***************************************************************** 12/24/02 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 10.332 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 UN questions Iraqi nuclear experts - 2 No Plan to Attack North Korea, U.S. Says 3 Rumsfeld: N. Korea Policy Requires Tact 4 Warning to Pyongyang for real 5 North Korea Removes All Seals 6 Roh Says 'No Alternative to Sunshine Policy' 7 NK: Security Meeting Scheduled Thursday 8 U.S. Fears N.Korea Could Get 50 Bombs a Year* 9 N. Korea warns of 'catastrophe' 10 Nuclear Fear as a Wedge 11 IAEA cannot tell if N.Korea works on nuclear arms 12 Britain 'very worried' over North Korea nuclear breach 13 Arab Editorial: North Korea 14 British Energy glimpses life at the end of a dark tunnel 15 Unfolding the secrets of Saddam's mind... 16 Iran agrees to return enriched uranium to Russia* 17 UNSC to Take up Nuclear Problem 18 N Korea 'steps up' nuclear preparations 19 Japanese delegation visits Basra 20 No Alternative to Sunshine Policy: Roh 21 ROK, US, Japan to Tackle NK Nuke Issue at TCOG 22 IAEA cannot tell if N.Korea works on nuclear arms 23 IAEA Inspectors Starting to Interview Iraqi Scientists 24 Continued Disruption of IAEA Safeguards Equipment in DPRK NUCLEAR REACTORS 25 US: Davis-Besse safety analysis explained 26 N-plant checks need overhaul 27 US: One more step towards reopening Davis-Besse 28 Canada: Shutdown hit Bruce reactor during heatwave 29 US: NRC Approves Power Uprate for D.C. Cook Nuclear Plant 30 Iranian nuclear plant on schedule: Russia 31 US: FirstEnergy sees no need to redesign Davis-Besse 32 US: Nuclear plant trims list of safety concerns 33 US: D-B officials review major plant safety systems for NRC - 34 US: Nuclear reactor study met with skepticism 35 Canada: Shutdown hit Bruce reactor during heatwave 36 Iran's president says nuclear power plant won't develop weapons NUCLEAR SAFETY 37 Govt holds nuclear disaster drill 38 UK: WORK REVIEW AFTER RADIOACTIVE LEAK 39 UK: Dounreay test finds leak 40 US: Company, exec. fined in radiation burning incident - NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 41 Taiwan: Orchid Island to be saved from waste 42 Russia to formulate supplement to agreement on spent nuclear fuel wi 43 Yucca Mountain Whistleblower correction NUCLEAR WEAPONS 44 Russia: Ivanov Stars in a Secret Memo 45 Iraq says there is nothing to add to weapons declaration, no need to 46 Weapons site clean-up delayed 47 Khatami: Israeli nuclear weapons - threat to international peace 48 VIEWS: *US silent about Israeli nukes 49 UN prepares for Iraq war 50 Timeline: North Korea nuclear crisis 51 US: The role of the arms lobby in the Bush admin 52 US: Bush's Star Wars US DEPT. OF ENERGY 53 Director of PNNL bids adieu 54 Sick lab workers may get help 55 Los Alamos Cited for Storage Violations 56 USEC signs Oak Ridge lease to begin centrifuge testing 57 Fire at Hanford Reservation leads to lawsuit OTHER NUCLEAR ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 UN questions Iraqi nuclear experts - theage.com.au December 25 2002 By Colum Lynch New York The United Nations' nuclear arms watchdog has begun private closed-door interviews with Iraq's atomic energy experts, marking a critical new stage in efforts to verify Baghdad's claims that it has destroyed its most lethal weapons of mass destruction. Drawing from a list of hundreds of Iraqi officials linked to Iraq's former nuclear weapons program, officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency are seeking to determine whether Baghdad has secretly begun to rebuild its former nuclear arms program since UN inspectors left the country in 1998 on the eve of a US and British bombing campaign. While IAEA inspectors have routinely questioned Iraqi scientists at former nuclear weapons sites since they resumed inspections last month, this is the first time that they have asserted their right to conduct face-to-face interviews with individuals without the presence of a government minder. It sets the UN's nuclear sleuths ahead of their counterparts at the UN Monitoring Verification and Inspection Commission, who have yet to interview Iraq's biological, chemical weapons and ballistic missile experts. The IAEA did not name the specialists who have been questioned but officials said there were several individuals who would be obvious subjects. Jaafar Dhia Jaafar, credited by UN specialists with heading Iraq's covert nuclear weapons program, and Mahdi Obeidi, a uranium enrichment specialist, are central figures. Meanwhile, Iraqi forces shot down an unmanned US spy plane on Monday and Baghdad poured scorn on what it called the mad campaign of "little Bush" as both sides toughened their positions ahead of a possible war. The ruling Baath Party newspaper al-Thawra wrote in a front-page editorial directed at President George Bush: "The administration of little Bush is launching a mad campaign based on lies and accusations." Pentagon officials said the shooting down of the unmanned US Predator surveillance plane marked the first time Iraqi fighter pilots had downed an allied aircraft over the flight-exclusion zone. The attack - which destroyed the remote-piloted aircraft - was the latest in a near-constant stream of hostile exchanges between the Iraqi military and allied air patrols in recent months. "They attempt to shoot down all our aircraft that fly over southern and northern Iraq in support of the UN Security Council resolutions," said General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "They got a lucky shot today and they brought down the Predator." The US and Iraq have stepped up operations in the flight-exclusion zones that were established over northern and southern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War. Iraq's ageing fleet of about 300 Soviet-built MiGs is considered a minimal threat to US and British warplanes. US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld said he did not see the shooting down of the drone as an escalation. "They've been making a strenuous, energetic effort to shoot down US aircraft for many, many, many months now - manned and unmanned," Mr Rumsfeld said. - agencies Copyright © 2002 The Age Company Ltd advertise| contact us ***************************************************************** 2 No Plan to Attack North Korea, U.S. Says Las Vegas SUN: December 23, 2002 By SCOTT LINDLAW ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - With a nuclear crisis deepening in North Korea, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Monday the United States could fight the war on terror, a war in Iraq and possible conflict with Pyongyang simultaneously. "We are perfectly capable of doing that which is necessary," Rumsfeld said. But White House officials emphasized that the United States has no intention of attacking North Korea, and intends to maintain a course of trying to defuse the situation through diplomacy. Rumsfeld gave no indication the United States was readying military force against a nuclear power plant that North Korea is moving to restart - a step the administration calls fresh evidence of North Korea's new attempts to build a nuclear bomb. The Clinton administration considered bombing the same site, a nuclear facility at Yongbyon, in 1994, before that crisis was resolved. "The situation today is somewhat different from then," Rumsfeld said, without elaborating. The administration renewed its calls Monday that Pyongyang replace U.N. surveillance gear that it dismantled at a nuclear reactor and refrain from restarting the facility. Moving ahead to restart the reactor will only deepen North Korea's isolation, senior administration officials said. But a top Russian diplomat warned the United States that putting pressure on North Korea could heighten tensions. "It is counterproductive and dangerous to blackmail North Korea, with its grave economic position," Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov was quoted as saying in the newspaper Vremya Novostei, for Monday's edition. A senior White House official said Mamedov's views did not represent those of official Russia, and Rumsfeld dimissed the Russian's idea as "utter nonsense." "Do you think the idea that it's the rhetoric from the United States that's causing them to starve their people or to do these idiotic things or try to build a nuclear power plant?" he asked. A senior Democratic senator said the United States faced more of a threat from communist North Korea than from Iraq's weapons programs. "This is a greater danger immediately to U.S. interests at this very moment, in my view, than Saddam Hussein is," said Sen. Joseph Biden, outgoing chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "If they lift the seals on these canisters (at the plant), they're going to be able to build four to five additional nuclear weapons within months if they begin that reprocessing operation - that's within a year," Biden, D-Del., told "Fox News Sunday." Secretary of State Colin Powell discussed the situation in telephone conversations over the weekend with top officials of China, South Korea, Russia and Japan. The International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, charged Sunday that North Korea had broken seals at a spent-fuel facility near the same reactor, a chamber containing some 8,000 irradiated fuel rods. That action "raises further serious concerns and belies North Korea's announced justification to produce electricity," State Department spokesman Lou Fintor said. "The 8,000-odd spent fuel rods are of particular concern because they could be reprocessed to recover plutonium for nuclear weapons. They have no relevance for the generation of electricity." A senior administration official said that while the seals were broken, the United States does not believe the North Koreans have opened the canisters containing the fuel rods. North Korea on Saturday disabled the equipment installed at a reactor in Yongbyon, said officials of IAEA, a U.N. agency. Fintor urged North Korea to respond to repeated requests by the agency "to consult on arrangements for safeguarding" the facilities at Yongbyon and allow IAEA to replace or restore the seals and cameras. "A move to restart them would fly in the face of the international consensus that the North Korean regime must fulfill all its commitments and in particular dismantle its covert nuclear weapons program," the spokesman said. North Korea acknowledged on Oct. 4 that it had a uranium-enrichment program meant to develop a nuclear weapon. President Bush later halted oil shipments the United States has provided the energy-poor country. In response, the North Koreans said they would restart nuclear energy facilities shut down as part of a 1994 disarmament pact. North Korea's official news agency said Sunday the government began removing the equipment because the nuclear agency was "whiling away time after proposing what it called working negotiations." Under the 1994 agreement, North Korea pledged to freeze and eventually dismantle its nuclear weapons program in exchange for international aid to build two power-producing nuclear reactors. The United States presumes North Korea has one or two plutonium-based nuclear weapons. The issue, in the U.S. view, is not North Korea acquiring the bomb, but rather getting more and sharing them. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 3 Rumsfeld: N. Korea Policy Requires Tact Las Vegas SUN: December 23, 2002 By JOHN J. LUMPKIN ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States could make war against North Korea even during a conflict with Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said. But he said diplomacy, not the threat of military action, guides the Bush administration's efforts to contain Pyongyang's resurgent nuclear ambitions. The Bush administration demanded on Monday that North Korea halt plans to restart a dormant nuclear reactor that was critical to that country's nuclear weapons program. It pressed the communist government in Pyongyang to restore U.N. surveillance gear that it dismantled at a nuclear reactor at Yongbyon and not to restart the facility. North Korea said the reactor will be used to generate electricity. Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon news conference that North Korea should not take the current focus on Iraq as tacit approval to go forward with its weapons programs. "We are capable of fighting two major regional conflicts," Rumsfeld said. "We're capable of winning decisively in one and swiftly defeating in the case of the other, and let there be no doubt about it." Rumsfeld said no military action was imminent to halt Pyongyang's nuclear efforts, and White House officials said the United States intends to pursue a diplomatic course to persuade North Korea to abandon efforts to expand its nuclear arsenal. Discussions on the North Korean question are under way with China, Russia and other countries, the State Department said. North Korea has said it needs the power the reactor would produce, but officials said the reactor would provide negligible electricity to the country's grid. Instead, U.S. officials accused Pyongyang of planning to restart the facility to support weapons programs. The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, a U.N. monitoring agency, said Pyongyang unsealed a storage chamber at Yongbyon this weekend that holds 8,000 irradiated fuel rods. Plutonium in the rods could yield four or five nuclear weapons within months, experts say. A senior administration official said the United States does not believe the North Koreans have opened the canisters containing the fuel rods. North Korea said Monday the nuclear issue could be settled if Washington were to sign a nonaggression treaty. But the United States, angry because North Korea resumed its nuclear efforts despite a 1994 agreement to abandon it, sees little reason to negotiate. "We will not give in to blackmail," State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said Monday. "We're not going to bargain or offer inducements for North Korea to live up to the treaties and agreements that it has signed." Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., a senior Armed Services Committee member, said he is seeking visas to lead a congressional delegation to the North Korean capital for talks. "When you don't have dialogue, that is when the problems develop, and that's my concern with North Korea," Weldon said. Asked whether the U.S. military has drawn up plans to make war on North Korea, Rumsfeld said, "One of the assignments of the department is to prepare for a whole host of contingencies. We tend not to get into details as to what those contingencies might be." The Clinton administration considered bombing the Yongbyon site in 1994 before North Korea agreed to shut it down. Under the 1994 agreement, North Korea pledged to freeze and eventually dismantle its nuclear weapons program in exchange for international aid to build two power-producing nuclear reactors. Supposed to have been completed by 2003, the light-water reactors are far behind schedule. "The situation today is somewhat different from then," Rumsfeld said, without elaborating. Relations between the countries have deteriorated rapidly since President Bush took office. Shortly afterward, Bush suspended contacts between the governments and ordered a full review of relations. In his 2001 State of the Union address, he placed North Korea in an "axis of evil" with Iran and Iraq. Rumsfeld rejected the notion that Bush administration statements had forced North Korea to renew its nuclear efforts, saying the United States now believes Pyongyang has had a clandestine nuclear program for years. "Do you think the idea that it's the rhetoric from the United States that's causing them to starve their people or to do these idiotic things or try to build a nuclear power plant?" he asked. Rumsfeld also accused North Korea of operating concentration camps. Human rights groups say the camps hold political prisoners. U.S. intelligence officials believe North Korea made one or two nuclear weapons in the 1990s with plutonium. They also are concerned that Kim's government could provide nuclear materials and expertise to other nations unfriendly to the United States. Nuclear weapons also can be made with enriched uranium, and on Oct. 4, North Korea admitted to American diplomats having a program to enrich uranium to weapons grade. In response, Bush halted oil shipments the United States had provided the energy-poor country under the Clinton-era agreement. The North Koreans then said they would restart nuclear energy facilities shut down as part of the pact. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 4 Warning to Pyongyang for real Daily Yomiuri On-Line [EDITORIAL] Yomiuri Shimbun The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization on Thursday said it would suspend heavy fuel oil deliveries to North Korea, beginning with the December shipment, unless Pyongyang immediately dismantles its highly enriched uranium program. This constitutes a stern warning from KEDO to North Korea that it must freeze its nuclear weapons development program, which it has conducted in defiance of international agreements, or face punishment. Under the 1994 Agreed Framework between North Korea and the United States, KEDO was to build two light-water nuclear power reactors, which cannot easily be converted to produce weapons, in North Korea, in exchange for Pyongyang's halting its graphite-moderated reactor program. Under the accord, the United States was to supply 500,000 tons of heavy fuel oil to North Korea every year until the completion of the first light-water reactor. By stating that it would stop delivering heavy fuel oil, KEDO is prodding Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear development program. The nuclear weapons development program poses a great threat not only to Japan, but also to all East Asia and the international community. === Penalties only natural It is only natural for North Korea to be penalized if it continues to violate international accords. North Korea needs to take the KEDO warning seriously. It should suspend its nuclear weapons program and accept international inspection teams unconditionally and immediately. The leaders who gathered at the recent Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit also adopted a special statement, urging Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons program. North Korea has to recognize the unified opinion of the international community. The KEDO statement also hints at the possibility that it might scrap the light-water reactor construction project, unless North Korea abandons its nuclear arms program. While Japan and South Korea were initially cautious about suspending heavy fuel oil deliveries, the United States took a hard line, saying a fuel oil delivery freeze was unavoidable. The United States said it would stop deliveries as of November, in a show of its determination to force Pyongyang to suspend its nuclear arms program. That Japan, the United States and South Korea have gotten in step with each other in taking a tough line on Pyongyang's nuclear program is significant. The ball is now in North Korea's court. North Korea needs to show with concrete actions that it is dismantling its nuclear arms program. === Other WMD development at issue Besides the nuclear arms program, the issue of Pyongyang's development of biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction has emerged. A South Korea defense white paper pointed out that North Korea has eight chemical weapons plants and possesses 2,500 to 5,000 tons of such weapons, and is also capable of producing biological weapons. The Japanese government has to include not only the nuclear weapons program, but also the chemical and biological weapons program on the agenda of Japan-North Korea normalization talks and bilateral security talks, and strongly urge Pyongyang to abandon such programs. The government needs to form a clear view of how Pyongyang will act regarding how to