***************************************************************** 12/13/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.323 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Opponents have yet to blink in N.Korea game of chicken 2 U.S. pushes diplomacy after N.Korea nuclear gambit 3 Japan stresses N.Korea dialogue but talks stuck 4 British Energy losses running at £2m a day 5 South weighs shelving most projects until North changes* 6 Iranian N-plants revealed 7 N.Korea demands U.S. apology over Scud ship detention 8 *Editorial: *Changing realities of Indo-Pak conflict 9 U.S., Russia Turn in Assessments on Iraq 10 U.S.: Iran working on nuclear weapons 11 North Korea Demands U.S. Apology 12 Iraq officials called in as U.N. inspection hits snag 13 U.S. Identifies Holes in Iraq Document 14 Iran Says Nuclear Plants Open to Search 15 Iran says committed to nuclear power programme 16 U.N. to inspect Iran nuclear sites 17 US Says NK Decision Regrettable 18 Iran cancels UN inspection of its nuclear facilities 19 Gov't Conveys Nuclear Stance at Inter-Korea Meeting 20 Zambia: Kaunda Speaks Out Against Bush, Blair 21 US: Editorial: Secrecy is the victor; public is the loser 22 Nuclear brinkmanship now Pyongyang's gambit for survival_ 23 NK EDITORIAL: No more brinkmanship_ 24 Iran Was Burying Nuclear Facilities, U.S. Says 25 Lee HC Vows to Persuade NK to Scrap Nukes NUCLEAR REACTORS 26 North Korea says it's reactivating nuclear plant 27 US: Surry License Renewal sup 6 28 Fish controversy could delay start of Bruce reactors 29 Nuclear reactor shut down after fire from oil leak 30 US: Oyster Creek N-plant fined for killing fish 31 North Korea Could Re-Open Nuclear Plant in Weeks* 32 US: Wolf Creek Nuclear Plant Protection 33 US: NRC: Surry License Renewal 34 US: Nuclear commission chief to resign early 35 US: Millstone says construction for nuclear waste storage may start 36 US: Brunswick prepares for worst-case scenario at nuclear plant* 37 US: Pump turned off at Indian Point_ 38 US: Canada: Fish controversy could delay start of Bruce reactors 39 US: North Anna License Renewal NUCLEAR SAFETY 40 Iraqi Cancers, Birth Eefects Blamed on U.S. Depleted Uranium 41 [:] Gulf War was a Nuclear War 42 US: Gov't Adds Substances to Cancer List 43 US: Lake warning: Please don't eat the mussels NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 44 US: Feds Need More Time on Skull Valley 45 US: West desert N-waste decision delayed 46 US: Waste issues discussed * 47 Nevada officials concerned about next NRC chairman 48 LES boss a take-charge leader 49 Researchers say nuclear canisters may corrode in Yucca Mountain 50 research questions waste canister durability 51 Public Citizen Statement on USEC Plan to Test New Uranium Enrichment 52 Governents Craft Hazardous Waste Strategic Plan 53 Scientists: Nuke waste containers unsafe 54 US: N-waste on Atlantic coast as a weapon 55 US: More on using n-waste as a weapon NUCLEAR WEAPONS 56 Nuclear reaction jolts US - 57 Bush faces fresh nuclear crisis 58 IAEA Director General Calls for DPRK Restraint US DEPT. OF ENERGY 59 DOE to water, officials discuss state-city issues 60 Rocketdyne: Public meeting on Santa Susana Field lab cleanup 61 Operator of lab put on notice over woes 62 Abraham: DOE serious about lab problems 63 UC Contract at LANL in Question* * 64 DOE Intends to Extend Sandia Management Contract* * 65 Man pleads guilty to stealing platinum from INEEL _ 66 Rest in peace Boneyard Burnyard 67 K-25, K-27 equipment not for nickel recycling OTHER NUCLEAR 68 [EDITORIALS]This tactic will not work* 69 CHEMICAL WEAPONS Alleged sale called 'ridiculous' ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Opponents have yet to blink in N.Korea game of chicken Reuters 13 December, 2002 20:36 GMT+08:00 By Jane Macartney, Asian Diplomatic Correspondent SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Brinkmanship. North Korea is trying out its skills, ratcheting up the stakes in a nuclear programme that has much of the world on edge but making scant progress in its ploy to lure U.S. negotiators into talks. The drama sparked by North Korea's October admission that it was developing nuclear weapons and fuelled by its decision on Thursday to reactivate a nuclear power plant at the heart of a suspected 1990s arms programme is likely to be long-drawn and filled with suspense. The finale on a stage on which one protagonist is the world's only democratic superpower and the other a secretive Stalinist state mired in poverty led by the enigmatic Kim Jong-il is impossible to predict. The consequences of one player fluffing his lines could be a deadly mistake costing hundreds of thousands of lives. "Kim Jong-il has a miserable batting average this year and his calculations suggest someone who has lost his adding machine," said Nick Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. "The last time we had a big North Korean miscalculation the consequence was the Korean war," he said, referring to the 1950-53 conflict that ended with a truce but no peace treaty. "So we are in for a fairly rocky time ahead." "They are trying to start a game of chicken and this is the first stage," said Masao Okonogi, a Korea expert at Japan's Keio University. Stage two, he said, would likely be to resume actual plutonium reprocessing. STRENGTH IN UNITY But the actors on the set are a different cast from those in 1994, when Washington took a lonely lead during a year-long crisis that ended with the freezing of its reactor at Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, under a pact known as the Agreed Framework. One example of how the United States is not as alone as it was in 1994 was the interdiction on Monday by Spanish ships acting on U.S. intelligence of an unflagged North Korean vessel carrying Scud missiles destined for Yemen concealed under bags of cement. "It's essentially symbolic, but the symbolism is auspicious because we see the nascent formation of an international coalition that does not accept nuclear proliferation, and not just a U.S. unilateral cowboy venture," said Eberstadt. It is not just the United States and its allies who are concerned about North Korean proliferation. Pyongyang's friends too are anxious and piling the pressure on Kim not to allow a spark to light up the world's last remaining Cold War flashpoint. Adam Ward, Asia research fellow at London's International Institute of Strategic Studies, said it was significant that China and Russia issued statements this week urging North Korea to abandon its nuclear programme. "This is the first time Russia and China have abandoned low-level quiet diplomacy," Ward said. China, which in the past described its relationship with North Korea as "as close as lips and teeth", made an unusual disclosure on Thursday that Kim Jong-il would not be paying another visit any time soon. It is virtually certain that even if Kim isn't coming to town, Chinese diplomats are busy behind the scenes using any influence they may have over their unpredictable neighbour not to develop nuclear arms. FIGHTING PROLIFERATION WITH PROLIFERATION A nuclear-armed Korean peninsula is anathema to Beijing, not only because it would destabilise the region but because it fears old enemy Japan might swiftly follow suit out of self-defence. It is a scenario that not all analysts regard with apprehension. "The prospect of additional nuclear weapons proliferation in northeast Asia is obviously not an ideal outcome," wrote Ted Galen Carpenter, vice president for defence at foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, in the Financial Times. "But offsetting North Korea's illicit advantage may be the best of a set of bad options," he said. "More proliferation may be a troubling outcome but it beats the nightmare scenario." Indeed the scenario is so nightmarish that even Pyongyang chose the least inflammatory of a series of options at its disposal -- including restarting missile testing -- when it chose to ratchet up the odds. If Pyongyang was hoping to drive a wedge between Washington and its allies, it will have been disappointed by the immediate reactions. The U.S. response has been measured, saying Pyongyang's action was regrettable but showing no sign of being ready to talk. Seoul voiced serious concern and Japan urged calm. Washington knows the military option is far more complicated than taking on Iraq since Pyongyang has 11,000 missiles, some tipped with chemical weapons, aimed at the South and could rain an estimated 500,000 rounds of artillery an hour onto Seoul. The death toll would be about a million, mostly civilians, in the first month of a war. WAR OR NERVES "It is a war-of-nerves situation," said Ward of the IISS. The scope for miscalculation is especially great as winter sets in across a North Korea deprived of U.S.-backed fuel oil supplies after its October nuclear admission and with many of its 22 million people on the brink of starvation. Some analysts see the vulnerability of North Korea's economy, brought to its knees by famine in 1995 after China halted food aid for a while in 1994, as a potentially crucial weakness. International economic sanctions could be tightened to try to persuade Pyongyang to back down and so exacerbate North Korea's plight that the government could fall by non-military means. "Sanctions have a rather poor record," said Eberstadt. "On the other hand North Korea has an abnormal economy that is extremely distorted and much more vulnerable to outside economic pressures than typical governments subjected to sanctions." A clear counter-argument exists. "Trying to isolate further one of the most economically isolated countries is a little like threatening to deprive a monk of worldly pleasures," wrote Carpenter. In prospect are sanctions and more sanctions from the West and its friends, threats and more threats from an increasingly isolated North Korea but one side is going to have to blink. "My guess is this is a ploy to bring us back to the table or to frighten the others to pressure us into negotiations, which also indicates that they are feeling the pressure from the international community," said Ralph Cossa, president of Pacific Forum CSIS. "The smartest thing for the U.S. to do is nothing." ***************************************************************** 2 U.S. pushes diplomacy after N.Korea nuclear gambit Reuters 13 December, 2002 12:33 GMT+08:00 By Paul Eckert SEOUL (Reuters) - The United States and its allies renewed a diplomatic push after North Korea decided to reactivate a nuclear power plant at the centre of an arms crisis that took an old Cold War flashpoint to the brink of war in the 1990s. Throwing down the gauntlet to Washington and its allies after months of diplomatic stalemate, North Korea said on Thursday it would restart a reactor mothballed in 1994 after an international crisis over alleged production of weapons-grade plutonium there. 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 destitute communist state -- appeared to be a last-ditch attempt to force Washington to the negotiating table, analysts said. It is the second crisis this week to involve Pyongyang following the interception of a North Korean ship carrying Scud missiles in the Arabian Sea on Monday. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, with President George W. Bush on a visit to Philadelphia, said North Korea's statement "flies in the face of international consensus that the North Korean regime must fulfil all its commitments, in particular dismantle its nuclear weapons programme". 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". But Bush made clear in an ABC television 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. U.S. officials also said on Thursday they believed Iran's nuclear weapons programme had taken a disquieting move forward with the building of two large nuclear facilities, complicating efforts to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction. IAEA CONCERNED Echoing the U.S. stance on North Korea, Japan's top government spokesman said dialogue was vital to resolving the row. "There is the issue of whether the other side wants dialogue, but I think that without dialogue, there can be no resolution," he told a news conference on Friday. In Vienna, Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, called on North Korea to act with restraint and refrain from any unilateral action that might make it hard for the monitoring agency to keep tabs on nuclear materials subject to international safeguards. "It is essential that the containment and surveillance measures which are currently in place continue to be maintained," ElBaradei said in a statement issued on Thursday. The statement said Pyongyang had sent the IAEA a letter requesting that the "IAEA remove seals and monitoring cameras on all of its nuclear facilities". 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 Agreed Framework, Pyongyang promised to scrap plans to develop such weapons in return for provision of light water nuclear reactors and fuel oil supplies. In October, Washington said Pyongyang had admitted embarking on a new secret programme, this time to enrich uranium for weapons, in violation of the Agreed Framework. Following that admission, Washington and its allies South Korea and Japan, decided to suspend fuel oil shipments to North Korea from December -- just as winter brought sub-zero temperatures to the northeast Asian country. North and South Korea have been technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. After weeks demanding that Washington sign a non-aggression treaty to defuse the dispute, North Korea's Foreign Ministry said: "The prevailing situation compelled the North Korean government to lift its measure for nuclear freeze." It said power shortages had forced its hand -- an explanation that was rejected by Massachusetts Democratic Representative Ed Markey, a key member of the U.S. Congress 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," he said. ELECTION IN SOUTH KOREA South Korea -- which lives under multiple North Korean threats, including artillery massed on its border within striking distance of the capital Seoul -- issued a statement expressing "strong regret and serious concern" at the North's decision which comes a week before a presidential election in the South. The sharpest difference between South Korea's liberal ruling party candidate, Roh Moo-hyun, and conservative opposition head Lee Hoi-chang is their approach on North Korea. Both candidates urged Pyongyang to reverse its decision to restart the reactors. Roh has vowed to continue President Kim Dae-jung's "Sunshine Policy" of coaxing North Korea to change through aid and dialogue. Lee, who says Seoul's largesse has failed to change Pyongyang's behaviour, has echoed U.S. calls for halting aid to North Korea until clears up nuclear suspicions. "This election is too close to call, but there's no little question that this nuclear issue will become a major factor," said Korean University political analyst Lee Nae-young. ***************************************************************** 3 Japan stresses N.Korea dialogue but talks stuck Reuters 13 December, 2002 13:48 GMT+08:00 By Linda Sieg TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan said on Friday dialogue was needed to resolve a crisis over North Korea's nuclear programme, but experts said Tokyo's own focus on a dispute over Japanese citizens abducted by Pyongyang was depriving it of a role. The deadlock in Japan's negotiations with its former colony could also remove a key prop for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's public support, his main weapon in a domestic battle with ruling party opponents over economic reforms. North Korea said on Thursday it would immediately end a freeze on operating a nuclear reactor suspected of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons, escalating tensions in one of the last Cold War hot spots. "Japan-North Korea negotiations are necessary to prevent such a thing from happening," Japan's top government spokesman, Yasuo Fukuda, told a news conference, referring to Tokyo's stalled talks on establishing diplomatic ties with Pyongyang. "Of course, the issue is how North Korea will act, so we are closely watching their movements," he said, adding that Japan would urge Pyongyang not to spark a security crisis and would consult closely with Washington and Seoul. Asked if Tokyo would press for diplomatic talks, Fukuda said: "There is the issue of whether the other side wants dialogue, but I think that without dialogue there can be no resolution." Under a 1994 pact with the United States, North Korea promised to scrap plans to develop nuclear arms in return for the provision of light water nuclear reactors and fuel oil supplies. But U.S. officials said Pyongyang admitted in October to having a programme to enrich uranium for weapons in violation of the agreement. The United States and its allies including Japan and South Korea then decided to suspend fuel shipments to the poverty-stricken country from December. DIALOGUE DEADLOCKED Japan had resumed its own talks with North Korea on establishing diplomatic ties in October after North Korean leader Kim Jong-il apologised at a September summit with Koizumi for the kidnapping of Japanese citizens decades ago to train spies. The North Korean leader also pledged then to respect international pacts regarding Pyongyang's nuclear programme. But U.S. officials said Pyongyang admitted in October to having a secret programme to enrich uranium for weapons in violation of a 1994 landmark agreement with Washington. Japan's talks with North Korea soon stalled over the atomic weapons programme and the emotional issue of the abductees. Tokyo wants Pyongyang to send to Japan the children of five surviving abductees now back in their homeland for the first time in a quarter of a century. North Korea, however, has insisted Japan first keep what it says was a promise to return the five abductees before they will reunite the parents with their North Korean-born children. "The stalemate with North Korea continues," Katsunari Suzuki, Japan's top negotiator with North Korea, told a meeting of the abductees' families and supporters. "To resolve the abductees issue, first of all we must have a place to talk, so to reopen negotiations is our mission and our desire." POPULARITY PROP Experts agree North Korea's main motive is to try to force the United States to come to the negotiating table. But some said Japan was tying its hands by giving priority to abductees issue, a topic of daily domestic media coverage. "At a time when the United States and North Korea are in conflict, it ought to be an opportunity for flexible diplomacy by Japan," said Masao Okonogi, a Korea expert at Keio University in Tokyo. "But Japan has cut the channel itself over the abduction issue," he said, adding that backdoor diplomacy could not be ruled out but that movement seemed unlikely any time soon. That's hardly good news for Koizumi, whose popularity rose to nearly 70 percent after the Pyongyang summit but has slipped back to around 60 percent since then due to worries about the economy. "His gambit was to take action without consulting the United States (before deciding to go to Pyongyang)," said Shigenori Okazaki, a political analyst at investment bank UBS Warburg who is no fan of the prime minister. "It backfired and he is paying the price." ***************************************************************** 4 British Energy losses running at £2m a day Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Staff cuts and disposals to follow £337m interim drop _David Gow, industrial editor Friday December 13, 2002 The Guardian_ British Energy, the stricken nuclear operator, is to embark on a fresh round of cost-cutting after yesterday disclosing the full extent of its financial plight with losses of £337m for the past six months. The company, which is losing almost £2m a day, far more than City expectations, is to slash staff at its headquarters in Scotland, employing about 400 people, as it tries to re-emerge as a UK power producer under the new management's survival plan. BE, kept afloat by an emergency £650m government loan, hopes to complete the sale of its profitable Canadian operation, Bruce Power, for just over £300m before Christmas, industry sources indicated. It had originally hoped to raise more than £400m, with all proceeds going back to the Treasury, which has set a deadline of March 9 for securing BE's future as a viable but shrunken supplier of a fifth of the UK's energy needs. It plans to raise more than £100m from the later disposal of its 50% stake in its US joint venture, AmerGen. Adrian Montague, the new chairman, who replaced the ousted Robin Jeffrey last month, admitted he had joined at a bleak point in the fortunes of the company, which had experienced terrible damage through high fixed costs, low prices and unscheduled reactor shutdowns. But, while expecting a "long period of retrenchment", including the writedown of its British assets, which are worth £4.4bn and include 9,600MW of nuclear plant and 2,000MW of coal-fired plant, he suggested BE could re-emerge as "the UK's least-cost major generator". The company, which suffered a further fall of 8% in prices for its power in the first half, on top of the 40% drop in wholesale prices in the past few years, said it planned to increase sales to energy suppliers and industrial/commercial customers through short- and medium-term contracts. Industry sources indicated that such direct sales have suffered substantially smaller declines in prices but the new strategy would require BE to recruit a different kind of salesforce. Ironically, wholesale prices have risen from a low of £14 a Megawatt/hour to £20 in the recent cold snap. The company, however, underlined the sheer scale of the hurdles it faces by announcing exceptional charges of £213m in the first half, including a £103m writedown of its crucial decommissioning fund to £332m because of the slump in equity markets. This is being subsidised by the taxpayer to the tune of about £2bn over the next 10 years under the government-imposed restructuring plan and has been boosted to take account of extra storage charges for radioactive waste at Sizewell B, its newest reactor. The plan envisages the revamped BE paying 65% of its cashflow into the fund but, with cashflow negative - it was minus-£71m in the first half - the state is liable for the full charge. The exceptional charges, including £98m for the falling value of shares held by employee trusts, sent BE into an operating loss of £38m compared with a profit of £70m in the first half of 2001. The UK generating business, which lost £69m, was hit by lower output and increased unit costs of 1.85p per kilowatt-hour against 1.74p last year - and a fresh target of 1.45p. The losses prompted Sera, the Labour party environment campaign, and Friends of the Earth to reiterate their demand for BE's closure. Warning that BE still faced administration if creditors and shareholders rejected the survival plan, Mr Montague said the next few months would be decisive. Talks with creditors, including bondholders, are expected to get under way in the new year, with a February 14 deadline. [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ***************************************************************** 5 South weighs shelving most projects until North changes* *by Lee Young-jong * December 14, 2002 South Korea is reviewing the range of exchange programs with the North and may shelve most of them until there is some change in Pyeong-yang's position on its nuclear program. A Red Cross meeting set for Sunday would be an exception. A government official said yesterday that "speed control" is needed in inter-Korean exchange programs, because Pyeongyang has continued to ignore persistent demands by the international community to explain and take measures about its nuclear ambitions. The official said programs that may be put off include talks for maritime cooperation, which are scheduled to begin in Pyeongyang on Christmas Day. Other talks for economic cooperation scheduled this month may also be pushed into next year, he said. The beginning of work on the Gaeseong industrial complex, planned for sometime between Dec. 26 and Dec. 30, is also likely to be derailed, the official said, as is the scout tour by South Korean officials for the new land route to Mount Geumgang that was expected to take place this month. The Red Cross talks scheduled in Mount Geumgang from Sunday through Tuesday will go ahead because the agenda deals with humanitarian issues, the official said. Economic cooperation talks that began Wednesday in Seoul with working level officials from Seoul and Pyeongyang ended yesterday without agreements. ¨Ï 2002 JoongAng Ilbo , Joins.com . All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 6 Iranian N-plants revealed Herald Sun: 14dec02 WASHINGTON -- The US believes Iran has been secretly constructing two large nuclear facilities, which could be used to make nuclear weapons. The disclosure raised a new challenge for President George W. Bush as he tried to head off North Korea's nuclear weapons program, and Washington gave its first signal it had rejected Iraq's weapons dossier. US officials said the nuclear facilities near the Iranian towns of Natanz and Arak were seen in commercial satellite photographs taken in September. The size and secrecy of the plants suggest Iran could be using them to build a nuclear weapon, the officials said. "It is true that there are two suspicious facilities in those locations in Iran. They were first publicly identified by an Iranian opposition group this past (northern) summer." International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors have sought access to the two facilities but are yet to obtain it. In New York, a UN official said Tehran had informed the agency that they were "new facilities related to its civilian nuclear programs". The IAEA quickly requested more information and a tour of the site, but "so far we have not been invited to the site", said the official. The US Government considers Iran the most active state sponsor of terrorism. Iran, Iraq and North Korea make up what Mr Bush has called an "axis of evil" bent on acquiring weapons of mass destruction and supporting terrorism. Iran insists its nuclear program is devoted to generating electricity, but US officials argue there can be no reason for a country with Iran's oil resources to want nuclear reactors. Also yesterday, the Bush administration tentatively concluded that _IRAQ'S_ 12,000-page weapons declaration fails to explain what happened to chemical and biological agents missing when inspectors were expelled four years ago. US officials said that, as expected, Iraq used the lengthy document to support its contention -- disputed by the US -- that Saddam Hussein's regime possesses no weapons of mass destruction. This sets the stage for a critical set of decisions by President Bush. He could feed US intelligence on suspected weapons programs to UN inspectors. Or he could declare after a more thorough review of the declaration that Saddam is in "material breach" of the resolution, and that war is needed to disarm him. The US also described as regrettable _NORTH KOREA'S_ decision to restart a nuclear power plant it shut down in 1994, and said it would seek a peaceful resolution. Thursday night's surprise announcement sparked new fears of a nuclear weapons race. "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," Mr Bush said. In return, North Korea denounced the US for "unpardonable piracy", after it intercepted a shipment of its Scud missiles bound for Yemen on Tuesday. The action "wantonly violated the routine trade between countries" said a statement by the Foreign Ministry. ***************************************************************** 7 N.Korea demands U.S. apology over Scud ship detention Reuters 13 December, 2002 17:20 GMT+08:00 By Paul Eckert SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea tested U.S. patience on Friday, pressing on with a plan to reactivate a nuclear power plant at the centre of a Cold War weapons crisis and demanding a U.S. apology over the interception of a ship carrying Scud missiles. But Washington, which has threatened to go to war with Iraq to rid it of weapons of mass destruction, insisted that each case was different and said it was looking for a diplomatic solution to keep the peace on the Korean peninsula. In related developments, Iran brushed off U.S. suggestions that two of its nuclear facilities might be used to build weapons, saying its nuclear energy programme was strictly for civilian use. In the Iraqi capital Baghdad, U.N. weapons experts searched a missile plant and a disease control centre. U.S. President George W. Bush, who in January branded North Korea, Iraq and Iran as members of an "axis of evil", made clear that Washington was not looking for a showdown with North Korea, a reclusive and destitute communist state. "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," he told ABC television in an interview. The United States and its allies ratcheted up that pressure after North Korea said on Thursday that it would restart a reactor mothballed in 1994 after an international crisis over alleged production of weapons-grade plutonium there. North Korea's latest move -- which it said had been forced on it by a U.S.