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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 US will press Pak harder on N-export: Palllone
2 British Energy's future hangs in the balance
3 Onward -- and Westward?
4 BE reignites crisis cash talks with BNFL
5 Japan, N. Korea Still Apart on Talks
6 Nuke Inspector Urges Iraq to Comply
7 Taiwan Editorial: Who wants to be a whipping boy?
8 Gov't sees delay in talks with Pyongyang
9 Unofficial Japanese-NK Talks Hit Difficulties
10 UK: Hain strikes blow for green energy
11 Taiwan: Reform debacle costs Chen big
12 Put weapons – and trust – in hands of nuclear guardians
13 US: The homeland security bill needs fixing, starting with money for
14 Ukraine Supports ROK¡¯s Stance on NK Nuke Issue
NUCLEAR REACTORS
15 Wales: Shut Nuclear stations - Hain
16 US: NRC Issues Final Rule on Decommissioning Trust Provisions and
17 US: NRC denies UCS safety petition
18 US: Fixing Indian Point 2
19 Pakistan places trust in nuclear power
20 Shut German Unterweser nuke has faulty cooler
NUCLEAR SAFETY
21 Warthogs' Aid in Afghan Ground War
22 Gulf War report a whitewash - veterans
23 US: Rarer form of childhood cancer pops up in Fallon leukemia cluste
24 US: Former nuclear workers here wait for promised restitution
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
25 US: Yucca Mountain Project workers say site problems kept quiet
26 Canada may assign $100 mln for nuclear waste disposal in Russia*
27 US: Yucca Mountain Project workers say site problems kept quiet
28 Almelo trip gives Thompson new outlook on uranium plant
29 US: Board OKs Yucca Mountain compensation plan -
30 US: Yucca Mountain Project workers say site problems kept quiet
31 US: Former Envirocare president states in lawsuit he was denied $100
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
32 US: FCNL INFOLINE (11/25/02): Partial Victories on Nuclear Weapons
33 IAEA spokeswoman: Inspectors to act as undercover police in Iraq
34 US: Lugar Legislation Package Could Spearhead Decommissioning of
35 Arms Inspections Are Set to Begin at Sites in Iraq
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
36 FR: DOE Oak Ridge SSAB meeting
37 South Carolina State gets plutonium deal
38 Theft at Los Alamos under scrutiny
39 Final DOE word: K-25 water is 'safe'
OTHER NUCLEAR
40 Russia: FSB Seizes Ecologists' Computers
41 FSB Raids Siberian Eco Group, Confiscating Maps and Computers
42 IVINS: In the Age of Corporatism, Liberals Are the New
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 US will press Pak harder on N-export: Palllone
Sify News
*Patna, Nov 25*
The United States is expected to press harder on allegations
Pakistan has exported nuclear equipment after the crisis with
Iraq has passed, a pro-India US Congressman said Monday.
Frank Pallone, on a visit to Bihar, said he was pushing for
Congress to invoke the 1976 Symington Amendment, which bans most
US economic and military assistance to any country delivering or
receiving nuclear material or technology.
"I am initiating a move in the US House of Representatives to
invoke the Symington Amendment to stop military assistance to
Pakistan for its clandestine nuclear program," Pallone told /AFP/
in an interview.
"The US administration is seriously worried about the
possibilities of Pakistani nuclear armory falling in wrong hands
and I assume the action will come once the Iraqi imbroglio is
settled."
/The New York Times/ reported last month that Pakistan had
provided North Korea with equipment that may have included gas
centrifuges to make weapons-grade uranium.
In return, the newspaper said, Pakistan got North Korean missiles
to counter India's nuclear arsenal.
Pakistan has dismissed the reports as "baseless," and the US
State Department has refused to comment.
The United States imposed sanctions on India and Pakistan after
they carried out back-to-back nuclear tests in 1998.
Most restrictions were lifted after the arch-rivals joined the
US-led "coalition against terrorism" after the September 11
attacks last year.
Pallone, who helped found a pro-India caucus in the House, said
the United States viewed New Delhi as a power and was eager to
expand trade.
"The US has understood the importance of India as a strategic
partner and its tacit acquiescence to India as a nuclear power
emanates from that," Pallone said.
"There are weaknesses in US policy toward Pakistan, jeopardizing
its relations with India, but they should be put behind in
developing bilateral cooperation."
Pallone, a Democrat, represents a New Jersey district near New
York City that has a large Indian-American community.
He was touring Bihar at the invitation of constituents who
originated from the province. He is also due to visit New Delhi.
©AFP 2000. All rights reserved. This material should not be
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2 British Energy's future hangs in the balance
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian |
Insolvency remains a serious option unless ministers can agree a
debt-for-equity swap
David Gow Monday November 25, 2002 The Guardian
[http://www.guardian.co.uk]
The future of British Energy, the stricken nuclear operator, is
on a knife-edge, with directors under pressure to accept painful
cuts in the business and board as the price for avoiding
administration, senior Whitehall sources indicated yesterday.
The government's £650m emergency loan to BE runs out on Friday
but it is understood that ministers have still to agree on a
series of measures, including a debt for equity swap, that would
keep BE within the private sector and that forcing it into
effective insolvency remains a serious option.
"Restructuring would still be by far the preferred option for
ministers but the BE board has to swallow the costs that go with
that," the sources said.
"There are no easy options in any of this." Ministers are due to
make a statement on BE's future by Thursday. BE, which is selling
off its north American operations and hoping to raise more than
£500m, could be forced to conclude an effective merger with
state-owned British Nuclear Fuels under the restructuring.
It pays BNFL £300m a year for reprocessing and fuel, its largest
single cost item. It is now under fresh pressure to accept a BNFL
offer, first made in the summer, to reduce the bill to £180m -
after rejecting it in August, prior to BE's warning about pending
insolvency.
"Our offer remains on the table," BNFL officials said. "We would
cut reprocessing costs based on electricity prices."
Senior officials, meanwhile, ridiculed reports that Geoffrey
Robinson, former paymaster-general sacked for his part in the
Mandelson home loan affair, had been drafted in to help resolve
the BE crisis.
It is understood that Mr Robinson, at the Treasury when the new
power trading arrangements (Neta) were introduced, simply wrote a
paper for ministers.
This emerged as the government was pressed by the opposition to
advance the date for full liberalisation of the EU's gas and
electricity markets to 2004 and 2005 respectively when European
ministers meet in Brussels today.
Crispin Blunt, shadow energy minister, who is lobbying the talks,
said future British gas supplies in particular depended on fully
opening the French and German markets. "Every compromise made to
secure agreement and every concession made will damage Britain's
interests.
Sir Roy Gardner, chief executive of Centrica, urged Brian Wilson,
energy minister, to set 2007 as the latest possible date for full
opening of the gas market.
Simon Lewis, the energy group's European managing director,
demanded the appointment of strong independent regulators in each
EU country. There are none in France and Germany.
The government appears to be resigned to the French and Germans
setting a later date for full competition of 2009 or even later.
Interactive guide Nuclear reprocessing
Graphics The Mox ships' journey around the world (pdf)
[http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2002/09
/17/nuclear_ship.pdf] Nuclear map of Britain US nuclear map
Useful links British Energy [http://www.british-energy.com/]
Department of Trade and Industry [http://www.dti.gov.uk/] British
Nuclear Fuels Ltd [http://www.bnfl.co.uk/website.nsf/default.htm]
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament [http://www.cnduk.org/]
Greenpeace [http://www.greenpeace.org/homepage/] HSE nuclear
glossary [http://www.hse.gov.uk/nsd/ilrwglos.htm] UK atomic
energy authority [http://www.ukaea.org.uk/] National Radiological
Protection Board [http://www.nrpb.org.uk/] Friends of the Earth
[http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/press_for_change/dump_nuc
lear/index.html] World Nuclear Association
[http://www.uilondon.org/] World Nuclear Transport Institute
[http://www.wnti.co.uk]
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
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3 Onward -- and Westward?
Opinion / Comment
[http://book.moscowtimes.ru/index.htm]
Monday, Nov. 25, 2002. Page 10
By Lilia Shevtsova
As the autumn political season draws to a close, it is a good
time to take stock of the pro-Western shift effected so
unexpectedly and so brilliantly by President Vladimir Putin in
September 2001. Without hesitation and -- no less importantly --
without the demand for "deliverables" common in Russian
diplomacy, Putin performed a foreign policy revolution: For the
first time ever, he made Russia a member of a Western coalition,
without aspiring to play the dominant role, and allowed a Western
power to have a military presence in Russia's geopolitical sphere
of influence. His subsequent actions demonstrate that he has
abandoned the doctrine of multi-polarity, which made it possible
for Russia to preserve the outward appearance of being a great
power.
The Kremlin under Putin has shown that its approach to diplomacy
is based on pragmatism. The events of the past few weeks --
Moscow's agreement, albeit grudgingly, with the European Union on
the Kaliningrad visa issue; Russian support for UN Security
Council Resolution 1441; and the Kremlin's calm reaction to the
inclusion of the Baltic states in NATO -- prove that Russia
remains within the bounds of the existential choice made by Putin
in favor of the West.
However, other recent events also demonstrate that Moscow has
failed to seize the chance to consolidate its pro-Western
orientation. Putin's turn to the West is seriously undermined by
the lack of national consensus on key issues of foreign policy
strategy, by openly anti-Western sentiments within the ruling
class and particularly among the foreign policy and defense
community, and most importantly by the direction of domestic
policy in Russia.
Essentially, Putin's foreign policy doctrine has two main
components: a striving to use Western sources to modernize Russia
and the existence of international terrorism as the main foreign
policy challenge. The first provided the basis for far-reaching
efforts by Moscow to further integrate itself into the global
economy. Paradoxically, international terrorism both provided a
major stimulus for Putin's pro-Western shift and also confirmed
the Kremlin's still Soviet mentality, in which rooting out "the
enemy" was always the main factor driving policy.
The fact is that Russia's participation in the coalition against
terrorism is prolonging the life of the traditional Russian
system, based on top-down modernization, authoritarianism and a
penchant for using force to resolve problems. Despite its
westward shift, Russia remains a country with a domestic system
that is alien to the West, and in which the state and its
prestige is still more important than the freedom of the
individual.
The West has closed its eyes to the dichotomy that exists, in
which Moscow pursues pro-Western policies externally, while
internally pursuing traditional policies. Presumably the West
doesn't want to undermine Putin's position, or seeks to preserve
the anti-terrorist coalition, or doesn't believe that broad
democratization is possible in Russia. In Russia itself, the
combination is considered by many to be a perfectly good formula
for development.
However, the October hostage crisis in Moscow and the way in
which the authorities handled the crisis came as a shock to
Western public opinion and made Chechnya the criterion by which
the West today measures the extent of liberal democratic
transformation in Russia. For the first time, Russia's
pro-Western course is dependent on the Kremlin's domestic
political course.
A year ago during his visit to Berlin, Putin was greeted in the
German Bundestag with a thunderous ovation. The ovation showed
trust in a leader who, it seemed, had definitively turned Russia
to the West. The muted reception that Putin received in European
capitals earlier this month indicates that Europe has doubts
about Moscow's pro-Western orientation while it continues to play
by the old rules of the game at home.
But not that long ago, it seemed that the Kremlin could ignore
Europe's hypersensitivity. Moscow gives priority to its relations
with the United States, on the basis of which it builds its
foreign policy and can feel like a superpower.
It appeared that the cooling of relations between Washington and
Europe, and the conflicts between Western allies on key issues of
the new world order -- particularly regarding terrorism -- might
make it possible for Moscow to become the United States' main
partner in the anti-terrorist coalition. Journalists have already
started writing about the "Washington-Moscow axis." U.S.
President George W. Bush, as if to confirm the special
relationship with Moscow, clearly has not wanted to upset his
friend Vladimir and has tried to tread as softly as possible on
sensitive issues for Putin.
So, we have a paradoxical situation: Relations with the EU, in
which Moscow has a multitude of common economic interests, have
progressed less than relations with the United States, with which
Russia does not have a serious economic partnership. The main
upshot of Putin's pro-Western shift has been Russia's cooperation
with the West on security issues, but not on economic issues
necessary for Russia's modernization.
Bush's trip to Russia last Friday and the agenda of his meeting
with Putin in Tsarskoye Selo confirmed that Washington wishes to
keep Russia as a very important partner in the anti-terrorism
coalition. However, this summit couldn't compensate for the
failures of Putin's European tour. In conversations with Bush,
the Chechen question could not be avoided and it seems that Putin
failed to persuade Bush that Chechnya is nothing other than a
link in the chain of international terrorism. Washington made it
clear that Chechnya is Russia's domestic problem but that it
hoped a peaceful solution could be found.
Moscow drove itself into a corner in its attempts to prove the
international dimension of the Chechen problem. If the events in
Chechnya have international roots, then the West is right to
propose an "international formula" for resolving the conflict. In
this context, NATO General Secretary George Robertson's statement
that "Russia can count on NATO support in the fight against
terrorism" can be interpreted as NATO's willingness to help fight
terrorism in Chechnya. It is unlikely, though, that the Kremlin
is ready for such a turn of events.
Nonetheless, growing concern on the part of European states that
the Chechen war could provoke a new round of terrorism, in
particular targeting Russian nuclear facilities -- which could
pose a threat not only to Russia but also to European security --
means that Chechnya will remain firmly on the international
community's radar screen. And that means that a problem has
arisen in relations between Moscow and the West that will
complicate Russia's integration with the West.
The next round of national elections is fast approaching. The
president and the ruling class face a problem: Should they again
campaign with slogans about law, order and stability as they did
in 1999-2000, or with the idea of radical transformation of the
political system and moving away from the traditional inclination
to resolve problems by force? How the Kremlin resolves this
question will determine the content and extent of Russia's
pro-Western orientation. However, both in Russia and the West
there is a growing understanding that Russia's integration with
the West cannot be achieved only on the basis of certain shared
security interests. Integration requires a shared system of
values that, among other things, will enable a common
understanding of the sources of terrorism.
Lilia Shevtsova, a senior associate of the Moscow center of the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, contributed this
comment to The Moscow Times.
© Copyright 2002, The Moscow Times. All Rights Reserved.
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4 BE reignites crisis cash talks with BNFL
Scotsman.com
Mon 25 Nov 2002
/JAMES DOW/
BRITISH Energy will resume talks today with British Nuclear Fuels
in an attempt to hammer out an agreement that could save the
stricken East Kilbride-based nuclear generator up to £120 million
a year.
Sources close to both companies said yesterday there is no
indication when the talks might be concluded. However, it is
understood that the final agreement is likely to see BNFL slash
its annual charges for nuclear fuel reprocessing work from about
£300 million to £180 million.
The saving would go some way towards helping British Energy pay
back the £650 million bailout it received from the government in
September. British Energy rejected a similar offer from BNFL in
the same month, but the deal is now back on the table.
A spokesman for British Energy declined to comment on the points
preventing an agreement being reached last week, when talks
restarted before breaking up for the weekend.
Trade and industry secretary Patricia Hewitt is expected to
address the House of Commons on Thursday about the group?s
future. Before that time, British Energy hopes to wrap up a
potential sale of its subsidiary in Canada, which could raise up
to £500 million.
The group could receive a further boost if it manages to dispose
of its Uranix operation to BNFL. The nuclear fuels group is
thought to be prepared to pay as much as £80 million to take over
the subsidiary.
Separately, energy minister Brian Wilson has enlisted the efforts
of former paymaster general Geoffrey Robinson to work on a
recovery plan for British Energy.
Robinson resigned from government in 1998 over his involvement
with Peter Mandelson in an imbroglio concerning loans for a home.
He has already held talks with officials in the industry to help
identify the issues confronting British Energy. At present, a
debt-for-equity swap looks the most likely course of action for
British Energy to avert going bust.
A deal with BNFL could pave the way for charges to be
re-negotiated with other key contractors to British Energy. That
in turn would help the nuclear generator to find funds to pay its
agreements to buy energy at prices above current market costs.
British Energy is thought to be in the red by about £300 million
on these contracts.
©2002 scotsman.com | contact
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5 Japan, N. Korea Still Apart on Talks
Las Vegas SUN:
November 24, 2002
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOKYO- Japanese and North Korean officials met for unofficial
talks over the weekend but failed to agree on how to proceed with
negotiations to normalize relations, the government said Monday.
Tokyo reiterated its demand that relatives of five Japanese
kidnapped by North Korea be sent to Japan, and reiterated its
concerns over North Korea's nuclear weapons development program.
"As before, there is a difference of opinion between the two
sides. We will continue to negotiate strongly," Chief Cabinet
Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said.
Hitoshi Tanaka, head of the ministry's Asia bureau, led the group
of Japanese officials attending the talks held Saturday and
Sunday. Fukuda added that no decision had been made on whether
the two sides would meet for further unofficial talks this
weekend.
Tokyo reportedly has proposed holding the next round of formal
normalization talks in early December, but the weekend meeting
failed to produce an agreement on when talks might resume.
The first round of official talks ran aground last month over the
fate of the five Japanese who recently returned home for the
first time since being kidnapped by North Korean spies decades
ago.
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
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6 Nuke Inspector Urges Iraq to Comply
Las Vegas SUN:
November 25, 2002 By SALAH NASRAWI ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAIRO, Egypt- Iraq can avoid war and spare the entire region
"serious consequences" by cooperating with U.N. weapons
inspectors, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency
said Monday.
Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic
Energy Agency, spoke to reporters after briefing President Hosni
Mubarak on his recent trip to Iraq to prepare for the start of
work this week by nuclear weapons experts from his agency and
chemical and biological weapons specialists from chief U.N.
inspector Hans Blix's team.