proceed with normalization talks. While North Korea has indicated its intention of linking the nuclear arms issue to that of the Japanese abducted by North Korea and their families, the government should be steadfast, rather than hasty, in dealing with these matters. It is also important for Japan to be fully prepared for armed threats from North Korea. The state's responsibility is to reinforce its national security system, to defend itself from ballistic missiles and to respond to weapons of mass destruction. It also must improve legislation related to contingencies such as armed attacks by foreign powers. (From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Nov. 16) Copyright 2002 The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 5 North Korea Removes All Seals Digital Chosunilbo (English Edition) : Daily News in English Updated Dec.24,2002 15:47 KST by Kwon Kyung-bok (kkbok@chosun.com) North Korea removed International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) seals and surveillance cameras at laboratories used to extract plutonium from spent fuel rods and manufacture new ones at its Yangbyon nuclear facility, according to a government official, Tuesday. He continued the North has now removed all IAEA seals placed on nuclear equipment following the 1994 Geneva Agreed Framework; a 50MW and 200MW reactor had no seals. On Sunday the North unsealed a storage chamber in Yongbyeon containing some 8,000 irradiated fuel rods. The move prompted the IAEA, which said it's considering taking the issue to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), to convene an emergency meeting on January 6, while urging Pyongyang to immediately cease work at the Yongbyong facility. Although North Korea claims it is reactivating facilities at its 5MW reactor in Yongbyeon in order to produce much needed electricity, IAEA and United States government officials note fuel rods have no relevance to power generation. They explain the plutonium extracted from the fuel rods in question could yield up to five nuclear weapons in a matter of months. Describing the situation as "dangerous," IAEA Director-General Mohammed El Baradei has suggested the possibility of taking the matter to the UNSC. In related news, amid the brewing nuclear crisis, United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld stressed North Korea would be mistaken if it felt emboldened by Washington's focus on Iraq to pursue a nuclear weapons program. In a Pentagon press meeting Monday (local time), Rumsfeld warned Washington is perfectly capable of taking military action against Iraq and North Korea at the same time if necessary. But for now, White House officials emphasize the United States has no intention of attacking North Korea, and plans to maintain a course of trying to defuse the situation through diplomacy. ***************************************************************** 6 Roh Says 'No Alternative to Sunshine Policy' Digital Chosunilbo (English Edition) : Daily News in English Updated Dec.24,2002 15:49 KST While the North's nuclear ambitions have critics blasting President Kim's Sunshine Policy as a failure, President-elect Roh Moo-hyun told France's Le Monde daily it is the only way to resolve the nuclear problem on the peninsula. In an interview with the French newspaper, Roh flatly rejected such criticism and stressed there is no alternative to Seoul's engagement policy. The president-elect explained Seoul's conciliatory gestures have induced a series of changes in North Korea over the past few years. For this reason he vowed to press on with efforts to persuade friends and allies on the importance of pursuing the Sunshine Policy, to win the support of conservatives at home and abroad who remain critical to the approach. (Arirang TV) ***************************************************************** 7 NK: Security Meeting Scheduled Thursday Digital Chosunilbo (English Edition) : Daily News in English Updated Dec.24,2002 18:50 KST by Kim Min-bae (baibai@chosun.com) Cheongwadae announced Tuesday that there will be a comprehensive security meeting on Thursday with officials and ministers from the Ministries of Unification, National Defense, and Foreign Affairs and Trade, to discuss measures in dealing with the current North Korean nuclear crisis. President-elect Roh Moo-hyun is also to be present at the meeting. President Kim Dae-jung told a cabinet meeting it was worrying that the North Korean nuclear problem was being exacerbated daily, adding that everyone was urging the North to give up nuclear development, but Pyongyang was not listening. Kim said he was prepared to cooperate in improving North Korean and American relations and making North Korea a responsible member of the international society. However, he continued he would never abet in the development and usage of weapons of mass destruction. Kim noted that this condition was stipulated from the beginning of inter-Korean cooperation and documented many times, but "things have now come to this." ***************************************************************** 8 U.S. Fears N.Korea Could Get 50 Bombs a Year* / Tue December 24, 2002 05:31 PM ET / By Jim Wolf WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea could churn out enough plutonium to build up to 50 to 55 nuclear weapons a year if all three of its frozen nuclear reactors entered operation in coming years, a U.S. government official said on Tuesday. The issue could be critical to world security, partly because North Korea has been developing long-range missiles possibly capable of delivering nuclear warheads. Washington has accused Pyongyang of being the world's biggest peddler of missiles and missile production technology. North Korea on Tuesday said U.S. hard-liners were pushing the divided Korean peninsula to the brink of nuclear war, adding its armed forces were up to the task of defeating any enemy. In a sign of the urgency the issue has acquired, Secretary of State Colin Powell spent a fourth straight day consulting U.S. allies, including Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi, about North Korea. "The secretary reiterated what we (have) said before -- that we are not anxious to escalate this problem but we are not going to be blackmailed," State Department spokesman Phillip Reeker said of Powell's talks with Kawaguchi. "If North Korea is looking for U.S. support, this is not the way to do it." The reclusive communist state's defense minister, Kim Il-chol, said his country had "modern offensive and defensive means capable of defeating" any enemy. He spoke after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned Pyongyang on Monday the United States was "perfectly capable" of defeating Iraq and North Korea at the same time, should that ever be necessary. Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea, who was elected president last Thursday on a campaign criticizing the tough U.S. stance on North Korea, met the ambassadors of China, Russia and Japan on Tuesday and spoke with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi by telephone. In Paris, a French Foreign Ministry spokesman, Bernard Valero, deplored North Korea's nuclear moves and urged the international community to stand firm in demanding Pyongyang respect its commitments. WEAPONS POTENTIAL North Korea, denounced by President Bush as part of an "axis of evil" with Iraq and Iran, triggered international fears over the weekend by removing U.N. monitoring equipment at a nuclear reactor capable of yielding weapons-grade plutonium. Restarting the 5-megawatt plant at its Yongbyon complex, as Pyongyang has taken steps to do, would spin off about 6 kg (13 pounds) a year of weapons-grade plutonium, said the U.S. official who declined to be identified. That would suffice for just one nuclear bomb, given the rule of thumb that it takes about 11 pounds of plutonium per weapon. Yongbyon is about 55 miles north of Pyongyang. The output from two unfinished reactors -- a 50-megawatt unit at Yongbyon and a 200-megawatt plant at nearby Taechon -- could be added to generate as much as a combined total of 600 pounds of plutonium a year from all three plants, the official said, or enough for 50 to 55 weapons, depending on how they were configured. "It would take several years for them to complete construction of those reactors, but if they complete the construction, that's the potential," said the official. The United States has urged Pyongyang not to restart any of its frozen nuclear facilities. A State Department official said on Tuesday Washington had no indication Pyongyang had gone beyond dismantling the U.N. monitoring devices to actually reactivate the 5-megawatt plant or that it had moved to reprocess the spent fuel rods to recover plutonium. Keeping North Korea from extracting bomb-grade plutonium from spent fuel rods has been a top U.S. foreign policy priority for years -- one that brought the Clinton administration to the brink of war before a landmark 1994 nonproliferation deal. By that time, Pyongyang had probably already recovered enough plutonium to produce two nuclear weapons, the CIA has concluded. Under the 1994 deal, North Korea agreed to freeze the 5-megawatt reactor plus the partially built 50- and 200-megawatt plants. Also frozen were the reprocessing facility and a fuel-rod fabrication plant at Yongbyon. In exchange, Washington agreed to provide a $5 billion package to include two proliferation-resistant light-water reactors and 500,000 metric tons of heavy fuel oil a year until the first light-water reactor was built. Although the light-water reactors also produce plutonium, the material is harder to extract and not as suitable for use in weapons as the materials produced at existing reactors. REMOVING SEALS North Korea began removing U.N. controls last weekend from the 5-megawatt plant and its associated spent fuel cooling pond, a fuel-rod fabrication plant and the reprocessing plant, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, said on Tuesday. "They have already done three facilities and now they are working on the fourth," IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky told Reuters. North Korea has maintained it has a right to possess nuclear weapons and insisted that Washington sign a nonaggression pact as a basis for talks on their differences. Pyongyang acknowledged to U.S. officials in October it had mounted a secret program to obtain highly enriched uranium, another potential bomb-building ingredient, in violation of the 1994 agreement and other nonproliferation pacts. That prompted a U.S.-led consortium to cut off fuel oil shipments to the North, which then said it was resuming its nuclear program to generate electricity. Having taken possession of about 8,000 spent fuel rods, Pyongyang could separate enough plutonium for about five nuclear weapons in six months to a year "or perhaps quicker" once it fired up the reprocessing plant, said David Albright, a nuclear physicist who is president of the Institute for Science and International Security. Albright, co-editor of Solving the North Korean Nuclear Puzzle and a member of the IAEA's Iraq monitoring team from 1992 to 1997, said the frozen reprocessing plant itself could be back in business in one to three months. Reuters The Company Products & ***************************************************************** 9 N. Korea warns of 'catastrophe' Official says nuclear crisis escalating to 'extremely dangerous phase'; Repair work started at reactor; Powell works phones By Christopher Torchia The Associated Press Originally published December 24, 2002, 7:47 PM EST SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea ratcheted up its standoff with Washington on Tuesday, starting repairs at a long-frozen nuclear reactor and warning that U.S. policy is leading to an "uncontrollable catastrophe" and the "brink of nuclear war." The communist North routinely issues fiery warnings to the United States, but the new statements were stronger than usual. North Korean officials removed U.N. seals from more nuclear facilities and began repair work at a reactor that had been frozen since 1994, a U.N. agency said. The North Koreans will need "a month or two" to make their Soviet-designed, 5-megawatt reactor at Yongbyon operational, said Mark Gwozdecky, chief spokesman at the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. Alarming governments around the world, North Korea has swiftly taken steps toward a possible reactivation of nuclear facilities that experts believe were used to make one or two weapons in the 1990s. U.S. officials said they suspected North Korea was trying to goad Washington back to the negotiating table after President Bush cut off oil shipments to the energy-starved nation. "We will not give in to blackmail," State Department spokesman Phil Reeker said. On Tuesday, North Korea removed U.N. seals and surveillance cameras from a fourth nuclear facility, including a reprocessing facility that produces weapons-grade plutonium. The move disturbed U.S. officials who say North Korea has no use for plutonium other than trying to build a nuclear bomb. There are 8,000 spent fuel rods at the facility, enough to make several atomic bombs within months. Gwozdecky said it did not appear that the North Koreans had removed any rods from the facility. North Korea, which has accused the United States of plotting an invasion, has said it is willing to settle the nuclear issue if Washington signs a nonaggression treaty. The North's defense minister, Kim Il Chol, said in a report on KCNA, the North Korean news agency, that "U.S. hawks" were "pushing the situation on the Korean Peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war." In a separate report on KCNA, North Korea said Washington's hostile policy toward it would backfire and result in "an uncontrollable catastrophe." The statement was in the North's communist party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun. In Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell spent a fourth day talking to North Korea's neighbors about the crisis. Powell spoke Tuesday to Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi. Since Saturday he has also spoken with the leaders of Russia, China, South Korea, Britain and France. President Bush was monitoring developments from Camp David, where he was spending Christmas with his family, said spokesman Scott Stanzel. The White House sought to project an air of calm as North Korea issued its strongest statement since it began to restart its nuclear facilities last weekend. "We've made very clear we want a peaceful resolution to the situation North Korea has created by pursuing a covert nuclear weapons program, and as the president has said before, we have no intention of invading North Korea," White House spokesman Sean McCormack said. McCormack was referring to North Korea's covert nuclear program based on uranium enrichment that is unrelated to the older, plutonium-based one. U.S. officials say North Korea acknowledged in October the existence of the second program, which violates international arms control agreements. Britain's Foreign Office minister Bill Rammell said North Korea's moves to restart its suspended nuclear program were "very worrying." "I think it is probably a fairly ham-fisted attempt to gain international leverage, but our best analysis at the moment is that this is not a regime that is hell-bent on confrontation," he told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. In the past few days, North Korea has cut U.N. seals and impeded surveillance equipment at the Yongbyon reactor and its spent fuel pond, a fuel rod fabrication plant and a reprocessing facility, said IAEA director Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei. "This rapidly deteriorating situation in the DPRK raises grave nonproliferation concerns," ElBaradei said in a statement. DPRK stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The North's nuclear facilities at Yongbyon were at the center of a crisis in 1994 that some say nearly led to war. Conflict was averted when North Korea agreed to freeze the facilities in a deal with the United States. But Pyongyang said on Dec. 12 that it planned to reactivate them to produce electricity because Washington had failed on a pledge to provide energy sources. In neighboring South Korea, President-elect Roh Moo-hyun appealed to Russia, China and Japan for help in finding a peaceful solution to the North Korean dilemma. Roh, who won South Korea's presidential vote last week, met ambassadors from the three regional powers Tuesday. All hoped the nuclear issue would be resolved peacefully, said Roh's spokesman, Lee Nak-hyun. Their countries have expressed support for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. Roh takes office in February. He advocates dialogue to resolve nuclear issues with the North, while the United States has ruled out any talks before the communist state gives up its nuclear ambitions. Copyright © 2002, The Associated Press ***************************************************************** 10 Nuclear Fear as a Wedge The New York Times December 24, 2002* *By HOWARD W. FRENCH* SEOUL, South Korea, Dec. 23 ? North Korea's decision this weekend to remove international controls from its nuclear reactors and from a large supply of weapons-grade fuel is as much a political challenge as a military one, experts on the country's behavior say. By taking possession of 8,000 spent fuel rods, the country could conceivably begin producing plutonium-based bombs in as little as six months, experts say. But as serious as this sounds, many analysts see another threat in the country's brash actions, and it could materialize even sooner: a weakening of the half-century-old alliance between South Korea and the United States. A new and diplomatically inexperienced South Korean president is to take office here in February, and he seeks to pursue closer relations with his neighbor. Behind Pyongyang's latest actions, analysts detect a desire to take advantage of the new South Korean eagerness at the expense of the United States, just as America is enduring a period of intense unpopularity among South Koreans. The North Korean ruling party's newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, alluded to this strategy in an editorial today that called for the two Koreas to work together to cut the United States out of the peninsula's diplomatic equation. "Now is the time for all Koreans to frustrate the U.S. imperialists' aggression and antireunification moves," the newspaper said. Although no one here expects South Korea to oblige, North Korea's behavior clearly aims to deepen the cracks that have already made this country's relationship with Washington unusually fragile, and analysts who agree on little else say Pyongyang's timing could not have been more astute. The Bush administration, which has spent two years avoiding serious diplomatic initiatives toward Pyongyang, insists there can be no dialogue with North Korea as long as it is in violation of major arms control commitments. Complicating matters yet further, Washington has been intensely focused on a possible war in Iraq, allowing North Korea to seize control of its deadly nuclear materials in the knowledge that the United States can scarcely take on two major conflicts at once. This has been a season of huge anti-American demonstrations in South Korea, incited by the deaths in June of two schoolgirls who were accidentally crushed by an American military vehicle on patrol. The protests have revealed a deep wellspring of resentment of the large United States military presence here, and of what many South Koreans feel is their relegation to the role of barely listened-to junior partner. At the same time, feelings toward North Korea have softened, with this country's increasingly affluent and self-confident population looking more in pity than in fear at their neighbor and yearning to help North Korea rather than punish it. Remarkably, after more than two years of high-profile efforts to engage with Pyongyang, public opinion surveys here show that South Koreans are as skeptical of their longtime ally, the United States, as they are of heavily armed North Korea. The president-elect, Roh Moo Hyun, who emerged victorious last week in part on the strength of these sentiments, is an ardent advocate of engagement with North Korea, and has vowed to be assertive in dealing with the United States, which he has openly called heavy-handed. Mr. Roh, who has never been abroad, has not had time to put together a national security team, and for that reason will be even more inclined to insist on extra time to develop a response to the North Korean challenge. "I don't think the United States will make any quick judgment," said an official of the Blue House, the South Korean presidential office. "They will give a little time. Even when Bush was elected, it took one year to set up a foreign policy team. This is a very delicate period. I don't think any of the countries involved will expect any quick response." North Korea's latest challenge is eerily similar to a nuclear crisis in 1994, when the Clinton administration drew up plans for a strike against the country's nuclear plants after Pyongyang made moves toward reprocessing spent nuclear fuel, ostensibly to make bombs. Some voices in Washington have already begun to call for the United States to renew its threat to destroy North Korea's nuclear power center at Yongbyon. *Continued* 1 | 2 Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company ***************************************************************** 11 IAEA cannot tell if N.Korea works on nuclear arms Reuters 24 Dec 2002 12:28 (Adds IAEA spokesman, background) VIENNA, Dec 24 (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said on Tuesday it could not check whether North Korea was diverting resources to build atomic bombs after Pyongyang began disabling surveillance cameras. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the reclusive Stalinist state had broken the seals and disabled surveillance devices at three facilities at Yongbyon suspected of being used to make weapons-grade plutonium. "They have already done three facilities and now they are working on the fourth," IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky told Reuters. There are four facilities at Yongbyon covered by the freeze -- a five-megawatt experimental reactor, a fuel-rod fabrication plant, a research laboratory and a power plant still under construction. On Saturday, Pyongyang began removing the seals and disabling U.N. monitoring cameras at the five-megawatt plant after the IAEA failed to heed Pyongyang's demand early this month to take away gear so it could revive the idled reactor. "(IAEA chief Mohamed) ElBaradei stated that unless the IAEA is able to reinstate without delay its safeguard measures at these facilities it will not be able to provide assurances that North Korea is not diverting nuclear material to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices," the IAEA said. Under a 1994 agreement with the United States, North Korea froze its nuclear programmes at the Yongbyon facilities in exchange for a $5 billion package that included 500,000 metric tonnes of heavy fuel oil per year and two light-water reactors. The light-water nuclear reactors generate less material of a type that could be used to make nuclear weapons. AlertNet news is provided by ***************************************************************** 12 Britain 'very worried' over North Korea nuclear breach PTI /25 December 2002/ The most chilling piece of news about North Korea’s nuclear weapons program is not that it has been resumed. It is rather the admission by former US President Bill Clinton, that in 1994, his administration made a specific military threat against North Korea unless they signed up for the deal suspending their weapons program. Now the Bush White House is echoing that threat and even more chillingly, says that it is quite prepared to take simultaneous military action against both Iraq and North Korea. Though both Iraq and North Korea are classed as parts of the Washington’s “axis of evil”, no two states can be more dissimilar. One of the biggest difference is that of political sanity. Saddam’s Iraq is a deeply unpleasant and brutal state which invaded and plundered a fellow Arab neighbor and when it was thrown out, sought to wreck Kuwait’s oil fields and the environment of the wider Gulf. But Iraqis are vital and well-educated people, who despite international sanctions, have done a remarkable job of rebuilding their war-ravaged society. The contrast with North Korea could hardly be greater. This is an isolated, maverick regime which has already attacked its southern cousins in one major war, that at one point threatened to go global. Pyongyang may possess the power to confuse but there is little subtlety in its machinations. There is another big difference between Baghdad and Pyongyang. Neither Russia nor China has much beyond commerce to connect them with the Iraqis, unlike North Korea where their links are deep and long-standing. Both Moscow and Beijing competed to be the guide for the North Korean communists. First the Soviets poured money and materiel into its young ally after the Japanese surrender and the peninsula’s partition. Later, Moscow ceded its dominance to Beijing. Both the Russians and the Chinese, therefore, whatever their repugnance at North Korea’s regime, still remain important players in that country’s affairs. Bush may threaten as much as he likes, but before he starts breaking any North Korean heads, he is going to have to persuade both the Russians and the Chinese to step aside. That may be a lot more difficult than he imagines. Even a UN-sponsored US-led force could be an affront to both Moscow and Beijing which each have borders with North Korea. Pyongyang’s international defiance may even indeed be something which both states might seek to solve themselves together, especially after the warmth of President Putin’s recent Chinese visit. North Korea’s challenge and the fact that it clearly represents a more immediate threat than Iraq also offer Moscow and Beijing the leverage to push Bush back from an early Iraq invasion. If Washington wants to address the real problem first, then it will have to quit its shadow wrestling with Saddam. If Bush ignores such a trade with Russia and China and goes for Iraq and North Korea together, he will be fighting on multiple diplomatic fronts and in two very different military theaters. The greatest danger of such a diverse conflict is the dissolution of Bush’s unified front against global terrorism. Unity of purpose will only be sustained by consensus and compromise — two words little understood in the Bush White House. ***************************************************************** 14 British Energy glimpses life at the end of a dark tunnel Scotsman.com 24th December 2002* *SCRUTINEER* /Martin Flanagan/ BRITISH Energy has cleared the first hurdle in its bid to avoid being plunged into administration, via the company?s £309 million sale yesterday of its Bruce Power Canadian subsidiary. The money goes straight to the government as part-repayment of the £650 million bridging loan Whitehall gave the nuclear generator to tide it over troubled, if not terminal, waters last autumn. Next up on the agenda according to BE?s rescue restructuring plan is the sale of its 50 per cent stake in US nuclear operation AmerGen. This is also a condition of the government?s loan. That should not be too difficult. Industry experts in the US believe BE?s American partner in AmerGen, Chicago-based Exelon, is a keen buyer at a not too heady price. Entegy, of New Orleans, is also said to be sniffing around the stake. But it was always clear that those deals were going to happen. The government insisted privately that BE quit its international aspirations in order to survive in the cauldron that its home UK market has become. The real key is whether the nuclear group?s banks and bondholders will accept the debt-for-equity swap at the heart of the life-raft plan that, undoubtedly, will be very painful. Latest informed estimates are that the lenders may lose up to 75 per cent of the money they are owed by BE in return for perhaps controlling 90 per cent of the company going forward. It is difficult to see bondholders turning down the deal as it is Hobson?s choice: no deal and BE is put into administration and everybody risks losing everything rather than just their shirts. There also seems to be less raw anger among stakeholders about BE?s downfall than has been the case at the unnervingly close parallel of the other privatisation collapse, at Railtrack. That may be because of a feeling that Railtrack inherited a flawed business model, and then contributed to its own demise by mis-management. By contrast, some will say that post-privatisation deregulation of the electricity industry by the government changed the goalposts for the main players and stranded BE more than most because of its nuclear clean-up commitments and ossified contracts with British Nuclear Fuels. It is a sorry business, with no guarantee of success in the long term. But BE is gradually picking its way towards having a fighting chance of survival. * Cheer for Chancellor * YESTERDAY?S surprisingly strong third-quarter GDP figures - the strongest growth rate in three years - is likely to be neutral in the Bank of England?s continuing deliberations of where to take interest rates after 13 months on hold at 4 per cent. That?s because the figure - 0.9 per cent - was obviously flattered by soft comparatives with the previous quarter, which included the Queen?s Golden Jubilee celebrations in June. Having said that, it is also true that buoyant construction activity also helped. Nevertheless, the essential dilemma facing the Monetary Policy Committee remains the same: manufacturing remains becalmed at best while the housing market is febrile. The MPC may take a smidgen of comfort from the fact that yesterday?s data showed that the saving ratio had risen to 5.6 per cent from 5 per cent. The committee has made clear that it is concerned about the levels of debt of UK consumers in the event of a pricking of the housing price balloon. Still, even if yesterday?s data is almost certain to have no effect on the interest rate debate, we should not begrudge Chancellor Gordon Brown a little early festive present on the economic-growth front. * Emblaze rings wrong note * THE major mobile telecoms players will be hoping that the problems at technology business Emblaze do not foreshadow a more industry-wide malaise. Emblaze said yesterday it was cutting 70 jobs - about 15 per cent of the workforce - because of the global downturn in the telecoms market. More worryingly for the big boys, however, is that all the staff affected are at the group?s E-Sys division. This business delivers multimedia to mobile phones - and multi-media is the great white hope for the mobile phone industry to drive fresh growth in what had become a mature market. Only on Friday, Vodafone launched its first commercial "third generation" mobile phone service in Japan. All the major mobile players have invested much capital and reputation in developing this new 3G franchise, which effectively is seeking to get people to use their mobile phones for non-voice entertainment and internet access. Emblaze is only a relatively small company, but anything that casts a shadow over the cutting edge of the mobile industry - providing extra kit to allow extra functionality - is bound to cause a few jitters. ©2002 scotsman.com | contact ***************************************************************** 15 Unfolding the secrets of Saddam's mind... Al-Bawaba's 24-12-2002, 08:08 As the Iraqi government accuses Washington of gearing up for "a world war," it seems the entire world is in anticipation to see what the next moves are in this seemingly never-ending saga between Iraq and the Bush administration. One can not escape from wondering these days, what is really going on in the mind of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, on the eve of a military strike that may be launched against his country. No-one really knows with certainty what is taking place in Saddam’s mind, or for that matter, what has kept him going from early on, but there is one man that has been systematically after Saddam’s psychological makeup for a long time, trying to unfold layer after layer of psychological structure and meaning. Psychiatrist Dr. Jerrold Post is actually Saddam Hussein’s shrink, even though the two have never physically met. As Saddam's “shrink”, Post’s mission is to assess what the Iraqi ruler’s next steps will be. This is perhaps one of those times in history when the personality and behavior of a political actor are of determinative importance on the course of future events. In order to build a framework for understanding the motivations, perceptions and actions of Saddam, an extensive political psychology profile must be developed, to better understand the composition of the Iraqi leader’s personality. United States government officials come to Post for insights into Saddam's state of mind. His diagnoses are listened to attentively because he is not only a psychiatrist, but also a former high-level Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official, who spent over two decades assessing the most inner workings of America's top foes. Post reaches his conclusions by deeply digging into the past of his “patients”, and with regards to Saddam, Post believes that the latter’s thinking involves a "wounded self", which dates back to his traumatic upbringing and his infancy and even beyond. Saddam was born in 1937 to a poor peasant family, and from his early years, he has chartered his own course and would definitely not accept limits. ** "It all goes back to his mother's womb," Post has recently told /The Guardian/. "During the mother's pregnancy with Saddam Hussein, his father died, and another son died when he was only 12 years old. She both tried to commit suicide and to have an abortion." Subha, Saddam's mother, was prevented from killing herself and her unborn child by a compassionate family of Iraqi Jews. As fate has its own course, that family is currently reported to be living in Israel... Back in 1930s Tikrit, situated in central Iraq, Subha, still in a state of deep depression, could not care for her newborn son. He was handed over to her brother, Khairalla Msallat, until he reached the age of three. However, even when little Saddam was reunited with his mother, her treatment of him hardly improved. She had remarried and allowed her new husband to abuse the little child. "His stepfather was brutal both physically and psychologically," Post claims. "His mother's failure to nurture him and his stepfather's abuse deeply wounded his self-esteem. In psychological terms, it is known as "the wounded self." "Typically, after such traumatic experiences, people can sink into despair and hopelessness. But it can also produce compensatory dreams of glory," Post explains. Uncle Khairalla, who was to become not only Saddam’s father figure, but his political mentor as well, provided such dreams. Khairalla took back responsibility for Saddam's care when he ran away from home at the age of eight and undoubtedly shaped young Hussein’s world perceptions, filling him with a hatred of foreigners. Khairalla, a bitter man in himself, whose career was ruined after he participated in a pro-Nazi revolt against British rule, told Saddam he would follow in the footsteps of the country's legendary heroes - - Nebuchadnezzar, the ancient king of Babylonia, and Saladin, who freed Jerusalem in 1187, by defeating the crusaders. When Saddam went to secondary school, a third name was added to the list – that of Nasser, the Egyptian nationalist leader of the 1950s, who eventually became an idealized model for Saddam. Saddam's rise to the top through coups, intrigue and assassination have persuaded him he has inherited the same myth-laden mantle of leadership - and that belief has strengthened with every layer of sycophantic followers who have gathered around him. "It has produced that most dangerous political personality - malignant narcissism," Post says. This particular type of personality disorder exhibits itself in an extreme lack of empathy for others, paranoia, the absence of conscience and a readiness to use violence to achieve goals. By the way, Post believes that Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden is suffering from the same disorder. ** It is noteworthy to mention that this does not indicate that either man is "crazy", but rather both act with a cool rationality, which is primarily limited by the yes-men surrounding them. In his profile of Saddam, Post argues, "While he is psychologically in touch with reality, he is often politically out of touch with reality." Saddam’s “shrink” says the Iraqi leader’s world-view is narrow and distorted as he has scant experience outside the Arab world. Furthermore, he is surrounded by flatterers, who are afraid to contradict him. In a statement presented before the US House Armed Services Committee back in December 1990, on the brink of the US going to war with Iraq, Post said that according to an examination of Saddam’s leadership, a “judicious political calculator” is revealed, who is not irrational, but is indeed “dangerous to the extreme”. The label of “madman of the Middle East” is quite often attached to Saddam, but in fact, there is no proof he is suffering from a psychotic disorder. Post argues the Iraqi strongman is not impulsive, but acts only after consideration and can be extremely patient. While Hussein is not psychotic, he has a strong paranoid orientation and is ready for retaliation and, not without reason, sees himself as surrounded by enemies. According to Post, Saddam's practice of “revolutionary opportunism” has yet another important characteristic. Just as previous commitments must not be permitted to stand in the way of Saddam's messianic path, neither should one persist in a particular course of action if it proves to be counter-productive for him and his nation. When Hussein pursues a course of action, he pursues it fully, and if he meets initial resistance, he will struggle even more. However, if circumstances demonstrated that he miscalculated, he is capable of reversing his course. In these circumstances he does not acknowledge that he has made a mistake, but rather views himself as adapting flexibly to a dynamic situation. According to Post, in pursuing his goals, Saddam uses aggression instrumentally. He uses whatever force is necessary, and will, if he deems it expedient, go to extremes of violence, including the use of weapons of mass destruction. His unconstrained aggression is instrumental in pursuing his objectives, but it is at the same time defensive aggression, for his grandiose facade disguises underlying insecurity. "He is not a martyr. He is a quintessential survivor," the psychiatrist makes clear. But on the other hand, he will never give up his arsenal of mass destruction, which Post says are fundamental to his self-image as a world-class leader. "Big boys have big toys," Post conveys. "Without the weapons, he's nothing." Post believes Saddam will never give up his chemical and biological weapons, or his nuclear program, and will lash out with everything he has in his arsenal if he feels he is cornered, launching toxins and germs at invading US-British forces and at Israel as well. Threatened with extinction, Post predicts Saddam will probably both set fire to the Iraqi oilfields, as he did in Kuwait eleven years ago, and order the use of chemical and biological weapons against the invading troops and against Israel. This is also the CIA's analysis. Additionally, Post agrees with his former employers at the CIA in saying that, in the absence of an existential threat, it is not in Saddam's nature to loan out his “toys” to terrorists. "That would mean a loss of total control," he explains. Moreover, Saddam’s “shrink” believes that if the Iraqi leader was allowed to develop a nuclear weapon, he might not court martyrdom by using it, but its presence would back up his threats and fire his grandiose ambitions of dominating his region and following in Saladin's path towards Jerusalem. At this current stage, with the focus of international political attention on him, Saddam’s desire for glory has been enhanced and his survival instincts help shape the course of his actions. (Albawaba.com) © * 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com) ***************************************************************** 16 Iran agrees to return enriched uranium to Russia* . Webs ©1999-2002 IranMania Copyrights ***************************************************************** 17 UNSC to Take up Nuclear Problem Digital Chosunilbo (English Edition) : Daily News in English Updated Dec.24,2002 19:13 KST by Ju Yong-jung (midway@chosun.com) WASHINGTON - United States State Department Spokesman Philip T. Reeker said Monday (local time) that North Korea's continuous development of nuclear weapons was a violation of international agreements, which would be taken up by the United Nations. Reeker said the US would continuously consult with allies and discuss the issue at the UN. This is the first time the US has presented a bill to the UN on the issue of North Korea's nuclear proliferation. Reeker stated North Korea's nuclear weapons issue has come to the UN's attention because the North violated various international agreements, adding that Secretary of State Colin Powell has contacted the foreign ministers of permanent members of the UN Security Council's; China, Russia, the United Kingdom, and France; to discuss the nuclear weapons problems. In related news, the Washington Post stated the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will hold an emergency meeting on January 3, where the North Korean issue will be transferred to the UN. Meanwhile, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told a Pentagon news conference, "We [The US] are capable of fighting two major regional conflicts. We are capable of winning decisively in one and swiftly defeating in the case of the other, and let there be no doubt about it." He cautioned North Korea against using the world's focus on Iraq to feel emboldened. To a question asking whether force will be used against North Korea, Rumsfeld answered, " One of the assignments of the department is to prepare for a whole host of contingencies. We tend not to get into details as to what those contingencies might be. " ***************************************************************** 18 N Korea 'steps up' nuclear preparations BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Tuesday, 24 December, 2002, [1992 photo of the Yongbyon nuclear plant] The Yongbyon plant - in a photo from 1992 North Korea has started repairing a nuclear reactor at the controversial Yongbyon site, according to South Korean Government officials. CRISIS CHRONOLOGY [Satellite photo of Yongbyon plant in 2000 by Space Imaging ] 22 Dec: N Korea removes monitoring devices at Yongbyon reactor 12 Dec: N Korea threatens to reactivate Yongbyon N-plant 27 November: N Korea accuses US of fabricating claim about nuclear programme 14 Nov: Fuel shipments to N Korea halted 16 Oct: N Korea acknowledges secret nuclear programme, US announces Detailed timeline of growing tensions And the United Nations says Pyongyang has dismantled most of the key monitoring equipment - its "eyes and ears" - designed to ensure the plant is not used to make nuclear weapons. Experts say nuclear bombs could be produced from materials at the site, which was mothballed in a deal to end a 1994 stand-off between Washington and Pyongyang. The US and South Korea have been gathering support from regional powers to put pressure on Pyongyang to halt its nuclear programme. But North Korea insists it needs the tiny experimental nuclear reactor for electricity. It said it would try to resolve differences with the US but warned of "merciless punishment" if Washington continued its "provocation". On Sunday, the North Korean Government said it had started dismantling United Nations surveillance devices at Yongbyon. Weapons capability The International Atomic Energy Agency - the UN watchdog tasked with monitoring the North Korean programme - said most of its equipment had gone, including seals, cameras and sensors. We cannot know whether they are using this material for peaceful purposes or for nuclear weapons Mark Gwozdecky IAEA "Essentially our eyes and ears have been removed from that very large complex," spokesman Mark Gwozdecky told the BBC. Two inspectors remain at Yongbyon but have only low-level contacts. Mr Gwozdecky said the IAEA now considered the situation so dangerous that North Korea was top of its list of priorities, along with the search for nuclear programmes in Iraq. North Korea has "a high level of nuclear capability", he said, and could extract plutonium which could then be used to make nuclear weapons. [An official of the International Atomic Energy Agency holds a surveillance camera] The cameras monitored compliance with the 1994 American-led deal "Without our safeguard measures in place, we cannot know whether they are using this material for peaceful purposes or for nuclear weapons," he said. A South Korean Government source told the state-run Yonhap news agency that after removing IAEA seals, North Korean technicians had started to repair the Yongbyon reactor. There are also concerns that work may be resumed at other dormant plants. North Korea insists it has to restart the Yongbyon reactor to produce electricity after the US stopped aid shipments of oil in October in response to allegations that the North was developing a separate nuclear programme. But the US says the retrieval of fuel rods at Yongbyon has nothing to do with electricity production. The size of the five-megawatt reactor is also far smaller than most commercial power plants, which are often around 3,000 megawatts, analysts say. US intelligence agencies believe North Korea has a small number of nuclear bombs and the material to make a few more. War of words Pyongyang has issued statements saying it will discuss problems with the US. But the US is refusing to talk while under threat of "blackmail". Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned it would be possible to fight North Korea even if forces were involved in a conflict in Iraq. North Korea hit back on Tuesday, with Army Minister Kim Il-chol increasing the level of the rhetoric against the Americans in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. "If they, ignorant of their rival, dare provoke a nuclear war, the army and people... led by Kim Jong-il, the invincible commander, will rise up to mete out determined and merciless punishment to the US imperialist aggressors with the might of single-hearted unity more powerful than an A-bomb." South Korea's President-elect Roh Moo-hyun met ambassadors from Russia, China and Japan to gather support from regional powers. © MMII | News Sources | Privacy ***************************************************************** 19 Japanese delegation visits Basra Iraq daily Newspaper Basra, Dec 23, INA The delegation of Japanese Hiroshima Society of Nuclear Weapons Disarmament has visited Basra province. The delegation includes eight figures who represent mass communication institutions and university professors, headed by Mrs. Mortikai got acquainted with the patients’ conditions for being exposed to Depleted Uranium radiation by bombardment of hostile forces during the US-led aggression on Iraq in 1991 that caused big congenital defects among children. Delegation visited number of schools, water filtration and sewerage stations that lack a big shortage in sterilization materials, apparatuses and equipment blocked by UN 661 Sanctions Committee. ***************************************************************** 20 No Alternative to Sunshine Policy: Roh KoreaTimes : Hankooki.com > Korea Times > Nation President-elect Roh Moo-hyun has reiterated that he will honor President Kim Dae-jung¡¯s ``Sunshine Policy¡¯¡¯ that seeks inter-Korean peace through engagement. ``There is no alternative to the Sunshine Policy and the initiative has not failed,¡¯¡¯ Roh said in an interview published in the Dec. 24 issue of Le Monde, a French newspaper, asserting that the strategy has produced meaningful results. Roh, who favors détente despite North Korea¡¯s nuclear challenge, said that the government has not convinced conservatives in South Korea to support the policy. The President-elect vowed to be determined and patient with the North, adding that he will try hard to convince the public that there is no alternative to Kim¡¯s Nobel Peace Prize winning approach. Roh, who once called for the withdrawal of 37,000 U.S. troops and vowed not to kowtow to the U.S., dismissed as wild speculation the charge that he could jeopardize the relationship with the U.S. ``My views of North Korea could differ from those of the hawks in Washington because I am Korean and place more emphasis on Korea¡¯s national interests above those of the U.S.,¡¯¡¯ said Roh, adding that he was not bent on undermining the bilateral relations. Roh said that Korea¡¯s alliance with the U.S. should be more equal as both countries contribute to security in Northeast Asia. In a recent telephone conservation with U.S. President George W. Bush, the former human rights lawyer pledged close cooperation in resolving North Korea¡¯s nuclear program. Earlier, Roh stressed that ties between South Korea and the U.S. must ``mature and advance.¡¯¡¯ ktkim@koreatimes.co.kr 12-24-2002 17:05 ***************************************************************** 21 ROK, US, Japan to Tackle NK Nuke Issue at TCOG KoreaTimes : Hankooki.com > Korea Times > Nation By Shim Jae-yun Staff Reporter Senior officials from South Korea, the United States and Japan will meet early next month to work out joint steps to tackle escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula, prompted by North Korea¡¯s removal of seals and surveillance cameras at mothballed nuclear facilities. At the Trilateral Coordination and Oversight Group (TCOG) conference, they will discuss options for coping with the North¡¯s nuclear threat, according to officials at the Foreign Affairs-Trade Ministry yesterday. These will include possible discontinuation of the ongoing construction of light water reactors by the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) in response to the North¡¯s recent nuclear endeavors, said a ministry official. He added the three allies will also exchange views on whether to bring the issue to the U.N. Security Council. KEDO also plans to convene an executive board meeting, consisting of the three allies and European Union, next month to discuss it. President Kim Dae-jung will convene a meeting of security-related Cabinet ministers Thursday to discuss the subject, a Chong Wa Dae spokesman said. jayshim@koreatimes.co.kr 12-24-2002 17:08 ***************************************************************** 22 IAEA cannot tell if N.Korea works on nuclear arms Reuters AlertNet - 24 Dec 2002 12:28 (Adds IAEA spokesman, background) VIENNA, Dec 24 (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said on Tuesday it could not check whether North Korea was diverting resources to build atomic bombs after Pyongyang began disabling surveillance cameras. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the reclusive Stalinist state had broken the seals and disabled surveillance devices at three facilities at Yongbyon suspected of being used to make weapons-grade plutonium. "They have already done three facilities and now they are working on the fourth," IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky told Reuters. There are four facilities at Yongbyon covered by the freeze -- a five-megawatt experimental reactor, a fuel-rod fabrication plant, a research laboratory and a power plant still under construction. On Saturday, Pyongyang began removing the seals and disabling U.N. monitoring cameras at the five-megawatt plant after the IAEA failed to heed Pyongyang's demand early this month to take away gear so it could revive the idled reactor. "(IAEA chief Mohamed) ElBaradei stated that unless the IAEA is able to reinstate without delay its safeguard measures at these facilities it will not be able to provide assurances that North Korea is not diverting nuclear material to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices," the IAEA said. Under a 1994 agreement with the United States, North Korea froze its nuclear programmes at the Yongbyon facilities in exchange for a $5 billion package that included 500,000 metric tonnes of heavy fuel oil per year and two light-water reactors. The light-water nuclear reactors generate less material of a type that could be used to make nuclear weapons. ***************************************************************** 23 IAEA Inspectors Starting to Interview Iraqi Scientists Media Advisory 2002/66 - 24 December 2002 [www.iaea.org] Update on Iraq Inspections 24 December 2002 -- In recent interviews, IAEA Spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said that the Agency's nuclear inspectors have started interviewing Iraqi nuclear scientists. "We are moving from an information-gathering phase to a more probing, investigative phase," he said in an interview with the Washington Post. Speaking to the Associated Press and other wire services, he said that "interviews are taking place, but we are not revealing when or how many or with whom." He said the steps were part of efforts to build a fuller understanding of Iraq's nuclear programme through stepped up "investigative" efforts. "Now that we are refining that understanding, we are able to do one-on-one interviews in a more strategic way," rather than interviewing lots of people who may or may not have specific information the inspectors seek, he said. Mr. Gwozdecky noted that scientists are being interviewed in Iraq, and that the Agency has not moved to exercise its authority under Security Council mandate to conduct interviews with scientists taken outside the country. The practical arrangements and modalities for such interviews are being worked out, he said. Considerations include, he noted, taking account of the kind of exposure scientists would receive by leaving the country; consent of the individuals involved and their families to leaving the country; and the protection of individuals taken to other countries, including the possibility of asylum. IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said in a recent interview that he would interview Iraqi scientists abroad if he received assurances that they could obtain political asylum or return safely to Iraq. "We are now in the process of interviewing people inside Iraq in private," he noted 23 December in an interview with CNN. "But we are also working on the practical arrangements to take people out of Iraq." ***************************************************************** 24 Continued Disruption of IAEA Safeguards Equipment in DPRK IAEA Press Release 02/24 [www.iaea.org] Vienna, 24 December, 2002 - The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, announced today that the DPRK has unilaterally continued the process of disrupting IAEA safeguard measures at its nuclear facilities. On 23-24 December, the DPRK cut most of the seals and impeded the functioning of surveillance equipment installed at both the fuel rod fabrication plant and the reprocessing facility. To date, seals have been cut and surveillance equipment impeded at a total of three facilities at Nyongbyong: the 5-MWe reactor including the associated spent fuel pond, the fuel rod fabrication plant and the reprocessing facility. Dr. ElBaradei stated that unless the IAEA is able to reinstate without delay its safeguards measures at these facilities it will not be able to provide assurances that the DPRK is not diverting nuclear material to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices as required by its safeguards agreement pursuant to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. Dr. ElBaradei further stated that this rapidly deteriorating situation in the DPRK raises grave non-proliferation concerns. He is currently consulting with the Chairman and Member States of the IAEA Board of Governors on ways and means to address this disturbing development. Contact: Mark Gwozdecky, Tel: (+43 1) 2600-21270, e-mail: , Mobile: (+43 ) 664-226-9239. ***************************************************************** 25 Davis-Besse safety analysis explained "The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com Davis-Besse safety analysis explained 12/24/02 John Funk Plain Dealer Reporter Managers of the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant moved one step closer to gaining permission to restart the reactor yesterday. They detailed to federal authorities the steps taken to prove the plant's safety systems will function as designed in an emergency. Davis-Besse has been idle since February while workers replaced the reactor's badly corroded lid and repaired or replaced much of the plant's auxiliary and emergency equipment. Plant owner FirstEnergy Corp. of Akron hopes the Toledo-area reactor can begin making electricity by early April. Meeting with Nuclear Regulatory Commission engineers in Chicago yesterday, the plant's executives reported that more than 100 outside consulting engineers spent months reviewing the 15 most critical safety systems of the plant's 36 mechanical systems. The investigation was done to determine whether Davis-Besse's safety equipment meets the engineering standards demanded by federal code and the plant's own original design specifications. "If you change something in plant - and there are lots of components - if you change things as they wear out, the new part might be a little different," James Powers, director of engineering at Davis-Besse, said in an interview. "The new part needs to meet the design basis of the original part," he said. "Or you need to show why it is OK if it doesn't." Proving new parts meet the original design specs or new criteria demanded by the industry involves recalculating all the engineering specs for each part, what Powers called "the bedrock" of the plant's safety systems. The review generated 1,200 suspected design problems, each written up in critiques called "condition reports," Powers said. By yesterday, those problems had been whittled down to 26 that could potentially affect safety, he said. Concerns about the others were resolved, either with new calculations or by finding original specifications that had been misplaced. The NRC staff wanted to know why so many suspected problems had resurfaced since Davis-Besse's own engineers had reviewed the design basis of the plant just five years ago. "Of the 26 potential safety concerns, were any of them identified previously and not resolved?" asked Jack Grobe, chairman of the NRC committee overseeing the company's efforts to rebuild Davis-Besse. Powers and his colleagues said some had been identified in the late 1990s but not resolved because the engineering staff did not have the resources. "Yes, we could have done better," Powers conceded. The current engineering effort has proved that most of the 1,200 concerns were not safety issues, said Lew Myers, chief operating officer of FirstEnergy's nuclear division. That is likely to be the story, he said, for the remaining 26. That assertion won't get the plant restarted, Grobe said. Only if the plant engineers can resolve the last 26 issues - and no additional questions crop up - "then I think we are comfortable," he said. But if there are more questions - and the NRC will be looking over the shoulders of Davis-Besse's engineers - "then we need to step back and look at other systems you are not evaluating." To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: jfunk@plaind.com, 216-999-4138 © 2002 