-led decision to suspend oil aid -- had the trappings of an attempt to force Washington to the negotiating table. The crisis is the second this week to involve North Korea following the interception of a North Korean ship carrying Scud missiles for Yemen in the Arabian Sea on Monday. On Friday, North Korea demanded a U.S. apology for "unpardonable piracy". MONTHS OF STALEMATE The latest crisis follows months of diplomatic stalemate. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, in Australia at the end of an Asian tour that took him to China, Japan and South Korea, echoed Bush's line. "We believe that the situation on the Korean peninsula lends itself to the possibility of a diplomatic solution given that the nations in the immediate area, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea and the United States, all share absolutely the same view that the peninsula must be denuclearised," he said in Sydney. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, with Bush on a visit to Philadelphia, said North Korea's statement on the nuclear plant "flies in the face of international consensus that the North Korean regime must fulfil all its commitments, in particular dismantle its nuclear weapons programme". U.S. officials said on Thursday they believed Iran's nuclear weapons programme had taken a worrying step forward with the building of two large nuclear facilities, complicating efforts to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi rejected the suggestion. "This (Iran's nuclear energy programme) has been repeatedly approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and Iran believes it has the right to use it for peaceful aims," he told Reuters. Echoing the U.S. stance on North Korea, Japan said dialogue was vital to resolving the row. "There is the issue of whether the other side wants dialogue, but I think that without dialogue, there can be no resolution," its government spokesman told a news conference on Friday. In Vienna, Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the IAEA, called on North Korea to refrain from any unilateral action that might make it hard for the monitoring agency to keep tabs on nuclear materials. "It is essential that the containment and surveillance measures which are currently in place continue to be maintained," ElBaradei said in a statement issued on Thursday. The statement said North Korea had sent the IAEA a letter requesting that the "IAEA remove seals and monitoring cameras on all of its nuclear facilities". AGREED FRAMEWORK The reactor at Yongbyon, north of the capital 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 it estimated North Korea had produced one or two nuclear weapons. Under the Agreed Framework, North Korea promised to scrap plans to develop such weapons in return for provision of light water nuclear reactors and fuel oil supplies. In October, Washington said North Korea had admitted embarking on a new secret programme, this time to enrich uranium for weapons, in violation of the Agreed Framework. Washington and its allies South Korea and Japan responded by suspending fuel oil shipments to North Korea from December. North and South Korea have been technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. After weeks demanding that Washington sign a non-aggression treaty to defuse the dispute, North Korea's Foreign Ministry said: "The prevailing situation compelled the North Korean government to lift its measure for nuclear freeze." South Korea -- which lives under multiple North Korean threats, including artillery massed on its border within striking distance of the capital Seoul -- issued a statement expressing "strong regret and serious concern" at the North's decision which comes a week before a presidential election in the South. The sharpest difference between South Korea's liberal ruling party candidate, Roh Moo-hyun, and conservative opposition head Lee Hoi-chang is their approach on North Korea. Both candidates urged the North to reverse its decision to restart the reactors, and Roh's party issued a statement welcoming Bush's call for a peaceful solution to the impasse. Roh has vowed to continue President Kim Dae-jung's "Sunshine Policy" of coaxing the North to change through aid and dialogue. ***************************************************************** 8 *Editorial: *Changing realities of Indo-Pak conflict Daily Times India?s external affairs minister, Yashwant Sinha, wants Pakistan included in the ?axis of evil?, a term even the United States has quietly buried since President George Bush first used it a year ago. But Mr Sinha remains unfazed by the political incorrectness of the coinage, though for good reason from his point of view. The US has to accommodate global sensitivities and semantic niceties can be left to Washington. Mr Sinha sees his job as delivering the message and making sure that it resonates with the right people in Washington and in Europe. Does it? The issue has to be seen in the long term and placed in the broader context of India-Pakistan rivalry ? how does the international community conceive of and relate to the two countries? Pakistan is in no instant danger of being blacklisted and Mr Sinha?s statement is not going to do any immediate harm to it. Pakistan is useful in the current geopolitical situation in West and Central Asia. The problem is that Pakistan is of interest to a few but of concern to many in the West. This is the Achilles? heel. The world tries to engage Pakistan because it is nuclear-armed, because it seems unstable, because there are a lot of fanatically religious people about, because it is poor and because militaristic or undemocratic and corrupt regimes have long held sway. All of this means to the Western onlooker that in theory it has the potential to both implode and explode. Of course, we Pakistanis regard this as simplistic fear-mongering and dismiss it contemptuously. But that may not be the right approach. Some of the perceptions are true to life. And given the framework in which our ruthless adversaries operate, why shouldn?t Mr Sinha do everything to reinforce some such perceptions? Indeed, it is the cumulative effect of its campaign that India is looking at rather than any immediate, short-term gains. There is also another dimension to this. India decided to demobilise troops from the LoC and border last month, but it did so after completing the process of elections in Kashmir. Islamabad chose to reject the electoral process because it does not accept the legitimacy of a political process conducted by India in a disputed region. But that is not the perception of the international community which wants to take a more ?realistic? approach to the problem. Therefore, the defeat of the BJP and Farooq Abdullah?s National Conference (a BJP ally) has earned a major diplomatic plus for New Delhi. In fact, the current Indian policy of cutting Pakistan dead after demobilisation is essentially predicated on the international goodwill that the election results in Kashmir have generated for it. No wonder, India yesterday ruled out any more de-escalation steps with Pakistan until it ends, what India calls, ?cross-border terrorism? in Kashmir. ?India?s further response would be based on implementation of Pakistan?s commitment to end cross-border infiltration?, says Mr Digvijay Singh, India?s junior foreign minister. There are thus three broad Indian strands here. First, to hold Pakistan to the commitments it made to the international community on the jihadi groups by continuing to point out that Islamabad has been merely playing for time. Second, to link up the issue of any talks or contacts with Pakistan ? bilaterally or even multilaterally (in terms of SAARC) ? to a complete reversal of its ?cross-LoC infiltration? policy. And third, to use the current circumstances of the global war on terrorism to point to the connections between groups fighting in Kashmir and Al Qaeda. In the meanwhile, India is embarked on stressing its strengths ? growing economy, resilient democracy, strong civil society, etc ? as opposed to Pakistani weaknesses. This strategy is not easy to counter by Pakistan, even though Pakistan?s military has successfully faced up to the military threat by India as General Pervez Musharraf has pointed out. It is, in fact, related to the narrow calculus that the Pakistan military has traditionally used in sizing up India and the fact that, given the military?s dominance, our foreign policy has become hostage to its rigidly defined ?security? policy. In time, this situation has created internal contradictions that have made it difficult for Pakistan to resolve even some basic existential issues (the ongoing political drama is just one aspect of it). Indeed, it is difficult to see if our military planners in Pakistan have fully appreciated the growing potential of India?s civil society to create its own niche with or without help from the government. Or that we have sufficiently appreciated the fact that this year Indian students to the United States outnumbered the Chinese and that the Indian diaspora in the United States is growing in strength and in the next few years will be second only to the Jewish lobby. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are two points we wish to drive home. First, Pakistan does not need to have a zero-sum competition with India; two, it needs to appreciate the changing nature of the India-Pakistan conflict, which has expanded much beyond the military arena. Perhaps Mr Khurshid Kasuri, our erudite new foreign minister, can expand on these issues and nudge the establishment to adjust and respond to the new long-term realities. * Daily Times - All Rights Reserved Site developed and hosted by WorldCALL Internet Solutions ***************************************************************** 9 U.S., Russia Turn in Assessments on Iraq Las Vegas SUN_ December 12, 2002 _By BARRY SCHWEID_ ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States and Russia on Thursday concluded their preliminary assessments of Iraq's weapons declaration, focusing on how sensitive technology was acquired and put to use, a U.S. official said. The assessments were turned in to chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the official said on condition of anonymity. The three other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, Britain, France and China, are supposed to provide their assessments as well by Friday. Blix and ElBaradei then will remove sensitive sections of the declaration and distribute copies Monday to the 10 other members of the Council. There was no immediate word on what the U.S. and Russian analyses said. But President Bush said his gut feeling about Saddam Hussein is that "he is a man who deceives, denies." Bush made the remark in an ABC News interview that will be aired Friday. Iraq has insisted it has no weapons of mass destruction. The declaration is known to contain information about a nuclear weapons program undertaken more than a decade ago. The sensitive parts of the voluminous declaration turned in by Iraq last weekend could provide a trail leading from supplier countries to the arsenal the United States insists Iraq has hidden. That information will not be given to the 10 other countries under an agreement reached by the Bush administration with the United Nations. Blix is due to report to the Security Council next Thursday. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, speaking in Qatar, rejected any suggestion the United States was eager for war with Iraq. He said U.S. officials intend to spend the next few weeks scrutinizing the weapons declaration. Rumsfeld said the declaration contained thousands of pages in two languages. "It doesn't seem unreasonable for our people to look at it, read it and analyze it," he said. In Washington, a former U.S. deputy ambassador to Baghdad, Joseph Wilson, said "muscular disarmament" was a workable alternative to invasion of Iraq. "Should Saddam Hussein decide he doesn't want inspectors at a particular site it will be imperative to respond decisively at that site," Wilson said. "To ensure we have his full attention we should hit a high-value target associated with the site." All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 10 U.S.: Iran working on nuclear weapons IAEA: Nuclear facilities not a surprise Friday, December 13, 2002 Posted: 2150 GMT Commercial satellite photo of an Iranian nuclear facility near Arak Mohammed Javad Zarif, Iranian ambassador to the U.N., tells CNN's David Ensor that Iran has no nuclear weapons program (December 12) premium content *WASHINGTON (CNN) --* *The United States accused Iran Friday of "actively working" on a nuclear weapons program and said that recent satellite photographs of a massive nuclear power construction project "reinforce" that belief.* State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said two facilities seen in the photographs "are not justified by the needs of Iran's civilian nuclear program." "There is no economic gain for a state that's rich in oil and gas like Iran to build costly nuclear fuel cycle facilities," he said. "I point out that Iran flares more gas annually than the equivalent energy its desired reactors would produce." Boucher added: "We've reached the conclusion that Iran is actively working to develop nuclear weapons capability." But International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei, in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, said the chief of Iran's atomic energy program had told him in September that the construction was for a 6,000-megawatt nuclear power facility. Gholamreza Aghazadeh also said that Iran planned to declare the facilities to the IAEA and would welcome IAEA safeguards, according to ElBaradei. The Iranians invited ElBaradei to bring an inspection team to look at the sites, but a visit scheduled for this week was postponed until February by Iranian authorities. U.S. officials told CNN Thursday that the United States had evidence Iran had been secretly constructing large nuclear facilities that could possibly be used to make nuclear weapons and that the IAEA had not been able to visit them. Commercial satellite photographs taken in September and obtained by CNN show the construction near the town of Natanz and another near Arak within Iran, one of three countries President Bush has labeled an "axis of evil." (View map ) "The circumstances are fairly interesting and lead to the conclusion ... that this nuclear program in Iran is not peaceful and certainly is not transparent," Boucher said. Iranian officials disputed the charge. "I can categorically tell you that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program," said Mohammed Javad Zarif, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations. Commercial satellite photo of a nuclear facility near Natanz, Iran Commercial satellite photo of a nuclear facility near Natanz, Iran Iran has one publicly declared nuclear program at Bushehr -- what its government says is used solely for peaceful purposes, to produce electricity. "Iran hasn't committed any acts that can be considered against international rules, and will not do so in the future," Hamid Reza Assefi, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, told CNN. "At the same time, no country could, for its own political objectives, prevent Iran from achieving its own goals." "This kind of publicity is not new," he 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." Boucher said the two facilities "reinforce our already grave concern that Iran is seeking technology to produce fissile material for 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/ The IAEA commissioned the satellite photographs after an Iranian opposition group talked about the construction at a news conference in August, ElBaradei said Friday. "We saw them, we asked the Iranians about them, and they said, 'yes,' and invited us to visit," he said. "I wouldn't say it was 'weird' " that Iran had not at that time notified the agency of the construction, he added, "but it would be nice if they had told us earlier." "The suspect uranium enrichment plant, for example, could be used to produce highly enriched uranium for weapons," he said. "The heavy water plant could support a reactor for producing weapons grade plutonium." The facilities near Natanz and Arak are of particular interest to the agency and will be part of the February visit, IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said. "Everybody's looking at the same satellite photos," he said, "and they're consistent with the facilities being alleged -- one is a heavy water plant and the other a uranium-enrichment facility." "But that's not the end of the story either," he added. "Iran is entitled to have these facilities as long as it declares them to us and allows us to put them under our safeguards." /CNN Senior International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour, National Security Correspondent David Ensor and State Department Producer Elise Labott contributed to this repo/rt. ***************************************************************** 11 North Korea Demands U.S. Apology Las Vegas SUN: December 13, 2002 _By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA_ ASSOCIATED PRESS SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea demanded an apology Friday from the United States for what it described as "piracy" in the seizure of a ship carrying missiles to Yemen. A day earlier, North Korea declared that it would revive a nuclear power plant that the United States and its allies suspect was being used to develop nuclear weapons before it was frozen in 1994. The two conflicts threatened to disrupt cross-border railway construction and other prominent projects aimed at reconciling North Korea and South Korea, a U.S. ally. Also at stake were two modern nuclear reactors that a U.S.-led consortium agreed to build in North Korea in exchange for the suspension of the nuclear program that it now plans to revive. On Tuesday, Spanish warships seized a North Korean ship carrying Scud missiles in the Arabian Sea. The U.S. military took charge of the ship, but then allowed it to sail on after high-level diplomacy between the United States and Yemen. "This is an unpardonable piracy that wantonly encroached upon the sovereignty of the DPRK," an unidentified spokesman for the North Korean Foreign Ministry said in comments reported in English language by the North's Korean Central News Agency. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The official said the missile components were part of a "legal trade contract" and that the ship was "on a normal voyage along the publicly recognized sea route." "The DPRK has already clarified that it is not only producing missiles to defend itself from the U.S. constant military threat but exporting them to earn foreign currency," he said. Missile exports are a major source of cash for the impoverished country, which depends on international aid to feed its people. The United States says North Korea is the world's No. 1 proliferator of missile technology, and is therefore a threat to global stability. The United States let the intercepted shipment proceed to Yemen after receiving assurances the Scuds would not be transferred elsewhere in the tense Persian Gulf region. Bush administration officials acknowledged that boarding the ship and taking charge of its cargo probably violated international law. U.S.-North Korea relations went from bad to worse on Thursday, when the communist country announced it will restart a frozen plutonium-based nuclear reactor and resume construction on other nuclear facilities. With a bitter winter ahead, North Korea said it had no choice but to reactivate the program to supply desperately needed power after a U.S.-led decision last month to suspend oil shipments. The suspension was designed to pressure North Korea to give up a more recent nuclear program based on uranium enrichment. The oil was a provision of the 1994 U.S.-North Korean deal that froze the earlier nuclear program. U.S. allies said they were deeply worried by the collapse of the agreement. "It is extremely regrettable," said Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda. "North Korea is abandoning its obligations under the framework agreed between the United States and North Korea." Inter-Korean projects that are vulnerable to the tension include two cross-border roads that are set to open this month to transport South Korean tourists and workers to the North. South Korea plans to start building an industrial park in North Korea later this month. A North Korean delegation left Seoul on Friday after talks on setting customs and other rules for South Korean workers and materials crossing the border. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 12 Iraq officials called in as U.N. inspection hits snag Reuters 13 December, 2002 21:49 GMT+08:00 By Hassan Hafidh BAGHDAD (Reuters) - United Nations experts called in senior U.N. and Iraqi officials to sort out a snag during an inspection of a disease control centre in Baghdad on Friday. "This is a newly declared site and we want to clarify the tagging procedure, that is all," said senior weapons inspector Miroslav Gregoric. It was the first time in the latest round of U.N. weapons inspections that a problem on the ground was known to have prompted senior officials to use their hotline. U.N. arms inspectors returned to Iraq last month after a four-year absence to check Baghdad's assertion that it has no nuclear, biological and chemical arms or long-range missiles. Gregoric, speaking outside the Health Ministry's Communicable Diseases Control Centre, said a biological weapons team had requested help during its visit there. General Hussam Mohammed Amin, the chief Iraqi official liasing with the inspectors, was swiftly on the scene. He also said the tagging of equipment had needed clarification. "There was no problem and there is nothing more to tell you," said Amin, head of the National Monitoring Directorate. It was the first time the inspectors had gone to work on a Friday, the Muslim day of rest, since they returned to Iraq. Iraq submitted a 12,000-page dossier on its arms programmes to the United Nations last Saturday in line with Security Council resolution 1441, which threatens serious consequences if Baghdad does not cooperate with the inspectors. MISSILE CENTRE A separate U.N. team spent four hours at the Ibn al-Haitham missile centre in the northern Baghdad suburb of Kadhimiya. "It was a surprise visit. Today is Friday when everybody is at home. I came here by chance," the director of the facility, Brigadier Owaid Ahmed, told reporters. "They inspected everything -- rooms, workshops, stores. There was no problem and they did a professional inspection," Ahmed, a French-educated engineer, said in English. Journalists were allowed into two warehouses after the inspectors left. They contained large aluminium and metal sheets and machines which Ahmed acknowledged were versatile. "It depends on the worker working on these machines; he can produce parts of a missile or parts of a bicycle," he said. He said the site had a missile production data centre, a test and launch directorate, a missile fuel centre, workshops and stores. He said the site had been heavily bombed by American and British aircraft in 1998. "Some buildings were completely destroyed and abandoned," he said. "Some others were rebuilt and recommissioned." A picture of President Saddam Hussein stood in front of the high-walled compound run by al-Karamah Public Company, part of Iraq's Military Industrialisation Commission. According to a report by London's International Institute of Strategic Studies, the plant was built in 1992 as a research and design centre for the short-range al-Sumoud missile. U.N. resolutions allow Iraq to have missiles with a range not exceeding 150 km. Ibn al-Haitham had been placed under monitoring by the former U.N. inspection body. There are now 98 inspectors from the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Iraq. But Richard Perle, head of the U.S. Defence Department's Policy Review Board, said in an interview published on Friday there were far too few inspectors in Iraq to find any weapons of mass destruction. ***************************************************************** 13 U.S. Identifies Holes in Iraq Document Las Vegas SUN: December 13, 2002 _By JOHN J. LUMPKIN_ ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - Iraq's 12,000-page weapons declaration does not account for a number of missing chemical and biological weapons and fails to explain purchases U.S. intelligence believes are related to Saddam Hussein's nuclear program, U.S. officials said. Iraq used the lengthy document to support its contention - disputed by the United States - that Saddam's regime possesses none of these weapons of mass destruction, the officials said late Thursday. The tentative U.S. conclusion that the report is lacking sets the stage for a critical set of decisions by President Bush, who views the declaration as Saddam's last chance to come clean, officials said. Bush's options include providing American intelligence on suspected weapons programs to U.N. inspectors or helping the world body attempt to prove that Saddam is lying, which was required under a U.S.