"I believe that the war is not imminent or inevitable and it can
be avoided through cooperation with inspectors. Inspections are
Iraq's only opportunity to avoid war," ElBaradei, the top U.N.
nuclear watchdog, said.
If Iraq does not ensure the inspections come to a successful end,
"Iraq knows that there will be serious consequences not only on
Iraq but the entire region," he said.
A U.N. Security Council resolution adopted unanimously Nov. 7
demands that Iraq give up any chemical, biological or nuclear
weapons, or face "serious consequences." The United States
threatens an invasion to enforce Iraqi disarmament, with or
without U.N. sanction. Other governments say a decision to wage
war on Iraq can be made only by the Security Council.
Arab leaders have anxiously watched the U.S.-Iraq standoff over
allegations Iraq is stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.
Mubarak and other Arab leaders, saying a U.S.-Iraq war would
plunge their already volatile neighborhood into chaos, have urged
the United States to act with caution and await the outcome of
U.N. inspections. Arabs also have urged Iraq to cooperate with
the United Nations.
"The role of Egypt and the Arab world is helping and encouraging
Iraq to fully cooperate with" the inspectors, ElBaradei said. "If
Iraq cooperates fully there will be no way for war, but if it
doesn't the possibility for war still exists," he said. "We
should not deceive ourselves."
Visiting Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, who also
met Mubarak Monday about Iraq and other regional issues, told
reporters that Arabs' advice that Iraq unconditionally comply
with U.N. resolutions resulted in the inspectors being dispatched
to Iraq.
"We hope that this will lead to the implementation of all U.N.
Security Council's resolutions and end the problem once and for
all," the Saudi envoy said.
ElBaradei was to meet later Monday with Egyptian Foreign Minister
Ahmed Maher and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa.
An advance team of U.N. technicians in the Iraqi capital has
since last week been preparing for Monday's arrival of the first
working contingent of 18 specialists - six from ElBaradei's
nuclear agency and 12 from the Blix team. The inspectors' first
field mission is expected Wednesday.
ElBaradei, who is Egyptian, noted Monday that the initial team of
nuclear agency inspectors would include an Egyptian woman. But he
said calls from Iraq and from the Arab League to ensure Arabs
were among the inspectors had been "blown out of proportion."
"The main objective is not the nationalities of the inspectors
but their efficiency and their neutrality," he said.
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
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7 Taiwan Editorial: Who wants to be a whipping boy?
Mon, Nov 25, 2002 [http://www.taipeitimes.com/News]
Auric Goldfinger, James Bond's most memorable adversary, said of
unfortunate events with a tendency to recur: "The first time is
happenstance, the second time coincidence, the third time is
enemy action." So who is the enemy responsible for this week's
Cabinet near-meltdown, the third in two years? Unfortunately, if
the blame is to be pinned on anybody, it is not on the
much-questioned motives of those who organized Saturday's protest
demonstration by farmers and fishermen. Rather it has to be laid
at the door of the president himself. Chen Shui-bian (³¯¤ô«ó) is
his own worst enemy.
It was shocking to hear of Chen protesting last week that he had
been misled by the Cabinet as to the real nature of farmers' and
fishermen's grievances and the strength of opposition to the
Ministry of Finance's restructuring plan. How could the president
have been misled? Maybe there is truth in KMT Chairman Lien
Chan's (³s¾Ô) claims that Chen spends too much time campaigning
for Lee Ying-yuan and not enough on serious national issues.
It would be nice to know exactly where Chen thinks he has been
misled. Was it that he was not properly informed about the
finance ministry's plan? Then surely it was his job to get
informed. He's the president; he just has to ask for a briefing.
Was it that he was not informed about the farmers' and
fishermen's feelings? The Council of Agriculture should have told
him. If it couldn't, he should have demanded better intelligence.
And whatever information it did provide, he should have used his
own sources -- talks with legislators of party rank and file from
rural communities for example -- to cross-check. It was, in fact,
just such a meeting which led to his asking the Cabinet a week
ago to suspend the financial reform plan. But why didn't Chen
initiate something of this sort before the reforms were
implemented in the fist place. It is simply unacceptable to be
told that a crisis, which has the potential to wreck the Cabinet
and has been two months in the making, can catch the president
unawares.
The premier is apparently to stay in place. Nevertheless
Minister of Finance Lee Yung-san (§õ±e¤T) and Council of
Agriculture Chairman Fan Chen-tsung (S®¶©v) appear set on
leaving the Cabinet. Fan has said that he has been considering
doing so for some time, which is tantamount to saying that he
wasn't up to the job and was a bad choice in the first place.
Lee is by far the best finance minister the DPP government has
had, although with such rapid turnover -- three in two and a half
years -- none so far could be said to have had time to really
master the job. It is hard to imagine that Lee would want to stay
in the job after being so comprehensively hung out to dry by the
president.
We do not yet know who might take the spare Cabinet places. But a
wider question has to be: why would anybody want to? First on the
Fourth Nuclear Power Plant issue and now on the reform of
farmers' and fishermen's credit associations, the president has
displayed political incompetence, followed by an ugly tendency to
call on ministers to allow ignominy to be heaped upon their heads
to save him from the consequences of his own lack of judgement.
It is hard to imagine that a job description which revolves
around a readiness to be the president's whipping boy is going to
attract the sort of expertise the Cabinet really needs.
This story has been viewed 609 times.
Copyright © 1999-2002 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved.
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8 Gov't sees delay in talks with Pyongyang
Mainichi Interactive - Top News
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has designated 2003
as the Year of Japan-ASEAN Relations.
Tokyo has abandoned hope of holding the latest round of
normalization talks with North Korea before the end of this
month, top government officials said Monday.
The government has deemed it difficult to resume normalization
talks because the two countries have failed to narrow differences
over Pyongyang's abduction of Japanese nationals. "Under the
current situation, I feel it's become difficult because of a time
shortage," Chief Cabinet Secretary and top government spokesman
Yasuo Fukuda said at a news conference. "There are still
differences between both sides...over how to go ahead with the
talks. Unfortunately, we are also divided over the abduction
issue."
"Japan and North Korea are divided over (Pyongyang's) abduction
and nuclear weapons program," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi
told reporters. "We'll patiently negotiate with North Korea in
order to resume the talks within this year."
Tokyo intends to consult with North Korean officials to set the
next round of talks aimed at normalizing diplomatic relations in
early December.
The government dispatched Hitoshi Tanaka, director general of the
Foreign Ministry's Asia-Pacific Affairs Bureau to Beijing over
the weekend to hold unofficial talks with North Korean officials.
However, the two sides failed to reach a compromise.
Pyongyang had proposed at the previous round of the normalization
talks in Kuala Lumpur last month that the two countries hold the
next round at the end of November.
In the meeting, however, North Korean representatives reacted
sharply to Japan's demand that Pyongyang ensure the children of
five Japanese abduction survivors currently staying in Japan be
reunited with their parents here.
North Korean officials charged that Japan broke its promise that
the five surviving abduction victims would return to North Korea
after spending one or two weeks in Japan.
North Korea has also indefinitely postponed security talks that
the two countries had once agreed to hold by the end of November.
Moreover, Pyongyang has hinted at the possibility that it may end
its moratorium on test-firing missiles. (Mainichi Shimbun, Nov.
25, 2002)
© 2002 The Mainichi Newspapers Co. Under the
*****************************************************************
9 Unofficial Japanese-NK Talks Hit Difficulties
Digital Chosunilbo (English Edition) :
Daily News in English
Updated Nov.25,2002 16:35 KST
Japan sent a ranking diplomat to China on Saturday for unofficial
talks with North Korean officials aimed at reviving negotiations
on establishing diplomatic ties, according to the Kyodo News
agency quoting government sources. However, Hitoshi Tanaka the
director-general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanic
Affairs Bureau, however, returned home Sunday after making little
progress.
Initial talks on normalizing ties ended last month with the two
sides remaining far apart on the North's nuclear arms program and
Japan's demand that the children of five Japanese kidnapped by
North Korea, who are now visiting Japan be allowed to join them.
(Arirang TV)
*****************************************************************
10 UK: Hain strikes blow for green energy
BBC NEWS | UK | Wales |
Monday, 25 November, 2002, 10:38
Wind farm graphic]
Peter Hain wants more renewable energy sources used
Welsh Secretary Peter Hain has called for the nuclear industry to
be phased out in favour of a huge expansion of renewable energy
source.
His call comes ahead of a government White Paper which will lay
out the future of energy generation in Britain in the immediate
future.
Mr Hain has said he cannot see any demand from companies wanting
to build new nuclear stations.
It is very important that in order to get a safe and secure and
green energy future, we stop this plague of nimbyism
Peter Hain
But he has warned planning laws may need to be changed to counter
local opposition to wind farms.
The former UK energy minister has criticised so-called "nimbyism"
(not-in-my-back-yard syndrome) which he has pinpointed as a
barrier to expanding green energy sources.
He said: "It is very important that in order to get a safe and
secure and green energy future for Wales and the rest of Britain,
we stop this affliction, this plague of nimbyism."
He claimed that unless decisions are taken on energy sources now,
the country could be facing an energy shortfall by the year 2020.
[Peter Hain, Secretary of State for Wales] Mr Hain supports
ending nuclear power in Britain
Mr Hain's comments raise a question mark over the future of Wylfa
nuclear power station, which was shut down for 18 months after
developing defects within the pressure reactor. The 32-year-old
reactor is due for review in 2004 and campaigners have said the
problems at the plant can only get worse as the reactor ages.
Opposition
The White Paper has been prepared by the present Energy Minister,
Brian Wilson, who succeeded Mr Hain in the post. However, the
pair may be on a collision course over nuclear energy, as Mr
Wilson, whose constituency includes a nuclear energy station, is
regarded as a supporter of the technology. Wales has a number of
planning applications for land-based or offshore wind farms, all
of which have provoked opposition from some sections of the local
communities.
+ A 30-turbine off-shore site planned for the beach resort of
Porthcawl at Scarweather Sands provoked a 5,000-strong opposition
petition by residents
+ The Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales is leading
opposition against the biggest proposed wind farm in the UK,
which would see 39 turbines built in Cefn Croes at Cwmystwyth in
mid Wales
+ An plan for 30 turbines to be built off the coast of north
Wales at Rhyl recently received a £10m government grant to take
it forward
+ Wrexham councillors blocked the erection of three turbines at
Cefn Coed in the Ceiriog Valley, north Wales, on environmental
grounds after receiving over 1,400 letters against it. The
Westminster government is hoping to produce 10% of its energy
from renewable sources by 2010.
© MMII | News Sources | Privacy
*****************************************************************
11 Taiwan: Reform debacle costs Chen big
Asia Times
By Laurence Eyton
TAIPEI - Taiwan's government, as Talleyrand said of the Bourbons,
has learned nothing and forgotten nothing. Shortly after the
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) came to power in May 2000,
President Chen Shui-bian and his then premier initiated a policy
that was under-researched, that was not supported by public
sentiment and that stepped on a large number of toes. In the end
they were forced into a humiliating climbdown that made them
appear utterly incompetent.
That debacle centered on an attempt to cancel the Fourth Nuclear
Power Plant. The latest issue revolves around the credit
departments of farmers' and fishermen's associations. These
associations were started by the Japanese in the colonial era as
a way of breaking the cycle of usury and chronic debt suffered by
the rural population. The idea was to provide attractive interest
rates to depositors and affordable loans to farmers and fishermen
and use the profits from the enterprises to fund marketing
initiatives, infrastructure creation and maintenance and the like
to improve the farmers' and fishermen's lot.
During the half-century of Kuomintang (KMT) government after
1949, the associations became useful tools of the party's
patron-client politics. Because they provided credit where banks
would not, farmers and fishermen had to remain in their
association's good graces, which meant supporting the candidacy
of the local politician favored by the association in elections.
But this did not necessarily involve coercion. Since the
associations could make or break candidates, the real political
battles at the local levels were often to be elected to run the
associations themselves. This was usually a matter of who could
call in the largest number of favors or provide the biggest
bribes. The managers of the associations then made up their
election expenses with loans to themselves, and used the credit
associations as a piggy bank for their political ambitions with
lending policies targeted at making friends, not profits.
All very corrupt but all very convenient for those involved,
which is why the system has lasted as long as it has. There are
more than 300 farmers' and fishermen's credit associations in
total, thriving on a community level where everyone knows
everyone else and loans are made far more on the strength of
personal relationships than financial probity. Add to this the
knowledge that in the event of a crisis the government, in the
guise of the Central Deposit Insurance Corp, a Ministry of
Finance bailout fund, would come to the rescue and the level of
moral hazard is red-lining. Not surprisingly, this system has
begun to fall apart.
The mid-1990s saw more than 30 runs on such credit associations
and an embarrassing number of bailouts. Nevertheless the then-KMT
government did little to cure the systemic problems of the
associations, if only because they were an important part of the
party's local power and funding base. It is hardly surprising
that lax supervision and endemic corruption have raised the
non-performing loans (NPLs) of these credit institutions to a
sector high of 21 percent, with more than 100 of them having a
negative net worth.
The credit associations are only the tip of the iceberg that is
Taiwan's overall NPL problem, estimated by the Finance Ministry
at about NT$1.4 trillion (US$41 billion). Farmers' and
fishermen's credit associations represent only about 7-8 percent
of the total banking sector with total NPLs worth something in
the region of NT$140 billion. They should, therefore, have been
relatively easy to clean up.
Last year some 36 bankrupt credit associations were forcibly
taken over by the government to be merged with commercial banks.
Some 200 employees of the associations have been indicted for
fraud.
In August a more wide-ranging cleanup plan went into effect,
imposing three tiers of penalties: blanket restrictions on all
associations with NPLs above 10 percent, with additional, more
serious restrictions on associations with NPLs over 15 percent
and yet more for those topping 25 percent - including, in the
most dire cases, a prohibition on granting new loans, taking new
deposits or extending current loans.
Almost immediately farmers and fishermen protested. They have
been, after all, hit hard by Taiwan's World Trade Organization
(WTO) entry last year - which, they say, has caused the price of
almost all produce to fall to historic lows - and many of them
look to loans from the associations to weather the storm they are
going through.
The threat of a lending cutoff at the more insolvent associations
was a threat not just to the farmers who borrowed from them but
to all farmers, since association bookkeeping can be so opaque
that few borrowers, until the Ministry of Finance sends in its
auditors, know what the situation of their local association
really is. The farmers were also well aware that, if they could
not borrow from the associations, they were unlikely to be able
to borrow at all - being unable to meet the strict
collateralization requirements at ordinary commercial banks.
As the financial reform of the associations went ahead, the
government was talking of ameliorating their drawbacks by the
establishment of a national farmers' bank, to take over the
associations' lending function. This did not mollify the farmers,
for two reasons: any national-level institution was bound, they
thought, to have more restrictive lending practices than the
community-based institutions they were used to, and the bank's
establishment was way off in the future, while they needed to
borrow now. Corrupt as the associations might be, for many
farmers and fishermen, whose incomes are on average 30 percent
below the Taiwan average and savings scant, they provide a
financial lifebelt where no other is available.
This is something the Finance Ministry reforms simply failed to
take into consideration, and this failure prompted the
organization of the biggest public protest Taiwan has ever seen
to bring that message home.
It is indicative of the government's real motivations behind the
reforms, however, that the legitimate worries of farmers about
their borrowing was, if not entirely overlooked, then dismissed
with vague plans about an agricultural bank. The government was
not seeking, of course, to bankrupt farmers; but it was far more
interested in cutting off the financial resources of the
opposition parties in the countryside. Nevertheless, with farmers
vowing to put 100,000 people on the streets of Taipei to protest
the reforms, the government failed to make its own case as to why
reforms should go ahead. It was left to a few DPP legislators to
point out that only 15 percent of the loans approved by the
associations go to farmers or fishermen, while 68 percent go to
the so-called "sponsors" of the associations - ie, to non-farmer
cronies of the associations' managements.
And here of course lies the root of the government's mistake: it
should have concentrated on the reform of the managements of the
associations and their credit units before addressing the issue
of NPLs. Its tack should have been that such reforms would
actually increase the amount of cash available for loans to
farmers. But it did not take this route because it would have
needed legislation that the opposition parties, for obvious
reasons, would have blocked.
Given the opposition's - especially the KMT's - vested interest
in ensuring the failure of the financial reforms, increasingly
vitriolic accusations have been flying back and forth about
whether in fact the protesting farmers have been the dupes of an
opposition plot to embarrass the government. DPP legislators have
also questioned the backgrounds of the leaders of the Taiwan
Agro-Fighters United (TAFU), an umbrella group representing the
farmers' and fishermen's associations. Many of them, they claim,
are ethnic mainlanders, which is odd considering that farmers are
invariably ethnic Taiwanese.
It is almost impossible to say how much the farmers' and
fishermen's protests have been orchestrated by political
interests. Local politicians, invariably of the KMT, having
looted their credit associations would seek to mobilize
demonstrators if only to save their own skins, without
encouragement from any party organization. And criticism of the
government did not just come from the opposition. Former
president Lee Teng-hui, now the "spiritual leader" of the
ferociously Taiwan-nationalist Taiwan Solidarity Union, which
usually supports the government, also lambasted the Finance
Ministry's reforms.
