: Laboratory-scale "hot cells" that may have been used
to extract small quantities of plutonium
Kumho: Site of two 1,000-MWe light water reactors under
construction by Kedo
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12 Dec 02 | Asia-Pacific North Korea ratchets up a
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11 Halting Iran's nuclear ambitions
WASHINGTON-OSLO - In a bid to end the longstanding disagreement
over Russia’s nuclear co-operation with Iran, the US and Russia
could at last reach a deal that satisfies both sides, according
to experts speaking at the 2002 Carnegie International
Non-Proliferation Conference in Washington November 14th-15th.
The 1,000 megawatt VVER-1000 light water reactor at Bushehr is
scheduled to begin operating in June 2004.
photo: sedona.net
Zackary Moss, 2002-12-11 13:54
Ever since Russia began its “peaceful” nuclear co-operation with
Iran and rebuffed the 1995 Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission, or GCC,
agreement — limiting Russian technology transfers to Iran in
exchange for providing Russian access to the US market for space
launchers — Moscow and Washington have tried to reach a deal over
Iran, but so far without success.
In 1995, Russia and Iran signed a contract under which Russia
would provide Iran with a VVER-1000 light water reactor at
Bushehr for $800m. Russia’s Ministry of Atomic Energy, or
Minatom, took on the task of completing the Bushehr plant after
the German contractor Siemens refused to resume work after the
Iran-Iraq War, due in part to diplomatic pressure from
Washington.
Bushehr is scheduled to begin operating in June 2004, with the
loading of fuel into the reactor set for December 2003.
But Russia’s nuclear co-operation with Iran — especially the
completion of the 1,000 megawatt Bushehr reactor located 800km
south of Teheran — has become a sore point between the US and
Russia. Iran’s nuclear ambitions Iran is a signatory to the
Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, or NPT, as a non-nuclear
weapons state.
Iran has agreed to abide by Article III of the NPT, which states
that: “each non-nuclear weapons state undertakes to accept
safeguards, as set forth in an agreement to be negotiated and
concluded with the International Atomic Energy [IAEA] in
accordance with the [IAEA] and the Agency’s safeguard system”.
Russia maintains that its assistance to Iran is limited to
building a civil nuclear power plant, nothing more. In fact, the
Kremlin and Minatom insist the Bushehr reactor venture that
adheres to international norms, will provide Minatom with hard
currency and ensures Moscow has a close relationship with the
regime in Teheran.
But Iran has not ratified two additional protocols to the IAEA’s
Programme 93 + 2, which is designed to prevent states from
developing nuclear weapons covertly. Iran maintains that it will
not ratify 93 + 2 due to it being denied civilian nuclear
technology for Bushehr, despite the country’s positive record
with the IAEA.
To the US, Iran’s commitments to the NPT are shaky at best. The
US believes that Iran’s Bushehr plant is part of its clandestine
nuclear weapons programme, which might receive a boost with the
completion of the Bushehr reactor. Iranian scientists could gain
fuel-cycle knowledge through reprocessing technology. This is why
it is important to return spent nuclear fuel to Russia. If not,
Iran would be able to reprocess spent nuclear fuel, or SNF, in
the hope that the recovered material could be used for nuclear
weapons making purposes. Returning spent nuclear fuel Minatom has
repeatedly stated that its nuclear co-operation with Iran is free
of nuclear proliferation risks. However, in June this year an
internal Russian government document relating to Iranian nuclear
co-operate was leaked to Greenpeace. The document showed that
Minatom had failed to reach an agreement with Iran concerning the
handling of SNF from Bushehr.
Reducing proliferation risks would require an agreement to be
made between Russia and Iran whereby SNF would be shipped back to
Russia for reprocessing. Consequently, Iran would not be able to
recycle spent fuel and extract plutonium.
While Minatom has confirmed that discussions with Iran have taken
place on the return of SNF to Russia, as of September this year
Iran had still not signed a “legally binding” agreement prepared
by Minatom in August. Minatom had asked Tehran to sign the
agreement — which had not been included as a clause in the
original construction contracts — on the return of low-grade SNF.
At that time, Minatom stated that Russia will not supply nuclear
fuel to Iran until an agreement on the return of SNF to Russia is
signed.
Still, Russia committed itself to IAEA rules stipulating the
return of SNF to the country supplying the fuel. One problem is
that SNF transportation stipulations will call for spent fuel
from Bushehr to be stored in cooling tanks onsite for up to three
years — ample time for SNF to be reprocessed and plutonium
extracted. Agreeing to disagree Since the Reagan-era, Washington
has sought to prevent Iran acquiring nuclear weapons through
technical embargoes, which have been successful.
Whatever deal Moscow and Tehran reach on the return of SNF,
Washington would rather see an end to nuclear co-operation with
Iran. But so far this has not happened, although at times Minatom
has flirted with Washington’s proposals.
In the post-September 11th environment, presidents Bush and Putin
have on many occasions talked of their new found friendship based
on mutual trust and co-operation. But Iran remains a thorn in
this otherwise rosy relationship.
Washington has offered incentives to Russia — including the
conclusion of a US-Russian agreement for full nuclear
co-operation, joint work on advanced reactors, support for SNF
storage in Russia — but these were available only if Russia was
prepared to stop all nuclear co-operation, including Bushehr.
On February 18th 2002, US Under Secretary of Sate John Bolton met
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov in Moscow to
discuss strategic stability. Mr Bolton made the point of
reiterating Washington’s displeasure with co-operation with Iran.
Besides, Iranian Foreign Minister Kharrazi was due to visit
Moscow the same day to discuss the non-proliferation of weapons
of mass destruction. He trip was cancelled, although Russian
officials played down the allegation that the meeting had been
“postponed” so not to offend Washington.
In July this year, the Kremlin announced a draft plan for a
ten-year, $10bn programme of economic co-operation with Iran that
would involve the building of five more reactors in Iran. The US
worries that Iran would then be in a position to demand sensitive
fuel-cycle technology and enrichment technology. Carrots and
sticks In a bid to end Russia’s nuclear co-operation with Iran,
on October 21st, US officials offered a potentially lucrative
economic deal to Moscow in exchange for halting the construction
of the Bushehr plant and other co-operation with Iran.
US officials told their Russian counterparts that if they cut off
all avenues of nuclear co-operation to Iran, the Bush
administration would work to lift restrictions on the import of
SNF to Russia. Minatom’s plans to import 20,000 tonnes, or 10%,
of the global stockpile by 2020, which would earn Russia $20bn.
The US controls 70% to 90% of the world’s SNF and has a
commending veto over what happens to it and where it is stored.
For Russia’s import plan to work, though, US backing is
essential. Despite that, Russian officials resisted the deal. A
bird in the hand Although Washington had hoped that incentives
might persuade Russia to stop nuclear co-operation, Moscow’s
refusal is based the mistrust it holds for US after broken
promises, despite President Putin’s backing on the war on
terrorism.
Washington has not lived up it is commitment to remove
Jackson-Vanik trade restrictions on Russia, which bares countries
that lack market economies and open emigration policies from
enjoying normal trade relations with the US.
As such, Russia’s co-operation with Iran can be best explained in
financial terms.
Commenting on Russia’s view to the US promise of future benefits
if Russia’s were to give up the $800m contract with Iran, one
spokesperson for Minatom said: “It’s better to have a bird in the
hand than two in bush.”
It is estimated that more than 300 Russian enterprises take part
in the Bushehr project, which has created 20,000 jobs. Besides,
Russia has other lucrative contracts with Iran. Arms sales to
Iran are valued at $8bn over the next decade, which is twice as
much as Moscow can expect in non-proliferation aid from
Washington. Since Russian products do not perform well on world
markets, arms sales are an important source of revenue for the
Russian government’s coffers. Try again The current US
administration has a range of incentives it can use to persuade
Russia to end its nuclear co-operation with Iran including: a
full nuclear co-operation agreement between the US and Russia,
joint research and development of advanced power reactors and
endorsing Russia’s international SNF storage.
The question is whether both sides can come to an amicable
agreement.
If Russia values its relationship with the US more than its
relationship with Iran and values making money without aiding
Iran’s clandestine nuclear weapons programme, an agreement
between the US and Russia should be possible.
One idea would be to let Washington “grandfather” the sale of
Russian reactors for Bushehr if Iran accepts more stringent means
of ensuring that it will not acquire nuclear weapons.
While some in the US community believe that grandfathering the
Bushehr unit would make sense as apart of a package deal between
US and Russia, Rose Gottemoeller, Senior Associate on the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Non-proliferation
Project, speaking at the Carnegie International Non-Proliferation
Conference in Washington November 15th: “at the moment Washington
is not willing to discuss the grandfathering of any units at
Bushehr”.
It remains to be seen whether the Bush administration would back
this plan or if the Russians would agree to it. No doubt some in
the Russian community might be willing to back grandfathering the
existing unit, whereas some might have an expansive role. After
all, Minatom’s Strategic Plan for Iran calls for six or more
reactors.
Still, Minatom could provide fuel-cycle services instead of
fuel-cycle technology.
In a follow-up email interview with Bellona Web, Rose
Gottemoeller suggested that Minatom officials have been
expressing their interest in providing fuel services rather than
fuel-cycle technology together with their reactor sales.
“This is being seen as an economic advantage: [Minatom] will make
more money out of a deal over time if they and take back the fuel
(a “fuel services contract”), rather than selling the fuel-cycle
technology [to Iran]. This is an improvement on the
non-proliferation front”, continued Mrs Gottemoeller.
While past negotiations failed to deliver a deal, in part due to
conflicting interests, it is possible that the incumbent
administrations could reach a favourable deal.
According to Gary Samore, Senior Fellow for Non-proliferation at
the International Institute for Strategic Studies and co-author
of “Ending Russian Assistance to Iran’s Nuclear Bomb”, who also
spoke on November 15th, “the new Russian Minister of Atomic
Energy [Alexandr Rumyantsev] and the new US Secretary of Energy
[Spencer Abraham] have developed a good working relationship to
resolve the longstanding disargeement between Moscow and
Washington over Russia's nuclear assistance to Iran”.1
While the Bush administration is more enthusiastic than the
Clinton administration in new nuclear co-operation with Russia,
the Russian government is under increasing pressure from Minatom
and the nuclear lobby, whom have pushed the economic issues
relating to projects in Iran.
If both sides wish to uphold their new found friendship,
negotiators will have to reach a consensus over Iran. If they
fail to do so, relations could sour. Even if the US offers a deal
including its support of Minatom’s SNF import and storage plan,
this will be met by strong opposition from the environmental
community in Russia.
In Mrs Gottemoeller’s opinion, Minatom, while temporary tired out
by their fight with the Duma over the legislation to return SNF
to Russia, does not have the stomach to take on a new fight right
now.
“It’s a tactical rest, however, and they’ll be ready to take on
the issue [of SNF imports] when it’s ripe”, noted Mrs
Gottemoeller.
Notes
1. See Robert J. Einhorn and Gary Samore, "Ending Russian
Assistance to Iran’s Nuclear Bomb", Survival, Vol.44, No.2,
Summer 2002, pp.51-71, The International Institute for Strategic
Studies, London.
[http://www.iiss.org/survival.php]
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contact: [webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00
Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo,
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12 Nuclear research site passes inspection
TheStar.com -
Thu Dec 12, 2002 | Updated at 07:27 PM
Nuclear research site passes inspection CIA takes dim view of
massive report's contents 28 new staff join search teams as
scrutiny widens
CHARLES J. HANLEY ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDADU.N. inspectors broadened their scrutiny of Iraq's
military-industrial complex yesterday, probing a nuclear research
centre and a uranium mine, and making a spot inspection of a new
missile factory.
At one site where Iraq once sought to enrich uranium to
nuclear-bomb quality, inspectors verified yesterday that nuclear
activities have not been revived, the United Nations inspection
agency reported.
In the coming months, U.N. officials hope to inspect hundreds of
Iraqi industrial and research installations, many of them
"dual-use" sites whose products or equipment could be devoted to
either civilian or military use.
To help accomplish that, 28 new inspectors flew to Baghdad on
Tuesday, bolstering the U.N. operation to 70 inspectors, and U.N.
technicians readied the first of eight helicopters expected to
join the monitoring effort. The helicopters may take air samples
or sweep areas with radioactivity sensors.
The U.N. hopes to have up to 100 inspectors at work in the field
each day by late December.
The inspections resumed Nov. 27, after a four-year gap, under a
new Security Council resolution mandating that Iraq surrender any
weapons of mass destruction which it denies it has and report
on nuclear, biological and chemical research and production. That
12,000-page declaration was filed last weekend.
U.S. weapons experts are taking an accelerated look at Iraq's
declaration with the aim of providing the chief U.N. inspector,
Hans Blix, with an assessment by tomorrow.
The four other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council
Britain, France, China and Russia received copies of the
declaration from the U.S. and are also scrutinizing it.
The CIA delivered an initial assessment to the White House
yesterday of Iraq's declaration of banned weapons, the Los
Angeles Times reports.
In particular, officials said, Iraq's account of its nuclear
weapons program totalling 2,081 pages, including a 113-page
executive summary appears to be largely a duplicate of Iraqi
declarations delivered to U.N. inspectors in 1996 and 1997.
Thousands more pages that Iraq submitted over the weekend on its
biological and chemical weapons programs also appear to be copies
of reports that U.N. weapons inspectors repeatedly rejected as
inadequate and incomplete between 1995 and 1998, officials said.
"The initial conclusion is there's nothing really new," said one
official who is assisting in the review. "What I'm hearing is
it's all recycled and (Iraqi claims that) it didn't do anything
wrong.''
One of at least eight sites checked yesterday was al-Tuwaitha,
Iraq's major nuclear research centre, where U.N. experts
continued inspections begun earlier in the week.
In the 1980s, scientists at al-Tuwaitha, about 25 kilometres
southeast of Baghdad, were key to Iraq's efforts to build nuclear
weapons. Many of the complex's more than 100 buildings were
destroyed in U.S. bombing during the 1991 Gulf War.
Inspectors were able yesterday to verify there is no such revived
interest at another site, the Ibn Sina Company at Tarmiya, 40
kilometres north of Baghdad. In the 1980s, Iraqi scientists and
engineers at Tarmiya had sought unsuccessfully to master a
technology called electronic magnetic isotope separation to
enrich uranium to fissionable levels usable in atomic bombs.
www.thestar.com
*****************************************************************
13 Gaping hole in British Energy nuclear cleanup fund
Reuters AlertNet -
12 Dec 2002 12:54
(Adds details, background, quotes from anti-nuclear group) By
Andrew Callus
LONDON, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Nuclear power firm British Energy
revealed the full extent of its financial troubles on Thursday
with a six-month loss and a radioactive hole in the clean-up fund
that is set to become the UK taxpayer's responsibility.
The provider of more than a fifth of Britain's electricity,
surviving on a government bail-out while a rescue plan is
hammered out, said it made a pre-tax loss of 337 million pounds
($532 million) in the six months to September 30.
The loss ballooned from 15 million pounds a year ago and included
213 million pounds of exceptional costs.
Among these were a 103-million-pound writedown to reflect a slump
in the value of its decommissioning fund to 332 million pounds as
a result of poorly performing investment markets.
British Energy ran into trouble this year after deregulation in
the UK power industry exposed overcapacity, forcing electricity
prices down to a point where its production costs are now higher
than market prices.
Its liabilities fund is designed to cover potential discounted
costs of 5.2 billion pounds. It is set to run for decades after
reactors close in a fuel and site clean-up project that will last
until 2084 under current estimates.
Proposals unveiled in November aimed at relaunching British
Energy as a going concern put these liabilities firmly at the
feet of the British taxpayer -- on top of an estimated 150 to 200
million pounds a year bill for running costs.
Sixty-five percent of cash generated by the business must go to
the fund -- but with cashflow negative at present, the whole
burden falls on the state.
"GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD"
Rebel legislators from Britain's governing Labour Party took the
fresh opportunity to slam the bailout, which comes on top of a
multi-billion pound support package for the creaking UK rail
industry and an ever growing state bill for other public service
problems once considered better off run privately.
"Ministers should stop throwing good money after bad," said Bill
Eyers, Chair of the Socialist Environmental Resources Association
(SEAR). "Most of British Energy's future liabilities are not
inevitable but avoidable... Its reactors should be closed down as
soon as it is practical to do so."
Environmental campaign group Greenpeace has launched a legal
campaign to stop the bailout, which they say depresses market
prices for fledgling renewable energy producers trying to enter
it, and should be blocked under EU law.
INVESTORS HURT TOO
The restructuring plan has also left investors severely out of
pocket seven years after privatisation.
Shareholders, whose one-time blue chip investment has slid 97
percent so far this year, were told there would be no dividend
payout this time around.
More than 200,000 of the company's shareholders are private
investors encouraged to take part in the privatisations of the
1990s who may now never see a dividend again.
Bondholders and other creditors owed 1.2 billion pounds now
expect to get less than 30 pence in the pound back in a
debt-for-equity swap that will leave them as the main
shareholders.
New Chairman Adrian Montague, who took over from Robin Jeffrey
last month, was careful not to build too much optimism about the
future of the company.
"I take up the position of chairman at a bleak point in our
company's fortunes," he said and went on to describe the
"terrible damage" to the company that power market changes have
produced.
He also warned creditors, who formed a committee earlier this
week to represent their interests, that they had little choice
but to back the state-sanctioned restructuring.
"If they do not or if the restructuring cannot proceed for some
other reason, the company is likely to have to seek the
protection of administration," he said.
"The next few months will be decisive."
AlertNet news
*****************************************************************
14 Iran Orders Nuke Plant Feasibility Study
[Guardian Unlimited]
Thursday December 12, 2002 10:20 PM
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran is considering construction of a second
major nuclear power plant, state-run television reported
Thursday, despite U.S. concern that byproducts from Iranian
plants could be used to manufacture nuclear weapons.
Iran's Atomic Energy Council ordered a feasibility study on a
second plant as the country's first nuclear power station at
Bushehr prepares to go on line next year with Russian help.
``The council has authorized Iran's Atomic Energy Organization
to study the construction of a new 1000-megawatt plant with due
consideration of environmental standards using the experience
achieved from the completion of the first unit of Bushehr
nuclear power plant,'' Tehran television reported.