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission. ***************************************************************** 26 N-plant checks need overhaul Daily Yomiuri On-Line [EDITORIAL] Yomiuri Shimbun Following a series of cover-up scandals in connection with inspections at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s nuclear power plants, the country's largest power utility shut down more than 15 reactors around the country. More nuclear reactors are expected to be temporarily shut down in the future. Considering that winter will bring increased demand for electricity, this is an extraordinary situation. The series of irregularities uncovered at the plants can be linked to the authorities' failure to revise existing inspection criteria. The criteria are flawed because they fail to take into account important technical factors concerning the operation of the plants. The Diet currently is debating bills to revise the inspection standards. We urge lawmakers to enact the bills as soon as possible so that the inspection criteria can be revised and this extraordinary situation normalized. Two bills currently are being debated in the Diet, including a bill to revise the Electricity Utilities Industry Law. The bills are designed to clarify rules on voluntary inspections by nuclear power operators and to introduce a new system that will allow nuclear plants with minor defects to continue to operate under close observation as long as the defects do not compromise the plants' safety. The bills also are intended to strengthen punitive clauses concerning malicious violations of laws and ordinances and to pave the way for the establishment of an independent administrative institution to make up for a shortage of inspectors at the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. We believe these efforts are a good first step toward making inspections of nuclear plants in this country conform to global standards. === N-plants should resume operations Some opposition parties are strongly opposed to the introduction of a new system that would allow the operation of nuclear plants with minor defects. However, the system already has been introduced in many countries, including the United States. Those opposed to the plan should be aware of the irrationality of expecting nuclear plants in operation to remain in mint condition indefinitely. At the same time, lawmakers should remember that the expected revision to the law will only be a makeshift measure to improve the existing inspection system. The United States and European countries already have a sensible inspection system based on the so-called risk assessment method. The system adopted by the Western countries is designed to encourage electric power companies to take creative measures by reducing inspection burdens when their efforts to enhance safety are acknowledged by the state. We regret to say, however, that the existing system in Japan is nowhere near as flexible. From mid- and long-term perspectives, issues including what would constitute an ideal regulatory system for the nuclear industry and improvement of the inspection system are tasks that need to be examined closely. But from a short-term perspective, nuclear plants that have been shut down should resume operations as soon as possible. === Electricity shortage must be avoided TEPCO and others concerned voluntarily decided to shut down some reactors and are conducting inspections of their defects despite an assessment by the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency that there was no need to close the reactors down. The agency and the Nuclear Safety Commission are planning to reevaluate the safety of these reactors from a technical standpoint and to issue advice concerning the resumption of their operations. In the end, it is up to local governments to decide whether to permit the shut-down nuclear plants to resume operations. When it comes to making that decision, we urge them to think calmly, placing top priority on guaranteeing safety. Meanwhile, to restore the public trust, electric power companies should urgently review their inspection systems and abandon their corrupt habit of flouting rules. But keeping nuclear plants shut down as a "punitive measure" is unconnected with efforts to enhance their safety. Every effort should be made to avoid an electricity shortage, which could hit the country if the existing problem continues to be addressed in an inappropriate manner. (From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Nov. 21) ***************************************************************** 27 One more step towards reopening Davis-Besse AKRON -- It's one more step in reopening the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant. FirstEnergy met with federal regulators and outlined remaining possible safety issues. The list has been trimmed from 1200 concerns to 26. The Nuclear Regulator Commission wants every possible safety concern addressed before the plant reopens. During a maintenance shutdown, investigators in March found that boric acid had nearly eaten through a steel cap on the reactor vessel. The plant has been closed since then. Posted 6:00 PM Wednesday, December 24th vfiorello@wtol.com All content © Copyright 2000 - 2002 WorldNow and WTOL. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 28 Canada: Shutdown hit Bruce reactor during heatwave ***************************************************************** 31 FirstEnergy sees no need to redesign Davis-Besse Beacon Journal | 12/24/2002 | Utility expects to fix remaining safety issues in time for April restart By Jim Mackinnon Beacon Journal business writer The list of potential safety problems at the troubled Davis-Besse nuclear power plant has been whittled to 26 ``potentially significant'' issues, FirstEnergy Corp. said Monday. Those remaining issues should be resolved before February without the need to significantly redesign the plant or delay its anticipated restart by April, the company said. The remaining unanswered questions came about as part of new, higher standards adopted at Davis-Besse, company spokesman Todd Schneider said. ``We have high confidence in the design of our systems,'' Schneider said. ``These reviews are built into our schedule. This should not impact our schedule.'' A third of the 26 safety issues have already been satisfactorily resolved, FirstEnergy officials told members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday. Officials of the Akron utility were at the NRC's regional office in Lisle, Ill., to update NRC members on theDavis-Besse safety systems. The 883-megawatt plant, in Oak Harbor on the Lake Erie shore, has been shut down since February because boric acid had severely pitted the reactor's vessel head. The 26 safety issues are what's left after a review of 1,200 reports on the plant's condition, FirstEnergy officials said. They did not specify the 26. ``We think the overall material condition of the plant is quite good,'' said Lew Myers, chief operating officer forFirstEnergy's nuclear operating company subsidiary that operates Davis-Besse. ``We haven't found anything yet that's caused us to go out and say we have to redesign a system.'' FirstEnergy needs to resolve all 26 issues before the plant will be allowed to restart, said NRC spokeswoman Viktoria Mitlyng. Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com ***************************************************************** 32 Nuclear plant trims list of safety concerns AP Wire | 12/24/2002 | BEACON JOURNAL Associated Press AKRON, Ohio - The operator of the shuttered Davis-Besse nuclear power plant east of Toledo has trimmed the list of potential safety issues as it works to reopen early next year. Davis-Besse, located alongside Lake Erie and operated by FirstEnergy Corp. of Akron, has been idle since early in the year while workers replaced the reactor's corroded lid and made other repairs. Utility officials met Monday with Nuclear Regulatory Commission engineers in suburban Chicago and reported that more than 100 outside consulting engineers spent months reviewing safety systems. The review generated 1,200 suspected design problems which have been whittled down to 26 that could potentially affect safety, said James Powers, director of engineering at Davis-Besse. Other concerns were resolved, either with new calculations or by finding original specifications that had been misplaced. The NRC staff wanted to know why suspected problems had surfaced since Davis-Besse's own engineers reviewed the plant design five years ago. The latest review showed that most of the concerns were not safety issues, said Lew Myers, chief operating officer of FirstEnergy's nuclear division. That is likely to be the story for the remaining 26, he said. "We think the overall material condition of the plant is quite good," Myers said. "We haven't found anything yet that's caused us to go out and say we have to redesign a system." Jack Grobe, who is directing the NRC safety review at the plant, said the agency would only be comfortable once every potential safety issue had been resolved. During a maintenance shutdown, investigators in March found that boric acid had nearly eaten through a 6-inch steel cap on the reactor vessel. The plant has been closed since then. On the Net: http://www.firstenergycorp.com ***************************************************************** 33 D-B officials review major plant safety systems for NRC - portclintonnewsherald.com Tuesday, December 24, 2002 By JENNIFER FUNK Staff writer FirstEnergy officials continued to explain their approach to fixing the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station Monday with a trip to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Region III office in Lisle, Ill. During the nearly three-hour meeting, FirstººEnergy officials detailed a plan to review important plant safety systems at the off-line Carroll Township plant. All of the plant's 36 major systems reviews have been completed, and five systems are undergoing more in-depth critiques. Davis-Besse has been down since a routine refueling outage in February, when workers found a hole in the reactor head that had been corroded away by boric acid leaking from nozzles. Plant officials have since been trying to overhaul inspection processes and review every aspect of the plant's performance. On Monday, officials focused on the plant's vital operations and told the NRC's oversight panel that of 1,200 condition reports -- which results when a worker questions how a certain system is operating -- about 26 are possibly safety-related. FirstEnergy Director of Engineering Jim Powers said the company "unleashed an army of engineers and technicians" to find the issues, which resulted in the 1,200 "questions" that need to be answered. Of primary concern are calculations used to describe how equipment and systems work. Workers will evaluate reports from the recent reviews for problems, if any, with the calculations. If there are issues, they will conduct more detailed evaluations to determine if any corrective actions are needed. Officials hope to have any problems rooted out by the end of January. Powers emphasized that the plant had undergone several detailed inspections throughout the years on the safety systems and they were all operable. They especially want to look at work orders and corrective actions posted since 1995, when a number of Davis-Besse's management were switched to the Perry nuclear plant east of Cleveland. "We wanted to take a look and see if there were any deviations from the plans and effectiveness," Powers said. The director of engineering said he doesn't condemn past workers for their actions because he thinks they were trying to do a good job. But he added there are areas for improvement. Overall, said FirstEnergy Chief Operating Officer Lew Myers, there was nothing found in the initial reviews of the systems that would require a complete overhaul. "The key thing is we haven't found anything yet that would cause us to go out and say we have to redesign our system or something like that," Myers said. But NRC oversight panel chairman Jack Grobe said the dialog needs to continue, because there are many questions left unanswered. "I don't understand how we can ... put a full context on what you've done to date and what needs to be done going forward without those answers," he said. Originally published Tuesday, December 24, 2002 Copyright ©2002 News Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 34 Nuclear reactor study met with skepticism PalmBeachPost.com: By Deborah Circelli, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Tuesday, December 24, 2002 An advocacy group is questioning a new electric industry report that shows nuclear reactors could withstand a crash from a commercial airliner. Edwin Lyman, president of the Washington-based Nuclear Control Institute, said he is skeptical about the study, released Monday, because industry officials won't release the full text of the report. "If they found that a plane could penetrate a containment building and cause a meltdown, would they say it?" Lyman said. "You have to take this with a pretty big grain of salt simply because the industry couldn't come out with any other conclusion politically." But Florida Power & Light Co., which operates the St. Lucie Nuclear Plant on Hutchinson Island, said the study commissioned by the Nuclear Energy Institute trade group should put the public at ease. "It shows that the current design is more than adequate to protect the facilities," said Rachel Scott, an FPL spokeswoman. The Nuclear Energy Institute said in a summary of the study Monday that based on computer-engineered tests, the nation's 103 reactors could withstand a direct hit from a fully fueled Boeing 767-400. The Electric Power Research Institute, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based research group for the electric power industry, sponsored the more than $1 million study, which was conducted by engineers at Houston-based ABS Consulting and Anatech Corp. of San Diego. The institute funded the study through federal research grants from the U.S. Department of Energy. Researchers looked at what would happen if an airliner traveling at 350 miles an hour with 28,980 gallons of fuel aboard smashed into the reactor containment building, a used-fuel building and casks that transport the fuel on trains. In each computer model, no radioactive materials were released, though there was some crushing and cracking of the steel-reinforced concrete walls. But Lyman said he's concerned a plane going at full speed -- about 530 miles an hour -- could penetrate the top dome of the reactor, which is smaller in size than the thicker part of the building. The Nuclear Energy Institute study said it is unlikely a pilot, especially an inexperienced one, could control a plane flying at full speed that low to the ground. "I'm sure there will be people who aren't satisfied with this study, but I say to them make those assertions after you've put in the rigorous analysis we have," said Steve Kerekes, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which regulates the reactors, declined to comment on the study. The NRC is conducting its own at the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. Sandia conducted a similar study in 1988 using an actual F-4 fighter jet and a 12-foot-thick wall. But the scientists told The Palm Beach Post in November 2001 that people should not point to their 1988 study as proof that the buildings are safe. The authors said they were not certain the buildings could withstand the impact of a fully fueled plane. The FPL reactor at St. Lucie is a 2-inch-thick steel vessel surrounded by 3-foot-thick reinforced concrete walls. The study looked at models that used walls that were about 4 feet thick.. Lyman said he thinks more needs to be done to protect nuclear reactors. "The NRC has to evaluate honestly what the threat is," he said. "They can't worry about the impact of the economics of nuclear power plants." deborah_circelli@pbpost.com Copyright © 2002, The Palm Beach Post. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 35 Canada: Shutdown hit Bruce reactor during heatwave TheStar.com - Wed Dec 25, 2002 | Updated at 10:09 PM DICK LOEK/TORONTO STAR An aerial view of the Bruce nuclear power plant . Province forced to buy electricity in peak periods JOHN SPEARS BUSINESS REPORTER An accident at Bruce Power helped to keep one of Ontario's major generating units out of action all summer — a shutdown that was never made public as record heat sent electricity prices soaring. Unit 6 of the Bruce B generating station near Kincardine (on Lake Huron) only returned to full service early this month, according to Canada's nuclear regulator. The unit had been taken out of operation in March for planned maintenance. But an accident in June helped keep the reactor out of service for the entire summer, when the province set new records for power consumption and had to buy large amounts of expensive imported power. Ontario's supply of electricity is so tight that "any time the temperature hits 30 degrees, we're going to be kept alive by our neighbours," said Dave Goulding, who heads the agency that maintains Ontario's electric grid. The province imported up to 4,000 megawatts of power at peak periods this summer, when demand hit a record 25,414 megawatts. Bruce Unit 6 produces about 800 megawatts. One of nuclear power's selling points is that it produces no air pollution. When nuclear plants go down, the gap is usually made up by power from coal-burning plants, the dirtiest kind of power. According to Bruce Power, the four units of the Bruce B plant produce enough electricity to supply a city the size of Toronto. Losing Unit 6 reduced Bruce B's output by 25 per cent. The accident occurred June 11 during maintenance in the reactor core. A piece of equipment malfunctioned and produced an electrical arc that burned a hole through a pressure tube — which contains uranium fuel — and through the calandria tube that encases it. The calandria tube contains heavy water and is itself enclosed by a large vessel called the calandria, containing dozens of calandria tubes. Both the calandria tube and the pressure tube had to be replaced, which was not in the planned maintenance program. No radioactive material escaped the reactor. Steve Cannon, of Bruce Power, would only say the accident kept the unit out of service a " little bit" longer than planned. He wouldn't specify how much generating time the accident cost, citing commercial confidentiality. The Independent Electricity Market Operator (IMO) , which runs Ontario's electricity grid, also refused to say how much extra down time the accident created. So did the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC). Cannon noted that it wasn't in Bruce Power's interest to have the unit shut down for the summer because power prices were very high. He said Bruce Power decided that replacing the tubes was the safest course to take. And he said other generators had also been shut down for certain periods during the summer, worsening the supply shortage. "To pin it all on one unit (being out of service) is not going to be contextually accurate," Cannon said. But under Ontario's electricity system, the identity of generators that are shut down is kept secret. That's in contrast to Alberta, where anyone with Internet access can look up the Power Pool of Alberta Web site and see exactly which generators are and are not in service at any time of day. The only news release made by Bruce Power, on June 12, minimized the accident. It said only that a pressure tube had been "slightly damaged" and "the operational impact is not expected to be significant." It made no mention at all of the calandria tube being damaged. That only came to light in a report from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission The commission said both tubes — the pressure tube and the calandria tube — had to be replaced. The problem reactor came back to power in September, according to the commission, too late to help during the record-breaking summer. Power prices get extremely volatile when demand is high and domestic generators can't supply the full market. On occasions when the province had to import emergency power, the IMO had to pay as much as $2 a kilowatt-hour to out-of-province generators. Ontario's normal domestic price is about 5 cents a kilowatt-hour. Legal Notice:- Copyright 1996-2002. Toronto Star Newspapers ***************************************************************** 36 Iran's president says nuclear power plant won't develop weapons 01:55 PM EST Dec 26 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Iranian President Mohammed Khatami pledged on Tuesday to forge ahead with the construction of a nuclear power plant, but rejected claims that it might be used to develop nuclear weapons. Khatami, who is visiting Pakistan, said Iran would be happy to send any spent fuel rods - a potential source of fissionable material - abroad for reprocessing. "We have no problem with sending the nuclear waste and uranium waste to other countries," Khatami told a joint news conference with Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali. "We are not insisting on keeping them in Iran, where they could also pose an environmental problem." Iranian officials in the past have insisted that the country's nuclear facilities are for peaceful purposes, even though it cancelled a UN inspection of two sites in mid-December. Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, is scheduled to visit Iran in February. The Bush administration has accused Iran of sponsoring terrorism and labelling it, along with Iraq and North Korea, part of an "axis of evil." The U.S. government has strongly criticized a nuclear plant that the Iranians are building with Russian help at Bushehr in southern Iran, saying it could advance Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program. Iran has said the plant will be used only to generate power. "We are very happy that we are going to have that nuclear power plant in Iran, and we are going to develop it for energy and peaceful purposes, I repeat, peaceful purposes," Khatami said in response to a reporter's question. Khatami noted that "we believe that atomic and nuclear arms are not going to ensure the peace and security of any country," but that instead of focusing on recently emerged nuclear powers like Pakistan - another target of U.S. criticism - critics should turn their attention to Israel. "We believe that these countries should press the Zionist regime in Israel, which has been rumoured to have hundreds of nuclear weapons . . . and which is a threat to international peace and security," Khatami said. © The Canadian Press, 2002 ***************************************************************** 37 Govt holds nuclear disaster drill Daily Yomiuri On-Line Yomiuri Shimbun The Fukui prefectural government and the central government Thursday conducted a joint nuclear disaster drill at a nuclear power plant operated by Kansai Electric Power Co. in Oicho, Fukui Prefecture. The scenario for the exercise supposed there had been a major radiation leak, similar in scale to the 1979 Three-Miles Island accident in the United States. About 1,900 local residents, including people living in a facility for the disabled in the area, participated in the drill, as did 117 organizations, including experts who monitored the level of radiation leakage. Residents living within a two-kilometer radius of the nuclear plant were evacuated, and those living up to seven kilometers south of the plant were told to stay indoors. At 8:33 a.m., Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told Gov. Yukio Kurita to take appropriate measures following a teleconference in which the premier told the governor, "I have declared a state of emergency." Kurita reported to Koizumi on the scale of "damage" as well as the measures that were being taken. In an exercise starting at 10:20 a.m., about 250 residents living within the two-kilometer radius were evacuated to primary schools. Two "victims" exposed to radiation were helicoptered to a Fukui hospital. Ministers involved in the government's task force on nuclear disaster held the first meeting of the task force at the Prime Minister's Office. Koizumi, who heads the body, directed the ministers to cooperate by sharing information on emergency measures, saying, "We must settle the situation quickly while assigning the highest priority to people's safety." Meanwhile, the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency established a secretariat of the government's task force at the agency's emergency center, and checked whether information channels among the secretariat, local headquarters and the Prime Minister's Office were working smoothly. Copyright 2002 The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 38 UK: WORK REVIEW AFTER RADIOACTIVE LEAK this is plymouth Dec 24 2002 TESTS have found a suspected radioactive particle on the beach next to Dounreay nuclear power station. It's the 22nd such find since the UK Atomic Energy Authority began monthly tests at the beach in 1984. They say a fleck of fuel the size of a grain of sand was found on Sandside Beach, Caithness. The plant is being decommissioned and met the short-term recommendations of a safety review in January after a series of breaches. © 1991-2002 *Interfax, All rights reserved* News and other data on this ***************************************************************** 43 Yucca Mountain Whistleblower correction - Kristi Hodges Tuesday, December 24, 2002 To Whom It May Concern: I have a correction to make to my letter that was posted on the NWPO website on December 18, 2002.   I had stated that a San Francisco attorney had appealed the DOL's dismissal of the DOE portion of the Mattimoe vs. US Department of Energy and Navarro Research and Engineering Inc. complaint. While it is true that the DOE dismissal was appealed, it has been confirmed that that portion has since been dropped and the DOE is no longer a party of that legal action.  The law is still the law even when it is a bad law; and a 1995 legal interpretation by a DOL Administrative Law Judge will stand until it is overturned.  The Energy Reorganization Act (ERA), itself, must be amended before nuclear workers will have any recourse against wrongdoing on the part of the DOE. Based on the legal doctrine of sovereign immunity the government cannot be sued without its consent.  This assumed immunity has been misapplied to allow federal agencies and federal employees to avoid accountability when involved in "extraordinarily egregious" activities. It is therefore left to our senators and representatives to introduce legislation and/or revision to legislation that specify that federal agencies, and specifically the DOE, are subject to Section 211 of the ERA. Sovereign immunity has already been waved in most environmental statutes; such provisions should be waved in the ERA as well. I apologize for providing inaccurate information on the status of the complaint; however, I urge the State to explore this issue further and to determine whether there is a contribution that can be made in advancing changes to existing laws that will provide nuclear workers with increased protections.  Thank you. Kristi Hodges ***************************************************************** 44 Russia: Ivanov Stars in a Secret Memo Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2002. Page 1 By Staff Writer A confidential British Foreign Office memo that was posted on the Internet gives details of closed-door meetings two years ago with Sergei Ivanov and lightly pokes fun at the man who would become Russia's defense minister. Russian officials said the leaked memo was an embarrassment for British authorities but not for the Kremlin. The memorandum concisely describes the security issues that Ivanov, then secretary of the Security Council, discussed with unidentified officials from Prime Minister Tony Blair's staff, the Foreign Office, Ministry of Defense and Parliament during his visit to Britain from Oct. 30 to Nov. 1, 2000. The Dec. 2, 2000, memorandum was classified as "confidential," according to the text of the document displayed at the U.S.-registered site www.cryptome.org. The memo is a rather straightforward summary of Ivanov's position on security issues and mostly reflects what he said at press briefings during his visit, which culminated in a meeting with Blair. One of the few exceptions is Ivanov's admission that Russia may have an "over-rosy" view of the Iranian leadership and his claim that China is the main supplier of technologies to Iran, which the United States has accused of pursuing a clandestine nuclear arms program. Another of Ivanov's reported statements that had not been made public previously is his assertion that the Kremlin was considering invoking Article 50 of the UN Charter to ask for exemptions from the trade sanctions on Iraq to retrieve some of Iraq's multibillion-dollar debt to Russia, "particularly in respect to civil aviation." It is unclear what Ivanov had in mind. On the personal side, the memo's Foreign Office authors note that Ivanov, who spent most of his career in the foreign intelligence branch of the KGB and reportedly lived in England in the 1970s, was "particularly at ease with the SIS [the Secret Intelligence Service], but also socially, he tended to rigidity in the more formal meetings" during his visit. The memo also claims that Ivanov had said no reconstruction of Chechnya was possible due to security concerns. Ivanov viewed Chechnya as a "black hole of terrorism" and warned of threats posed by Islamist terrorist organizations, according to the memo. The memo's authors belittle Ivanov's warning, saying "he did not seriously advance the Islamic galactic plot theory." The memo also mentions a "diatribe" by deputy secretary of the council Oleg Chernov that the Internet could pose a major threat to world security in coming years. Less than a year later, al-Qaida struck the United States on Sept. 11 in the culmination of elaborate plot whose participants used e-mail to communicate. Neither Ivanov nor his spokesman could be reached for comment. The defense minister was meeting his Ukrainian counterpart in St. Petersburg on Tuesday. According to one Defense Ministry official, however, Ivanov's decision to refrain from commenting on the leaked memo, which was first reported by The Sunday Times, speaks for itself. "There is nothing really sensitive in what has been leaked. It is sort of bad for their [Foreign Office's] reputation, but from our perspective it just repeats what Minister Ivanov has said in public," the official, who asked not to be named, said in a telephone interview. Ivanov, who is one of President Vladimir Putin's closest confidants, retired from the Foreign Intelligence Service in August 1999. He took over the Security Council in November 1999 and transformed the consultative body into a policy-making powerhouse before becoming defense minister in March 2001. During his visit to Britain, Ivanov also stated Russia's opposition to the eastward expansion of NATO and to U.S. plans to deploy a national missile defense system, and he called for international cooperation to battle drug trafficking, according both to the confidential memo and press reports at the time. Ivanov also told his British hosts that the United States had overplayed its hand in the Middle East, but agreed that the situation should be stabilized there, the memo says. Press officials at the Security Council and Foreign Ministry declined to comment Tuesday. Calls to Chernov, who remains a deputy secretary of the council, went unanswered. One Security Council official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it is "evident" that the leaked memo is an embarrassment for the Foreign Office, but would not elaborate. A Foreign Office official, reached in London by telephone, would not confirm the authenticity of the memorandum, which was sent to the British Embassy as a coded cable, according to the text of the memorandum posted at Cryptome.org, which is known for posting leaked classified information. The official acknowledged, however, that "it appears to be a leak" and that the Foreign Office is "investigating very seriously." The Sunday Times report describes the leak as "embarrassing" for the Foreign Office. Less than a month ago there was a leak of three secret Foreign Office memos, which listed the names and telephone numbers of 15 top officials in MI6, the anti-terrorist branch of the Metropolitan police; GCHQ, the government eavesdropping office; and the Foreign Office. The list was posted on the same web site, which is registered in Manhattan, New York, in the name of John Young. According to one prominent Russian espionage expert, leaks of top secret information occur rather rarely in Britain. "Mostly what is leaked does no damage to their national interests. These leaks are mostly attempts by one rival clan within their bureaucracy to embarrass or discredit another one," said retired Lieutenant General Nikolai Leonov, former head of the KGB's foreign intelligence branch. Leonov also said he could not rule out that that the leak of the memo could have been an attempt to sling mud at Ivanov himself, particularly over his remarks that no restoration of Chechnya was possible due to security concerns. © Copyright 2002, The Moscow Times. All Rights Reserved. Visit House of Music (Interfax) For all of the TheMoscowTimes.com online services including: ***************************************************************** 45 Iraq says there is nothing to add to weapons declaration, no need to take scientists abroad December 24, 2002 Iraq is ready to talk to the U.N. inspection commission about its criticisms of Baghdad's 12,000-page declaration on weapons of mass destruction, but it has nothing new to add, Iraq's chief representative to the commission said Tuesday. Speaking to /AP/, Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amin indicated he saw no reason for the criticisms expressed last week by chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. "An opportunity was missed in the declaration to give a lot of evidence," Blix told reporters after reporting to the U.N. Security Council on the declaration. Amin said Iraqi government was "willing to reach an understanding" with Blix and ElBaradei, but "we have nothing to add, really, of new information, because the information we gave is the real and complete information. "We know very well, and they know very well, that we have no weapons of mass destruction." Amin said his government would not threaten any Iraqi scientist who accepts an invitation from the inspectors to leave the country for further interviews about Iraq's weapons programs. Amin conveyed the inspectors had been interviewing Iraqi scientists for about 10 days, and his government saw no need to take them abroad. "We see no necessity for that. In fact, this is not our opinion only. It is the opinion of Blix and ElBaradei too. They said they do not see any necessity to interview the scientists outside Iraq. "This subject is related to the person's right to choose. No one can force him — neither the Iraqi government, nor the others to leave his country. I have no comment on this, but we will not punish anyone." Meanwhile, teams of inspectors from the United Nations and IAEA visited eight sites on Tuesday, according to the Iraqi Foreign Ministry. Among the sites was the Hateen Company, a complex of factories 70 kilometers (south of Baghdad) that produces artillery ammunition, among other things. Iraqi officials said the team had gone past the city of Kut and toward the port city of Basra. (Albawaba.com) * *2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com) * ***************************************************************** 46 Weapons site clean-up delayed BBC NEWS | UK | Wales | Tuesday, 24 December, 2002, [Workers cleaning the former Atomic Weapons Establishment, Cardiff] Work to clean the former AWE site began in October The clearance of radioactive contaminated matter from a former atomic weapons site in Cardiff has been extended after new areas were identified for clean-up. Ministry of Defence agents, Defence Estates, who own the site in Llanishen, had hoped that most of the work would be finished by 2002. majority of the work would be completed by the end of the year Defence Estates But contractors carrying out the removal of uranium and other dangerous poisons from the site have found other areas needing work. Defence Estates have said that the levels of contamination found have been consistent with or lower than those predicted. The decontamination of the site - which has an estimated 80 tonnes of depleted uranium, showing elevated levels of radioactivity - began in October. So far no radioactive material - which is expected to extracted and taken away in sealed containers - has been removed. Defence Estates, agents of the Ministry of Defence (MoD), have notified people living nearby about the progress. In a letter to residents, they stated: "We had hoped that the majority of the work would be completed by the end of the year. [Radiation symbol] The toxins will be taken away in sealed containers "Unfortunately, this will not be the case as some additional work areas have been identified. "This together with our efforts to restrict the number of lorry movements to and from the site has meant that works will now continue until early February." As part of the work, a tent has been erected over the area of depleted uranium to ensure it is contained. Defence Estates said: "Work to remove the radioactive contamination is currently ongoing within this structure, although to date no radioactive material has been removed from the site." Precautions have also been made in the event of any future firefighters strikes. Nuclear weapons "We have given an undertaking not to transport radioactively contaminated materials during the periods of fire service industrial action," said Defence Estates. "This may ultimately have the effect of prolonging the works, but we consider this is the appropriate course of action to take given the circumstances." AWE Cardiff was one of the four government owned contractor operated sites that formed the UK's Atomic Weapons Establishment. It was originally established in 1940 as a Royal Ordnance factory, manufacturing field guns and other weaponry. In 1960, it became part of the AWE, with production switching to the manufacture of components for the nuclear weapons programme. The plant closed in February 1997. © MMII | News Sources | Privacy ***************************************************************** 47 Khatami: Israeli nuclear weapons - threat to international peace December 24, 2002 Iranian President Mohammed Khatami pledged on Tuesday to forge ahead with the construction of a nuclear power plant, but rejected claims that it might be used to develop nuclear weapons. Khatami, who is visiting Pakistan, said Iran would be happy to send any spent fuel rods a potential source of fissionable material abroad for reprocessing. "We have no problem with sending the nuclear waste and uranium waste to other countries," Khatami told a joint news conference with Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali. "We are not insisting on keeping them in Iran, where they could also pose an environmental problem." "We are very happy that we are going to have that nuclear power plant in Iran, and we are going to develop it for energy and peaceful purposes, I repeat, peaceful purposes," Khatami said in response to a reporter's question. Khatami noted that "we believe that atomic and nuclear arms are not going to ensure the peace and security of any country," but that instead of focusing on recently emerged nuclear powers like Pakistan another target of U.S. criticism should turn their attention to Israel. "We believe that these countries should press the Zionist regime in Israel, which has been rumored to have hundreds of nuclear weapons ... and which is a threat to international