An ill-though-out, badly targeted policy, a large and - through
their associations - well-organized group fearful for their
livelihoods, local officials desperate to save their own skins,
self-serving mischief by opposition parties: all the elements
were there for a first-class contest of wills. Since few people
are more than two generations removed from a farming background
in Taiwan, the farmers have a lot of public sympathy. But
government facts and figures about the depredations made on the
associations' credit branches might have undermined that. After
all, farming accounts for only 2.5 percent of gross domestic
product (GDP). It is a little-recognized fact that both farmers
and the economy as a whole would be better off if they quit
farming and did almost any other line of work instead.
Like the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant decision before it, where the
government should have used its ability to disseminate
information to create a constituency for the plant's cancellation
before moving on the issue, a wide-ranging debate about the
degree to which farmers should be supported by the state and the
wider community, with specific reference to the costs of doing
so, might well have swung public sympathy behind the reforms. But
this did not happen.
Instead what the government actually did - which resulted in the
worst of all possible outcomes - was simply to suspend the reform
measures in their entirety on November 17.
The decision appears to have been made by the president after
meeting with some DPP legislators from rural southern Taiwan who
impressed upon him the very real degree of opposition to the
reforms. The president's move was widely seen as showing a lack
of confidence in the cabinet and prompted resignations from the
premier, deputy premier, secretary general to the cabinet, and
finance and agriculture ministers. The government was plunged
into crisis and, ironically, even after the cancellation of the
financial reforms, including the takeover of the 36 credit units
last year, the planned farmers' and fishermen's protest took
place anyway.
On Saturday 120,000 people marched in Taipei. Even though the
hated reforms were now history, they still had a litany of
grievances to air centered on the government's failure to make
good on plans to set up a multibillion-dollar agricultural
development fund to ameliorate the difficulties caused by WTO
entry.
In the past week, then, the government has reaped the worst of
all possible outcomes. The scrapping of the reforms leaves it
open to charges of sheer panic. And, as it transpired,
ineffectual panic. That President Chen claims that he didn't
realize the seriousness of the situation and was misled by the
cabinet suggests that criticism that he is too busy campaigning
for the DPP's candidate in the Taipei mayoral election -
scheduled for December 7 - to concern himself with more serious
affairs of state is correct. If Chen didn't know about the likely
impact of the financial reforms then he hadn't been doing his
homework. If he did, then in making the about-turn as he did he
betrayed the trust of his ministers.
Certainly the reaction of the ministers suggests that Chen knew
about the policy all along and they are shocked first at his
buckling under pressure and second at his public
disingenuousness. Despite ministers' lip service to not wanting
to destabilize the government, the number of resignations and the
difficulty the president has had to persuade some cabinet members
to withdraw their resignations - he spent most of the weekend
virtually begging Premier Yu Shyi-kun, who on Friday sent in his
resignation three times, to reconsider - shows quite clearly how
the president's intervention in the reform issue has been
received. Yu is already Chen's third premier in two-and-a-half
years and his loss would put an indelible stamp of incompetence
on the government. Nevertheless the loss of Finance Minister Lee
Yung-san, who is the third finance minister in the same period -
as well as by far the most able - is a huge blow to the cabinet's
prestige.
The question of who is going to replace the departing finance and
agriculture ministers remains open at the time of writing. But,
as a local paper editorialized on Monday, a more interesting
question might be why anybody would want to replace them. A
cabinet post in Chen's government has proved to be a poisoned
chalice so many times that it is hard to imagine why anyone would
risk his or her reputation and credibility by accepting the
offer. Certainly the knowledge that the president will hang a
minister out to dry whenever expedient, whether it is actually
sensible to do so or not, is hardly an attraction.
The biggest loser of all, though, has to be the president
himself. He appears vacillating, treacherous, and weak, easy to
panic and liable to give in to threats. These are not exactly
leadership qualities. Even Chen supporters have to admit that his
performance has shown staggering ineptitude. Why did he not do a
deal with TAFU to cancel the protest in return for a policy
change? What was the sense in acting unilaterally? If TAFU would
not make a deal, yet Chen was committed to reversing the
financial reform policy, having been persuaded of its demerits,
then he should have let the protest go ahead - as it did anyway -
before announcing policy changes. Giving in to pressure after the
fact at least would have been more savvy than giving in to panic
beforehand.
The only thing that stops Chen's bungling from totally grounding
his future is that he is still the only party leader and putative
presidential candidate among the big three parties who espouses
an anti-unification line. Which means that, as a National
Security Council member remarked to this writer: "He's far from
ideal, but what other choice do we have?" But while voters
indifferent to the unification/independence debate are unlikely
to see much in Chen they like the look of, even those who share
Chen's ideals are going to have to wonder: if he can't stand up
to the farmers, how he can stand up to Beijing?
(©2002 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact content@atimes.com for information on our sales and
syndication policies.)
Nov 26, 2002
Copyright Asia Times Online, 6306 The Center, Queen’s Road,
Central, Hong Kong.
*****************************************************************
12 Put weapons – and trust – in hands of nuclear guardians
The Australian:
[November 25, 2002]
By Hugh Thomas
Body Politic
SOONER or later the present crisis over Iraq will be over, and
the world – the US, above all – will have to consider, much more
profoundly than it has done hitherto, what it wants to do in the
future about the spread of nuclear weapons.
As so often when looking to the future, we would do
well to look first at the past. It is not now realised that had
it not been for the intransigence of the Soviet Union in 1946,
we would have had no problem of this kind. All nuclear material,
for the past 50 years or so, would have been managed
internationally, for peaceful purposes; as would all nuclear
activities – from the uranium mine to the ownership of nuclear
material.
This was the plan presented to the United Nations Disarmament
Commission in 1946. The fact that development as well as control
was to be managed internationally ensured that the scheme
attracted highly competent people. It was worked out by David
Lilienthal, once the director of the Tennessee Valley Authority,
and Dean Acheson, the future secretary of state. Both were
serious realists rather than idealists. They worked on the basis
of a draft by Dr Robert Oppenheimer, the magnetic director of
the Manhattan project during the war.
Oppenheimer sought to "eliminate the right of individual
nations or their citizens to engage in activities intrinsically
dangerous". Those were defined as providing the essential raw
materials – U-233, U-235 or plutonium – in any quantity or of
any quality, and incorporating these fissionable materials into
a bomb. It was likely that thorium would have to be
internationally controlled too. Uranium that was below the
concentration necessary for weapons was considered safe, as was
plutonium with a high concentration of plutonium-240. An
international agency alone would have the capacity to own, lease
or develop uranium ore. The agency would have an inspectorate
that would carry out continuous surveys.
The fact that the same agency would be responsible for
development as well as for inspection, Oppenheimer insisted, was
an essential part of the proposal
The plan of 1946 envisaged, it is true, a degree of
international activity and intervention that made it impossible
for the Soviet Union under Stalin to accept it. Thanks to the
"atom spies", and the intelligence of Soviet physicists, Stalin
himself was only three years away from his own atom bomb.
Furthermore, before presenting the plan to the Disarmament
Commission, Bernard Baruch, the businessman friend of the
recently dead president Franklin Delano Roosevelt (and
Churchill), who foolishly had been named US representative in
the discussions, insisted on writing into it a qualification
that in the case of any breach of the treaty, the veto in the UN
Security Council would be overridden. That was a mistake, for it
made it easy for the Soviet Union to reject the whole proposal,
leading to the arms race that lasted until 1990.
But now that the Cold War is over, and the US once again enjoys
that position of world power that it had in 1945, they – we –
should sweep the dust off some of these old proposals and
consider whether there might not be a modern version of this one
in particular. Of course, the eight nations – including the US –
that have nuclear weapons would have to envisage getting rid of
them. But no one in this country would be sorry to say goodbye
to possession of this atrocious weapon if we were certain that
no one else had one. An idea of this kind would help the US to
explain now why it considers it essential to remove Iraq's
capacity for nuclear weapons.
This is the moment for the US to launch a disarmament scheme of
this sort. It now has the authority to embark on this kind of
imaginative innovation. But the opportunity will not last for
ever. It should be seized.
If it is not, one day another nuclear weapon will surely be let
off, causing immeasurable grief.
London-based historian Hugh Thomas was writing in The
Spectator. His books include Armed Truce: The Beginnings of the
Cold War 1945-46, Unfinished History of the World and The
Spanish Civil War.
© The Australian
*****************************************************************
13 The homeland security bill needs fixing, starting with money for
cops, firefighters &EMTs
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton: First Things First
NY Daily News - Ideas and Opinions -
First Things First
By SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
In voting last week to create a Homeland Security Department,
the Senate took a necessary first step toward better
coordination among key government agencies to ensure a safer
America. But our work in Congress is far from over.
This massive reordering of our government will not improve our
security one bit unless we fund the new department properly and
enact measures that empower it to meet its fundamental
obligation — protecting our nation from those who wish to do us
harm. Judged by that standard, there is much that needs to be
done. The homeland security bill does nothing to increase
security at nuclear power plants and develop a system to secure
radioactive material that terrorists want to use in a dirty bomb.
The bill does not increase patrols along our northern borders
and at our ports. It does nothing to address the pervasive
psychological effects of terrorism. It fails to create a
homeland security office in New York.
That is why, when it convenes in January, the 108th Congress
must approve additional legislation aimed at making America and
New York more secure.
But of all the urgent issues that must be addressed, the most
important is providing our first-responders — the firefighters,
police officers and emergency response workers who are on the
front lines of the war on terror — with new funding and new
communications equipment.
In March, I proposed the Homeland Security Block Grant Act of
2002 to provide first-responders with $3.5 billion in direct
funding from the federal government.
The administration disagrees with direct funding. It believes
scarce money should be funneled through state bureaucracies. But
it simply does not make sense to send these resources to an
unknown department in some state building to a nameless
individual who is not an expert in homeland security.
Our first-responders are our experts, and we should listen to
them. They should be the ones who receive the additional funding
and decide how best to use it.
Since we began the war on terrorism, we have done everything to
ensure that our men and women in the military have the
resources, equipment and training they need to fight the war on
terrorism — and that's how it should be.
But we are not doing the same for our homeland defenders.
Cities and towns have invested almost $3 billion from their
tight budgets to meet their new challenges, but the federal
government has done very little to help them.
What kind of tribute is this to the heroes who lost their lives
Sept. 11, when our nation was attacked? What would the
firefighters, police officers and emergency response workers who
did not think twice about rushing to Ground Zero to save lives,
even at the cost of their own, say about the lack of progress
that's been made?
We had the chance to change this in the original homeland
security bill. We had the opportunity to pass the Safer Act and
allow our country to hire 25,000 firefighters over the next
couple of years. We could have upgraded equipment for our police
officers and improved hospitals' ability to respond to a
chemical and biological attack.
But regrettably, at the end of the day, security provisions
like that were stripped out of the legislation in favor of
special-interest provisions.
Congressional leaders must understand that rearranging
departments in Washington will not make us safer unless we send
resources to communities across America. Just look at what is
happening in New York City, the very place where our
first-responders inspired the world. The city plans to close
eight fire stations, reduce the police force by more than 2,000
officers and eliminate 37 ambulance tours.
No city or town or state should have to discharge even one of
its front-line soldiers. These courageous men and women should
be listening not only to our constant praise, but also to our
new plans about how we will better support them in the war on
terrorism. Instead, the firefighters scheduled to leave eight of
the city's engine houses will hear the hollow sound of doors
closing, keys turning and locks shutting their houses down. The
only way to prevent the haunting image of one of these places
that house our heroes from closing is to get the federal
government to realize that our first-responders are the very
foundation of homeland defense.
I know that, and that is why it is an honor to continue to
press their case for direct funding in Washington. And it is why
the very first thing I will do when Congress meets again in
January is to introduce the Homeland Security Block Grant Act of
2003.
Originally published on November 23, 2002
All contents © 2002 Daily News, L.P.
*****************************************************************
14 Ukraine Supports ROK¡¯s Stance on NK Nuke Issue
KoreaTimes :
Hankooki.com > Korea Times > Nation
By Shim Jae-yun
Staff Reporter
South Korea and the Ukraine yesterday agreed to closely
cooperate to deepen bilateral security and economic cooperative
ties, the Foreign Affairs-Trade Ministry said.
Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Tai-sik and Ukrainian Vice Foreign
Minister Volodymyr Yelchenko came up with the agreement during a
policy coordination meeting at the ministry building in downtown
Seoul, the ministry said.
``South Korea called on the Ukraine to support its stance with
regard to North Korea¡¯s alleged nuclear weapons program and its
bid to host the 2010 World Expo,¡¯¡¯ a ministry official said.
He noted Ukraine pledged full-fledged support.
Other major issues during the meeting included an overview of
bilateral relations over the past 10 years since the setup of
diplomatic ties in 1992 and the current security situation on
the Korean peninsula and North-east Asia.
Lee and Yelchenko also focused on how to strengthen mutual
cooperation in international forums, such as the United Nations
and the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe (OSCE),
the official added.
jayshim@koreatimes.co.kr
11-25-2002 18:21
*****************************************************************
15 Wales: Shut Nuclear stations - Hain
Nov 25 2002
Nick Speed & Andrew Clarke , The Western Mail
THE UK's nuclear-energy supply could be switched off for good
under radical plans being considered by the Government.
As the Government prepares to publish a White Paper setting out
how Britain's energy will be supplied over coming decades,
leading ministers are pressing for the nuclear option to be
jettisoned once and for all.
Welsh Secretary Peter Hain, who is at the forefront of the
campaign to rule out the building of any more nuclear-power
stations, says there will have to be a sea change in public
attitudes towards renewable energy forms if the plan is to
succeed.
In an interview with The Western Mail he said, "We've got to end
the curse of nimbyism, which is really like a plague, or we will
end up with, whether we like it or not, more nuclear-power
stations."
The Neath MP identifies Wales as the part of the UK that
especially needs to confront what he describes as one of the
biggest political challenges facing us today, saying the country
has the capacity to be the green-energy hub of Britain.
Only by dropping the opposition to wind farms that has seen Wales
slip behind the rest of the UK in terms of new projects being
approved can the need for more nuclear stations such as the often
mooted new reactor at Wylfa on Anglesey be avoided, he indicates.
He is backed by Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett but also
faces considerable opposition. Also on the committee drawing up
the White Paper is his successor as Energy Minister, Brian
Wilson, a long-time supporter of nuclear energy whose Cunninghame
North constituency includes Hunterston nuclear-power station.
To signal that the energy source would effectively be cut off
when the last of the current reactors reaches the end of its life
span around 2020 would mark a major policy shift by the
Government.
Nuclear-power stations have contributed to the national grid for
the past half century and now account for more than a fifth of
the national grid's supply. Scrapping them would require a
massive increase in energy generated by alternative forms.
If the UK is to meet the Kyoto Agreement targets on reducing
carbon-dioxide emissions, blamed for global warming, it will have
to do that at the same time as reducing the dependency on gas,
coal and oil-fired power stations.
Mr Hain is arguing for "really ambitious" proposals on wind
farms, wave power, light conversion panels, waste conversion and
other innovative energy forms, with statutory requirements that
all new buildings should derive some of their supply from these
sources.
"If the nimbyism that is rife now had existed 100 years ago we
would never have built any roads or railways, any sewers or
hospitals," he said. "We are going to have to look at the
planning system, as this is our future security and literally the
future survival of society that is at stake.
"It sounds Armageddon-like, but it is like that."
Have your say on our messageboard
*****************************************************************
16 NRC Issues Final Rule on Decommissioning Trust Provisions and
Regulatory Guide
NRC: News Release - 2002-136 -
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs
Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail:
opa@nrc.gov [opa@nrc.gov] www.nrc.gov
No. 02-136 November 25, 2002
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is revising its regulations
on decommissioning trust provisions for commercial nuclear power
plants, and issuing a regulatory guide that could be used by
power plant licensees to implement the regulations. The final
rule will (1) help safeguard decommissioning trust funds from
investment risks; (2) ensure licensees provide adequate
information to NRC about their trusts; and (3) provide safeguard
against improper payments from these trusts.
The rule requires that decommissioning trust agreements be in an
appropriate form to provide greater assurance that an adequate
amount of decommissioning funds will be available. Until
recently, direct NRC oversight of the terms and conditions of the
decommissioning trusts was not necessary because State regulators
typically exercised this authority. With deregulation, however,
this oversight may cease and the NRC may need to take a more
active oversight role.
Also, based on the NRCs recent experience with transfers of
operating licenses of several nuclear power plants, the NRC
believes the final rule will help expedite similar transfers in
the future by providing increased regulatory predictability. The
final rule and accompanying revisions to regulatory guidance will
provide uniform decommissioning trust terms and conditions for
nuclear power reactor licensees that are not subject to State or
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regulation. All power
reactor licensees will be required to notify the NRC in advance
of decommissioning trust withdrawals if made prior to permanent
cessation of operations.
Under the final rule, the criteria that have been required as
conditions of license transfer in connection with the sale of
nuclear power reactors will be incorporated as part of a proposed
new section of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations under
Part 50.75. The conditions are as follows:
+ The trust must be an external trust fund held in the United
States, established pursuant to a written agreement with an
entity that is an appropriate State or Federal government agency
or whose operations are regulated by a State or Federal agency.
+ The trust agreement must prohibit trust investments in
securities or other obligations of any reactor owner or its
affiliates, successors, or assigns, or provide that no more than
10% of their trust assets may be in these securities or other
obligations.
+ The trust agreement must prohibit investments in any entity
owning one or more nuclear power plants (except for investments
tied to general market indices or non-nuclear sector mutual
funds) and prohibit investments in a mutual fund in which at
least 50% of the fund is invested in the securities of a parent
company whose subsidiary is an owner of a foreign or domestic
nuclear power plant.