It said the decision was made during a council meeting Wednesday
attended by First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref.
It was not clear if Russia would be involved in the construction
of the new plant. The Kremlin has floated preliminary plans to
help Iran build five more nuclear reactors over the next 10
years.
However, the Russian news agency Interfax quoted Atomic Energy
Minister Alexander Rumyantsev as saying in September that
Bushehr is the only actual nuclear program Russia has with Iran.
Russia has hundreds of specialists working at the Bushehr plant,
which is expected to be operational by the end of 2003. The
United States fears the plant will help Iran manufacture nuclear
weapons.
Both Russia and Iran insist that the Bushehr plant will be
strictly for civilian purposes and open to international
inspection. However, successive U.S. administrations have
expressed concern over the plant.
The Bush administration has offered Russia economic incentives
to abandon the Bushehr project but the Russians have not
accepted the offer. Russia has denied consistently it is helping
Iran develop nuclear weapons or with its missiles program.
In September, Russia drew up a plan in September for the return
of spent nuclear fuel from Bushehr, seeking to allay U.S.
concerns that the fuel could be used by terrorists and others to
build weapons of mass destruction.
The Bushehr plant was begun by the West Germans but was
interrupted during the 1979 Islamic revolution. It's worth about
US$800 million to Russia, which has been reluctant to abandon
the project both for economic reasons and matters of
international prestige.
Meanwhile, Iran's Atomic Energy Council has approved a broad
plan to dramatically increase the country's nuclear energy
capabilities by 2021, a newspaper reported Thursday.
``The council approved (a plan stipulating) that the share of
electricity provided by nuclear energy should reach 6000
megawatts by 2021,'' the daily Mardom-Salari, or Democracy,
reported. It gave no further details. Iranian atomic energy
officials were not available for a comment.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
*****************************************************************
15 DPR of Korea informs IAEA of intent to lift 'freeze' on nuclear
power plants*
UN HOMEPAGE UN System Links
10 December 2002
/12 December ? /The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)
today told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it
planned to "lift the freeze" on its nuclear facilities to
generate power, the Agency said Thursday.
In a letter to IAEA
Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, the Director General of the
DPRK's General Department of Atomic Energy, Ri Je Son, requested
that the Agency remove the seals and monitoring cameras on all of
its nuclear facilities. The safeguards have been in place since
the DPRK-USA Agreed Framework signed in 1994.
In response Mr. ElBaradei called on the DPRK to act "with
restraint," and warned, "it is essential that the containment and
surveillance measures which are currently in place continue to be
maintained, and that the DPRK not take any steps unilaterally to
remove or impede the functioning of such seals or cameras."
Mr. ElBaradei also asked the DPRK to agree to an urgent meeting
of technical experts to discuss the practical arrangements
involved in moving from the freeze to normal safeguards
operations, and how the IAEA will fulfil its verification
requirements under an agreement between Pyongyang and the Agency.
Pursuant to a UN Security Council request, and in accordance with
the Agreed Framework, the IAEA has been monitoring the "freeze"
at the DPRK's nuclear facilities at Nyongbyong since November
1994.
*****************************************************************
16 *N.Korea Says It's Reactivating Nuclear Plant*
/ Thu December 12, 2002 06:39 AM ET /
By Paul Eckert
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said Thursday it was immediately
reactivating a nuclear power plant at the center of a suspected
1990s weapons program, raising the stakes in a stand-off at the
world's last Cold War flashpoint.
North Korea's decision to restart the reactor mothballed in 1994
after an international crisis over alleged production of
weapons-grade plutonium there escalates a two-month-long showdown
with the United States over a second nuclear program being
pursued by the isolated and impoverished communist state.
Analysts said Pyongyang's latest move -- which it said it had
been forced to take after a U.S.-led decision to suspend oil aid
to the country -- appeared to be a last-ditch attempt to force
arch-enemy Washington to the negotiating table.
The announcement came exactly a week before South Korea's
presidential election, a contest which will turn in part on the
question of whether to embrace or sanction North Korea.
The reactor at Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, was frozen in 1994
after a year-long crisis ended with the Agreed Framework pact
between the United States and North Korea. The director of the
Central Intelligence Agency said that year that the CIA estimated
North Korea had produced one or two nuclear weapons.
Under the pact, Pyongyang promised to scrap plans to develop such
weapons in return for provision of light water nuclear reactors
and fuel oil supplies.
In October this year, Washington said Pyongyang had admitted
embarking on a new secret program, this time to enrich uranium
for weapons, in violation of the Agreed Framework.
Following that admission, Washington and its allies, including
South Korea and Japan, decided to suspend fuel oil shipments to
North Korea from December -- just as winter brought sub-zero
temperatures to the destitute Northeast Asian country.
RAISING THE STAKES
After weeks demanding that Washington sign a non-aggression
treaty to defuse the row, North Korea's Foreign Ministry raised
the stakes Thursday.
It said in a statement: "The prevailing situation compelled the
DPRK government to lift its measure for nuclear freeze taken on
the premise that 500,000 tons of heavy oil would be annually
supplied to the DPRK under the DPRK-U.S. Agreed Framework and
immediately resume the operation and construction of its nuclear
facilities to generate electricity.
"Whether the DPRK refreezes its nuclear facilities or not hinges
upon the U.S.," said the statement, carried by the official
Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
DPRK is the acronym for the communist North's official title, the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
A follow-up statement on KCNA added: "It is the invariable stand
of the DPRK government to find a peaceful solution to the nuclear
issue on the Korean peninsula."
South Korea convened a special National Security Council meeting,
and issued a statement expressing "strong regret and serious
concern" at the statement, which Seoul said would raise tensions
on the divided peninsula.
"The government will be closely monitoring North Korea's actions,
while strengthening Korea-U.S.-Japan cooperation and coordination
with other concerned countries," Seoul added.
The two main presidential candidates in South Korea's December 19
election called on Pyongyang to reverse its decision.
Working-level officials from the two Koreas were holding economic
talks in Seoul Thursday which went on despite the announcement,
local media said.
JAPAN URGES CALM
Japan called for a calm response to North Korea's statement,
saying Pyongyang appeared to be seeking a peaceful end to the
spreading row over its nuclear program.
"If you read the North Korean announcement carefully, their
consistent stance is to seek a peaceful resolution," Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters.
"We need to respond calmly, based on close cooperation with the
United States and South Korea."
Early this year President Bush accused North Korea, Iraq and Iran
of forming an "axis of evil" making weapons of mass destruction
that could be obtained by terrorist groups.
North Korea's latest statement repeated Pyongyang's assertion
that it was Washington which had broken the Agreed Framework.
"The U.S. cannot escape its responsibility for utterly trampling
on the terms and spirit of the Agreed Framework by designating us
as an "axis of evil" and target of pre-emptive nuclear attacks,"
the statement said.
Suh Dae-sook, an expert on North Korea at the University of
Hawaii, said he saw Pyongyang's move as a bid for long-sought
talks with Washington, which has so far ruled out dialogue until
the North abandons its uranium enrichment program.
"I guess they are ready to negotiate. This is the only weapon
they have or alternative they have," he told Reuters.
"I think North Korea are raising their stakes... they are raising
their position so that they can negotiate and have a better cause
for negotiation," Suh said.
(Additional reporting by Samuel Len in Seoul and Jane Macartney
in Singapore)
Reuters The Company Products &
*****************************************************************
17 North Korea escalates nuclear crisis
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2002
THE TIMES OF INDIA
INDIATIMES
HARVEY STOCKWIN
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2002 06:56:23 PM ]
HONG KONG: North Korea has escalated the Korean nuclear crisis by
threatening to reactivate its small nuclear reactor that was
mothballed in 1994 under an agreement with the US. This puts
Pyongyang in the position of being able to obtain more plutonium
for more nuclear weapons, should it choose to do so.
The Bush Administration assumes that Pyongyang already has at
least two nuclear bombs and anticipates that it is trying to make
more.
The escalation was contained in a statement circulated by the
official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Thursday. It came
soon after an unflagged North Korean ship with 15 Scud missiles
aboard was detained and searched by Spanish and American forces
in the Arabian Sea before being allowed to take the missiles on
to Yemen.
The small North Korean research reactor at Yongbyon was
mothballed as a result of the 1994 nuclear crisis which nearly
restarted conflict on the Korean peninsula. North Korea then
agreed to halt not only the use of plutonium produced by the
reactor, but also its plan to manufacture nuclear weapons. In
return, the US and its allies promised to supply heavy fuel oil
while two proliferation-resistant, water-cooled nuclear reactors
were being constructed for the North Koreans.
On October 4, the North Koreans admitted to the Americans that
they had been pursuing an uranium enrichment programme, also with
nuclear weapons in mind, for several years. This was a clear
breach of the 1994 Agreement with the US.
In November, the US, together with the South Koreans and the
Japanese who are paying for the new water-cooled reactors,
retaliated by announcing that shipments of heavy fuel oil would
cease from December.
Now the North Koreans, who have all along insisted that it is the
US which is breaking the 1994 Agreement, have responded by
announcing, in effect, that they will reactivate the reactor
which can produce plutonium and tritium for their nuclear weapons
programme.
"The prevailing situation compelled the North Korean government
to lift its measure for nuclear freeze... and to immediately
resume the operation and construction of its nuclear facilities
to generate electricity", the statement said.
The reference to generating electricity fools no one. The
research reactor could resume operation after a month but cannot
produce sizeable quantities of power. In any case, it is not
attached to a grid which could convey power to where it is
needed.
In 1994, the North Koreans halted plans for two other larger
reactors. Experts say these could not be onstream for power
production for between four and six years.
So, it is assumed that this latest gesture of North Korean
brinkmanship is meant to convey the message that the production
and processing of plutonium could recommence at Yongbyon in two
to three months.
However, the North Koreans are clearly going to the brink in the
hope that the Americans will blink first. "Our principled stand,"
Thursday's statement says, "is that the nuclear crisis on the
Korean Peninsula should be solved peacefully. It is totally up to
the United States whether we will freeze our nuclear facilities
again".
This implies that a resumption of heavy fuel oil supplies and
perhaps other concessions would result in another North Korean
promise to end its nuclear weapons programme and to not do what
it has threatened to do on Thursday.
Put another way, the North Koreans, perceiving that the Americans
are preoccupied with Iraq and their war against terrorism, are
pushing extremely hard for American concessions so that
Washington can pursue that preoccupation.
It is an extremely risky gamble for Pyongyang. But it is also a
forceful reminder to the Bush Administration that it has been
extremely short-sighted as it has made dealing with North Korean
issues a lesser priority.
Copyright � 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. |
Terms of
*****************************************************************
18 Gaping hole in British Energy nuclear cleanup fund
About AlertNet
12 Dec 2002 12:54
(Adds details, background, quotes from anti-nuclear group)
By Andrew Callus
LONDON, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Nuclear power firm British Energy
revealed the full extent of its financial troubles on Thursday
with a six-month loss and a radioactive hole in the clean-up fund
that is set to become the UK taxpayer's responsibility.
The provider of more than a fifth of Britain's electricity,
surviving on a government bail-out while a rescue plan is
hammered out, said it made a pre-tax loss of 337 million pounds
($532 million) in the six months to September 30.
The loss ballooned from 15 million pounds a year ago and included
213 million pounds of exceptional costs.
Among these were a 103-million-pound writedown to reflect a slump
in the value of its decommissioning fund to 332 million pounds as
a result of poorly performing investment markets.
British Energy ran into trouble this year after deregulation in
the UK power industry exposed overcapacity, forcing electricity
prices down to a point where its production costs are now higher
than market prices.
Its liabilities fund is designed to cover potential discounted
costs of 5.2 billion pounds. It is set to run for decades after
reactors close in a fuel and site clean-up project that will last
until 2084 under current estimates.
Proposals unveiled in November aimed at relaunching British
Energy as a going concern put these liabilities firmly at the
feet of the British taxpayer -- on top of an estimated 150 to 200
million pounds a year bill for running costs.
Sixty-five percent of cash generated by the business must go to
the fund -- but with cashflow negative at present, the whole
burden falls on the state.
"GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD"
Rebel legislators from Britain's governing Labour Party took the
fresh opportunity to slam the bailout, which comes on top of a
multi-billion pound support package for the creaking UK rail
industry and an ever growing state bill for other public service
problems once considered better off run privately.
"Ministers should stop throwing good money after bad," said Bill
Eyers, Chair of the Socialist Environmental Resources Association
(SEAR). "Most of British Energy's future liabilities are not
inevitable but avoidable... Its reactors should be closed down as
soon as it is practical to do so."
Environmental campaign group Greenpeace has launched a legal
campaign to stop the bailout, which they say depresses market
prices for fledgling renewable energy producers trying to enter
it, and should be blocked under EU law.
INVESTORS HURT TOO
The restructuring plan has also left investors severely out of
pocket seven years after privatisation.
Shareholders, whose one-time blue chip investment has slid 97
percent so far this year, were told there would be no dividend
payout this time around.
More than 200,000 of the company's shareholders are private
investors encouraged to take part in the privatisations of the
1990s who may now never see a dividend again.
Bondholders and other creditors owed 1.2 billion pounds now
expect to get less than 30 pence in the pound back in a
debt-for-equity swap that will leave them as the main
shareholders.
New Chairman Adrian Montague, who took over from Robin Jeffrey
last month, was careful not to build too much optimism about the
future of the company.
"I take up the position of chairman at a bleak point in our
company's fortunes," he said and went on to describe the
"terrible damage" to the company that power market changes have
produced.
He also warned creditors, who formed a committee earlier this
week to represent their interests, that they had little choice
but to back the state-sanctioned restructuring.
"If they do not or if the restructuring cannot proceed for some
other reason, the company is likely to have to seek the
protection of administration," he said.
"The next few months will be decisive."
AlertNet news is provided by
http://www.reuters.com/>
*****************************************************************
19 Guardian Unlimited | World Latest | Nuclear Panel Chairman to
Leave in March
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[Breaking news US ]
Pa. Priest Charged in Row With Leader
8:10 am
Court Deals Setback to Bush Forest Plans
8:10 am
Bush Completes New Economic Team
8:00 am
Lott Comments Fuel Pickering Critics
7:50 am
Sen. Lott Hangs on Amid Bush Criticisms
7:50 am
U.S. Plans Modest Fuel Economy Increase
7:40 am
GOA Probes Fla. Pension Audit Delay
7:30 am
FBI Searches Md. Woods in Anthrax Probe
7:30 am
Congress' Safety Enforcer to Retire
7:00 am
Bush Readies Smallpox Vaccination Plan
7:00 am
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Nuclear Panel Chairman to Leave in March
Thursday December 12, 2002 10:50 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) - Richard Meserve, the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission chairman, said Thursday he will resign from the
agency at the end of March, more than a year before his term
expires.
President Bush will nominate his replacement on the five-member
commission and name a new chairman. The nomination requires
Senate confirmation.
Meserve, selected for the post and made chairman by President
Clinton in 1999, said he will become president of the Carnegie
Institution, a prominent research center in Washington.
Meserve, a Democrat, leaves at a time when the agency is facing
a range of new challenges. They include protecting nuclear power
plants from terrorists and approving a proposed nuclear waste
site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
In remarks Thursday to agency staff, Meserve said he felt ``we
have responded effectively to the terrorists' challenge to our
national security.''
Meserve is one of three Democrats on the commission.
Commissioner Greta Joy Dicus, a Democrat, is expected to depart
in June when her term expires.
The other members of the commission are Republicans Jeffrey S.
Merrifield and Nils J. Diaz, and Democrat Edward McGaffigan Jr.
By law, only three commission members may be of the same party,
so one of Bush's nominees will have to be a Democrat.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
*****************************************************************
20 British Energy's losses mushroom to £337m
Independent.co.uk
© 2002 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
13 December 2002 08:03 GMT
By Michael Harrison, Business Editor
British Energy, the embattled nuclear electricity generator,
yesterday underlined the gravity of its financial position by
reporting a £337m loss for the first half of the year.
News of the huge deficit, which compares with a loss of just £15m
for the same period last year, was coupled with a warning from
the company's new chairman that the restructuring of British
Energy would entail "considerable sacrifice" on the part of its
shareholders and creditors.
Adrian Montague, the financier drafted in last month to try to
save the beleaguered generator, said: "I take up the position of
chairman at a bleak point in our company's fortunes."
Mr Montague also pinned much of the blame for the company's
plight on its previous management under the chairmanship of Robin
Jeffrey. He said British Energy's financial problems had stemmed
partly from its high fixed costs and lack of a tied retail
electricity business to offset the sharp fall in wholesale
electricity prices.
He said that the next few months would be "decisive" in
determining whether the company survives or is forced into
administration. The Government has agreed to shoulder at least
£2bn of its nuclear liabilities in return for a 65 per cent share
of future profits and a two-thirds cut in the value of
investments held by British Energy's banks and bondholders.
Shareholders are likely to be left with just 5-10 per cent of the
company supposing the refinancing is agreed. British Energy only
has until mid-February to persuade its bondholders to go along
with the restructuring and agree the sale of its Bruce nuclear
business in Canada or the Government will withdraw a £650m
lifeline that is keeping the business afloat.
British Energy is thought to have made good progress in talks to
sell its stake in Bruce to a consortium, which includes its
existing minority partner, Cameco. The sale of the business is
thought likely to raise about £400m.
But the attitude of bondholders will be key. British Energy
confirmed yesterday that their stake in the company would be
further diluted by the fact that a group of banks, which lent it
£508m to buy the Eggborough coal-fired station had a claim on the
assets in the rest of the group.
British Energy's accounts state that the loan was "non-recourse"
? meaning that it was secured on the assets of Eggborough alone.
But it has now emerged that the parent company had given
cross-guarantees to Eggborough meaning that the banks are
entitled to join the creditors' list.
The station was bought for £610m but is now worth only
£75m-£100m.
Thu 12 Dec 2002
/By Megan Davies, City Editor, PA News/
Struggling nuclear group British Energy showed the extent of its
troubles today as it reported losses of £337 million for the last
six months ? equating to £1.9 million a day.
The group, which is being kept afloat by a Government lifeline,
said it was at a ?bleak point? in its fortunes and that it could
face administration if creditors failed to approve a crucial
restructuring scheme.