-backed U.N. resolution that also forced inspectors back into Iraq after a four-year lapse, the officials said, speaking only on condition of anonymity Bush could also simply seek more information from Iraq, a route White House officials said earlier Thursday the president would not take. After a more thorough review of the declaration, the president also could declare that Saddam was in "material breach" of the resolution, and that war was required to disarm him, officials said. The latter step, favored by hard-liners in the administration, likely would be condemned by U.S. allies who want proof that Saddam is a threat. Under the terms of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441, false statements or omissions in the declaration - coupled with a failure to comply with inspections - would be a "material breach" of Iraq's obligations. Newly admitted weapons inspectors have not publicly accused Iraq of obstructing their efforts. The Iraqi report largely rehashes old declarations and reports and contains little new information, officials said. It has done nothing to alter the U.S. belief that Iraq possesses chemical and biological weapons and is pursuing nuclear weapons, officials said. The report, being analyzed at the CIA and elsewhere, does not account for quantities of chemical and biological agents that were missing when U.N. inspectors were expelled from Iraq in 1998, officials said. Hundreds of mustard gas shells, for example, remain unaccounted for, officials said. It also does not explain a number of Iraqi acquisitions that the United States suspects are related to Saddam's nuclear program, officials said. This includes the purchase of uranium in Africa, as well as purchases in Western countries of high-tech equipment that could be used in a uranium enrichment program, officials said. Enriched uranium or plutonium is a necessary requirement for a nuclear weapon. White House and CIA officials refused comment on the assessment, first reported by The New York Times in Friday editions. However, Bush himself told ABC News his gut feeling about Saddam was that "he is a man who deceives, denies." The United States and Russia turned in their preliminary assessments Thursday to chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix and ElBaradei Mohamed of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Three other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - Britain, France and China - are supposed to provide their assessments as well by Friday. Blix and ElBaradei then will remove sensitive sections of the declaration and distribute copies Monday to the 10 other members of the council. Iraq has insisted it no longer has any weapons of mass destruction. The declaration is known to contain information about a nuclear weapons program undertaken more than a decade ago. The sensitive parts of the voluminous declaration, submitted by Iraq last weekend, could provide a trail leading from supplier countries to the arsenal the United States insists Iraq has hidden. That information will not be given to the 10 other countries under an agreement reached by the Bush administration with the United Nations. Blix is due to report to the Security Council next Thursday. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, speaking in Qatar, rejected any suggestion the United States was eager for war with Iraq. He said U.S. officials intend to spend the next few weeks scrutinizing the weapons declaration. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 14 Iran Says Nuclear Plants Open to Search Las Vegas SUN: December 13, 2002 _By ALI AKBAR DAREINI_ ASSOCIATED PRESS TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran on Friday rejected U.S. claims that it was developing a clandestine nuclear program and said all its nuclear plants were open to international inspection. "We have no nuclear activity or study without the knowledge of the International Atomic Energy Agency," government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh told reporters Friday. "All our nuclear sites are for peaceful purposes and open to IAEA inspection." Ramezanzadeh's spoke after U.S. officials on Thursday endorsed claims made by an armed Iranian opposition group this summer that two construction sites in central Iran may be used for a clandestine program to develop nuclear weapons. U.S. intelligence officials do not believe Iran has made any nuclear weapons. In August, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the political umbrella group of the Iraq-based armed Mujahedeen Khalq said once completed, the two sites will be a nuclear fuel production plant and research lab at Natanz and a heavy water production plant at Arak, both in central Iran. The Natanz plant also may include a uranium-enrichment facility, U.S officials said. A heavy water plant at Arak would be part of a plutonium program. U.S. officials say Iran's lack of fissile material - either enriched uranium or plutonium - remains a key stumbling block for its nuclear goals. Iran has not declared either site to international monitors, U.S. officials said. "IAEA is aware of all of our nuclear activities. Natanz is not under the ground. IAEA is welcome to inspect the site," Ramezanzadeh said. The Mujahedeen Khalq receives support from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and seeks the violent overthrow of Iran's Islamic establishment. It has no popular base inside Iran. Meanwhile, IAEA officials said Friday the agency was concerned about Iran's plans to study the possibility of building a second major nuclear power plant. Melissa Fleming, the agency's spokeswoman, said IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei would visit Tehran at the invitation of the Iranians. That visit originally was planned for this month but was postponed at Iran's request, she said. A team of IAEA technical experts will accompany ElBaradei, Fleming said. "We have requested to visit these sites and Iran has indicated it would allow such a visit," she said. Iran's Atomic Energy Council ordered a feasibility study on a second plant as the country's first nuclear power station, built with Russian help at Bushehr in the south prepares to go on line next year, Iranian state-run television reported Thursday. Both Russia and Iran insist that the plant will be used for civilian purposes only and open to international inspection, but the United States says the Bushehr facility could help advance Iran's alleged weapons program. It was not clear if Russia will be involved in the construction of the new plant. Russia said in September that it has no other nuclear programs with Iran. 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. 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 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 $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. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 15 Iran says committed to nuclear power programme Reuters 14 December, 2002 22:46 GMT+08:00 By Parisa Hafezi TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Saturday it was determined to meet its booming demand for electricity with nuclear power despite U.S. concerns the technology could be used for military aims. Washington, which has labelled Iran as part of an "axis of evil" bent on developing weapons of mass destruction, accused Iran on Thursday of building two nuclear sites of a type that could be used for making a nuclear weapon. Iran denied the accusation and said its plans to construct reactors were a peaceful application of nuclear technology. It said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had been told about the plants and was free to inspect them. "Within the next 20 years, Iran has to produce 6,000 megawatts of electricity from nuclear power," Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told official IRNA news agency. Washington has argued that Iran, which is the second-largest oil exporter in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, has no need for nuclear power. But Iran is keen to avoid diverting too much of its valuable oil exports into the domestic market where subsidies are high. Iran's domestic electricity demand is currently growing 6.5 percent annually and Iran needs to add 2,500 megawatts to its generating capacity each year, Iranian officials have said. The Islamic Republic's first nuclear power plant, near the southwestern port city Bushehr, is due to come on stream at the end of next year or early 2004. The 1,000-megawatt plant is being built with Russian help, despite heavy U.S. lobbying of Moscow to block the construction. A senior government official told Reuters on Friday Iran was currently negotiating with Russia to build several more nuclear power plants in coming years. Iran's Atomic Energy Council earlier this week commissioned a feasibility study to be carried out on building a second 1,000 MW nuclear plant, IRNA said. The Vienna-based IAEA on Friday said it was aware of Iran's nuclear power programme and planned to visit the country in February to inspect all facilities currently under construction. Kharrazi said the inspectors were welcome and dismissed U.S. accusations that Iran was trying to conceal two nuclear plants near the central Iranian towns of Natanz and Arak. "We will officially invite them for inspections since the agency must carry out its necessary planning and supervision before the centres are implemented," Kharrazi said. "We have been in contact with IAEA over the two centres and basically there is no possibility of concealing such centres," he said. The United States and Iran have been enemies since radical students seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran shortly after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution and held 52 hostages for 444 days. ***************************************************************** 16 U.N. to inspect Iran nuclear sites 13 Dec 2002 12:46 GMT Print this Article By Marcus Kabel VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency says it is aware of new nuclear facilities under construction in Iran, which U.S. officials say could be used to make weapons, and plans to inspect them in February. Iran invited the inspectors after informing the International Atomic Energy Agency in September of an ambitious plan to build nuclear power plants and related fuel facilities over the next 20 years, IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said. Gwozdecky said Iran did not specify details, including the purpose of the two construction sites at issue in the dispute with the United States, but invited the IAEA to send an inspection team headed by the agency's director general Mohamed ElBaradei. "The director general, with a team of technical experts, plans to make such a visit in February 2003," Gwozdecky said on Friday. "We don't jump to conclusions. We will visit shortly and determine for ourselves what the facilities are," he told Reuters. Iran on Friday dismissed U.S. accusations that two nuclear sites under construction could be used to make a secret nuclear weapon. "We don't have any hidden atomic activities. All our nuclear activities are for non-military fields," Iranian government spokesman Abdollah Ramazanzadeh told reporters on the sidelines of a political conference in Tehran. He was responding to remarks by U.S. officials that two nuclear facilities near the central Iranian towns of Natanz and Arak, seen in commercial satellite photographs, were of a type which suggested Iran could use them to build a nuclear weapon. Experts said even if the two new facilities turned out to be heavy water and fuel enrichment plants, that could point to a nuclear power programme just as well as to the development of nuclear weapons. "Even if they are heavy water and enrichment plants, Iran has a right to these. It's just that at a certain point they would have to declare them to the IAEA" for monitoring under the international nuclear non-proliferation pact, one nuclear expert said. Iran is party to the international nuclear arms non-proliferation treaty and has an agreement with the IAEA to safeguard against the diversion of civilian nuclear material for weapons. "The IAEA has not detected any diversion of nuclear material (in Iran) declared and placed under our safeguard," Gwozdecky said. The Vienna-based agency has a mandate to ensure nuclear facilities around the world are used solely for civilian purposes as well as coordinating global nuclear power safety. ***************************************************************** 17 US Says NK Decision Regrettable Digital Chosunilbo (English Edition) : Daily News in English Updated Dec.13,2002 16:15 KST The White House said Thursday, North Korea's decision to revive a closed nuclear reactor was regrettable and added it would seek a peaceful resolution to the challenge. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer commented Pyongyang's announcement flies in the face of international consensus that it must fulfill its commitments to disarm, and pointed out Washington would not be pressured into returning to the negotiating table in response to threats or broken commitments. Nevertheless, the US, after imposing economic sanctions last month, is still holding out the prospect of opening discussions with the North, as it steps up diplomatic pressure. In Japan Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi stressed the need for heightened cooperation among Seoul, Tokyo and Washington. He also sounded a conciliatory note, saying Pyongyang might be sending out signals that it still wants a peaceful solution to the nuclear issue. After an emergency meeting Thursday Tokyo's senior Foreign Ministry officials agreed this might be the North's attempt to draw the US into direct negotiations, in what many experts see as the kind of game North Korea usually plays. (Arirang TV) ***************************************************************** 18 Iran cancels UN inspection of its nuclear facilities /Last Updated Fri, 13 Dec 2002 17:12:41 / TEHRAN - Iran insists that its nuclear facilities are for peaceful purposes, even as it cancelled a UN inspection of two sites that have raised suspicion in Washington. /Mohammad Khatami/ The director of the UN nuclear control agency says the Iranians told him he could not visit the sites as planned this week. Mohamed El-Baradei says he's been told President Mohammad Khatami will be out of the country and the Iranians need more time to prepare. The inspections have been rescheduled for February. Written by CBC News Online staff ***************************************************************** 19 Gov't Conveys Nuclear Stance at Inter-Korea Meeting Digital Chosunilbo (English Edition) : Daily News in English Updated Dec.13,2002 17:35 KST _by Park Yong-keun_ (ykpark@chosun.com) The government said Friday it had conveyed to Pyongyang at a working-level meeting in Seoul that peaceful resolution of the nuclear issue was an indispensable condition to boost inter-Korean economic cooperation. A senior official who attended the Inter-Korea Economic Cooperation Conference held from Wednesday to Friday admitted that Pyongyang's declaration to lift the moratorium on its nuclear development almost brought a deadlock, but the government made clear that a peaceful resolution of the matter was essential to promote economic cooperation. The two Koreas discussed procedures to settle commercial disputes, confirm places of origin and transportation, but failed to reach specific agreements. A Ministry of Finance and Economy official said that these and other issues would be revisited in the second conference scheduled for February in Pyongyang. ***************************************************************** 20 Zambia: Kaunda Speaks Out Against Bush, Blair allAfrica.com -- South African Press Association (Johannesburg) December 12, 2002 Pretoria American President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are using "pretext upon pretext" to bring about a regime change in Iraq, former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda said on Thursday. Bush and Blair wanted to recreate a regional balance of power where Israel became the dominant force in the Middle East, he told reporters in Pretoria. "The two leaders also have an urge to control the oil resources and reserves in the Arab world." Iraq has been subjected to United Nations-approved sanctions in the 11 years since the 1991 Gulf War. Kaunda, who was in Iraq recently as an official observer overseeing UN weapons inspections, said the world had been bombarded with half-truths. Inspectors returned to Iraq last month under a new UN Security Council resolution, ordering Saddam Hussein's government to surrender any weapons of mass destruction and shut down any programmes producing chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. Kaunda said the return of the inspectors was a great relief to those who had genuine desire for peace in the Middle East region. "For many months the region has been on the brink of war on account of allegations that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction," he said, adding that Bush and Blair had used these accusations to prepare for war. "The world has been subjected to the most intense and biased propaganda campaign in which half-truths and lies have been used as a justification for not only continuing the sanctions regime, but also as a justification to perpetuate daily attacks by the two governments on Iraqi installations. "The misinformation has been so intense and vicious that the truth no longer exists or matters when discussing Iraq," he said. Kaunda said the resumption of inspections for weapons of war in Iraq was seen as a major step in reducing tensions in the Middle East. "Unfortunately we have now seen moves aimed at creating a new pretext for war." Recently British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw had presented a report on Iraq's human rights record before Britain's parliament. Like many earlier reports, this was another document which was long on accusations and very short on facts. "The frightening aspect of all of this is that such a report could be used as a pretext for war on the same way that accusations surrounding weapons of mass destruction has become reason for Bush and Blair to invade Iraq." Kaunda said while he was in Baghdad with other weapons inspection observers, the group was invited to some of the sites previously visited by the inspectors. "This exercise was most revealing because none of the three sites we saw in Baghdad resembled in any shape or form a facility that can manufacture weapons that can threaten and harm the world." He said one of the so called facilities mentioned in a report Blair tabled before the House of Commons recently was an alcohol beverage manufacturing company owned by a Christian family. "This facility is unsophisticated and hardly a site that has the capacity to produce biological agents used to build weapons of mass destruction." The other sites were a veterinary facility and an artillery rockets manufacturer constructing rockets with a range of between 50 and 150 kilometres. "I have mentioned three sites because they were mentioned by Blair and could have been easily used as a pretext to wage war and destroy Iraq. "This has become a prime objective with an end reason, which is two fold by and for destroying Iraq." He said the group also witnessed Iraqis voting during a referendum whether they wanted Hussein to remain their leader or not. Hussein received a 100 percent yes vote. Kaunda said large numbers of Iraqis, voted by marking ballot papers with blood as an expression of sovereignty and support for their leadership. A number of families postponed funerals in order to cast a vote. "This is a sign that these people will defend their country with blood if need be," he said. Kaunda urged the world community not to develop anti-American and British sentiments because of the "arrogance" of the two countries' leaders. "I do not hate Bush and Blair but I hate the way they are handling some issues, especially the Iraq one. "It will be wrong for anyone to hate Americans or British because of Bush and Blair administrations' faults." Kaunda called on the two leaders not to invade Iraq. "We are seeing a superpower creating pretext upon pretext so that it can achieve its ultimate goal of regime change in that country." The two leaders' policy of unilateralism was setting a dangerous political precedence. "If the same attitude is adopted by other countries, they are immediately labelled as pariah states," he said. "Bush and Blair have established a modus operandi operating on a misguided philosophy that might is right." Copyright © 2002 South African Press Association. All rights ***************************************************************** 21 Editorial: Secrecy is the victor; public is the loser Las Vegas SUN: December 13, 2002 LAS VEGAS SUN Earlier this week a federal judge in Washington ruled that Congress' investigative arm -- the General Accounting Office -- can't compel Vice President Dick Cheney to provide it with energy policy documents. Nevadans were interested in the case, especially since the nuclear power industry played a large role in setting the administration's policy to advocate the burial of nuclear waste in Nevada. The GAO has yet to decide whether to appeal the decision, but we hope it does ask a higher court to review the decision, which is a terrible setback for open government. U.S. District Judge John Bates, who was appointed by President Bush, didn't deal with the broader merits of the case, instead narrowly ruling that the General Accounting Office didn't have legal standing to file the lawsuit. That view also is troubling. If the GAO can't compel federal agencies to turn over records, it would weaken Congress' oversight of the executive branch. The Bush administration is enthralled with secrecy, and we worry that the White House's legal victory in this case will lead to an ever greater clampdown on government records and other information the public has a right to know about. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 22 Nuclear brinkmanship now Pyongyang's gambit for survival_ asahi.com : ENGLISH Asahi Shimbun www.asahi.com JAPANESE _By KIYOSHI HASABA, The Asahi Shimbun_ North Korea's latest act of brinkmanship-its announcement Thursday that it was resuming operations at its nuclear power facilities-is nothing more than a desperate gambit to ensure the survival of the regime headed by Kim Jong Il. The catalyst for Pyongyang's decision appears to have been the interception and inspection by the U.S. and Spanish navies this week of a ship carrying a cargo of North Korean missiles bound for Yemen. The incident was a huge embarrassment for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). It also underscored the Bush administration's determination to remain firm in dealing with nuclear weapons and missile development issues. Having been dubbed by U.S. President George W. Bush as part of the ``axis of evil,'' along with Iraq and Iran, North Korea must have realized the precarious situation in which it found itself, given that world opinion has come to accept the inevitability of a U.S. attack on Iraq if given half the the chance. The reclusive state also faces alarming food and energy shortages as the harsh winter sets in. There seems to be little doubt that North Korea's generals are fretting about how the regime will survive in the new world order that is taking shape. This is evident from North Korea's request to the United States to sign a nonaggression pact even as it blasted Western efforts to link its uranium enrichment program with nuclear weapons development. This would seem to imply that North Korea was prepared to abandon its nuclear program as long as the United States guaranteed the continued existence of the present regime by making a legal promise not to use nuclear weapons against Pyongyang. In the same vein, Thursday's statement from North Korea also referred to Washington's decision in November to stop shipments of heavy fuel oil to Pyongyang under the auspices of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO). Pyongyang said the freeze, which took effect this month, was an attempt to eliminate the regime. North Korea had sought to use normalization talks with Japan to throw the United States off guard and to obtain economic assistance, which would have strengthened the Kim Jong Il regime. The stalemate over the abduction issue has basically killed prospects for a resumption of those talks. North Korea may consider Japan's stubborn insistence on settling the abduction issue as a ploy dreamed up with the United States for the eventual collapse of the paranoid leadership. Thursday's announcement also appears to be an attempt to break the stalemate by pointedly raising the importance of national security issues. Washington's decision to freeze heavy fuel oil shipments poses a major problem for Pyongyang. The lack of adequate electricity has crippled operations at some farms. Ethnic North Koreans residing in Japan who recently visited Pyongyang described how people rushed to grab hot water bottles that were brought as gifts. While there is no certainty of the extent to which nuclear power plant operations will resume, it appears North Korea gambled it may not have another opportunity to negotiate with the United States, which now is preoccupied with issues concerning Iraq.