+ The trust agreement must stipulate that the agreement cannot
be amended in any material respect without 30 working days prior
written notice to the NRC, and there is no objection from the
NRC.
+ The trust agreement must stipulate that the trustee,
investment advisor, or anyone else directing investments made by
the trust should act prudently.
+ The trust agreement must provide that no disbursements or
payments from the trust (other than payment of routine
administrative expenses or for withdrawals made pursuant to 10
CFR 50.82 [a] [8]) may be made by the trustee until the trustee
has first given the NRC 30 working days prior written notice and
the NRC has not objected.
+ The person directing the investment of the funds is
prohibited from representing the licensee or its affiliates or
subsidiaries as the investment manager for the funds or accepting
day-to-day management direction of the funds investments or
direction on individual investments by the funds from the
licensee or its affiliates or subsidiaries. A proposed rule on
this subject was published in the Federal Register (66 FR 29244)
on May 30 of last year. A total of 36 comments were received from
licensees, utility groups, State agencies and commissions, the
National Association of State Regulatory Utility Commissioners
(NARUC), and investment management companies.
Regulatory Guide 1.159, Assuring the Availability of Funds for
Decommissioning Nuclear Reactors, Revision 1, contains guidance
to be used by nuclear power plant licensees in implementing the
changes in NRC regulations. It will be available shortly on the
NRC Agency-wide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS).
Help in using ADAMS is available by contacting the NRC Public
Document Room staff by telephone at 301-415-4737 or
1-800-397-4209, or by e-mail at pdr@nrc.gov [pdr@nrc.gov] .
Single copies of the documents will also be available for
inspection and/or copying for a fee in the NRC Public Document
Room, located at 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland.
Monday, November 25, 2002
*****************************************************************
17 NRC denies UCS safety petition
FR Doc 02-29873
[Federal Register: November 25, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 227)]
[Notices]
[Page 70628-70629]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access
[wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr25no02-90]
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Notice of Issuance of Director's Decision Under 10 CFR 2.206
Notice is hereby given that the Director, Office of Nuclear
Reactor
Regulation, has issued a Director's Decision with regard to a
petition
dated March 11, 2002, and supplements dated March 21, 22, and
27, 2002
(the Petition), submitted by Mr. David A. Lochbaum, a Nuclear
Safety
Engineer in the Washington, DC Office of the Union of Concerned
Scientists (UCS), and the co-petitioners identified in the
petition
supplements dated March 21 and March 22, 2002 (the Petitioners).
The
Petitioners have requested that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission
(NRC or the Commission) take action with regard to the nuclear
power
facilities listed in Attachment 1 to the Petition (multiple
nuclear
power facilities). The
[[Page 70629]]
Petitioners request that the NRC immediately issue Orders to the
owners
of all operating nuclear power plants to take measures that will
reduce
the risk from sabotage of irradiated fuel. Specifically, those
measures
are:
(1) The NRC should ``impose a 72-hour limit for operation
when the
number of operable onsite alternating current power sources
(i.e.,
emergency diesel generators) is one less than the number in the
Technical Specification limiting condition for operation. This
72-hour
limit would be applicable when the nuclear plant is in any mode
of
operation other than hot shutdown, cold shutdown, refueling, or
defueled.'' Oconee Nuclear Station does not rely on emergency
diesel
generators, but ``equivalent protection for its emergency power
supply'' should be provided. The NRC should also ``cease and
desist
issuing NOEDs [Notices of Enforcement Discretion] that allow
nuclear
reactors to operate for longer periods of time with broken
emergency
diesel generators.'' This requested action would apply to the
facilities listed in Attachment 1 to the Petition.
(2) The NRC should ``impose a minimum 24-hour time-to-boil
for the
spent fuel pool water. This limit would be applicable at all
times.''
This requested action would apply to the facilities listed in
Attachment 1 to the Petition.
The Petition also requested that the NRC hold a public
meeting to
precede ``the Petition Review Board (PRB) non-public meeting
regarding
this petition'' and assign ``someone other than the Director of
NRR
[Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation] to be responsible for our
petition. The Deputy Executive Director for Reactor Programs or
the
Deputy Director of NRR would be acceptable to UCS.''
As the basis for the Petition, the Petitioners cite the need
to
reduce the risk from sabotage of irradiated fuel.
On March 26, 2002, in lieu of a public meeting, the
Petitioners
accepted and participated in a telephone conference
(teleconference)
with the NRC's PRB to discuss the Petition. The transcript of
the
teleconference was considered as a supplement to the Petition.
After
the teleconference, the PRB discussed the Petition. The PRB
considered
the contributions of the Petitioners to the teleconference in
deciding
on the requests for immediate action and in setting the schedule
for
the review of the Petition. The PRB concluded that the Petition
satisfied the criteria for review under title 10 of the Code of
Federal
Regulations (10 CFR) Subsection 2.206.
By letter dated May 8, 2002, the NRC staff acknowledged
receiving
the Petition, informed the Petitioners that the Petition met the
requirements for review under 10 CFR 2.206, and the Petition had
been
referred to the Director of NRR for action and would be acted
upon
within a reasonable time. The petitioners were also informed in
that
letter that the NRC staff declined to grant the Petitioners'
request
for immediate action.
The NRC sent a copy of the proposed Director's Decision to
the
Petitioners for comment by letter dated September 4, 2002. The
Petitioners responded with comments by letter dated September
23, 2002.
The Petitioners' comments and the NRC staff responses to the
comments
are addressed in Enclosure No. 2 and No. 3 to the November 15,
2002,
letter to Mr. David A. Lochbaum, Union of Concerned Scientists.
The Director, NRR, concluded that the information contained
in the
Petition does not warrant NRC staff action to: ``Impose a
72-hour limit
for operation when the number of operable onsite alternating
current
power sources (i.e., emergency diesel generators) is one less
than the
number in the Technical Specification limiting condition for
operation'' during plant operation. In addition, the Director,
NRR,
concluded that the information contained in the Petition does
not
warrant NRC staff action to ``cease and desist issuing NOEDs
that allow
nuclear reactors to operate for longer periods of time with
broken
emergency diesel generators.'' These requests are denied.
With regard to the Petitioners' second request, that the NRC
``impose a minimum 24-hour time-to-boil for the spent fuel pool
water.
This limit would be applicable at all times,'' the Director,
NRR, has
concluded that this request is partially granted by staff
actions
already taken. However, for the reasons discussed in the
Director's
Decision, the NRC staff concludes that the actions specifically
requested by the Petitioners are not necessary. The reasons for
these
decisions are explained in the Director's Decision pursuant to
10 CFR
2.206 (DD-02-07), the complete text of which is available in the
Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) for
inspection in the Commission's Public Document Room (PDR)
located at
One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor),
Rockville,
Maryland, and electronically accessible in ADAMS through the NRC
Public
Electronic Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm.html
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm.html]
(ADAMS
Accession No. ML022800647). Persons who do not have access to
ADAMS or
who encounter problems in accessing documents located in ADAMS
should
contact the NRC PDR reference staff by telephone at
1-800-397-4209 or
301-415-4737, or by email to pdr@nrc.gov [pdr@nrc.gov] .
A copy of the Director's Decision will be filed with the
Secretary
of the Commission for the Commission's review in accordance with
10 CFR
2.206 of the Commission's regulations. As provided for by this
regulation, the Director's Decision will constitute the final
action of
the Commission 25 days after the date of the decision, unless
the
Commission, on its own motion, institutes a review of the
Director's
Decision in that time.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 15th day of November,
2002.
For the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Samuel J. Collins,
Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 02-29873 Filed 11-21-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
18 Fixing Indian Point 2
THE JOURNAL NEWS: A Gannett Suburban webpaper
By ROGER WITHERSPOON
THE JOURNAL NEWS (Original publication: November 25, 2002)
BUCHANAN — Fred Dacimo watched anxiously as an underwater train
moved a 1,500-pound bundle of radioactive nuclear fuel from the
reactor at Indian Point 2 to the spent fuel pool.
The new, $5 million train was being controlled by a new
electronic system and monitored with new computer and video
equipment from a newly built control area near the plant's
powerful generator, which was being rebuilt last week. It had
replaced an older train prone to breaking down during the
75-foot, underwater trip.
The fuel trolley is just the latest in a string of costly
equipment replacements by Entergy Nuclear Northeast, which has
had to virtually rebuild Indian Point 2 since it purchased the
long-troubled plant.
"We haven't replaced everything," said Dacimo, the firm's vice
president for Indian Point 2, during a recent tour of the
reactor's containment building. "But we've replaced or repaired
a lot of the major equipment and systems. We want to make sure
everything is reliable."
Making Indian Point 2 run reliably has been an extraordinarily
costly effort by Entergy, which bought the plant and the defunct
Indian Point 1 for $625 million just a week before last year's
terrorist attacks. Entergy officials say they have spent more
than $500 million so far repairing, replacing and modernizing
equipment and electrical systems, and on training and
maintenance practices.
"We have about doubled what we paid for the plant in making
improvements to it," Entergy spokesman Jim Steets said.
While often criticized for past equipment failures, the plant's
safety has come under increased scrutiny since the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorist attacks, with opponents calling for its shutdown
because of fears that it could not withstand a similar assault.
Entergy officials say the plant cannot only protect itself, a
point challenged by critics, but say the plant is safer now than
ever.
Virtually every major system in the plant has been tested and
overhauled or replaced, giving Indian Point 2 the look of a new
machine. Rewiring the plant's electric generator to prevent
short circuits — a major project during this month's shutdown
for refueling and repairs — will cost about $13 million,
officials say.
Under Consolidated Edison, the plant's former owner, Indian
Point 2 was renowned for its deteriorating equipment and was
frequently cited by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for poor
maintenance. There was a backlog of more than 5,200
malfunctioning items when Entergy took over, and the plant's
miles of pipes and equipment were studded with red tags denoting
overdue repairs.
Entergy first had to purchase and install a computerized
database to keep track of its equipment, spare parts and
personnel. With the database, the company can efficiently keep
track of existing and developing problems, prioritize equipment
needs and schedule repairs.
"You ask how many people it takes to screw in a light bulb,"
said Dacimo. "Well, that depends. Where is the light bulb? How
do you get to it? How long will it take? What other jobs are on
hold while that light is being replaced? You have to plan
everything here if you want to work effectively."
If maintenance is not prioritized, he said, critical problems
can get worse while waiting in line for attention. Since the
installation of the computerized system, the backlog of repairs
at the plant was reduced to 256 last week.
Repairs also were complicated by the fact that much of the
equipment had been modified over the years and did not match
diagrams in the plant's database.
The operating license for each plant at Indian Point includes
approved system designs for each of its major systems. If a
company modifies any of the equipment or control systems, it has
to update those designs and demonstrate to the NRC that the
change does not affect performance.
The NRC sent a special team to Indian Point 2 last year, before
Entergy's purchase, to see if the critical reactor safety system
actually worked after learning that it was not in compliance
with license diagrams. The agency found the safety system to be
effective, and ordered Con Edison to update its records.
Entergy's own equipment inspection included the more than 5,000
thin tubes in the four new steam generators installed by Con
Edison two years ago. The tubes hold hot, pressurized
contaminated water that circulates between the steam generators
and the nuclear reactor. Over time, the tubes can become
corroded and crack. Con Edison thought it could monitor the
progress of such corrosion and continued using tubes that showed
signs of wear.
On Feb. 15, 2000, one of these tubes burst, resulting in a spill
of some 20,000 gallons of contaminated water, some of which
flowed into the Hudson River. The accident triggered the first
emergency alert in the plant's then 26-year history and resulted
in a 10-month shutdown for repairs. Last week, Entergy completed
electronic tests of all tubes in four steam generators.
"We plugged 13 where we found signs of wear," Dacimo said. "We
don't try to manage things like that. We just take them out of
service."
Last week, Entergy completed an 11-day ultrasound examination of
the plant's 78-ton reactor head to determine if there were any
signs of corrosion. The inspection was ordered by the NRC at 69
of the nation's 103 nuclear power plants — those that used
pressurized water — because corrosion discovered in the head of
the Davis-Besse reactor in Ohio had reduced part of the reactor
head's thickness from 9 inches to less than an inch. The
inspection of Indian Point 2's reactor head found no traces of
corrosion, Dacimo said.
Entergy has begun a program, expected to last at least three
years, to review all of the plant's major systems and make sure
the diagrams needed for repairs and operations match. A similar
program completed at Indian Point 3, which Entergy bought from
the New York Power Authority last year, cost about $15 million.
Before Entergy took over, pipes throughout Indian Point 2
dripped water, often into little pails, and wisps of steam
occasionally wafted from joints. Some leaks were minor, and the
pipes or joints were easily replaced. Others leaks were
significant, and the repairs were costly.
A huge rubber seal under the 214-ton electric generating turbine
was worn and it leaked, reducing the system's efficiency. Two
major pumps had defects in their steel casings and sprung leaks
during the past year. Entergy replaced one and bought a spare
for the second pump.
On the radioactive side of the plant, Entergy shut down the
reactor a month after buying Indian Point 2 to replace
constantly leaking seals serving the reactor's coolant system.
"Operating it with these leaks was legal," Steets said, "but it
is something you don't want to do, and we weren't comfortable
with it."
The control room, where round-the-clock teams operate the
nuclear reactor, also badly needed upgrading, plant manager
Chris Schwarz said.
"Technologically, it hadn't changed since the 1970s," he said.
The company replaced the older system with modern, digital
computer controls.
For much of the 1990s, Indian Point 2 operated around 66 percent
efficiency because it was either shut down or had power
reductions because of mechanical problems.
"At the rate we're going we'll end the year with a capacity
factor of about 90 percent," Steets said. "And we intend it keep
it up there."
Send e-mail to Roger Witherspoon [rwithers@thejournalnews.com]
Home [http://www.thejournalnews.com] -News
Copyright 2002 The Journal News, a Gannett Co
*****************************************************************
19 Pakistan places trust in nuclear power
Asia Times
By Muddassir Rizvi
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan is on the fast track to building two more
nuclear power plants, amid concerns about the country's
poorly-enforced safety laws and the secrecy shrouding the plans
for the facilities.
The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), the proponent of
nuclear energy in the country, says that the two plants are under
government consideration for formal approval, and construction is
expected to commence "soon".
"Nuclear energy is environmentally friendly, cost competitive,
abundantly available and a symbol of self-reliance in a fiercely
competitive world," PAEC said in a statement, adding that the new
plants were needed to meet electricity needs.
Once up and running, the new plants will increase the share of
nuclear power to 10 percent of the country's total energy needs.
Currently, Pakistan has two nuclear power plants, the 84-megawatt
Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KANUPP) in the southern port city of
Karachi and the 300-megawatt Chashma Nuclear Power Plant
(CHASNUPP) near the Punjab town of Mianwali.
PAEC plans to construct the new plants at the two sites -
KANUPP-II and CHASNUPP-II - as part of a national energy strategy
where the nuclear option has a "firm footing", it says.
The location of CHASNUPP-II, though, has stirred the same
arguments against the construction as when CHASNUPP-I was first
proposed two years ago. At that time, environmentalists argued
that since the Chashma plant would draw water from the
Chashma-Jhelum link canal and discharge it into the Indus River,
this posed a serious potential risk in the event of an accident.
These fears still exist today. But while the PAEC says that the
construction of the two power plants will "begin soon", the
Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) says that it has
no specific information on these projects.
"We have not been contacted by the PAEC for the approval of the
prerequisite environmental impact assessment [EIA] of the
projects,"says Asif Shuja Khan, the director general of Pak-EPA.
According to Pakistan's 1997 environment law, all new public and
private sector projects, including power plants, must have their
EIAs approved by either the federal or the concerned provincial
EPA.
Critics are particularly perturbed by the secrecy and
non-transparency exhibited by PAEC, demanding public discussion
on the need for greater reliance on nuclear energy. "They [PAEC]
black out all information that should otherwise be shared with
the public," says Dr A H Nayyar, a nuclear physicist and an
anti-nuclear activist.
Concerns about transparency arise essentially from the fact that
PAEC has also been involved in the development of nuclear
weapons. "They [PAEC] have overlaps with the country's
defense-related nuclear and missile program," Nayyar says.
"This is the major reason why they are always hesitant to open up
even their peaceful nuclear energy program to the public for
scrutiny, whether for safety or accounting and auditing
purposes," commented Najum Mushataq, a former research fellow
with the US-based Bulletin for Atomic Scientists.
Mushataq is also skeptical about the rationale advocated by PAEC
in favor of nuclear energy. "More needs to be done to utilize the
renewable energy sources. Once we have exhausted other sources of
energy, then we can consider the nuclear option," he argued.
For instance, one official study estimates that Pakistan uses
less than 10 percent of its water resources for energy
generation. It has around 20 oil and gas-fired power plants run
by private power producers. Apart from these, public sector firms
- the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), the Karachi
Electric Supply Corporation (KESC), KANUPP and CHASNUPP - are
involved in power generation, transmission and distribution of
electricity in the country.
Of the nation's total power generation capacity, WAPDA's share is
55 percent, followed by the private sector at 31.3 percent, KESC
and others at 11.2 percent and nuclear energy at 2.6 percent
during 2001 to 2002. Pakistan currently has a power generation
capacity of 18,062 megawatts to serve the needs of 12.5 million
registered electricity consumers.
While PAEC officials justify the new plants, saying that they are
necessary in view of the nation's limited hydroelectric and
fossil fuel resources and ever-rising demand for electricity -
they are tight-lipped about the costs to be incurred by the new
plants.