British Energy, which supplies a fifth of the UK?s electricity,
fell into trouble in September when it warned the Government it
could face insolvency unless it received immediate financial aid.
The group has been battered by the steep decline in electricity
prices in the UK.
To keep it afloat, it was given a £650 million lifeline by
Government, which was extended by Trade and Industry Secretary
Patricia Hewitt last month until March 9.
The Government extended the loan as it backed a restructuring
plan in which bondholders and creditors will take control of the
company.
Chairman Adrian Montague, who replaced Robin Jeffrey who departed
last month, said today: ?I take up the position of chairman at a
bleak point in our company?s future.
?The combination of high fixed costs for our nuclear stations and
low power prices, coupled with our lack of tied retail outlets
and a high level of unscheduled outages, has inflicted terrible
damage on our company.?
He added: ?The restructuring proposals agreed with the Government
offer our company the opportunity to start on the long path to
recovery.
?It will involve considerable sacrifice on the part of the
company?s major creditors and shareholders.
?However, these creditors have yet to agree to participate in the
restructuring scheme, and if they do not, or if the restructuring
cannot proceed for some other reason, the company is likely to
have to seek the protection of administration. The next few
months will be decisive.?
He added the immediate future was ?uncertain? and said market
conditions remained ?extremely challenging?.
Energy Minister Brian Wilson said the figures ?obviously reflect
the conditions of recent months?.
?And since it is these conditions that have promoted us to
support British Energy on grounds of security of supply and the
safe operation of their stations, then they are not really
surprising.
?The really important thing now is going forward to ensure that
British Energy is a more robust company.?
The firm?s warning that creditors must agree or it will start
insolvency proceedings was simply ?stating the obvious?, he said.
?This is not all done and dusted,? he told BBC Radio 4?s Today
programme.
?The company came to us with a proposal. A package was
negotiated. We signed up to that package with a lot of pain in it
for the company, for all the players, and I think everybody is
faced really with the same dilemma.
?This is not a great outcome for anyone but the alternatives are
worse.?
Mr Wilson continued: ?There is no joy in the other solution
either.
?From the Government?s point of view, it is not a case of bailing
out British Energy.
?We need the electricity they produce and we are absolutely
committed, of course, as any responsible government would be, to
the highest standards of operation of nuclear power stations.?
But the figures brought criticism from campaign groups.
Bill Eyers, chair of SERA, the Labour Environment Campaign, said:
?British Energy is now losing taxpayers? money. This cannot
continue. Its reactors should be closed down as soon as it is
practical to do so.
?Ministers should stop throwing good money after bad, especially
when Labour?s priorities lie elsewhere.?
Friends of the Earth?s nuclear campaigner Bryony Worthington
said: ?Hardly a week passes without some new revelation showing
that nuclear power is a complete liability.
?The nuclear industry posts huge losses, faces mounting clean-up
costs, has no future and no credibility. It?s time the Government
finally woke up to the fact that nuclear power has no prospects
whatever.
?Instead of wasting vast sums of public money propping up this
failed company, the Government should be investing in clean,
green and renewable energy sources.?
In the City, shareholders showed their disappointment with the
figures and shares slid 14% to 6.75p.
Jens Jantzen, analyst at Bear Stearns, said: ?The results
presented by British Energy this morning managed to come in even
lower than we had already expected.
?The operating losses (pre-exceptionals) came in at £38 million,
compared to a profit of £70 million for the same period last
year, as the company saw costs creep up while price pressure
increased.
?Although the lower electricity prices in the UK were widely
expected, we find it particularly disappointing to see operating
costs in the UK and notably in Canada go up by £20 million.?
British Energy?s figures also showed turnover fell to £909
million, against £929 million the same period last time.
The pre-tax losses of £337 million compare with losses of £15
million last year. Exceptional charges of £213 million battered
the figures, after the group set aside money for onerous
electricity contracts.
The group added that talks to sell all or part of its stake in
Bruce Power, the Canadian nuclear power plant, were progressing.
©2002 scotsman.com | contact
*****************************************************************
22 U.S. has photos of secret Iran nuclear sites
From David Ensor
CNN
Friday, December 13, 2002 Posted: 3:13 AM EST (0813 GMT)
Commercial satellite photo of an Iranian nuclear facility near Arak
*WASHINGTON (CNN) --* *The United States has evidence that Iran
has secretly been constructing large nuclear facilities -- sites
that could possibly be used to make nuclear weapons, senior U.S.
officials tell CNN.*
Commercial satellite photographs taken in September show a
nuclear facility near the town of Natanz and another one near
Arak, the officials said. (View map
)
But Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said the country's only
nuclear activity is of a peaceful nature, and its facilities have
been "regularly and frequently" inspected by the International
Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA.
"Iran hasn't committed any acts that can be considered against
international rules, and will not do so in the future," Hamid
Reza Assefi told CNN. "At the same time, no country could, for
its own political objectives, prevent Iran from achieving its own
goals."
The vice chairman of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee said
the development was "disturbing news."
"We don't need another nuclear power -- not with Iran sponsoring
terrorism that it has in the past," said Sen. Richard Shelby,
R-Alabama.
"The fact that they are seemingly pursuing an avenue to build
nuclear weapons should be disturbing to everybody."
Assefi said the United States was trying to start a negative
publicity campaign to divert attention from other issues.
"This kind of publicity is not new," Assefi said. "Certain
circles within the United States are trying to create tensions
and poison the international atmosphere, and to avert
international public opinions away from the real regional danger,
which is Israel."
Iranian dissidents have long contended that Iran has been working
on nuclear capabilities. But the new satellite photographs and
the conclusions drawn by them by nuclear experts are the first
time there has been any evidence to support such claims.
Nuclear expert David Albright said the size and secrecy of the
program to date suggest that Iran may be working toward building
nuclear weapons.
Heavy Water (D2O) Water in which both hydrogen atoms have been
replaced with deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen
Allows reactor to operate with natural uranium as its fuel
Used to breed plutonium from natural uranium, entirely bypassing
uranium enrichment and related technological infrastructure
Heavy-water-moderated reactors can be used to make tritium, an
ingredient of thermonuclear weapons
/Source: Federation of American Scientists/
"Iran looks like it's building very large nuclear facilities that
could be part of an effort to make the material you need to make
nuclear weapons," he said.
Albright is head of the Institute for Science and International
Security (ISIS), which identified the photographs. ISIS is a
non-profit, non-partisan institution that focuses on stopping the
spread of nuclear weapons.
The satellite picture of the facility near Arak concerns nuclear
experts.
"This is a heavy water plant. It's very similar to other heavy
water plants we've seen in areas such as Pakistan, and the
important facilities here is this kind of Z-shaped structure,"
said Corey Hinderstein, also of ISIS.
The large facility at Natanz appears to U.S. intelligence
officials to be a uranium enrichment plant and civilian experts
agree with that assessment.
"We believe this is a uranium enrichment facility and could be a
centrifuge facility," said Hinderstein.
Commercial satellite photo of a nuclear facility near Natanz,
Iran Commercial satellite photo of a nuclear facility near
Natanz, Iran
Iran has a publicly declared nuclear program at Bushehr that is
designed only to produce peaceful nuclear power for electricity,
according to the country's U.N. ambassador.
"I can categorically tell you that Iran does not have a nuclear
weapons program," Mohammed Javad Zarif said in an interview with
CNN. "Any facility we have ... if it is dealing with nuclear
technology, it is within the purview of our peaceful nuclear
program." (Transcript of interview
)
A spokesman at the IAEA in Vienna confirms the agency is seeking
access to the two sites and has so far been put off by Iran.
Iranian officials say a trip by senior IAEA officials to Iran is
expected in February. IAEA officials say on that trip they want
to visit Arak and Natanz.
Iran has signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear
Weapons. The IAEA is the international agency that verifies
compliance with the treaty for its member states.
IAEA officials also point out that to date nothing that Iran is
known to have done has violated international law.
Iranian officials say the United States cannot be trusted on the
details of its nuclear program since Washington does not want
Iran to have any program -- not even for civilian energy.
The revelation of Iran's two plants comes one day after the Bush
administration released its strategy to combat weapons of mass
destruction. The report warned that any nation using such weapons
against the United States or its allies would face massive
retaliation, perhaps with nuclear weapons.
Bush labeled Iran an "axis of evil," along with Iraq and North
Korea, in his State of the Union address earlier this year.
*****************************************************************
23 Blix to give arms report by Monday
Gulf News Online Edition
Dubai:Thursday, December 12, 2002*
United Nations |Maggie Farley | 12-12-2002 *
Chief UN weapons inspector said on Tuesday he will present the
Security Council with Iraq's weapons declaration by Monday after
editing out weapons-making information and the names of foreign
suppliers.
Hans Blix said an initial examination of the presentation showed
it contained mostly recycled information but that there may be
"something new" in the chemical and nuclear sections. He promised
a fuller assessment by December 17.
In a luncheon with Secretary General Kofi Annan and Security
Council ambassadors, Blix also assured diplomats that he, and not
the United States, was in control of the report's analysis and
distribution after a controversial release of the Iraqi
declaration to Washington Sunday.
The Security Council decided last Friday to allow Blix to vet the
declaration before releasing it to the council's 15 members over
the weekend, but U.S. officials arranged for the five permanent
members to obtain the uncut copies immediately.
They argued that the U.S., France, Britain, Russia and China are
already nuclear powers and so would not learn anything about
building such weapons from the report.
In a last-minute decision late Sunday night and with the approval
of the Security Council's president, the United States took the
council's sole copy to Washington to copy it and begin analysing
its 11,807 pages, claiming that the United States had the fastest
and most secure reproduction facilities.
The United States gave copies to the other four permanent members
on Monday night and Tuesday morning. It returned the original to
the Blix's office on Tuesday.
While the permanent members were happy to gain access to the full
report days earlier than expected, the U.S. move angered others
on the council. Several of the 10 council members who hold
two-year rotating seats protested the unequal distribution, and
on Tuesday, pushed to have access to the original version, if not
their own copy.
Syria's ambassador, Mikhail Wehbe, demanded that all members
should have the full declaration. But other diplomats said
privately that it is precisely concerns about passing on weapons
know-how to countries like Syria that don't have it that led to
the two-tier distribution.
Blix also said the foreign companies who have supplied Iraq with
material that could be used to make weapons should remain
confidential - not because he wanted to shield firms guilty of
skirting UN sanctions or U.S. export controls, but because the
companies were a valuable source of intelligence.
He added that there was no guarantee that the firms knew the
material they were selling was going to Iraq or being used for
military purposes.
Blix also sought to rebut criticism from Washington that the
inspection team wasn't large or aggressive enough to ferret out
hidden weapons in Iraq. Additional inspectors arrived in Iraq
over the weekend, bringing the number to 70.
At least 30 more will arrive by the end of the month, and the UN
Monitoring and Verification and Inspection Commission moved its
January training session a week earlier to prepare more experts -
especially from the United States - to bolster the inspections.
About 300 inspectors will ultimately be based in Iraq. With the
additional help, inspectors in Iraq conducted the most
comprehensive searches so far, covering six sites on Tuesday.
Germ warfare experts visited the National Project for Controlling
Brucellosis and Tuberculosis and the Saddam Center for
Biotechnology.
A team of nuclear experts continued to inventory materials at
Tuwaitha, the home of Iraq's past attempts to make weapons-grade
uranium.
Another team investigated an outlying site of the Al Qa Qaa
explosives plant, as well as the Al Furat State Company for
Chemical Industries in Mussayib and a complex of sites belonging
to the Al Karama facility.
© Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service
*****************************************************************
24 A war for fools and cowards
*Paul Robinson* says that Saddam is no threat to the West ? which
is one reason why the hawks want to attack him As Britain
prepares to help launch the first Western war of the new century,
the usual brigade of do-gooders are reflexively girding their
anoraks to oppose it. The mere presence of many of these people
on the anti-war side is normally evidence enough that the war
must be a good thing. But, for once, the peaceniks might have it
right. There exists no legitimate reason for us to wage or
threaten war against Iraq. Saddam Hussein poses no threat to us.
/?Hello, reception, can I have a wake-up call in spring,
please??/
As recently as ten years ago, it is unlikely that any British
government would have considered taking military action unless
there was a genuine threat to our national security. Today we are
reduced to twitching over fantastic delusions of enormous enemy
capabilities and make-believe scenarios of future holocausts, and
Tony Blair can drive us inexorably towards an unnecessary and
quite unjust war. When we were fighting the Cold War, the British
Army Intelligence Corps used to produce a marvellous magazine
called Threat. Full of grainy pictures of the latest sexy Soviet
equipment, articles about the newest variant of the rear sprocket
of the T-80 or BMP-2, and depictions of Motor Rifle regiments
attacking from the line of march, Threat drew its readers?
attention to a serious danger existing just beyond our borders.
The point about Threat is that the capabilities described were
real. The equipment actually existed. The tactics had been used
in recent military operations. By contrast, the ?threat? from
Iraq is a figment of some overactive imaginations.
Threat magazine, sadly, has gone the way of the centrally planned
economy. With the breakup of the Evil Empire, threat-based
defence planning vanished, to be replaced by ?risk assessments?
and ?contingency scenarios?. At a Nato meeting in 2001, the
current President Bush went so far as to state that ?the threat
now comes from uncertainty?. This is palpable nonsense.
Uncertainty means that one does not know what the threat is.
Uncertainty by itself cannot be a threat. But Bush?s statement is
representative of the sort of muddled thinking that has taken
over in the post-Cold War world.
We live in an increasingly risk-averse culture, but have lost the
ability to distinguish between those risks bearing a tiny but
real degree of significance and those which are utterly
insignificant. (One might easily draw parallels here with many
aspects of civilian life, such as the obsession with safety on
the railways, etc.) We live in the most secure, comfortable
environment in history and yet we are awash in a rising tide of
paranoia. To defend our wealth and privilege, we feel entitled to
inflict death and destruction on others to protect ourselves
against the merest risk of a risk.
In the case of Iraq, the government tells us that we must be
prepared to go to war because inaction will lead to terrible
consequences when Saddam Hussein launches his fearful weapons of
mass destruction (WMD) against us. The famous dossier on the
Iraqi WMD is cited as conclusive evidence that Iraq is knee-deep
in WMD, if only the weapons inspectors could find them. In fact,
the great majority of the ?evidence? in the dossier consists of
descriptions of potentially dual-use facilities, which may well
be entirely civilian in their actual purpose. We are told that
Iraq ?could have? diverted dual-use facilities to biological
weapons production, that it has a remotely piloted vehicle ?which
is potentially capable? of delivering chemical and biological
agents, that it has ?the capability? of producing chemical
agents, that it has attempted to purchase equipment which ?could
be used? to manufacture centrifuges to develop nuclear weapons,
that it ?wants? to extend the range of its weapons systems, and
so on. But none of this proves anything, and it all could be true
of any number of countries. It certainly does not constitute a
casus belli.
If the truth be told, Iraq is in no position to launch an attack
on anybody. Its armed forces are a shell of their former selves,
lack the logistics for an invasion of any neighbouring country,
and could not sustain major operations. Iraqi military spending
is estimated to be about a tenth of what it was before the Gulf
war. Even if the Iraqis have retained enough 1914-era technology
to build some more mustard-gas shells, they lack the means to lob
them at us. At the very worst, a handful of Iraqi missiles might
just be able to make it to Cyprus if the launchers drove to the
westernmost border of Iraq to fire. In short, the Iraqi threat to
the West is next to zero. The interesting point is that we are
well aware of that. That is why we are contemplating an attack.
North Korea, unlike Iraq, has a massive and proven stock of WMD.
It, too, has a brutal dictatorial regime which inflicts untold
daily human-rights abuses on its population. Are we threatening
to attack Pyongyang? We are not. The North Koreans could inflict
grave damage on South Korea and on the US forces in the region,
and we are no fools. We are planning our war on Iraq not because
it is strong, but because it is weak.
Ah, but what if Iraq does develop a nuclear weapon and gives it
to terrorists? According to the latest US National Security
Strategy, ?America is now threatened ...less by fleets and armies
than by catastrophic technologies in the hands of the embittered
few.? Leaving aside the interesting question of just why those
few are so embittered, we must act to prevent the twain ?
technology and few ? from ever meeting, or, as President Bush so
vividly says, ?The smoking gun will be a mushroom cloud.?
Let us consider. Israel has built nuclear weapons; was its first
act to give away free samples? How about India, Pakistan, China,
the USSR, any of the nuclear powers? Apparently not. But we are
meant to believe that Saddam Hussein?s first thought would be to
allow al-Qa?eda to use up his shiny new nuclear weapon on an
American city so that he could take credit and receive the prompt
retaliation. Of course Saddam would not do this. If he did
develop a nuclear weapon, he would use it in exactly the same way
as all the other nuclear powers ? to deter attacks. After all,
his most pressing military problem is one of deterrence against a
large and belligerent country which has stated flatly that it
wants him deposed or dead and preferably both, wants the
political system of his country completely remodelled along its
preferred ideological lines, and wants control of his most
valuable resources.
Iraq?s biological and chemical weapons are similarly most
valuable in deterrence. During the Gulf war, Iraqi rules of
engagement stated that these weapons were only to be used if the
allies marched on Baghdad ? in other words, as a desperate last
resort. In any case, it would be better if we dispensed with the
flurry of panic over the term ?mass destruction?. Only nuclear
weapons truly qualify for this description. Old-fashioned bullets
and high explosives are capable of quite enormous destruction,
and are much more to be feared than biological and chemical
weapons. Biological weapons (BW) are extremely difficult to
deliver to a target in an effective manner. If, for instance, a
BW warhead was fired at Israel, the biological agents would
probably be destroyed on impact by the heat of the explosion, and
if they survived would almost certainly disperse harmlessly. The
Israeli defence analyst Meir Steiglitz has concluded that ?there
is no such thing as a long-range Iraqi missile with an effective
biological warhead?. Chemical weapons are only marginally more
deadly. In the first world war, it took on average one ton of gas
to inflict one casualty.
Faced with such boring facts, the proponents of war argue that
Iraq may pose little threat now, but will suddenly become
overwhelmingly powerful in the near future, and that we must act
now before it is too late. Here we come to the fashionable
American doctrine of pre-emption, a startling new view from the
nation which until now led the world in opposing this concept.