peace and security," Khatami said. (Albawaba.com) *© * *2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com) * ***************************************************************** 48 VIEWS: *US silent about Israeli nukes Daily Times /By Hassan Tahsin/ International politics has a number of contradictions. At present, we see the United States leading the world against Iran, Iraq and North Korea because they allegedly possess weapons of mass destruction. We see the United States at the same time approving the idea of Israel building a new nuclear reactor. The new reactor will chemically process uranium and will obviously increase the size of the Israeli arsenal. The world is in general agreement with the United States about the necessity of eliminating weapons of mass destruction. The existence of these weapons which includes nuclear warhead threatens the entire world. It is not enough to disarm the so-called ?axis of evil.? All weapons of mass destruction must be eliminated, including those of the superpower permanent members of the UN Security Council. The idea of disarming is a political and military one developed in the 20th century. Its main goal was to reduce arms, step by step, until they reached a level at which arms were eliminated. This is a good theory but it is far from practical reality. With the establishment of the United Nations after World War II, it was stipulated that the Security Council had the task of preparing plans and programs aimed at regulating armaments and their reduction in accordance with certain steps. If we look at Israel and its weapons of mass destruction, we join many countries and governments which have wondered why Israel is always an exception to rules that are scrupulously applied to other countries. It is certain today that Israel possesses between 100 and 200 nuclear and hydrogen warheads of all sizes. This is confirmed by published American satellite pictures and scientific reports. These same reports also indicate that Israel is about to produce a neutron bomb. Israel also has nuclear bombs which are designed for use from airplanes. They can be used in battle without fears of side effects. Israel also has spy satellites which can identify targets on the ground very easily. In cooperation with the former racist government in South Africa, Israel conducted nuclear tests in 1979 in the South Pacific. Further information about Israeli weapons is not available though it is known that some were used for the attempted assassination in Jordan of Khalid Meshaal, the Hamas member. Closing the world?s eyes to Israel?s nuclear arsenal and weapons of mass destruction can only lead to suspicion and rejection. Since Israel was the first country in the region to possess these weapons, it should be the first to get rid of them. This is especially true in light of the fact that Arab countries have agreed to make the region empty of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear ones. The United States is the present leader and it has embarked on a campaign to eliminate weapons of mass destruction around the world. If this is carried out, then the United States will have done something that will be remembered in history and which will also increase its political importance. In the future, the United States will need no help in collecting an international coalition because the whole world will support its aims. People around the world dream of peace and believe in it, and they believe that they can live in peace together without any war. Unfortunately, this is not consistent with the ambitions of politicians. ?Arab News 24-12-2002 Daily Times - All Rights Reserved Site developed and hosted by WorldCALL Internet Solutions ***************************************************************** 49 UN prepares for Iraq war BBC NEWS | Middle East | Tuesday, 24 December, 2002 [UN inspectors at an Iraqi factory] UN inspectors will be working over Christmas The United Nations has confirmed that it is stockpiling relief supplies in the Middle East in case of a war in Iraq. The UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, said that donor countries had been asked for more than $37m in emergency funding to cover contingency plans for Iraq at a meeting in Geneva on 13 December. What we have done in this case is say, what do we think it is prudent to have in position now Fred Eckhard, UN spokesman Aid agencies fear a humanitarian crisis involving thousands of refugees and widespread civil unrest if Iraq fails to comply with UN resolutions to disarm and triggers a US-led attack. The BBC's Greg Barrow, at the UN, says officials have been cautious about publicising contingency plans for any military action in Iraq. To admit they are doing so would suggest that the UN thinks a US military invasion of Iraq is almost inevitable. Fred Eckhard, the spokesman for UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, said that "a first-phase assessment" had been made of action to take if fighting broke out. US MILITARY BUILD-UP LATEST [USS Constellation in the Gulf] 1,000 US troops due in Israel for an exercise to test Patriot missile defence system 3,000 US army troops end large-scale manoeuvres in the Kuwaiti desert USS Constellation and USS Harry Truman battle groups deployed in Gulf and the Mediterranean in mid-December He said the planning focused on what he called a modest pre-positioning of food and equipment. "I don't think anyone can accurately predict the outcome of war," he said. "What we have done in this case is say: 'What do we think it is prudent to have in position now?' We have done minimal estimates of what might be required - what we would like to have in place." Mr Eckhard added that the UN still expected Iraq to comply with the demands of the UN Security Council so that military action could be avoided. UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said the moves were part of normal crisis planning. He said the UN was also considering the risk that large numbers of people might be displaced both within Iraq and across the country's borders. In Iraq, teams of UN weapons experts continued their inspections on Tuesday, leaving their headquarters in Baghdad for secret locations. Inspections are also expected to continue on Christmas Day. A UN spokesman in Baghdad, Hiro Ueki, told the AFP news agency that about 150 inspections had been carried out since the UN resumed its work in November after a four-year break. Scientists identified On Monday, the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had begun identifying Iraqi scientists who might have crucial information on Iraq's weapons programmes. IRAQI MATERIAL UNACCOUNTED FOR [US troops with Iraqi arms in 1991] Nearly four tons of VX nerve agents Growth media for 20,000 litres of biological warfare agents 15,000 shells for use in biological warfare 6,000 chemical warfare bombs Nuclear information But an IAEA spokesman said officials had not yet interviewed the scientists formally. The interviewing of scientists is seen as a potential flashpoint in the Iraq crisis. Washington has said scientists and their families may have to be taken out of Iraq to be questioned, but Baghdad says the move is unnecessary. "We understand to a large extent where all the old scientists were and who all the new scientists are, so the interviews are conducted more efficiently," an IAEA spokesman in Vienna told Reuters news agency. In another development on Monday, Iraqi fighter aircraft shot down an unmanned American surveillance plane over southern Iraq. General Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon briefing he did not see it as an escalation in the crisis. Iraqi forces "attempt to shoot down all our aircraft that fly over northern and southern Iraq," he said. © MMII | News Sources | Privacy ***************************************************************** 50 Timeline: North Korea nuclear crisis BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | [A lightwater reactor under belated construction in Kumho, North Korea , in 2002 ] The North accuses the US of reneging on its promises BBC News Online charts the build-up of tension since North Korea's reported disclosure of a secret nuclear weapon programme. 3-5 October: On a visit to the North Korean capital Pyongyang, US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly presses the North on suspicions that it is continuing to pursue a nuclear energy and missiles programme. Mr Kelly says he has evidence of a secret uranium-enriching programme carried out in defiance of the 1994 Agreed Framework. Under this deal, North Korea agreed to forsake nuclear ambitions in return for the construction of two safer lightwater nuclear power reactors and oil shipments from the US. 16 October: The US announces that North Korea admitted in their talks to a secret nuclear arms programme. [North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il] Mercurial: North Korean leader Kim Jong-il 17 October: Initially the North appears conciliatory. Leader Kim Jong-il says he will allow international weapons inspectors to check that nuclear facilities are out of use. Meanwhile, on 18 October, five Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea 25 years before are allowed a brief visit home - but end up staying, provoking more tension in the region. 20 October: North-South Korea talks in Pyongyang are undermined by the North's nuclear programme "admission". US Secretary of State Colin Powell says further US aid to North Korea is now in doubt. The North adopts a mercurial stance, at one moment defiantly defending its "right" to weapons development and at the next offering to halt nuclear programmes in return for aid and the signing of a "non-aggression" pact with the US. It argues that the US has not kept to its side of the Agreed Framework, as the construction of the lightwater reactors - due to be completed in 2003 - is now years behind schedule. 14 November: US President George W Bush declares November oil shipments to the North will be the last if the North does not agree to put a halt to its weapons ambitions. [US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld] Rumsfeld says he won't be distracted by Iraq 18 November: Confusion clouds a statement by North Korea in which it initially appears to acknowledge having nuclear weapons. A key Korean phrase understood to mean the North does have nuclear weapons could have been mistaken for the phrase "entitled to have", Seoul says. 27 November: The North accuses the US of deliberately misinterpreting its contested statement, twisting an assertion of its right to possess weapons into an admission of possession. 4 December: The North rejects a call to open its nuclear facilities to inspection. 11 December: North Korean-made Scud missiles are found aboard a ship bound for Yemen, provoking American outrage. The US detains the ship, but is later forced to allow the ship to go, conceding that neither country has broken any law. 12 December: The North threatens to reactivate nuclear facilities for energy generation, saying the Americans' decision to halt oil shipments leaves it with no choice. It blames the US for wrecking the 1994 pact. 13 December: North asks the International Atomic Energy Agency to remove seals and surveillance equipment - the IAEA's "eyes and ears" on the North's nuclear status - from its Yongbyon power plant. 22 December: The North begins monitoring devices from the Yongbyon plant. 23 December: The US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warns Pyongyang that the US will not be distracted from North Korea by the situation in Iraq. 24 December: North Korea begins repairs at the Yongbyon plant. North-South Korea talks over reopening road and rail border links, which have been struggling on despite the increased tension, finally stall. 25 December: It emerges that North Korea had begun shipping fuel rods to the Yongbyon plant which could be used to produce plutonium. 26 December: After UN confirmation that 1,000 fuel rods had been moved to the Yongbyon reactor, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, expressed deep concern saying the plant "can be directly used to manufacture nuclear weapons - and there again we have no way to verify the nature of the activity". © MMII | News Sources | Privacy ***************************************************************** 51 The role of the arms lobby in the Bush admin Report: Executive Summary - About Face - World Policy Institute - Research Project ATRC 66 Fifth Ave. 9th fl. New York, NY 10011 Tel: 212.229.5808 Fax: 212.229.5579 ARMS TRADE RESOURCE CENTER About Face: The Role of the Arms Lobby In the Bush Administration’s Radical Reversal of Two Decades of U.S. Nuclear Policy A World Policy Institute Special Report by William D. Hartung with Jonathan Reingold May 2002 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A Nuclear Policy-Making Process that Cries Out for Scrutiny How did it happen that within less than a year of taking office, the Bush administration reversed the nuclear arms policy of the preceding three Presidents? How did United States policy abruptly shift from seeking to reduce US reliance on nuclear weapons to making the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons a central component of US strategy? How did nuclear "war-fighting" doctrine, rejected by Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton, become the centerpiece of the new administration's official nuclear weapons policy? The answer lies with the undue influence exercised upon the Bush administration by former defense industry executives, many of whom are now in policy-making positions at the White House and the Pentagon, the defense contracting companies they once ran, and a small circle of conservative ideologues at think tanks funded by those companies. There appears to be no relationship between President George Bush's return to dead-and-buried policy ideas and any realistic assessment of U.S. security requirements. More than any administration in recent memory, the Bush administration has relied upon individuals with close professional and financial connections to the arms industry to fill top foreign policy and national security positions. A World Policy Institute review of top appointees to cabinet-level agencies and the White House staff has revealed that 32 major appointees of the administration are former executives, consultants, or major shareholders of top defense contractors, a figure one and one-half times as high as the number of major appointees drawn from the energy sector. Many of these executives are well-placed to help their firms benefit from the Bush nuclear policy. Just as Vice President Dick Cheney’s reliance on energy industry executives to draft a national energy policy has drawn widespread criticism, the role of the arms lobby in shaping the Bush administration’s nuclear plans demands far greater public scrutiny. The stakes are far higher. I. Back to the Future: Making the World Safe for Nuclear Weapons? Far from representing new thinking, the Pentagon’s nuclear posture review recommends a return to nuclear war-fighting doctrines that have been out of favor for nearly two decades, ever since they were disavowed by Ronald Reagan in the mid-1980s. While it is true that President George W. Bush has pledged to reduce deployed U.S. nuclear weapons, the potential benefits of this proposal are far outweighed by the risks posed by the administration’s plans to dramatically expand the scenarios in which U.S. nuclear weapons might be used in some future conflict. This new nuclear war-fighting posture is more than just rhetoric: it is accompanied by proposals to spend billions of dollars to generate the capability to develop, test, and produce a new generation of more "usable" nuclear weapons systems. II. The Bottom Line: Who Will Benefit? Whether or not it makes sense as a defense strategy, the emerging Bush nuclear doctrine will be good for major arms contractors that stand to gain billions of dollars in new business helping to implement the administration’s vision of a new strategic triad. The New Triad includes 1) A new generation of offensive strike systems (nuclear and non-nuclear); 2) Strategic defenses; and 3) A revitalized defense infrastructure. The World Policy Institute estimates that the Pentagon has already added $8.3 billion to the 2002 and 2003 budgets for projects related to the New Triad, with at least $33 billion in additional expenditures likely between 2004 and 2008. A handful of major contractors will be the main beneficiaries of this new spending ***Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin will profit from a renewed emphasis on long-range precision strike systems. ***General Dynamics will benefit from $4 billion in new funds slated for refurbishing 4 Trident submarines to carry long-range conventional strike systems. ***The "Big Four" missile defense contractors – Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and TRW – will carve up the majority of funds allocated for the administration’s multi-tiered ballistic missile defense system, which could cost as much as $238 billion to develop, deploy, and maintain over the next two decades. Northrop Grumman’s effort to acquire TRW via a hostile takeover is motivated in significant part by a desire to secure more ballistic missile defense contracts. ***Last but not least, companies like Bechtel, Lockheed Martin, and Honeywell that are involved in operating nuclear weapons research and testing sites will cash in on the billions slated to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons complex. III. Through the Revolving Door: Defense Industry Executives in the Bush Administration Some examples: Lockheed Martin has eight former associates or major investors in the admini- stration, including Everet Beckner, who will oversee the expansion of the nuclear weapons complex as the director of atomic energy defense programs at the National Nuclear Security Agency, and Peter B. Teets, who will be in charge of procuring military space assets in his post as Assistant Secretary of the Air Force. Former Northrop Grumman Vice President and current Secretary of the Air Force James Roche will be heavily involved in decisions about long-range strike systems, which are of considerable financial interest to his former company. Secretary of the Navy and former General Dynamics executive Gordon England will oversee decisions about the future of key systems like the Trident submarine, which is built at General Dynamics Electric Boat facility in Groton, Connecticut. Influential members of Congress like Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA), Trent Lott (R-MS), Sen. Richard Shelby(R-AL), Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), and Norman Dicks (D-WA) have been among the prime beneficiaries of the more than $12 million in political donations made by the top ten nuclear weapons and missile defense contractors during the 1999/2000 and 2001/2002 election cycles. IV. Closing the Circle: The Role of Corporate-Backed Think Tanks The key outlines of the new Bush nuclear doctrine were developed by corporate -financed think tanks like the National Institute for Public Policy (NIPP), directed by long-time nuclear war-fighting strategist Dr. Keith Payne, and the Center for Security Policy (CSP), founded by former Reagan Pentagon official and dogged missile defense booster Frank Gaffney. Both NIPP and CSP acknowledge receiving corporate donations, but so far only CSP has been willing to disclose the identities of key corporate donors. According to recent annual reports, the Center for Security Policy has received over $3 million in donations since its founding – representing more than 25% of its total budget -- from corporate contributors, including major weapons contractors like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. Both the Center and NIPP have arms industry executives on their boards. Both think tanks have close ties to the Bush administration. CSP’s latest annual report cites 22 former advisory board members or