In their defense, PAEC officials claim that the energy they
supply to the WAPDA for distribution is cheaper than that
produced by other energy sources, especially when compared to gas
and fired-power plants, they say. But Nayyar says this is a
non-verifiable claim, as "we don't even know what financial
allocations the PAEC gets".
The safety aspects of nuclear power plants are also worrisome for
critics, although PAEC says that the country's safety record is
immaculate and approved by the International Atomic Energy
Commission (IAEA). The country has a nuclear regulatory body, but
its credibility has been called into doubt.
"The Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Board is supposed to be an
independent body to keep an eye particularly on safety aspects of
nuclear-related sites," says Nayyar. "But we all know it is
headed by a retired PAEC official and is just an outgrowth of the
PAEC. How could it be independent?" he asks, suggesting that its
membership be expanded to include citizens' representatives.
(Inter Press Service)
Copyright Asia Times Online, 6306 The Center, Queen’s Road,
Central, Hong Kong.
*****************************************************************
20 Shut German Unterweser nuke has faulty cooler
Planet Ark :
GERMANY: November 25, 2002
FRANKFURT - The safety authority supervising utility E.ON AG's
the shut 1,410 megawatt (MW) German Unterweser nuclear plant said
last week examination of the plant had found faults in the
cooling system.
"The fault is concerning the width and strength of the
welding seams," the Lower Saxony environment ministry said in a
statememt, adding it had requested a report from E.ON on the
error.
A ministry spokeswoman declined to comment on what impact the
findings would have on the restart of the plant or whether the
repairs would take longer than expected.
The government statement follows talk in the German power market
that Unterweser would not rejoin the grid before the end of the
year.
The plant went off-line on August 10 for regular maintenance,
was recommissioned on September 3, but was then taken off the
grid again the day after, due to technical faults.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
*****************************************************************
21 Warthogs' Aid in Afghan Ground War
Guardian Unlimited | World Latest |
Monday November 25, 2002 2:00 PM
BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) - Air Force Capt. Brian Savage had a
less-than-dignified reaction when he first flew an A-10 fighter
jet called a Warthog.
``I felt like I was driving a dump truck,'' said Savage, 28, of
the 354th Fighter Squadron from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base near
Tucson, Ariz. But the slow- and low-flying Warthog is maligned no
more, as it has become the mainstay of the U.S. ground war in
Afghanistan.
The stubby-nosed jet is funny-looking when compared to the other
arrows in the U.S. Air Force's quiver - sleek, pointy-nosed jets
like the F-16 or F-15.
But the jet has gone from being an attack aircraft designed to
bust tanks and aid ground troops engaged in battle to being the
patrolling and pinpoint-attacking fighter plane of the U.S. war.
Eight A-10s are based at Bagram, headquarters for the U.S.
military operations in Afghanistan, flying sorties day and night
over the arid terrain.
``It's not the beauty plane on the ramp but it works just fine
for us,'' said Capt. Rob MacGregor, 30, who's flown 23 sorties
over Afghanistan since arriving six weeks ago.
The jets fly close air support for regular and special forces
soldiers combing Afghanistan for weapons caches and remnants of
al-Qaida or the ousted Taliban regime.
Because the few tanks and heavy armored equipment used by the
Taliban were quickly destroyed by the U.S. forces last year, the
A-10s now patrol the skies looking for rocket launch sites or
mortar posts.
``They've become the patrolmen on the beat,'' said Col. Gregory
Marston, 46, who commands the 455th Expeditionary Operations
Group overseeing the A-10s and most airfield operations at
Bagram.
Just last week, A-10s responding to a call from U.S. special
forces near the eastern Afghan town of Asadabad dropped two
500-pound bombs and fired hundreds of 30mm explosive rounds at a
suspected enemy target. It's unknown whether there were any
casualties from the attack.
The A-10s, which cost about $9 million each, are designed to
loiter just hundreds of feet over the battlefield at a relatively
slow speed of 200 mph - more than 300 mph slower that their
British-built counterparts, the Harrier jet.
To compensate for the relative lack of speed, designers clad the
pilot's cockpit in a 900-pound ``titanium bathtub'' able to
withstand most anti-aircraft fire. Self-sealing fuel tanks
guarantee the aircraft will not explode if shot. The jets will
also fly if the hydraulic systems are damaged and will stay
airborne long enough for the pilot to eject if a wing is shot
off.
``It's more vulnerable, but it's built to take a lot,'' Savage
said.
Each plane carries an arsenal that includes heat-seeking
missiles, 500- to 2,000-pound bombs, laser-guided bombs and a
Volkswagen-sized Gatling cannon that can fire nearly 4,000 rounds
a minute. If tanks are the target, the jets fires ammunition
tipped with depleted uranium.
When they were first designed in the 1970s, the A-10s were an
unwelcome addition to the Air Force arsenal. Air Force officials
prized the high-flying, high-performance F-15 and F-16 jets, and
were determined to leave the dirty work of close air support to
Army helicopters.
But the plane was kept alive by the work of some Air Force
analysts, along with the support of the late Rep. Joseph Addabbo,
who represented the Farmingdale, N.Y., district where the A-10s
were built.
In 1991, the planes proved their mettle in the Persian Gulf War,
destroying more than 1,000 tanks, 2,000 military vehicles and
1,200 artillery pieces. According to several reports, pairs of
A-10s destroyed 20 or more tanks in a single day. Five A-10s were
shot down during the war, far fewer than military planners
expected.
In the 1980s, military planners intended the A-10s to fly low,
slow missions to counter divisions of Soviet tanks stationed in
eastern Europe.
In Afghanistan, however, the jets operate at higher altitudes,
out of range of surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft fire.
They maintain a vigil for combat troops, now that operations have
turned from large-scale bombing to pinpoint raids. No A-10s have
been shot down and few have even been damaged.
``It's a warhorse. It's not a pretty thing but it's effective and
that's saved it from the boneyard,'' Marston said.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
*****************************************************************
22 Gulf War report a whitewash - veterans
Nov 25 2002
By The Journal
Army veterans have branded a new report into Gulf War Syndrome
commissioned by military top brass a "whitewash" after it said
exposure to noxious chemicals was not the cause of their
illnesses.
The report, produced by the Government-backed Gulf War Illness
Research Unit (GWIRU), concluded that health problems reported by
veterans could not be blamed on vaccines used during the 1991
war, as some had claimed.
The findings were last night greeted with anger by Shaun Rusling,
North-based chairman of the National Gulf Veterans' Association,
who said the report lacked both impartiality and credibility.
Many Gulf War Syndrome sufferers, backed by alternative academic
research, believe that their condition is related to the use of
organophosphates in insect repellent issued to soldiers fighting
in Iraq and Kuwait.
Others have linked the symptoms - which include muscle fatigue,
loss of co-ordination and even problems encountered by sufferers
of autism - to the use of vaccines and even the depleted uranium
ammunition during the conflict.
The Journal-backed campaign for justice for sufferers has now
been running for almost a decade.
The MoD funded the latest research, carried out at Guy's, King's
and St Thomas's Joint School of Medicine in London, in what they
say was the most intensive neurological study of Gulf War
soldiers in Britain to date.
Forty-nine veterans with neurological symptoms - national
estimates say a total of 35,000 are suffering some sort of
illness - were given exhaustive medical examinations, alongside a
further 29 who had experienced no problems.
The results were then compared to servicemen who had fought in
Bosnia, as well as other personnel.
While the research team found there was no evidence that Gulf War
veterans' symptoms were linked to brain damage, they did agree
that their general health was poorer than that found in other
groups of soldiers. That, says Mr Rusling, who served as a medic
during the Gulf War, is a complete contradiction.
"This is not surprising, given that the paper was funded by the
MoD. Veterans were exposed to low level radiation, classified
vaccines and anti-nerve gas pills in the Gulf.
"This has become a national disgrace, but the more the MoD tries
to hide this away, the more they will be disbelieved.
"All these desperately ill servicemen can't be wrong, but the MoD
seems to be well and truly above the law."
But Professor Simon Wessely, who co-authored the report, said it
was now clear that the health effects plaguing many of those who
served in Operation Desert Storm was not associated with the
brain or nervous system. "There is no smoking gun," he said.
"There is no new disease that causes Gulf War Syndrome. There is
a Gulf War health effect."
However, Malcolm Hooper, Emeritus Professor of Medicinal
Chemistry at Sunderland University who has advised several
veteran's groups, also claims the findings are seriously flawed.
He believes the problems stem from damage to the central nervous
system.
"For this survey not to find any evidence of neurological damage
makes me very suspicious," he said.
"I find this research unpersuasive and statistically
insignificant."
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: "We note that the
authors found no evidence for a specific neuro-muscular disorder
that could be linked to deployment in the Gulf conflict. This
should reassure all veterans."
*****************************************************************
23 Rarer form of childhood cancer pops up in Fallon leukemia cluster
[fmullen@rgj.com]
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL 11/24/2002 09:22 pm
[Joshua Delong, 2, of Fallon, is being treated for a form of
cancer even rarer than childhood leukemia. - Marilyn Newton/RGJ]
[mnewton@rgj.com] /RGJ Joshua Delong, 2, of Fallon, is being
treated for a form of cancer even rarer than childhood leukemia.
THE FACE OF CANCER: B0Y, 2, RESPONDS TO TREATMENT; HAIR GROWING
BACK Frank X. Mullen Jr.
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
FALLON -- Joshua Delong, 2, is a lucky little boy, even though
he was diagnosed with a rare cancer earlier this year.
“We were lucky it was caught early,” said Steve Delong, Joshua’s
dad. “We noticed a lump when he was in the bathtub and even
though doctors first thought it was a cyst or a hydro cell. He
had surgery at Carson-Tahoe Hospital and it was finally diagnosed
as rhabdomyosarcoma.”
Rhabdomyosarcoma is a rare form of soft-tissue cancer that is
diagnosed in about 600 to 700 children per year, doctors said. A
pediatric oncologist may see one or so cases per year and family
doctors may practice for 20 years without ever seeing a case.
The cancer is so unusual that no figures exist for how many
cases doctors might expect to see in Nevada, but the national
average is about four cases in every million children, according
to the National Cancer Institute.
One case in Fallon in 10 years might not be out of the ordinary,
experts said, but the area’s 16 cases of childhood leukemia since
1997 is definitely a cancer “cluster.”
An Arizona researcher recently confirmed that in Fallon and in
four other areas where leukemia clusters are confirmed or
suspected, cases of rhabdomyosarcoma also appear. That may mean
there’s a link between the two diseases, or it may mean nothing,
experts said.
Delong said his son’s doctors at Stanford University’s Lucille
Salter Packard Children’s Hospital told him that there are no
known environmental causes associated with rhabdomyosarcoma. He
said he didn’t automatically associate his son’s case with the
area’s leukemia cluster.
“We’ve spent very little time wondering why he got sick or how
he got sick,” he said. “I don’t know if the leukemia and the
rhabdomyosarcoma are linked or not.
“All we know is that our son is sick and we are focused on doing
everything we can to help him get better.”
Joshua is getting better, he said, and his prognosis is
excellent. The boy has responded well to the chemotherapy and is
taking his treatment in stride, his dad said.
“He doesn’t have the energy level he used to have but he still
runs around and does his thing,” Delong said. “He lost his hair
but it’s starting to grow back now.
“He just treats everything as part of a routine and accepts it.
He just wants to help out. He’d draw his own blood if we let
him.”
Joshua should be finished with his treatment in April and
doctors said he has less than a 5 percent chance that the cancer
will recur.
“We’re lucky,” Delong said. “I know that every time we go to
treatment and see kids in worse shape than Joshua.”
He said his family’s Mormon faith has helped them deal with a
problem they never could have imagined a year ago.
“The Lord prepares us for different things,” he said. “We don’t
understand why things happen, and I guess we never will
understand.”
An investigation into the Fallon leukemia cluster has uncovered
cases of an even rarer childhood cancer in Fallon and in three
other small towns with unexplained leukemia spikes.
Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), a rare childhood cancer that attacks
muscle tissue, has turned up in Fallon and in at least three
other areas where leukemia clusters have been documented, an
Arizona researcher said.
Experts said it’s unknown if the unexpected appearance of the
disease has any bearing on the leukemia outbreaks. But some
scientists said finding two unexpected disease rates in the same
small communities is worth probing because it may lead to clues
to the causes of both diseases.
“Rhabdomyosarcoma is 10-fold rarer than acute lymphocytic
leukemia and yet we see this correlation in at least four areas
with ALL clusters,” said Mark Witten, a toxicologist and
pediatrics professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “Is
it more than chance?”
Witten, who has been investigating the Fallon and Sierra Vista,
Ariz., cancer outbreaks independent of government health
investigators, said the discovery could be significant in helping
to pin down similarities in the clusters.
Since 1997, childhood leukemia has been diagnosed in 16 children
with ties to Fallon and three of those patients have died. The
expected rate of childhood leukemia in the Fallon area is about
one case every five years, doctors said, making Fallon the
fastest-growing leukemia cluster on record.
This year, a 2-year-old Fallon boy was diagnosed with
rhabdomyosarcoma. Three other places with leukemia clusters — in
Arizona, California and Kansas — also have recorded cases of the
disease, a type of cancer called a soft-tissue sarcoma.
“Expected” rates of rhabdomyosarcoma, are about four cases in a
million children, according to the National Cancer Institute.
That means between 600 and 700 cases could be expected in the
U.S. each year, cancer doctors said.
Fallon has one case; Sierra Vista, where nine children have been
diagnosed with leukemia since 1995, has two confirmed cases of
rhabdomyosarcoma. Suspected leukemia outbreaks in the Elk Grove
area near Sacramento, which has 10 cases of acute lymphocytic
leukemia (ALL), and in a small town in Kansas, with five cases of
ALL, also have one patient with the soft-tissue cancer.
But those facts aren’t proof of a definite relationship, cancer
researchers and doctors said.
Dr. Jonathan Ducore, a children’s cancer doctor at the University
of California, Davis, Medical Center, said he sees about two or
three cases of rhabdomyosarcoma each year. He said while
childhood cancer is rare, and RMS is a rare kind of childhood
cancer, there’s been no definite link between leukemia and
rhabdomyosarcoma. He said there’s also no hard proof that RMS has
an environmental cause.
“At some point, there eventually would be a case of rhabdo in any
of those small towns,” he said. “Finding leukemia clusters in
association with rhabdomyosarcoma doesn’t automatically imply a
relationship. There could be one, but I don’t know of an
association between RMS and leukemia.”
Karen Montgomery, a geneticist at the University of New Mexico
who is working with Witten on the cancer clusters investigation,
said at least one genetic similarity exists between alveolar RMS,
which represents about 25 percent of rhabdomyosarcoma cases, and
a type of acute lymphocytic leukemia.
She cautioned that the work is preliminary and follow up
research will be complex.
“Maybe the cancers of the blood, leukemia, and soft-tissue
cancers like rhabdomyosarcoma are very similar, but we haven’t
figured out the data yet,” she said. “As far as we know right now
there are major genetic differences between the two types of
rhabdomyosarcoma and among the types of leukemia.
“But the more we look, the more we learn. None of this is cut
and dried. Who knows what we may find out?”
Although doctors and medical researchers said there is no proof
that RMS is environmentally caused, some studies suggest that
children who are exposed to chemicals, or who have fathers who
smoke, have a greater incidence of the disease.
Ducore said that since the treatment of RMS and the leukemias is
well established, most doctors don’t look far beyond the initial
diagnosis to examine the DNA or look for sub-types of the
disease. But he said all doctors are interested in what may cause
cancer and he said he applauds the work of researchers who may
someday find the roots of diseases, especially childhood cancers.
“I’m for anything that might suggest causation or come up with
the mechanism that causes RMS or any other cancer,” he said.
“With gene research, it looks like we may get to that point. But
we just don’t know enough now.”
He said random chance might be the best explanation for the
presence of RMS alongside four leukemia clusters.
“But there’s two general types of rhabdo, embryonal and
alveolar, and if all the cases are the same type, that would make
me wonder a lot more,” he said. “But chance could account for the
diseases being found together.”
Witten said he doesn’t know if all the RMS cases he’s heard
about are the same type, but he said he plans to find out. He
said he also plans to compare other factors in the four areas.
So far, he’s spent $10,000 of his own funds in analyzing tree
ring data from Fallon and Sierra Vista and in doing other
research into the outbreaks. Witten takes what is known from
other research and then looks for correlation, he said.
For example, federal health investigators announced this year
that high levels of the metal tungsten were found in the urine of
80 percent of 205 people tested in Fallon and in the town’s water
supply. Soon after, Witten and tree ring expert Paul Sheppard of
the University of Arizona found that tungsten levels in trees
sampled in Fallon and Sierra Vista have been increasing during
the last 15 years.
Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said
there are no known health risks for dissolved tungsten and said
they aren’t looking into the matter further. The CDC said it has
requested that the National Toxicology Project research the
metal, but that process could take years.
Fallon officials have said there’s no reason to filter tungsten
from the municipal water supply because the metal has no known
health risks in its dissolved form.
But Witten is following the trail of the tungsten. Last month,
Witten and Sheppard took tree ring samples for a south Sacramento
suburb where seven cases of ALL have been reported and one case
of rhabdomyosarcoma has been confirmed. He said he plans to take
tree ring cores in a small Kansas town, which has a population of
2,000 people, five cases of childhood leukemia, and one reported
case of rhabdomyosarcoma.
Witten and Sheppard already have documented increases in
tungsten levels representing 15 to 20 years in tree ring samples
from Fallon and Sierra Vista. They said they can’t draw any
conclusions from those results.