International law banning pre-emptive strikes is founded on a
principle upheld by the US secretary of state of 1837, one Daniel
Webster. At the time, an American ship, the Caroline, was lending
support to the rebels of William Lyon Mackenzie in Canada. The
British, deeming the Caroline to be a threat to Canada, seized
the ship even though it was in US waters, and sent it tumbling
over the Niagara Falls. The American government denounced this
attack on American property and territory as ?an outrage?.
Webster pronounced that pre-emptive action could only be
justified where a state could prove ?a necessity of self-defence,
instant, overwhelming, leaving no choice of means, and no moment
of deliberation?. Ever since, the United States has enforced
Webster?s interpretation of the right to pre-emptive
self-defence. It denounced the 1981 Israeli attack on Iraq?s
Osirak nuclear reactor, for instance, because Israel could not
prove that there was an ?instant, overwhelming? necessity for
action. Yet we are now told that we must jettison international
law and permit an armed attack merely because of the possibility
that Iraq might, at some time in the future, pose some degree of
threat to us.
This is a dangerous doctrine. Is it one that we would wish to see
universally established, and applied by and to all? Hardly. It
would destroy decades of efforts to create a stable international
order based on the rule of law. Paradoxically, it is also a
doctrine that would give Iraq a perfect right to attack the
United States. After all, Washington has declared its intention
to attack Iraq, and we can all see without benefit of dossiers
that the US most certainly poses an immediate and very real
threat to the survival of the Iraqi regime.
Wars inherently tend to escalation, unexpected excesses of
destruction and unintended long-term consequences. Even in the
best case of a short and successful campaign, a sad fact which
our war-happy leaders appear to have overlooked is that there is
only too literally a ?blood price? to be paid for any war. We
need to face these facts squarely before we agree to sacrifice
lives in fighting a country which in no way threatens us.
/Paul Robinson is assistant director of the Centre for Security
Studies at the University of Hull. He has also served as an
intelligence officer in both the British and Canadian armies./
*****************************************************************
25 UK: Energy group facing fallout
Dec 12 2002
Eddie Johnson, Evening Gazette, Evening Gazette
Struggling nuclear group British Energy today said it was at a
"bleak point" in its fortunes as it unveiled pre-tax losses of
£337m for the last half year.
The group said the losses, for the six months to September 30,
were due to lower UK output, lower electricity prices, and
one-off costs.
Last month the 600 staff at Hartlepool nuclear power station
breathed a sigh of relief as the Government gave British Energy a
four-month reprieve.
The Government backed a restructuring plan in which bondholders
and creditors were to take control of the company.
British Energy, which supplies a fifth of the UK's electricity,
fell into trouble in September when it warned the Government it
could face insolvency unless it received immediate financial aid.
The group has been battered by the steep decline in electricity
prices in the UK.
The latest financial figures came as no surprise among the
workforce at Hartlepool today .
Craig Taylor British Energy's Hartlepool spokesman, said:
"Despite the difficulties in the electricity market we are
continuing to concentrate on the safe reliable generation of
electricity."
Hartlepool is one of the best performing stations in the company.
Chairman Adrian Montague, who replaced Robin Jeffrey, who
departed last month, said: "I take up the position of chairman at
a bleak point in our company's future."
A combination of high fixed costs for its nuclear stations and
low power prices, coupled with a lack of tied retail outlets and
a high level of unscheduled outages, had inflicted terrible
damage.
He added: "The restructuring proposals agreed with the Government
offer our company the opportunity to start on the long path to
recovery.
"It will involve considerable sacrifice on the part of the
company's major creditors and shareholders.
"However these creditors have yet to agree to participate in the
restructuring scheme, and if they do not, or if the restructuring
cannot proceed for some other reason, the company is likely to
have to seek the protection of administration.
"The next few months will be decisive."
© owned by or licensed to Trinity Mirror Plc 2002
*****************************************************************
26 Global N-power industry on revival path
December 12, 2002 2:41am
Nuclear power had, according to studies in the US, become the
cheapest source of electricity in comparison to other sources, Mr
Grandey said.
HYDERABAD, Dec. 11 THE global nuclear power industry is on a
revival path and the low prices of uranium, the main fuel
powering the reactor, are a delight to those operating nuclear
utilities, according to Mr G.W. Grandey, President of Cameco
Corporation, the Canada-based world's largest producer.
While the costs for producing nuclear power becomes attractive,
the uranium prices hovering around $10 a pound, is the lowest and
has given no incentive to mines and uranium producers, especially
in the developed Western world, he said in his special address at
the international conference on characterisation & quality
control of nuclear fuels (CQCNF-2002), hosted by the Nuclear Fuel
Complex (NFC), here.
Ten major producers, four trading companies and about 80
utilities sourcing the material to run the 440 operating nuclear
power plants in 31 countries dominate the global uranium market.
Eighty-three per cent of the current demands of the industry are
produced by the top eight uranium producers, with most of them
being in Canada and Australia, he said.
"We are going into an era of de-regulation in several of the
nuclear power utilising countries and therefore the competition
is hotting up in relation to coal, gas, oil and hydro. This has
forced the plants to scale up efficiencies, which hover around 85
per cent," Mr. Grandey, who is also the Chairman of the World
Nuclear Association (WNA), said.
He said the WNA and the Vienna-headquartered International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) were working closely with national
Governments to ensure that the benefits of nuclear energy reached
people. Nuclear power had, according to studies in the US, become
the cheapest source of electricity in comparison to other
sources, Mr Grandey said.
Earlier, inaugurating the three-day conference, Mr Anil Kakodkar,
Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), said nuclear
industry in the country was at the takeoff stage.
In the next 3-5 years, the contribution of nuclear power in the
overall power generation would be five per cent, up from the
present three per cent.
The Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC) was simultaneously executing
eight new nuclear power plants, which was the largest ongoing
cluster programme anywhere in the world.
Though in megawatt terms it was not large, since most of the
units were of 220 MW and 500 MW, he said.
Mr Kakodkar said the construction of the 500-MW Fast Breeder
Reactor at Kalpakkam would begin in the next couple of months.
The former Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), Dr R.
Chidambaram, in his address said the costs of nuclear power were
coming down with gestation periods being brought down.
What is needed now was to close the nuclear fuel cycle and remove
the misconceptions on reprocessing held by some nations.
He said there was a need to disengage nuclear power technology
from proliferation of nuclear weapons, even while addressing the
concerns of nuclear terrorism. For this, he advocated a new world
nuclear order.
Dr Chidambaram, who is the principal scientific adviser to the
Union Government, said, "India has much to offer to the world in
the area of nuclear fuels and fabrication."
Earlier, the Chief Executive of the NFC, Dr C. Ganguly said, "Our
nuclear power programme is poised for a vertical takeoff."
About 40 international delegates from the US, Canada, China,
Japan, IAEA, Russia, Argentina, South Korea and leading
scientists from the Indian atomic establishments are taking part
in the meeting, Dr Ganguly said.
Our Bureau
Copyright 2002. All Rights Reserved.
Financial Times Information Limited - Asia Africa Intelligence
Copyright © 2002 Financial Times Limited, All Rights Reserved
*****************************************************************
27 Nuclear research site passes inspection
Products &
*****************************************************************
29 U.S. Calls N.Korea Nuclear Move Regrettable*
/ Thu December 12, 2002 06:34 PM ET /
By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States described as regrettable
on Thursday North Korea's decision to restart a nuclear power
plant and said it would seek a peaceful resolution to the new
challenge presented by Pyongyang.
The North Korean announcement was the second crisis this week to
involve the reclusive communist state. A North Korean ship
carrying Scud missiles was stopped in the Arabian Sea on Monday
by Spanish ships and held up by the U.S. Navy until Yemen
convinced Washington the Scuds were intended for the Yemeni army
and they were released.
President Bush made clear in an ABC interview that he sought a
peaceful resolution even as he threatened Iraq with war if it
does not disarm.
"Not every issue requires a potential military response. There's
ways to keep the peace through diplomatic pressure, through
alliance and that's what we're doing in the Korean Peninsula,"
Bush said.
North Korea's decision to restart the reactor, mothballed in 1994
after an international crisis over alleged production of
weapons-grade plutonium, escalated a showdown with the United
States over a nuclear weapons program pursued by North Korea.
North Korea said it had been forced to act after a U.S.-led
decision last month to suspend fuel oil shipments to the country
as winter began, an explanation dismissed by U.S. officials.
"The statement that North Korea made ... is regrettable," said
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, who was with President Bush
on a visit to Philadelphia.
"The announcement flies in the face of international consensus
that the North Korean regime must fulfill all its commitments, in
particular dismantle its nuclear weapons program," he said.
Fleischer vowed Washington would not be pressured by North Korea
into returning to the negotiating table, saying the United States
would not enter into dialogue with the North Koreans "in response
to threats or broken commitments."
DIPLOMATIC DISCUSSIONS
Washington has held out the prospect of opening diplomatic
discussions with North Korea quickly if it would give up its
nuclear weapons program in a verifiable way, meaning by allowing
in inspectors.
Bush has been working with South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and
the European Union seeking to pressure North Korea, and although
all have said North Korea should abandon the program, it has
rejected the demands.
The United States, which already has economic sanctions imposed
against North Korea, has little leverage to force Pyongyang into
acting other than to hold out the prospect of ending its
isolation and improving its relations with the rest of the world.
Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, discussed the
North Korean situation on Tuesday with visiting Chinese Gen.
Xiong Guangkai, aides said.
Rice made clear "that we had hoped that China would use its
influence to get North Korea to stop and dismantle its nuclear
weapons program," said a U.S. official familiar with the talks.
In October, Washington said Pyongyang had admitted embarking on a
new secret program, this time to enrich uranium for weapons, in
violation of the 1994 Agreed Framework with the United States,
South Korea and Japan in which North Korea agreed to relinquish
its nuclear program in exchange for civilian nuclear technology
and fuel oil shipments.
Following that admission, Washington and its allies, including
South Korea and Japan, decided to suspend fuel oil shipments to
North Korea from December -- just as winter brought subzero
temperatures to the destitute Northeast Asian country.
North Korea's explanation for its latest move was rejected by
Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Ed Markey, a key member of the
House of Representatives on proliferation concerns.
"The claim of North Korean leaders that they need the electricity
to replace the heavy fuel oil shipments is specious, since this
is a research reactor not a power reactor, and since we have long
known that the North Koreans were using this reactor for nuclear
weapons purposes," he said.
He said the Bush administration should make clear that technology
for two light-water reactors provided under the Agreed Framework
would not be delivered.
Sen. Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican who is the incoming
chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said, "If in
fact they're (North Korea) going to proceed into this, it's
clearly a hostile action. I think the United States is acting
advisedly to try to forge a strong set of ties with other
countries in the region ... who are in harm's way."
Reuters The Company Products &
*****************************************************************
30 Op: Longevity: Weinberg's new standard for nuclear power plants
The Oak Ridger Online -
11:54 a.m. on Tuesday, December 10, 2002
Editor's License Dick Smyser
Alvin M. Weinberg has a new approach to how nuclear power can be
generated economically. Instead of "Bigger is cheaper," the basic
power reactor concept of the past, he proposes now that longevity
be the "design criterion for the 21st century" -- that reactors
be built to last 100 years.
To make his point in a paper presented at the American Nuclear
Society's national meeting in Washington last month, he cited
himself -- his age and life expectancy: "When I joined the
Manhattan Project in 1941, I was 26 years old. My life expectancy
was about 60-odd years. Today I am 87 1/2 and my life expectancy
is around 90 -- in short, during these 60 years my personal life
expectancy has increased by around 30 years."
The former director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Oak
Ridge Associated Universities' Institute for Energy Analysis
suggests that what has happened to him personally -- functioning
well significantly longer than earlier anticipated -- may have
happened to nuclear power reactors as well.
"To a remarkable degree, nuclear reactors also seem to be lasting
longer than their design lifetime," he told his ANS audience at
Washington's Omni Shoreham Hotel. "I shall speculate on how long
power reactors will last; and if they indeed turn out to be
'immortal,' what this might imply for the future of fission
power," he said.
Existing U.S. reactors were licensed mostly for 30 or 40 years
"as near as I can fathom," Weinberg said, "because large fossil
plants of that period were unable to compete against more
efficient plants after 30 years or so." Therefore, he said, there
being then no clear benchmark for reactor licensing, 30 years
"became the licensing time for nuclear plants essentially by
default."
Now with the nuclear era at 60 years, just like him at age 87
(Weinberg still regularly swims and plays tennis) nuclear
reactors are lasting longer than their design lifetime.
According to Richard Meserve, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission which licenses reactors, eight U.S. reactors have
already had their licenses renewed for another 20 years, 15
others are in the process of renewal and the prediction is that
almost all U.S. plants will apply for renewal, Weinberg said.
"Indeed, current proposed (new) reactors are designed to last 50
to 60 years," he said.
The longer a reactor operates, the cheaper is the power it
generates. "In a sense," Weinberg said, "time annihilates capital
costs." Therefore, nuclear reactors operating now are creating a
gift for future generations and this, he said, has implications
for one of nuclear power's biggest problems: nuclear waste.
"To a degree, this gift (economical nuclear power) to future
generations compensates for the burden of geologically
sequestered wastes. Whether an equitable compensation scheme
which 'pays' the price of geologic wastes with the low-price
electricity from long-lived reactors of course remains to be
seen," Weinberg said.
Weinberg recalled two earlier underlying reasons for developing
nuclear power: "a perceived ultimate shortage of energy";
"electricity at a competitive price." In the past 10 years,
however, "the incentive for nuclear energy is CO2 abatement" to
lessen the impact of the greenhouse effect on the world's
atmosphere, he said.
However, looking ahead, "The strategy for using CO2 as the
primary incentive for nuclear power seems to hang on finding more
uranium -- possibly from seawater -- or a breeder (reactor) that
burns uranium with 70-percent efficiency," Weinberg said. The
breeder has been demonstrated, but economical use of uranium from
seawater is still an open issue, he said.
And there is still the issue raised by Enrico Fermi just two
years after the Italian physicist and his team, of which Weinberg
was a junior member, achieved the first successful controlled
nuclear chain reaction 60 years ago just last week (Dec. 2,
1942).
Fermi's admonition, as recalled by Weinberg: "We have developed a
miraculous new source of energy but it is encumbered with vast
radioactivity and the threat of proliferation. Will the public
accept an energy source so encumbered?"
Fermi's words, Weinberg told the ANS, have "reverberated in my
mind ever since" and must be taken seriously. "Nuclear energy,"
Weinberg said, "is special, and it must be in the hands of people
who can create and enforce nothing short of a nuclear priesthood.
The recent event at Davis-Besse (a nuclear plant in Ohio where
long undetected corrosion posed a major threat) was in large part
the result of lapses by those operating and inspecting the plant.
This must be regarded as entirely unacceptable behavior.
"For what is at stake is nothing less than the survival of
nuclear energy. I trust that the coming generation will mend its
ways and create a cast of operators and inspectors who can
fulfill the responsibilities imposed on them as members of the
nuclear priesthood."
Regarding Fermi's warning on proliferation, Weinberg said, "We
are bating our collective breath as we witness the Iraq
situation. Can in fact the U.N., unlike the old League of
Nations, enforce a non-proliferation regime without a pre-emptive
war? The Cold War ended before it began. I hope the remainder of
this century we can have as much success." -- RDS
Richard D. Smyser is founding editor of The Oak Ridger. He can be
reached by e-mail at [rdsandmps@aol.com] .
[http://www.oakridger.com/dailydouble]
[http://www.oakridger.com] All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger
*****************************************************************
31 NRC: 2002-144 - Chairman Meserve to Leave NRC in Spring
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200
Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: [opa@nrc.gov]
No. 02-144 December 12, 2002
Chairman Richard A. Meserve, who has held his post at the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission for more than three years, announced today
that he has accepted the Presidency of the Carnegie Institution
of Washington, effective next spring. He will remain at the NRC
through March of next year.
This was a difficult decision for me, Dr. Meserve said, in
announcing his decision to the staff. I have very much enjoyed
my service at the NRC, including in particular the opportunity to
work with all of you. I believe that the NRC is the most capable
and effective agency in Government...with a staff that stands out
in its dedication and competence.
In his statement to the staff, a copy of which is attached, he
cited a number of things accomplished during his tenure,
including effectively responding to the escalated threat of
terrorism since the attacks on the World Trade Center and
Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
Chairman Meserve joined the NRC in October 1999. His term of
office was to have expired on June 30, 2004.
December 12, 2002
STATEMENT OF R.A. MESERVE
TO THE NRC STAFF
Good morning.
This is Chairman Meserve. I apologize for interrupting your work,
but I want to spend a moment to reflect on the challenges we have
confronted together and on the changes that are before us.
I have had the good fortune to serve as the Chairman of the NRC
for over three years. Let me remind you of a few of the things we
have jointly accomplished:
+ We have responded effectively to the terrorists challenge to
our national security.
+ We have facilitated the continued contribution of safe nuclear
power to meeting our Nations energy needs through careful
regulatory oversight, through license renewal, and through power
uprates.
+ We have prepared for the next generation of nuclear reactors.
In this connection, we have reinvigorated the role of research in
laying the foundation for the deployment of advanced nuclear
technologies.
+ We have made significant progress in establishing risk-informed
regulation through the successful implementation of the reactor
oversight process and through various regulatory changes.
+ We have put in place the framework to deal with an application
for a license to dispose of high-level waste at Yucca Mountain.
+ We have made a strong start on revising the framework for the
control of nuclear materials.
+ We have advanced our utilization of information technology,
thereby enhancing public access to agency information.
+ We have become very actively engaged in a variety of
international activities of significance to our Nation.
+ And we have made significant progress in dealing with human
capital issues through aggressive efforts at recruitment and
retention of skilled staff.
Underlying all of these activities, and the many more that I
could list, is our fundamental commitment to the paramount
mission of the NRC -- safety. You should have pride, as I do, in
all that we have accomplished.