(IHT/Asahi: December 14,2002) (12/14) [Copyright Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction ***************************************************************** 23 NK EDITORIAL: No more brinkmanship_ asahi.com : ENGLISH Asahi Shimbun www.asahi.com JAPANESE Channels of dialogue are open for Pyongyang. Such an approach will never work, since the Bush administration's policy is to confront force with force. North Korea has declared an end to its freeze on nuclear programs. After having admitted to the United States it was pursuing nuclear development, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) was found to be responsible for a cargo vessel carrying Scud missiles to Yemen. Soon after the ship was hailed, North Korea said it would immediately resume its nuclear activities, including construction of a graphite nuclear reactor that could be used to produce weapons-grade plutonium. Such activities were halted under the 1994 Agreed Framework between North Korea and the United States. This situation is serious enough to trigger a reprise of the Korean Peninsula crisis of the early 1990s. North Korea must immediately abandon this policy of brinkmanship that generates one crisis after another. Under the terms of the Agreed Framework, North Korea was to be provided two light-water nuclear reactors that could be used to generate electric power in return for abandoning its independent nuclear development. The United States had agreed to supply fuel oil to North Korea until one of the reactors was ready. North Korea has now decided to abandon the freeze on its nuclear program because the United States stopped fuel oil shipments this month. Pyongyang said the fuel oil shortage led to a shortage of electricity. But the circumstances do not justify resumption of the nuclear program. The shipments were halted because North Korea, in violation of the agreement, intended to use its nuclear facilities to produce highly enriched, weapons-grade uranium. Indeed, North Korea has not denied its nuclear program. The unilateral declaration ending the freeze on nuclear development cannot be condoned even by China and Russia, North Korea's traditional allies. The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, which is composed of Japan, the United States, the Republic of Korea (South Korea) and the European Union, which has as its objective ending North Korea's independent nuclear development, has urged North Korea to abandon its nuclear program. But North Korea has never shown any sincere willingness to comply. North Korea defines the United States as its most serious security threat, yet it has made improvement of its relations with the United States the central objective of its foreign policy, solely to preserve the Kim Jong Il regime. The typical North Korean approach to diplomacy is to resort to brinkmanship when backed into a corner. A spokesman for the North Korean Foreign Ministry said that the United States has made it clear it intends to disarm the nation by force and eliminate the Kim regime. North Korea could be trying to apply this hard-line approach in a bid to force negotiations with U.S. President George W. Bush's administration, which is harshly critical of Kim and his regime. If that is the intention, such a policy is far off target. Such an approach will never work, since the Bush administration's policy is to confront force with force. If North Korea indeed hopes for peaceful resolutions for its problems, it must declare it will abandon its nuclear development in keeping with the will of the international community. If such an approach is used, a way will surely be found to open dialogue with the United States. North Korea should ultimately open to the rest of the world and reform itself to rebuild its economy. Its uncompromising approach will only lead to its own destruction. North Korea must quickly recognize that the lines are still open to Japan, the United States, South Korea, China and Russia. --The Asahi Shimbun, Dec. 13(IHT/Asahi: December 14,2002) (12/14) [Copyright Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved. No reproduction ***************************************************************** 24 Iran Was Burying Nuclear Facilities, U.S. Says Fri Dec 13, 3:15 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran was trying to hide parts of the nuclear facility it is building near the central town of Natanz by burying some of the buildings underground, the State Department said Friday. The United States says the Natanz complex and another facility in nearby Arak were part of a secret project to make nuclear weapons in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran said Friday they were for non-military uses. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the plan to hide them was evident from commercial satellite imagery which came to light this week and which cast some doubt on Iran's position that they are for civilian purposes. "You can tell that portions of the Natanz nuclear facility, the suspect uranium enrichment plant, ultimately will be underground," he told a daily briefing. "It appears from the imagery that the service roads, several small structures and perhaps three large structures are being built below ground and some of these are already being covered with earth. Iran clearly intended to harden and bury that facility," he added. This indicated that Iran never intended to declare the facilities to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) but was caught building a plant to make fissile material, he said. Iran Friday dismissed U.S. accusations that the Arak and Natanz plants could be used to make secret nuclear weapons and said it had already invited U.N. inspectors to visit them. The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said it was aware of the new nuclear facilities, had been talking to Iran about them since August and planned to inspect them in February. But Boucher said Iran had repeatedly rebuffed the agency's request for access to the sites. "We've always talked about the Bushehr reactor (on the Gulf coast of Iran), which will be subject to IAEA safeguards, but clearly that has been used as a pretext for obtaining sensitive technology for the weapons program," he added. Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 25 Lee HC Vows to Persuade NK to Scrap Nukes Hankooki.com > Korea Times > Nation By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter Grand National Party presidential candidate Lee Hoi-chang said yesterday he would meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il at the earliest possible date to persuade Kim to abandon his regime¡¯s nuclear weapons program if elected president in the Dec. 19 election. ``If elected president, I will give priority to resolving the nuclear issue,¡¯¡¯ Lee said during a news conference in Ulsan. ``I would fly to Pyongyng, Washington, Beijing, or wherever, for the peaceful settlement of the nuclear problem.¡¯¡¯ The conservative candidate added Pyongyang¡¯s nuclear program cannot be tolerated since it poses a fundamental threat to the safety of the Korean people and challenges peace in Northeast Asia and the world. He said the North should realize its brinkmanship tactics have no ground to stand on, now that even China and Russia have clearly objected to the North¡¯s acquisition of atomic weapons. A critic of President Kim Dae-jung¡¯s ``Sunshine Policy¡¯¡¯ of inter-Korean reconciliation, Lee demanded the government immediately stop giving financial aid to the North as the money could be diverted into funds for its nuclear program. ``President Kim and Millennium Democratic Party candidate Roh Moo-hyun, who wants to maintain the policy, should face up to reality,¡¯¡¯ Lee said. The second-time presidential bidder, who finished a close second to Kim in the presidential election in 1997, warned the current situation must not be allowed to influence the presidential race. ``It would be a grave mistake for the ruling camp to use the issue for strategic gain,¡¯¡¯ Lee said. With the presidential vote just under a week away, North Korea declared Thursday it would immediately reactivate its nuclear facilities. jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr 12-13-2002 17:42 ***************************************************************** 26 North Korea says it's reactivating nuclear plant Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2002 07:12:03 -0600 (CST) Planet Ark : North Korea says it's reactivating nuclear plant SOUTH KOREA: December 13, 2002 SEOUL - North Korea said yesterday it was immediately reactivating a nuclear power plant at the centre of a suspected 1990s weapons programme, 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 programme 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 programme, 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 yesterday. 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 tonnes 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. South Korea convened a special National Security Council meeting yesterday evening to analyse the statement, chief presidential spokeswoman Park Sun-sook said in a statement. A South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman said: "North Korea-U.S. 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." Working-level officials from the two Koreas were holding economic talks in Seoul yesterday which went on despite the announcement, local media said. BARGAINING CHIP? U.S. President George W. Bush branded North Korea, Iraq and Iran this year as part of an "axis of evil" making weapons of mass destruction that could be obtained by terrorist groups. Seoul's Yonhap news agency carried a lengthy Korean version of the North Korean statement repeating 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," Yonhap quoted the statement as saying. 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 talks until the North abandons its uranium enrichment programme. "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)). Story by Paul Eckert REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ***************************************************************** 27 Surry License Renewal sup 6 FR Doc 02-31436 [Federal Register: December 13, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 240)] [Notices] [Page 76768] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr13de02-111] NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION [Docket Nos. 50-280 and 50-281] Virginia Electric and Power Co., Surry Power Station, Units 1 and 2; Notice of Availability of the Final Supplement 6 to the Generic Environmental Impact Statement Regarding License Renewal for the Surry Power Station, Units 1 and 2 Notice is hereby given that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has published a final plant-specific Supplement 6 to the Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS), NUREG-1437, regarding the renewal of operating licenses DPR-32 and DPR-37 for the Surry Power Station, Units 1 and 2, for an additional 20 years of operation. The Surry Power Station units are operated by Virginia Electric and Power Company (VEPCo). Surry Power Station is located on the Gravel Neck Peninsula in Surry County, Virginia. Possible alternatives to the proposed action (license renewal) include no action and reasonable alternative methods of power generation. As discussed in Section 9.3 of the report: Based on (1) the analysis and findings in the Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants, NUREG-1437; (2) the Environmental Report submitted by VEPCo; (3) consultation with Federal, State, and local agencies; (4) the staff's own independent review; and (5) the staff's consideration of public comments, the recommendation of the staff is that the Commission determine that the adverse environmental impacts of license renewal for Surry Power Station, Units 1 and 2, are not so great that preserving the option of license renewal for energy planning decision-makers would be unreasonable. The final Supplement 6 to the GEIS is available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) located at One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland, or from the Publicly Available Records (PARS) component of NRC's Agency wide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS). ADAMS is accessible from the NRC Web site at (the Public Electronic Reading Room). Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, should contact the PDR Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to . FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: Mr. Andrew J. Kugler, License Renewal and Environmental Impacts Program, Division of Regulatory Improvement Programs, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555. Mr. Kugler may be contacted at 301-415-2828 or by writing to: Andrew J. Kugler, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, MS O-12D1, Washington, DC 20555. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 4th day of December, 2002. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Pao-Tsin Kuo, Program Director, License Renewal and Environmental Impacts Program, Division of Regulatory Improvement Programs, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. [FR Doc. 02-31436 Filed 12-12-02; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 28 Fish controversy could delay start of Bruce reactors Dec. 13, 2002. 01:00 AM Report fudged impact on fishery Study focused on different species PETER CALAMAI SCIENCE REPORTER OTTAWA?A bid to avoid costly imported electricity in Ontario or possibly brownouts next year ran into strong opposition here yesterday at a hearing before the federal nuclear safety watchdog. Members of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission grilled officials of Bruce Power about evidence that the power plant operator had fudged crucial details in environmental studies. The environmental studies are the first step in regulatory approval for Bruce Power to restart two mothballed reactors at the Bruce nuclear power station by next spring, a move that would add 1,500 megawatts of electricity to the province's strained supply. That timetable hit a snag yesterday with allegations that the Bruce environmental studies had misrepresented conclusions from an independent three-year scientific study of how the plant start-up could affect the lucrative whitefish catch in Lake Huron. The two parts of the Bruce power station are located on the eastern Huron shoreline near Kincardine. These allegations were made by the Chippewas of Nawash, one of two First Nations in the region whose band members operate major commercial fishing operations on Lake Huron. Several commission members took up the whitefish issue and clearly were not satisfied with the explanations by Bruce Power, its environmental consultants or even their own expert staff. "It seems to me they (Bruce Power) picked out some information and discarded other kinds of information," said Chris Barnes, a commission member and ocean scientist at the University of Victoria. Commission president Linda Keen noted that Bruce Power talked publicly about studying the plant's impact on the main commercial species, lake whitefish, but then quietly substituted another species that wasn't fished commercially. The commission's own staff echoed Bruce's explanation that the substitution was justified because more was known about the other species, round whitefish, and the commercial importance of lake whitefish made it more difficult to study. The arcane fish controversy is important because the nuclear safety commission could refuse to accept the conclusions of the environmental studies until Bruce Power studies the impact on the lake whitefish. That move probably would delay the next round of regulatory hearings and any start-up of the mothballed reactors next year by at least two months, according to commission officials. Steve Crawford, a Chippewas fisheries biologist, said commission staff refused to pay attention to findings by University of Guelph researchers who came to conclusions that contradicted those of the commission. The Guelph study concluded that scientists did not know enough to assess the ecological risk to any whitefish from the Bruce nuclear power stations. But Bruce Power ? which helped fund the Guelph study and received all the findings ? concluded no impact was likely on the commercial fishery. *Legal Notice:*- Copyright 1996-2002. Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. ***************************************************************** 29 Nuclear reactor shut down after fire from oil leak AGENCIES[ FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2002 01:51:07 PM ] TOKYO: The authorities were investigating the cause of a fire at a nuclear plant in central Japan which caused the reactor to be shut down, the plant operator said on Friday. There were no injuries and no danger of radiation leaks after the accident lastnight at the 1.16 million kilowatt plant at Tsuruga, some 350 km west of Tokyo, the Japan Atomic Power Co Ltd said. Plant workers noticed smoke coming from a turbine as they cleaned up some spilled oil, the company said. After removing the turbine casing cover, the fire erupted and was put out. The fire flared again an hour later, causing the company to shut down the turbine. It reignited on two further occasions after the shutdown, Kyodo news agency reported, citing Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency officials. "The cause appeared to be from the leaked oil, but we have not discovered why the oil leaked yet," said company spokesman Yasuo Yanagihara. The oil is meant to lubricate the movement of the turbine and prevent friction with the casing cover. The stoppage would result in a 44 per cent drop in the company's total power output of 2.62 million kilowatts, but would be covered by other operators, Yanagihara said. / Fri December 13, 2002 03:04 AM ET / By Bill Tarrant SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea could crank up a mothballed nuclear plant at the center of a suspected arms program in a couple of months, but it would do little to solve the communist state's fuel crisis, analysts said on Friday. Pyongyang said Thursday it was reactivating a Soviet-built nuclear energy research complex at Yongbyon, raising the stakes in a stand-off at the world's last Cold War flashpoint. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said North Korea had asked it to unseal and remove surveillance cameras from the plant, closed in 1994 after Pyongyang agreed with Washington to freeze its nuclear program in exchange for free energy. Facing another harsh winter, a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said the country had no choice but to revive the Yongbyon complex for critically needed power after Washington and its allies cut off free oil shipments for North Korea last month. But the decision to revive a tiny five-megawatt reactor is hardly a solution to the reclusive communist state's energy shortage that has shut down factories and condemned most of its 22 million people to huddling in dark, cold homes this winter. "It's almost nothing," said Chang Sun-sup, South Korea's chief representative to the Korea Energy Development Organization, charged with implementing the 1994 "Agreed Framework," adding it would take "about one to two months' to restart the plant. SYMBOLIC REOPENING "It's a symbolic reopening," Chang told Reuters. "But if they operate the reactor, they can burn uranium and extract spent fuel from the reactor." That's what North Korea did on at least three occasions between 1989 and 1991, according to the IAEA. Western intelligence agencies suspect North Korea reprocessed enough plutonium for one or two atomic bombs. North Korea in October finally acknowledged a program to produce highly enriched uranium, a key ingredient in nuclear weapons. That admission prompted the United States and its allies to suspend the fuel oil shipments in a bid to force Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear arms program. The North was promised a $5 billion package under the 1994 deal, including two "safe" light water reactors and 500,000 tons annually of heavy fuel oil to power its creaking Soviet-built factories. The shipments accounted for 15 percent of the total power output in North Korea, where power plants are only operating at 20-30 percent capacity, South Korean officials said. The light water reactors are still under construction. The Yongbyon complex, near the northwest city of Taechon, also includes a partially completed 50-megawatt plant whose construction was halted under the 1994 pact. An IAEA official once described the plant as "extremely primitive" and far from ready to produce plutonium on an industrial scale. NEGOTIATING PLOY Ralph Cossa, president of Pacific Forum CSIS, said it would take about a year of running the five-megawatt reactor before it can produce spent fuel that can be processed into plutonium. "So there is no sense of urgency," he said. "My guess is this is a ploy to get us back to the table or to frighten others to pressure us to return to negotiations, which also indicates that they are feeling the pressure from the international community," Cossa said. The Yongbyon complex also contains three nuclear waste storage sites, including one designated "Building 500" by the CIA that became operational in 1990 and is one of North Korea's suspect undeclared nuclear facilities, according to the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Northern California. North Korea is also believed to be conducting uranium enrichment tests at three other sites, including the North Korean Academy of Sciences near Pyongyang, South Korean media have reported. Reuters.co.jp ***************************************************************** 32 Wolf Creek Nuclear Plant Protection KAKE | Coffey County Chris Frank A Kansas nuclear power plant is going through major changes to protect itself from any kind of attack. At the Wolf Creek Nuclear Power Plant near Burlington, keeping intruders out has always been a top priority. Since Sept. 11, Wolf Creek has spent more than $1 million on security upgrades. It's also increased security operating costs by $1 million a year. Changes in Wolf Creek's security include a perimeter that's further away from the power plant since Sept. 11. The security gate is now just over a mile away, and tire shredders are in place if someone unauthorized tries to drive through. Security has always been a top priority at the Wolf Creek Nuclear Power Plant. But since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks things like concrete barriers have also been added to increase that security. The barrier to prevent someone with a car bomb from getting through seem to be everywhere. But what everyone wants to know is what would happen if a large plane crashed into the plant? "It would withstand a very large aircraft impact without any release of radioactive material. Without any harm to the public," said Wolf Creek CEO Otto Maynard. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires plant officers to be prepared against certain threats. "We train our officers constantly through drills and scenarios that insure that they can safely protect the plant from that threat," said Security Trainer Lauren Cox. Wolf Creek has more security layers and barriers than a lot of airports. Some are visible, some are not. But when you're dealing with nuclear power, something that's scary to some people in peaceful times, perhaps there's never too much security. http://media.benedek.com Copyright © 2002 Gray MidAmerica TV Interactive Media, LLC. ***************************************************************** 33 NRC: Surry License Renewal FR Doc 02-31436 [Federal Register: December 13, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 240)] [Notices] [Page 76768] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr13de02-111] NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION [Docket Nos. 50-280 and 50-281] Virginia Electric and Power Co., Surry Power Station, Units 1 and 2; Notice of Availability of the Final Supplement 6 to the Generic Environmental Impact Statement Regarding License Renewal for the Surry Power Station, Units 1 and 2 Notice is hereby given that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has published a final plant-specific Supplement 6 to the Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS), NUREG-1437, regarding the renewal of operating licenses DPR-32 and DPR-37 for the Surry Power Station, Units 1 and 2, for an additional 20 years of operation. The Surry Power Station units are operated by Virginia Electric and Power Company (VEPCo). Surry Power Station is located on the Gravel Neck Peninsula in Surry County, Virginia. Possible alternatives to the proposed action (license renewal) include no action and reasonable alternative methods of power generation. As discussed in Section 9.3 of the report: Based on (1) the analysis and findings in the Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants, NUREG-1437; (2) the Environmental Report submitted by VEPCo; (3) consultation with Federal, State, and local agencies; (4) the staff's own independent review; and (5) the staff's consideration of public comments, the recommendation of the staff is that the Commission determine that the adverse environmental impacts of license renewal for Surry Power Station, Units 1 and 2, are not so great that preserving the option of license renewal for energy planning decision-makers would be unreasonable. The final Supplement 6 to the GEIS is available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) located at One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland, or from the Publicly Available Records (PARS) component of NRC's Agency wide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS). ADAMS is accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/ (the Public Electronic Reading Room). Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, should contact the PDR Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: Mr. Andrew J. Kugler, License Renewal and Environmental Impacts Program, Division of Regulatory Improvement Programs, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555. Mr. Kugler may be contacted at 301-415-2828 or by writing to: Andrew J. Kugler, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, MS O-12D1, Washington, DC 20555. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 4th day of December, 2002. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Pao-Tsin Kuo, Program Director, License Renewal and Environmental Impacts Program, Division of Regulatory Improvement Programs, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. [FR Doc. 02-31436 Filed 12-12-02; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 34 Nuclear commission chief to resign early Friday, December 13, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal _Bush to name replacement, new chairman_ __ THE ASSOCIATED PRESS _ __WASHINGTON -- _Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Richard Meserve 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 as the agency faces a range of new challenges. Those challenges include protecting nuclear power plants from terrorists and licensing a planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Congress and Bush approved construction of the repository in July over Gov. Kenny Guinn's veto of the project. In October, the Department of Energy missed the 90-day deadline for submitting a license application for the repository. Energy Department officials have said they intend to complete the application by December 2004, when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will begin a three-year review. 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. _Review-Journal writer Keith Rogers contributed to this report. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 Stephens Media ***************************************************************** 35 Millstone says construction for nuclear waste storage may start by end of 2003 December 13, 2002, 2:07 AM EST WATERFORD, Conn. -- Officials at the Millstone Power Station say they hope to break ground on a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel by the end of next year. Representatives of Dominion Nuclear Connecticut, which owns Millstone, met Thursday with officials from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Pennsylvania to discuss preliminary plans for the facility. The company wants to start construction of the "dry cask storage facility" by the middle of 2003 and move some spent fuel into the storage unit by the end of 2004. Millstone officials eventually want to expand the capacity of the new facility to accommodate all of the nuclear fuel used during the life of the plant. Currently, the spent fuel is stored in deep pools of treated water within the plant structures. The new facility would house the fuel rods in sealed canisters in a dry storage area. Officials say the Millstone I reaction, which was decommissioned seven years ago, and the Millstone 3 reactor have adequate storage for spent fuel for now. But they predict Millstone 2 will run out of space for the waste by 2005. "The overarching goal of this whole thing is to ensure that we have a safe and reliable fuel storage system in place throughout the life of the plants, even if we go for license renewal," said Pete Hyde, a Millstone spokesman. The licenses of the Millstone 2 and 3 reactors will expire in 2015 and 2025, respectively, but the commission could grant extensions on those licenses. That would give the plants an extra 20 years of use. The federal government has agreed to take on the responsibility of disposing of the nation's spent nuclear fuel, and the Bush administration approved a plan this summer to build a vast nuclear fuel storage facility at Yucca Mountain, Nev. But until it is built, individual plants must store their used fuel, which will remain radioactive for thousands of years. Some local residents object to Millstone storing the potentially deadly fuel in a highly populated area near Long Island Sound. "This is a major development for Millstone, this decision to make plants store all the spent fuel at that station in dry cask storage," said Nancy Burton, an attorney for the Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone, who attended Thursday's meeting. "They'll still be above ground, and that's critical." Waterford First Selectman Paul Eccard has toured other nuclear facilities that use the dry storage method. "The dry cask storage, I think, has been shown to be a manageable method for interim storage at other sites," Eccard said. Eccard added that the federal government should still provide long-term nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain, and that spent fuel should not remain at Millstone after the plant has been decommissioned. "The people of Connecticut will be suffering a burden the federal government agreed to take on," he said. Copyright © 2002, The Associated Press ***************************************************************** 36 Brunswick prepares for worst-case scenario at nuclear plant* Last modified: December 12. 2002 12:00AM *By Millard K. Ives* /Staff Writer/ millard.ives@wilmingtonstar.com Anti-radiation pills will be distributed to Brunswick County residents next month, according to Health Department officials there. The potassium iodide pills are intended to reduce the chances of thyroid cancer from possible terrorism-induced radiation leaks in the post-Sept. 11 era. The pills will be available at five distribution points starting Jan. 14 for more than 20,000 Brunswick County residents who live within 10 miles of the Brunswick Nuclear Plant. Distribution points will be set up in Oak Island, Southport, Caswell Beach, Boiling Spring Lakes and Bald Head Island. "We will try to make this as user-friendly as possible," said Don Yousey, Health Department director. Pills for New Hanover County residents within the 10-mile radius will be issued around March, said Dan Summers, director of Emergency Management. Distribution points for New Hanover County are expected to be set up on Pleasure Island, where most of the county's 7,800 eligible residents live. Area officials decided it would be easier for people to get the pills if they were handed out in a number of locations as opposed to limiting the distribution to the health departments. "We will try our best to be convenient for everyone," Mr. Summers said. Residents who want the pills may pick them up, but accepting them is not mandatory. The potassium iodide pills, also known as KI pills (K is the chemical symbol for potassium; I is the symbol for the element iodine) will be available at the health departments after the initial distributions. Because of the terrorist concern, the federal government offered states millions of KI pills to protect people within 10 miles of nuclear plants. All eligible North Carolina residents ? including the 28,000 people near the Brunswick plant ? will receive two free pills from their county health departments. Carolina Power & Light Co.'s Brunswick Nuclear Plant is near Southport. Should a radiation leak occur, residents would most likely take one immediately after exposure and one the day after. But how the pills are taken will depend on the person and the amount of exposure, Mr. Summers said. Instructions will be issued with the pills. The pills do not offer full protection from radiation leaks. Thyroid cancer is the most likely result of exposure to radiation but not the only one. The pills only protect the thyroid gland. Millard K. Ives: 343-2075 millard.ives@wilmingtonstar.com ***************************************************************** 37 Pump turned off at Indian Point_ THE JOURNAL NEWS: A Gannett Suburban webpaper _By ROGER WITHERSPOON _ THE JOURNAL NEWS (Original publication: December 13, 2002) BUCHANAN — Officials at Indian Point 3 and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are investigating how a pump used to provide the nuclear reactor's coolant was manually turned off. An alarm in the plant's control room late Wednesday signaled operators that there was a problem with one of the pumps, and an investigation found the pump's electric controls had been manually shut down. "We found it in a position it is not supposed to be in, and we are doing our investigation," said Michael Kansler, chief operating officer of Entergy Nuclear Northeast, which owns Indian Point. "We are trying to determine why it was mispositioned and why it is not the way it is supposed to be. "One possibility is that someone did it deliberately, but I don't believe that to be the case," Kansler said. "If we were to determine that it was intentionally mispositioned, then I would worry about it. But we are still doing our investigation." The incident occurred as power was being reduced at Indian Point 3 to 60 percent because of problems with the plant's electrical breakers. The two operating breakers are in a Consolidated Edison substation across the street and transmit the plant's 1,000 megawatts of electricity to the region's power grid. Entergy spokeswoman Kathy McMullen said a line serving one of the breakers began to overheat, and power had to be reduced to keep the temperature within safe operating levels. Normally, the plant would have simply switched to a backup breaker, but that was out of service. It failed last month, forcing the plant to shut down for a week while it was replaced. The power reduction, in turn, affected the operation of the pump, whose controlling electrical circuit breaker had been shut off. "When the power was being reduced, the pump shut off," NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said. "They looked at it and found it was switched off, and the boron was not going into the reactor. They might not have realized it as fast as they did if it had not been for the reduction in power." The coolant used in the plant is composed of boron and water. There are several pumps providing boron to the reactor's cooling system, officials said, and there was no danger of the core overheating because of the loss of the one unit. Had the alarm that sounded Wednesday not alerted officials that the pump had shut down, the loss of more boron would have set off a different alarm. "It is not the only way to control reactivity," Sheehan said. "There are the control rods and other emergency systems. But this is one of the tools used to control the reactor." David Lochbaum, nuclear safety analyst for the Union of Concerned Scientists, agreed the pump's shutdown could not lead to a meltdown. "But if someone is tampering, that needs to be looked into and stopped. It could be much more serious next time." Peter Habighorst, the NRC's senior resident inspector at Indian Point 2, said the affected pump is in a "radiologically controlled area," which has limited access. "An investigation can lead you down different pathways," he said. "It may be an error. You look at it methodically. You don't immediately jump to the possibility of sabotage, though that may be the end result." The plant is still operating at only 60 percent power, and McMullen said it would "take a day or two" for repairs to be made. Copyright 2002 The Journal News, a Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper serving Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties in New York. ***************************************************************** 38 Canada: Fish controversy could delay start of Bruce reactors TheStar.com - Dec. 13, 2002. 01:00 AM Report fudged impact on fishery Study focused on different species PETER CALAMAI SCIENCE REPORTER OTTAWAA bid to avoid costly imported electricity in Ontario or possibly brownouts next year ran into strong opposition here yesterday at a hearing before the federal nuclear safety watchdog. Members of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission grilled officials of Bruce Power about evidence that the power plant operator had fudged crucial details in environmental studies. The environmental studies are the first step in regulatory approval for Bruce Power to restart two mothballed reactors at the Bruce nuclear power station by next spring, a move that would add 1,500 megawatts of electricity to the province's strained supply. That timetable hit a snag yesterday with allegations that the Bruce environmental studies had misrepresented conclusions from an independent three-year scientific study of how the plant start-up could affect the lucrative whitefish catch in Lake Huron. The two parts of the Bruce power station are located on the eastern Huron shoreline near Kincardine. These allegations were made by the Chippewas of Nawash, one of two First Nations in the region whose band members operate major commercial fishing operations on Lake Huron. Several commission members took up the whitefish issue and clearly were not satisfied with the explanations by Bruce Power, its environmental consultants or even their own expert staff. "It seems to me they (Bruce Power) picked out some information and discarded other kinds of information," said Chris Barnes, a commission member and ocean scientist at the University of Victoria. Commission president Linda Keen noted that Bruce Power talked publicly about studying the plant's impact on the main commercial species, lake whitefish, but then quietly substituted another species that wasn't fished commercially. The commission's own staff echoed Bruce's explanation that the substitution was justified because more was known about the other species, round whitefish, and the commercial importance of lake whitefish made it more difficult to study. The arcane fish controversy is important because the nuclear safety commission could refuse to accept the conclusions of the environmental studies until Bruce Power studies the impact on the lake whitefish. That move probably would delay the next round of regulatory hearings and any start-up of the mothballed reactors next year by at least two months, according to commission officials. Steve Crawford, a Chippewas fisheries biologist, said commission staff refused to pay attention to findings by University of Guelph researchers who came to conclusions that contradicted those of the commission. The Guelph study concluded that scientists did not know enough to assess the ecological risk to any whitefish from the Bruce nuclear power stations. But Bruce Power  which helped fund the Guelph study and received all the findings  concluded no impact was likely on the commercial fishery. Legal Notice:- Copyright 1996-2002. Toronto Star Newspapers ***************************************************************** 39 North Anna License Renewal FR Doc 02-31435 [Federal Register: December 13, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 240)] [Notices] [Page 76767-76768] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr13de02-110] NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION [Docket Nos. 50-338 and 50-339] Virginia Electric and Power Co., North Anna Power Station, Units 1 and 2; Notice of Availability of the Final Supplement 7 to the Generic Environmental Impact Statement Regarding License Renewal for the North Anna Power Station, Units 1 and 2 Notice is hereby given that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has published a final plant-specific Supplement 7 to the Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS), NUREG-1437, regarding the renewal of operating licenses NPF-4 and NPF-7 for the North Anna Power Station, Units 1 and 2, for an additional 20 years of operation. The North Anna Power Station units are operated by Virginia Electric and Power Company (VEPCo). North Anna Power Station is located on the southern shore of Lake Anna, Louisa County, Virginia. Possible alternatives to the proposed action (license renewal) include no action and reasonable alternative methods of power generation. In Section 9.3 of the report: Based on (1) the analysis and findings in the Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants, NUREG-1437; (2) the Environmental Report submitted by VEPCo; (3) consultation with Federal, State, and local agencies; (4) the staff's own independent review; and (5) the staff's consideration of public comments, the recommendation of the staff is that the Commission determine that the adverse environmental impacts of license renewal for North Anna Power Station, Units 1 and 2, are not so great that preserving the option of license renewal for energy planning decision-makers would be unreasonable. The final Supplement 7 to the GEIS is available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) located at One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland, or from the Publicly Available Records (PARS) component of NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS). ADAMS is accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/ (the Public Electronic Reading Room). Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, should contact the PDR reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: Mr. Andrew J. Kugler, License Renewal and [[Page 76768]] Environmental Impacts Program, Division of Regulatory Improvement Programs, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555. Mr. Kugler may be contacted at 301-415-2828 or by writing to: Andrew J. Kugler, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, MS O-12D1, Washington, DC 20555. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 4th day of December, 2002. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Pao-Tsin Kuo, Program Director, License Renewal and Environmental Impacts Program, Division of Regulatory Improvement Programs, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. [FR Doc. 02-31435 Filed 12-12-02; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 40 Iraqi Cancers, Birth Eefects Blamed on U.S. Depleted Uranium By Larry Johnson Seattle Post-Intelligencer Foreign Desk Editor Tuesday, 12 November, 2002 Southern Demilitarized Zone, Iraq -- On the "Highway of Death," 11 miles north of the Kuwait border, a collection of tanks, armored personnel carriers and other military vehicles are rusting in the desert. They also are radiating nuclear energy. In 1991, the United States and its Persian Gulf War allies blasted the vehicles with armor-piercing shells made of depleted uranium -- the first time such weapons had been used in warfare -- as the Iraqis retreated from Kuwait. The devastating results gave the highway its name. Today, nearly 12 years after the use of the super-tough weapons was credited with bringing the war to a swift conclusion, the battlefield remains a radioactive toxic wasteland -- and depleted uranium munitions remain a mystery. Although the Pentagon has sent mixed signals about the effects of depleted uranium, Iraqi doctors believe that it is responsible for a significant increase in cancer and birth defects in the region. Many researchers outside Iraq, and several U.S. veterans organizations, agree; they also suspect depleted uranium of playing a role in Gulf War Syndrome, the still-unexplained malady that has plagued hundreds of thousands of Gulf War veterans. Depleted uranium is a problem in other former war zones as well. Yesterday, U.N. experts said they found radioactive hot spots in Bosnia resulting from the use of depleted uranium during NATO air strikes in 1995. With another war in Iraq perhaps imminent, scientists and others are concerned that the side effects of depleted uranium munitions -- still a major part of the U.S. arsenal -- will cause serious illnesses or deaths in a new generation of U.S. soldiers as well as Iraqis. THE DANGERS Depleted uranium, known as DU, is a highly dense metal that is the byproduct of the process during which fissionable uranium used to manufacture nuclear bombs and reactor fuel is separated from natural uranium. DU remains radioactive for about 4.5 billion years. Uranium, a weakly radioactive element, occurs naturally in soil and water everywhere on Earth, but mainly in trace quantities. Humans ingest it daily in minute quantities. DU shell holes in the vehicles along the Highway of Death are 1,000 times more radioactive than background radiation, according to Geiger counter readings done for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Dr. Khajak Vartaanian, a nuclear medicine expert from the Iraq Department of Radiation Protection in Basra, and Col. Amal Kassim of the Iraqi navy. The desert around the vehicles was 100 times more radioactive than background radiation; Basra, a city of 1 million people, some 125 miles away, registered only slightly above background radiation level. But the radioactivity is only one concern about DU munitions. A second, potentially more serious hazard is created when a DU round hits its target. As much as 70 percent of the projectile can burn up on impact, creating a firestorm of ceramic DU oxide particles. The residue of this firestorm is an extremely fine ceramic uranium dust that can be spread by the wind, inhaled and absorbed into the human body and absorbed by plants and animals, becoming part of the food chain. Once lodged in the soil, the munitions can pollute the environment and create up to a hundredfold increase in uranium levels in ground water, according to the U.N. Environmental Program. Studies show it can remain in human organs for years. The U.S. Army acknowledges the hazards in a training manual, in which it requires that anyone who comes within 25 meters of any DU-contaminated equipment or terrain wear respiratory and skin protection, and states that "contamination will make food and water unsafe for consumption." Just six months before the Gulf War, the Army released a report on DU predicting that large amounts of DU dust could be inhaled by soldiers and civilians during and after combat. Infantry were identified as potentially receiving the highest exposures, and the expected health outcomes included cancers and kidney problems. The report also warned that public knowledge of the health and environmental effects of depleted uranium could lead to efforts to ban DU munitions. But today the Pentagon plays down the effects. Officials refer queries on DU munitions to the latest government report on the subject, last updated on Dec. 13, 2000, which said DU is "40 percent less radioactive than natural uranium." The report also said, "Gulf War exposures to depleted uranium (DU) have not to date produced any observable adverse health effects attributable to DU's chemical toxicity or low-level radiation. . . ." In response to written queries, the Defense Department said, "The U.S. Military Services use DU munitions because of DU's superior lethality against armor and other hard targets." It said DU munitions are "war reserve munitions; that is, used for combat and not fired for training purposes," with the exception that DU munitions may be fired at sea for weapon calibration purposes. In addition to Iraq and Bosnia, DU munitions were used in Kosovo and Serbia in 1999. Also in 1999, a United Nations subcommission considered DU hazardous enough to call for an initiative banning its use worldwide. The initiative has remained in committee, blocked primarily by the United States, according to Karen Parker, a lawyer with the International Educational Development/Humanitarian Law Project, which has consultative status at the United Nations. Parker, who first raised the DU issue in the United Nations in 1996, contends that DU "violates the existing law and customs of war." She said there are four rules derived from all of humanitarian law regarding weapons: Weapons may only be used in the legal field of battle, defined as legal military targets of the enemy in war. Weapons may not have an adverse effect off the legal field of battle. Weapons can only be used for the duration of an armed conflict. A weapon that is used or continues to act after the war is over violates this criterion. Weapons may not be unduly inhumane. Weapons may not have an unduly negative effect on the natural environment. "Depleted uranium fails all four of these rules," Parker said last week. On Oct. 17, 2001, Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., introduced a bill calling for "the suspension of the use, sale, development, production, testing, and export of depleted uranium munitions pending the outcome of certain studies of the health effects of such munitions. . . ." More than a year later, the bill -- co-sponsored by Reps. Anibal Acevedo-Vila, Puerto Rico; Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.; Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio; Barbara Lee, D-Ca.; and Jim McDermott, D-Wash. -- remains in committee awaiting comment from the Defense Department. THE STUDIES Gulf War veterans faced a wide array of potentially toxic materials during the war: smoke from oil and chemical fires, insecticides, pesticides, vaccinations and DU. Of the 696,778 troops who served during the recognized conflict phase (1990-1991) of the Gulf War, at least 20,6861 have applied for VA medical benefits. As of May 2002, 159,238 veterans have been awarded service-connected disability by the Department of Veterans Affairs for health effects collectively known as the Gulf War Syndrome. There have been many studies on Gulf War Syndrome over the years, as well as on possible long-term health hazards of