“If I see increased levels of tungsten, childhood leukemia, and
rhabdomyosarcoma all four places, Fallon, Sierra Vista, Elk
Grove, Calif., and in Kansas, then I will believe that we are on
to something,” Witten said. “But we need to do the tree ring
analysis for Elk Grove and Kansas, and need to verify the disease
cases in both areas.
“It’s worth looking into.”
DETAILS
Facts about a rare disease
o Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) accounts for about 5 percent of all
childhood cancers and about four cases show up in a million
children. The peak incidence is in the 1- to 5-year-old age
group.
o RMS is a disease in which malignant cells begin growing in
muscle tissue somewhere in the body. It is a type of sarcoma,
which means a cancer of the bone, soft tissues, or connective
tissue like tendons or cartilage.
o The disease begins in the soft tissues in a type of muscle
called striated muscle. It can occur anywhere in the body, but is
most common in the head and neck, experts said.
o About 30 percent of RMS patients die of the disease. More than
70 percent enjoy long-term survival. Early diagnosis is extremely
important to survival. The cancer is treated with surgery,
chemotherapy and/or radiation.
o Its cause is unknown, but some studies link the disease to
genetic predisposition and a few studies indicate that
environmental factors, such as fathers who smoke or chemical
exposures, may play a role.
Sources: National Cancer Institute, Children’s Oncology Group,
and Reno Gazette-Journal research.
© Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a [http://www.gannett.com]
*****************************************************************
24 Former nuclear workers here wait for promised restitution
stltoday.com
By Sara Shipley Of the Post-Dispatch 11/24/2002 03:52 AM
Some lost limbs to cancer. Some lost their lives.
Others can't quite remember - or would rather forget - the
painful details about their work in the secretive, dangerous
*nuclear* weapons industry.
But hundreds of former *nuclear* weapons workers in the St. Louis
area are clear about two things:
One, they want compensation for the radiation damage they
suffered while helping to make America into an atomic superpower.
And two, Denise Brock is the woman they hope will help them.
Two years after the federal government began a $1.7 billion
program to compensate tens of thousands of "Cold War warriors,"
fewer than 6,000 people actually have been paid.
An estimated 2,500 St. Louis-area workers at plants from Weldon
Spring to Granite City may qualify. But only 259 of them have
applied for the $150,000 lump sum, and just one claim has been
paid in the St. Louis area, according to federal records.
Brock, a mother of two from Moscow Mills in Lincoln County, is on
a mission to change that. She has started a grass-roots campaign
to organize the workers and persuade Congress to give a special
status to the St. Louis-area workers or their survivors.
Otherwise, applicants must undergo a cumbersome process, using
old records to prove that they received doses of radiation strong
enough to cause their particular illnesses. The government has
completed only 36 such "dose reconstruction" cases out of more
than 35,000 claims filed nationwide.
"It's a massive challenge. We're doing the best that we can,"
said Larry Elliott, a director at the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health, which is in charge of dose
reconstructions.
Brock isn't so patient. "That's ridiculous," she said, her voice
rising as she talked recently to a group of former workers over
hamburgers at a St. Charles diner. Everyone nodded in agreement.
Dolores Stuckenschneider, 67, of Ballwin, a former Mallinckrodt
Chemical Co. secretary, had battled breast cancer. Jerry Hahn,
66, of St. Peters, a former Weldon Spring chemical operator and
electrical apprentice, was told in 1994 that he had lung cancer.
People are calling Brock a Missouri version of Erin Brockovich
because of her frosted lipstick and blond hair - and her dogged
determination. Brockovich, the real-life hero of the Hollywood
movie, helped win a $333 million settlement for small-town
residents whose drinking water had been contaminated.
Both women are legal researchers from blue-collar backgrounds.
And both refuse to be daunted by overwhelming difficulties.
It's personal for Brock. She watched her father, Christopher
Davis, slowly die of lung cancer at age 56 in 1978 after he
worked 20 years at Mallinckrodt Chemical Co.'s Destrehan Street
plant in St. Louis. Brock remembers spending Christmases at
Barnes Hospital while her mother, Evelyn Coffelt, took extra jobs
to make ends meet.
Brock herself has given up paying jobs while she volunteers long
days to help the *nuclear* workers. Her family gets by on the
salary of her husband, Dallas Brock, an ironworker.
"The burden of proof should be on the government, not the
workers," Brock says. "They did their patriotic duty, and they
were put in harm's way through no fault of their own."
Her quest to have this area's workers granted special status
could be a long shot. Thousands of workers at some 300 plants
across the nation face similar barriers and delays in having
their claims processed. But Brock believes St. Louis may be a
special case. Whether she succeeds will be determined by factors
scientific and political.
What Brock wants is something called "special exposure cohort"
status. Congress gave this exemption to *nuclear* workers from
just four locations - Paducah, Ky.; Portsmouth, Ohio; Oak Ridge,
Tenn.; and Amchitka Island, Alaska. The first three were gaseous
diffusion plants that enriched uranium to make atomic bombs. The
Alaska site conducted underground *nuclear* tests.
To be compensated, workers from those sites need only to document
their employment and show that they have one of 22 cancers known
to be caused by radiation.
Lawmakers gave those workers the benefit of the doubt after news
reports revealed in 1999 that uranium at the gaseous diffusion
plants contained plutonium. The workers had not been told that
they had been exposed to plutonium, which is thousands of times
more radioactive than natural uranium. Just one-millionth of an
ounce can cause cancer. The Amchitka workers were added because
of a lack of radiation-exposure monitoring data.
Questionable data
Brock says both of the key factors used in granting special
cohort status - the presence of plutonium and a lack of reliable
data - apply to many of the St. Louis-area workers as well.
The U.S. Department of Energy released a report last year
acknowledging for the first time that workers processed
plutonium-laced uranium at the Weldon Spring plant.
According to the report, about 70,000 metric tons of uranium
recycled from *nuclear* reactors passed through the plant. The
material contained 2.4 grams of plutonium, along with other
highly toxic byproducts such as neptunium and technetium-99. The
amount of plutonium at Weldon Spring had to be estimated.
Brock also doesn't trust the exposure data the government
collected on workers.
Many took regular physicals and gave samples of urine and sputum.
They wore monitoring badges that were supposed to record the
amount of radiation they received. Some workers were the subjects
of epidemiological studies showing a higher-than-normal cancer
rate.
Brock has personally talked to at least 400 workers, many of whom
believe their data was purposely lost or manipulated.
Leroy A. Triplett of Washington, Mo., who worked at Weldon Spring
for seven years, said he accidentally dropped his radiation badge
into a pot of orange oxide, a potent form of uranium, and then
left it there for eight hours just to see what would happen. No
one ever questioned the badge reading.
Before workers took urine tests, plant officials "encouraged you
to drink beer, because it would flush out your system," said
Triplett, 65, who had colon cancer in 1998.
Getting organized
Brock has held several meetings of a group dubbed the *Nuclear*
Weapons Workers of the St. Louis Area. Each meeting has had a
bigger turnout of workers and their survivors.
Jim Mitulski of O'Fallon, Mo., who worked for 10 years at Weldon
Spring, is still preparing his claim. As a foreman, he had to
move 3,000-pound pallets of uranium that were so "hot" he had to
keep them at least three feet apart or they could explode.
Now 82, Mitulski walks with a prosthesis and a cane after having
half his foot removed because of a rare form of cancer.
He doesn't see why he should have to go through dose
reconstruction, nor how the government could possibly calculate
it properly. "The minute you walked through that gate, you should
be qualified," he said.
Federal officials acknowledge that the compensation program has
been slow getting started, but they say it's only fair to ensure
that the workers who deserve payments get the money.
"The idea is to do it in an objective, scientific manner," said Peter
Turcic, who directs the compensation program for the Department of Labor.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's Office of
Compensation Analysis and Support, which Larry Elliott runs, is
responsible for dose reconstructions. It also must set up rules,
expected by next spring, on how other groups can attain special cohort
status. Under the law, new groups may be added if dose reconstruction is
impossible, and if radiation harmed the workers.
However, Elliott believes the institute has enough data to accurately
estimate the radiation exposure of workers at all the sites - including
those sites that were exempted. Scientifically, there's no reason why
the four sites should be treated differently, he says.
But there may be a political reason, he added. "There were some very
powerful people involved in the process of this legislation," he said.
"Those people did what they did for their constituencies, I guess."
Soon, a government contractor, Oak Ridge Associated Universities, will
begin to churn out radiation estimates under a $70 million, five-year
contract. Elliott hopes the contractor will be completing 200 cases a
week by late next year.
Reporter Sara Shipley:
E-mail: sshipley@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8215
*****************************************************************
25 Yucca Mountain Project workers say site problems kept quiet
Nevada Appeal
November 25, 2002
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS -- Some workers at the Yucca Mountain Project said
there were flaws in the process scientists used to determine
whether the site was suitable for disposing the nation's nuclear
waste.
At least two workers claim they were either fired or transferred
after raising concerns about the project's safety, the Las Vegas
Review-Journal reported in its Sunday editions.
Robert Clark and Jim Mattimoe, both quality assurance
specialists, said they were shoved aside so lingering problems
would remain silent at Yucca.
U.S. Labor Department records show the men might have been
mistreated because they believed the project was cutting corners
to meet looming deadlines.
The Department of Energy earlier this year recommended that more
than 77,000 tons of the nation's deadliest nuclear waste be
buried at Yucca Mountain, located 100 miles northwest of Las
Vegas.
President Bush and Congress have since approved plans to build a
repository at Yucca Mountain. The first shipment of nuclear waste
could arrive in 2010.
Mattimoe, 52, said he was fired after he made allegations of
wrongdoing and corruption to Lake Barrett. At the time, Barrett
was in charge of the DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste
Management, which oversaw the Yucca Mountain Project.
Barrett declined to comment on Mattimoe's termination or Clark's
transfer other than to say, "I'm personally satisfied with the
actions that I took."
Mattimore said wrongdoing included withholding evidence and
attributing statements to people who had never been interviewed
about concerns with the project.
"The concerns program, which is much like an internal affairs
division in a police department, is chartered to perform
unbiased, independent investigations into any type of concern
that could impact the safety of the project and the public," he
said.
"I identified that the concerns program was corrupt and thereby
raised questions about the credibility of all investigations for
a period of nearly 10 years," Mattimoe said.
Mattimoe was fired by Navarro Research and Engineering, a quality
assurance contractor hired by DOE.
A Labor Department investigator later determined that part of the
reason Navarro fired Mattimoe was it had been urged to do so by
Barrett. The inspector described Barrett's actions as
"extraordinarily egregious."
In a Sept. 13 report, the Labor Department ordered Navarro to
reinstate Mattimoe, expunge his personnel file and reimburse him
for costs incurred.
The report states that Susana Navarro, president of Navarro
Research and Engineering, was motivated to fire Mattimoe "at
least in part to her fear that she might not receive future
extensions or contracts with DOE unless she took this action."
Navarro is appealing the Labor Department ruling. Mattimoe now is
working at the Los Alamos, N.M., national laboratory.
Susana Navarro said an audit by a prominent law firm found "among
other things, that Mr. Mattimoe's conduct as a program manager
for SAIC (the previous contractor) was inconsistent with a safety
conscious work environment.
"I based my decision on the findings of this report, and I really
believe that I did the right thing," she wrote.
But the Labor Department report says the law firm's audit is
nothing more than a "sophisticated recitation of anonymous
charges."
Some of the federal documents cited by the Review-Journal were
obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
/Copyright Nevada Appeal
*****************************************************************
26 Canada may assign $100 mln for nuclear waste disposal in Russia*
25.11.2002 14:18:05
MOSCOW. Nov 25 (Interfax) - Canada plans to assign $100 million
for programs to dispose of radioactive wastes and decommissioned
nuclear submarines in Russia.
A spokesman for the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry has told
Interfax that the question was discussed at a Monday meeting of
Atomic Energy Ministry Alexander Rumyantsev and Canadian Foreign
Minister Bill Graham.
The Russian ministry funds 80% of the submarine disposal
program. In 2001 it spent 1.2 billion rubles on the effort.
According to the ministry, out of over 250 nuclear submarines,
189 had been decommissioned in Russia by January 1, 2001, 126 are
waiting for disposal and 104 of them contain spent nuclear fuel.
© 1991-2002 *Interfax, All rights reserved* News and other data
on this
*****************************************************************
27 Yucca Mountain Project workers say site problems kept quiet
Las Vegas SUN:
November 24, 2002
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Some workers at the Yucca Mountain Project said
there were flaws in the process scientists used to determine
whether the site was suitable for disposing the nation's nuclear
waste.
At least two workers claim they were either fired or transferred
after raising concerns about the project's safety, the Las Vegas
Review-Journal reported in its Sunday editions.
Robert Clark and Jim Mattimoe, both quality assurance
specialists, said they were shoved aside so lingering problems
would remain silent at Yucca.
U.S. Labor Department records show the men might have been
mistreated because they believed the project was cutting corners
to meet looming deadlines.
The Department of Energy earlier this year recommended that more
than 77,000 tons of the nation's deadliest nuclear waste be
buried at Yucca Mountain, located 100 miles northwest of Las
Vegas.
President Bush and Congress have since approved plans to build a
repository at Yucca Mountain. The first shipment of nuclear waste
could arrive in 2010.
Mattimoe, 52, said he was fired after he made allegations of
wrongdoing and corruption to Lake Barrett. At the time, Barrett
was in charge of the DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste
Management, which oversaw the Yucca Mountain Project.
Barrett declined to comment on Mattimoe's termination or Clark's
transfer other than to say, "I'm personally satisfied with the
actions that I took."
Mattimore said wrongdoing included withholding evidence and
attributing statements to people who had never been interviewed
about concerns with the project.
"The concerns program, which is much like an internal affairs
division in a police department, is chartered to perform
unbiased, independent investigations into any type of concern
that could impact the safety of the project and the public," he
said.
"I identified that the concerns program was corrupt and thereby
raised questions about the credibility of all investigations for
a period of nearly 10 years," Mattimoe said.
Mattimoe was fired by Navarro Research and Engineering, a quality
assurance contractor hired by DOE.
A Labor Department investigator later determined that part of the
reason Navarro fired Mattimoe was it had been urged to do so by
Barrett. The inspector described Barrett's actions as
"extraordinarily egregious."
In a Sept. 13 report, the Labor Department ordered Navarro to
reinstate Mattimoe, expunge his personnel file and reimburse him
for costs incurred.
The report states that Susana Navarro, president of Navarro
Research and Engineering, was motivated to fire Mattimoe "at
least in part to her fear that she might not receive future
extensions or contracts with DOE unless she took this action."
Navarro is appealing the Labor Department ruling. Mattimoe now is
working at the Los Alamos, N.M., national laboratory.
Susana Navarro said an audit by a prominent law firm found "among
other things, that Mr. Mattimoe's conduct as a program manager
for SAIC (the previous contractor) was inconsistent with a safety
conscious work environment.
"I based my decision on the findings of this report, and I really
believe that I did the right thing," she wrote.
But the Labor Department report says the law firm's audit is
nothing more than a "sophisticated recitation of anonymous
charges."
Some of the federal documents cited by the Review-Journal were
obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal
All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
28 Almelo trip gives Thompson new outlook on uranium plant
The News Examiner Online
By Clay Carey News Editor
A tour of Urenco’s uranium enrichment plant in The Netherlands
last week gave Sumner County Executive Hank Thompson a new
perception of a similar facility proposed in Hartsville.
And Thompson said he hopes to present what he and officials from
four other counties learned from the trip during a televised
address in upcoming weeks.
“Would I vote to approve it in Sumner County? Yes I would,”
Thompson said in an interview Thursday.
“I don’t think there would be any problem with it in
Hendersonville, or Gallatin, or Portland, or any of our
industrial parks, if they meet the stipulations we put forth.”
Thompson joined a 20-person contingency of government officials
and plant opponents from Sumner, Smith, Wilson, Macon and
Trousdale counties for the trip to Almelo, a town of 70,000 near
the German border, to tour a Urenco uranium processing plant.
The plant there is similar to one Urenco-affiliated group
Louisiana Energy Services has proposed in Trousdale County.
“I feel, and always have felt, that communication will solve 90
percent of all problems – I think they (LES) solved a lot of
problems,” Thompson said.
“Every question anybody wanted to ask got answered. It was a
worthwhile trip.”
He said he is planning a public broadcast television program,
which would air in Sumner County sometime between Thanksgiving
and Christmas, to address the issue locally.
“People are telling me ‘Hank, give us some kind of report,’”
Thompson said. “It’s been very hard to sit down and figure out
how we’re going to get this message out.”
The program is still in its planning stage, but Thompson said it
will likely not be a “public forum-type program.”
Thompson’s program could include filmed footage from The
Netherlands trip and, the county executive said, testimony on the
plant’s affect on the area shared with the group by Urenco
officials, government leaders and nearby residents.
“We talked to neighbors who lived on farms behind it. We talked
to people in restaurants. We talked to people in the hotel,”
Thompson said.
“I sat next to the mayor at dinner one night. He told me we and
the people in Hartsville are in the same place they were 30 years
ago.”
When the plant was proposed there, Almelo’s mayor told Thompson,
it met mounds of opposition from across Europe.
But today, “the people of Almelo are satisfied. They have
accepted the plant and are not in fear of it,” Thompson said.
“And I was in more fear for my life going 100 mph in a taxi going
to the airport than I was at any time near that plant.”