I have had occasion to reflect on these matters because I have
been asked to assume the Presidency of the Carnegie Institution
of Washington. As you may know, the Carnegie Institution
undertakes scientific research in a wide variety of areas --
areas ranging from genetics and high-pressure physics, to plant
biology and the large-scale structure of the universe. I have
been on the board of the Carnegie Institution for about 10 years
and know it well. It is an exceptional organization. As a result,
I have concluded that this is an opportunity that I can not
decline. Although the Carnegie Institution would like me to start
at the turn of year, I have indicated that I plan to remain at
the NRC until the end of March in order to allow an orderly
transition in the NRCs management. I will thus be leaving the
NRC a little more than a year before my term would normally
expire.
This was a difficult decision for me. I have very much enjoyed my
service at the NRC, including in particular the opportunity to
work with all of you. I believe that the NRC is the most capable
and effective agency in Government. This is because the NRC is
blessed with a staff that stands out in its dedication and
competence. It has been an honor for me to serve with you and I
look forward to continuing our work together for the next several
months. I know that I leave you in good hands with my skilled and
accomplished colleagues on the Commission.
I hope that you have a pleasant holiday season. And again, thank
you for all of your support.
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Last revised Thursday, December 12, 2002
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32 Seabrook accident plan in the mail
Portsmouth Herald Local News:
Portsmouth, NH Thursday, December 12, 2002
By Susan Morse
smorse@seacoastonline.com [smorse@seacoastonline.com]
NEWINGTON - An application form for obtaining potassium iodide
pills from the state is included in the emergency-plan
information contained in a calendar to be mailed next week to
residents in towns neighboring the Seabrook Station nuclear
power plant.
When taken, the pills flood the thyroid with potassium iodine
to protect it from the effects of radiation.
The state announced its plan to distribute the potassium iodide
pills, or KI, in September, according to Jim Van Dongen of the
state Office of Emergency Management. Van Dongen was one of
three spokesmen at a briefing on the power plant’s emergency
plan held at Newington Station on Wednesday.
Van Dongen said the state Office of Emergency Management this
year was absorbed into the Department of Safety. Although the
state takes no stand on recommending the nonprescription pill,
he said, the state does maintain a stockpile of 350,000 pills,
which is estimated to cover three months of usage.
To date, said Van Dongen, 6,156 pills have been distributed to
the general public as well as to nursing homes and others in
Rockingham County. One pill is expected to counter the effects
of radiation for one day.
To obtain a free pill, a resident must fill out the form and
mail it to the Bureau of Radiological Health, Office of
Community and Public Health, in Concord.
The pill is not to be considered a magic antidote to radiation,
Van Dongen said - or an alternative to evacuation.
The state’s potassium iodide plan came out just before a mock
emergency was staged at Seabrook Station this October. The
graded exercise, held every other year, tests the emergency
plans of the power plant, the state, and the emergency operation
centers inside the 10-mile Emergency Planning Zone surrounding
Seabrook Station. This year the plant received overall good
marks, except in the category of ingestion of potassium iodide.
Workers were confused about when to take it and who the proper
person was to authorize ingestion, according to preliminary
results from the exercise.
Since the plan was so new, this was not unexpected, according
to Van Dongen.
Evacuation plans are updated every year. The biggest change
over recent years has been the population increase in Rockingham
County, Van Dongen said. This has been partially addressed by
the widening of Route 101 to four lanes to Manchester, where one
of the emergency evacuation centers is located.
Van Dongen had no numbers on the amount of traffic expected to
fill the roads in the event of an evacuation, but said
evacuation time from the Seacoast is estimated at nine to ten
hours.
Alan Griffith, a spokesman for Florida Power &Light, the new
owner of Seabrook Station, said he feels any emergency at the
plant would take place over a long period of time and wouldn’t
involve a sudden explosion.
The 2003 Emergency Public Information Calendar is expected to
be mailed next week to residents in the 17 New Hampshire towns
and the six towns in Massachusetts that lie within a 10-mile
radius or the Seabrook plant.
Griffith stressed the importance now, in the post-9/11 era, of
keeping the emergency calendar handy.
At the briefing, Griffith talked about the four escalating
levels of an emergency, which are: an unusual event; an alert; a
site area emergency; and a general emergency.
In its 12 years of operation, Seabrook Station has had an
estimated seven unusual events, Griffith said. Most of the
events have been weather-related. This fall there was an unusual
event declared because of an electrical malfunction that caused
a spark and smoke in a circulating water pump.
Seabrook has never gone beyond the first, nonradioactive-matter
release category, Griffith said. The only general emergency in
this country - that is, a wide-ranging release of radioactive
matter - occurred in 1979 at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant
in Pennsylvania.
New Hampshire towns within the 10-mile emergency plan radius
are: Brentwood, East Kingston, Exeter, Greenland, Hampton,
Hampton Falls, Kensington, Kingston, New Castle, Newfields,
Newton, North Hampton, Portsmouth, Rye, Seabrook, South Hampton
and Stratham.
The six Massachusetts towns are: Amesbury, Merrimac, Newbury,
Newburyport, Salisbury and West Newbury.
"Post 9/11, a lot of entities changed how they did things,"
said Peter Judge, spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency
Management Agency. "Things we were doing pre-9/11 still hold up
... today."
| Back to the Portsmouth Herald | Email this Article |
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*****************************************************************
33 TEPCO punishes 9 for fake leak rates
asahi.com : ENGLISH
Asahi Shimbun [http://www.asahi.com/] JAPANESE
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) on Wednesday fired a section
chief and punished eight others for faking safety tests
considered crucial in preventing radiation leaks at nuclear
plants.
The repair section chief at TEPCO's Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power
Plant was dismissed. He was in charge of the safety tests.
Three employees were demoted, two received reprimands and three
were given strict warnings.
The names of the nine employees were not released.
TEPCO's final report on the faked tests was submitted to the
government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
According to the report, the fabrications took place in 1991 and
1992 during regular safety checks on the air-leakage rate of a
concrete dome surrounding the nuclear reactor.
The higher the leak rate, the greater the danger of radiation
escaping in the event of an accident. The containment vessel is
considered the final defense against radiation leaks.
Under government guidelines, the daily leak rate must not exceed
0.348 percent from a 6,000 cubic meter vessel, the size of the
one at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
However, the TEPCO workers knew the leak rate exceeded the limit
before the safety tests in both 1991 and 1992.
To reduce the rate to within the limit, the TEPCO employees
ordered Hitachi workers who were in charge of the tests to pump
extra air into the containment vessel.
Hitachi also doled out punishments over the incidents. Hitachi
President Etsuhiko Shoyama and other executives received salary
cuts.(IHT/Asahi: December 12,2002)
(12/12)
[Copyright Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction
*****************************************************************
34 N-store plan attacked by Snowdonia watchdogs
Dec 11 2002
By Eryl Crump Daily Post Staff
ENVIRONMENT watchdogs called on the Welsh Assembly to put the
protection of a national park at the heart of its decision on the
future of a North Wales nuclear power station.
In its final statement to a public inquiry into plans to build a
store for low level waste at the Trawsfynydd nuclear power
station in Snowdonia, the Council for National Parks told a
planning inspector there was no reason why all nuclear waste
should not be removed from the site as soon as a national nuclear
waste store was available
Ruth Chambers, CNP deputy director, said: "Through our evidence
we have demonstrated that there is no technical or financial
reason why this site should not be completely cleared as soon as
a national nuclear waste store becomes available.
"This would be the best option for the Snowdonia National Park
and its residents. We urge the National Assembly for Wales to
ensure that the Snowdonia National Park is not blighted by a
nuclear waste dump for the next 100 years by ordering full site
clearance as soon as a national nuclear waste store becomes
available."
The Council for National Parks is the national charity that works
to protect and enhance the National Parks of Wales and England.
The inquiry is into plans to build an £80m radioactive waste
store at Trawsfynydd during the first phase of its
decommissioning.
The plans were submitted to Snowdonia National Park Authority in
July last year but were called in by Welsh Environment Minister
Sue Essex after widespread opposition.
They also include proposals to lower the height of the reactor
buildings on the site.
During the four week inquiry, Welsh Assembly planning inspector
Keith Durrant has heard it could take up to 130 years before the
site is restored.
A number of objectors, who include the Welsh Anti Nuclear
Alliance, say planning permission should be refused on the
grounds that the site should be cleared sooner.
Mr Durrant will report to the Welsh Assembly which will make the
final decision.
*Copyright and Trade Mark Notice* © owned by or licensed to
Trinity Mirror Plc 2002 icNorthWales^TM is a trade mark of
Trinity Mirror Plc.
*****************************************************************
35 Nawash band fighting restart of nuclear reactors
/ Impact on whitefish in Lake Huron key /
* Jonathon Jackson
* /Thursday, December 12, 2002 - 08:00
/*Local news * - An environmental assessment of the proposed
restart of two reactors at Bruce Power is being challenged today
by at least two groups, including the Chippewas of Nawash at Cape
Croker.
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission was to conduct a one-day
hearing today in Ottawa.
Bruce Power was scheduled to make an oral presentation in the
morning and local governmental, citizens and environmental groups
were to have a chance to make their own presentations in the
afternoon.
Among the 11 groups scheduled to appear are the Chippewas of
Nawash, the Municipality of Kincardine, the Power Workers Union,
the South Bruce Advisory Committee and a Michigan-based
organization called Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical
Contamination.
Chief Ralph Akiwenzie will speak on behalf of the Nawash band at
about 1:30 p.m., according to a news release which said the
environmental assessment doesn’t consider the impact that Units 3
and 4 at Bruce A, once restarted, will have on whitefish in Lake
Huron.
Whitefish are the mainstay of the commercial fishery for both the
Cape Croker and Saugeen First Nations, both of whom have
aboriginal and treaty rights to fish in Lake Huron and Georgian
Bay.
Akiwenzie couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday night but
David McLaren, the Cape Croker band’s communications coordinator,
said Bruce Power cannot ignore what he believes are obvious signs
of impact on the whitefish population.
“They know very well that the plant has some sort of an impact on
whitefish, if for no other reason that they know that the
whitefish are sucked into the plant’s intake pipes,” he said.
“They’ve also worked with Nawash in a partnership arrangement to
look at the impact on whitefish. The results of the study only
said that they should be looking more carefully at the impact on
the whitefish . . . they really should have factored that into
their environmental assessment.”
McLaren was asked if the band had been concerned about the
whitefish stocks before the Bruce A reactors were taken out of
service several years ago. He said he didn’t know, but that the
past is irrelevant.
“Whether or not there was a problem is immaterial,” he said. “But
the issue now is that if they are doing an EA in order to start
Bruce A, if it’s going to be a valid EA, then they should take
into account all of the environment, including the whitefish.”
Dr. Stephen Crawford, a biologist from the University of Guelph,
will also be at today’s hearing to support the band, which will
also raise concerns about the above-ground nuclear waste storage
containers at Bruce Power.
“The amount of waste. . . they’ve got to consider it,” McLaren
said. “What are they going to do with all that waste?”
Hearing results are expected today.
Hope you enjoyed reading Owen Sound Sun Times online. Click here
to order convenient home delivery
.
ID- 16631 * *
© 2002, OSPREY MEDIA GROUP INC.
*****************************************************************
36 Nuke free, but slowly
Eureka Times-Standard
Thursday, December 12, 2002 - 7:11:11 AM MST
By John Driscoll The Times-Standard
Humboldt Bay plant's push to store spent fuel
KING SALMON -- Atop a 40-foot bluff on Humboldt Bay, in perhaps a
decade, the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. will move its former
nuclear plant's spent fuel into five shock-proof containers.
The idea is to make the plant safer, and to pave the way for
giving the fuel back to the federal government. Depending on the
fallout from the controversy surrounding the planned federal
repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, it could end up staying
by the bay for a long time.
Which may not mean much. The goal to get the 390 fuel assemblies
out of the pool they sit in now will be met, provided that the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission gives the company the go ahead.
"You have kind of a health and safety issue to plant workers and
the public," said Lawrence Womack, PG's vice president of nuclear
services Wednesday, "and a ratepayer cost issue on the other
hand."
The King Salmon plant's 65 megawatt nuclear component went off
line in 1976, after concerns about the facility's ability to
safely withstand a big earthquake. The spent fuel was placed into
a pool -- about the size of a backyard swimming pool with a
40-foot deep end.
But the pool is right next to the reactor, which PG wants to take
apart, but can't because of the fuel. It wasn't until the late
1990s when the company had access to the technology needed to
move the fuel out of the pool and into containers that can be
transported, too.
To make use of that technology, PG will ask the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission for a license to remove the fuel from the
pool and store it on site for as long as 20 years. The utility is
preparing its application now and expects to submit it in 2003.
After that, the public will be asked for comments, and the
commission will grant or deny the application in 2005.
"Nothing's ever done until you have the license in hand," Womack
said.
The fuel will be moved to the bluff in the following two years,
and stored at the plant until at least 2014. The way the fuel
will be stored in the sealed containers, it will never have to be
handled again.
Since the fuel is some of the oldest in the country, it should be
among the first to be moved to a federal repository -- provided
one is in place by then.
Until then, the well-armed guards patrolling the plant, the
concrete vehicle barriers and the tight security clearance will
remain in effect. That's not small potatoes. PG has spent $4
million to upgrade security at the plant, installing computers
and cameras and improving communications with local law
enforcement.
It costs $2.2 million per year -- up from $350,000 before 2001 --
to keep up the regimen.
"We're confident we could stop any threat at that level," said
Zane Easley, who heads up security at the plant.
It's an awful lot of security for fuel that PG officials say is
not all that dangerous. It's not so much danger as overarching
regulations set after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, on
the East Coast that makes it all necessary, Womack said.
The Times-Standard was scheduled to visit the plant on that day,
but the terrorist attacks immediately closed the facilities to
non-essential personnel.
PG believes the fuel is safe even in the event of a major
earthquake or a tsunami, as well as from explosives.
The typical threat from spent fuel is from gases that may be
released into the air. Humboldt Bay Power Plant's fuel is old,
however, so some krypton gas, but little iodine gas would be
released, plant manager Tom Moulia said.
The gases would only cause increase radiation at the boundary of
the plant by 10 millirems -- about the amount a patient receives
during an X-ray and twice what an airplane passenger experiences
on a cross-country trip.
And that, Moulia said, is if all 390 fuel assemblies were to
rupture at once, an unlikely scenario.
The protection PG is looking to provide is not cheap. Estimates
for decommissioning run as high as $210 million.
"We look at the whole decommissioning project guardedly," said
1st District Supervisor Jimmy Smith Wednesday, who is part of an
advisory committee that works with the company on concerns. "The
cost keeps going up and up."
The cost gets handed down to PG rate payers, and Smith worries
about rate payers footing a growing bill.
But Smith also sees the decommissioning and dry cask storage as
key for safety, even though the containers the fuel will be
stored in could cost more than $2.5 million. Five containers will
be needed for the fuel, and one more for storing radioactive
reactor components.
"They're going to be containerized in a much safer environment
than they are today," Smith said.
That's what the Redwood Alliance, an Arcata group that advocates
safe energy, has been saying for years.
"This will keep our community safe and allow complete dismantling
to take place," an article by Jim Adams posted on the alliance's
web site reads.
No one at the alliance was available before deadline.
The alliance supports PG's plans, but not without caveats. The
alliance doesn't want the $156 million trust fund set up to
decommission the plant to be used for operations or maintenance.
They also call for an independent board of consultants oversee
the process.
One thing is for sure: Nothing is happening quickly. The complex
process of moving and disposing of fuel takes time, mainly
because of the gauntlet of state and federal agencies that have a
hand in it.
In the meantime, the Humboldt Bay Power Plant plays an important
role. Its two 52 megawatt fossil fuel units continue to provide
voltage support to the area, which has limited transmission from
the outside.
"It keeps the lights on," Moulia said.
*****************************************************************
37 Tepco/Reactors -2: To Burn More Oil,Seek Pwr Conservation
International
Thursday December 12, 6:18 PM
Tepco/Reactors -2: To Burn More Oil,Seek Pwr Conservation TOKYO
(Dow Jones)--Tokyo Electric Power Co. (J.TER or 9501), or Tepco,
said Thursday it will shut its remaining eight nuclear reactors
for either inspection or regular turnarounds by mid-April, 2003.
The move opens the possibility that all of Tepco's 17 reactors
could be halted at the same time "under our toughest scenario,"
said Tepco executive vice president Ryoichi Shirato.
Embroiled in a scandal over doctoring its nuclear safety records
and safety tests, Japan's largest power utility has already been
forced to shut nine reactors for unplanned checkups or regular
turnarounds, with 8,600 megawatts in capacity lost.
And the company has said it plans to shut the remaining reactors
in the near future for inspection, in order to gain
"understanding" from local residents and authorities in northern
Japan where the reactors are located.
Tepco said Thursday it plans to shut four more reactors in
January-early February for regular turnarounds and close the
remaining four plants in March-mid-April for inspection. Shirato
told reporters Tepco doesn't know when it can restart the nine
reactors already undergoing inspection or turnarounds.
He reiterated that Tepco will have to wait until it receives
approval from local authorities.
To make up for the power shortage, Tepco has turned to more
expensive thermal power generation. The company has already begun
operating previously idle thermal power plants and has been
ordering extra heavy fuel oil and crude oil as well as liquefied
natural gas for generation fuels.
Tepco/Reactors -2: To Burn More Oil,Seek Pwr Conservation For
peak electricity needs in December-March, Tepco could supply a
maximum 5,100 to 5,700 kilowatts of power, and still have
capacity reserves of up to 6%, Shirato said. He said the company
forecasts a maximum of 5,400 KW will be needed during that period
"on exceptionally cold days."
To ensure sufficient power supply sources, Tepco has postponed
until after February turnarounds on two oil-fired power plants
with a combined capacity of 1,350 megawatts. The company will
also buy 1,500 MW of power from other utilities in February.
If the demand-supply balance becomes tight in March, Tepco will
buy up to 90 MW from Kansai Electric Power Co. (J.KEP or 9502),
Shirato said.
In the meantime, Tepco will engage in a power conservation
campaign targeted all its users from next week.
"For large-lot users, we will visit them one by one...to ask them
to reduce settings for heating, turn off unnecessary lights in
offices and adjust operations of elevators," Shirato said. It
will be the first time since the first oil crisis in 1974 that
Tepco has sought power conservation during winter, he said.