DU munitions. Most have been inconclusive. But some researchers said the previous studies on DU, conducted by groups and agencies ranging from the World Health Organization to the Rand Corp. to the investigative arm of Congress, weren't looking in the right place -- at the effects of inhaled DU. Dr. Asaf Durakovic, director of the private, non-profit Uranium Medical Research Centre in Canada and the United States, and center research associates Patricia Horan and Leonard Dietz, published a unique study in the August issue of Military Medicine medical journal. The study is believed to be the first to look at inhaled DU among Gulf War veterans, using the ultrasensitive technique of thermal ionization mass spectrometry, which enabled them to easily distinguish between natural uranium and DU. The study, which examined British, Canadian and U.S. veterans, all suffering typical Gulf War Syndrome ailments, found that, nine years after the war, 14 of 27 veterans studied had DU in their urine. DU also was found in the lung and bone of a deceased Gulf War veteran. That no governmental study has been done on inhaled DU "amounts to a massive malpractice," Dietz said in an interview last week. THE ACTIVIST Dr. Doug Rokke was an Army health physicist assigned in 1991 to the command staff of the 12th Preventive Medicine Command and 3rd U.S. Army Medical Command headquarters. Rokke was recalled to active duty 20 years after serving in Vietnam, from his research job with the University of Illinois Physics Department, and sent to the Gulf to take charge of the DU cleanup operation. Today, in poor health, he has become an outspoken opponent of the use of DU munitions. "DU is the stuff of nightmares," said Rokke, who said he has reactive airway disease, neurological damage, cataracts and kidney problems, and receives a 40 percent disability payment from the government. He blames his health problems on exposure to DU. Rokke and his primary team of about 100 performed their cleanup task without any specialized training or protective gear. Today, Rokke said, at least 30 members of the team are dead, and most of the others -- including Rokke -- have serious health problems. Rokke said: "Verified adverse health effects from personal experience, physicians and from personal reports from individuals with known DU exposures include reactive airway disease, neurological abnormalities, kidney stones and chronic kidney pain, rashes, vision degradation and night vision losses, lymphoma, various forms of skin and organ cancer, neuropsychological disorders, uranium in semen, sexual dysfunction and birth defects in offspring. "This whole thing is a crime against God and humanity." Speaking from his home in Rantoul, Ill., where he works as a substitute high school science teacher, Rokke said, "When we went to the Gulf, we were all really healthy, and we got trashed." Rokke, an Army Reserve major who describes himself as "a patriot to the right of Rush Limbaugh," said hearing the latest Pentagon statements on DU is especially frustrating now that another war against Iraq appears likely. "Since 1991, numerous U.S. Department of Defense reports have said that the consequences of DU were unknown," Rokke said. "That is a lie. We warned them in 1991 after the Gulf War, but because of liability issues, they continue to ignore the problem." Rokke worked until 1996 for the military, developing DU training and management procedures. The procedures were ignored, he said. "Their arrogance is beyond comprehension," he said. "We have spread radioactive waste all over the place and refused medical treatment to people . . . it's all arrogance. "DU is a snapshot of technology gone crazy." BIRTH DEFECTS IN IRAQ At the Saddam Teaching Hospital in Basra, Dr. Jawad Al-Ali, a British-trained oncologist, displays, in four gaily colored photo albums, what he says are actual snapshots of the nightmares. The photos represent the surge in birth defects -- in 1989 there were 11 per 100,000 births; in 2001 there were 116 per 100,000 births -- that even before they heard about DU, had doctors in southern Iraq making comparisons to the birth defects that followed the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII. There were photos of infants born without brains, with their internal organs outside their bodies, without sexual organs, without spines, and the list of deformities went on and on. There also were photos of cancer patients. Cancer has increased dramatically in southern Iraq. In 1988, 34 people died of cancer; in 1998, 450 died of cancer; in 2001 there were 603 cancer deaths. On a tour of one ward of the hospital, doctors pointed out boys and girls who were suffering from leukemia. Most of the children die, the doctors said, because there are insufficient drugs available for their treatment. There was one notable exception, a young boy whose family was able to buy the expensive drugs on the black market. Al-Ali said it defies logic to absolve DU of blame when veterans of the Gulf War and of the fighting in the Balkans share common illnesses with children in southern Iraq. "The cause of all of these cancers and deformities remains theoretical because we can't confirm the presence of uranium in tissue or urine with the equipment we have," said Al-Ali. "And because of the sanctions, we can't get the equipment we need." (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.) ***************************************************************** 41 [:] Gulf War was a Nuclear War Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2002 10:25:12 -0600 (CST) --- / o o \ ===OO=====OO======================================================== http://pnews.org/MEP/phpnuke/ ---- (Middle East & Political Islam) http://g0lem.net/PHP/phpnuke/ ------- (PNEWS - news and views) http://g0lem.net/HTH/phpnuke/ -- (Veterans, Health - Pain & Support) http://pnews.org/NWO/phpnuke/ - (New World DisOrder & Bush Doctrine) ==================================================================== \_/ \_/ According to Helen Caldicott, the 1991 Gulf War was a nuclear war. The depleted uranium weapons deployed by the U.S. had a half-life of 4.5 billion years. Parts of Iraq and Kuwait "will remain effectively radioactive for the rest of time." http://g0lem.net/PHP/phpnuke/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=42 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Sub to PNEWS-L (since 1982), oldest "progressive" forum on the internet http://pnews.org/signup.shtml or send request to: webmaster@pnews.org Join other PNEWS-L forums: Rhetoric for ranting, raving, railing and propaganda and InterNUT for articles... PNEWS-L is for original essays =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ***************************************************************** 42 Gov't Adds Substances to Cancer List By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID December 13, 2002, 1:37 PM EST WASHINGTON -- Steroidal estrogens, wood dust and more than a dozen other substances have been added to the government's official list of materials that can cause cancer. Studies released this year by the National Cancer Institute and others have linked long-term estrogen use to breast and ovarian cancer, raising concerns among women who use the hormone. A federal advisory panel recommended the hormone be listed as a cancer agent two years ago, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences made it official this week with the publication of its biennial report on carcinogens. The report, listing substances that are known or reasonably anticipated to cause a cancer risk, was sent to Congress and released by the Department of Health and Human Services. While the expert panel recommended that the group of hormones known as steroidal estrogens be listed as cancer risks, members observed that they have benefits as well as dangers. The substances are used in hormone replacement therapy and oral contraceptives. The panel did not suggest banning estrogens but said officially linking them with cancer could make it more probable that physicians would discuss both risks and benefits when discussing options with their patients. The 10th annual cancer report brings to 228 the number of substances linked to cancer. While the new report lists steroidal estrogens as "known human carcinogens," some of the individual steroidal estrogens had been listed as "reasonably anticipated carcinogens" in past editions. Also newly listed as known causes of cancer in humans are broad spectrum ultraviolet radiation -- whether generated by the sun or by artificial sources -- and wood dust. The report, issued every two years, is required by Congress to help keep the public informed about substances or exposure circumstances that are known or are reasonably anticipated to cause human cancers. It does not determine how great the risk is or any balancing benefits from the substances. Added to the list were of known carcinogens were: * Steroidal estrogens, a group of related hormones that control sex and growth characteristics and are commonly used in estrogen replacement therapy to treat symptoms of menopause and in oral contraceptives. * Broad spectrum ultraviolet radiation produced by the sun and by artificial sources, such as sun lamps or tanning beds, in medical diagnosis and treatment procedures, and in industry for promoting polymerization reactions. * Wood dust created when machines and tools cut, shape and finish wood. Wood dust is particularly prevalent in sawmills, furniture manufacture and cabinet making. * Nickel compounds used in many industrial applications as catalysts and in batteries, pigments and ceramics. * Beryllium and beryllium compounds inhaled in dust by miners and also exposed to ceramics workers, missile technicians, nuclear reactor workers, electric and electronic equipment workers and jewelers. Twelve substances or groups of substances are newly listed as "reasonably anticipated to be human carcinogens." These include: * IQ, or 2-amino-3-methylimidazo4,5-fquinoline, and other compounds formed during cooking at high temperatures of such foods as meats and eggs and also found in cigarette smoke. * 2,2-bis-(Bromomethyl)-1,3-propanediol, a flame-retardant chemical used to make some polyester resins and rigid polyurethane foam. * Ultraviolet A, ultraviolet B and ultraviolet C radiation, which have shown a relationship to skin cancer. * Chloramphenicol, an antibiotic with restricted use in the United States because it can cause fatal blood disorders. The listing is based on a report showing increased incidence of leukemia after use of the drug. * 2,3-Dibromo-1-propanol, a chemical used as an intermediate in the production of flame retardants, insecticides, and pharmaceuticals. * Dyes metabolized to 3,3'-dimethoxybenzidine, that have been used to color leather, paper, plastic, rubber and textiles. * Dyes metabolized to 3,3'-demethylbenzidine that have been used in printing textiles, in color photography and as biological stains. * Methyleugenol, which occurs naturally in oils, herbs and spices and is used in smaller amounts in its natural or synthetic form in flavors, insect attractants, anesthetics and sunscreens. * Metallic nickel, used mainly in alloys with most exposures by inhalation or skin contact in the workplace. Metallic nickel is not contained in the nickel coin. * Styrene7,8-oxide, used in producing reinforced plastics and as a chemical intermediate for cosmetics, surface coatings, agricultural and biological chemicals. * Vinyl bromide, which has been used in polymers, in making fabrics for clothes and home furnishings, as well as in leather and metal products, drugs and fumigants. * Vinyl fluoride, which is used in making polyvinyl fluoride and related weather-resistant fluoropolymers. On the Net: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences: http://www.niehs.nih.gov Copyright © 2002, The Associated Press ***************************************************************** 43 Lake warning: Please don't eat the mussels [St. Petersburg Times Online: News of Tampa and Hillsborough] Radium is present in harmful amounts in the mussels of nine local lakes. But is that cause for concern? By BILL COATS, Times Staff Writer © St. Petersburg Times published December 13, 2002 LUTZ -- Joseph Joeb, a high school history teacher, has lived on Lake Charles for 46 years. This month, he was told Charles' lake-bottom mud contains the most radioactive mussels scientists have found here. "Do they give an award for that?" Joeb quipped. Such is the reaction to the study results, still being written by scientists, which show that radium is present in potentially harmful amounts in the mussels of all nine local lakes sampled. "I wouldn't eat the mussels," said scientist Doug Leeper, project manager of the study. "And I would recommend that people not consume them." Apparently, hardly anybody does. So in theory, the radium results are cause for concern. In practice, they are cause for a shoulder shrug. "I don't think there's any great concern about it around here," said John Salzer, president of Lutz's Round Lake Association. Until mussels were sampled in Lake Charles, the highest radium readings had come from Round Lake. The mussel radiation originally was discovered in Round. Once the residents understood that the problem was confined to mussels, their only worry was how the media would treat it, Salzer said. "We were concerned a little about the publicity being overblown," said Salzer, a retired computer equipment salesman. "People would think that you would sit on your back porch and watch the lake glow." The study's most significant news for lake users may be that radium wasn't detectable at all in the flesh of fish, only in the bones. Yet Salzer and Joeb said people who fish in their lakes don't eat the fish anyway; they catch and release them. Radium was found in safe amounts in the water, sediment and plants of local lakes, said Leeper, a senior environmental scientist with the Southwest Florida Water Management District, which sponsored the study. The mussels could be cancer-causing, according to a risk assessment Swiftmud commissioned two years ago. But to increase your risk of cancer, you would have to eat them regularly for a lifetime. Unchewable chowder Radium occurs naturally in the environment. Most people consume tiny amounts of it daily in food and water. Radium is more common in Florida soil, particularly near phosphate deposits. In the 1960s, as development and well field pumping caused lake levels to drop, homeowner groups on many lakes began obtaining permits to "augment" their lakes from wells. This pumped-in groundwater brought a different water chemistry. It replaced water that historically had filled the lakes from rain and storm-water runoff. The current study focusing on northwest Hillsborough County shows more clearly than any that the change includes additional radium. While radium in plants and sediment did not differ much among lakes, radium in the mussels and water of augmented lakes was higher than in non-augmented lakes, Leeper said. The mussels, and only the mussels, comprised radioactive hazards in all lakes, Leeper said. But these mussels aren't the restaurant variety; those are harvested from salt water, said Jim Williams, a Gainesville-based expert on freshwater mussels. Williams guessed that virtually no one eats freshwater mussels. He's tried. "You don't know an animal until you've eaten it," Williams noted. Williams bathed a bucket of live freshwater mussels in tap water for a couple of days, so they would flush the grit from their systems. Then he chopped them up for a chowder, carefully. Williams knew that the main mass of a lake mussel is its single foot, a tough muscle that can reach well outside the shell, expand into the mud and pull the mussel along. Williams tried, but failed, to keep feet morsels out of his chowder. "Every time you'd get to a chunk of the foot, there was just no way you could chew it," Williams said. When Williams heard that radium was being measured in lakes, he suspected mussels would accumulate it because of their lifestyle. They are "filter feeders" that burrow in mud, siphon water into their shells and filter particles of food from it. "I said, 'I bet those little hummers will get hot.' " Widespread implications Swiftmud took the news dead seriously. More than 60 lakes and swamps in this area are augmented with the agency's approval, so the notion of that boosting radioactivity could carry widespread implications. Along with its basin boards, Swiftmud commissioned $493,000 in studies, including the current one. A major finding so far is that radium somehow reaches non-augmented lakes too, in sufficient volume to make their mussels unsafe. Scientists note that even non-augmented lakes may be augmented indirectly from wells. Well water often is sprayed across lawns and citrus groves, with the excess draining into nearby lakes. Well water gets flushed into septic tanks, then seeps from there into the ground water. But many things remain unexplained about the variability of the radium readings locally. For example, why would mussels in Round Lake average four times the radiation of mussels in Saddleback Lake? The lakes are separated by one street, and both have been augmented continuously since the 1960s. Maybe it's because a greater portion of Round's water comes from the well. Or maybe Round's well is closer to phosphate deposits. A follow-up Swiftmud study, being conducted with the University of South Florida, will attempt to trace the sources of lake radium by closely monitoring the well pumps. Mussels in lakes Round and Charles also are being studied again. This time, scientists are measuring the distance between each mussel and the augmentation well. Mark Brenner, a University of Florida geologist who worked with Leeper, said future research could involve how the radium might spread beyond lakes. "There are a number of animals out there that eat mussels," Brenner said. "That could be something to think about." Williams, the mussel expert, said raccoons, otters, wading birds and some fish eat mussels. But he doesn't believe any of those animals rely heavily on mussels in their diets. "Raccoons and otters, they'll eat just about anything that moves in the water," Williams said. Brian Delaney isn't so sure. Delaney has spent nearly all his 54 years on Crystal Lake, which has the third highest mussel radiation among the tested lakes. He doesn't think any people eat the mussels, and wonders which predators leave the occasional broken shell on the lake bank. "When I don't see the raccoons eating 'em, I have my doubts," Delaney said. -- Bill Coats can be reached at (813) 269-5309 or . ***************************************************************** 44 Feds Need More Time on Skull Valley The Salt Lake Tribune -- December 13, 2002 BY JUDY FAHYS THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Federal nuclear regulators say they need at least another month to decide on plans for storing high-level nuclear waste on the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation. Citing the "bulk, complexity and significance of the case," the Atomic Safety and Licensing board announced Wednesday it will be mid to late January before it releases its findings on such questions as the likelihood of earthquakes and fighter-jet crashes at the proposed facility site. Neither proponents nor the state, which opposes the site, sees anything in the delay that would hint at the three-person board's conclusions. "We do not read anything into it other than they have an enormous amount of work to do and they need more time," said Sue Martin, a spokeswoman for Private Fuel Storage. Private Fuel Storage is the consortium of eight out-of-state utilities that wants to build a 100-acre above-ground storage pad for discarded nuclear power-plant fuel. Planned for Skull Valley Goshute tribal lands about 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, the site would be big enough to hold nearly all of the spent fuel the plants have produced since the beginning of the nation's commercial nuclear energy program. Proponents promise that their steel-and-concrete casks for the waste would safely withstand an earthquake like the magnitude 6.8 one that struck Seattle last year. But state leaders insist the facility would pose a safety and health risk in a state that does not have a single nuclear power plant. Proponents also say there is less than a one-in-1 million risk the casks might be struck by a failing fighter jet. Air Force pilots make about 5,700 flights yearly through Skull Valley -- about 115 of them carrying bombs or missiles -- flying between Hill Air Force Base and the Utah Test and Training Range, a 1.7 million-acre military preserve three miles from Skull Valley. Wilderness impacts and the project's financial soundness also are under consideration by the licensing board. The licensing board has been reviewing various parts of the PFS application for years and was originally set to complete its legal and technical review of the plans last spring. But, after spending more than three months in hearings this year poring over arguments on both sides, the panel bumped its deadline to next month. Martin said PFS does not mind the delay if it means a solid, reasoned decision. Dianne Nielson, director of the Utah Department of Environmental Quality and leader of the state's fight against high-level waste, calls the delays "an extension of time for the state. It sounds to me as though the board is taking time to get their decision out in a reasonable manner," she said. fahys@sltrib.com Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune. ***************************************************************** 45 West desert N-waste decision delayed [deseretnews.com] Thursday, December 12, 2002 Utahns will have to wait at least another month before finding out whether high-level nuclear waste is destined for the west desert. The U.S. Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, which held hearings on the proposal in Salt Lake City last summer, had hoped to make a final decision by mid-December on Private Fuel Storage's plan to temporarily store 40,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel rods on the Goshute Indian Reservation, 75 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. "It has become apparent that the mid-December target is unattainable, given the bulk, complexity and significance of the case," Michael Farrar, the chairman of the three-judge panel, wrote in a ruling issued Wednesday. He said a decision will likely be issued by the end of January. The delay is partly due to attorneys on both sides filing motions that mostly deal with two issues — whether the storage site can withstand possible earthquakes and whether nearby military aircraft training flights pose a threat. State attorneys argue that it would be extremely dangerous and unprecedented to store high-level nuclear waste in the Stansbury Fault area, which could be subjected to a large earthquake of magnitude 6.5 or higher. PFS plans call for the rods to be packed in 4,000 18-foot-high stainless steel casks set on a 3-foot-thick concrete slab — an open-air, free-standing facility. PFS attorneys say the facility, although free-standing, will be anchored to the ground with cement-treated soil and in the unlikely event of an earthquake tipping over a cask, the casks are designed to withstand disasters. The state also has argued that the facility is in the direct flight path of F-16 jets entering the Utah Test and Training Range. PFS argued that in a crash situation the pilots would have the training and presence of mind to steer the jet away from the nuclear-waste facility. The federal panel held an additional hearing to hear directly from a pilot. The state, which has promised to oppose the waste facility by any means available, has challenged the volumes of scientific studies related to the suitability of the Skull Valley site. In the end, the state hopes to convince the panel that Utah is an unsuitable site to store the nation's nuclear waste. © 2002 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 46 Waste issues discussed * By Darcy Ellis News Staff 12/12/2002 * Officials attend tour of N.M. nuclear waste isolation facility, examine protocol * With Department of Energy nuclear waste shipments scheduled to come through Inyo County early next year, county leaders may have gained additional insight into possible precautionary measures. Of particular interest to Inyo County representatives at a recent nuclear conference in New Mexico was how officials there dealt with transportation of waste on public highways, and how the same measures could be implemented here. The conference, held at the Carlsbad Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, was able to shed light on transportation issues for Inyo County just as the DOE is preparing to ship waste through the area from its Nevada Test Site in February. It also comes at a time when the Yucca Mountain Project (which would call for the transport of high-level nuclear waste through Death Valley) inches closer to becoming a reality. Inyo County Yucca Mountain Project Assessment Office Coordinator Andrew Remus and county Supervisor Michael Dorame reported back Tuesday to the Board of Supervisors on their visit last week to the Carlsbad WIPP last week. According to Remus, on the surface there are not too many parallels between the WIPP and proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. The WIPP, he explained, is essentially a vast salt mine in which transuranic waste - low-level refuse from the manufacture of nuclear weapons - is stored inside 55-gallon steel drums. The kind of waste being stored at WIPP includes disposable items like clothing, tools, rags and debris that are contaminated with radioactive elements, mainly plutonium, the DOE reports. The waste to be stored deep inside Yucca Mountain is of a different nature and is much more volatile. What the two projects share in common are transportation issues. The program used in New Mexico is one that Remus said can serve as an example for the jurisdictions affected by Yucca Mountain. Transportation protocols in place for the WIPP are very strict measures adopted by the Western Governor's Association, he explained, and also rather