Thompson said his major concerns about the plant – what affects
it would have on surrounding air and water and how radioactive
materials used there would be shipped and stored – were addressed
by officials at the Almelo plant.
The plant would be constructed near the Smith/Trousdale county
line on a site near the Cumberland River, upstream from Sumner
County.
“I wouldn’t want to do anything to harm the beauty of that river,
or to harm the drinking water,” Thompson said.
He reported officials in The Netherlands told the group their
plant operates on a
“closed loop system” with no contaminated water leaving the
plant.
“I am satisfied that is not an issue,” Thompson said.
Thompson said his “big issue” with the plant is the storage of
“tails,” usable by-products of the uranium enrichment process
which would be stored in canisters and have low levels of
radiation.
“(In Almelo) they never had anything go wrong with one of those
containers in 30 years,” Thompson said. “I am convinced that’s
one of the safest places to put it.
“For every 50 tons of finished product in a gassy state that they
ship out … they have 200 tons of tails,” Thompson said.
He said Urenco scientists are working to find a way to
efficiently use the tails and, for that reason, they are still
valuable.
Through negotiations with the company, local officials can put a
limit on the percentage of uranium the plant can process. They
can also limit the number of canisters of tails that can be kept
on the site, and how long they may be stored there.
Thompson said he also went to The Netherlands concerned about
rumors of a “dead zone,” where vegetation and animals could not
survive, that could surround the plant.
“The dead zone issue is ridiculous,” Thompson said Thursday.
“There’s a school within one-half mile (of the Almelo plant) – an
elementary school. There’s a high school within five miles.”
Homes, farms that produce cattle and cheese, other businesses and
industries and the city’s largest employer – a food processing
plant – are also nearby, he added.
At a farm behind the plant, the visitors spoke with a 39-year-old
woman who, along with her parents, operate a youth camp.
“She told us, ‘we were just like you. When they brought it in, we
were frightened.’ Now they have a youth camp 50 feet from this
so-called dead zone,” he said.
Thompson chairs the Four Lakes Regional Industrial Development
Board, a body created by TVA to oversee development of the
now-defunct nuclear power plant site LES is eying for its uranium
processing plant.
He said the overseas trip has given him and other local
government officials a better idea of what they should keep in
mind while negotiating with LES over whether or not they will
allow the plant.
“A lot of people are saying it’s a done deal. It’s not a done
deal … now we get ready to negotiate,” he said.
“I’ve read everything I can get my hands on” regarding the “$1.1
billion decision,” Thompson added.
“It will affect not only the five surrounding counties, but the
state, and the whole nation.”
Thompson said the LES-funded trip “gave me an opportunity … to
meet and know something about the other county officials, and
vice versa.
“We all had the same concerns for ourselves and our neighbors …
we were all on the same page. I think these people have
researched and done a lot,” he said.
LES hopes to start work in 2004 and would be ready to open in
2006. Because the site was developed for a nuclear power plant,
groundwork in place will save the company about 5 years’ worth of
construction time. Visit these other Gannett sites for more news
and information from Middle Tennessee.
[http://www.hendersonvillestarnews.com] •
[http://www.tennessean.com]
*****************************************************************
29 Board OKs Yucca Mountain compensation plan -
Friday, November 22, 2002 -
Las Vegas View Neighborhood Newspapers
Payouts, land, water systems part of request
By MARK WAITE VIEW STAFF WRITER
Royalties similar to what Alaska residents receive from the
Alaska pipeline, the transfer of all federal land to private
ownership, and construction of water and sewer systems are
included in an ambitious request passed by members of the
Amargosa Valley Town Board, if the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste
repository project becomes a reality near Lathrop Wells.
While the Nye County Community Protection Plan calls for a U.S.
Department of Energy radiological waste management research
center in Nye County, continued radiological monitoring by the
county, a request to ship the waste by rail and transferring 2
percent of federal land to the county, Amargosa Valley board
members went much further in their requests.
The Nye County Commission on Nov. 5 passed the Amargosa Valley
resolution, asking for a 10- to 20-year capital improvement
program, including: a drinking water system; a sewer treatment
system; a complete system of paved roads; a kindergarten through
12th-grade school; higher education training; primary health
care, an early warning system within a 50-mile radius; emergency
qualified personnel on duty 24 hours a day; local employment from
the project; compensating businesses suffering as a result of
Yucca Mountain; payment in lieu of taxes to cover property taxes
at 2010 levels, the first year of shipments; royalties paid to
local landowners of $1 per assessed value and transfer of all
property under U.S. Bureau of Land Management control.
The resolution states, "Whereas the people and community of
Amargosa Valley will forever have to live with the stigma of a
nuclear waste repository and all the risks and dangers of
unforeseen occurrences and whereas Yucca Mountain repository will
adversely impact the quality of life and lifetime investments in
the region of nearly 2,000 real people so that the entire nation
can benefit."
Doris Jackson, Amargosa Valley Town Board chairwoman, said the
board will vote this week on whether to send copies of the
resolution to U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other government
representatives. She said the local advisory board decided to
take action after Congress passed a bill designating Yucca
Mountain as the site for storage of 77,000 tons of nuclear waste
beginning in 2010.
"We'd better get our hand out. I got it through the county
commissioners and then it will have to go through legislation. It
will have to become a law like they have in other areas," Jackson
said. She said congressional legislation was passed for the DOE
facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., which funded investments in
infrastructure.
Jackson still asked Nye County commissioners whether her board
was asking for too much. Nye County Commissioner Jeff Taguchi
said a lot of those issues are in the county's community
protection plan, like acquiring BLM property and emergency
services. Taguchi said the issue of compensating businesses and
royalty payments may be difficult to pursue, because nuclear
waste isn't a revenue-raising commodity, like Alaskan oil.
However, Nye County Commissioner Cameron McRae said he thought
nuclear waste could be a resource in the future.
Jackson thinks property values will peak in 2010 before nuclear
waste begins to arrive. The resolution would require the DOE to
pay her the equivalent of her 2010 property taxes, or about
$3,000, she told commissioners.
"We are in harm's way, so we want to be paid for it. It might not
happen in my lifetime, but it might happen down the road,"
Jackson said. Regarding the county's community protection plan,
she said, "it didn't get right down to the facts of things and
spell out exactly what they want. So I thought I'll just spell it
out. So that's what we did."
Jackson said some people bought property in Amargosa Valley, then
decided not to move there after they heard the Yucca Mountain
waste dump was going to be nearby. She said real estate
representatives now have to disclose that fact when marketing
property.
The DOE should also be responsible for any negative impact on the
Amargosa Valley economy, said Jackson, who owns the Stateline
Saloon. She has newspapers clippings from around the world of
people who have interviewed her about Yucca Mountain, which lies
20 miles north of the saloon on the California/Nevada state line.
"Like the dairy. They have $20 million invested in it. Suppose
the people who buy the milk won't buy the milk?" she asked. "We
all have big investments and a lot of hard work out here. If our
businesses fail, we should be paid what our highest gross is out
here. If it's $5 million, they should get $5 million a year."
Les Bradshaw, manager of the Nye County Department of Natural
Resources and Federal Facilities, in objections to the
preliminary site evaluation for Yucca Mountain, said the DOE
underestimated water use in Amargosa Valley with 15 to 25 farms
using an average of 2,000 acre-feet of water per year. The county
disagreed that any radioactive plume that escaped from Yucca
Mountain would mix with the entire valley groundwater, stating it
would likely be concentrated into one or more farms.
"If it's going to come, we've got to start this now. It'll take
10 years to go anywhere," Jackson said of the resolution. "So I
thought I would send it to Reid and get it out to everybody."
Taguchi said he was reminded of when Mayor Richard Lucero of
Espanola, N.M., didn't ask for anything when Los Alamos National
Laboratories was first built. While the area boomed with the
scientific community, the town 20 miles away from Los Alamos is
now in economic decline and Lucero is now asking the DOE for
assistance, Taguchi said.
Nye County Deputy District Attorney Eric Levin said a resolution
doesn't carry the force of law, it's only a statement of intent
or desire. Jackson said she thinks other towns like Beatty and
Pahrump will pass similar resolutions. Taguchi said the
resolution could be used when commissioners travel to Washington,
D.C., for talks on Yucca Mountain.
Commissioner Henry Neth, who has criticized press reports that
continually describe Yucca Mountain as 100 miles north of Las
Vegas, ignoring Pahrump and Nye County, said the resolution
focuses attention on where the facility actually is, the fact
it's not just a desolate wasteland with real people living
nearby.
In a speech at a public hearing on Yucca Mountain on Sept. 24,
2001, Mary Wilson, Pahrump Town Board liaison to the town nuclear
waste and environmental advisory board, read a statement
complaining that Las Vegas continues to reap the benefits of DOE
contracts on Yucca Mountain while Nye County assumes the
liabilities. She asked the DOE to negotiate directly with local
communities for the PET funds, or Payment Equal to Taxes for the
property value of Yucca Mountain. More work needs to be done on
water migration studies, cask testing, protecting the waste from
terrorists and studies of transmutation or otherwise recycling
the waste, Wilson said.
"We also recommend that Nevada receive a minimum surcharge on
nuclear waste brought into the state of $10 per pound. The state
of Nevada and DOE should fund UNLV, among others, to do the
research and build an accelerator facility at the Nevada Test
Site utilizing reprocessed fuel," Wilson said. "We have made some
of these suggestions before and DOE has made a start. But they
need to invest much more in this area."
Besides the community protection plan, Nye County Commissioners
passed two defining resolutions outlining their stands on Yucca
Mountain. A county resolution passed Aug. 6 raises questions over
equity. While Nye County played a major role in national defense
during 40 years of nuclear testing and fighter jet training at
Nellis Air Force Base, 98 percent of the county is under federal
management, restricting economic development, the county
resolution states. It adds the shipments from 131 sites in 39
states would funnel the nation's nuclear waste to one site in Nye
County.
Nye County's resolution urges an active county role in Nuclear
Regulatory Commission licensing of Yucca Mountain and
transportation issues.
For comment or questions, please email webmaster@viewnews.com
Copyright © The View News, 1997 - 2002
*****************************************************************
30 Yucca Mountain Project workers say site problems kept quiet
[online@rgj.com]
11/24/2002 10:29 pm
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Some workers at the Yucca Mountain Project said
there were flaws in the process scientists used to determine
whether the site was suitable for disposing the nation’s nuclear
waste.
At least two workers claim they were either fired or transferred
after raising concerns about the project’s safety, the Las Vegas
Review-Journal reported Sunday.
Robert Clark and Jim Mattimoe, both quality assurance
specialists, said they were shoved aside so lingering problems
would remain silent at Yucca.
U.S. Labor Department records show the men might have been
mistreated because they believed the project was cutting corners
to meet looming deadlines.
The Department of Energy earlier this year recommended that more
than 77,000 tons of the nation’s deadliest nuclear waste be
buried at Yucca Mountain, located 100 miles northwest of Las
Vegas.
President Bush and Congress have since approved plans to build a
repository at Yucca Mountain. The first shipment of nuclear waste
could arrive in 2010.
Mattimoe, 52, said he was fired after he made allegations of
wrongdoing and corruption to Lake Barrett. At the time, Barrett
was in charge of the DOE’s Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste
Management, which oversaw the Yucca Mountain Project.
Barrett declined to comment on Mattimoe’s termination or Clark’s
transfer other than to say, “I’m personally satisfied with the
actions that I took.”
Mattimore said wrongdoing included withholding evidence and
attributing statements to people who had never been interviewed
about concerns with the project.
“The concerns program, which is much like an internal affairs
division in a police department, is chartered to perform
unbiased, independent investigations into any type of concern
that could impact the safety of the project and the public,” he
said.
“I identified that the concerns program was corrupt and thereby
raised questions about the credibility of all investigations for
a period of nearly 10 years,” Mattimoe said.
Mattimoe was fired by Navarro Research and Engineering, a quality
assurance contractor hired by DOE.
A Labor Department investigator later determined that part of the
reason Navarro fired Mattimoe was it had been urged to do so by
Barrett. The inspector described Barrett’s actions as
“extraordinarily egregious.”
In a Sept. 13 report, the Labor Department ordered Navarro to
reinstate Mattimoe, expunge his personnel file and reimburse him
for costs incurred.
The report states that Susana Navarro, president of Navarro
Research and Engineering, was motivated to fire Mattimoe “at
least in part to her fear that she might not receive future
extensions or contracts with DOE unless she took this action.”
Navarro is appealing the Labor Department ruling. Mattimoe now is
working at the Los Alamos, N.M., national laboratory.
Susana Navarro said an audit by a prominent law firm found “among
other things, that Mr. Mattimoe’s conduct as a program manager
for SAIC (the previous contractor) was inconsistent with a safety
conscious work environment.”
“I based my decision on the findings of this report, and I really
believe that I did the right thing,” she wrote.
But the Labor Department report says the law firm’s audit is
nothing more than a “sophisticated recitation of anonymous
charges.”
Some of the federal documents cited by the Review-Journal were
obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
© Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett
*****************************************************************
31 Former Envirocare president states in lawsuit he was denied $100 million*
HarkTheHerald.com
The Associated Press on Monday, November 25
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The former president of Envirocare alleges
in a lawsuit against the company's owner that he was denied $100
million in company profits after being fired nearly a year ago.
Former Envirocare President Charles Judd also alleges in a 3rd
District Court lawsuit that his performance bonus shrank because
Khosrow Semnani, owner of the Tooele County radioactive waste
landfill, used profits for payments to a federal environmental
regulator with whom Semnani had "a personal agreement."
The accusations -- all of them denied by Semnani lawyer Max D.
Wheeler -- are part of legal documents sealed last month at
Judd's request. The documents were unsealed Friday.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported Sunday that the lawsuit alleges
Semnani stymied his former lieutenant's efforts to start ventures
worth $45 million and refused to pay Judd more than $8 million in
deferred compensation.
Wheeler said Judd's latest allegations are disputed in Semnani's
response and in a countersuit filed by Semnani, who built and
operates a 640-acre landfill for radioactive and hazardous waste
about 60 miles west of Salt Lake City.
Wheeler specifically disputed the suggestion that payments went
to John Frisco, a Superfund cleanup manager for the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency.
"That's false," said Wheeler, insisting the two met only once,
during a site visit Frisco made to Envirocare about a decade ago.
"Mr. Semnani doesn't even know Mr. Frisco. There are no
agreements between them."
Judd, a civil engineer, was with Semnani when he formed the
company in 1988 and became executive vice president in 1994. He
became president after Semnani was forced to resign from the job
in 1997 because of his relationship with a former state
regulator.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A2.
*****************************************************************
32 FCNL INFOLINE (11/25/02): Partial Victories on Nuclear Weapons
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 15:34:17 -0600 (CST)
FCNL INFOLINE
November 25, 2002
(To learn more about the FCNL INFOLINE, please see the end of this message.)
Partial Victories on Nuclear Weapons in Congress
On Wednesday, November 13, 2002, Congress completed action on the defense
authorization bill, H.R. 4546. This annual bill authorizes funds for the
Defense Department and for the nuclear weapons portion of the Energy
Department. Nuclear disarmament advocates had both victories and losses in
the final bill. In short, we stopped the mini-nuke and we put speed bumps
in the way of the bunker buster.
--Ban on "mini-nukes" retained.
In 1993, Congress banned the development of nuclear weapons of less than
five kilotons, also known as "mini-nukes." The House version of this year's
military authorization bill would have weakened the Congressional ban and
allowed research to begin on developing these new nuclear weapons. The
conference committee dropped this language in the final bill, leaving the
current prohibition on "mini-nukes" in place.
--"Bunker buster" funded with restrictions.
The administration requested $15 million to begin the first year of a
three-year feasibility study on another new nuclear warhead, called the
Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP), or "bunker buster." The Senate
deleted the funds in its version of the defense bill. The final bill funds
the warhead study with restrictions. The funds will not be released until
30 days after the Defense Department reports on (1) the military
requirements for the RNEP; (2) the nuclear weapons employment policy for the
RNEP; (3) the detailed categories or types of targets that the RNEP is
designed to hold at risk; and (4) an assessment of the ability of
conventional weapons to address the same types of categories of targets that
the RNEP is designed to hold at risk.
The National Academy of Sciences will conduct a study for Congress on the
short-term and long-term effects of using a nuclear earth penetrator on the
nearby civilian population and on U.S. military personnel who may carry out
operations in the area after such use.
This outcome delays the beginning of the feasibility study by half a year
and throws the decision on whether to continue the warhead into the next
Congress.
Test Site readiness remains unchanged. The House bill would have required
the Energy Department's Nevada Test Site to be able to resume nuclear
testing within 12 months. The final bill simply requires the administration
to prepare cost estimates of being able to resume testing within six, 12, 18
and 24 months. This is an important partial victory.
These issues will be raised and debated again by nuclear weapons proponents
in the new Congress next year.
--------------------------------------------
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please contact FCNL.
Mail: 245 Second St, NE, Washington, DC 20002-5795
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We seek a world free of war and the threat of war
We seek a society with equity and justice for all
We seek a community where every person's potential may be fulfilled
We seek an earth restored...
--------------------------------------------
*****************************************************************
33 IAEA spokeswoman: Inspectors to act as undercover police in Iraq
Islamic Republic News Agency ( I R N A )HeadLines News
Ilam, Nov 25, IRNA -- International Atomic Agency Association
(IAEA)
spokeswoman Melicia Fleming who arrived Baghdad on Monday said
that the U.N. arms inspectors are instructed to act as undercover
police forces in Iraq.