-By Maki Aoto, Dow Jones Newswires; 813-5255-2929;
Maki.Aoto@dowjones.com
Copyright © 2002 Dow Jones &Company Inc. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
38 Officials seek source of flier that has nuke workers nervous
Las Vegas SUN:
December 11, 2002
Jobs are threatened across country
By Benjamin Grove
WASHINGTON -- Officials for the National Nuclear Security
Administration are trying to calm the jangled nerves of workers
in the agency's Nevada offices after an anonymous flier said
their jobs were in danger.
The one-page flier warned that the NNSA planned massive job cuts
for the agency's 239 Nevada workers.
"Six out of 10 people currently working in Nevada will not be
here at the end of the fiscal year 2004," said the flier, which
most believe was written by an insider. "Meanwhile Headquarters
has kept on hiring ... Albuquerque sits fat and happy ... and
Oakland (an administrative office in California with no mission
work) comes out smelling like a Potomac Cherry Blossom."
The flier generated anxiety among workers as it circulated
Tuesday in the NNSA's Nevada Operations offices, spokesman Darwin
Morgan said.
"There are employees who are concerned about their future,"
Morgan said. Morgan did not know the source of the flier.
But an NNSA spokesman in Washington said that any talk of job
cuts was "pure speculation."
The NNSA since February has been planning a massive
reorganization of the agency, but details are not set for release
until next week, spokesman Bryan Wilkes said. Final decisions had
not been made, Wilkes said.
"Nobody knows what's going to happen," he said.
Part of the reorganization includes removing a layer of
management, agency officials told Congress earlier this year.
The NNSA is a division of the Energy Department and is primarily
responsible for the safety and reliability of the nation's aging
nuclear weapons stockpile. The Nevada operations office manages
the Nevada Test Site, formerly a proving ground for the nation's
nuclear weapons. The Test Site's mission now includes low-level
radioactive waste storage, counter-terrorism training,
subcritical nuclear weapons tests and research.
The NNSA has two other major operations offices, in Albuquerque
and Oakland, and nine regional offices nationwide.
The NNSA's acting administrator Linton Brooks said he intends to
trim the agency's workforce by 20 percent. But Brooks wants to
accomplish that through attrition and early retirement incentives
-- not by firing workers, Wilkes said.
"He said he intends to go out of his way to treat people fairly,"
Wilkes said.
The flier encouraged workers to seek help from Nevada lawmakers.
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said he already spoke with Brooks last
week to request that there be no job cuts in Nevada.
NNSA's most valuable jobs are in Nevada, Ensign said.
"I told him that I support what you are trying to do with the
restructuring, but we made made the pitch, 'Why should it be in
Nevada?' " Ensign said.
Brooks did not say whether he planned to cut jobs in Nevada,
Ensign said.
Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., is trying to verify the flier's
validity, she said.
"Obviously, receiving a flier like this right before the holidays
is very demoralizing," Berkley said. "We're going to do
everything we can to see that no one loses their job."
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
39 UK: END IN SIGHT FOR RADIATION TABLETS -
The Whitehaven News
CLOSURE of Calder Hall power station early next year should end
the threat of any cancer-causing radioactive leaks from the four
nuclear reactors which were the first in Britain.
Hundreds of householders near Sellafield and all schools in a
wider area have potassium iodate tablets which they would have to
swallow in the event of a serious radiation escape from Calder.
The tablets - two per person - were last issued five years ago.
They have to be taken to act as an antidote to radioactive iodine
which can cause thyroid cancers. BNFL and the health authorities
believe the tablets will be obsolete once the power station shuts
down in March.
However, the Sellafield Local Liaison Committee, which is the
comunity health and safety watchdog, does not want to take any
chances and is likely to press for one more issue of the iodate
tablets to make sure the public is protected for the next five
years.
Coun David Moore, chairman of the SLLC, whose own family at
Seascale have the tablets, said this week: "It is good news that
one potentiallly major hazard is being removed, but we would want
the tablets phased out over a period. The tablets people have now
reach the end of their shelf life around the same time that
Calder will be closing down and I think we will be pressing for
another distribution to insure us all for the next five years.
Calder Hall still has to be taken to pieces so it would be as
well to have the tablets to fight any iodine release in case
anything does go wrong, you can never say never. It seems a
sensible precationary measure. Ironically, I understand the Irish
government has just issued the same tablets to everybody in
southern Ireland and here we are talking about taking them away
just on our own doorstep."
The tablets are paid for by BNFL but issued by the health
authority.
Nigel Calvert, one of the health protection consultants for
Cumbria and Lancashire, said: "The only situation at Sellafield
where you could get a release of radioactive iodine is if one of
the Calder reactors caught fire, so from a health point of view,
once the reactors are closed down there is no need for the
potassium tablets to be pre-distributed.
"The tablets already out will expire on June 30, but there may
still need to be another issue depending on the timescale for the
shutdown. There are stocks still in storage and BNFL has bought
in a new supply."
Although everybody within two kilometres of Sellafield is
supplied with the tablets, all schools in a six kilometre range
stretching from Drigg to Thornhill have a stock and anyone else
in the extended area can be supplied on request.
"The police also hold large stocks," said Coun Moore. "If there
was an evacuation, the police could take tablets to schools all
over the area and also to evacuation centres in Whitehaven,
Millom or wherever."
n Withdrawing the tablets must be approved by the Nuclear
Installations Inspectorate.
*****************************************************************
40 UK: MUF figures are announced*
* 13 December 2002 * Hi-lands.com
*John O'Groat Journal*
THE UK Atomic Energy Authority has revealed its nuclear material
unaccounted for (MUF) figures for 2001 to 2002.
Dounreay had an increase of 0.047kg of plutonium over the last
year compared to an increase of 0.5kg the previous year.
Highly-enriched uranium on site has increased by 0.281kg, whereas
the year before it fell by 0.3kg.
Low-enriched uranium is up by 0.002kg compared to a decrease of
0.004kg in 2001.
MUF at the Sellafield British Nuclear Fuels Ltd site remains much
higher than at Doun-reay, with a loss of 4.15kg of plutonium. The
previous year, Sel-lafield lost 5.6kg of plutonium.
UKAEA has stressed that MUF is a result of changes in measurement
and does not mean that nuclear material has been lost or stolen.
A spokesman at Har-well said: ?Sellafield has a larger MUF
because of the large amount of spent fuel reprocessed in its
plants. A calculation is made of the amount of plutonium,
uranium, etc., in the fuel before it is pro-cessed and
measurements are made of the separated materials once the process
is complete. Inevitably there are small changes which mount up
during the year.
?At Dounreay, of course, no reprocessing is being carried out but
there are materials in different forms in cave lines, etc., which
have to be measured. Because they are often inaccessible, assays
are taken to assess the amount of material in the plants. We
regularly refine how we carry out these measurements and
therefore there will be very small variations in the figures.
?The same applies at Winfrith and Harwell. These variations may
mean a tiny increase or decrease. In the case of Dounreay, it has
increased this year but it may well decrease the following year.?
*****************************************************************
41 Radon being removed from contaminated wastes
MyInKy
Site map [http://web.myinky.com/ecp/sitemap]
December 12, 2002
CINCINNATI- Workers carrying out a federally funded cleanup of
radioactive waste at a Cold War uranium processing site have
activated a system to remove radon gas from silos housing
contaminated sludge.
The wastes in what are known as the K-65 silos on the 1,050-acre
Fernald site have presented constant problems for Energy
Department officials and the contractor in charge of the cleanup.
The government hopes to essentially finish the cleanup in 2006 if
Congress continues to pay for the $5 billion project.
During the weekend, Fernald workers activated a radon-gas control
system to clear out radioactive gas trapped in the headspace of
the silos. That's the term for the area above the wastes stored
inside.
The $20 million control system, which took 14 months to design
and build, is expected to remove 95 percent of the radon gas from
the tanks, said Ray Corradi, silos project manager for Fluor
Fernald, the contractor overseeing the cleanup project.
Radon, which is released as the radioactive substances inside
continue to deteriorate, is considered a cause of cancer.
From 1951 until 1989, the Fernald plant processed uranium ore as
an early step in producing atomic bombs. The plant is 18 miles
northwest of Cincinnati.
To prevent the radon gas from escaping, cracks in the silos'
covers were sealed from the outside with a special foam in 1986.
An internal layer of clay was pumped inside in 1991 to further
seal the wastes.
Years ago, Fernald officials began projects to treat tainted
groundwater, remove contaminated soil and haul away leftover
barrels of waste at the site. Plans to treat and dispose of the
silo wastes have been delayed and changed because of various
problems over the years.
Officials have since decided to seal the silo wastes in concrete
and ship them to disposal sites in Nevada, but that job hasn't
started.
*****************************************************************
42 Mutations theory lacking in logic
Las Vegas SUN: Letter:
December 11, 2002
Letter: Mutations theory lacking in logic
I found Ron Bourgoin's concern (in his Dec. 6 letter) about
radiation-induced mutant bacteria and viruses at Yucca Mountain
interesting but lacking in logic.
Radiation and radioactive materials have been around since the
Big Bang about 12 billion years or so, and viruses and bacteria
here on Earth for something like 3 billion or 4 billion years.
You would think that in that length of time and that amount of
exposure most of your "Frankenstein" bacteria and viruses would
have come and gone.
The truth be told, the vast majority of radiation-induced
mutations are non-viable -- they cannot reproduce. Those that did
survive became ... us, and everything we see around us today. I
guess in 4 billion years "monsters" can be created.
OSCAR R. FICK JR. Pahrump
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
43 Sellafield to cut waste discharges by 80%
[Guardian Unlimited]
John Vidal
Thursday December 12, 2002
The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk]
Five years of concerted diplomatic pressure from Ireland
and Scandinavia yesterday paid off as the government pledged to
massively reduce radioactive waste discharges from Sellafield
within four years and maybe halt them temporarily next April.
The unexpected measures over BNFL's discharges at the nuclear
power plant in Cumbria were announced by the environment
minister Michael Meacher and welcomed in several countries. The
plant's discharges have been found as far north as the Barents
sea.
It is proposed that the levels of discharge of technetium-99
(Tc-99) into the Irish sea will be cut by more than 80% by 2006,
and research to eliminate all discharges speeded up.
One option would be to turn Tc-99 into glass blocks safe for
storage. Another possibility is to treat the element with the
chemical TPP, which causes it to solidify, though it is not
known if this method is safe.
"If TPP works ... there will be no further discharges to sea.
But I cannot guarantee that at this stage," Mr Meacher said.
Yesterday, the government admitted international pressure had
forced it to review the discharges, which it still insists are
harmless.
Special report
The nuclear industry
Interactive guide
Nuclear reprocessing
Graphics
The Mox ships' journey around the world (pdf)
[http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2002/09
/17/nuclear_ship.pdf]
Nuclear map of Britain
US nuclear map
Useful links
British Energy [http://www.british-energy.com/]
Department of Trade and Industry [http://www.dti.gov.uk/]
British Nuclear Fuels Ltd
[http://www.bnfl.co.uk/website.nsf/default.htm]
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament [http://www.cnduk.org/]
Greenpeace [http://www.greenpeace.org/homepage/]
HSE nuclear glossary [http://www.hse.gov.uk/nsd/ilrwglos.htm]
UK atomic energy authority [http://www.ukaea.org.uk/]
National Radiological Protection Board [http://www.nrpb.org.uk/]
Friends of the Earth
[http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/press_for_change/dump_nuc
lear/index.html]
World Nuclear Association [http://www.uilondon.org/]
World Nuclear Transport Institute [http://www.wnti.co.uk]
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44 Editorial: State must witness all cask tests
Las Vegas SUN:
December 12, 2002
As the state with the most to lose if Yucca Mountain indeed opens
as a nuclear waste dump in about eight years, Nevada has a right,
and an obligation to its citizens, to be fully involved in all
safety studies. The mountain, after all, is only 90 miles
northwest of Las Vegas, the fastest growing area in the country.
Yet our state is being snubbed.
Last month, for example, the Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste,
a panel of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, spent three days
hearing testimony regarding nuclear waste transportation.
The Energy Department and the nuclear industry were well
represented. Transportation companies testified. But Nevada
representatives were not even informed of the meeting, much less
invited to testify. The advisory committee is scheduled on
Wednesday to present the testimony to the NRC, which is the
agency charged with determining if Yucca should be licensed.
Nevada is asking for the presentation to be delayed until it can
also provide testimony. We support that request, but the best the
NRC has offered is to hear Nevada's experts during some
as-yet-unscheduled meeting -- a meeting that would likely come
long after Wednesday, thus diluting the testimony's
effectiveness.
This type of treatment is why Nevada is insisting that the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission allow qualified state
representatives to participate when the agency tests the casks in
which the nuclear waste would be transported and buried. It
would, unfortunately, be naive to wait for an invitation. One of
the state's major criticisms is that Congress this summer
approved Yucca Mountain without knowing how the casks would
perform under stress. We can envision the NRC trusting the Energy
Department and nuclear industry officials to conduct the testing
on their own. There is too much at stake -- the lives of Nevadans
and everyone along the cross-country transportation routes -- for
this to be allowed.
Transportation casks must be able to withstand immersion,
high-force impacts and explosions (in the event of truck or rail
accidents), and direct hits from terrorists' weapons. Burial
casks must be tested for their rates of degradation over time and
their ability to withstand such natural forces as earthquakes and
ground water. It's critical that qualified officials from Nevada,
those who understand everything from metallurgy to weapons
technology, witness the tests and have a say in how they are
conducted.
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
45 UK: STAFF MOVE SPARKS BNFL SAFETY FEARS - The Whitehaven News
[The Whitehaven News - Serving the community since 1852]
STAFF MOVE SPARKS BNFL SAFETY FEARS MOVING 1,800 white collar
workers out of Sellafield to a new location, at nearby
Yottenfews, could put a spanner in the nuclear site's emergency
plans.
BNFL wants to re-locate the staff on to the contractors' car
park, at Yottenfews. One of the reasons is to ease traffic
pressure but another is security.
In the light of any possible terrorist strike on Sellafield, the
company is looking to cut down on the number of employees
actually working on the site by re-locating them.
Some have already moved to occupy part of the new call centre at
Whitehaven and there is the possibility of other staff being
moved to the town.
But Sellafield's Local Liaison Committee, the community watchdog
group for health and safety, has concerns over the proposed move
to Yottenfews of so many staff.
Some members fear that emergency services trying to get in and
out of the site could be hindered if 1,800 people are being
evacuated from Yottenfews at the same time.
John Henney, chairman of the Emergency Planning sub-committee,
said: "It could be disruptive with 1,800 outside the gates. The
emergency services are opposed. The Police, for one, feel it
could create enormous problems for them.
"I would prefer to see 600 going into Cleator Moor, another 600
in Egremont and the other 600 in Whitehaven. The economic effect
to these towns would be significant."
Cumbria's emergency planning officer, David Humphries, said he
attended a meeting of interested parties who welcomed the
prospect of having 1,800 people located further away from an
on-site hazard. "We did have significant concerns about the
emergency planning implications but from a public (workers)
safety point of view we are not opposed to this in principle. We
welcome anything that moves people further away from a hazard on
the site."
Coun Henney said: "That meeting was held before our emergency
planning sub-committee meeting. Since then other considerations
have come into play and opinions have changed." Copeland
council's planning committee has still to approve the Yottenfews
transfer and Coun Henney said it would take on board all the
factors.
Sellafield's boss, Brian Watson, said: "The issue is to be dealt
with by the planning committee and I don't wish to comment
further."
SLLC chairman, David Moore, a member of the council planning
committee, criticised lack of consultation with the six parish
councils around Sellafield, fuelling concerns of a fait accompli.
Copeland council leader, George Usher, said the parishes would be
consulted on the BNFL application "in the proper way".
*****************************************************************
46 The Yucca conundrum
Las Vegas Mercury:
The state of Nevada has now put into legal language its position
about the Yucca Mountain project. According to a 50-page legal
brief filed last week in federal court, President George W. Bush
and his Energy secretary consistently and repeatedly ignored
vital issues concerning public safety in cramming the Yucca
project down our throats. As we've all been told for years now,
the Yucca project will KILL US. It will poison our water,
irradiate our land, murder our children, turn our city into a
ghost town, and will be the end of life as we know it. It might
even provide a tempting target for terrorists who theoretically
could ignite a mushroom cloud explosion in our back yard.
Tell me, then, how is it going to be possible for Nevada
Republicans to support the re-election of President Bush if he
has done this to our state? How can this be rationalized? You
know damned good and well that over the next two years the same
Nevada leaders who say they believe every word of this new legal
action will be asking voters to once again support Dubya. Does
this make sense to you?
Gov. Kenny Guinn, who supports the anti-Yucca legal action, said
a few months ago that he will be able to support Bush, despite
Yucca, because Bush agrees with Nevada on most other issues. Tell
me, which of those other issues will result in the deaths of our
citizens and the destruction of our economy?
One of two things is true: Either our leaders don't really
believe the anti-Yucca rhetoric they've been spouting all these
years, all the dire warnings and predictions of calamities to
come, or they feel that partisan politics takes precedence over
the endangerment of the public. We can only hope Nevada voters
will remember two years from now the legal language used to
describe the royal screwing that Nevada has received courtesy of
the Bush administration.
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury, 2001 - 2002
*****************************************************************
47 UK: SELLAFIELD JOB AND SAFETY FEARS -
The Whitehaven News
By Alan Irving
COMPETITION for the key work once Sellafield is taken over by a
powerful government landlord - the LMA - is raising fears about
job losses and also safety.
Copeland Council's leader, George Usher, flagged up the concerns
to the Sellafield Local Liaison Committee, which is the
independent community watchdog for health and safety at the
nuclear plant.
And the job worries brought a non-committal response at the
meeting from one of the top men engaged in setting up the
Liabilities Management Authority.
Terry Selby, deputy director of the LMU - Liabilities Management
Unit - which is preparing the ground for the LMA, told the
meeting: "What will happen with jobs, I don't know. Nobody knows,
quite frankly."
From 2005, possibly even earlier, BNFL and the UKAEA will no
longer run Sellafield. They will be in competition with other
companies, probably some from overseas, to operate plants under
licence from the new landlord called the Liabilities Management
Authority.
