***************************************************************** 10/23/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.273 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Axis of Oil and Nuclear Nightmare 2 Bush Struggles With Regime Change 3 The Tenet defense (9-11) 4 Feeding crocodiles: Why you can't 'fight terror with peace' 5 Hillary Dem Blames Bush for N. Korean Nukes* 6 N.Korea Nukes Could Harm China 7 IAEA to begin lab inspections today 8 Koreas Struggle on Nuclear Concerns 9 Russia, France Oppose Iraq Draft 10 Daily says U.S. proof was customs papers* 11 Vaguely, North calls for dialogue* 12 Confusion over Korea's interests* 13 A flawed agreement* 14 S. Korean Leader Calls for Dialogue 15 U.S. Faces Opposition to Iraq Draft 16 We won't help spies: UN weapons inspector - 17 EU calls nuclear accord invalid -- 18 Koreas 'to tackle nuclear concerns' 19 Pravda.RU Talks in Korea: Nuclear Queston Remains 20 US: Nuclear Technology Seen Spreading 21 DPRK, South Korea Issue Joint Statement After Talks 22 How North Korea sees the world - 23 United States suspects North Korea of eyeing nuclear attack on 24 Terror, Korea, Iraq in Limelight at APEC Summit 25 [A view from abroad] 'Speak softly and carry a big stick' 26 Kazakhstan Calls for Int¡¯l Community¡¯s Involvement in Nuclear Cris 27 [Editorial] War cannot be an option 28 Kim, Bush, Koizumi to discuss N. Korean nuke threat in APEC NUCLEAR REACTORS 29 US: NRC Announces Meeting on Memorandum of Understanding with EPA on 30 US: Davis-Besse supervisor sues FirstEnergy over leave 31 Doosan Heavy makes Korea's first export of nuclear power station 32 US: Duke agrees to $19 million payment after audit 33 US: D-B worker files suit charging retaliation - 34 US: Experts not allowed to look into damage in nuclear reactor near NUCLEAR SAFETY 35 US: Irradiation Phytosanitary Treatment of Imported Fruits 36 [radiation-survivors] Italian Study Raises Concerns About 37 Taiwan: State must pre-empt terror: DPP 38 US: NRC Announces Availability of Guidance on Licenses for Medical 39 Parents of dying Iraqi children vent fury at Bush 40 AU: Carr wants army to guard nuclear plant - 41 US: Pediatricians study nuclear terror impact 42 Submarine on fire in Murmansk suburb 43 US: Plants' neighbors line up to get free `nuke pills' 44 Officials: lead bars on ship used by alleged Islamic extremists 45 US: Man's Sock Tests Positive For Radiation 46 US: Special helicopter to begin radiation sweeps today NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 47 Ottawa ignoring toxic waste, report says* 48 AU: The Advertiser: $300,000 bid to promote SA nuclear dump 49 Leaders quiz nuclear group manager * 50 US: Bulk of radioactive tritium removed from nuclear site 51 Ottawa ignoring toxic waste, report says 52 China turns out first nuclear fuel transport vehicle 53 US: Yucca rep visits Lovelock, and promotes nuke dump site north of NUCLEAR WEAPONS 54 Multipolar Nuke Nightmare 55 South Korea Presses North on Nukes 56 A Swede whose word could trigger war in Iraq US DEPT. OF ENERGY 57 Chinese President to Meet With Bush 58 Mound plant cleanup ahead of schedule 59 LANL Air Meets Federal Regulations* * 60 Challenger blames GOP for INEEL uncertainty 61 Energy secretary to mark plant's 50 years 62 DOE grant promotes nuclear engineering in the Big Ten 63 Hillary Dem Blames Bush for N. Korean Nukes 64 Rep. Wamp 'miffed' by sick-worker House bill 65 DOE Announces Grants for Nuclear Energy Research Projects 66 DOE Awards $33 Million for 38 Research Projects to Address 67 DOE grant promotes nuclear engineering in the Big Ten* OTHER NUCLEAR 68 Podesta urges airing of Area 51 69 Iceland invents energy-from-water machine 70 Murmansk Shipping Company Joins World Association of Nuclear 71 Scoop: DoD News Briefing 22/Oct - Rumsfeld and Gen. Myers ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Axis of Oil and Nuclear Nightmare Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2002 22:53:24 -0500 (CDT) WHAT'S NEW ON CORPWATCH Holding Corporations Accountable October 23, 2002 OIL, GAS AND COAL Iraq and the Axis of Oil http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=4508 Does anyone remember the Enron scandal and George Bush's ex-best friend Ken Lay? It is hard to stay focused on corporate crime in America when our nation's leaders put the country on a war path. Why is Washington risking a morass that might plague the nation and the world for the foreseeable future? There are no simple or complete answers. But one thing is patently obvious. It's a three-letter word: OIL. This CorpWatch opinion piece makes the connections between the march towards war against Iraq and Washington's quest for control of the world's oil supply. UTILITY DEREGULATION Nuclear Renaissance or Nuclear Nightmare? http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=4528 Thought the nuclear power industry was dead? Guess again. It's poised for a "renaissance" with help from its friends in the White House. In this CorpWatch exclusive, veteran investigative journalist Karl Grossman exposes plans to build a host of hazardous new nukes, possibly in a neighborhood near you. In this atmosphere of deregulation and disregard for environmental justice and human rights the so-called nuclear "renaissance" could prove to be a nightmare. Check back throughout the week for updated news and bulletins. Tell your friends to subscribe to the CorpWatch listserv. Just go to http://www.corpwatch.org and click on "Join our email list." ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: rich@pencil.math.missouri.edu EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://igc.topica.com/u/?aVxikF.aVxtHr.cmljaEBw Or send an email to: corp-watchers-unsubscribe@igc.topica.com T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================ ***************************************************************** 2 Bush Struggles With Regime Change Guardian Unlimited | World Latest | Associated Press [UP] Wednesday October 23, 2002 7:30 AM WASHINGTON (AP) - Suddenly, the Bush administration is struggling with what ``regime change'' means as it talks about confronting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and pushes for tougher arms-inspection rules at the United Nations. Different members of President Bush's team don't seem in sync on the term, although White House spokesman Ari Fleischer dismissed the controversy on Tuesday as involving ``the mother of all hypotheticals.'' The dispute arose after Secretary of State Colin Powell appeared to soften the U.S. stance toward war with Iraq when he suggested during the weekend that the United States might not remove Saddam from office should he abandon all weapons of mass destruction. ``We think the Iraqi people would be a lot better off with a different leader, a different regime. But the principal offense here is weapons of mass destruction. ... The major issue before us is disarmament,'' Powell said Sunday on NBC's ``Meet the Press.'' Those words set off a small tempest. Was the administration softening its often-stated position for ``regime change?'' No, insisted Fleischer. Then President Bush himself added to the confusion Monday, when he said he did not think Saddam would disarm, even if it would let him stay in power. ``We don't believe he's going to change,'' Bush said. ``However, if he were to meet all the conditions of the United Nations, ... that in itself would signal the regime has changed.'' Asked Tuesday whether ``regime change'' meant Saddam himself must go, Fleischer told reporters aboard Air Force One: ``The objective is for Saddam Hussein's Iraq to disarm, to stop threatening its neighbors, to stop repressing minorities within its own country. And that's why Congress passed the policy of regime change.'' ``The policy is regime change. Saddam Hussein is the heart of the regime,'' Fleischer said. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld clearly wasn't eager to weigh in on the matter. Asked at a Pentagon briefing whether the administration was now sending a signal that ``regime change'' could come by a change in the regime's behavior, Rumsfeld replied that people could answer that for themselves. ``They can look at the record, they can look at Saddam Hussein, they can look at the country ...'' ``How do you answer it?'' the questioner persisted. ``Very carefully,'' Rumsfeld said. The U.S. policy for ``regime change'' has been interpreted widely to mean Saddam's removal. But with the United States running into difficulty selling its hard-line case at the United Nations, the diplomatic landscape may be shifting. Wayne Fields, an expert on political rhetoric at Washington University in St. Louis, said Bush created a problem for his administration from the outset by personalizing the struggle, much as he had done with his ``wanted, dead or alive'' rhetoric against Osama bin Laden, the fugitive Saudi leader of the al-Qaida terror network. Bush's case was further complicated by North Korea's admission last week that it has a nuclear weapons program of its own, Fields said. ``So now it becomes: Which of the people that we don't like has which of the weapons of mass destruction that we don't like. And, with Iraq, we have never been clear from the very start what would follow this regime.'' Officials of the administration and its congressional allies repeatedly cite the 1998 ``Iraq Liberation Act'' as justification for seeking regime change. But that legislation did not suggest that the United States itself unseat Saddam, only to provide support to Iraqi factions who want him gone, beginning with a first installment of $97 million. The legislation did not specify whether the support should be military. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., a prime sponsor of the 1998 law, has said he was glad Bush sought and won congressional support for pre-emptive U.S. action against Iraq if he deems it necessary. Brownback also cited, however, ``a need to increase our workings'' among anti-Saddam factions in northern Iraq and in southern Iraq ``in our efforts to strangle him and make him the `mayor of Baghdad' while the opposition forces build up.'' In other words, Brownback's view of regime change is essentially of a homegrown variety. James A. Baker III, secretary of state in the administration of Bush's father, said as far as he's concerned, ``The only way to change the regime is to occupy the country - go into Baghdad, depose the current regime and install a new regime.'' ``I don't think there is a magic bullet,'' Baker said Monday in a lecture at the University of Akron in Ohio. Baker reiterated his position that the United States should not go it alone but try to assemble an international coalition. Fleischer deflected several attempts Tuesday at being more specific on ``regime change.'' ``You're asking the mother of all hypotheticals,'' he said at one point. The White House spokesman also likened the dispute to a question of ``how many devils can dance on the head of a pin.'' Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ***************************************************************** 3 The Tenet defense (9-11) timesunion.com The CIA director's testimony before Congress is one more reason to demand more oversight First published: Wednesday, October 23, 2002 CIA Director George Tenet, like former FBI Director Louis Freeh before him, insists that his agency was doing its job before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but that budget constraints hindered the effort to track down the suspected terrorists in time to avert disaster. But it is a feeble argument, and the joint congressional committee that recently completed hearings into intelligence failures before Sept. 11 should say as much, not to place blame but so we don't repeat the mistakes. Sept. 11 was not a quick, isolated attack that caught everyone by surprise. It was planned for years, orchestrated on a grand scale and carried out in separate locations on the same day. And there were clues dropped along the way. That the CIA failed to connect the dots is one thing. That the agency's director now says it was doing all it could is another. Quite clearly, it should have been doing more. Indeed, Mr. Tenet, in his testimony before the congressional committee last week, acknowledged that his agency failed to place two of the hijackers on the watch list in time for the FBI to hunt them down. That lapse alone shows the agency was not doing all that it should have. It also belies Mr. Tenet's claim in 1999 testimony that his agency had convinced al-Qaida that it could no longer "organize and operate with impunity." Nor did Mr. Tenet's testimony last week back up his claim that the agency was hampered by limited resources. Despite the agency's new priorities on terrorism, and expanded resources, Mr. Tenet said al-Qaida is now as strong and as much of a threat as it was before Sept. 11. If so, then the fault lies with leadership, not resources. It's possible, of course, that Mr. Tenet is issuing such a warning to protect himself from blame in the event of a future terrorist attack. If one occurs, he can always remind lawmakers that he warned them. But this is no way to run an agency or ensure the safety of the American public, and Mr. Tenet must show he has learned from past shortcomings. Congress should consider the Tenet and Freeh testimony when it returns from its break to continue its deliberations over how to constitute the nation's new Department of Homeland Security. There are no plans to give the new department any power to hold the FBI and CIA accountable. But Messrs. Tenet and Freeh show why such oversight is imperative. , Joins.com . All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 11 Vaguely, North calls for dialogue* *by Lee Young-jong * Octorber 24, 2002 After Seoul's delegation to the latest round of ministerial talks returned from Pyeongyang with a controversial agreed statement Wednesday, an official here said the government would step up efforts for international dialogue with the North to end its nuclear weapons program. He said the biggest issue was ensuring Pyeongyang's compliance with international commitments on nuclear arms control, including a 1994 agreement with the United States. A National Security Council meeting will be held Thursday to coordinate the government's position, which will be presented at meetings with the leaders of the United States, Japan and Russia, the official said. The meeting in Pyeongyang was extended by a day because of difficulties in hammering out an agreed statement, but the document met with a mixed reception in Seoul because of what some critics said was weak language concerning the North's persistent nuclear weapons development efforts. The delegates finally issued a joint statement in an open meeting at about 2 a.m. Wednesday before reconvening again behind closed doors. A few hours later, Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun and his team flew back to Seoul on a chartered flight. The two Koreas agreed to "cooperate actively on all matters, including the nuclear issue," within the framework of peace and security for the Korean peninsula based on the spirit of the joint declaration made by the leaders two years ago in Pyeongyang. Mr. Jeong was visibly relieved as he spoke to reporters Wednesday afternoon in Seoul, saying the North seemed to want to use the ministerial meeting as a channel for insisting it was open to dialogue. "It was certainly more than tossing the ball back into the other's court," Mr. Jeong said of the atmosphere at the meetings. The joint statement also announced a working-level meeting in November to discuss a marine transportation agreement that would allow commercial ship passage in the other nation's waters. Discussions, at an unspecified date, will also be held to allow southern boats to fish off the North's east coast. The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries said future discussions would include talks to open ports and simplify procedures for exchanging goods. The two governments also emphasized their intention to set up a permanent family meeting point at Mount Geumgang and to locate Korean War-era missing persons. There was no mention of the plight of about 450 South Koreans believed to have been abducted by the North. Rhee Bong-jo, a Unification Ministry official who took part in the talks, said the North wanted the wartime missing persons to be dealt with first. Officials said there was progress in planning for an industrial complex at Gaeseong in North Korea, but working-level talks earlier scheduled for Oct. 25 have been postponed. The joint statement said construction would begin in December and that Seoul would establish a liaison office there. ***************************************************************** 12 [INSIGHT]Confusion over Korea's interests* *Moon Chang-keuk* Octorber 23, 2002 Passing by the U.S. Embassy in Gwanghwamun, one has the feel of passing through a battlefield. Hundreds of heavily armed police swarm around the embassy compound and the streets nearby. In sharp contrast, the Russian Embassy and the Chinese Embassy in Seoul are sights of idyllic peace, complete with dozing guards. Historically, the United States is our ally, while we fought with the former Soviet Union and China, both of whom sided with North Korea. The United States is the only country that we have signed a defense treaty with. Yet, the American office looks like that of an enemy. A fender-bender or trifling argument becomes a social issue if a U.S. serviceman is involved. The phenomenon arises from the differences of opinion about the U.S. troops stationed in South Korea. Some view the U.S. presence as helpful to the national interest; others say it is harmful. Were we one country with one people like other countries, such judgments of national interest might have been simpler. Protecting our country, prospering economically and leading happy lives ?these would have been the elements of our national interest. Unfortunately, our situation as a divided country makes our concepts of national interest more complex. The national interests of North and South Korea and the interests of the Korean people as a whole do not always coincide. The pinnacle of our common interest is to become one country and to live without intervention from foreign powers. Those leading the anti-American movement say that U.S. troops are a barrier to unification. But there are people who believe that South Korea's national interests, not those of the Korean people, should come first. They say that if protecting economic prosperity, democracy and human rights are the national interests of the South, we need the U.S. troops to defend them. As communism crumbled around the world, North Korea started developing a nuclear program in what they considered a necessity for their survival. North Korea's nuclear program might or might not protect its national interests, but it definitely goes against the interests of the Korean people as a whole. Needless to say, a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula would mean the practical extinction of the Korean race. By arming itself with nuclear weapons, North Korea also invites the intervention of neighboring powers, something that it has always campaigned against. After Pyeongyang admitted the existence of a nuclear program there, the first country that the United States sought out to discuss the matter was not South Korea but China. Russia and the other UN Security Council permanent members were next. It can be said that the Korean Peninsula issues are now out of the hands of North and South Korea. Our neighboring powers are taking the lead. The problem is the South Korean government's unification policy. North Korea went to the extent of developing nuclear weapons to protect its national interests, and yet we have been suppressing our national interests because we believed Pyeongyang's claims that it, like we, was working for the interests of the Korean people as a whole. The thought that our money could have provided the funds for North Korea's nuclear program, the fact that our government ignored the warning signs of the June naval skirmish in which several of our men died, the audacity of our government to claim that it was actually a good thing that North Korea has admitted to having a nuclear program ?these all show how misguided and wide of the mark our government's judgments on national interests have been. Maybe it's a delusion, maybe it's naivete, maybe there's some sort of hidden intentions that we know nothing about. What is certain is that the Kim Dae-jung administration has taken great pains to push South Korea's national interests to the side and stuck persistently to working for the interests of the Korean people as a whole. We no longer can let this confusion between these two differing interests grow. That is not to say that the interests of the people as a whole are not important ?we just need to be more realistic about what we are seeking. Is shunning all foreign influence the best way to guarantee our interests? Is it realistic? A Korean Peninsula without U.S. troops would mean a Korean Peninsula influenced by China or Russia. Is this not foreign influence as well? North Korea's nuclear program demands that we wake from our fantasy and make a clear judgment of what our national interest is. The writer is a strategic planning executive of the JoongAng Ilbo. ¨Ï 2002 JoongAng Ilbo , Joins.com . All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 13 [EDITORIALS]A flawed agreement* Octorber 23, 2002 The agreement reached at the eighth inter-Korean ministerial talks has many flaws regarding Pyeongyang's nuclear development program. The South Korean delegation had said it would make North Korea clarify allegations surrounding the secret nuclear program and demand that the North fully comply with the 1994 Geneva Agreed Framework. Those goals were not addressed in the agreement. The joint agreement said that the South and North would cooperate to resolve all issues, including the nuclear issue, through talks. The wording of the agreement is extremely ambiguous. The clause does not say which party has the nuclear program and what kinds of nuclear issues must be resolved. Why did the delegation have to stay in Pyeongyang for an extra day when they came back with an agreement that does not even specify that the nuclear issue in question is the North's? Furthermore, the issue of highly enriched uranium has been mixed in with other issues in the document, thus forcing us, in fact, to accept the North's demand that all issues must be resolved together as a package. We should not have agreed with that demand. Finally, North Korea has repeatedly urged the United States to comply with the 1994 Geneva Agreed Framework, but we were not given a promise from the North that it will honor that accord itself. But Seoul probably agreed to that strange language because President Kim Dae-jung wanted something to show Washington at Saturday's meetings in Mexico. The United States demands that the North Korean nuclear program be dismantled before any dialogue is held to resolve any issues. Whether the United States will respond to Mr. Kim's proposal is doubtful. Resolving problems through dialogue and dismantling the North's nuclear program should not be just Washington's stance but ours as well. Seoul may have lost any role as a mediator between the United States and North Korea in resolving the dispute over nuclear weapons development because the vaguely worded inter-Korean agreement could provide the North with an excuse to insist that all outstanding issues be resolved as a package. ¨Ï 2002 JoongAng Ilbo , Joins.com . All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 14 S. Korean Leader Calls for Dialogue Las Vegas SUN October 23, 2002 By SOO-JEONG LEE ASSOCIATED PRESS SEOUL, South Korea- Hours after North Korea agreed to resolve world concerns over its nuclear weapons program through dialogue, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung urged political leaders in his country to remain focused on the diplomatic effort. Kim, who meets with President Bush this weekend, said Wednesday that military action and economic sanctions against North Korea could only backfire. "All know how horrible war is, and no one wants it," Kim said. "Economic sanctions would free North Korea from international obligations and help it make nuclear weapons." After three days of talks in Pyongyang, the North's capital, delegates from the two countries adopted an eight-point statement in which the North's communist government agreed to a dialogue. "In order to guarantee peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, the South and North will actively cooperate in resolving all the issues, including the nuclear issue, through dialogue," the joint statement said Wednesday. But the agreement is unlikely to impress the United States, which demands the hard-line communist regime dismantle its nuclear weapons program immediately. North Korea had promised not to develop nuclear weapons under a 1994 agreement with Washington, but then flouted the deal. Washington doesn't want more lengthy negotiations to forge another written agreement, even if Pyongyang asks for them. The South Korean president was scheduled to meet Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on the sidelines of a summit of Asian and Pacific rim countries in Mexico this weekend. North Korea is expected to dominate the agenda. The three allies already have expressed support for dialogue in dealing with the North, but have yet to agree on how to effectively carry it out. Bush said Tuesday that he believes international pressure could force North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions. He called for cooperation from Russia and Asia's regional powers. North Korea admitted to having a uranium-enriching facility to make nuclear weapons during talks with visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly on Oct. 3-5. North Korean officials told Kelly that they considered the 1994 nuclear accord invalid because two substitute reactors promised under the agreement are several years behind schedule and were not expected to be completed by 2003 as planned. The United States says 2003 was a nonbinding target date. North Korea maintains that it would resolve its nuclear issue only if Washington stops its "hostile" policy. Attending the meeting with President Kim Wednesday were five major presidential candidates in the Dec. 19 elections. Kim's five-year term ends in February, and he is constitutionally barred from running again. Opposition candidate Lee Hoi-chang, who is the front-runner in public polls, asked the government to consider changing the pace of economic assistance to the North. South Korea, along with the United States and Japan, is a major donor to the impoverished North which has been relying on outside aide since 1995 to feed its 22 million people. "We should keep the dialogue channel open with the North," Lee said. "But we can't continue what we have been doing as if nothing has happened." All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 15 U.S. Faces Opposition to Iraq Draft Las Vegas SUN October 23, 2002 By EDITH M. LEDERER ASSOCIATED PRESS UNITED NATIONS- The United States faces stiff opposition to its tough new Iraq resolution, and the State Department predicted that negotiations will be "complicated" and "messy." The United States and Britain have been at odds with France, Russia and China over just how tough a new resolution should be - and Tuesday's reactions to the new U.S. draft showed no sign that the two camps were moving closer. Washington, backed by London, is pushing a single resolution that it says would allow the use of force if Iraq doesn't meet its U.N. disarmament obligations. Paris, Moscow and Beijing want a two-stage approach that would give Iraq another chance to comply with U.N. weapons inspectors and only authorize force in a second resolution if Baghdad obstructed inspections. Diplomats said Russia was most vocal in its opposition, and more difficult than France. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov was quoted as telling Russian journalists in Moscow that "The American draft resolution ... does not answer the criteria which the Russian side laid out earlier and which it confirms today." French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said in Luxembourg: "There is still a lot of work to do." A senior Chinese diplomat at the United Nations, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "It's a pity there are no substantive changes from the previous text." In New York, ambassadors from the five countries - who are all permanent members of the Security Council and have veto power - held two rounds of talks on the new U.S. draft, which was distributed Monday, going line-by-line through the seven-page text. The issue of a new resolution has been at the United Nations since President Bush addressed the General Assembly on Sept. 12 and warned that if the Security Council didn't act decisively to disarm Saddam Hussein, the United States would take action on its own. Bush reiterated the warning on Tuesday. "If the United Nations can't make its mind up, if Saddam Hussein won't disarm, we will lead a coalition to disarm him for the sake of peace," he said. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States was prepared "to work very hard" because it believes the Security Council wants a strong resolution that can disarm Iraq. "This is going to be a complicated process because it is a long text," he said. "It's probably going to be a messy process." But he said he still thought the discussions were moving forward. The two negotiating sessions on Tuesday lasted more than four hours and U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said afterward that capitals needed time to digest the comments. "I think you have to allow the negotiating process a little bit of time," Negroponte said. The United States wants "to ensure that there's no veto in the offing," he said. One of the major problems is that the new U.S. proposal includes phrases that could be interpreted as triggering military action. Last week, Washington backed down from its demand that the resolution authorize the use of "all necessary means" if Iraq failed to comply and agreed instead to let inspectors go to Iraq and report any violations to the Security Council. The new U.S. draft would then have the council convene immediately to discuss the situation - but U.S. officials have said this doesn't require the Bush administration to wait for the council before it acts. As in the original U.S. draft resolution, the new one demands that Iraq accept the resolution within seven days of its adoption and declare its programs to develop nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and ballistic missiles within 30 days. Inspectors would then have up to 45 days to resume inspections. In the new U.S. text, there are now two references - not one - to Iraq being in "material breach" for violating U.N. resolutions, a phrase that some legal experts say could open the door for military action. One reference says a false statement or omission in Iraq's declaration of its weapons programs and Iraq's failure to comply with inspectors would constitute "further material breach of Iraq's obligations," according to excerpts of the draft obtained by The Associated Press Tuesday. The U.S. draft also recalls Security Council warnings that Iraq would face "serious consequences," as a result of its continued violations of its obligations. For a resolution to pass, it needs a minimum of nine "yes" votes from the 15 council members, and no veto by a permanent member. Boucher said he expects the 10 elected council members to be given the text by the end of the week. The new U.S. text keeps a key demand that Iraq provide inspectors with unconditional access to all sites - including presidential complexes now exempt from surprise searches, according to the excerpts. Inspectors must certify that Iraq's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs have been destroyed before sanctions imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait can be lifted. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 16 We won't help spies: UN weapons inspector - theage.com.au By Bob Drogin, Maggie Farley Washington When United Nations inspectors last scoured Iraq for weapons of mass destruction in 1998, the CIA and its sister spy services were rarely far away. Undercover United States agents working with the UN teams secretly planted a high-tech "black box" device in Baghdad that year to eavesdrop on Saddam Hussein's phone calls, among other Iraqi communications, former inspectors say. The signals then were encrypted in other UN data and transmitted via satellite to the National Security Agency headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland. Other operatives helped the UN team track Iraqi officials abroad. In one case, they planted hidden cameras and microphones in the hotel room of an Iraqi scientist trying to buy banned missile parts in Romania - and then sneaked into his room at night to photograph the contents of his briefcase. As new UN inspectors plan to return to Iraq after a four-year absence, and as the Bush administration prepares for a possible war there, the role of intelligence in the effort to disarm Iraq is the subject of sharp debate at the UN, in Washington and in other world capitals. Hans Blix, chief UN weapons inspector, argues that UN credibility was badly hurt by disclosures about covert CIA, British MI6 and Israeli Mossad operations with the former UN inspection teams. Some of the intercepts and other data were used to help identify and target President Saddam's suspected hideouts when US and British bombers launched the Desert Fox air strikes in December, 1998, after the UN inspectors were withdrawn, former inspectors say. If UN teams go back to Iraq in coming weeks, Mr Blix insists that he will not provide any direct assistance or information to US or other intelligence agencies that could compromise the teams. "We are not an espionage service, a spy organisation," Mr Blix said in a recent interview. "We want intelligence from member governments, but it must be a one-way street. We will tell them what we are interested in." But US diplomats are fighting to ensure that a new UN resolution on Iraq will allow Washington and other permanent Security Council members to send their own "experts" and equipment with the disarmament teams, which otherwise would be limited to UN employees. France, Russia and Iraq, among others, objected to the initial US proposal last month, saying the addition of such outside experts was a pretext to permit spying under the UN flag. A second US draft resolution emerged on Monday, three days after Mr Blix met US Secretary of State Colin Powell to discuss the inspections. It suggested they had reached a compromise. The new draft would allow Mr Blix and Mohamed El Baradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is responsible for finding and dismantling Iraq's suspected nuclear weapons program, to choose which outside experts could join their teams. "The key thing is that (the UN and IAEA) shall determine the personnel, not Iraq," said a Security Council diplomat. Significantly, the new proposal does not bar outside experts from reporting to their home governments. The draft also would guarantee experts "the right to unrestricted voice and data communications, including encrypted communications", as well as the right to use "equipment or materials for inspections and to seize and export any equipment, materials or documents taken during inspections". - Los Angeles Times ***************************************************************** 17 EU calls nuclear accord invalid -- The Washington Times October 23, 2002 By Nicholas Kralev THE WASHINGTON TIMES      BRUSSELS — The European Union yesterday followed the United States in pronouncing the 1994 nuclear accord with North Korea invalid because of Pyongyang's admission that it was attempting to make fuel for atomic bombs.      Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, said in an interview that it would be "difficult" to pretend the deal, known as the Agreed Framework, could be saved and that all of its provisions should be "reassessed."      In a separate development, North Korea early today refused to meet Washington's demand for an immediate end to its efforts to enrich uranium, a fuel for nuclear weapons. Instead, Pyongyang insisted on negotiations and threatened the United States with "tougher counteraction" if it did not accept talks.      In an interview in Brussels, Mr. Solana said the EU was part of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO), the international consortium building two modern atomic power plants promised in the Agreed Framework.      "We haven't spent as much [money] as the United States, but we've been contributing to the nonproliferation cause," Mr. Solana said.      The EU is the second KEDO member, after the United States, to call for reassessment of the $4.6 billion project.      Japan and South Korea, which are engaged in bilateral diplomacy with Pyongyang, have been more cautious than Washington and Brussels.      Mr. Solana also said the North Korea problem would be a good opportunity for the United States and its European allies, having been at odds on many issues since President Bush assumed office, to work together on the diplomatic front.      The Bush administration's repeatedly expressed intention in the past few days to treat the reclusive regime of Kim Jong-il differently from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is a good start, Mr. Solana said.      Unlike the United States, the EU has diplomatic relations with the North, and the Pyongyang-based European envoys can do more than a U.S. official on a short visit.      Today, Mr. Solana meets in Brussels with John Bolton, undersecretary of state for international security and arms control, who is consulting with several governments in Europe and Asia on the next chapter of the North Korean saga.      The Bush administration said the North admitted to covert development of a nuclear weapons capability when confronted with intelligence earlier this month by James Kelly, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs.      Meeting until the early morning hours today in Pyongyang with South Korean envoys, officials from the North agreed to resolve the issue through dialogue. But they stopped short of agreeing to Washington's demand to suspend all nuclear activities immediately.      "In order to guarantee peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, the South and North will actively cooperate in resolving all the issues, including the nuclear issue, through dialogue," said a joint statement carried by pool reports from South Korean journalists, the only foreign reporters allowed to cover the meeting.      Another North Korean statement issued several hours earlier sounded much more terse and hostile.      "If the U.S. persists in its moves to pressurize and stifle [North Korea] by force, the latter will have no option but to take a tougher counteraction," the ruling party daily Rodong Shinmun said in an editorial carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. ***************************************************************** 18 Koreas 'to tackle nuclear concerns' BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Wednesday, 23 October, 2002, 04:01 [North Korean Taepodong-1 missile] Pyongyang's nuclear programme has caused an uproar North and South Korea have agreed to resolve international concerns over the North's nuclear weapons programme through dialogue. The announcement in a joint statement followed three days of intensive discussions in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. It is significant the North has listened sincerely South Korean Unification Minister "South and North Korea will make joint efforts to maintain peace on the Korean peninsula, and will actively pursue dialogue to resolve the nuclear issue and other problems," it said. The BBC's Charles Scanlon says that South Korea had originally wanted the North to accept earlier agreements to give up its nuclear weapons programme, while the North, for its part, wanted to blame United States hostility for its action. But despite failing to achieve such an explicit agreement, South Korean Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun said that the agreement was a positive step. "It is significant the North has listened sincerely when we conveyed worries the North's nuclear programme raised among Korean people and international communities," he said. "In other times, the North would have defiantly rejected such comments." US demands North Korea had warned on Tuesday that it would be forced to take tough countermeasures if the US continued to pressure it over the nuclear weapons issue. [George W Bush] The US insists North Korea dismantle uranium enrichment facilities The US has said North Korea should immediately dismantle its nuclear programme, which became public last week and which violates international accords. US President George W Bush has said he believes the issue can be resolved peacefully. Mr Bush is due to meet leaders of China, Japan and South Korea at a Pacific Rim summit later this week to discuss the issue. Despite the new security threat, South Korea seems intent on continuing its policy of reconciliation with the North. At the Pyongyang talks it agreed to start work on an industrial park in the North and to continue work to reconnect roads and railways after half a century of division. Cause for concern? ***************************************************************** 19 Pravda.RU Talks in Korea: Nuclear Queston Remains It is unbelievable, but it’s true: the communiquÊ on the 8th talks held between South Korea and North Korea mentions the A-bomb just in passing. Much is currently being said about Pyongyang’s “scandalous confession” regarding its nuclear programs; the world’s politicians and mass media are pondering over the questions of how many A-bombs North Korea has and where it got them from. However, high ranking officials from both countries held four-day negotiations in Pyongyang’s hotel Koryo, where they talked only about mutual aid in the reconstruction of highways and railways connecting the two countries; about prospective passenger and freight transportation; about the construction of an industrial complex in the North Korean city of Kaesong; and about fishery and navigation and contacts between separated Korean families"> + It is unbelievable, but it’s true: the communiquÊ on the 8th talks held between South Korea and North Korea mentions the A-bomb just in passing. Much is currently being said about Pyongyang’s “scandalous confession” regarding its nuclear programs; the world’s politicians and mass media are pondering over the questions of how many A-bombs North Korea has and where it got them from. However, high ranking officials from both countries held four-day negotiations in Pyongyang’s hotel Koryo, where they talked only about mutual aid in the reconstruction of highways and railways connecting the two countries; about prospective passenger and freight transportation; about the construction of an industrial complex in the North Korean city of Kaesong; and about fishery and navigation and contacts between separated Korean families--> Oct, 23 2002 [http://english.pravda.ru] Copyright ©1999 by " [http://www.pravda.ru/] ". ***************************************************************** 20 Nuclear Technology Seen Spreading ABCNEWS.com : October 23, 2002 Nuclear Technology Seen Spreading Centrifuges at Heart of Nuclear Programs in North Korea, Iraq May Be Spreading to More Hands The Associated Press The small slender cylinders spin at twice the speed of sound, driving the heavier gas outward with a force a million times greater than gravity, leaving an isotope behind that can light cities or level them. Such uranium centrifuges appear to be key to North Korea's revived nuclear bomb program. In Iraq, centrifuges will be the first things U.N. inspectors look for when they return. And elsewhere in coming years this precision technology may spread to still more hands in what the atomic energy industry foresees as a "nuclear renaissance." It's a rebirth some would resist in the name of arms control. "It will become a very substantial problem," Pakistani physicist Zia Mian, a leading nonproliferation advocate, said of growing access to these tools for enriching uranium. For electric utilities, centrifuges are the most cost-efficient way to produce fuel for an expansion of nuclear energy to replace coal- and oil-burning linked to global warming. For those who want doomsday weapons, however, the appeal of uranium gas centrifuges lies in their compactness. A centrifuge plant for a small but significant nuclear weapons program could be hidden in a building the size of a warehouse, said a U.S. government physicist in the front ranks of the fight against nuclear proliferation. This scientist, discussing official concerns on condition of anonymity, noted that both North Korea and Iraq discarded weapons programs using plutonium, the other bomb material, because they were difficult to hide. "Centrifuges are what people go to when frustrated with other methods," he said. The danger was clear last June when the U.N. nuclear agency disclosed its concerns that sensitive equipment or design documents may have been taken from a research institute in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. That institute at Sukhumi on the Black Sea, abandoned for nine years in territory controlled by rebels, was the site of breakthroughs in gas centrifuge development by German and Soviet scientists in the decades after World War II. The principle was simple: The centrifugal force of spinning separates materials by driving the heavier of them to an outer wall first. But the technology is complex: arrangements of vacuums, zero-friction bearings using electromagnets, minute balancing mechanics, thin-walled cylinders of strong but superlight materials. Uranium gas is fed into the upright "rotor," a cylinder typically three to six feet tall and several inches wide. It spins on its axis at up to 70,000 revolutions per minute, separating the heavier uranium-238 from the rarer U-235, the isotope whose nucleus produces energy when split in the process called fission. The mixture is pumped through hundreds of centrifuges to boost its U-235 content to over 3 percent the level needed for power generators. If extended, the process can produce uranium that is 90 percent U-235 required for nuclear bombs. Free-lancing German engineers brought classified centrifuge technology to Baghdad in 1988-89 as Iraq moved toward a nuclear weapon. United Nations inspectors later dismantled that plant, but after a four-year absence they'll look for signs of centrifuge rebuilding on their expected return later this year. In the early 1990s, the same Germans helped Brazil build centrifuges to produce fuel for nuclear submarines, raising proliferation concerns in Latin America. Earlier, a Pakistani engineer in Western Europe's nuclear industry brought back to his homeland the knowledge and reportedly plans for centrifuge technology. Pakistan now has dozens of nuclear bombs. Some believe North Korea's new weapons plans, disclosed last week, may be all-Korean, based on old, widely known centrifuge technology. Others believe Pakistan helped. American officials say they don't know. "There are a lot of countries that may have been assisting," said Condoleezza Rice, U.S. national security adviser. Russia, China, Japan and India have centrifuges. Ukraine disclosed it developed its own with help from scientists who fled Georgia's Sukhumi institute. Israel reportedly enriches uranium for bombs. Iran, believed seeking weapons capability, has tried to buy centrifuges from Russia. The United States, meanwhile, is re-emphasizing centrifuges over gaseous diffusion, a more cumbersome enrichment technology. "It can be as simple as having someone who knows how to do it. That's what's really spreading around," said American physicist David Albright, a former U.N. inspector in Iraq. The industry hopes so. Steve Kidd, research chief for the industry's London-based World Nuclear Association, said all the world's uranium enrichment may be done by centrifuges within 20 years. Zia Mian, at Princeton University, fears that will put enrichment equipment in too many Third World hands. "Then there's only the decision of a sovereign government to do what they want with it." Such fears are overblown, said Kidd. He questioned whether "rogue states" really will master the technology and concluded, "Any attempt to damn commercial centrifuge plants by association is, in my view, quite wrong." Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 21 DPRK, South Korea Issue Joint Statement After Talks [http://english.people.com.cn] South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) released an eight main point joint statement Wednesday for the eighth inter-Korean ministerial talks in Pyongyang, saying the two sides will aggressively cooperate in settling all issues, reported South Korean national news agency Yonhap News. The statement was announced at the last plenary session of the talks convened at Koryo Hotel in Pyongyang early in the morning after South Korean chief delegate Jeong Se-hyun and his DPRK counterpart Kim Ryong-song fine-tuned its contents at their final meeting, said Yonhap. The ministerial talks were originally scheduled to be finished on Tuesday, but extended for an additional day to Wednesday for the two parties to narrow their differences, said Yonhap. Both sides positively evaluated the recent inter-Korean relations' developments, which are in accordance with the spirit of the June 15, 2000 South-North Joint Declaration and agreed to continue to make efforts to implement the inter-Korean joint declaration, according to the statement. The two sides shall make joint efforts to ensure peace and security on the Korean Peninsula under the spirit of above joint declaration and actively cooperate with each other in resolving relevant issues, including nuclear issue, through dialogue, the statement underscored. Moreover, the two sides shall have cabinet-level talks to speed up the reconstruction of Gyeonggui and Donghae inter-Korean railways and roads, said the statement. According to the statement, South Korea and the DPRK plan to discuss details related to the scheduled launching of the construction of Kaesong Industrial Complex in the DPRK this December, and the former will open an office inside the complex when it is completed. The two delegations also agreed to hold a working-level officials meeting at Mount Geumgang in the DPRK in November to talk on inter-Korean maritime cooperation issue, mainly on ensuring the safe passage of civilian ships through each other's seas, and striking a maritime accord, according to the statement. Besides, the two parties reiterated that a permanent meeting place for separated families should be set up as early as possible at Mount Geumgang. They agreed to discuss the transportation of people and materials when the inter-Korean railways or roads open. And they will hold working-level contact at Mount Geumgang at an early date to discuss allowing South Korea's fishermen to use part of the DPRK's fishing grounds, said the statement. The ninth minister-level talks were agreed to be held in Seoul in mid-January 2003. ***************************************************************** 22 How North Korea sees the world - CNN.com - Inside out: Oct. 22, 2002 From Mike Chinoy, CNN Senior Asia Correspondent world's most secretive and paranoid regimes] North Korean leader Kim Jong Il heads one of the world's most secretive and paranoid regimes (CNN) -- While the United States and its allies see North Korea as a threat, from the other side of the Demilitarized Zone, it is the regime in Pyonyang that feels endangered. As North Korean leader Kim Jong Il surveys the world, it cannot be a comforting sight. While North Korea's totalitarian political system remains a throwback to Stalin's Soviet Union and the China of Mao Zedong, in most of the world, communism disappeared a long time ago. And it is Kim Jong Il's fear of meeting a similar fate, many analysts say, that underpins North Korea's abrasive stance and policies. Facing 37,000 U.S. troops in neighboring South Korea, a hostile administration in Washington, and an economy that has staggered from one catastrophe to another, Pyongyang feels being pushed against the wall. But In the past year, Kim Jong Il has taken some dramatic steps to turn things around. For one, it has borrowed the idea of market-style reforms from the Chinese by creating a capitalist-style "special administrative region" of Sinuijiu on the Chinese border. The reclusive regime also sought to mend fences with neighbor South Korea by allowing for the resumption of talks following months of silence, and the building of railway links between the two countries. Recently, it also held out the olive branch to another long-time foe, Japan, and admitted the abduction of Japanese citizens during the 1970s and early 80s, a fact which Pyongyang had previously denied. Although the startling revelation caused an uproar in Japan, it nonetheless helped pave the way for normalized relations between the two governments. Bargaining chips But the centerpiece of North Korean strategy has long been to end decades of tension with Washington -- by using its missile and nuclear program as bargaining chips. [North Korea's totalitarian system is a throwback to Stalinism] [ width=] North Korea's totalitarian system is a throwback to Stalinism In 1994, the North agreed to freeze an earlier nuclear program. In return, the United States promised to provide fuel oil and build two safer nuclear reactors. But the oil deliveries were invariably delayed, and work on the reactor site is years behind schedule. And the broader thaw in North Korea-U.S. ties that Pyongyang expected never materialized -- leading North Korea to conclude that it was Washington who was violating agreements and understandings, not Pyongyang. It was against this background that North began its new, secret nuclear program in the late 1990s. Now the indications are that Pyongyang wants to use this new program, like the old one, to reach a deal with Washington -- signaling a willingness to negotiate an end to all nuclear activity, but only if the U.S. agrees to pursue normalized relations. "If the U.S. will drop its hostile policy," the official North Korean News Agency wrote, North Korea "will have dialogue with the U.S. to clear the U.S. of its worries over its security." So far, however, as U.S. officials have toured the region, the talking has been about pressuring North Korea, not engaging in dialogue. And here too, the North Koreans have made their position clear. "If the U.S. persists in its moves to pressurize and stifle the DPRK, the latter will have no option but to take tougher counter-action," the North Korean Central News Agency warned. Talks or confrontation -- from Pyongyang's perspective, the ball is now firmly in the American court. ***************************************************************** 23 United States suspects North Korea of eyeing nuclear attack on Japan Tue Oct 22, 9:31 AM ET TOKYO - The United States suspects North Korea of developing nuclear weapons for a potential attack on Japan, a Foreign Ministry official quoted Tokyo's special envoy to Washington as saying Tuesday. Former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, who met U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage last week in Washington, briefed Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi on the issue Tuesday, the official said on condition of anonymity. He declined to say why Armitage suspected the North of targeting Japan and wouldn't provide other details. Japan has long been wary of its reclusive neighbor across the Sea of Japan, which rattled nerves in 1998 when it sent a rocket over Japan's home islands. Those suspicions were fanned earlier this month when North Korea admitted that it was secretly pushing a program to make nuclear weapons with enriched uranium. Hashimoto was told by U.S. diplomats that Washington suspects North Korea of developing the weapons for an attack across the Sea of Japan, according to the Foreign Ministry official. Hashimoto also told Kawaguchi that Washington wants Japan to press North Korea hard on the issue of reining in nuclear weapons when Japan and North Korean diplomats meet next week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the official said. The two countries were previously scheduled to meet there for talks on establishing diplomatic relations between Tokyo and Pyongyang. No one at Hashimoto's office was available for comment late Tuesday night. The news came as the mayor of Hiroshima, the first city ever to suffer an atomic attack, appealed to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to scrap his nuclear aspirations. "Nuclear weapons are an absolute evil," mayor Tadatoshi Akiba wrote in Tuesday's open letter. "I demand that you think deeply about what nuclear weapons hold in store for all of us, and immediately terminate your nuclear weapons program." As World War II drew to a close, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. About 140,000 people died. Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information ***************************************************************** 24 Terror, Korea, Iraq in Limelight at APEC Summit ABCNEWS.com : October 23, 2002 — By Kieran Murray LOS CABOS, Mexico (Reuters) - Senior ministers from across the Pacific Rim met in Mexico on Wednesday with the U.S. anti-terror campaign, North Korea's nuclear program and the Iraq standoff stealing the limelight from trade and the weak global economy. Gathering under tight security at this luxury beach resort, foreign and trade ministers from the 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) grouping worked to forge a deal on cutting the access of would-be bombers to planes and ships. The effort, pushed by President Bush since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, is being taken even more seriously after this month's bomb attacks in Bali that killed around 180 people, most of them foreign tourists. Bush will join a summit this weekend and his administration has drawn up specific proposals to make life difficult for any extremist groups planning fresh attacks. They include enforcing more effective baggage-screening measures and tightening immigration controls at airports across the world, advance screening of passengers on international flights and reinforcing flight deck doors on passenger aircraft. Some Asian nations are worried the strict new measures are expensive to implement and could hamper trade. Washington insists no one can afford to be lax on security issues. "Our concern is the cost of not meeting the standards," a senior U.S. transport official told Reuters. Secretary of State Colin Powell was to arrive in Los Cabos later on Wednesday to push the anti-terror measures as well as to lobby Russia, China, Japan and other APEC members to back the U.S. stance in the crises over North Korea and Iraq. The Bush administration is struggling to win international backing for its demands that North Korea scrap its declared nuclear weapons program and for its policy of openly seeking the ouster of President Saddam Hussein in Iraq, which it accuses of manufacturing weapons of mass destruction. FOCUS ON RUSSIA AND CHINA A U.S. draft of a new resolution against Iraq is currently being discussed in the U.N. Security Council. APEC heavyweights Russia and China are both permanent members of the Security Council with power of veto and Bush will meet with the leaders of both nations in the coming days. He hosts Chinese President Jiang Zemin at his Texas ranch on Friday and will meet Putin here on Saturday. The North Korea crisis will be the focus of Bush's meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, also on the fringe of the APEC summit. Washington's geopolitical agenda has again pushed into the background traditional APEC concerns such as boosting trade among its members and fostering economic growth. The group accounts for about 60 percent of global output and almost half of world trade but its members range from political and economic giants such as the United States, Russia, China and Japan to relative minnows such as Papua New Guinea and Peru. Indonesia and Malaysia -- both mainly Muslim nations -- have in the past been critics within APEC of Bush's anti-terror campaign but Indonesia has been shocked into moves toward tougher action against radical groups after the bombings on its holiday island of Bali. Still, several APEC members say adopting U.S.-backed security policies comes at a price and they will need help. "There is a legitimate position that they have to adopt security measures but there needs to be a fine-tuning so that they do not put a cost on trade," said Ricardo Lagos Weber, a senior Chilean official. "The point is: How do we finance the security measures and what are the (implementation) deadlines? There is also concern that the security measures not serve as an excuse for protectionist measures." Mexican marines patrol the coast off the resort town of Los Cabos as security is stepped up prior to this weekend's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, October 23, 2002. Mexican officials said they are taking no risks as they prepare to welcome senior officials from the 21 members of APEC for the summit which will take place October 26-27. Photo by Andrew Winning/Reuters Copyright 2002 Reuters News Service. ***************************************************************** 25 [A view from abroad] 'Speak softly and carry a big stick' welcome to Korea Herald!!_Oped http://www.koreaherald.com In describing his foreign policy, President Theodore Roosevelt of the United States said, "Speak softly and carry a big stick." That policy generally meant that in implementing its foreign policy, the United States would try "quiet" diplomacy, and if that did not work, it would use its mighty military force. This policy worked superbly as the United States expanded its influence around the world during the early 20th century. In the current U.S. tension with North Korea over Pyongyang's admission of its secret nuclear program, the Bush administration has elected to take the opposite policy. Instead of following Roosevelt's proven policy, President Bush is pursuing a "speak loudly and carry a small stick" approach with respect to North Korea. Top U.S. government officials have openly ruled out any military confrontation with North Korea over the startling development. As the United States is about to wage a massive war with Iraq, it cannot open (and may not be capable of opening) another major warfront on the Korean Peninsula. As it has ruled out a military option, it has resorted to talking tough with Pyongyang. However, behind the tough talk, there is no substance. The United States is talking about nullifying the 1994 Agreed Framework under which it has been providing 500,000 tons of heavy crude oil annually, isolating North Korea from the international community and cutting off international aid. As North Korea has been pretty much isolated from the rest of the world for many decades, any attempt to further isolate North Korea will have only a minimal impact. The only meaningful economic aid has been coming from South Korea and China. The Chinese aid will undoubtedly continue even after the U.S.-led effort is implemented. And even if South Korea bows to U.S. pressure and stops sending aid to Pyongyang, the Pyongyang regime will survive. It survived before the aid, and it will survive after the aid is cut off. Moreover, based upon the history of dealings with North Korea, tough talk, intended to humiliate and intimidate the Pyongyang regime, does not work. Unlike more rational governments, the Pyongyang regime gets emboldened and becomes more unruly and unpredictable when it is pushed into a corner. North Korea is a master of brinkmanship, as we have witnessed in 1994 during the negotiation over the Agreed Framework, in 1968 during the negotiation over the kidnapping of the U.S.S. Pueblo and its crew, and in 1976 following the ax-killing of two U.S. troops by North Korean soldiers. During each incident, the U.S. government was unable to take military action against the Pyongyang regime and had to seek non-military means to resolve the dispute. The Bush administration is sorely mistaken if it believes that it can change the behavior of the North Korean government by publicly thrashing and intimidating it. The incomprehensible, illogical and unpredictable people in the Pyongyang regime may lash back at the United States and raise the stakes by openly pursuing a nuclear weapons program. If so, the problem will become much bigger and more serious. Washington then would have the option of choosing between a war with Pyongyang or letting Pyongyang arm itself with nuclear weapons. Neither is an acceptable option for the United States or its Korean and Japanese allies. Instead of making the situation spiral out of control and creating a crisis out of a problem, Bush administration officials should tone down their rhetoric and try to solve the problem quietly behind and away from the public scene. In that way, any concession made by the Pyongyang regime would be less humiliating and more palatable. Should quiet diplomacy fail to achieve the desired result after having given it genuine and extensive effort, then the United States should be prepared to use military means in order to rid an unpredictable regime of nuclear weapons. All talk and no action will only result in losing credibility to a dangerous enemy. If the United States chooses a military solution, any military use should be decisive, sudden, massive and swift in order to minimize the fallout from any retaliatory attacks from the Pyongyang regime. In other words, America must use a "big stick." Kim Jong-han is a Hong Kong-based partner of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky &Walker LLP, an international law firm. He is a graduate of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and its law school. - Ed By Kim Jong-han 2002.10.24 (C) Copyright 2000 Digital Korea Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 26 Kazakhstan Calls for Int¡¯l Community¡¯s Involvement in Nuclear Crisis [KoreaTimes National] By Byun Duk-kun Staff Reporter Kazakhstan¡¯s Minister of Foreign Affairs Kassymzhomart Tokayev said that the North Korean nuclear issue should be dealt with at an international level and the international community needs to be actively involved in trying to resolve the crisis. Tokayev, who was visiting here for a five-day trip since last Saturday at the invitation of his Korean counterpart Choi Sung-hong, expressed Kazakhstan¡¯s positive evaluation of President Kim Dae-jung¡¯s ``Sunshine Policy,¡¯¡¯ which earned Kim the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000, at a meeting with President Kim on Monday. ``We are very positive about President Kim¡¯s Sunshine Policy and I expressed our support and concern during the meeting with the president,¡¯¡¯ Tokayev said at a meeting with reporters in Seoul, Tuesday. Tokayev concurrently serves as state secretary. Tokayev said that during his meeting with President Kim, he expressed the Kazakhstani government¡¯s deep concerns regarding North Korea¡¯s recent admission to having a nuclear arms development program. ``I think the international community should be very active in solving the issue. Kazakhstan has diplomatic relations with both South and North Korea, but unfortunately, we do not have an embassy in Pyongyang. Therefore, our access to North Korea is very limited, but at the same time we will do our best to relay the international community¡¯s concern to North Korea,¡¯¡¯ Tokayev said. The Kazakhstani state secretary also expressed his interest in the ongoing work to reconnect inter-Korean railways. ``We are very positive about the reconnection of the railways. It is very unfortunate that North Korea delayed the project, but this will be a very valuable project not only for the Koreas but also for Russia and China,¡¯¡¯ Tokayev said, expressing Kazakhstan¡¯s interest in becoming a transit country connecting Asia and Europe. However, the much-delayed work on the inter-Korean railways, which will connect the two Koreas via land-routes for the first time since the 1950-53 Korean War, may face another postponement unless North Korea demonstrates a sincere attitude in resolving the nuclear issue. Regarding the ongoing project of Kazakhstani oil fields in which a consortium of Korean firms is actively seeking participation, the state secretary said the government of Kazakhstan would fully support the participation of Korean firms. benjamine@koreatimes.co.kr ÀԷ½ð£ 2002/10/23 17:57 [webmaster@hankooki.com] ***************************************************************** 27 [Editorial] War cannot be an option http://www.koreaherald.com Most of the blame lies with North Korea, which has been working on a secret nuclear weapons program in blatant violation of the principle of "peace and security on a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula" that is contained in the Geneva accord. For some reasons that have yet to be clarified, Pyongyang has recently admitted it is engaged in uranium enrichment, a crucial process in manufacturing nuclear bombs. Despite the confession, North Korea still claims that the United States be held accountable as well, as it has not fulfilled all of the obligations specified in the accord. And this argument cannot be dismissed as having no grain of truth. Under its agreement with North Korea, the United States is obliged to "undertake to make arrangements" to provide North Korea with two light-water reactors by "a target date of 2003" in exchange for Pyongyang's promise to stop developing nuclear weapons and shut down the existing facilities suspected of producing bomb-grade plutonium. Had construction proceeded on schedule, technicians would now be putting the final touches on the power plants or operating them for a test run prior to delivery. But with only 25 percent of work now done on the $4.6 billion project on account of funding and other problems, the U.S.-led international consortium finds it impossible to dedicate the power plants any earlier than 2008. Washington is accountable for the delay to a substantial extent, if not totally as implied by Pyongyang. North Korea has other complaints, some of them not illegitimate, concerning the implementation of the Geneva accord. Foremost among them is Washington's lack of enthusiasm in lifting economic sanctions on North Korea, though it agreed to "reduce barriers to trade and investment, including restrictions on telecommunications and financial transactions" within three months of signing the accord. Particularly painful to North Korea is that it is denied access to loans from regional and international development banks under the influence of the United States - the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank - when it badly needs them for economic development. North Korea also has grievances about what it perceives to be the constant threat of an attack from the United States. Its fears may be substantiated by what is dubbed Operations Plan 5027, which an American expert on Korea, Selig S. Harrison, says provides for "moving U.S. and South Korean forces into battle-ready forward positions during the 'pre-hostility' phase, prior to the actual outbreak of conflict." On top of this, the Bush administration, which continues to keep North Korea on its list of "rogue states" sponsoring international terrorism, has further isolated it by branding it as part of an "axis of evil." None of these complaints and fears about the United States warrants the North Korean development of nuclear bombs in secret in any way. But Washington needs to keep them in mind when it attempts to solve the North Korean nuclear problem by peaceful means as it has promised to its allies - South Korea and Japan. North Korea may not be irrational as claimed by some hawks in the United States as well as in South Korea. But settlement through diplomacy will probably pose a formidable challenge to Washington as its negotiations with Pyongyang on freezing and eventually scrapping the North Korean weapons program proved in the early 1990s. Washington may be tempted to contemplate military action if diplomatic pressure on North Korea fails to produce tangible results in a timely manner. But it should guard against it, as armed conflict would result in killing tens of thousands of South Korean and U.S. troops. Civilian losses could be even greater with Seoul lying within range of North Korea's artillery and 1 million communist troops deployed near the Demilitarized Zone. Given this horrible prospect, war cannot be an option available to Washington. President Kim Dae-jung should drive this point home to U.S. President George W. Bush when he meets him in Mexico later this week By this time, Pyongyang and Washington would have nearly, if not completely, resolved the long-standing dispute over North Korea's nuclear weapons program had they lived up to the spirit of the 1994 Agreed Framework. But unfortunately, they have failed to do so, and, as a result, a North Korean-U.S. confrontation is now looming as large as it was prior to signing the accord in Geneva eight years ago. 2002.10.24 (C) Copyright 2000 Digital Korea Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 28 Kim, Bush, Koizumi to discuss N. Korean nuke threat in APEC http://www.koreaherald.com Amidst deepening international concerns about North Korea's nuclear proliferation threat, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung will meet U.S. President George W. Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Mexico on Saturday to discuss joint counteraction. Kim leaves today for the central American country to attend the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Meeting and to hold the crucial three-way summit on its sidelines. Seoul officials said the three leaders will discuss the North's nuclear weapons development program and fine-tune what steps their countries will take in dealing with the communist regime, which shocked the world last week by admitting to having a nuclear program. "We expect that the leaders will jointly condemn the North's apparent violation of the 1994 nuclear agreement and urge them to immediately dismantle their nuclear program," said a Cheong Wa Dae official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The trio are also expected to focus their discussion on how to force North Korea to abandon its nuclear program and the fate of the Geneva Agreed Framework signed between the United States and North Korea, which is aimed at preventing the North's nuclear proliferation. Bush said Monday that he would discuss the "emerging threat" of North Korea and how to disarm Pyongyang "peacefully" during meetings with leaders of South Korea, Japan, China and Russia. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell also said the Bush administration considers the 1994 agreement effectively dead because the North itself nullified the pact by promoting the nuclear program . North Korea is said to have chemical weapons and a rudimentary biological weapons program, and the United States said North Korean officials admitted that the country is enriching uranium to make nuclear weapons during a meeting with a high-level U.S. delegation in Pyongyang early this month. The U.S. possible declaration of the abrogation of the landmark arms control pact would mean the scrapping of the ongoing multibillion-dollar project to provide two light-water nuclear reactors to the North suffering from energy shortages. Under the Geneva agreement, the North promised to freeze its graphite-moderated reactors capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium in return for the safer light-water reactors to be financed by a U.S.