close associates who have been appointed to posts in the Bush administration, including Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, Pentagon Comptroller Dov Zakheim, Assistant Secretary of Defense J.D. Crouch, Secretary of the Air Force James Roche, and Defense Policy Board chairman Richard Perle. As for NIPP, three members of the study group that produced its January 2001 report "Rationale and Requirements for U.S. Nuclear Forces and Arms Control," which served as a model for the Bush administration’s nuclear posture review, are now in influential positions relating to nuclear policy: National Security Council members Stephen Hadley and Robert Joseph and special assistant to the Secretary of Defense Stephen Cambone. In October 2001, NIPP director Keith Payne – who is probably best known for his infamous 1980 essay on nuclear war, "Victory Is Possible" – was appointed to head the Pentagon’s Deterrence Concepts Advisory Panel, which will help the Pentagon to implement the Nuclear Posture Review. The clout of these corporate-backed conservative think tanks within the Bush administration was perhaps best demonstrated by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, in his remarks at the Center for Security Policy’s November 2001 "Keeper of the Flame" awards fundraising dinner, "Frank, if there was ever any doubt about the power of your ideas, one only has to look at the number of Center associates who people this administration . . . I was thinking of calling a staff meeting, but I think I’ll wait until tomorrow morning." Contact the Author at: Arms Trade Resource Center World Policy Institute at the New School 66 Fifth avenue, 9th floor New York, NY 10011 tel.212.229.5808. ext.106 email: hartung@newschool.edu ***************************************************************** 52 Bush's Star Wars What a strange year it has been. Just when George W. Bush had convinced Americans that the biggest threat to our way of life was al Qaeda, the President did an a flip-flop. No longer was Osama bin Laden Public Enemy #1. Rather, it was Iraq and Saddam Hussein -- against whom the U.S. might soon go to war. Now, amazingly, the White House has flipped again. The real threat, it seems, is neither Saddam nor Osama. Rather it's some unseen enemy prepared to launch deadly ICBMs against the U.S. That must be the real danger. Why else would Bush want to spend nearly $20 billion over just the next two years to develop and partially deploy an anti-missile system worthy of the tag Star Wars? Since the Reagan Administration, a Star Wars missile system has been a key element of conservative theology. It's especially important to those neo-conservatives who have never quite gotten over the collapse of the Soviet Union. BOONDOGGLE. The idea is to install a high-tech shield that will protect the U.S. from a massive nuclear missile attack. But the Soviet military threat that galvanized Reagan has been left in the dustbin of history. Still, the Bush Administration is about to turn this half-baked idea into one of the most costly boondoggles of this era. He wants to spend tens of billions -- and, and make no mistake, it will soon be hundreds of billions -- to build a defense system that doesn't work to protect America against an enemy that doesn't exist. Throw enough money at the problem, and scientists may someday be able to get a missile shield to function. But not any time soon. The best Pentagon officials can say about their planned deployment -- in Alaska and California -- is that it's "better than nothing." Sorry, but $20 billion is a pretty steep pricetag for "better than nothing." Over the past couple of years, the Pentagon says it has tested the existing system eight times. It claims that five tests were successful. Note that, in military-speak, successful doesn't mean the anti-missile missiles actually hit anything. It means they came close. PICK AN ENEMY. Since knocking a deadly nuclear-tipped missile off its track is not horseshoes, close shouldn't count. But let's give the Administration the benefit of the doubt, and concede its claimed 62.5% success rate. That means if this unknown enemy were actually to fire, say, 200 nuclear missiles at the U.S., a mere 75 would get through the shield. Would the White House care to speculate about what sort of shape the U.S. would be in after 75 deadly thermonuclear explosions ravaged targets here? To conjure up an old Cold War phrase, those still alive would be in a smoking, radiating ruin. The bigger question is: Who's going to threaten the U.S. with these nukes? Iraq? On a good day, its few remaining missiles can fly a couple of hundred miles. Besides, Bush has assured us that Saddam must go -- and he could be gone in a few months. North Korea? It is said to have on the drawing boards a weapon with enough range to hit one corner of Alaska -- on a good day, with a tail wind, and if it doesn't carry a payload. But the missile hasn't actually been built. And chances are the engineers working on it will either starve to death or defect long before the project ever gets finished. THE FRENCH THREAT. Who else? The Russians? Bush tells Americans they're friends now. Besides, the Russian military is crumbling like cheap cement in a Moscow thaw. China? Maybe -- someday. But, for now, the biggest Chinese threat to the well-being of the U.S. is its enthusiasm for stealing intellectual property. For a fraction of a year's spending on Star Wars, Bush could hire some tough trade lawyers to convince the Chinese that if they're going to play in international markets, they have to act like grown-ups. So who has these missiles that Bush is going to spend hundreds of billions to stop? Well, there's the French. They have the warheads. And they did threaten to support the South during the Civil War. And then there's the British. After all, they burned Washington in 1812. NOT A CONTENDER. Think about a list of the biggest threats to the U.S. today. International terrorism and the rise of radical Islamic fundamentalism are at the top. The deadly stand-off between India and Pakistan is next. Then, there's the Middle East tinderbox. You might want to throw in the slow-motion collapse of Latin America's economies. But a full-blown nuclear missile attack on the U.S.? It doesn't even make the top five. In a world where leadership is built on the ability to identify and manage risks, this one is way off the radar screen. And federal dollars are limited, as Bush always reminds people when it comes to domestic spending. Money spent for a Star Wars anti-missile system is money not available for higher priorities. So why, one has to wonder, is Bush so obsessed with it? You got me. Gleckman is a senior correspondent in BusinessWeek's Washington bureau. Follow his views every Tuesday in Washington Watch, only on BusinessWeek Online Edited by Douglas Harbrect BusinessWeek magazine ***************************************************************** 53 Director of PNNL bids adieu published 12/24/02 By Annette Cary Herald staff writer Lura Powell would not have taken the job as director of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory if she had realized how much and how difficult the travel demands would be, she said. "But I would have missed out on a lot," she said as she prepared recently to pack up her office. "I feel very good about the things that have happened since I have been here." Powell retires from the Department of Energy's national lab in Richland at the end of the month. But she won't be leaving the Tri-Cities. One of the things she would have missed was moving from the well-established government corridor on the East Coast to experience life in a relatively young and growing area like the Tri-Cities. "I got so engaged in the community as director," she said. "I was engaged in the planning effort. I've gotten very passionate about building a diversified economy." A particular interest is developing a four-year university with graduate studies in the Tri-Cities. She and her husband, Art King, are forming a corporation and plan to join the Tri-City Industrial Development Council. King will lead Three Rivers Marketing, a manufacturer's representative for commercial plumbing products, and Powell will lead a consulting firm. She's also looking forward to having more time for other community work, such as serving on the Kadlec Medical Center board. She has no consulting work lined up -- and won't until she gets some rest at the first of the year. But she has accepted a position on the board of Avista, a Spokane-based energy corporation. Since she's spent her career in government-related work, it's the first chance she's had to serve on the board of a publicly traded corporation. "Far from retiring, I will be active. But it will be a different type of activity," she said. And it will involve far less travel. She had been used to traveling as director of the Advanced Technology Program at the Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology. There, she was responsible for selection and management of a technology investment portfolio exceeding $2 billion. Living in Maryland, she usually could travel to a meeting and return in a single day. But in Eastern Washington, she often found herself spending two or three days of travel time to attend one- or two-hour meetings in places like Washington, D.C., or Columbus, Ohio, where Battelle is based. Battelle operates the lab for DOE. Even regional travel came as a surprise. A recent trip to Oregon State University required four planes and hours of car travel. "I was away far too much," she said. "It was not the quality of life I wanted for me and my family." She has two daughters, one in college and one in high school. She's been asked if she would have made the same decision if she was a man, and she's said yes. Everyone has to set priorities in life, she said. Without the heavy travel schedule she could not have accomplished what she did since taking over leadership of the lab in April 2000. This month DOE headquarters gave her its Distinguished Associate Award for outstanding performance and for "laying the groundwork for innovative strategies for 21st century contracts" between DOE and its major laboratories. She's also raised the profile of the lab regionally and built collaborations with other leading research programs by forging new partnerships with Northwest universities. The lab has formed a broad research alliance with public and private universities in Oregon, is working on nanotechnology projects with the University of Washington and is part of new regional partnerships for energy collaborations and to develop bioproducts from farm waste. She'll leave the lab with two new pieces of world-class equipment -- a $24.5 million supercomputer and the world's first 900-megahertz wide-bore nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer, which allows scientists to see cells and molecules. The future should bring a new biosciences laboratory in collaboration with Washington State University Tri-Cities. She has made one suggestion to help whomever is named as her replacement. Battelle plans to provide more training and mentoring to help its new director learn quickly about the job and the community. "You will always have challenges as a lab director," Powell said. "But I think the lab is extremely well positioned. It's the best staff of people anyone would want." Copyright 2002 Tri-City Herald. ***************************************************************** 54 Sick lab workers may get help Tri-Valley Herald Online Article Last Updated: Tuesday, December 24, 2002 - Labor Department official supports Tauscher's proposal to aid nuclear employees By Lisa FriedmanWASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- A top Labor Department official said this week he will consider putting a special office in the Bay Area to help sick nuclear workers, but was not optimistic about its prospects. "So far, we haven't had that much claim activity from the Northern California area," said Shelby Hallmark, director of the office of workers' compensation programs at the Department of Labor. "While we're interested in helping, we have to conserve our resources," Hallmark cautioned. But, he acknowledged that the issue "is still in the decision-making process." Hallmark's comments came in response to a request by Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo, that the agency establish a permanent resource center in Livermore to assist workers from the region and throughout California in filing government claims and answering questions. Under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act, former Department of Energy employees who became ill from on-the-job exposure to toxic substances are eligible for medical care and up to $150,000 compensation. In order to help process those claims, the government has established resource centers throughout the country in places like Los Alamos, N.M., and Rocky Flats, Colo. None exists in California, which is home to 20 current and former Energy Department facilities. Those seeking assistance from California can call a toll-free hot line. The Department of Labor spends about $5 million annually to operate its resource centers, Hallmark said. A spokeswoman for Tauscher said no new money would be needed to open an office in Livermore because funds could presumably be reallocated from other centers where claims have fallen off and staffs are being cut. A mobile unit based in Seattle occasionally travels to the Bay Area. Federal officials spent four days in Livermore and Oakland in early December. "We didn't see a huge number of people," Hallmark said. A Labor Department spokeswoman said the traveling aides helped about 71 people file 41 claims. In a letter to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, Tauscher argued that the number of claims filed during those brief visits is not a reliable indicator of the region's need. "Given that the 20 DOE sites in California, including the two in my district, have never had the benefit of a permanent resource center, the number ofpotential claimants is impossible to ascertain," Tauscher wrote. Chao and Abraham will make the final decision on whether to establish a new resource center, though agency officials could not offer a timeline. Contact Lisa Friedman at lisa- friedman@angnewspapers.net . ©1999-2002 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers ***************************************************************** 55 Los Alamos Cited for Storage Violations Las Vegas SUN: December 23, 2002 ASSOCIATED PRESS LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) - Los Alamos National Laboratory violated nuclear safety rules governing waste storage, a federal nuclear agency told the lab's operator on Monday. The violations have long since been cleaned up, said Rick Malaspina, a spokesman for the University of California, which operates the lab. The National Nuclear Security Administration said neither workers nor the public was harmed by the improper storage. Plutonium-contaminated waste, such as glove boxes or lab coats, was stored beginning in 1996 in a location that had not been approved by the government, said Tim George, a division manager at Los Alamos. Lab officials discovered the problem in June 2001, and the waste was transferred to an approved storage facility without federal prompting, George said. The notification comes after a rash of administrative control problems at the lab, including the disappearance of an estimated $2.7 million worth of computers and high-tech hardware. Officials said the notice was unrelated to those issues. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 56 USEC signs Oak Ridge lease to begin centrifuge testing The Paducah Sun Paducah, Kentucky Tuesday, December 24, 2002 DOE spent more than two decades and $3 billion on centrifuge technology there before abandoning it. By Joe Walker jwalker@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650 USEC Inc. said Monday a lease has been signed with the Department of Energy to use a building in Oak Ridge, Tenn., to advance deployment of gas centrifuge technology to enrich uranium. The signing of the lease and starting the building's $150 million refurbishment complete the first in a series of milestones outlined in an agreement with the Energy Department in June. USEC said the milestones delineate its schedule to test the first new centrifuge machines in the United States by 2005 and build a commercial plant later in the decade. Earlier this month, USEC announced it will build the 50-job test plant in Piketon, Ohio, which already has a mothballed gas centrifuge building. Paducah, which had hoped to get the test plant, still is in the running for the 500-job commercial plant that eventually will replace the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. USEC officials give Piketon the advantage because of having the centrifuge building and lacking Paducah's seismic problems. DOE spent more than two decades and $3 billion on centrifuge technology before abandoning it at Piketon and Oak Ridge. USEC says its American Centrifuge uses the same technology while cutting costs and improving efficiency using state-of-the-art materials, control systems and manufacturing processes. The leased building, called K-1600, is in the East Tennessee Technology Park. It is unique because it houses valuable centrifuge-related equipment and infrastructure, USEC says. Refurbishment includes rebuilding support systems for the centrifuge machines' test stands, installing component test systems, and improving safety and security systems. Piketon's plant will test as many as 240 machines to provide updated cost, schedule and performance data to build the $1.5 billion commercial plant. USEC expects to finish key engineering work for the plant in January and apply for a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license by April. ***************************************************************** 57 Fire at Hanford Reservation leads to lawsuit [seattlepi.com] [Seattle Post-Intelligencer] Wednesday, December 25, 2002 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS KENNEWICK -- The federal government is facing a $108 million lawsuit filed by more than 100 parties over damage from a fire on the Hanford nuclear reservation. The lawsuit, filed Monday, also says the fire is responsible for two deaths -- the first time such allegations have surfaced publicly. The wildfire started June 27, 2000, when a car collided with a tractor-trailor rig on Washington 24 and blackened 300 square miles, destroying 11 homes in Benton City and much of the shrub-steppe habitat on the new Hanford Reach National Monument. It was the largest burn on the Energy Department reservation since a fire that also spread onto private land in 1984. Residents are holding the government responsible for what they say is shoddy land management and misguided fire suppression efforts. One Benton City survivor whose home was spared said the lawsuit isn't about money. "This is about changing policy," Jerry Rose said. "The only way they recognize something is wrong is when a big lawsuit hits them in the face." A team of lawyers from Seattle, Spokane and Kennewick has been working on the lawsuit for two years. They represent Benton City residents, insurance companies that made payments for fire damage, Benton County and others. Department of Energy officials said in 2000 that firebreaks might not have stopped the fire. "There were no findings that concern lack of performance of the organization," said Keith Benguiat, division director of engineering, safety and standards at DOE's Richland office in November 2000. "There were no incidents of misdirecting people. As fast as you could get people, we deployed them. We did what we could with the resources that were available." [Seattle Post-Intelligencer] 101 Elliott Ave. W. Seattle, WA 98119 (206) 448-8000 Home Delivery: (206) 464-2121 or (800) 542-0820 Send comments to newmedia@seattlepi.com ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************