The LMA has at least £48 billion to spend on cleaning up
Britain's nuclear legacy at various atomic site but mainly
Sellafield which has a big backlog of radioactive waste and lots
of old plants to be decommissioned.
And the government has already insisted it wants action taken "to
promote competition for the massive and financially lucrative
clean up work".
"The scale of the task is enormous and the value of the work is
£48 billion and it is likely to be a higher number. There is a
lot of interest and a lot of organisations who would like to get
a share of a rather large market," said Terry Selby.
Coun Usher warned the Sellafield LLC meeting in Cleator Moor:
"Competition usually means job losses, cuts in working conditions
and cuts in safety, none of which would be acceptable to the
local community.
"Can we be assured this will be borne in mind when contracts are
being negotiated.
"We would also struggle to support any other company which is not
a British company."
Terry Selby answered: "I understand all this. No contractor will
get work from the LMA unless they can demonstrate an absolutely
first-class safety and environmental performance. There will be
no reduction of safety or environmental standards because the
public would not stand for it."
The LMA itself will be around 200-strong and Copeland is bidding
for it to be located at Westlakes and Mr Selby said new jobs
would be created with its formation.
"I am very sceptical," said Cleator Moor councillor John Henney.
"I will be very surprised if 20% of the 200 jobs are brand new
ones. People will be drafted in from other areas of the
industry."
And he warned: "Without the support of the local communities the
thing will collapse."
After more concerns from St John's Beckermet Parish Council
representative, Ron Hargreaves, Mr Selby stressed that any
successful contractor would have to show it took security
seriously as well.
"If a contractor is not living up to LMA's expectations on a
whole series of things you know what will happen, they will have
to face the consequences."
He said the nuclear site regulations like the NII would still
have the same powers to take the right action at the right time."
Drigg resident, Marjorie Higham, said a public meeting should be
called to address community concerns over the LMA "in light of
the enormous effects Sellafield has on West Cumbria".
Mr Selby said: "It is a very good suggestion and I welcome it."
He rejected a claim from anti-nuclear group, CORE, campaigner,
Martin Forewood that the make-up of the LMU management board was
an "incestuous relationship" of nuclear interests, saying: "We do
not intend to be a secret organisation but one operating in an
open and transparent way.
"The only things we will seek to protect are those that are
commercially confident or security sensitive."
Sellafield's own BNFL top boss Brian Watson said: "We want to be
a contractor of choice for the LMA - that is our aspiration.
This year up to present our safety and environmental performance
is outstanding. Without this, we wouldn't get past first base."
SLLC chairman David Moore said: "The biggest site the LMA will be
dealing with is on our doorstep. The safety aspect is a big
issue, we prefer the companies we are used to working with like
BNFL and the UKAEA."
*****************************************************************
48 Cuts in nuclear waste planned
BBC NEWS | UK | England |
Wednesday, 11 December, 2002, 16:55 GMT
[Sellafield plant, Cumbria] Nuclear waste from Sellafield will be
cut
Radioactive waste discharge from the Sellafield nuclear power
plant could be halted as early as next year. The government
announced on Wednesday it may temporarily stop the discharges of
the waste product technetium-99 (Tc-99) into the Irish Sea as
soon as April 2003.
Environment Minister Michael Meacher made the announcement as the
government pledged to reduce the current output of Tc-99 into the
Irish Sea by at least 80% by 2006. Mr Meacher said a new, but
currently problematic processing treatment, could cause all
discharge into the sea to be virtually eliminated.
Harmful elements
The UK has said even the current emission level of 90TBq a year
is perfectly safe, Ireland and Scandinavian countries bordering
the North Sea have raised concerns.
Mr Meacher responded by saying levels would be cut to 10TBq a
year by 2006.
If a new processing technique was perfected, that could be
reduced to almost zero.
In the current treatment process, other more harmful radioactive
waste elements are removed while Tc-99 is left behind and
discharged into the sea.
One alternative involves treating Tc-99 with a chemical called
TPP that causes it to solidify, allowing it to be removed from
the other more dangerous waste components.
However it is not known whether this can be done safely.
'Welcome move'
Mr Meacher said: "If TPP works that resolves the situation: there
will be no further discharges to sea.
"But I cannot guarantee that at this stage."
Mr Meacher said there would be a period of discussion and
investigation by the Environment Agency and the government, which
could result in a moratorium on all discharge by mid next year.
Roger Higman, from Friends of the Earth, said: "Any cut in
pollution limits at Sellafield is welcome, but discharges should
have been stopped years ago."
© MMII | News Sources | Privacy
*****************************************************************
49 UK: BNFL UNDER ORDERS TO SOLVE BIRD HAZARD -
The Whitehaven News
By Alan Irving
NUCLEAR watchdogs - the NII and the Environment Agency - are
worried about birds and other wildlife picking up radioactive
contamination from open fuel storage ponds at Sellafield and
spreading it off the site.
BNFL is under orders from the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate
to solve a potential radioactive hazard to communities near the
nuclear site. And one of the Environment Agency's inspectors told
the Sellafield Local Liaison Committee: "We will have concerns
until there is proper containment of these open ponds or the
material in them has been removed."
The inspector, Matthew Emptage, said the concerns had come in the
wake of the contaminated pigeon scare at Seascale where thousands
of birds had to be killed.
"With wildlife continuing to gain access to Sellafield, and the
ponds in particular, there is the potential for the transfer of
contamination off the site," he added.
The NII said that it shared the Environment Agency's concerns but
was giving BNFL more time to come up with a detailed
decommissioning plan for B30, the old pond which poses the
biggest contamination threat.
Radioactivity is already escaping off the site from the pond and
the biggest potential hazard is from the build up of radioactive
sludge in the water. BNFL has the option of emptying B30 and
other open ponds but putting another building over them could put
construction workers at risk from radiation exposure.
Although there is no apparent danger to public health, both the
NII and the Agency have asked BNFL to measure what radioactivity
is escaping off the site.
"There is no quick solution," said Mr Robinson. "And until BNFL
come up with a programme to remove the sludge there is going to
be a potential hazard. An improvement notice issued by us against
BNFL requires them to empty 90% of the sludge by 2009 and this
notice has been extended so that the company can put a project
management structure in place including money and manpower
resources. We would like to see a building constructed over the
pond to seal it off but BNFL say it would cause greater hazard
through construction. I don't quite accept that but we are giving
them time to come up with a realistic solution."
For BNFL, Ali McKibben, said: "The safety risks associated with
such a construction far outweigh the environmental benefits. We
have looked at all kinds of things to stop the bird contamination
from scaring them off and putting netting over the ponds but even
netting can get contaminated. Half the radioactive inventory of
B30 has been emptied since 1992 and we are now investigating how
we can accelerate the clean up."
Sellafield's boss, Brian Watson, said: "B30 is in a safe
condition. A lot of work is being done to recover waste from the
plant and there's a lot more to do. It is an absolute priority."
Head of safety, John Clarke, said: "We are doing all we can to
remove birds and other wildlife, making the site less attractive
and accessible. We have even been filming them and brought in
experts to help. If anyone thinks there is a simple solution I'd
like to know."
*****************************************************************
50 UK: CONTAMINATION INCIDENTS CAUSE CONCERN -
The Whitehaven News
CONTAMINATION incidents are causing concern at Sellafield, the
site's independent community health and safety watchdogs have
been told.
Site director of operations, Brian Watson, said: "We have had a
number of relatively minor contamination events but sufficient of
them to cause concern. We are conducting very significant
investigations into each to find other whether there is any
common cause and take whatever action is required to avoid
repeats."
Two engineering workers were contaminated along with a contract
cleaner in separate incidents.
But Mr Watson also said that for the past 15 months the site had
escaped any level one incidents on the international nuclear
event scale compared to 19 two years ago. Neither had there been
any breaches to environmental discharge authorisations so far
this year.
At last week's meeting of the Sellafield Local Liaison Committee,
Mr Watson made specific mention of one accident in which a lathe
operator broke his arm.
There were two prohibition notices served on BNFL following the
accident in B151. NII inspector for Sellafield, Howard Robinson,
said some workers had to get out of old habits. "It goes back to
the way they have always done things since they were first
trained 20 years ago."
Operational safety was the main priority for Sellafield in the
next year.
"BNFL have increased staffing levels and done other things to
ensure people are in the right work and doing the right things,"
said Mr Robinson.
Mr Watson said that over the past two years BNFL had taken on an
extra 1,500 workers at Sellafield to improve the site's
capability and made key appointments to the senior team.
*****************************************************************
51 Sen. Warned About Threat Of Radioactive Waste Along Coast
TheWPBFChannel.com - News -
[http://www.ibsys.com/]
Oceanographer Says Waste Could Be Used In 'Dirty' Bomb
POSTED: 4:37 p.m. EST December 12, 2002
MELBOURNE, Fla. -- A Florida Institute of Technology professor
warned Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., today that radioactive waste
dumped along the nation's coastline could be used by terrorists
to make a "dirty" bomb.
Oceanographer Iver Duedall told Nelson that the federal
government should begin monitoring the dumpsites and undertake a
study to clean them up.
Florida Tech proposed undertaking a two-year study to identify
the waste containers, figure out if they could be retrieved by
terrorists, develop a monitoring system for the containers and
determine the technology needed to remove them.
Nelson promised to share Duedall's proposals with the new
Homeland Security Department.
Duedall says the radioactive material could be retrieved by
terrorists, transferred to a barge and mixed with explosives to
create a dirty bomb, a device that spreads radiation without
causing a nuclear explosion.
There are 94,000 drums of radioactive waste along the U.S.
coastline. Some of the 79 55-gallon drums in the Gulf of Mexico
are within several hundred miles of the Florida coastline.
Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
*****************************************************************
52 Beckett plan for cleaner Irish Sea
[http://www.ft.com]
By Andrew Taylor Published: December 12 2002 4:00 |
Plans to halt controversial radioactive discharges into the Irish
Sea while research is conducted into new clean-up methods were
proposed yesterday by Margaret Beckett, environment secretary.
Discharges of technetium 99 (Tc-99) into the sea from British
Nuclear Fuel's reprocessing plant at Sellafield in Cumbria have
angered the Irish and Scandinavian governments, which claim
currents carry the radioactive material into sensitive fishing
grounds.
Ms Beckett said yesterday: "While there is no evidence that
Tc-99, even at the current level, poses any credible threat to
human health or that of marine organisms, we are aware that its
presence has been a source of concern to a number of our
international partners." Andrew Taylor
FT.com
© Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2002. "FT" and
*****************************************************************
53 Researchers say nuclear canisters may corrode in Yucca Mountain*
December 13, 2002
LAS VEGAS, NV, December 12
Researchers working for Nevada say that heated, mineral-rich
water seeping into the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump
might corrode containment canisters and release dangerous
radioactivity.
A Department of Energy official dismisses the contention as
flawed and developed to suit state opposition to the federal
project.
Nevada's state Nuclear projects chief says two scientists at
Catholic University in Washington DC made a report on their
research today to the National Academy of Sciences Board of
Radioactive Waste Management in Washington.
He says their research suggests that heated Yucca Mountain water
might dissolve minerals and form an acidic vapor that over time
could corrode metal alloy casks holding the waste.
The Energy Department spokesman says no decision has been made
about what type of alloy to use for the casks.
(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
*****************************************************************
54 Sellafield to slash nuclear waste levels*
PUBLICATION DATE: THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2002
Belfast Telegraph | Sunday Life
Publication Date: 12 December 2002
* *By Staff Reporter* *
CONTROVERSIAL discharges of technetium-99 radioactive waste from
the Sellafield nuclear power plant should be sharply reduced by
April and could eventually be eliminated altogether, the
government has promised.
It said that, depending on the success of a new processing
treatment, all such radioactive discharges into the Irish Sea
could end within the next four years.
Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett committed the government
to reducing the current output of technetium-99 (Tc-99) into the
Irish Sea by at least 80% by 2006.
Tc-99 is a dense silver-grey metal that is a waste by-product of
reprocessing spent Magnox and oxide fuels. It has a half-life of
212,000 years, according to the US Environmental Protection
Agency.
The substance, which accumulates in lobsters and other marine
animals, has been detected at low levels off the coast of
Scandinavia and further afield.
Critics of Sellafield claim that BNFL, which operates the plant,
has more than 2,700 cubic metres of Tc-99 in storage tanks on the
site, which it slowly releases into the sea, finding its way into
the food chain.
The level of exposure decreases as the distance from Sellafield,
on the north-east coast of England, increases.
Tc-99 is considered a health risk when ingested, although certain
forms of the metal are used in medical tests.
In 1999, the discharge limit for Tc-99 was reduced from 200
terabecquerel a year to 90TBq a year, a 55% drop.
Britain insists the new maximum is perfectly safe, but this is
strongly disputed by Ireland and Scandinavian countries.
Ms Beckett said: "While there is no evidence that Tc-99, even at
the current level, poses any credible threat to human health or
that of marine organisms, we are aware that its presence has been
a source of concern to a number of our international partners.
*****************************************************************
55 Radioactive emission from Sellafield to be reduced
12. Desember 2002
The radioactive emissions from the Sellafield nuclear
repossession plant will be drastically reduced, according to
British Envionmental Minister Margaret Becket.
It is the emissions of the radioactive Technetium 99 which will
be reduced.
The British Health Department and Environmental Department on
Wedenesday approved plans to reduce the emissions.
Environmental Minister Becket says this will reduce the annual
emissions from today's 90 terrabequerel (TBq), to 10 TBq by 2006.
-We are aware that these emissions are a source of anxiety for
our international partners, Becket said when the plans were
presented.
Norway and several other countries around the North Sea have for
several years protested strongly against the Sellafield
emissions, traces of which which may be registered in coastal
waters around the North Sea and Ireland.
Norwegian Environmental Minister Boerge Brende says the signals
from the British government are positive.
(NRK)
Rolleiv Solholm
*****************************************************************
56 Minister hails Sellafield moratorium
Norway's environmental minister says Britain's decision to halt
radioactive emissions from its Sellafield nuclear reprocessing
facility shows that it pays to protest. Norway has fought the
Sellafield emissions for years.
Cabinet Minister Borge Brende says British officials clearly have
listened to the protests surrounding the controversial Sellafield
plant. "It's clear the British will do what they can to reduce
emissions," he said.
British authorities announced Wednesday that they intend to halt
radioactive emissions from the reprocessing site within three
months. They didn't hide the fact that strong opposition from
both Norway and Ireland have had an effect.
The British continue to claim that emissions from Sellafield are
not dangerous and well under levels thought to hurt marine life.
Coastal communities and especially Norway's fishing industry have
contended that the radioactive emissions are harmful.
New ways of storing technetium, however, mean the British
authorities will order a halt to technetium emissions.
*****************************************************************
57 Judge refuses to dismiss lawsuit against NFS*
/Thursday, December 12, 2002/
*By Matthew Lane *
/Times-News/
GREENEVILLE - A federal judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit
filed earlier this year by two Erwin companies that claim Nuclear
Fuel Services contaminated their property.
Impact Plastics Inc., Preston Tool and Mold, and Gerald O'Conner
Jr. filed a lawsuit May 31 in U.S. District Court in Greeneville
claiming NFS has allowed hazardous substances - such as uranium,
thorium and plutonium - to migrate from its facility to their
property.
The plaintiffs cite environmental reports that show that NFS has
allowed the contaminants to migrate and impact upon the
groundwater beneath their property, including the Nolichucky
River.
According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs claim NFS has failed to
abate the movement of these substances even though they have
urged the company to do so.
NFS filed a motion on Aug. 9 asking for the lawsuit to be
dismissed.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Thomas Hull denied the motion
to dismiss.
In its motion to dismiss, NFS cites the Comprehensive
Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, which
states that a government-authorized cleanup of a release must
have begun before a cost recovery action accrues.
NFS states that the plaintiff's CERCLA recovery claims are "not
ripe" for judicial review.
Hull wrote in his opinion that the plaintiffs have incurred
monitoring and investigative costs that are recoverable under
CERCLA.
"The court will not dismiss the CERCLA claim at the pleading
stage," Hull wrote.
However, Hull sided with NFS on one point and ruled that the
plaintiffs have 20 days to amend the complaint or the lawsuit
will be dismissed.
NFS states that under the 1988 amendments to the Price-Anderson
Act, Congress created a new federal cause of action - the Public
Liability Action - for any occurrence causing bodily injury or
loss of or damage to property arising out of or resulting from
the radioactive properties of source, special nuclear or
byproduct material.
"Simply put, the Price-Anderson PLA is the only cause of action
that exists for any loss of, or damage to property related to an
alleged release of radioactive materials," the motion to dismiss
states. "Plaintiffs' complaint fails to plead a PLA, as it must,
and it fails to allege that the levels of any of the radioactive
material allegedly in the groundwater beneath plaintiffs' land
exceed any applicable radiation-related regulatory level."
However, based on the affidavits filed it appears that the
plaintiffs could, in fact, make this allegation, Hull wrote in
his order.
/*Copyright 2002 Kingsport Times-News. All rights reserved. This
701 Lynn Garden Drive - Kingsport, Tennessee (423) 246-8121
*****************************************************************
58 Officials Outline Plan for Nuclear Waste Cleanup
By Pat Burson STAFF WRITER
December 12, 2002
State environmental and health officials last night outlined a
plan to remove contaminated soil from the former Sylvania
Electric Products Inc. plant site in Hicksville.
About a hundred people attended the meeting at Burns Avenue
Elementary School, where officials from the state Health
Department and Department of Environmental Conservation reviewed
the history of the site, results of soil tests and plans for a
full-scale cleanup.
According to the DEC, nuclear fuel rods for reactors were
manufactured at the Sylvania facility between 1952 and 1967.
Tests of the soil conducted between 1999 and 2001 uncovered
radioactive materials, including uranium and thorium, and
tetrachloroethene, an industrial solvent.
The 9.5-acre site, comprising three contiguous parcels, is
bordered on the north by the Nassau County Department of Public
Works, on the west by Cantiague Rock Road, on the south by the
General Instruments' inactive hazardous waste disposal site and
on the east by Nassau County's Cantiague Park. Officials estimate
the contamination is limited to less than three acres.