-led international consortium called the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization. The United States also promised to provide interim heavy oil to the North until the project is completed. Officials from South Korea, the United States and Japan have said their countries will seek peaceful resolution to eliminating the resurfaced threat posed by the North's attempt to develop nuclear weapons. But the United States is reportedly considering requesting its allies, including the South, Japan, Russia, China and the European Union to join its plan to mount diplomatic and economic pressure on the North to discard its nuclear development program. If Washington takes such action, it would be a serious blow to South Korean President Kim's "sunshine policy" of engaging the North through exchanges and economic cooperation. Kim's government has stressed that dialogue is the best way to resolve the North's nuclear problem. In this context, observers said, the Kim-Bush-Koizumi summit will be watershed on peace on the Korean Peninsula, where crucial inter-Korean cooperative projects, including reconnection of cross-border rail and road links, are underway and the North is seen to be promoting economic reform. In addition to the three-way summit, Kim is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Jiang Zemin on the sidelines of the two-day APEC summit that opens Saturday, during which officials expect the North's nuclear issue to dominate. On the eve of the annual gathering's opening, of which 21 Asian and Pacific leaders attend, Kim will also hold separate bilateral talks with Mexican President Vicente Fox and Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri on issues of mutual concerns. The APEC meeting, the 10th of its kind, follows 13 months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in the United States and the APEC leaders are expected to tackle international counter-terrorist measures and their effects on the world economy. Cheong Wa Dae officials said steps will be taken to assure safe international trade, including reinforcement of security for harbors and transport system along with the strengthening of preventive checks for cargo and passengers. The officials said this APEC meeting will adopt a leaders' declaration on counter-terrorism at the end of the summit talks, which includes an action program to root out financial sources for terrorists. "While urging international cooperation in the fight against terrorism and in ensuring safety measures for trade, President Kim will emphasize the need to limit maximum the adverse effects those steps would have on industrial productivity and free movement of goods," said an aide to Kim. To that end, the President is to propose a "smarting process" system that aims, among other things, at creating efficient and effective customs procedures by use of cutting-edge information technology and devices, the official said. Seoul officials said Kim believes that the best alternative for Asian and Pacific nations to sustain regional economic development is to consistently promote economic reform and free trade, building up confidence among themselves. Kim will also plan to ask member countries to pay more attention to APEC cooperative projects such as development of human resources, which is being carried out through the APEC Educational Foundation launched by Korean initiative, according to the officials. The President is also due to participate in a meeting with APEC Business Advisory Council, a gathering of business leaders in the region, where he will exchange views with them on ways to rejuvenate the regional economy. At the APEC leaders' meeting and in separate bilateral summits, Kim will make it clear that South Korea will continue to play a leading role in APEC's pursuit of regional economic prosperity and creation of a regional economic community, the officials said. Kim will also express hope that APEC will make a contribution to the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) so that the world will have viable multilateral trading system, the officials said. Other concrete APEC projects the Seoul government is keenly interested in include programs conducive to strengthening social safety nets for underprivileged classes in every country. The officials said the South Korean delegation will stress bolstering computer training across the region through the APEC cyber-education consortium. The Korean delegation to the APEC meeting include Foreign Minister Choi Sung-hong, Trade Minister Hwang Doo-yun, senior presidential secretary for economic affairs Hyun Jung-taik and senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs and national security Yim Sung-joon. APEC was formed in 1989 in response to the growing interdependence among countries in the region. The forum has since become the main group for promoting trade liberalization, investment, business facilitation, and economic and technical cooperation. APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam. On his way home after winding up his five-day trip to Mexico, President Kim will make one-day stopover at Seattle in the United States, where he will meet ethnic Koreans and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. (shinyb@koreaherald.co.kr) By Shin Yong-bae Staff reporter 2002.10.24 (C) Copyright 2000 Digital Korea Herald. All rights ***************************************************************** 29 NRC Announces Meeting on Memorandum of Understanding with EPA on Cleanup of Radioactively Contaminated Sites NRC: News Release - 2002-124 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov [opa@nrc.gov] www.nrc.gov No. 02-124 October 23, 2002 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a meeting on November 5 with Environmental Protection Agency staff to discuss the implementation of the recently signed Memorandum of Understanding on the radiological decommissioning and decontamination of NRC-licensed sites. The meeting will be held from 1:00 to 4:30 p.m. in the Two White Flint North Auditorium at NRC Headquarters, located at 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. The public is invited to meet informally with NRC and EPA staff beginning at 12:30 p.m. and to participate in the meeting at designated points identified on the agenda. The MOU provides that EPA will defer exercise of authority under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (Superfund) for the majority of facilities decommissioned under NRC authority. The MOU includes provisions for NRC and EPA consultation for certain sites, when, at the time of license termination, 1) groundwater contamination exceeds EPA-permitted levels; 2) NRC contemplates restricted release or alternate criteria for release of the site; or 3) residual radioactive soil concentrations exceed levels defined in the MOU. The MOU does not impose any new requirements on NRC licensees and will reduce the involvement of EPA with NRC licensees who are decommissioning. Most sites are expected to meet the NRC criteria for unrestricted use, and NRC believes that only a few sites will have groundwater or soil contamination in excess of the levels specified in the MOU which trigger consultation with EPA. If there are hazardous materials on the site, EPA may be involved in the cleanup. A copy of the MOU between NRC and EPA can be accessed at NRCs web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2002/mou2fin.pdf [PDF Icon] . For more information about the meeting, contact Patricia Santiago at 301-415-7269, or by e-mail at pas2@nrc.gov [pas2@nrc.gov] ; or contact Eric Pogue at 301-415-6064, or by e-mail at erp@nrc.gov [erp@nrc.gov] . Wednesday, October 23, 2002 ***************************************************************** 30 Davis-Besse supervisor sues FirstEnergy over leave Plain Dealer 10/23/02 John Funk Plain Dealer Reporter A veteran supervisor of the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant on paid leave for a month over repairs to a crane has sued FirstEnergy Corp., the reactor's owner. Timothy Tackett believes he was placed on paid administrative leave in September because he complained to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that plant managers pushed employees to stay on schedule even as they told the NRC that safety was first. The company said Tackett, of Oak Harbor, was placed on leave Sept. 19 because he did not properly supervise contract workers who were repairing a huge overhead crane. The crane is used to lift the reactor's lid and other heavy machinery in the containment building that surrounds the reactor. Tackett, an employee since 1987, filed suit in Ottawa County Common Pleas Court for unspecified damages. FirstEnergy is making extensive repairs to the Toledo-area plant, down since February with a rust hole in the reactor's lid. Spokesman Todd Schneider said the company was surprised because Tackett is still an employee. "Our plan was for him to return to work after our review," he said. "That continues to be our plan." Though not named, Tackett was identified by reference during the NRC's monthly meeting Sept. 17 with Davis-Besse's top managers. Mike Stevens, director of plant maintenance, said that while major repairs on the crane were complete, a host of more minor repairs had gone undone. Stevens told the NRC that the job supervisor had not focused on making sure the work was of the highest quality. Stevens said he pulled the crane back out of service, ordered the work completed and called a meeting of project managers to emphasize that quality is the new focus. Tackett declined to talk about his suit yesterday on the advice of his lawyer, who did not return phone calls seeking comment. Citing policy, NRC spokesman Jan Strasma said he could not confirm, as alleged in the suit, that the NRC has received a number of similar complaints from other plant workers and is investigating. "But we are aware of the situation because of news reports," he said. z Separately, the NRC's director of nuclear reactor regulation denied an appeal of an NRC decision in August rejecting a petition by 14 watchdog and environmental groups that the agency appoint an independent committee to oversee repairs at Davis-Besse. The petition was filed in April. To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: jfunk@plaind.com, 216-999-4138 © 2002 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission. © 2002 cleveland.com. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 31 Doosan Heavy makes Korea's first export of nuclear power station equipment to U.S. welcome to Korea Herald!!_Business http://www.koreaherald.com In Korea's first-ever export of a key nuclear power station facility to the United States, Doosan Heavy Industries &Construction Co. yesterday dispatched four steam generators for use in a U.S. nuclear power plant, dubbed Sequoyah. The four Doosan-built 1,200 MW-class steam generators, valued at $50 million, were loaded on a U.S.-bound freighter at the company's in-house port in Changwon of South Kyongsang Province, during a ceremony attended by executives from the two U.S. buyers - Tennessee Valley Authority and Westinghouse. A steam generator, measuring 5 meters in diameter, 22 meters in height and 340 tons in weight and equipped with 5,000 20-meter U-shape tubes, is a key facility designed to generate high-temperature and high-pressure steams for supplies to turbine generators. Notably, Doosan substituted for imports of the advanced tube support grids in the process of building the steam generators, displaying its technological superiority and an upgraded competitiveness in other future international biddings. "It is the first time that Korea's self-designed and self-built nuclear power plant facilities are exported to the United States. It is an epoch-making technological breakthrough after Korea dedicated its first nuclear power station 25 years ago in 1977," said a company spokesman. The Doosan-built steam generators will be used as replacements for the 18-year-old Sequoyah station in Soddy Daisay of Tennessee State. Doosan secured the order from the Sequoyah plant in September 1999 through fierce competition against world-class generator makers from France and Canada. "The Sequoyah deal has put Doosan in an advantageous position in the future nuclear facility replacement market of the United States valued at $1.5 billion," said the spokesman. In August, Doosan obtained a $68 million order for steam generators for use in the U.S. power station, dubbed Watts Bar. (cmyoo@koreaherald.co.kr) 2002.10.19 C) Copyright 2000 Digital Korea Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 32 Duke agrees to $19 million payment after audit GreenvilleOnline.com - News October 22, 2002 - 11:16 pm e-mail By Rudolph Bell BUSINESS WRITER dbell@greenvillenews.com [dbell@greenvillenews.com] An outside auditor said Tuesday Duke Power engaged in a "coordinated plan" to underreport more than $123 million in earnings, and its Charlotte-based parent agreed to pay $19 million to settle its case with regulators. Duke Energy Corp., parent of the Upstate's dominant electric utility, strongly disputed the findings of accounting firm Grant Thornton LLP, saying the auditor had uncovered no evidence of deliberate wrongdoing. At the same time, Duke said it has agreed to a settlement with regulators that will reduce its fourth-quarter earnings by $19 million. Gary Walsh, executive director of South Carolina's Public Service Commission, said the settlement will benefit Duke's 500,000 customers in the state beginning in June 2003. The outside audit was ordered by regulators in South Carolina and North Carolina last year after a Duke whistleblower alleged his company had misrepresented earnings. As a public utility, Duke must return excess profits to consumers in the form of lower power rates. In a report released Tuesday, Grant Thorton said it had uncovered evidence of a plan by Duke managers to reclassify expenses. Their goal was to "enhance Duke Power's regulatory position" without compromising the earnings of Duke Energy or employee bonuses, Grant Thornton said. Duke blasted the Grant Thornton report, saying it "fails to include ... evidence that exonerates Duke of any allegation of intentional wrongful conduct." Duke also said in a statement that the report is "prosecutorial in tone, contains inconsistencies and unsupported references" and that Grant Thornton was acting improperly as "judge and jury." Even if Grant Thorton is right, Duke said, retail electricity rates would not have changed for Duke's 2 million customers in the Carolinas. Electric utilities such as Duke Power -- because they are monopolies -- are typically restricted in how much they can charge customers and how much of their revenues they can keep as profit. Regulators in the Carolinas rely on figures supplied by Duke to decide those issues. Since 1991, South Carolina has allowed Duke a return on equity of 12.25 percent. Boston-based Grant Thornton said Duke "inappropriately" accounted for a variety of expenses in its reports to state regulators for its 1998, 1999 and 2000 fiscal years. Some of Duke's accounting entries, it said, were "completely without accounting justification under any accepted accounting standards." Duke managers developed the plan after South Carolina Electric and Gas earned more than it was allowed to earn in 1998, prompting South Carolina regulators to reduce how much that utility could charge customers, Grant Thornton said. Under the settlement, Duke would amend reports to state and federal regulators, restore a reserve account for nuclear insurance and pay $25 million for fuel costs that it otherwise would be allowed to pass on to ratepayers. Walsh helped negotiate the settlement and said it will "absolutely be a direct benefit to the ratepayer." The South Carolina utility-regulating body and the North Carolina Utilities Commission are scheduled to vote on the settlement next week. Mignon L. Clyburn, chairwoman of the South Carolina commission, said she was still reviewing the proposed settlement and had no comment on how she would vote. Regulators ordered the audit after Duke accountant Barron Stone reported alleged accounting improprieties to Walsh in the summer of 2001. Tuesday, Stone said the report verifies "what seemed very obvious to me." He still works for Duke. Duke conducted its own investigation after the allegations surfaced last year, but its conclusions differed from Grant Thornton's. Duke found that in 1998 it had mistakenly classified millions of dollars in executive compensation, insurance reserves, power plant study costs and costs associated with shutting down its electric appliance business. But it said last year there was no evidence of deliberate wrongdoing -- and it maintained that position Tuesday. Grant Thornton said it reviewed nearly 1,300 Duke records, including e-mails and internal memoranda, and took 30 sworn depositions from Duke employees and others. Even so, the firm said it didn't get all the documents it wanted. "Although many witnesses reported that Duke had a document retention policy, no one questioned by investigators -- including Duke Power CEO William A. Coley -- knew what the policy was, to whom it was disseminated, or what documents it covered," Grant Thorton said. The report cites a spreadsheet prepared by two Duke accountants as saying that for two quarters in 1998 Duke was "earning a higher rate of return than allowed by the current rate structure. We have come up with the following strategies to reduce Duke Power's current rate of return." Shares of Duke Energy, DUK on the New York Stock Exchange, were down 43 cents to $19.65 in trading Tuesday. Copyright 2001 The Greenville News. Use of this site signifies your agreement ***************************************************************** 33 D-B worker files suit charging retaliation - portclintonnewsherald.com [http://www.centralohio.com] Tuesday, October 22, 2002 Nuclear power industry By JENNIFER FUNK Staff writer PORT CLINTON -- A Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station employee has filed a lawsuit against FirstEnergy, claiming retaliation against him for reporting safety concerns. Timothy Tackett of 320 W. Fourth St., Port Clinton, filed the lawsuit Friday in Ottawa County Common Pleas Court, asking for in excess of $25,000 in compensation. FirstEnergy spokesman Richard Wilkins said the company has little comment on the suit, except that officials there were "surprised to find out about it, considering this person is still employed by us." Tackett, an advanced nuclear technologist in the maintenance support department, was put on administrative leave while management investigates his safety allegations. Wilkins said paid administrative leave is used occasionally, especially in personnel issues, but added not all employees are put on leave when they bring a problem forward. Tackett's allegations stem partially from a Sept. 17 public meeting in which FirstEnergy officials met with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He was involved in overseeing work on the polar crane -- a large piece of equipment in the plant's containment building -- while employees replaced the reactor head. The plant has been down since February after workers found a large amount of corrosion on the reactor head. During that meeting, Davis-Besse plant official Mike Stevens told about his personal inspection of the polar crane, which he said he found to be in unacceptable condition. He told NRC officials he ordered the polar crane project halted until several things could be fixed, such as burnt out light bulbs replaced, metal shavings cleaned off and wiring labeled. He also affirmed that plant officials were more concerned about safety than getting the work done on time. In his lawsuit, Tackett says the problems did not affect the crane's ability to lift equipment, its main function for the project at hand. The suit also said many of the items put on a list after Stevens' inspection had already been documented, were considered outside the scope of the current project or were considered minor maintenance. On Sept. 18, Tackett went to the resident NRC inspector at the plant and had a one-hour meeting, during which he brought up his concerns -- mainly that management stressed safety over schedule to the NRC, but their actions proved otherwise in the plant -- according to the suit. "(Tackett) told the NRC that he and other individuals were under intense schedule pressures," the lawsuit stated. Since then, enough other complaints from workers have been leveled against Davis-Besse to elevate the matter from a concern to an allegation that the NRC's Office of Investigation is looking into, according to the suit. NRC spokeswoman Viktoria Mitlyng said Monday she could neither confirm nor deny whether an allegation was being looked at by the Office of Investigation. The day after Tackett's meeting with the resident inspector, he was removed from the plant until an investigation of his allegations could be completed. The goal was to have Tackett back to work by the following Monday, according to the suit, but to date he is still removed from the plant. Tackett's suit claims that he was the victim of retaliation and that he should be protected under federal and state laws, particularly the Ohio Whistleblower's Act. He also alleged in the suit that Stevens' remarks at the NRC meeting were tantamount to slander and potential libel by being printed in local and regional newspapers. To remove Tackett from work, the suit stated, cast doubt about the Port Clinton resident's work because removal is used only for scurrilous conduct such as theft or other serious misconduct. Also, Tackett's suit alleged the plant became a hostile work environment for the technician because of comments made by supervisors. Originally published Tuesday, October 22, 2002 Copyright ©2002 News Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 34 Experts not allowed to look into damage in nuclear reactor near Toledo Associated Press OAK HARBOR, Ohio ­­ Federal regulators have turned down a request to allow a third-party team of experts to look into reactor head damage at the Davis-Besse nuclear plant. Citizen groups had asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for an outside review. Sam Collins, NRC nuclear reactor regulation director, formally rejected the request last week. Viktoria Mitlyng, an NRC spokeswoman, said the request was denied because issues that were raised are being addressed by NRC investigators. The decision did not surprise those who helped submit the petition, said Paul Gunter, of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Washington, D.C. A boric acid leak at the Davis-Besse plant found in March was the most extensive corrosion ever on a U.S. nuclear reactor and led to a nationwide review of all 69 similar plants. A second, smaller hole was found later at Davis-Besse. The plant near Toledo has been shut down since the corrosion was spotted. ***************************************************************** 35 Irradiation Phytosanitary Treatment of Imported Fruits See radbull part 2 for full document ***************************************************************** 36 [radiation-survivors] Italian Study Raises Concerns About Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2002 23:39:33 -0500 (CDT) http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20021023/sc_nm/health_mobilephones_dc_1 Study Raises Concerns About Mobile Phones Wed Oct 23, 2:24 PM ET LONDON (Reuters) - Italian scientists have raised new health concerns about the safety of using mobile phones, with research showing radio waves from the handsets makes cancerous cells grow more aggressively. When Fiorenzo Marinelli and his colleagues at the National Research Council (news - web sites) in Bologna exposed leukemia cells in the laboratory to 48 hours of continuous radio waves they initially killed the cancer cells but then made the surviving tumor cells replicate more rapidly. "We don't now what the effects would be on healthy human cells," Marinelli told New Scientist magazine on Wednesday. Cancer develops when control signals in a normal cell go wrong and an abnormal cell results. Instead of destroying itself the mutant cell keeps on dividing and forms a lump or tumor. In the Italian study, after 24 hours 20 percent more leukemia cells died than healthy cells but longer exposure to the radio waves triggered genes in the surviving cancer cells, in a type of defense mechanism, to divide aggressively. The results of the study do not show any direct threat to human health but they support the belief of some scientists who say radiation can damage DNA and destroy the cell repair system which can make tumors more deadly. But animal studies, including recent research by Australian scientists at the Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science in Adelaide, have shown that radiation from mobile phones does not trigger the growth of tumors. The World Health Organization (news - web sites) (WHO) has called for more research into the potential health hazards of mobile phones and has urged people to limit their use of them. A British government inquiry, which concluded that there was no evidence that mobile phones are a danger to health, has advised parents to discourage their children, whose brains are still developing, from using them excessively. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Y! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your web site http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Sell a Home for Top $ http://us.click.yahoo.com/RrPZMC/jTmEAA/jd3IAA/6xSolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: radiation-survivors-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com ----- Together we can make a difference.. Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 37 Taiwan: State must pre-empt terror: DPP The Taipei Times Online: 2002-10-23 NO ROOT TO GROW: The DPP called on the government to enact legislation and mechanisms that will make it harder for extremists to execute bombings in Taiwan By Ko Shu-Ling STAFF REPORTER In light of the recent terrorist attacks in Bali and the Philippines, the DPP yesterday called on the government to keep the public posted about the latest developments in international terrorist activities. "To raise public awareness about terrorism and to avoid triggering unnecessary panic because of inefficient information, the government should make public the latest status of international terrorist activities on a regular basis," DPP Deputy Secretary-General Michael You (´å¬Õ¶©) told a press conference held after the weekly closed-door Central Standing Committee meeting yesterday afternoon. You made the remark after National Security Council Secretary-General Chiou I-jen (ªô¸q¤¯) briefed the committee on the government's anti-terror actions following the terrorist attacks in Bali and the Philippines. You said that the attacks indicate that terrorism has spread to the Asian region. "This area is now shrouded in the violence of terrorism," You said. "Terrorism can happen anywhere regardless of nationality, race and religion." In addition to offering the party's condolences to those killed in the attacks, You said the party reached three more resolutions to ask the government to take action against terrorism as soon as possible. Firstly, the party wants the government to formulate protection measures against possible bio-chemical attacks in the future. In addition, the party called for the integration of various anti-terrorism resources and the establishment of a special unit dedicated to anti-terrorism actions. Finally, the party requested that the government intensify safeguards on public facilities like nuclear power plants and oil refineries. Meanwhile, the Executive Yuan is scheduled to approve draft amendments to the statute on foreign passports and visas (¥~°êÅ@·ÓñÃÒ±ø¨Ò) today. The amendments would bar foreigners suspected of engaging in terrorist activities from obtaining a visa. Currently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Taiwan embassies and representative offices in foreign countries and other institutions authorized by the foreign ministry, can refuse to issue visas to a foreigner if they find the applicant has a criminal record in Taiwan or other countries -- or if the applicant had been deported from or refused entry into a country. The government can also withhold giving visas to foreigners who has resided illegally in Taiwan, or who cannot support him or herself financially. Those who have illegally entered Taiwan, or suffer from a contagious disease, mental illness or other ailments posing a threat to public hygiene or social stability are also barred from obtaining visas. Applicatns who make false statement about or conceal the real purpose of their visit here will also be barred from getting visas. This story has been viewed 207 times. URL=[http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2002/10/23/story/0000176761] Copyright © 1999-2002 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 38 NRC Announces Availability of Guidance on Licenses for Medical Uses of Radioactive Material NRC: News Release - 2002-123 - U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov [opa@nrc.gov] www.nrc.gov No. 02-123 October 22, 2002 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is making available final guidance for obtaining a license, under newly revised regulations, to use radioactive materials in medical diagnosis, treatment and research. The document, Consolidated Guidance About Materials Licenses: Program-Specific Guidance About Medical Use Licenses (NUREG-1556, Volume 9), is a result of significant staff effort and public review, including several public workshops. A summary of public comments on the guidance and NRC responses will be published as a separate document, Appendix BB to NUREG-1556, Volume 9. The comments and responses will also be available in electronic form on CD-rom. Revised regulations, effective October 24, focus on medical procedures that pose higher risks to workers, patients, and the public from a radiation safety aspect. The guidelines for these regulations provide a single, comprehensive source of information for use by applicants, licensees and NRC staff and consolidate guidance found in 15 other NRC documents. A copy of NUREG-1556, Volume 9 and Appendix BB - on paper or CD-rom - may be requested in writing to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, ATTN: Mrs. Carrie Brown, Mail Stop T 9-C24, Washington, DC 20555-0001; by email at CXB@nrc.gov [CXB@nrc.gov] ; or by telephone at 301-415-8092. Single copies of the documents are also available for inspection and/or copying for a fee in the NRC Public Document Room, located at 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. These documents will also be available on the NRCs web site at http://www.nrc.gov/materials/miau/miau-reg-initiatives/by-product.html. For additional information about the guidance, contact Roger W. Broseus, Rulemaking and Guidance Branch, Mail Stop T 9-C24, Division of Industrial and Medical Nuclear Safety, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; by telephone at 301-415-7608; or by e-mail at RWB@nrc.gov [RWB@nrc.gov] . Tuesday, October 22, 2002 ***************************************************************** 39 Parents of dying Iraqi children vent fury at Bush AlertNet 23 Oct 2002 14:16 By Samia Nakhoul BAGHDAD, Oct 23 (Reuters) - If President George W. Bush believes that ordinary Iraqis will welcome U.S. troops with open arms he may be in for a rude surprise. However much they fear to say what they think under the ruthless rule of President Saddam Hussein, their feelings of deep-seated hatred towards Bush are only too clear. They see the United States as primarily responsible for the sanctions that have destroyed their economy and the social fabric of their once-prosperous lives, as well as leaving an estimated 1.6 million children dead and many more stunted. As much as the deprivation, they resent the humiliation of having been driven back into an almost pre-industrial age. Nowhere are these sentiments more in evidence than at the Mansour Hospital for Children, where youngsters with cancer lie dying from what doctors believe are the effects of the 1991 Gulf War. "Look! These are the children of Iraq," said Nouhad Abdel-Amir pointing at the cancer ward packed with frail children with no hair, many lying unconscious with drips strapped to their bodies. She herself was holding her one-year-old baby who had his arm amputated to stop the progress of cancer in the absence of injections doctors say are banned by the sanctions committee which claims they have dual use. "This is what the Americans did to us. This is the effect of all the bombs they fired at us. It is showing now. It is all America's fault that our children are dying," said Najate Salem, whose son Mohammed, five, has stomach cancer. International medical surveys have reported a dramatic jump in cancer cases, genetic deformities and abnormalities in children born after 1991, especially in the south where depleted uranium munitions were fired by U.S. and British troops as they drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. "The Gulf War is the only indicator for the increase of cancer in Iraq. The rate of cancer has risen five to seven fold more than before 1991," said Loua'i Latif Kasha, a pathologist and director of the 300-bed Mansour hospital. He said U.S. bombings of water treatment plants, the collapse of the health and sanitation systems as well as a stringent embargo that made it difficult to import medicine has led to the sharp increase in cancer among Iraqis, mainly children. "Apart from these factors, radiation pollution from depleted uranium bombs by itself causes cancer like leukaemia and thyroid," Kasha, who trained at the Whitechapel Hospital in London, told Reuters. At Mansour hospital, desperate and broken parents sit by their children's bedside praying for a miracle. Without a miracle, many will die because the appropriate medicines are not all available and are beyond the parents' means. Humanitarian supplies under the U.N. oil-for-food programme are intended to alleviate the impact of 12 years of sanctions but cannot meet the massive need. Many parents, originally from poor southern provinces, have sold household goods and furniture to buy expensive medicine. "We've sold everything we own to get him medicine. We have nothing left except our mattresses and he's dying," said Camila Mohammed, whose son Ali, six, has kidney cancer. Sleeping on soiled and bare mattresses in stomach-churning smelly rooms, the children with no hair, yellow faces and sad eyes listen to their parents venting their rage at America. "I pray to God to hit America with a massive strike because a strike from God is much stronger than from a human being...I want them to suffer like we're suffering. They are the reason for our misery," said Kazema Tshaloub, 30. Whether they like or loathe Saddam, their rage and hatred are mainly directed at the U.S. administration. Most, who come from areas that witnessed an anti-Saddam uprising after the Gulf War, distrust the declared intentions of Bush to end Saddam's 23-year-old rule. Bush's father, then President George Bush, encouraged Shi'ites in the south and Kurds in the north to rise up against Saddam after the Gulf War but did little to help them. "Bush still wants to hurt us more. What more does he want? Is there anything he hasn't done...All the destruction, sanctions and diseases aren't enough? What have we done to him, we haven't hurt him or attacked him," said another mother Ghaziya Rasheed. Even if Iraq is about to change for the better, for many people this change will come too late. Nothing will bring back their loved ones. "They fought us with all their means. Our children are stunted, malnourished and illiterate," said Sahera Khalil whose son Ahmed, four, has leukaemia. "In six weeks at the hospital I've seen eight children die," she said. "The Americans have no mercy in their hearts. This is what they have done to the future generation of Iraq." AlertNet ***************************************************************** 40 AU: Carr wants army to guard nuclear plant - smh.com.au By Robert Wainwright, State Political Correspondent October 24 2002 The Lucas Heights nuclear reactor would be placed under military guard as part of a counter-terrorism plan to be presented to state and territory leaders today by the Premier, Bob Carr. Mr Carr told Parliament yesterday that federal laws should be amended to allow states to call on defence personnel to provide security around important infrastructure sites, such as the reactor in Sydney's south, if there were credible information about threats of terrorism. "Commonwealth legislation ... requires that an incident is actually occurring or likely to occur, and the states must show that they are unlikely to be able to meet the threat," he said. "These are high thresholds and in a time of heightened threat, a more flexible approach is required." Mr Carr will raise the issue when state and territory leaders gather in Canberra for a service commemorating the victims of the Bali bombings. It will be followed by a meeting to discuss a raft of issues, including anti-terrorism strategies. Mr Carr said he took the threat of terrorism seriously: "It is no longer an abstraction, no longer a CNN news item," he said. "It is here and it is now, and the first victims lie in the Bali morgue. Let us not ask ourselves 'if' - let us prepare for 'when'." Mr Carr also said he was considering a proposal to give NSW police special powers to stop and search vehicles, drivers and pedestrians in a designated area. "The management committee of the NSW Crime Commission is drafting a standing reference to ... enable it to work with the Police Protective Security Group to investigate any terrorist activity. That means bringing the commission's considerable powers to bear on suspected terrorist crimes being planned. "These powers include the power to compel people to come forward and answer questions, and the power to compel documents. The commission can also obtain warrants to conduct surveillance and tap phones." The Government has also approved an extra $5 million for the police to buy bomb-disposal and forensic equipment. "We are looking at other police needs and I will be saying more about this in the near future," Mr Carr said. "I am receiving regular briefings concerning the level of threat and the police response. "The police force is now reviewing its counter-terrorist capacity and building on the valuable Olympic experience. This review commenced before the events in Bali but has, of course, taken on a new urgency." [Top] Copyright © 2002. The Sydney Morning Herald. [http://adcentre.fairfax.com.au/online/contact.htm] ***************************************************************** 41 Pediatricians study nuclear terror impact USATODAY.com - 10/22/2002 - Updated 06:30 PM ET By Marilyn Elias, USA TODAY "Dirty bombs," sabotage of nuclear power plants and nuclear war would appear to be way off the agenda of U.S. children's doctors. But not anymore. Doctors are turning their attention to nuclear terrorism and its possible impact on children. A top military scientist Tuesday briefed pediatricians on the potential threat. "There's no intelligence that says any of these scenarios will occur," says U.S. Army Col. Robert Eng, director of the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Md. He spoke at the American Academy of Pediatrics meeting in Boston. But Eng was invited "because we want our members to be prepared for all medical risks that could affect children," says Yale Medical School pediatrician David Schonfeld. Some of the threats aren't nearly as catastrophic as parents fear, Eng said, pointing to dirty bombs as an example. A dirty bomb combines radioactive material with conventional explosives, which enables it to spread radiation over several city blocks when detonated. Eng says the radiation in smaller "dirty" bombs would dilute rapidly, minimizing radiation exposure. But shrapnel from the explosion could cause injuries or deaths, he says. Nuclear power plant sabotage or nuclear bombs could pose a far greater threat. "Damage would be most intense near the site itself, but fallout causes the majority of casualties in our modeling of what would happen," Eng says. Children are particularly vulnerable to radiation for two reasons: + Radiation damages infection-fighting white blood cells. Pre-adolescent kids have developing immune systems, so they're already at a disadvantage and liable to suffer serious infections from radiation exposure, Eng says. The U.S. government has been stockpiling antibiotics for potential emergencies, he adds. + Radiation causes cancer, but often not until years after exposure. Children live longer than adults, so they're more likely to face these cancers. Chernobyl showed that thyroid cancer is a particular danger for kids exposed to radiation, Eng says. Federal agencies are stockpiling potassium iodide pills, which help protect against thyroid cancer, and are offering the pills to states with nuclear power plants. Some parents think driving away from any explosion would be the best way to protect their kids from fallout. But that's wrong, Eng emphasizes. "You have no idea how winds will shift, and cars offer little shield against radiation." Instead, it's best to go indoors, close all windows, turn off the ventilation system and stay off upper levels, where fallout will gather, Eng says. Right now this is all hypothetical. But the publicity about North Korea's nuclear weapons program and other news items may prompt children to ask questions. Parents should inform themselves and reassure kids they're safe, says child psychiatrist Milton Anderson of the Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans. "This is grownup business, and they need to hear there's no immediate danger," he says. For more information, Eng advises visiting www.hps.org and click on "ask the experts" or www.afrri.usuhs.mil and click on "pocket guide for responders to ionizing radiation terrorism." © Copyright 2002 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. ***************************************************************** 42 Submarine on fire in Murmansk suburb Background information and news about the numerous accidents and incidents that involve the nuclear vessels in the Northern Fleet. A nuclear powered submarine, undergoing decommissioning at a naval shipyard in a suburb of Murmansk, caught fire. This Echo-II class submarine in Sevmorput shipyard drydock caught fire on October 23d. Igor Kudrik, 2002-10-23 12:36 A nuclear powered submarine, which has not been identified, caught fire at 9:21 Moscow time on October 23rd. The submarine was undergoing decommissioning at Sevmorput shipyard located in the north of Murmansk city at the Kola Peninsula. The fire started on the wood scaffolding in the dry dock surrounding the submarine, and then spread to the rubber coating of the submarine. Six fire engines arrived at the scene and extinguished the fire in two hours, by 11:10 Moscow time, said local Civil Defence representative to the Interfax new agency. Negligent welding works reportedly caused the fire. Although the submarine was not identified, there is reason to believe that the vessel was a first generation Echo-II class submarine (K-22). This submarine was defuelled at Sevmorput by the Imandra support vessel in summer 2001. Imandra is run by Murmansk Shipping Company, a commercial operator of nuclear powered icebreakers. No release of radiation or causalities was reported. There were four first generation submarines moored at Sevmorput waiting to be decommissioned: one Hotel class (K-145) defuelled in 1995, one November class (defuelling time unclear) and two Echo-II class submarines — K-22 defuelled in summer 2001 and K-128/62 defuelled this summer. Shipyard No. 35 — Sevmorput One of the Echo-II class submarines in Sevmorput water area captured in October 2002. Nils Bøhmer Naval yard No. 35 Sevmorput is also a Northern Fleet naval repair yard located on the Murmansk Fjord in the Rosta district of Murmansk, between the nuclear icebreaker base Atomflot and the merchant harbour. In addition to several large workshops, the yard operates two large dry docks. Until the end of the 1980s, the yard employed 5,500 workers, but today the number of employees is much smaller. Sevmorput has been repairing first generation nuclear submarines since the close of the 1960s, and until 1991, the refuelling of nuclear submarines was also undertaken here. Today the shipyard also carries out repairs of second generation submarines. In 1991, county officials prohibited refuelling activities at this yard on the grounds of radiation safety concerns and the fact that the yard is located only a few hundred meters from more populous areas of the city. Defuelling activities were later resumed on the condition that a so-called dry defuelling method is used, whereby the cooling water is pumped out from the reactor. The civilian nuclear service ship Imandra is likely to perform the defuelling operations at the shipyard in the future. 1996-08-19 Report 2:1996 - The Russian Northern Fleet Nuclear submarine accidents Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] , President: Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] Information: info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] , Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no [webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 43 Plants' neighbors line up to get free `nuke pills' Charlotte Observer | 10/23/2002 | Turnout eclipses numbers for 1st day of distribution, health officials say SCOTT DODD Staff Writer Larger crowds of area residents showed up Tuesday for the last day to collect two free pills that could help protect them following a nuclear disaster. Local health officials said distribution sites were busier and lines longer than on Saturday, the first day residents could receive the potassium iodide tablets. Mecklenburg, Catawba, Gaston, Iredell and Lincoln officials distributed pills for 38,060 residents Tuesday. On Saturday, 23,835 residents received pills. More than 200,000 people were eligible across the region. Known by its chemical symbol, KI, potassium iodide helps block thyroid cancer, the most common ailment suffered after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident in the former Soviet Union. Local officials distributed the pills with a warning that people should take them only if instructed following an accident or terrorist attack at the McGuire or Catawba plants near Charlotte. Mecklenburg County Health Department spokesman D.C. Lucchesi guessed that Saturday's pleasant weather kept people from lining up for the pills. But on Tuesday, lines had formed at the door of some sites before they opened at 3 p.m. Spots in Huntersville, Cornelius and Davidson, which are close to the McGuire plant on Lake Norman, were especially busy, he said. At the Bethel Presbyterian Church site in Cornelius, business was brisk about 6 p.m., as many local residents stopped to pick up the pills on their way home from work. Some said they hadn't gotten the pills during Saturday's distribution because they'd been out of town or working. Margie Burgess, who lives so near McGuire that she can hear it running, wasn't aware of the distribution until a family member called her Tuesday and suggested that she get the pills. Barbara Fox, who lives in Huntersville, also hadn't heard about distribution efforts until she read about it in Sunday's newspaper. So on Tuesday, on her way home from work, she stopped to get a supply for her family. N.C. residents who live within 10 miles of the McGuire or Catawba nuclear plants were eligible. South Carolina will hand out the tablets at a later date. Now that the initial free distribution is over, health officials will assess whether to request more of the pills or whether they have enough left over to give them to people who work in the 10-mile zone. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission made the pills available earlier this year for states to distribute to people who live within the emergency planning zones around the plants. People who missed the distribution or who live outside the zones can buy the pills at drug stores or on the Internet, including at www.nukepills.com [http://www.nukepills.com] . Staff Writers howie paul hartnett and Pam Kelley contributed to this report. About Charlotte.com ***************************************************************** 44 Officials: lead bars on ship used by alleged Islamic extremists yield can't be used in nuclear weapons AP World Politics Oct 22,12:03 PM ET CALTANISETTA, Sicily - Tests on lead bars found aboard a ship on which 15 suspected Islamic extremists were sailing have found that no radioactive material hidden inside, an anti-terrorism police official said Tuesday. Results of testing thousands of lead bars weighing a total of some 800 tons were "negative," said the official, Giuseppe Amico, of the DIGOS office in Caltanisetta, Sicily. Authorities decided to inspect the bars as a precaution after picking up the 15 men, identified by Italian authorities as Pakistanis, on Aug. 5. Lead, because of its magnetic properties, can be used to conceal radioactive material by making it difficult to detect. On Oct. 4, a court in Caltanisetta rejected a defense request that the 15 men be released, and they are still in jail there, Amico said. The suspects arrived in Sicily aboard the ship, which had set sail from Casablanca, Morocco, and was headed to Libya when it stopped off the Sicilian coast because it was running out of supplies. Authorities found that the men had fake passports and took them to a detention center for illegal immigrants in the central Sicilian town of Caltanissetta. After their arrest the Pakistan government questioned whether the men were actually Pakistani citizens, insisting that the documents were forged. But on Tuesday, Amico said officials from Pakistan's embassy in Italy earlier this month visited the men in prison. Embassy officials could not be reached for comment on Tuesday afternoon. After the men were arrested, an American defense official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the cargo ship was on a U.S. Navy watch list and had been suspected of smuggling Islamic extramists in the past. Authorities have not commented on newspaper reports that phrases and phone numbers on notes in the possession of some of the suspects linked them to Osama bin Laden, al-Qaida. In the past year, Italian police have arrested more than 30 people with alleged links to al-Qaida. Seven Tunisians were convicted earlier this year in a Milan court of helping al-Qaida recruits get fake documents — the first al-Qaida-related guilty verdict since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Among those convicted was Essid Sami Ben Khemais, the alleged head of bin Laden's terrorist operations in Europe. Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The ***************************************************************** 45 Man's Sock Tests Positive For Radiation TheWPBFChannel.com - Home Cleared Of Any Danger, Officials Say POSTED: 12:06 p.m. EDT October 22, 2002 An employee of the St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant who was exposed to radiation earlier this month reportedly wore a contaminated sock home, officials said. A scan of the man's home found no radiation. The level of radiation in the sock was deemed acceptable. Dozens of workers were exposed to radiation, according to the plant. Last week, a man's underwear was confiscated after it was found to be exposed. Copyright 2002 by TheWPBFchannel.com [wpbnews@ibsys.com] . All ***************************************************************** 46 Special helicopter to begin radiation sweeps today The Hawk Eye Newspaper Wednesday, October 23, 2002 Flyover of ammunition plant expected to take three or four days. By Dennis J. Carroll The Hawk Eye MIDDLETOWN – Two pilots and a technician will climb into a 50–foot–long specially equipped helicopter this morning on a mission to determine whether the Atomic Energy Commission, which built and tested components of nuclear weapons here, may have left radiation hazards scattered around the sprawling grounds of the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant. Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, at whose insistence the low–level flyover is being conducted, called the operation "a great victory for the former IAAP workers and their families." "Finally, we will have a fair and open account of the nature of any hazards that former workers might have been exposed to during their employment at IAAP," Vilsack said. Don Flater, director of the Department of Public's Health's radiological bureau, said "the best thing we can find is nothing, but we will never know until we get this done." Steve Riedhauser, a senior scientist with Bechtel Nevada, the managing contractor for the Remote Sensing Laboratory of Las Vegas, said the Bell 412 helicopter will conduct two flights a day — one in the morning, one in the afternoon — flying about 100 feet off the ground. Riedhauser arrived with the helicopter Tuesday. The scientists are using the Southeast Iowa Regional Airport as their staging area, and keeping the helicopter there. Riedhauser said the high–tech radiation detection gear will be able to detect gamma rays coming from such sources as depleted uranium, plutonium, cesium, radium and cobalt. Recently discovered and declassified Department of Energy documents suggest that over the decades IAAP workers handled such materials. The Army and plant officials have persistently insisted that the AEC cleaned up its operations on the Line 1 nuclear production line and at the firing sites before it moved its nuclear operations to Texas in the mid 1970s. However, those assertions were cast into doubt when large chunks of depleted uranium were found at Firing Site 12, and tons of the heavy metal barium, used by the AEC, were discovered near several open–air burn pads. Riedhauser said the helicopter will fly over the plant in 200–foot wide paths with radiation–detection gear mounted on a platform. He said he hopes to cover about five square miles of the 30–square–mile plant in each sweep. The flyover is expected to take three to four days, said Rodger Allison, environmental projects director for IAAP. Riedhauser said the many groves of trees on the plant compound will not be a problem, but that the radiation detection gear will not be able to determine whether the plant's Lake Mathis is contaminated with radiation. Flater said there is no evidence to believe it is, but that if the flyover gets suspicious readings from areas around the lake, testing of the lake bottom may be necessary. However, Flater said that the area of Firing Site 12, where the AEC tested components of nuclear weapons, releasing clouds of depleted uranium into the air and burying shards into the ground, does drain into Lake Mathis. Flater and Riedhauser also said the helicopter will fly off–site, following Brush and Spring creeks as they meander four to five miles south into the Skunk River. The creeks flow out of Lake Mathis. Riedhauser said the pilots will also fly the helicopter along the perimeters of the plant, covering a 500–foot–swath outside of the plant's fences in Middletown. "I am so pleased that this flyover is happening this week and it is long overdue," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D–Iowa, who has pushed strongly for the flyover and planted $500,000 in the Energy Department's budget for it. The Army will eventually end up paying the cost, however. "The people in the Burlington area have made an extraordinarily valuable contribution to the defense of our nation," Harkin said. "It is our duty to make sure that they are protected from the possible dangerous0 health effects of that work." The Hawk Eye 800 S. Main St., Burlington Iowa 52601 319-754-8461 Front Desk · 319-754-6824 FAX · 1-800-397-1708 Toll Free ***************************************************************** 47 Ottawa ignoring toxic waste, report says* globeinteractive.com: Making the Business of Life Easier *POSTED AT 3:57 PM EDT* *Tuesday, October 22* By ALLISON DUNFIELD and ALLISON LAWLOR Globe and Mail Update Ottawa is dragging its feet financially and politically in efforts to clean up toxic sites, Canada's Environment Commissioner said in her annual report to Parliament on Tuesday. "The federal government is not investing enough ? enough of its human and financial resources; its legislative, regulatory, and economic powers; or its political leadership ? to fulfill its sustainable development commitments," Johanne Gélinas, Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development said in tabling her second report to Parliament. This year's report contained five separate audits that examined the federal government's management of toxic substances, the state of Canada's abandoned Northern mines, federally owned toxic sites and invasive species in Canada. In her report, which was mainly critical, Ms. Gélinas said federal government inaction is putting the health of Canadians at serious risk. She predicted that the government's slow response to these problems will end up costing it billions of dollars to clean up environmental damage. "Our audit findings this year make me more concerned than ever about the environmental, social and economic legacy we are leaving our children ? we are burdening them with a growing sustainable development deficit," Ms. Gélinas said. Especially troubling to Ms. Gélinas was the failure of Ottawa to address the cleanup of its own toxic sites properly. She said that Ottawa still does not have an accurate picture of how many contaminated sites there are, although they have identified 3,606 so far and another 1,5000 sites are waiting to be assessed. The government has not provided the proper funding to clean up these areas, nor has it done a proper assessment of how much it will cost to do so, she said. "At its current spending rate, it will take the government decades to deal solely with its known contaminated sites," Ms. Gélinas said in her report. Cleaning up abandoned northern mines will cost the government approximately $555-million. This year alone, the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs must spend $26-million just to ensure that the waste is contained within the mines. One of Canada's largest contaminated sites is the Sydney tar ponds in Sydney, N.S., the report says. Although Ottawa does not consider it a federal site, the report points out that the federal government has spent more than $66-million over the past 20 years on environmental studies and cleanup attempts on the site. The long-awaited cleanup of the site, which is likely to take nearly a decade and cost as much as $800-million, began late last year. The work involves removing the structures of the now defunct Sydney Steel mill, the soil and the water laced with lead, arsenic, benzene, toluene and hydrocarbons in the infamous Sydney tar ponds and coke-oven sites. In the House of Commons on Tuesday, Progressive Conservative environment critic John Herron accused the Liberals of making "superficial Throne Speech mentions" about the environment that have left the government with no idea where to start clean-ups. "This government does not even have a full inventory of contaminated sites," Mr. Herron said. "Nor do they even know which ones pose a risk to human health. The only legacy that this Prime Minister will leave future generations is his toxic legacy on the environment. Mr. Herron then asked if the Prime Minister would commit to the long-term stable funding program that the environment commissioner demanded. Environment Minister David Anderson said the federal government has already committed funds for the contaminated sites. "As virtually all of these contaminated sites were inherited by this government from the Conservatives, I think that's a pretty stupid question," Mr. Anderson said. "The fact is we spend about $100-million a year on contaminated sites. The sites that have been chosen are because they're priority sites." Mr. Herron called for a massive overhaul of what he dubbed the federal 'do-nothing' approach to toxic and radioactive waste sites across Canada. "The federal government has been warned for years that toxic waste sites represent a lurking liability in the billions of dollars," Mr. Herron said in a press release. "Yet rather than address the problem with the kind of coherent policy framework which is required, millions of dollars have been squandered in ad hoc Band-Aid approaches." Canadian Alliance senior environment critic Bob Mills criticized the Liberals on Tuesday for their poor environmental record over the past decade. "The mismanagement of federal contaminated sites is the most damning part of this report [the environment commissioner's]. The government has no idea how many sites there are, or how poisonous they are," Mr. Mills said in a news release. "Further, they have shown a lack of leadership and lack of a plan to clean these sites up. Their handling of this file resembles the way they've been fumbling Kyoto." The document, released on Tuesday, is Ms. Gélinas's second report to Parliament. Ms. Gélinas is responsible for overseeing Canada's record in agreeing to support and apply the principles of sustainable development made 10 years ago at the Rio conference. / With a report from Darren Yourk/ © 2002 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 48 AU: The Advertiser: $300,000 bid to promote SA nuclear dump 23 October 2002 By State Political Reporter GREG KELTON THE Federal Government is planning a $300,000 publicity campaign to "sell" South Australians on the idea of a national nuclear waste dump in the Far North. Premier Mike Rann released details of the scheme in State Parliament yesterday. "When the noise dies down, the message the Howard Government will be left with is no one in their right mind wants to be known as the nuclear waste-dump state," Mr Rann said. A 12-page "public relations brief" and a nine-page "communication strategy" outline how the Federal Government will "strategically manage" its announcement of a site at Woomera as the national repository for low-level nuclear waste. "The announcement is expected to be made in the first quarter of 2003," the strategy paper says. Written proposals are to be submitted to the Federal Government by October 29. The paper sets out criteria for the campaign, such as identifying groups who may be especially concerned, like women and those aged under 40 years. It is to target Adelaide residents and communities in the central-north region near the three nominated sites – Site 52a, (preferred site) about 50km northwest of Woomera, and Site 40a and Site 45a, 10km east and 60km northeast of Woomera. The paper says a national campaign will not be required as research showed community concerns were highest in SA. The strategy paper says the campaign should: INCREASE awareness and understanding in SA about Commonwealth radioactive waste management policies. RAISE knowledge about the need for central radioactive waste management facilities. PROVIDE information about the broad use of radioactive materials in everyday life. INCREASE awareness about the consultation process for choosing the national repository site. Mr Rann said the paper was nothing more than "an enemies' list" of targets for the campaign. "But it doesn't go far enough because it doesn't list 90 per cent of the people in this state," he told Parliament. "This sounds like nothing more than a political campaign funded by the taxpayers of Australia." He said the Howard Government also wanted a medium to intermediate-level dump in SA. The SA Government opposes a national repository in SA and has proposed legislation triggering a referendum if any attempt is made to establish a medium-level repository in the state. The legislation is being debated in the Legislative Council. Federal Science Minister Peter McGauran said his Government was considering ways to provide information "directly to South Australians so they can be in full knowledge of the facts". "This is necessary given the campaign of misinformation and distortions by the Rann Government and other opponents of the project," he said. Mr McGauran said in contrast to the Commonwealth, the State Government did not have a management plan for its own radioactive waste. © Advertiser Newspapers Ltd ***************************************************************** 49 Leaders quiz nuclear group manager * * *Tuesday, 10/22/02* Middle Tennessee News & Information* By KATHY CARLSON /Staff Writer/ *HARTSVILLE* ? About 80 people, including county officials, gathered at the Trousdale County Courthouse last night to question a Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff member about a uranium enrichment facility proposed here. County commissioners quizzed NRC project manager Tim Johnson for about an hour, mostly on health and safety matters. Afterward, Johnson spent another hour answering residents' questions. International consortium Louisiana Energy Services has proposed a $1.1 billion facility to prepare uranium for use as a nuclear power plant fuel. If built, it would be the second such facility in the United States, which generates 20% of electricity from nuclear power plants. Questions included permissible radiation levels from the plant. Johnson said discharges from the plant, both in air and water, could be only about a third or less of typical background radiation levels found in nature. These natural levels don't seem to be tied to the incidence of cancer, he said. Asked if he would live within five miles of the facility, Johnson said, ''I wouldn't have a problem with it'' if the facility could show it met federal health and safety standards. © Copyright 2002 The Tennessean ***************************************************************** 50 Bulk of radioactive tritium removed from nuclear site AP Wire | 10/22/2002 | BEACON JOURNAL JAMES HANNAH Associated Press Writer DAYTON, Ohio - Nearly 90 percent of the radioactive tritium remaining at the former Mound nuclear weapons plant has been removed in the past year, putting cleanup further ahead of schedule, the plant operator said Tuesday. Tritium is radioactive hydrogen and was used in the production of nuclear triggers over the years. There was more tritium on the 306-acre site in the Dayton suburb of Miamisburg than any other radioactive material. BWXTO, the plant operator, had expected to remove 200,000 of the remaining 542,000 curies of tritium in fiscal 2002. Instead, 472,000 curies - unit quantities of radioactive nuclides - have been removed. "The tritium that we've removed are from those significant components that have most of the tritium in it," said Ken Armstrong, a deputy project manager for BWXTO. "It's still a little bit bound up in the walls and the piping. But it allows us to accelerate the schedule." BWXTO spokesman Craig Hansen said the faster-than-expected cleanup of tritium makes it likely that total cleanup of the site will occur in early 2006, several months ahead of the July 2006 goal. When nuclear production ended at Mound, tritium remained in components and processing systems. The tritium was removed by heating the components while circulating air in and around them. The tritium was then recaptured, solidified and transferred to an off-site disposal facility. Monte Williams, manager of environmental restoration for BWXTO, said some radioactive plutonium and thorium still have to be removed from the soil at the site. He said 66 buildings have been demolished and 17 remain to be torn down. Mound began making triggers and detonators for nuclear weapons in 1949. The Energy Department ended production at the plant in 1996, leaving cleanup of radioactive and hazardous waste as the primary activity. Miamisburg officials have been trying to get the site cleaned up so it can be used for commercial development. In May 2001, the U.S. Department of Energy released an audit critical of the progress of the cleanup. The contract signed with BWXTO in 1997 called for the cleanup to be finished by September 2005 at a cost of $427 million. The audit estimated cleanup wouldn't be complete until 2009, at a cost of more than $1 billion. Hansen said the completion date was later revised to November 2006 after incentives were added to the contract rewarding workers for accelerated cleanup, which involves demolishing buildings and excavating soil contaminated with radioactive and hazardous materials. The use of overtime later pushed it up to July 2006. Graham Mitchell, chief of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency's office of federal facilities oversight, said great strides have been made in the cleanup over the past two years. "We're seeing a lot of progress, not just in the tritium," Mitchell said. "We have been impressed with the work that has occurred out there." About Ohio.com ***************************************************************** 51 Ottawa ignoring toxic waste, report says The Globe and Mail: Breaking News [globeinteractive.com: Tuesday, October 22 By ALLISON DUNFIELD and ALLISON LAWLOR Globe and Mail Update Ottawa is dragging its feet financially and politically in efforts to clean up toxic sites, Canada's Environment Commissioner said in her annual report to Parliament on Tuesday. "The federal government is not investing enough — enough of its human and financial resources; its legislative, regulatory, and economic powers; or its political leadership — to fulfill its sustainable development commitments," Johanne Gélinas, Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development said in tabling her second report to Parliament. This year's report contained five separate audits that examined the federal government's management of toxic substances, the state of Canada's abandoned Northern mines, federally owned toxic sites and invasive species in Canada. In her report, which was mainly critical, Ms. Gélinas said federal government inaction is putting the health of Canadians at serious risk. She predicted that the government's slow response to these problems will end up costing it billions of dollars to clean up environmental damage. "Our audit findings this year make me more concerned than ever about the environmental, social and economic legacy we are leaving our children — we are burdening them with a growing sustainable development deficit," Ms. Gélinas said. Especially troubling to Ms. Gélinas was the failure of Ottawa to address the cleanup of its own toxic sites properly. She said that Ottawa still does not have an accurate picture of how many contaminated sites there are, although they have identified 3,606 so far and another 1,5000 sites are waiting to be assessed. The government has not provided the proper funding to clean up these areas, nor has it done a proper assessment of how much it will cost to do so, she said. "At its current spending rate, it will take the government decades to deal solely with its known contaminated sites," Ms. Gélinas said in her report. Cleaning up abandoned northern mines will cost the government approximately $555-million. This year alone, the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs must spend $26-million just to ensure that the waste is contained within the mines. One of Canada's largest contaminated sites is the Sydney tar ponds in Sydney, N.S., the report says. Although Ottawa does not consider it a federal site, the report points out that the federal government has spent more than $66-million over the past 20 years on environmental studies and cleanup attempts on the site. The long-awaited cleanup of the site, which is likely to take nearly a decade and cost as much as $800-million, began late last year. The work involves removing the structures of the now defunct Sydney Steel mill, the soil and the water laced with lead, arsenic, benzene, toluene and hydrocarbons in the infamous Sydney tar ponds and coke-oven sites. In the House of Commons on Tuesday, Progressive Conservative environment critic John Herron accused the Liberals of making "superficial Throne Speech mentions" about the environment that have left the government with no idea where to start clean-ups. "This government does not even have a full inventory of contaminated sites," Mr. Herron said. "Nor do they even know which ones pose a risk to human health. The only legacy that this Prime Minister will leave future generations is his toxic legacy on the environment. Mr. Herron then asked if the Prime Minister would commit to the long-term stable funding program that the environment commissioner demanded. Environment Minister David Anderson said the federal government has already committed funds for the contaminated sites. "As virtually all of these contaminated sites were inherited by this government from the Conservatives, I think that's a pretty stupid question," Mr. Anderson said. "The fact is we spend about $100-million a year on contaminated sites. The sites that have been chosen are because they're priority sites." Mr. Herron called for a massive overhaul of what he dubbed the federal 'do-nothing' approach to toxic and radioactive waste sites across Canada. "The federal government has been warned for years that toxic waste sites represent a lurking liability in the billions of dollars," Mr. Herron said in a press release. "Yet rather than address the problem with the kind of coherent policy framework which is required, millions of dollars have been squandered in ad hoc Band-Aid approaches." Canadian Alliance senior environment critic Bob Mills criticized the Liberals on Tuesday for their poor environmental record over the past decade. "The mismanagement of federal contaminated sites is the most damning part of this report [the environment commissioner's]. The government has no idea how many sites there are, or how poisonous they are," Mr. Mills said in a news release. "Further, they have shown a lack of leadership and lack of a plan to clean these sites up. Their handling of this file resembles the way they've been fumbling Kyoto." The document, released on Tuesday, is Ms. Gélinas's second report to Parliament. Ms. Gélinas is responsible for overseeing Canada's record in agreeing to support and apply the principles of sustainable development made 10 years ago at the Rio conference. With a report from Darren Yourk ***************************************************************** 52 China turns out first nuclear fuel transport vehicle english.eastday.com China's first nuclear fuel transport vehicle rolled off the production line in Zhuzhou Rolling Stock Plant in central-south China's Hunan province. The vehicle, equipped with an inner wooden structure, thermal-protective coating, a venting system and a specially-designed buffer section, can maintain inside temperatures between minus 50 degrees Celsius and 50 degrees Celsius and ensure the safety of its cargo, according to an engineer in charge of production. Currently, nuclear fuel is transported in China in regular trucks. The Zhuzhou Vehicle Company is one of the country's largest lorry manufacturers. It has so far turned out more than 90,000 open freight trucks which account for one-third of the country's total. Xinhua News Copyright (C) 2000 www.eastday.com. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 53 Yucca rep visits Lovelock, and promotes nuke dump site north of Las Vegas - By Troy Daulton Lovelock Review-Miner By Troy Daulton October 17, 2002 A communications spokesperson who advocates the storage of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, north of Las Vegas, said that citizens have an obligation to future generations to safely store the waste. "Doing nothing is not an option," Bechtel spokesperson Ed Mueller told attendees at a Chamber of Commerce meeting here in Lovelock. Mueller works in the communications department at Bechtel SAIC Company, LLC. He's been working on the Yucca Mountain project for five years. Bechtel is one of two liaisons, along with the Department of Energy, that keeps local government informed of the project. Mueller said that after Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and it was decided that deep geologic disposal was the way to go for nuclear waste disposal, there were 19 sites selected. Due to costs, the 19 sites were narrowed to three. When even that proved too costly, the three were narrowed down to one - Yucca Mountain. Yucca Mountain was decided upon because it was the safest, geologically, than the other two, according to government experts_ This decision was made despite the fact that the west is much more geologically active than the east. "We have an obligation to future generations to take care of this waste," Mueller said. There are 131 nuclear waste sites located in 36 states. Mueller said that high-level radioactive waste is currently temporarily located near populated areas and most sites are near rivers, lakes and seacoasts. He said that if there were a nuclear spill there could be contamination of the water. The nuclear plants are running out of places to store the waste, he said. The laws regulate how much can be stored on a location. If it is exceeded, the plants will lose their license and will have to shut down, he said. "That would cut down on our nuclear power." Mueller added that Nevada has seen the benefits of nuclear power plants even though there are none in the state. Many of the nuclear plants in the country are built in large cities. He said that more than 161 million Americans reside within 75 miles of where radioactive wastes are stored, which is closer than the residents of Las Vegas are to Yucca Mountain, The natural barriers of Yucca Mountain would work in concert with additional man-made barriers. Mueller said. He listed the pros of locating a repository at Yucca Mountain: + In a desert location. Arid temperature with average annual precipitation of 7.5 inches per year + Isolated away from a population center in Nye County, approximately 100 miles from Las Vegas. + The repository would be secured 1,000 feet under the surface and 1,000 feet above the water table. + Surrounded by military and federal land. Despite what is seen on television, nuclear waste is not a liquid. That image of the glowing green goo is incorrect, Mueller said. The waste is solid ceramic pellets. Regarding the transportation of the nuclear waste, Mueller said that more spent fuel has already been shipped safely in densely populated Europe that could be shipped to Yucca Mountain under current law. He also said that waste wouldn't start coming to Yucca Mountain until 2010. The favored mode of transport is rail, Mueller said, but there may be other modes used. The governor will have the right to select the routes. Mueller said that the tunnel at Yucca Mountain is currently being maintained and more geological tests are being done. The license application should be completed by December 2004, which is to be presented to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC can accept the application, amend the application or turn it down, Mueller said. The NRC has two years to make the decision on the application. The construction could start in late 2006 or early 2007 and would take place three years until 2010. Waste acceptance would begin in 2010. There are several outreach programs including individual and group tours. Visitors see the top of the mountain as well as in the tunnel. "You'll see how all the science comes together," Mueller said. For more information call the national toll-free information line, 1-800-225-6972. ***************************************************************** 54 Multipolar Nuke Nightmare Thursday, Oct. 24, 2002. Page 9 By Pavel Felgenhauer While Washington is insisting that Pyongyang unconditionally and completely halt its nuclear program before any new negotiations can begin, North and South Korea issued a joint statement that they will resolve all outstanding problems, including the nuclear one, through dialogue. Japan is the only country in the world that has actually been hit by nuclear bombs (in 1945) and South Korea was ravished by invading North Korean armies in 1950. These countries are highly susceptible to nuclear blackmail, and Pyongyang clearly understands this. In 1985, under strong pressure from Moscow, North Korea signed a treaty on nonproliferation of nuclear weapons in exchange for an extended nuclear cooperation program. The Soviet Union pledged to build a nuclear power station in North Korea, equipped with four light-water VVER-440 reactors. But after signing the treaty, the North Koreans never allowed international inspectors to visit their nuclear research centers and in 1993 officially announced their intention to withdraw from the treaty. Moscow responded by stopping all nuclear cooperation, and the VVER-440 reactors never reached North Korea. Today, Russia rightfully denies it is providing Pyongyang with nuclear or ballistic missile know-how. But it was the Soviet Union that in 1965 exported to North Korea a 2 megawatt IRT-2000 research reactor and trained nuclear specialists, thereby kick-starting Pyongyang's homemade nuclear program. The North Koreans used the training to increase the capacity of the IRT-2000 reactor fourfold and to build a uranium reactor fuel enrichment facility. In 1986, they managed to put into operation their own 25 megawatt reactor capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium. In 1994, an agreed framework was put together for a program under which the United States, Japan, South Korea and the European Union would provide fuel oil and also pay some $4.6 billion to build two 1,000 megawatt light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea. In return, North Korea promised to stop plutonium production. (Some American experts believe the North Koreans managed to extract some 15 kilograms of plutonium before 1994 and are hiding the material somewhere.) Since 1994, North Korea has been receiving half a million tons of oil a year for free. But the construction of the nuclear power stations has not begun: Washington has demanded that Pyongyang first open the country to international arms and nuclear inspectors, that it stop proliferating missile technology to "rogue" states and so on. Apparently, North Korea deliberately disclosed its attempts to produce weapons-grade uranium in order to break the deadlock and force the donor nations to pay up more promptly. The North Korean ballistic missile program was also kick-started by Moscow. In the early 1980s, the Soviet Union provided North Koreans with R-11 Scud missiles. The Scud, with its 300-kilometer range, was developed in the early 1950s and was considered an obsolete weapon by then. The North Koreans first managed to copy the Scud and then began to modify it to increase range. Using very limited resources and capabilities, specialists ingeniously managed to merge several Soviet-designed Scud engines to make a primitive missile with an almost intercontinental range. The relative ease with which impoverished, isolated North Korea came close to having ICMB and nuclear capabilities is alarming. Even more alarming is the pattern of exchange of sensitive technologies between "states of concern." The Pentagon believes that Pyongyang may have obtained uranium purification technologies from Pakistan in exchange for missile know-how. In the 1940s, the United States willingly transferred nuclear technologies to Britain and unwillingly to the Soviet Union (spies stole the secrets). France in the late 1950s gave nuclear technologies to Israel; the Soviet Union helped China and North Korea; and China in turn helped Pakistan. Now the process seems out of control with North Korea, Pakistan, Iran, Libya and Iraq trading nuclear and ballistic know-how. The United States seems ready to occupy Iraq to make sure it is not a threat to its neighbors any more. But occupying North Korea or, say, Israel is out of the question. The Cold War nonproliferation regime is virtually dead today. The new U.S. doctrine of preventive nonproliferation has yet to prove its effectiveness, while the nightmare of a multipolar nuclear world is materializing. Pavel Felgenhauer is an independent defense analyst. © Copyright 2002, The Moscow Times. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 55 South Korea Presses North on Nukes Las Vegas SUN October 22, 2002 By SANG-HUN CHOE ASSOCIATED PRESS SEOUL, South Korea- South Korean negotiators struggled Tuesday to persuade North Korea to address concerns about its nuclear weapons program, South Korean news reports said. The main sticking point in the talks appeared to be the North's insistence on using "vague terms" and that the United States - South Korea's staunch ally - abandon its "hostile policy" toward Pyongyang, the reports said. "The South wants the North to make it clear in a joint statement that the North will immediately abide by its international agreements" not to develop or possess nuclear weapons," the pool news reports said. "But the North wants to use vague terms and blame the United States' hostile policy for the problem in the statement." No non-Korean journalists were allowed to cover the talks. After the North's ceremonial head of state expressed a willingness to resolve the nuclear issue through dialogue Monday, officials from the two sides met through the night but failed to agree, said reports from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. Both sides' delegates held a series of meetings Tuesday seeking a last-minute deal, postponing the departure of a chartered South Korean airplane that arrived in Pyongyang to take South Korean officials back to Seoul, the reports said. "If North Korea doesn't accept our demand related to the nuclear issue, it means that the talks have failed," the reports quoted an unidentified South Korean delegate as saying. South Korean journalists said North Korean officials were reluctant to include in a joint statement any reference to the principle of negotiating a solution to the nuclear issue. In Seoul, President Kim Dae-jung again urged North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons program, saying that it can never be "pardonable." "It is a matter on which our national survival and world peace hinge," Kim said. "The North's development of weapons of mass destruction must be scrapped not only for our national security, but also for the coexistence of South and North Korea." Rodong Sinmun, a state-run North Korean newspaper, said in an editorial Tuesday that the United States should "opt for reconciliation and peace, not strong-arm policy." The three-day, Cabinet-level talks, which opened Sunday, were meant to discuss inter-Korean reconciliation but the North's nuclear issue took priority. No foreign journalists were allowed to cover the talks. On Monday, the North's ceremonial head of state, Kim Yong Nam, said his country was ready to resolve the nuclear issue through dialogue as long as the United States withdraws its "hostile" policy toward the North. The North's position was at odds with the United States, which views the communist country's nuclear weapons program as a nonnegotiable issue. Washington vows to muster international pressure on North Korea to give up its nuclear ambition. "I believe we can deal with this threat peacefully, particularly if we work together," President Bush said Monday. South Korea believes dialogue is the best way to deal with concerns over the North's nuclear program. It is uneasy about the possibility of a new security crisis on the Korean peninsula, similar to one in 1994. That crisis was resolved after North Korea signed a deal with the United States, pledging to freeze and eventually dismantle its suspected plutonium-based nuclear weapons program in return for construction of two modern, light-water reactors and 500,000 tons of fuel oil a year until the reactors are completed. In Moscow, U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton presented Russian officials with evidence of North Korea's alleged uranium enrichment program, adding that "our very careful, very deliberate, very prudent assessment of the information we have is enough to convince us that this program is real and dangerous." Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov told reporters after talks with Bolton on Monday that Russia is against proliferation of nuclear weapons, but wants to have full information on the issue before making accusations against Pyongyang. "Scares and pressure will bring no good," he said. In Beijing, North Korea's sole communist ally urged continued talks. Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao called for the preservation of the 1994 agreement and said it was "of great importance" to peace and stability on the peninsula. The latest crisis is over North Korea's confession to visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly on Oct. 3-5 that it has been secretly pushing a program to make nuclear weapons with enriched uranium. In meetings with Kelly, North Korean officials said they consider the 1994 agreement invalid, because the reactors were several years behind schedule and were not expected to be completed by 2003 as promised. The North's nuclear ambitions seriously challenged Kim's "sunshine" policy of engaging the North. In Seoul, about 700 South Korean army veterans burned 10 North Korean flags and an effigy of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il during a rally Tuesday. They also waved and shouted slogans denouncing the North's nuclear program and urging the South to get tough. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 56 A Swede whose word could trigger war in Iraq AlertNet 23 Oct 2002 12:11 By Evelyn Leopold UNITED NATIONS, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Hans Blix, a 74-year-old Swede summoned out of retirement while cruising to Antarctica, may be the man whose word could trigger war in Iraq. As the chief United Nations weapons inspector, Blix will have to judge whether Iraq meets U.N. Security Council demands on disclosing its weapons of mass destruction. His reports on whether Iraq is cooperating could stand between war and peace. Tough and calm, Blix is a stickler for rules and walks a fine line between Washington's drumbeat of war and the natural U.N. inclination to turn swords into plowshares. "I think it is clear that there has to be constant pressure to keep the Iraqis to comply," he said when asked about U.S. insistence on tough mandates for the inspectors. "There was an erosion over the years in the past. So that has to be there." At the same time, Blix strives for neutrality and has frowned on U.S. proposals that it name inspectors for his teams or send troops to open roads for them. "We have been trying from the very outset to have a balanced position," he said in an interview. A lawyer with two doctoral degrees, Blix studied at Columbia University and Cambridge University and taught international law at Stockholm University. He joined the foreign service and was Sweden's foreign minister in 1978. In 1981, he became director-general of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency for the next 16 years. But his retirement in 1997, which included hiking above the tree line in the Swedish mountains, did not last long. Blix and his wife Eva, then a Swedish government adviser on Arctic and Antarctic affairs, had left Patagonia on a cruise ship for Antarctica in January 2000 when U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called. OUT OF THE FRIDGE Members of the Security Council, Annan said, wanted him to lead the U.N. Monitoring, Inspection and Verification Commission, or UNMOVIC, responsible for Iraq's ballistic, chemical and biological weapons. "I was taken out of the refrigerator -- literally," Blix said. He took up the post in March 2000. His hiking now is limited to a 25-minute walk to his 35th-floor offices at U.N. headquarters, knapsack on his back. He works most weekends, his wife having remained in Sweden and his two adult sons leading their own lives. "I live like a monk. I have a computer at home," he said. Diplomats say Blix has brought credibility in revamping the agency, discredited by charges of U.S. spying and steady Russian criticism of his predecessor, Australian Richard Butler. He has set up training courses for more than 200 potential inspectors and created an electronic archive with 30,000 entries of material collected in Iraq by his two predecessors, Butler and fellow Swede Rolf Ekeus. But U.S. conservatives have accused Blix of overlooking Iraq's atomic arms program during the years he headed the IAEA, which spent decades promoting nuclear energy. Blix says the rules of the game had changed considerably since the 1991 Gulf War, which for the first time permitted intrusive scrutiny by IAEA teams of nuclear materials in Iraq. Then the U.S. CIA was ordered by the Pentagon to investigate him, an action that amused him. "I thought it was somewhat redundant in view of the fact I should be a well-known quantity, having been head of the IAEA for 16 years," Blix said. At the same time, Iraq, which had not permitted U.N. inspectors to return to Baghdad since December 1998, made him a prime target for many months in 2002. "From the beginning they regarded UNMOVIC as a nonentity," he said. "Later on I was promoted to a spy and then finally we had the pleasure of discussions with the Iraqis." But he stood firm in three rounds of talks with Iraqi arms officials, refusing to go to Baghdad unless inspections were conducted on his terms. Iraq finally agreed. "We have waited now for nearly four years, so we have to have a little more patience," he said with a wry smile. ***************************************************************** 57 Chinese President to Meet With Bush Las Vegas SUN October 23, 2002 By ANDREW BUCHANAN ASSOCIATED PRESS CHICAGO- Chinese President Jiang Zemin began Tuesday what could be his final visit to the United States as China's head of state, saying he hoped the trip would improve relations between the two nations. Jiang attended a banquet hosted by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations before heading to Texas to visit President Bush at his ranch. He was then to take part in a conference of Asian-Pacific economic leaders in Mexico. The 76-year-old leader is believed to be preparing to step down as Communist Party leader in November, and his term as president ends next year. "I look forward to meeting President Bush to exchange views on a series of important subjects," Jiang said before the banquet. "I'm confident that this visit will help move forward the constructive and cooperative relationship between China and the United States." Tuesday morning, he was greeted at O'Hare International Airport by members of Chicago's Chinese-American community, many waving Chinese flags, as well as local business and civic leaders. But outside the banquet Tuesday night, more than 200 people protested. Most were supporters of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement that was banned in 1999 as a threat to communist rule. Those protesters participated in group meditative exercises outside the hotel where Jiang spoke. About two dozen others protested China's occupation of Tibet. Jiang's visit to the Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas, has been promoted by both sides as a chance to improve ties and discuss key issues - including U.S. irritation at China's large trade surplus and hopes for increased military-to-military contacts. "We feel deeply that China and America ... should increase understanding and trust, strengthen exchanges and increase cooperation," Jiang said through an interpreter. Bush says he wants to solicit Jiang's support following North Korea's disclosure last week that it has a nuclear weapons development program, breaching a 1994 agreement with the United States. China is North Korea's last major ally, though Beijing's push toward a more open economy in recent years has widened the cultural and economic divide between the two countries. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 58 Mound plant cleanup ahead of schedule The Plain Dealer 10/23/02 James Hannah Associated Press Dayton - Nearly 90 percent of the radioactive tritium remaining at the former Mound nuclear weapons plant has been removed in the past year, putting cleanup further ahead of schedule, the plant operator said yesterday. Tritium is radioactive hydrogen. It was used in the production of nuclear triggers. There was more tritium on the 306-acre site in the Dayton suburb of Miamisburg than any other radioactive material. BWXTO, the plant operator, had expected to remove 200,000 of the remaining 542,000 curies of tritium in fiscal 2002. Instead, 472,000 curies - unit quantities of radioactive nuclides - have been removed. "The tritium that we've removed are from those significant components that have most of the tritium in it," said Ken Armstrong, a deputy project manager for BWXTO. "It's still a little bit bound up in the walls and the piping. But it allows us to accelerate the schedule." BWXTO spokesman Craig Hansen said the faster-than-expected cleanup of tritium makes it likely that total cleanup of the site will occur in early 2006, several months ahead of the July 2006 goal. When nuclear production ended at Mound, tritium remained in components and processing systems. The tritium was removed by heating the components while circulating air in and around them. The tritium was then recaptured, solidified and transferred to an off-site disposal facility. Monte Williams, manager of environmental restoration for BWXTO, said some radioactive plutonium and thorium still must be removed from soil at the site. He said 66 buildings have been demolished and 17 remain to be torn down. Mound began making triggers and detonators for nuclear weapons in 1949. The Energy Department ended production at the plant in 1996, leaving cleanup of radioactive and hazardous waste as the primary activity. Miamisburg officials have been trying to get the site cleaned up so it can be used for commercial development. In May 2001, the U.S. Department of Energy released an audit critical of the progress of the cleanup. The contract signed with BWXTO in 1997 called for the cleanup to be finished by September 2005 at a cost of $427 million. The audit estimated that cleanup wouldn't be complete until 2009, at a cost of more than $1 billion. Hansen said the completion date was later revised to November 2006 after incentives were added to the contract. The use of overtime later pushed it up to July 2006. Graham Mitchell, chief of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency's office of federal facilities oversight, said great strides have been made in the cleanup over the past two years. "We're seeing a lot of progress, not just in the tritium," Mitchell said. "We have been impressed with the work that has occurred out there." © 2002 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission. © 2002 cleveland.com. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 59 LANL Air Meets Federal Regulations* * By JEFF TOLLEFSON | The New Mexican 10/23/2002 * L os Alamos National Laboratory is in compliance with federal air regulations and has satisfied the terms of a settlement agreement stemming from a 1994 citizen lawsuit, according to an independent audit released Tuesday. * South Carolina-based Risk Assessment Corp. began poring over documents and touring facilities in June as part of its third audit of radioactive air emissions at the laboratory. The process began in 1996 when the lab, facing $2.5 billion in potential Clean Air Act violations, signed a consent decree settling a federal Clean Air Act lawsuit filed by Santa Fe-based Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety. Despite numerous objections voiced by Concerned Citizens, which plans to prepare its own analysis of the audit results, Risk Assessment Corp. determined the requirements of the consent decree have been met. Total radioactive emissions during 2001 were less than 20 percent of the maximum allowed at the laboratory boundary. While making numerous recommendations for further improvements to the lab's air monitoring program, the audit generally commended the lab for six years' progress that has greatly improved the lab's air monitoring procedures. Consequently, the company deemed unnecessary a fourth audit, envisioned in the settlement agreement as an optional step that could be used to settle "substantive deficiencies" in the lab's compliance that remained unresolved after completion of the third. "There were no substantive deficiencies that would justify a fourth audit," Risk Assessment Corp. President John Till said. He said the audit process took place with "unprecedented openness" and was more extensive than anything he has seen at any other industrial facility. Ken Hargis, acting deputy director for risk reduction, commended the process and promised to continue involving the public in future, voluntary audits of air missions at the lab - a key recommendation in the audit. "It's been a long and difficult learning process for the lab," Hargis said. "We started out with some contentious relationships, but those have improved." Recognizing improvements at the lab spurred by the audit, and ultimately the lawsuit, Joni Arends of Concerned Citizens said the audit asserts compliance on the lab's part while leaving key issues unresolved. She cited U.S. District Judge Edwin Mechem, who said in his 1996 ruling that citizens of New Mexico "quite properly expect LANL to be utterly scrupulous in its observance of federal environmental regulations." "It is not enough to comply with some of the law," Arends said. Most notably, the lab has not established a program to test radioactive emissions at hundreds of small facilities throughout the lab, according to Arjun Makhijani, technical advisor to Concerned Citizens. Makhijani heads the nonprofit Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Washington, D.C. Makhijani said officials within any such facilities estimate the radioactive releases for the air quality group, which then models overall impacts. The problem, he noted, is that the lab has no procedure for confirming its initial estimates, which form the basis of the modeling efforts. "You have to make sure that what you are telling the public is credible," he said. "In other words, you have to go out and measure it." Concerned Citizens argues the lab might technically be required to perform such measurements periodically in order to ensure their estimates are on track, but RAC's Till says federal law is not clear on the issue. And while no "quality assurance" procedures were in place prior to the audit, he noted the lab has since made progress in implementing such programs. Los Alamos officials countered that the lab has quality assurance guidelines for confirming estimates on radioactive emissions throughout the laboratory, although those guidelines vary according to the radioactivity of a given material. Nonetheless, the lab said it would consider extending such procedures to facility reports as recommend by the audit. Concerned Citizens plans to publish its complete response in December, according to Arends. She said her organization would likely address its grievance regarding the audit through a dispute resolution process laid out in the consent decree. Get Copyright Clearance Santa Fe New Mexican ***************************************************************** 60 Challenger blames GOP for INEEL uncertainty Local News 8 KIFI-TV Idaho Falls/Pocatello/Blackfoot Monday, October 21, 2002 - Morning Edition Boise - Democratic challenger Ed Kinghorn took the offensive tonight, raising questions about just how closelyRepublican Congressman Michael Simpson is keeping track of Idaho'sinterests in the nation's capital. The soft-spoken college professor said the people of Idahoshould not have had to read last January that the Bushadministration wanted to close the Idaho National Engineering andEnvironmental Laboratory once it's cleaned up. Simpson says the delegation was blind-sided and told theRepublican president's lieutenants about it in no uncertain terms. There was a retraction and a promise of a new expanded role for thelaboratory last summer. Still, Kinghorn says it's an example of national Republicanstaking Idaho for granted. The two faced-off on war with Iraq, social security, health care and energy during their hour-long debate. It was sponsored by the League of Women Voters and the Idaho Press Club and broadcast by Idaho Public Television. Idahomall.com [http://www.idahomall.com] Copyright 2002 by the Post Company ***************************************************************** 61 Energy secretary to mark plant's 50 years The Paducah Sun- Paducah, Kentucky Wednesday, October 23, 2002 Paducah, Kentucky Page [http://www.paducahsun.com/] Gov. Paul Patton and Kentucky's two U.S. senators will also speak at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant celebration. By Bill Bartleman bbartleman@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650 U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham heads the contingent of dignitaries attending Thursday's celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. He will be the keynote speaker at the first public event — the 6:30 p.m. unveiling of three floodwall murals related to the plant's history. Abraham is to arrive at 6 p.m. and will meet with the local task force that is working to secure the future of the plant. He is scheduled to return to Washington immediately after the unveiling. The celebration will begin with a private reception at 4:30 p.m. at the Maiden Alley Cinema. Gov. Paul Patton and U.S. Sens. Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning are scheduled to speak. After the floodwall ceremony at Kentucky Avenue and Water Street, the public celebration will continue with a Paducah Symphony riverfront concert at 7. U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield will make brief remarks. Fireworks will cap the evening at 8. During the reception, Patton and his top economic development officials will meet with Nick Timbers, president and chief executive officer of USEC Inc., the current plant operator. At that meeting, Patton will give Timbers the incentive package that is part of the state's effort to attract a $250 million pilot plant to test gas centrifuge technology that will replace the gaseous diffusion process used at the Paducah plant since it opened in October 1952. Paducah is competing for the demonstration plant with Piketon, Ohio. The winner is expected to have the advantage in attracting a $1 billion plant that by 2011 will replace the Paducah plant. Also scheduled to attend the events are three former plant managers: Clyde Hopkins, 1972-78; Steve Polston, 1991-98; and Howard Pulley, 1998-2001. Other USEC officials scheduled to attend are vice presidents Morris Brown, Sydney Ferguson and Dennis Spurgeon. Also attending will be Steve Leidle, president of Bechtel Jacobs, the company hired to oversee cleanup at the plant, and Skila Harris, a member of the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors. [Paducah Online] ***************************************************************** 62 DOE grant promotes nuclear engineering in the Big Ten The Badger Herald Online - by Luke Staszak, news writer October 23, 2002 The University of Wisconsin is among four Big Ten schools recently awarded a five-year $1.97 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for the continued encouragement of growth in the field of nuclear engineering. The consortium is led by Penn State and also includes the University of Illinois and Purdue University. The four participating institutions will share the grant to improve their educational and research facilities, as well as promote collaborations between them. Michael Corradini, chair of the Department of Engineering Physics at UW, said that he is very glad that the DOE has awarded this grant and that the university has many plans for how to use it. The bulk of the money, he said, would go towards the upkeep of the nuclear reactor that is on campus. "We're buying new instruments and developing new training facilities," Corradini said. He said this would help increase the quality of the education of students in nuclear engineering in years to come. He said updating the equipment would also aid researchers who use the reactor. Another major plan of the grant money, he said, is to set up a scholarship fund for undergraduates who are interested in the field of nuclear engineering. Beyond the field of nuclear engineering, Corradini said the university plans to put this to money to a much broader use. He said that use of the reactor could have meaningful applications in other areas of research, such as geology, physics and medicine. Because of this possibility, he said, the four universities have set aside a portion of the money for mini-grants. "These mini-grants are intended for [researchers and professors] who would not normally have access to a nuclear reactor," he said. "It will give them money to build their experiments." Corradini said he thinks this is a very important step by the DOE because the importance of nuclear engineering will only grow in the near future. Because of this, he said another main goal of the university is to improve the outreach of information on the topic of nuclear engineering to the local community. "We want to go out to high schools and middle schools to improve the education and knowledge of the future of nuclear engineering," he said. Jack Brenizer, professor and program chair of nuclear engineering at Penn State University, said that he also sees a bright future in the world of nuclear engineering. "Right now, 20 percent of the energy in this country is provided by nuclear power," he said. "And, this number will probably increase over the next five years." Brenizer also said that, starting within the next 10 years, he thinks there will be a greater demand for the building of new nuclear power plants. He said that this will lead to an increased need for original, more efficient designs for these plants. He said he hopes this grant can be put toward a use such as this. Corradini said that he too could see the importance of this grant in furthering the field of nuclear engineering for the application of nuclear power in the years ahead. "I think nuclear power will be a big player in the world of energy," he said. "So will nuclear engineers." [end of article dingbat] ***************************************************************** 63 Hillary Dem Blames Bush for N. Korean Nukes NewsMax.com: Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2002 9:59 a.m. EDT Campaigning side-by-side with New York Sen. Hillary Clinton in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. yesterday, Rep. Maurice Hinchey blamed the Bush administration for scuttling progress made by ex-President Clinton in negotiations with North Korea, which he erroneously claimed had derailed the rogue state's nuclear weapons program. "When [former President] Bill Clinton left office, we were on the verge of solving the problem of North Korea," Hinchey told a crowd at the local Family Partnership Center. According to Poughkeepsie's Freeman newspaper, Hinchey then complained that Bush's decision to brand North Korea part of an "axis of evil" was the catalyst that set Pyongyang on its quest for nuclear weapons. While Sen. Clinton confined her own criticism to the Bush administration's economic program, she said nothing about Hinchey's false North Korean nuke claim, even though a 1999 congressional report warned that the "Agreed Framework" negotiated by her husband's administration five years earlier was fueling the rogue state's nuclear weapons program. "If the 1994 Agreed Framework is implemented and two [light water nuclear reactors] are eventually built and operated in North Korea, the reactors could produce close to 500 kilograms of plutonium in spent reactor fuel each year; enough for nearly 100 bombs annually if North Korea decides to break its obligations and reprocess the material," the House North Korean Advisory Group warned in November 1999. Officials in Pyongyang acknowledged last week that North Korea had indeed broken its obligations under the Clinton accord and are now rapidly proceeding with a full-blown nuclear weapons program. All Rights Reserved © NewsMax.com ***************************************************************** 64 Rep. Wamp 'miffed' by sick-worker House bill The Oak Ridger Online -- Area News -- Wednesday, October 23, 2002 by R. Cathey Daniels Oak Ridger staff Sick workers wondering whether Congressman Zach Wamp will sign a new sick-worker bill need wonder no more. As to his penning any identification with U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland's (D-Ohio) bill that would expand coverage and limit the Department of Energy's role, the answer is an emphatic "no." Wamp, R-3rd District, called the bill "irresponsible" and "an in-your-face" "political maneuver" that "will fail," in an interview at The Oak Ridger offices Monday. Locally sick workers have widely applauded Strickland's recent efforts that he says are aimed at "improving the original act" by expanding coverage and negating all memorandums of understanding between the Department of Energy and the states. Instead he would establish the Labor Department as the "willing payor" for disability claims for occupational illnesses arising out of employment at the DOE facilities. For an Oct. 2 report for The Oak Ridger, Wamp issued a statement saying: "The latest proposal is a sweeping change that I am carefully considering." Evidently careful consideration generated a bit of irritation. "Frankly I'm miffed," said Wamp, who noted he confronted Strickland on the House floor about the issue. "Strickland wasn't even in the sick worker remedy business. Strickland wasn't even there the first time around. Strickland is AWOL at home and at Congress. Frankly I'm offended he would speak to you about my involvement." Strickland was interviewed for the Oct. 2 report, and said that he hoped Wamp would sign his bill. "I don't want to be critical of Congressman Wamp, but we hope to get his support and I think it would be incredibly helpful and we will be pursuing that," Strickland said in a phone interview for that report. Wamp said Monday of the bill's chances: "He doesn't have a chance of bringing back an actual project complete." Wamp said he did not think "thoughtful" people on either side of the political aisle would vote for the plan, and that "dropping the bill" at the end of a session right before the November election is a "political maneuver." U.S. Rep. Bob Clement, D-5th District, is one of nine co-sponsors of the bill. Clement is running for the U.S. Senate; Wamp is running for re-election against Democrat John Wolfe; and Strickland is running against Mike Halleck in Ohio. Wamp said that once the election is over, he hopes to begin working anew on sick-worker issues. "I'm all for whipping DOE into shape, I'm all for amending the legislation," said Wamp, who noted he would "be happy to carry a bill that has a chance of passing with the new leadership" next session. Workers have expressed concerns with DOE for moving slowly on the issue, and many want the agency removed from administering remedy programs. "I know people are dying as we speak," said Wamp. But, he noted, "raising sick-worker expectations too high" is not part of his strategy. "Don't point to the fence if you're not capable of hitting the ball over the fence," said Wamp. He also said that expanding coverage too far could "open up a can of worms" as far as potential for abuse by claimants. "We just have to be careful. These are entitlement programs going back to black lung. That program was justified and needed, but it was very abused." Wamp worked to get the current sick-worker bill passed, and said his staff "is emotional" about championing that cause. R. Cathey Daniels can be contacted at (865) 220-5515 or danielsrcd@oakridger.com. [http://www.oakridger.com] All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger ***************************************************************** 65 DOE Announces Grants for Nuclear Energy Research Projects Research Highlights Nuclear-Produced Hydrogen for a Clean Energy Future energy.gov - Headquarters' Press Release RELEASE DATE: October 23, 2002 WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham today announced $10 million in awards for 24 new multi-year research projects under the Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology's Nuclear Energy Research Initiative (NERI). The projects will be conducted by researchers from 14 U.S. universities, seven national laboratories, and 11 private sector organizations, and include collaborators from five overseas research organizations which participate at no cost to the U.S. "NERI is at the core of the department's nuclear research program," Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham said in announcing this year's awards. "NERI enables the best ideas of our universities, our laboratories, and the private sector to come together on research that expands the use of nuclear energy for the Nation's long term future. Expanded use of nuclear energy is a major component of President Bush's National Energy Policy." The NERI program addresses key scientific and technical issues related to expanded use of nuclear energy in a global economy and supports the Nation's nuclear science and technology infrastructure. NERI, launched in 1998, sponsors innovative, investigator-initiated research and development on advanced nuclear energy systems; advanced nuclear fuels/fuel cycles; materials science; and fundamental chemistry. In keeping with NERI's long-term focus, this year's awards include innovative research regarding the use of nuclear energy to produce clean hydrogen for our Nation's vast transportation system and other applications. Three of this year's awards pertain to this new focus area. One of these projects will analyze technical factors related to delivery of nuclear-produced hydrogen to end-users. A second project will develop a nuclear power plasma assisted technology to mass-produce hydrogen fuel and the third project will develop a conceptual design for a hydrogen plant that integrates a modular helium reactor with a sulfur-iodine process to produce hydrogen. NERI projects selected for award follow a rigorous peer review. Over 197 proposals were received, with 24 selected. Sixty-six projects are currently underway from prior years, including 43 that are in their final year of research; three projects have been completed. This year's 24 awards range from approximately $200,000 to $850,000 each for the first year of funding totaling nearly $10 million and could total $31 million over the three-year life of these projects. Further information on these awards and on other research initiatives of the Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology can be found on the department's web site, nuclear.gov [http://nuclear.gov] . NERI Program FY 2002 Awards List (PDF) Media Contact: Hope Williams, 202/586-5806 Release No. PR-02-222 ***************************************************************** 66 DOE Awards $33 Million for 38 Research Projects to Address Environmental Cleanup Challenges --> energy.gov - Headquarters' Press Release RELEASE DATE: October 23, 2002 WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of Energy today announced funding totaling over $33 million for 38 research projects to help solve some of the nation's most complex environmental cleanup challenges. Funding for the projects will come out of the FY 2002 environmental management budget. Researchers at 30 universities, nine Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories, one other government and two private institutions will conduct scientific studies focusing on environmental problems at DOE facilities that were once part of the nation's nuclear weapons production complex. "These projects are designed to apply advanced scientific research and initiatives to make significant strides in nuclear waste cleanup efforts at DOE sites across the country," Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham said. "The success of these programs and the success of the department's Environmental Management Science Program (EMSP) will be measured in actual cleanup results, and we expect these programs to deliver." This is the seventh year of grants and other awards made under the department's Environmental Management Science Program, established by Congress in fiscal year 1996. The 38 science awards focus on: location and characterization of subsurface contaminants and characterization of the subsurface; conceptual modeling; containment and stabilization; and monitoring and validation. A two-phased formal review process was used to ensure awards were made to the most meritorious applications. The initial phase involved evaluation by external peer reviewers who are experts in various scientific disciplines. The second phase involved review for relevance to the department's cleanup needs by the technical managers who are both familiar with the problems and potential users of the research results. Funding is provided only to the projects which have been successful in both reviews. Members of the research teams attend periodic meetings with federal staff to review the status of the projects and each project team is required to provide a written progress report on an annual basis. A complete list of the projects, including funding and research summaries, is available on the World Wide Web at [http://emsp.em.doe.gov] . The institutions receiving funding are: Arizona: Arizona State University, University of Arizona California: Stanford University, DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Colorado: University of Colorado, United States Geological Survey Laboratory - Denver Connecticut: Yale University Florida: Florida State University Georgia: Georgia Tech University, University of Georgia Idaho: University of Idaho, North Wind Environmental Inc., DOE's Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory Illinois: University of Illinois, Chicago, and University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, DOE's Argonne National Laboratory Indiana: University of Notre Dame Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Michigan: University of Michigan Minnesota: University of Minnesota Mississippi: Mississippi State University Montana: Montana State University New Jersey: Rutgers, The State University, Newark New Mexico: University of New Mexico, DOE's Los Alamos National Laboratory, DOE's Sandia National Laboratories Ohio: Ohio State University Oregon: Oregon Health Sciences University Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University, Carnegie Mellon University, Lehigh University South Carolina: Clemson University, DOE's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory,DOE's Savannah River Technology Center Tennessee: University of Tennessee, DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory Vermont: New England Research, Inc. Washington: Washington State University, DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin, Madison Canada: University of Toronto Two Energy Department offices share responsibility for managing the Environmental Management Science Program (EMSP): the Office of Environmental Management, which is responsible for the environmental cleanup of the nation's nuclear weapons complex, and the Office of Science, which manages the department's basic research programs. The Office of Science conducts the research solicitation and scientific review process and assists in the scientific integration of the EMSP portfolio. The Office of Environmental Management ensures that the research is relevant to the department's environmental cleanup mission and that the results are applied accordingly. Media Contact: Dolline Hatchett, 202/586-5806 Joseph Davis, 202/586-4940 Release No. PR-02-223 ***************************************************************** 67 DOE grant promotes nuclear engineering in the Big Ten* The Badger Herald Online Click Me! by Luke Staszak, news writer October 23, 2002 The University of Wisconsin is among four Big Ten schools recently awarded a five-year $1.97 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for the continued encouragement of growth in the field of nuclear engineering. The consortium is led by Penn State and also includes the University of Illinois and Purdue University. The four participating institutions will share the grant to improve their educational and research facilities, as well as promote collaborations between them. Michael Corradini, chair of the Department of Engineering Physics at UW, said that he is very glad that the DOE has awarded this grant and that the university has many plans for how to use it. The bulk of the money, he said, would go towards the upkeep of the nuclear reactor that is on campus. "We're buying new instruments and developing new training facilities," Corradini said. He said this would help increase the quality of the education of students in nuclear engineering in years to come. He said updating the equipment would also aid researchers who use the reactor. Another major plan of the grant money, he said, is to set up a scholarship fund for undergraduates who are interested in the field of nuclear engineering. Beyond the field of nuclear engineering, Corradini said the university plans to put this to money to a much broader use. He said that use of the reactor could have meaningful applications in other areas of research, such as geology, physics and medicine. Because of this possibility, he said, the four universities have set aside a portion of the money for mini-grants. "These mini-grants are intended for [researchers and professors] who would not normally have access to a nuclear reactor," he said. "It will give them money to build their experiments." Corradini said he thinks this is a very important step by the DOE because the importance of nuclear engineering will only grow in the near future. Because of this, he said another main goal of the university is to improve the outreach of information on the topic of nuclear engineering to the local community. "We want to go out to high schools and middle schools to improve the education and knowledge of the future of nuclear engineering," he said. Jack Brenizer, professor and program chair of nuclear engineering at Penn State University, said that he also sees a bright future in the world of nuclear engineering. "Right now, 20 percent of the energy in this country is provided by nuclear power," he said. "And, this number will probably increase over the next five years." Brenizer also said that, starting within the next 10 years, he thinks there will be a greater demand for the building of new nuclear power plants. He said that this will lead to an increased need for original, more efficient designs for these plants. He said he hopes this grant can be put toward a use such as this. Corradini said that he too could see the importance of this grant in furthering the field of nuclear engineering for the application of nuclear power in the years ahead. "I think nuclear power will be a big player in the world of energy," he said. "So will nuclear engineers." end of article dingbat ***************************************************************** 68 Podesta urges airing of Area 51 Wednesday, October 23, 2002 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Former White House chief of staff supports openness By TONY BATT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- The federal government should conduct a review of what information could be made public about the top-secret Area 51 air base in Nevada, former White House chief of staff John Podesta said Tuesday. Podesta, who served as President Clinton's chief of staff from October 1998 through January 2001, said he was not at liberty to discuss all he knows about Area 51 because of a lawsuit by former workers who say they were injured when they inhaled toxic chemicals burned at the secret base. Other than confirming the existence of a classified installation, the government refuses to disclose details about Area 51, which is located in the dry Groom Lake bed 90 miles north of Las Vegas. Information about the base is withheld under presidential orders citing national security concerns. "My tendency is to try to err on the side of openness rather than on the side of secrecy, and I think that a thorough review about whether more information could be brought to light (about Area 51) would be a worthwhile enterprise," Podesta said. Podesta appeared at a news conference to support efforts by a group including the SCI FI cable television channel to obtain government records on unidentified flying objects. SCI FI Channel President Bonnie Hammer said credible scientists have concluded that 5 to 10 percent of UFO reports cannot be explained by natural or artificial causes. Although skeptical that there is extra terrestrial life, Podesta said the government should be willing to disclose information about UFOs so the public can draw its own conclusions. "I think it's time to open the books on questions that have remained in the dark on the question of government investigations of UFOs," he said. Asked if he was aware of any information to suggest Area 51 harbors government information about UFOs, Podesta said, "I can answer that, no." Podesta noted Clinton signed an executive order in 1995 that led to the declassification of 800 million pages of government documents over the next five years. In the 15 years prior to Clinton's order, 188 million pages of government documents were declassified, Podesta said. Podesta acknowledged Clinton also signed executive orders to prevent the release of information about Area 51. A law professor at Georgetown University, Podesta worked earlier this year as a lobbyist for Nevada in its unsuccessful effort to persuade Congress to reject Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as the site for a nuclear waste repository. Podesta defended his work on Yucca Mountain even though President Bush's recommendation to store nuclear waste there passed the House 306-117 and the Senate 60-39. "I think before that effort, most members of the Congress and most members of the public saw this really being an issue that didn't affect them as long as it could only affect Nevada," Podesta said. "By the end of the process, they understood that this was a matter that affected citizens all around the country." Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2002 ***************************************************************** 69 Iceland invents energy-from-water machine BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Wednesday, 23 October, 2002, 14:38 GMT [Hot springs in Iceland] Iceland has an abundance of geothermal energy By Richard Black BBC Science Correspondent The UN climate change negotiations, now getting under way in Delhi, have focused international attention once more on the problem of global warming. Experts agree there is a need to switch to renewable forms of energy if production of greenhouse gases is to be curbed. Now an Icelandic team has invented a radical device which can produce electricity from water. The Thermator could play a major role in the non-polluting economies of the future. [The Thermator] The Thermator contains a semi-conductor crystal ©Varmaraf It works by something called the thermo-electric effect, which scientists have known about for many years. But while thermo-electric generators have mainly been used to power spacecraft, such as Voyager and Galileo using heat from radioactive materials, the Thermator is firmly rooted on Earth and works on nothing more than hot water. Professor Thorstein Sigmarsson, of the University of Iceland, says it works by translating the difference between the temperature of hot and cold water into energy. He explains: "In between the hot and the cold side are crystals made of semi-conductors. "As the heat is transferred through these crystals part of it is converted from heat energy into electric energy." Prof Sigmarsson said there was potential for using allsorts of excess heat to fuel Thermators and he added: "In car engines for example, only a fraction of the heat produced is turned into propelling energy." He said they hoped to produce energy at $2 a watt, which compared with wind turbines which produced $1 a watt, but was still economically viable. © MMII | News Sources | Privacy ***************************************************************** 70 Murmansk Shipping Company Joins World Association of Nuclear Operators Oct, 22 2002 The Murmansk Shipping Company has become the second company in the Murmansk Region (after the Kola Nuclear Power Plant) to enter the international non-governmental organisation World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO). According to the company's press office, the decision to admit the shipping company was upheld by WANO's board of directors at a meeting in Atlanta despite the fact that the organisation only includes operators of nuclear power stations. The board stressed that the decision was due to the Murmansk Shipping Company's unique status as the only company in the world to employ a civilian nuclear fleet. Consequently, the company faces the same problems of developing and improving nuclear energy as nuclear power stations. The Murmansk Shipping Company's press office revealed that membership of WANO is particularly useful for the company from the point of view of resolving questions related to overhauling the ships' nuclear reactors. The company will collaborate with WANO through the Moscow regional centre, which answers to the board of directors. The Murmansk sailors will be represented by Stanislav Golovinsky, the director of the company's department for operating the nuclear fleet. WANO was founded in 1989 and became a kind of response from the world community to the Chernobyl disaster. The organisation aims to facilitate a general exchange of information and experience in order to increase safety at nuclear power stations. Thanks to its efforts, the latest developments in this sphere are made universally available. © RosBalt Murmansk Shipping Company Copyright ©1999 by "Pravda.RU [http://www.pravda.ru/] ". ***************************************************************** 71 Scoop: DoD News Briefing 22/Oct - Rumsfeld and Gen. Myers see radbull part 2 for full document ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************