complex and expensive. To date, though, they have proved successful in preventing anything closely resembling a nuclear waste spill or leak, Remus added. Dorame pointed out to fellow board members that 1,400 shipments have been sent to WIPP since transport began in March 1999, and only two incidents in their regard have occurred. One, he said, consisted of a driver getting lost. Dispatch had been tracking him, however, and re-directed him back to the correct route. The other notable incident involved a driver falling asleep and driving off the road. There was no damage to the truck or shipments. According to Dorame, WIPP transportation protocol has a communications center in constant contact with the trucks, which themselves are custom-built and specially equipped with "very precise" equipment and capabilities. Dorame, calling the program "so well regimented," explained that each truck is equipped with its own "nerve center," and dispatch is specially trained to alert authorities to any problems and there locations on the road. "The drivers and trucks are not your typical, common drivers and trucks," Remus at one point explained, adding that equipment used in delivery of the radioactive waste is all computerized and "very sophisticated." Contact with the shipments once they arrive at WIPP is also carefully regulated, they noted. Dorame reported that, while touring the facility, guests had to enter and exit a number of sealed chambers to reach the unloading the area. While the program appears to have its share of success so far, Remus continued, the DOE has been resistant to implementing it in Yucca jurisdictions because of the cost involved and sheer volume of waste to be transported to the Nevada repository. But, he said, the DOE may have no choice. "If you've done it right in one place, you're expected to get it right in another place," Remus said. Dorame, for his part, told the board he considered the protocol adopted by the Western Governors' Association a case of government "spending the money to do it right." He said he now felt comfortable in saying that if there was a way to replicate the WIPP transportation program (with its near-spotless track record), public support would follow. "It was a good experience to see a program that so far from all indications has overcome all outcry of panic ...," Dorame concluded. As for Yucca shipments, they would not likely start until 2010, assuming the DOE receives the necessary Nuclear Regulatory Commission permits. The low-level shipments expected to start in February, meanwhile, will be sent from the Nevada Test Site to the Carlsbad WIPP via State Route 127 in southeast Inyo County and then the 1-15. Inyo County officials are working with the state to receive or benefit from available training and safe guard efforts, provided to affected jurisdictions for response to waste shipments. /©The Inyo Register 2002/ ***************************************************************** 47 Nevada officials concerned about next NRC chairman Las Vegas SUN: December 13, 2002 SUN STAFF AND WIRE SERVICES WASHINGTON -- Nevada lawmakers will be anxiously watching the Bush administration as it seeks a replacement for Richard Meserve, who on Thursday resigned his post as Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman, effective in March. "Who are they going to get is my concern," Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said. "The closeness of the administration to the nuclear power industry is of real concern." The NRC in the coming years will make important decisions that affect Nevada. The agency, which regulates the nuclear power industry, would be responsible for licensing both the construction and the operation of Yucca Mountain. The Department of Energy aims to bury 77,000 tons of the nation's most radioactive nuclear waste at the site, beginning as early as 2010. The department is expected to submit its application for a construction license to the NRC by December 2004. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said he hoped Meserve's replacement would be fair and objective about Yucca. But he also said, "I hope that his successor will realize that transporting thousands of tons of high-level nuclear waste across the entire country is too dangerous, and that deep geological burial in the Nevada desert is not a viable or safe option." Meserve was selected for the commission and made chairman by President Bill Clinton in 1999. Meserve said he is leaving the job a year before his term expires to take another one: president of the Carnegie Institution, a prominent research center in Washington. President Bush will nominate his replacement on the five-member commission and name a new chairman. The nomination requires Senate confirmation. Reid said there are plenty of candidates in academia who could independently review scientific studies of Yucca to determine whether the site is a safe place to permanently bury nuclear waste. But Reid does not have a candidate in mind. Meserve, a Democrat, leaves at a time when the agency is facing a range of new challenges that include analyzing Yucca and protecting the nation's 103 operating nuclear power reactors from terrorists. 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. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 48 LES boss a take-charge leader Friday, 12/13/02 | Middle Tennessee News & Information By KATHY CARLSON Staff Writer In some respects, George Dials presents a picture of contrasts. He was born in West Virginia in a house his coal-miner father rented from the company. Today, as president and chief executive officer of Louisiana Energy Services, he moves easily among government officials and the corporate elite. The 57-year-old Dials is congenial, making his case for a Middle Tennessee uranium enrichment plant in speeches, written statements and public meetings and pointing to opportunities for members of the public to make their opinions known. Yet he bristles at complaints from a longtime critic that he ''marginalized'' or wrote off people with questions related to a nuclear waste project he headed in New Mexico. Since July, Dials has been the public face for LES, an international business consortium that wants to build a $1.1 billion uranium enrichment plant in rural Trousdale County. He has asked, in essence, that in wrestling with this complex technology, public officials and residents around the proposed site trust that LES ''can do this safely.'' The project, he said in an interview, will afford people opportunity, not just on the economic level. ''We all want to do meaningful work,'' he said. Building an enrichment plant, he continued, will help ensure a stable supply of fuel for the nation's nuclear power plants, which generate about 20% of the country's electricity. ''What are we proposing to do?'' he asked rhetorically. ''It's to solve a major national problem.'' LES is a consortium made up of the European uranium enrichment venture Urenco, Canadian mining company Cameco, Westinghouse Electric, and three private American utility companies that own nuclear power plants. It is LES' second try to build a commercial uranium enrichment plant in the United States, which has one such facility. LES, then a different team except for Urenco, tried about 12 years ago to take its technology to Louisiana. It abandoned efforts in 1998 _ having spent $34 million after it first announced its plans. When Dials signed on five months ago, LES Chairman Pat Upson called him ''the ideal person for this role.'' A West Point graduate who led soldiers in Vietnam, Dials has served as a negotiator, entrepreneur and government energy official. Today, Dials draws on his West Virginia heritage in warming up Tennessee audiences. ''My mother _ was very proud of me when I was a nuclear trash man,'' he told a group of Nashville Rotary Club members last month, adding that she will be proud of him in his new job on the front end of the nuclear fuel cycle. The audience seemed to take to his message. Audiences in Trousdale and nearby counties have been a hard-er sell. Many questions center on safety, particularly how to handle the tons of depleted uranium that the enrichment process would generate each year. Full details will come when LES' licensing application is filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Dials said. ''I try not to promise something that isn't going to happen.'' LES' goal is to file the application by the end of next month. The earliest construction could begin is late 2004. He pledged ''open, frequent communication, which we've tried to do _ allowing people to understand where we're going.'' So who is George Dials? Business associates and other ob-servers say Dials is a man with a take-charge personality and a reputation of getting the job done. But it hasn't always been a smooth process, media reports in two states show _ a fact that Dials readily acknowledges. West Virginia years Dials' baptism by fire in dealing with sustained public scrutiny came in 1989, when he headed West Virginia's Department of Energy under then Gov. Gaston Caperton, a Democrat. Safety was a key part of the Department of Energy's mission, as it would be in many of Dials' succeeding jobs. The department issued permits for the coal mines that fuel West Virginia's economy, along with oil and gas operations. It also had responsibility for mine safety, environmental compliance and a program for reclamation of abandoned mines. Dials took over the high-profile job one month after 15 environmental groups had sued the department, claiming that it failed to enforce federal strip-mining laws. He needed to persuade state lawmakers to adopt new strip-mining regulations to conform with federal rules. A report by federal mining regulators concluded that in the previous year, the department did not inspect mines often enough, didn't cite all environmental violations and was slow in correcting violations. Dials pledged an open-door policy, welcoming environmental groups, citizens groups, coal operators and coal-miners union members alike. ''I want to create a level playing field,'' he told The Charleston Gazette just days into his new job. Dials pressed hard to get the new regulations approved and pushed to settle the lawsuit, succeeding with both. He hired new inspectors. Mining deaths also fell during 1989 to the lowest number since the state began keeping statistics. Caperton said the drop was largely because of Dials' increased emphasis on health and safety. Dials drew criticism after he tried unsuccessfully to change safety rules to allow strip miners to move high-voltage cables and other electrical equipment without turning them off, something that five of his department's eight electrical inspectors opposed. At the time, Dials said the change would improve mine safety, but two inspectors said fires, explosions and deaths could occur if the equipment came apart in transit. Dials put the rule change into effect as an emergency measure, only to be overruled. Recalling the controversy, Dials said he never would have proposed policies that would endanger miners. His father died in a mining accident when Dials was a child. Federal mine regulation enforcement actions against mines in West Virginia were about 57% higher during Dials' first 8« months on the job, compared with the last 8« months under his predecessor, a review of records by The Charleston Gazette showed. Dials said then that the difference stemmed from a change in federal personnel and their approach and questioned whether the time period was long enough to support a fair comparison. In an interview yesterday, he said the rising numbers also stemmed from better coordination with federal mine inspectors and from stricter regulations. Dials resigned from the post in April 1990 and left the next month. ''Dials was a very capable person who did not work with constituents as much as he could have done,'' his successor, Larry George, told The Gazette. ''He could have used a more collegial approach.'' At the time, Dials came under some personal scrutiny as well. He and his wife filed a personal bankruptcy petition in 1987 while in New Mexico, which became an issue in his West Virginia tenure. Dials said a downturn in the oil and gas industry hurt three businesses in which he had an interest. He said he paid $3 million in business debts before filing the Chapter 7 petition, which listed $437,916 in debts and $235,620 in assets. The court discharged their debts the following year, and the trustee later said it was a ''normal'' filing. At the time, Dials questioned whether his bankruptcy was relevant to his job in West Virginia. ''I started from zero,'' he said in an interview with The Gazette. ''Then I lost millions and started from zero again. It's not easy to do. But I'm tougher than most.'' Battles in the West After stints at a West Virginia coal company and with the U.S. Department of Energy in Idaho, Dials was hired in 1993 to head the DOE's Carlsbad, N.M., office. He took charge of a major project that had languished since the 1970s. The aim of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, was to take radioactive, plutonium-contaminated trash generated in weapons plants and store it safely in remote, underground salt mines, away from large population centers. His main mission was to get the facility licensed for operation. In 1998, Dials met one goal: Environmental Protection Agency approval for the project. But success wasn't complete. Environmental groups fought the project at every step. They charged that Dials reneged on a promise to ship waste to the site only after it received both federal permits for storage of radioactive waste and state permits for nonradioactive but hazardous waste. Dials said any talk that WIPP would wait to get both permits before moving any waste was a preliminary position that changed over time as regulations and personnel changed. WIPP's position was upheld in litigation, he said. Don Hancock, administrator of an environmental group and a longtime foe of the WIPP project, characterized Dials' style on the project as one of building support among backers while ''marginalizing'' anyone with questions. Dials called Hancock's assertions ''absolutely false. There was complete and active public participation in the whole process of WIPP. Don Hancock was offended because he didn't win. _ He is a professional oppositionist.'' Another observer, Matthew Silva, director of the Environmental Evaluation Group of New Mexico, said there was ''absolutely no doubt (Dials) was the driving force'' in getting the WIPP project licensed. Silva's group still examines the WIPP project on behalf of the state of New Mexico. Although the evaluation group sometimes disagreed with Dials on issues, Silva said, the two had ''open exchanges.'' ''George had a very clear idea'' of how he wanted the project to proceed, Silva said. Shortly thereafter, the EPA gave WIPP its blessing, and Dials re-signed from the project and took another job. WIPP opened in 1999. After a stint with a Washington-based consulting firm, Dials was to lead a TRW group that held the management and operating contract for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site in Nevada. His job revolved around the spent fuel from nuclear power plants and high-level waste. Dials said he was hired to im-prove performance and profitability at the installation, and to finish a report on the site's suitability as a nuclear waste facility. The contract TRW held with the Department of Energy also was about to be rebid. In late 2000, another bidder, Bechtel, wrested the $3 billion, five-year contract from TRW. Dials left Yucca Mountain shortly after the project changed hands early last year. c Copyright 2002 The Tennessean ***************************************************************** 49 Researchers say nuclear canisters may corrode in Yucca Mountain Nevada Appeal December 13, 2002 Associated Press LAS VEGAS -- Researchers working for Nevada told a panel of scientists on Thursday that heated, mineral-rich water seeping into the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump might corrode containment canisters and release radioactivity. A Department of Energy official dismissed the findings as flawed and said they were developed only to bolster the state's opposition to the federal project. "This is something the state has said before," said Allen Benson, spokesman for the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management in Las Vegas. He said researchers Roger Staehle and Don Shettel at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., based their findings on an artificially created environment "that could never exist at Yucca Mountain." Bob Loux, chief of Nevada's state Nuclear Projects Office, said Staehle and Shettel made their report to the National Academy of Sciences Board of Radioactive Waste Management in Washington, D.C. Loux said the two will make a similar presentation next month to the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board. The experiments suggest that heated Yucca Mountain water might dissolve minerals and form an acidic vapor called "aqua regia" that could corrode the metal alloy containers holding the waste, Loux said. Loux, the state's top anti-Yucca official, said the laboratory tests went beyond previous research suggesting that mercury, fluorine and other trace elements in the water might harm containment casks. Benson said the Energy Department stands behind scientific findings submitted to President Bush and Congress supporting development of the project. He also said a decision on which alloy will be used to manufacture the containment casks won't be made until the Energy Department applies at the end of 2004 for an operating license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Congress in July approved the department's plan to entomb 77,000 tons of the nation's most radioactive waste at the western edge of the Nevada Test Site, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The repository would open in 2010 and accept nuclear waste through 2034. Scientists have said the stored commercial, industrial and military waste could remain dangerously radioactive for 10,000 years. Gov. Kenny Guinn and the state Board of Examiners in September approved a new $4 million contract with Egan & Associates, a McLean, Va., law firm leading the legal fight against the nuclear dump. Nevada is suing in federal court on several fronts to stop the project, and Loux told the Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects that the money -- plus at least $3 million he said he will seek in the upcoming legislative session -- will fund the legal battle. Also Thursday, Loux said his office was ending the year with an unspent balance of $3 million. The state Legislature had allocated $7 million in taxpayer money this year to fight Yucca Mountain. Guinn's call for donations raised $1.9 million more. The commission praised and accepted Loux's year-end report on the state's 20-year fight against the dump. However, Chairman Brian McKay said the document would not be made public until it is submitted to the governor and state legislators. "The governor should have it before he is asked about it," McKay said. /Copyright Nevada Appeal. Materials contained within this site may ***************************************************************** 50 research questions waste canister durability Friday, December 13, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Yucca Mountain scientists decry worries_ By STEVE TETREAULT _ STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU _ _ __WASHINGTON -- _Scientists working for the state of Nevada said Thursday their research raises questions about the durability of special alloy canisters and drip guards that will be required to shield nuclear waste within a Yucca Mountain repository for 10,000 years. Nickel alloy disks roughly an inch in diameter and similarly sized titanium slabs showed evidence of corrosion after exposure to acid water solutions meant to simulate the repository interior, they said. Energy Department scientists are relying on the Alloy-22 canisters to protect the metal tubes that hold spent nuclear fuel pellets as well as titanium shields to prevent water from dripping on the waste packages within the repository planned to be built 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. "The idea that we're dealing with corrosion-resistant material is simply not so," said Roger Staehle, a University of Minnesota professor who discussed the experiments with a National Academy of Sciences board that studies the Yucca Mountain program. State scientists propose that environmental conditions within the mountain will produce powerful acid vapors that will contribute to corrosion. The research suggests the man-made barriers will not prevent residues of high-level nuclear waste from escaping the repository within a required 10,000-year period, said Bob Loux, head of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. Loux said previous experiments showed that other trace elements in the rock and water of Yucca Mountain also would hinder the performance of waste canisters. Allen Benson, a Department of Energy spokesman for the Office of Repository Development, formerly known as the Yucca Mountain Project, dismissed the research as "old news." "They created an environment that doesn't exist in Yucca Mountain and simply won't exist in Yucca Mountain," Benson said. At the meeting of the national science academy's Board of Radioactive Waste Management, the Nevada research also was questioned by James H. Johnson Jr., Howard University dean of engineering, architecture and computer science. Johnson said it was unlikely that waste canisters would be as exposed to corrosive solutions as the titanium and carbon disks were during the experiments. Staehle responded that the experiments point to the need for further research on container durability. _Review-Journal writer Keith Rogers contributed to this report. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 Stephens Media ***************************************************************** 51 Public Citizen Statement on USEC Plan to Test New Uranium Enrichment Technology Public Citizen* *December 9, 2002* The recent announcement by USEC, Inc. that it has designated its Portsmouth plant in Piketon, Ohio, as the site of a test facility for a new kind of uranium enrichment plant has concerning public health, safety and economic implications. The pilot facility would test centrifuge technology, for eventual use at a full-scale facility. USEC plans to submit an application for the test plant to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission next year and begin operations by 2005. Enriched uranium is used as fuel in U.S. nuclear power reactors. The Portsmouth plant has not been enriching uranium since May 2001. USEC currently runs the country?s only uranium enrichment facility in Paducah, Kentucky, using gaseous diffusion technology. Separately, a multinational consortium called Louisiana Energy Services (LES) is making an effort to build a centrifuge plant in Hartsville, Tennessee, where it has been met with significant opposition from public interest and environmental groups. Uranium enrichment facilities produce massive amounts of long-lived radioactive and hazardous waste in the form of depleted uranium (DU). 700,000 metric tons of DU have been amassed in the U.S. during the past half-century, which now sit in some 50,000 steel cylinders that are stacked in huge piles on site at the country?s old uranium enrichment facilities, including Portsmouth, where there is a great potential for leaks that could allow this dangerous radioactive waste to enter into the environment. Resuming enrichment operations at Portsmouth would compound this nuclear waste problem. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has stated concern for the health and safety of citizens near Portsmouth, noting that the Department of Energy (DOE) neglected to perform a baseline environmental assessment report and a screening-level human risk assessment. Indeed, USEC has an extremely tainted history of environmental negligence and what amounts to employee abuse, which has the government paying out millions of dollars to retired nuclear industry workers who are now suffering the health consequences of their tenure working with radioactive and hazardous materials. USEC has also been plagued with serious financial problems since it was privatized by the U.S. government in the late 1990s, calling into question the financial viability of the centrifuge project. John Longenecker , a former DOE secretary of enrichment who now consults for the nuclear industry, indicated that there is a good chance that USEC will not find financial backing for its new plant, and will require taxpayer subsidies. Already, at the expense of taxpayers, Ohio?s Republican Governor Bob Taft lured USEC to locate its test plant in Piketon with $11.7 million worth of state incentives, including $7 million in direct loans. The USEC project fuels the Bush Administration?s misguided program for expanding nuclear power production. Given the near-catastrophic maintenance failure at the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant near Toledo, residents of Ohio should be skeptical of this agenda. In the current climate, where nuclear power?s inherent dangers and security vulnerabilities have come to the fore, it is irresponsible to construct new plants to provide fuel for more nuclear reactors. Sensible energy policies should instead promote conservation, efficiency, and renewable source alternatives that will lead us on the path to a sustainable energy future. Fact Sheets: * (9/10/02) Don?t Feed the Beast! Nuclear Consortium Plots Development of New Uranium Enrichment Plant * (9/10/02) Energy Industry Consortium Plots Development of New Uranium Enrichment Plant in Tennessee * (9/10/02) Energy Industry Consortium Plots Development of New Uranium Enrichment Plant in Tennessee pdf document [49 KB] * (8/21/02) New Nuclear Power Plants = More Nuclear Waste pdf document [57 KB] Public Citizen ***************************************************************** 52 Governents Craft Hazardous Waste Strategic Plan ens GENEVA, Switzerland, December 12, 2002 (ENS) – Hazardous wastes require “permanent vigilance” to ensure that they do not cause harm to human health or contaminate the environment, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today in a message to a meeting in Geneva crafting an action plan to help countries safely dispose of hazardous wastes. “Since wastes tend to follow the path of least resistance, efforts are also needed to ensure that they are disposed of, as far as is practicable and sound, as close as possible to where they were generated,” Annan said in remarks to the Sixth Conference of the Parties (COP6) to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal. [Annan] United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan (Photo courtesy UN) “The overall challenge we face concerns more than disposal,” Annan told the conference in his message. “We must also minimize the quantity and hazardousness of wastes, including by improving the design of products and processes,” he said. The conference, which is scheduled to conclude tomorrow, is considering a strategic plan through 2010 aimed at accelerating action to protect human health and the environment from hazardous wastes. The meeting is expected to adopt technical guidelines on the disposal and recycling of lead-acid batteries, plastic wastes, biomedical and healthcare wastes, and obsolete ships. Today major mobile phone manufacturers signed a declaration expressing their interest in cooperating with the Basel Convention and with other stakeholders in the mobile-phone sector on the environmentally sound management of obsolete mobile phones. [signing] Mobile phone manufacturers sign declaration of interest in dealing with their e-waste. (Photo courtesy ) The Initiative for a Sustainable Partnership on Environmentally Sound Management of End-of-life Mobile Phones will address the recovery of this consumer product using a life-cycle approach. It is seen as the first of many such agreements to be developed between various industry sectors and the Basel Convention in the future. The manufacturers supporting the mobile phone initiative are LG, Matsushita (Panasonic), Mitsubishi, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Philips, Samsung, Siemens and Sony Ericsson. Senior officials from the participating companies signed the declaration during the high level segment of the conference before some 40 ministers and several hundred government representatives from most of the Convention's 151 member governments. Philippe Roch, Swiss State Secretary and Director of the Swiss Agency for the Environment, Forests and Landscape, who presided over the previous Conference of the Parties (COP5) in Basel in 1999, was pleased with the mobile phone manufacturers' position. [Roch] Swiss State Secretary Philippe Roch(Photo courtesy IISD-ENB) "Tackling the environmental implications of mobile phones through this initiative will provide a good example of cooperation between economic sectors and multilateral environmental agreements," he said. An amendment that bans the export of hazardous wastes for final disposal and recycling from developed to developing countries is under consideration by COP6. Other issues up for decision include - monitoring the implementation of and compliance with the Basel Convention, preventing and monitoring illegal traffic, an emergency fund or mechanism, a dispute settlement mechanism, and the legal implications of the dismantling of ships. Since the last Conference of Parties, the Basel Convention Technical Working Group has been working on draft technical guidelines covering the environmentally sound management of lead-acid battery wastes, plastic wastes, biomedical and healthcare wastes, recycling and reclamation of metals and metal compounds, the full and partial dismantling of ships, and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) as wastes. The technical group has also discussed cooperation with the World Customs Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), adjustments to the lists of wastes considered hazardous or non-hazardous, and proposals made by Germany on asphalt wastes and edible oil wastes, such as frying oils. The sound management of chemicals and hazardous waste was addressed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), in Johannesburg this summer. Delegates agreed to text in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation supporting entry into force of the Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent by 2003 and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants by 2004. The Johannesburg Plan of Implementation commits governments to promote efforts to prevent international illegal trafficking of hazardous chemicals and hazardous waste, as well as damage resulting from the transboundary movement and disposal of hazardous waste. On November 19 to 22 in Tianjin, China, officials from eight Asian governments met under the auspices of the Basel Convention to seek solutions to the growing deluge of electrical and electronic wastes. The Asia-Pacific Regional Scoping Workshop on the Environmentally Sound Management of Electronic Wastes is the first intergovernmental meeting to be held on the e-wastes problem in Asia. The environmentally sound management of e-wastes is an important element of the strategic plan now being developed by the member governments of the Basel Convention. [component] Computer parts (Photo courtesy Freefoto) Asian countries are the main importers of e-wastes generated around the world. They can earn income from refurbishing used PCs and disassembling obsolete PCs, monitors, and circuit boards and then recovering the gold, copper and other precious metals. But e-waste often contains hazardous substances such as lead, cadmium and mercury. Workers in e-waste operations may face dangerous working conditions where health, safety and environmental standards may be compromised. The Tianjin meeting said dismantling can be made easier and safer by incorporating these concerns at the design stage. Manufacturers can be given responsibility for managing the wastes resulting from the equipment they sell. National capacities and legislative frameworks for monitoring and controlling transboundary movements of the e-waste stream can be strengthened. The Basel Convention was adopted in March 1989 and regulates the movement of hazardous wastes. It obliges member countries to ensure that such wastes are managed in an environmentally sound manner. Governments are expected to minimize the quantities that are transported, to treat and dispose of wastes as close as possible to where they were generated, and to minimize the generation of hazardous waste at source. Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2002. All Rights ***************************************************************** 53 Scientists: Nuke waste containers unsafe Las Vegas SUN: December 13, 2002 _By Mary Manning _ Metal containers designed to store high-level nuclear waste in a Yucca Mountain repository would dissolve, risking radiation release, scientists working for the state of Nevada said Thursday. Materials corrosion expert Roger Staehle, a Minnesota consultant, and Don Shettel, a geochemistry and mineralogy expert, told the National Academy of Sciences Board of Radioactive Waste Management that metal alloys proposed by the Energy Department for use in a repository will not safely contain 77,000 tons of radioactive waste. The National Academy panel meets periodically to discuss waste issues and analyzes Yucca Mountain work, but it has no direct authority over the project. The board is interested in the Department of Energy's plans to use waste containers made of C-22, a metal alloy, to store the spent nuclear fuel. The waste containers would be placed in tunnels under Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Plans also call for the use of tent-like titanium drip shields to be placed over the containers to protect them from water corrosion. But the metals eventually will dissolve in heat and water conditions expected inside Yucca Mountain, the scientists say. Staehle and Shettel studied heated water in laboratory experiments at Catholic University to test the two key metals proposed by the Energy Department. A critical element of the Energy Department's plan for a Yucca Mountain repository requires the use of "engineered barriers" -- the waste containers and titanium shields. State officials have criticized the department for relying too heavily on the engineered barriers. The law requires that a national nuclear waste dump rely primarily on geologic barriers -- the mountain's rock structure -- to isolate the waste from the outside world. By relying primarily on the engineered barriers, the Energy Department has essentially admitted that the mountain cannot safely isolate waste, state officials allege. For their tests, Staehle and Shettel used an acid water solution that simulated Yucca Mountain water, heating it to temperatures between 158 degrees Fahrenheit to 293 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat produced an acid vapor called "aqua regia," which is so potent it even dissolves gold, which is a resilient metal, said Bob Loux, Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency Executive Director. As the vapor condenses and evaporates, it leaves a concentrated acid and solid particles behind. The solids attract more water vapor from the air and surrounding rock, forming stronger acids. "No metal will last more than 500 to 1,000 years, particularly C-22," Loux said. "These findings reinforce our belief that the U.S. Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have long used fuzzy science to prop up their plans to dump the nation's nuclear waste in Nevada," Loux said. The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, independent scientific review panel created by Congress that oversees DOE's Yucca Mountain work, also has expressed concern that federal scientists had not done enough tests on the metals. Previous laboratory work by other state consultants showed that lead, mercury, fluorine and possibly other trace elements in the water and rock of Yucca Mountain would weaken the metals containing nuclear wastes. "If the waste containers won't perform as DOE predicts, and the geology plays nearly no role in containing the waste, the site should be abandoned," Loux said. Energy Department officials have dismissed the Nevada research, saying it did not accurately simulate Yucca conditions. In a related matter, Nevada officials Thursday said they were eager to see the results of a General Accounting Office investigation of the risks of two scenarios: shipping waste to Yucca Mountain for permanent storage, and leaving the waste where it now sits, at power plants and Defense Department sites nationwide. The GAO report was requested earlier this year by Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, a Yucca advocate. The GAO is the investigative arm of Congress. Clark County Nuclear Waste Division director Irene Navis said GAO staffers have informed her that the study has been expanded to include study of the risks of terrorist attacks on waste shipments, as well as waste storage sites. The study is expected in February. "The GAO assured us that the study will be comprehensive and extensive," Navis said. Sun reporter Benjamin Grove contributed to this report. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 54 N-waste on Atlantic coast as a weapon Melbourne, Florida, USA --> UPDATED 08/01/2001 --> MELBOURNE -- Low-level nuclear waste dumped off America's shores more than 30 years ago could provide terrorists with radioactive material for a dirty bomb, scientists at Florida Tech said Thursday. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Tallahassee, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, met with members of Florida Tech's Marine and Environmental Systems department and said the threat must be addressed. I have thought for some period of time that the biggest terrorist risk is getting fissionable material and marrying it with conventional explosives," Nelson said. That combination, he said, could debilitate a major urban area. "Bad guys will figure out ways to get this done," he said. The U.S. government dumped nearly 100,000 drums of low-level radioactive waste off the coastline for 30 years until 1970. Most of the 55- to 80-gallon drums were du mped near San Francisco and in the Northeast, said professor Iver Duedall, who leads a Florida Tech team researching the problem, but 78 are known to lie in the Gulf of Mexico near Apalachicola. Florida Tech proposed a two-year study to audit and monitor the waste under the new Center for Environmental Security. The location of much of the waste has been public for years. Of all the potential hazards I have been briefed on, classified and unclassified, I have nev er heard of this one," he said. http://www.floridatoday.com ***************************************************************** 55 More on using n-waste as a weapon Melbourne, Florida, USA --> UPDATED 08/01/2001 --> By James Dean FLORIDA TODAY MELBOURNE -- Recovering nuclear waste from the ocean floor for terrorist attacks is not as far-fetched as it might sound, Florida Tech scientists and a NASA engineer said Thursday. In a meeting with U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Melbourne, Florida Tech Prof. Iver Duedall presented a map, available on the Internet, showing the locations of nearly 100,000 drums of low-level radi oactive material dumped into the ocean by the U.S. government before 1970. "A clandestine organization could use this chart to basically pick and choose the area you want to look at," said Duedall. Retrieving drums sunk up to two miles deep in the ocean would require specialized equipment, Duedall acknowledged -- most likely a Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) such as those used for oil exploration and searching sunken ships. But, said Duedall, "This technology is readily availabl e." In a worst case scenario presented to Nelson, Duedall said the radioactive material, once obtained, could be transported by barge or pleasure boat to a major port and detonated as a dirty bomb with a conventional explosive. An ROV could be purchased for $100,000, said Michael Lane, a NASA engineer who works with the equipment. Operating most ROVs is similar to using a computer flight simulator, he said, but controlling them from a boat in rough seas is ch allenging. Still, said Lane, with the proper equipment, "for the most part, it's not that hard." He called the hypothetical terrorist scenario "very feasible." The greatest concern, Duedall and Nelson emphasized, was not exposure to the radiation, which is low-level, but the public perception that a major metropolitan area was uninhabitable. "It wouldn't necessarily cause death," Nelson said, "but because of the contaminati on, people would be afraid to use these areas.& quot;
December 13, 2002 *Santa Fe New Mexican* *_home_* By JEFF TOLLEFSON | The New Mexican 12/13/2002 * As Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham sounded the usual political rhetoric in Santa Fe on Thursday regarding allegations of mismanagement at Los Alamos National Laboratory, administration officials quietly sent a much stronger warning to the University of California, the institution that runs the lab: Shape up or ship out. * "If they can't fix the problems, we'll find somebody to fix the problems and manage the lab properly," an energy official said, speaking on condition of anonymity during the secretary's visit. "We're here to listen, but when they (the University of California) find problems, they need to fix them." The House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Finance Committee have joined the FBI and the Office of Inspector General in investigating fraud and missing government property at the nation's first nuclear-weapons laboratory. Allegations of cover-ups and retaliation by lab management against whistleblowers have also surfaced. Abraham, who is in New Mexico on other business this week, would not comment on the university's contract. Nonetheless, he stressed the U.S. Department of Energy is watching the university carefully and will hold the institution accountable for problems at the laboratory. "The federal government has paid the university to run that laboratory, and we expect them to run the right way," Abraham said. UC's current contract at the lab ends in September 2005, but DOE normally would make a decision about requesting bids or extending contracts at least 18 months before the end of the current contract. That leaves the Bush administration about a year to decide, although it could hasten the schedule if necessary. As it happens, a likely contender for the contract would come from the president's home state: the University of Texas, which has declared its interest in running the nuclear-weapons lab. U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., a long-time supporter of the laboratory, offered his own stinging criticism. "Clearly, what I am hearing does not bode well for the management of this laboratory." The University of California has operated Los Alamos since its inception, always securing an extension of the contract without an open-bid competition. UC also manages Los Alamos' sister laboratory, Lawrence Livermore, in California. Although some have questioned whether UC should be granted such exclusive rights, the university's presence, as well as what many describe as the campus-style environment, has become a tradition at Los Alamos. For critic Pete Stockton, a senior adviser to Gov.-elect Bill Richardson when he served as energy secretary under then-President Clinton, the notion the administration would even consider opening up the Los Alamos contract represents progress. If a contractor can't do the job, he asks, why extend the contract? In this case, Stockton said, new management might be able to cut out the entrenched bureaucrats who are failing to address - or causing - problems. "I assume if a new contractor came in, they would pay attention to the people who caused ... the current problems. And they would take those people out," Stockton added. "You simply behead the organization." Los Alamos officials referred comments to the University of California. "I think certainly the university values the contracts greatly, and I think we have done a great job over the years," UC spokesman Jeff Garberson said. UC officials stress they are taking appropriate action to address problems and investigate allegations at the lab. ***************************************************************** 64 DOE Intends to Extend Sandia Management Contract* * December 13, 2002 December 13, 2002 Should the Korean Peninsula be under North Korea's nuclear threat for the second time? Does the North intend to induce George W. Bush to consider promoting a "precision bombing" against targets in North Korea, which the Clinton administration once promoted to eradicate nuclear facilities in the North, but decided against at the threshold. If such a crisis situation is created in the peninsula again, not only the North but also the South will be endangered. We believe South Korea should not be forced into a life or death situation as a result of North Korea's ruthless gambling. Unfortunately, however, recent North Korean actions cause us to worry over the possibility of a crisis in the peninsula. North Korea, following its announcement on Thursday of lifting the freeze on its nuclear reactors, demanded that the International Atomic Energy Agency remove the monitoring cameras from all its nuclear facilities yesterday. This can be interpreted as the North having expressed its will to resist till the end a fight it has started. The North is known for its brinkmanship tactics. Its ploy is to threaten the United States by taking 50 million compatriots in the South as its hostages. In 1994, North Korea, following its decision to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 1993, intensified pressure on Washington by announcing that it would replace used nuclear fuel rods of a nuclear reactor in violation of the International Atomic Energy Agency's regulations. At that time, the Clinton administration, which used more carrot than stick, promoted military contingency plans, which were stopped short of implementation but could have removed the North Korean nuclear facilities clear from the earth like medical surgeons remove a tumor. As was proved in the U.S. attack on Afghanistan, the United States has the capability and the will to do so. North Korea should keep this in mind. North Korea should understand the United States correctly. The North should never think of playing brinkmanship against the United States by taking 50 million South Koreans hostage. The strategy that worked against the Clinton administration will never work against the government under George W. Bush. And the United States is under a different situation from that of President Clinton in 1994. After sufferings and miserable damages from international terrorism, the U.S. government's first priority is the eradication of international terrorism and preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The Bush administration has already proclaimed that it will not use any inducements toward North Korea and there will be no negotiations unless the North ends its nuclear development program. Moreover, Russia and China, the North's traditional allies, are also against North's nuclear development program. If the North reopens its nuclear reactors, the shadow of nuclear war will be drawn on the peninsula. If the Korean Peninsula is taken to the brink of a war, foreign companies and investment in South Korea will be withdrawn from Seoul. The North has long claimed that it gives first priority to the Korean nation. Instead, is it now aiming at put the South, which can help the North, in the panic of war? The North's gambit cannot succeed. It should be prepared with the minimum condition the United States will accept as a precondition for negotiations. Then the South can ask Washington to accept peaceful solution. ¨Ï 2002 JoongAng Ilbo , Joins.com . All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 69 CHEMICAL WEAPONS Alleged sale called 'ridiculous' Boston Globe Online: Print it! By Charles J. Hanley, Associated Press, 12/13/2002 BAGHDAD - A senior Iraqi general dismissed as ''ridiculous'' a US report that an Iraqi chemical weapon was delivered to an Islamic extremist group affiliated with Al Qaeda. ''They know very well,'' Lieutenant General Hossam Mohammed Amin said yesterday of the US government, ''we have no prohibited material or activities, and all the stockpile [of chemical weapons] have been destroyed.'' Meeting with reporters, Amin also described as ''piracy'' last Monday's surprise US takeover of a UN master copy of Iraq's all-important arms declaration, a move the Iraqi government previously denounced as allowing Washington to ''play with'' and ''possibly forge'' the documents before they could be reviewed by the rest of the world. Amin, chief liaison to the UN weapons inspectors now operating in Iraq, said the Iraqis thus far are satisfied with the ''professionalism'' of the inspections. The UN teams, in the third week of resumed inspections, headed out again yesterday on their daily missions. They visited a missile test site west of Baghdad, an antibiotics plant, and a metalworking plant, among other facilities, Iraqi Information Ministry officials said. The Washington Post yesterday quoted sources as saying the Bush administration had received a credible report that Islamic extremists affiliated with Al Qaeda took possession of a chemical weapon - suspected to be the nerve agent VX - in Iraq in October or November. The sources were said to be ''two officials with firsthand knowledge of the report and its source.'' ''This is really a ridiculous assumption from the American administration,'' Amin said, speaking in English in response to a question. White House press secretary Ari Fleischer declined to comment on intelligence that the Bush administration may have received about a transfer. But he did not dispute that a transfer may have occurred. ''We have longstanding concerns about Iraq providing weaponry to Al Qaeda. We know Al Qaeda is seeking it,'' Fleischer said. In a wrap-up report in 1999, after UN inspectors withdrew from Iraq, the United Nations said the Iraqis had not adequately explained the disposition of 1.5 tons out of 3.9 tons of VX nerve agent they acknowledged producing in the 1980s, all of which Iraq said it had destroyed. Amin spoke after two days of extensive activity by the UN inspectors. On Wednesday, they paid unannounced visits to at least eight sites, including a medical research center and a new missile factory. The teams from the UN nuclear agency - the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna - have intensified their work this week, after receiving reinforcements Sunday that increased the number of nuclear inspectors to 27. That same day, Iraq's massive arms declaration was flown from Baghdad to New York and Vienna, where analysts are poring through its 12,000 pages in search of still more sites to visit and questions to answer. The declaration was filed under a new UN Security Council resolution requiring Iraq to report on nuclear, biological, chemical, and missile research and production. The resolution also mandates that Iraq surrender any weapons of mass destruction - which it denies it has. The New York Times reported today, meanwhile, that US intelligence agencies that have been reviewing the Iraqi files have reached a preliminary conclusion that the declaration does not account for chemical and biological materials missing when UN inspectors left Iraq four years ago. The Times also cited US officials and UN diplomats as saying that the nuclear part of the Iraqi declaration leaves open several questions, among them why Iraq was seeking to buy uranium in Africa in recent years. The US and UN sources also told the Times there was very little new material in the Iraqi declaration, which appeared to be largely recycled. This story ran on page A45 of the Boston Globe on 12/13/2002. © Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company. ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************