Under the DEC's preferred cleanup scenario, contaminated soil
would be excavated, bagged and then trucked about a half-mile to
a railroad yard on West John Street. From there, it would be
loaded onto railroad cars and shipped to an approved disposal
site in Utah. Officials said safety measures would be enacted
during the process to prevent human exposure to dust and vapors.
The excavation is tentatively scheduled to begin in May, with
completion expected by November.
The level of cleanup proposed would allow unrestricted future use
of the property, officials said.
Local residents said, though they had questions about the extent
of the contamination, they were glad the cleanup would take
place.
Greg Yatzyshyn, a trustee with Northwest Civic Association of
Hicksville, said he hoped the soil would be shipped from the
railyard as soon as it arrived.
"That's what they said they were going to do, and we should hold
them to that because we don't want this to become a storage yard
for any kind of hazardous waste," Yatzyshyn said.
GTE Operations Support Inc., a corporate successor to Sylvania,
has agreed to investigate the soil contamination and pay for the
cleanup. The company is not required to disclose the cost of the
cleanup to the DEC.
Groundwater contamination on and near the site is still under
investigation.
Officials noted that public comments will be considered during
drafting of the cleanup plan's final version. The public has
until Dec. 27 to submit written questions to project manager
Robert Stewart at the New York State Department of Environmental
Conservation, SUNY Building 40, Stony Brook, N.Y. 11790-2356.
Copies of investigation reports and other documents also are at
the Hicksville Public Library and the DEC's Stony Brook office.
Information also may be obtained via the Internet, at
www.dec.state.ny.us/website/reg1/hazwaste.html, or by calling DEC
spokesman Mark Lowery at 631-444-0350.
Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc.
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59 Continued discharges of Tc-99
Reprosessing plant Sellafield, located at the western coast of
England, is the largest source to radioactive contamination of
the north-east Atlantic ocean. Jump to section [Hydrogen report]
The British Environment Minister Margaret Beckett said yesterday
that discharges of technetium-99 (Tc-99) from Sellafield will
continue until 2006. At the same time, Mrs Beckett has asked the
British radiation protection authority to investigate the options
to store Tc-99 waste onshore.
The EARP plant at Sellafield discharging Tc-99 to the Irish Sea.
Foto: BNFL
Nils Bøhmer, 2002-12-12 12:22 Translated by Marte-Kine Sandengen
After a delay of more than one year, the British Secretary of
State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Margaret Beckett,
has granted British Nuclear Fuel Limited (BNFL) a renewed
discharge permit for discharges of the radioactive substance
Tc-99 from the Sellafield plant. The permit allows BNFL to
discharge 90 TBq of Tc-99 annually until 2006. After 2006,
discharge restrictions will be reduced to 10 TBq annually.
According to the plan, the fuel tanks containing the old liquid
waste causing discharges of Tc-99 must be emptied. The reason for
this is that the British nuclear safety authorities do not
consider the tanks safe beyond 2006.
Simultaneously, Margaret Beckett seized the opportunity to order
a report - finished within four months - on the options to store
solidified Tc-99 onshore by way of the so-called TPP method. If
the report concludes positively to its assignment, it is Mrs
Beckett's intention to introduce a discharge prohibition of Tc-99
until the TPP method can be implemented. The report will also
look into options to store Tc-99 onshore beyond 2006.
The Bellona Foundation considers the latest steps from the
British government to be a deliberate adjournment strategy. First
of all, British authorities have for more than one year promised
to investigate different alternatives for reducing the Tc-99
discharges - but nothing has happened. Furthermore, Bellona has
for a long time pointed out to the very same authorities that
onshore storage of nuclear waste is technically feasible, e.g. by
way of the TPP method. Thus, the British authorities have had
plenty of time to evaluate the TPP method.
If the British authorities were sincere about introducing the TPP
method, nothing should stop them from adjourning the Tc-99
discharges as of today, until the TPP method is thoroughly
investigated. Next week, the Bellona Foundation will visit the
Sellafield plant and ask BNFL to introduce a voluntary cessation
of Tc-99 discharges until the TPP method is investigated further.
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
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60 Brazil opens uranium enrichment plant
Planet Ark :
BRAZIL: December 13, 2002
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Brazil opened a new uranium enrichment
plant that allows the country with the world's sixth-largest
reserves of the metal to produce fuel for its nuclear power plant
or for export.
The Brazilian Nuclear Institute, which represents the nuclear
energy lobby, said in a statement the facility would make Latin
America's largest nation the world's eighth country possessing
the enrichment technology.
"The enrichment used to be done abroad, but with this plant, some
95 percent of all the process will be domestic from next year,"
added a spokeswoman for the institute. She did not provide the
exact date when the output would start next year.
The plant in the town of Resende in Rio de Janeiro state cost
some $140 million and should save the country about $13 million a
year.
Brazil has two nuclear power reactors, which account for about 6
percent of all power consumed in the country, and the Institute
is lobbying to complete the construction of a third reactor. In
comparison, France's 58 nuclear power plants produce twice as
much power as the whole of Brazil.
The reactors of the Angra nuclear power complex are located on
the wooded shore of a picturesque bay between Rio de Janeiro and
Sao Paulo. Environmentalists allege the reactors are not safe
enough and condemn the expansion plans.
Some government officials and federal power holding Eletrobras
(ELET6.SA), whose Eletronuclear unit is responsible for Angra,
say nuclear energy is safe, cheap and should be used more,
especially with the new technology now in place.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
© 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights
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61 EPA: New DOE attitude is promising
The Oak Ridger Online -- Area News --
11:01 a.m. on Thursday, December 12, 2002
by R. Cathey Daniels Oak Ridger staff
There's a new can-do attitude at the local Department of Energy
offices, according to one U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
official.
Federal Facilities Chief Jon Johnston says he hopes that attitude
churns paperwork to construction in cleanup operations. "We do
want to point out the behavior we want to see more of, which is
getting dirt moved and construction started, as opposed to just
discussing these projects," said Johnston in a phone interview
from Atlanta Tuesday.
"We want to see more of getting these projects in the field and
completed, which is the whole point."
Johnston was referring to the Surface Impoundment Operable Unit,
the Boneyard/Burnyard and he1070-A Burial Grounds that after many
years of being on the cleanup books are nearing completion (see
three-day series starting Thursday). The three projects are in
DOE's accelerated cleanup plan's "balance of projects," though
funds had already been appropriated. The program cleans high-risk
projects on a fast-pace schedule, and Johnston noted that it had
pushed these projects to completion.
"This is a very good period for Oak Ridge. They're starting to
really put some things in place for these projects to be
completed."
Johnston cites the so-called "top to bottom review" of
environmental management completed in February, the accelerated
cleanup agreement signed in June, the completion of the waste
disposal facility on Bear Creek Road and new personnel in local
offices serving as working in concert to finish off projects.
"There's more of a spirit of teamwork with DOE and EPA now,"
noted Johnston. "DOE is doing more in corporate decisions from
(Assistant Secretary) Jesse Roberson on down in getting these
things out in the field, and we need to take the chance to praise
DOE on that, because it hasn't been easy changing directions."
R. Cathey Daniels can be contacted at (865) 220-5515 or
danielsrcd@oakridger.com [danielsrcd@oakridger.com] .
All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger
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62 DOE: Waste cell condition 'intolerable'
The Oak Ridger Online -- Area News --
11:02 a.m. on Thursday, December 12, 2002
by R. Cathey Daniels Oak Ridger staff
A Department of Energy official said Wednesday that the agency is
"working vigorously" to solve what the state has termed a
potential "severe" problem at the waste facility on Bear Creek
Road.
The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation sent
formal notification of non-compliance of the facility, which
accepts low-level radioactive, mixed, hazardous and
polychlorinated biphenyl-contaminated materials from cleanup
efforts on the Oak Ridge Reservation.
In a Dec. 3 letter to DOE, TDEC cited problems with "seeps" in
the berm of waste cells at the facility.
Dave Adler, team leader for the DOE environmental management
program, said the department is working on a "fix" for the
seepages.
"Discharge Š is coming out the side of the facility -- that's an
intolerable condition. We have already dried up two of the three
seeps, and when we finish that we will work Š to engineer a fix
to prevent that from happening again," said Adler.
The state expressed concern that the facility had been built on
"incorrect" assumptions, and indicated that recent heavy rains
and subsequent seepages may have proved the point.
DOE is seeking to amend a record of decision so the facility can
be expanded.
"DOE must Š re-evaluate past assumptions Š and provide assurance
to this office that continued operation and expansion of this
facility can and will be in full accord with applicable
(regulations)," wrote Randy C. Young of TDEC's DOE Oversight
office.
The facility was designed to accept up to 1.7 million cubic yards
of waste and proposals call for the facility to accommodate up to
2.6 million cubic yards of material.
Construction began in 2001, and the first shipments were accepted
in late spring of 2002.
All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger
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63 DOE deserves pat on back for efforts
The Oak Ridger Online - Opinion -
OPINIONS
11:32 a.m. on Thursday, December 12, 2002
DOE deserves pat on back for efforts
* Cleanup efforts are finally under way -- good job DOE
Government agencies often take knocks from the public. And often
the press is part of that public.
Now we want to give kudos to a governmental body that is working
to make Oak Ridge safer, cleaner and healthier. Here is a pat on
the back to the Department of Energy and its latest cleanup
efforts.
The name of the projects are a little off-putting:
Boneyard/Burnyard, Burial Grounds and frog ponds. But, after all,
what's in a name?
The projects are, after many years of being on the books, a
cleanup that is finally getting under way.
Oak Ridge has for many years been the butt of jokes -- we've all
heard them -- the glow-in-dark, two headed dogs jokes, the don't
drink the water jokes, the funny plants out near the lab jokes.
Now it is time to deliver the punch line and we guarantee not
many people will be laughing -- but they will be smiling. Maybe a
smile that was a long time coming, but still a smile.
The "frog ponds" portion of the cleanup is a truly ingenious way
of packaging and disposing of radiological and hazardous
contamination to the Clinch River -- a local environmental gem.
Beginning today, The Oak Ridger will be publishing a series of
articles on the cleanup projects. Read them, ponder them, then
think about that punch line.
All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger
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64 Contemporary Technologies (DOE N-WSTE SOFTWARE CONTRACTOR)
meets the challenge
PittsburghLIVE.com -
+ Contemporary Technologies Inc. [http://www.contemptech.com/]
By Dave Copeland [dcopeland@tribweb.com]
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, December 12, 2002
Rumors of the information technology industry's death — at
least for one Pittsburgh company — have been greatly
exaggerated.
While scores of large and publicly traded information
technology companies have gone belly up since peaking in 1999,
8-year-old Contemporary Technologies Inc. has not only been able
to survive, but has grown in the down economy.
"One of the first things we decided was that diversification is
the name of the game," said Janet Gaulteri, who formed the
company with her husband, Epi Torres, after leaving Westinghouse
Electric Corp. in 1994. "We've been able to ride the wave in the
need for change in IT Services because we diversified."
Today, Contemporary Technologies has annual sales between $10
million and $20 million and more than 70 employees. The company
is working toward securing contracts from the Department of
Energy to design software to track the movement of low-level,
radioactive nuclear waste.
Contemporary Technologies is already working on a similar
contract for British Nuclear Fuels Ltd.'s U.S. unit to track the
removal of waste from Idaho to New Mexico.
Grenville Harrop, a project manager with Great Britain-based
BNFL, said employees at Contemporary Technologies had logged
seven-day workweeks "with spirit and commitment" as certain
delivery dates approached since the two companies began working
together in May 2001.
"I think it is very fair and true to say CTI has grown from the
experience. They are no longer the small company they were in
May 2001. They have grown in stature and product range," Harrop
said. "They are now much better positioned to deliver
high-quality products that meet certain quality standards, and
that is very important in the nuclear industry."
Some of the lessons learned on the British Nuclear Fuels
project will help Contemporary Technologies tackle some of the
Department of Energy's needs.
"What I enjoy most is the mission it's going to accomplish — we
are this little company involved in this significant, national
endeavor," Torres said. "I tell people that come to work here:
'This is going to look really good on your resume.'"
Not that resumes are on the front of employees' minds at
Contemporary Technologies. Seven of the 10 employees who came
over from Westinghouse with Gaulteri still work there, and the
company has had low turnover — even in the late 1990s, when
workers jumped from one hot technology company to the next.
Gaulteri started the company in 1994 to sell database products
from Oracle Corp. By the end of 1995, Contemporary Technologies
was on its way to becoming an Oracle training center and had
begun work on EnviroWare, a software product for tracking
hazardous materials. The company also offers remote, database
management services.
Diversification paid off for the company after the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorist attacks. Companies cut back on travel, meaning
fewer people were coming to Contemporary Technologies'
headquarters in Gateway Center for Oracle training.
At the same time, there was a new awareness about the need for
comprehensive management services for hazardous materials,
boosting interest in the company's EnviroWare software.
"We invested in EnviroWare for a number of years and gained
some experience, and then, all of a sudden, when markets were
down, there came the opportunity to deliver something strong in
the form of government contracts," Torres said. "There's always
luck involved. But luck, they say, is the intersection of
opportunity and preparation."
Specifically, that opportunity came when staff members from
Sen. Rick Santorum's visited the company to see if there might
be opportunities for Contemporary Technologies in government
contracting. Within weeks, Contemporary Technologies was one of
a few dozen companies working on planning for a Department of
Energy program to safely remove hazardous waste in the
post-Sept. 11 world.
"The senator has made a commitment to partner with good high
tech firms based in Pennsylvania and supports the mission of
companies like Contemporary Technologies," said Erica Wright, a
spokeswoman for Santorum. "Once our staff visited with them, it
was just a matter of helping to facilitate their meeting with
the DOE."
While much of the debate has centered on the Yucca Mountain
storage facility, the overall project includes the safe removal
of waste from nuclear reactors and transport of the waste. If
selected for the implementation phase, Contemporary Technologies
would design the software used to monitor the waste, checking
everything from who has handled it to its temperature, from a
remote location.
"The mission is so big that not one single company can say, 'I
have the knowledge and expertise to do the whole thing,'"
Gaulteri said. "You need to get the best of breed together for
the government and say, 'I have the best software, this company
has the best logistics' and get together to come up with the
best solution."
Gaulteri declined to provide specifics about the company's
contributions to the project. But the software, she said, will
be able to take advantage of bar code, GPS and database
management applications to make the transport of waste "as safe
as possible."
Dave Copeland can be reached at dcopeland@tribweb.com
[dcopeland@tribweb.com] or (412) 320-7922.
Images and text copyright © 2002 by The Tribune-Review
PittsburghLIVE. [ekost@tribweb.com]
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65 Livermore is core of key homeland security vision
Oakland Tribune Online
Article Last Updated: Thursday, December 12, 2002 -
Agency vested in lab's 'advanced scientific computing research
program and activities'
By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER
One day, the new Department of Homeland Security could amass a
sprawling empire, with flags and badges and a presence in every
state capitol, along every border.
But for now, the only named vestige of the agency in the entire
West is "the advanced scientific computing research program and
activities" of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.
The White House dropped its idea of swallowing Livermore whole.
But it insisted the Homeland Security Act of 2002 preserve its
grip on a brain -- at least the ability to grapple meaningfully
with huge amounts of graphics and data.
"We felt we needed an advanced simulation capability," said
Penrose "Parney" Albright, White House assistant homeland
security director for science and technology. "We want to be able
to simulate the flow of people across borders or the dispersion
of biological, chemical or radiological agents."
- U.S. releases ship taking missiles from North Korea to Yemen
What exactly that means -- bodies, money, software, machines --
no one knows, not the 295 House members and 90 Senators who
voted for the bill, not the White House Office of Homeland
Security, not Livermore lab itself.
Hundreds of Livermore scientists are engaged in "advanced
scientific computing research" all over the lab, in classified
and unclassified areas, but not in any single program for the
new department to neatly swallow up. White House officials then
asked what the lab could do with computers.
Ultimately, what Livermore's computational role in the new
department means is being negotiated in a frenzied exchange of
white papers.
"We're still trying to find out how we can be most relevant to
their needs," said Steven Ashby, Livermore deputy associate
director for computing applications and research. "I don't know
who put the language in there or why. We're just flattered
someone recognized our expertise."
Nuclear-weapons scientists largely pioneered the field of
computer simulation, at first to capture the fast and complex
physics inside imploding atom bombs. In the Cold War, Livermore
and its sister lab, Los Alamos, usually received Serial No. 1 of
the hottest DECs, Crays and IBMs, and their scientists raced to
devise software of matching performance.
Simulating a chemical or "dirty bomb" attack is relatively
easier, and Livermore scientists already have performed runs in
Los Angeles before the 2000 Democratic Convention, in Auburn,
Ala., and several times around Oakland.
In fact, in computer simulations Oakland and Alameda have been
attacked by VX gas both from a railcar and a crop duster, plus a
radiological or "dirty bomb" inside the USS Hornet, a retired
aircraft carrier.
Lab scientists can forecast roughly where the toxins will drift
and at what concentrations, then send emergency personnel to
evacuate people.
They can consult a database of nearby hospitals and roads, so
evacuees aren't mistakenly taken to a downwind hospital. One
simulation originally devised for warfare allows the full
playing out of an attack and response with up to 50,000
terrorists, victims, national guards, police and firefighters.
It appears the transition team for the new department also
wants experts in data mining, with expertise in querying large
databases.
"They have not come to me with a list of names, or software and
certainly not a list of machines," Ashby said. "I think what
they've identified is that there are a lot of capabilities at
Lawrence Livermore that they want."
Contact Ian Hoffman at href="mailto:ihoffman@angnewspapers.com
">ihoffman@angnewspapers.com .
In the last stages of the bill negotiations, Livermore and IBM
swapped the last faxes on a contract for the world's two fastest
supercomputers, due to be delivered in phases ending in 2005.
Nuclear-weapons scientists will get their dream machine, a
steady computational factory called ASCI Purple that probably
will be the first to perform 100 trillion calculations a second.
Basic scientific researchers will have access to a souped-up,
experimental machine, Blue Gene/L, capable of more than three
times the speed.
Contact Ian Hoffman at href="mailto:ihoffman@angnewspapers.com
">ihoffman@angnewspapers.com .
About ANG Newspapers
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