Radio Free Iraq (RFI), monitored here in Iran's border city of
Ilam, announced on Monday night that Fleming believes the
missions of the arms inspectors are scheduled on the basis of
catching Iraq' agents red handed, so their visits to various
suspicious arms manufacturing sites in Iraq would be without
prior notice, and quite unexpectedly.
According to the RFI, the U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan
said after the arrival of the first group of the U.N. Monitoring,
Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) inspectors to
Baghdad on Monday that he hopes they would be able to perform
their duties free from any possible problems to the very end.
Annan added that if that goal is achieved and Iraq is proved to
have no illegal arms, or if it has any, it would be disarmed
through the U.N. intervention, then we can be sure there would be
no need to another war in the troubled Mideast region.
The French President Jacques Chirac, too, has predicted that
Iraq will create no obstacles in the way of the smooth
performance of the U.N. arms inspectors.
President Chirac added, "Dr. Hans Blix and Dr. Mohammed
ElBaradei could report the outcome of the arms inspectors' work
in due time, and then it would be the U.N. Security Council that
would take the final decision on Iraq crisis."
The Arab League Secretary General, too, said that all
attention should be focussed on the smooth performance of the
arms inspectors' job under the current conditions, and the
Americans should stop threatening Iraq and building up their
military machine, at least till the announcement of the arms
inspectors' job.
Amr Moussa once again repeated the Arab League's request for
the presence of Arab inspectors among the intentional arms
inspectors, so that the impartiality of them would be further
assured.
Currently the Egyptian head of the IAEA, Mohammad ElBaradei
is the only Arab member of the U.N. arms inspection team,
although he is one of the two heads of the inspectors.
More than a dozen United Nations weapons inspectors arrived
in Baghdad Monday as part of an advance team scheduled to resume
inspections of Iraq's weapons on Wednesday.
The group included 12 members from the UNMOVIC and six from
the IAEA.
UNMOVIC and IAEA are responsible for disarming Iraq of its
suspected nuclear, chemical and biological weapons under a tough
new U.N. mandate authorizing rigorous inspections.
The arrival of the second batch of inspectors coincided with
the visit to Cairo of IAEA director general Mohammed ElBaradei,
who came to assuage Arab concerns about the integrity of the
inspections.
Their concerns included whether the inspectors would be
objective, neutral and professional in carrying out their duties,
and how the operation would affect Iraq's sovereignty and
national security.
ElBaradei addressed all these concerns during his meetings
with Egyptian President Hossni Mubarak and Arab League Secretary
General Amr Moussa, assuring them that the process of disarming
Iraq will proceed without infringement of its sovereignty.
He admitted that previous inspections were dogged by
"violations" on the part of the inspectors, but said that these
violations were registered among the former U.N. Special
Commission inspectors and not IAEA inspectors.
In order to assure the Arabs further, ElBaradei said that
more experts from the Arab world, including an Egyptian woman
with the IAEA, will soon be joining inspectors from other
countries.
ElBaradei stressed, however, that "competency" and the
ability to maintain "impartiality" on the job rather than
"nationality" were the key determining factors in the U.N.'s
choice of experts.
The IAEA and UNMOVIC would continue to insure that the
inspectors do not act as spies as some of them did in the past,
ElBaradei said. "We have informed Iraq that the inspection
operations will not be allowed to be used for any other
purposes," said ElBaradei following is meeting with the Arab
League's Moussa.
The IAEA chief also denied Iraqi claims that the inspections
were merely a prelude to military action on Baghdad and that
Washington and London had made up their mind about a military
campaign.
He said that the "inspections were an alternative to war" and
not a prelude to military action.
War, said ElBaradei, could be averted if Iraq cooperated
fully with the weapons inspectors, but if Iraq did not cooperate,
the chances that force would be used are "high."
"The issue depends on the extent to which Iraq cooperates,"
ElBaradei said.
He also urged Arab countries to encourage Iraq to cooperate
fully with international weapons inspectors.
ElBaradei said Egypt and other Arab countries had an
important role to play in "supporting and encouraging" Iraq to
cooperate with the inspectors and show "absolute transparency"
regarding its weapons programs.
The ball was now in the court of the Iraqi leadership which
has been presented with yet another opportunity to prove that it
no longer has weapons of mass destruction as it has claimed, said
ElBaradei.
If Iraq seizes the opportunity and cooperates it could
benefit from a "positive report" when the time comes for the
international inspectors to present their preliminary report to
the security council, ElBaradei pointed out.
The first real test of Iraqi cooperation will be on Wednesday
when the inspections resume followed by another test on December
8, the deadline for Iraq to produce a full declaration of its
weapons program.
Failing in either tests could lead to "serious consequences"
under U.N. Security Council resolution 1441, not only for Iraq
but the entire region, ElBaradei warned.
NA/JB
last Update Tuesday, 26-Nov-2002 00:03:23 PST
©2000 Islamic Republic News Agency ( IRNA). All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
34 Lugar Legislation Package Could Spearhead Decommissioning of
Non-Strategic Subs
MOSCOW, WASHINGTON - In what could signal a sweeping mandate
expansion for the Nunn-Lugar programme, Senator Richard Lugar
(R-IN) will be drafting legislation to allow the 10-year-old
non-proliferation effort to decommission non-strategic nuclear
submarines in Russia, a policy advisor from Lugar's office said
this week.
Nuclear support ship Imandra is defuelling a Victor-II
submarine at Nerpa shipyard — the operation is funded by Russia's
Ministry for Atomic Energy, or Minatom.
Charles Digges, Igor Kudrik, Zackary Moss, 2002-11-24 17:15
The authority to deal with the non-strategic — or so-called
general-purpose — submarines would be granted by a legislative
package that envisions Nunn-Lugar's expansion beyond the securing
and decommissioning of only those weapons in the former Soviet
Union (FSU) deemed to be a threat to the United States.
This would include the inventorying and destroying of tactical
nuclear weapons; the shutdown and dismantlement of certain kinds
of nuclear reactors; the searching for and destruction of
radioactive battery systems used during Soviet times as power
sources in remote areas, but now long orphaned by the government
agencies responsible for them; the establishment of a central
authority to coordinate US non-proliferation efforts, and the
export of Nunn-Lugar programmes to other countries who wish to
eliminate their own weapons of mass destruction (WMD), Mark
Helmke, a policy advisor to Sen. Lugar, told Bellona Web in a
telephone interview from Washington.
The unprecedented expansion is also intended as a spur to pledges
made by G-8 nations last June at a summit in Canada to commit a
combined $20bn over the next 10 years — the so-called "ten plus
ten over ten" plan — to assist Russia in securing and eliminating
its stockpile of Cold War nuclear, chemical and biological
weapons, which many in the United States government consider to
be the number one threat to world security.
The bill would hit the floor of Congress by summer in the form of
a formal foreign assistance bill — which offers tighter policy
strings for money spent and has a better than average chance of
passing with Senator Lugar back as chairman of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, after a 15-year hiatus and a fresh crop of
Republicans in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
"We will educate [the new initiates to the foreign relations
committee] and they will get excited about the programme… and
they will understand the idea that national security begins in
Russia because of all the materials there," said Helmke.
But crucial to the re-ignition and expansion of Nunn-Lugar in the
United States, Helmke asserted, is the participation of Europe.
"What would help the expansion of Nunn-Lugar here in the United
States… would be if the Europeans sent a clear political message
to the world that they are going to participate in this — and
that the Russians, likewise, showed that they want this programme
to work."
Minatom response
According to Minatom statistics, however, the ministry spent
only a mere $42m of those earnings on non-strategic submarines by
the year 2000. Here nuclear support ship Imandra is defuelling a
Victor class submarine in Polyarny.
A broadened mandate allowing Nunn-Lugar to tackle the
general-purpose submarines would be greeted with open arms in
Russia, where the Ministry of Atomic Energy, or Minatom, has long
complained about the backlog of non-strategic submarines awaiting
decommissioning, most of them rusting at dockside with spent
nuclear fuel still in their reactors.
"If you ask the Russians, the real problem is not the strategic,
or ballistic missile subs, but the general-purpose and tactical
subs," said a diplomatic source, who declined to be identified.
"That is where they say the real disaster in waiting resides."
Since the beginning of the nuclear submarine era, the Soviet
Union, and then Russia, built 248 nuclear submarines, 160 of
them non-strategic. At present, the Russian Navy claims only to
have a total of 36 non-strategic subs in service in both the
Northern and Pacific fleets.
The defuelling of these non-strategic submarines that are no
longer in service has been the financial burden of Minatom since
1999, which pays these bills with federal budget money, cash
from its own coffers and, most importantly, with earnings from
Russia's 1993 HEU-LEU contract with the United States, which
earned Minatom $1.6bn by 2002. It is expected that the contract
will net Minatom $12bn by 2013.
According to Minatom statistics, however, the ministry spent
only a mere $42m of those earnings on non-strategic submarines
by the year 2000. Minatom's spokesmen reached this week would
not comment on why so little of those proceeds had been spent,
especially with so much of Russia's nuclear industrial arsenal —
including the non-strategic submarines — had to operate in
conditions of near poverty.
Russia reports that only some 40 non-strategic subs have been
dismantled by Minatom's and federal funding.
Viktor Akhunov, chief of Minatom's Department of Ecology and
Decommissioning, could use some more of the money from the
HEU-LEU proceeds. At a September conference in Vladivostok on
submarine decommissioning, Akhunov said Russia plans to
dismantle 131 submarines — strategic and non-strategic — by 2010
in an effort Akhunov estimates will cost $3.9bn, with a start-up
cost of $60m this year alone.
Where that first outlay of cash will come from, said Eduard
Avdonin, Director of Minatom's International Centre for
Environmental Safety, no one knows. The defuelling and
dismantling of the 40 non-strategic submarines was performed at
a rate that is outpaced by the Nunn-Lugar funded and equipped
decommissioning of ballistic missile submarines.
At present there are 190 submarines awaiting full
decommissioning, of which 100 are non-strategic.
A similar drive under Lugar's proposed retooling and expansion
of the Nunn-Lugar programme — and the global non-proliferation
effort it is structured to lead — would be, said many Minatom
officials interviews this week, just the ticket for
non-strategic subs.
A can of financial and technical worms
Gremikha, the eastern part of the Kola Peninsula, is a
challenge in terms of management of retired submarines stationed
there. 19 nuclear submarines with spent nuclear fuel in their
reactors are rusting there. Towing them to a defuelling site
could involve the sinking of many of these vessels.
"These subs, we've all seen them now — they're listing on their
sides," said Helmke. "So, it's clear that these subs, which
contain radioactive material and fissile material are a threat
to world security and need to be addressed."
Helmke said it was too early to say where the dismantlement
would begin should the legislation pass and the shuttle
diplomacy required to engage the G-8 succeed. But because the
Northern Fleet has decommissioning infrastructure in place, and
more general-purpose submarines awaiting decommissioning, he
said work would likely start there.
Nevertheless, any nation that would take all or part of the
non-strategic submarine decommissioning project under its wing
may not have all the benefits of that infrastructure available
to them, despite years of Nunn-Lugar involvement in the Northern
Fleet.
Once critical concern is the location of most of the Northern
Fleet's non-strategic subs, which are laid up on the Kola
Peninsula. By ironic contrast, Nunn-Lugar funds have just
completed a defuelling site at Severodvinsk in the Arkhangelsk
region — across the White Sea from the Kola Peninsula. The
rusted-out, dilapidated state of most of the Kola Peninsula's
non-strategic subs makes towing them to the new defuelling site
a hazardous proposition that could involve the sinking of many
of these vessels.
In the Pacific Fleet, that infrastructure is virtually
non-existent. The towing of vessels to decommissioning points in
there is even more problematic, specifically on the Kamchatka
Peninsula, where many non-strategic nuclear submarines — with
fuel in their reactors — lay beached.
But the Northern Fleet, as a starting point, has advantages. For
one, there is a base of civilian nuclear icebreakers just north
of Murmansk, which has a fleet of nuclear support vessels,
including the Imandra refuelling and defuelling ship, and the
Lotta, a nuclear fuel transport ship. Since 1999, the Imandra
has defuelled five non-strategic Northern Fleet subs. The
Imandra is currently located at the Nerpa shipyard on the Kola
Peninsula, where it is unloading the fuel from the reactors of
the ill-fated Kursk.
Unfortunately, the Imandra can only defuel three submarines a
year, compared to the Northern Fleet's capacity of eight —
although the fleet has never defuelled that many sub in one
year.
Nevertheless, the Northern Fleet's own lack of dependable
support vessels make the Imandra almost indispensable. At
present, the Northern Fleet is using two Project 2020, or Malina
Class, support vessels and four Project 326M vessels. The Malina
class ships are dilapidated and irradiated, but continue to
serve. The Project 326M boats received repairs in 2000 —
however, these boats are unlicensed and thus unable to sail
between various bases because of safety concerns, leaving the
Malinas to do the heavy lifting.
The Pacific Fleet is even worse off — it has only one Malina
class vessel in operation, which has led to substantial backlog
of submarines needing defuelling.
What happens to the spent fuel?
Another concept is building numerous storage pads and dry cask
containers. One of them is built at nuclear powered icebreakers
base Atomflot in Murmansk. It is Bellona's assertion, however,
that casks with spent nuclear fuel should be kept in a
centralized location to ease monitoring and to reduce
non-proliferation risks.
Nils Bøhmer/Bellona
For the past several years, Nunn-Lugar has been helping to
finance the defuelling and shipment of spent fuel from strategic
submarines to the Mayak reprocessing facility, but it is unclear
— under the combined Nunn-Lugar-G-8 efforts if that would remain
the case for non-strategic submarines.
Mayak has a theoretical reprocessing capacity of 400 tonnes a
year, but in reality is able to deal with only about 100 tonnes.
The added fuel from the non-strategic subs would therefore cause
a dangerous logjam. Tackling the non-strategic submarine
problem, then, also means tackling safe storage for spent fuel
from these vessels, most likely by building additional
facilities either at Mayak or on the Kola Peninsula, as well as
similar facilities for the Pacific Fleet.
Another concept is building numerous storage pads and dry cask
containers — of the type pioneered by the Arctic Military
Environmental Cooperation organization, or AMEC — on the Kola
Peninsula, the Arkhangelsk region and in the Pacific to keep
spent nuclear fuel in dry casks before they are be shipped to
Mayak. It is Bellona's assertion, however, that these casks
should be kept in a centralized location to ease monitoring and
to reduce non-proliferation risks.
Helmke, however, said he was unsure whether the decommissioning
of general purpose submarines under Nunn-Lugar — and the related
international programmes it hopes to drum up — would include the
extraction and transportation of spent nuclear fuel to Mayak, as
the Nunn-Lugar recently has been doing for the ballistic subs,
saying: "It's too early to say at this stage."
But he hinted that shipping SNF from tactical submarines to
Mayak, and storing the fuel there, might be preferable to a
facility on the Kola Peninsula.
"It makes perfect sense to send [the spent fuel] to that
facility given the amount of money we've spent to do it. But
that's technical stuff that would have to be worked out," he
said.
The state of Lugar's legislation
Infrustructure in the Northern Fleet
As yet, however, financial issues and division of labour that
will be included in the Lugar dismantlement proposal are vague,
and Helmke said it was not known how much of the decommissioning
burden the legislation would obligate to the United States and
how much of that burden it would expect other countries that are
part of the Canadian G-8 pledge — as well as other nations in
Europe — to take upon themselves. Indeed, much of the
programme's success under its potential expansion is, according
to Helmke, directly tied to the timely mobilization of the ten
plus ten over ten strategy.
We are going to expand the American programme and at the same
time strongly urge the other European countries to supplement
what the US Nunn-Lugar programme is doing — there's no reason
why the 10 or 30 or the general-purpose subs couldn't be a
special project of the Scandinavian countries," said Helmke.
"This is the kind of thinking we hope comes to the surface, and
Sen. Lugar as Chairman [of Senate Foreign Relations Committee]
is going to push and urge and goad."
G-8 progress
Bellona Position Paper on the G8 initiative
The G8 Global Partnership against the Spread of Weapons and
Materials of Mass Destruction.
However, the broad global efforts that would be spearheaded by
the new, improved Nunn-Lugar have their doubters both at home
and abroad. At a non-proliferation conference last week in
Washington, hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace, Helmke said a group of European panellists — many from
G-8 countries — levelled criticism at what they called America's
unilateral foreign policy. Furthermore, said Helmke, many of
America's allies in Europe have been less than enthusiastic
about supporting non-proliferation efforts in Russia, and some
members of the G-8 have shied away from their Canada summit
pledges.
"We haven't seen anything out of the Japanese, the Italians or
the French yet," he said. He added, though, that the United
Kingdom is taking steps to realize its portion of the pledge, as
are the Germans and the Canadians. Nonetheless, he said, without
the consolidated support of all the concerned nations, the
programme will run up against a wall.
"If the G-8 tries to sweep this under the rug it could be the
most damaging thing ever to the success of the Nunn-Lugar
programme," he said.
Selling the plan in the United States
Bellona Position Paper on the European initiative — NDEP
The Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership (NDEP).
In the United States, the concerns are over making the numbers
work — and over whose responsibility that really is.
According to a US congressional source, "the jury is still out
on the issue of multi-purpose submarines. Moreover, costs need
to be calculated and a case needs to be made — though this is
something Europe and Japan should be doing."
The source from diplomatic circles said his conversations with
congressional staffers involved with the Cooperative Threat
Reduction programme, or CTR — Nunn-Lugar's official name since
1996 — indicate a split.
"Some people in CTR and Congress think Lugar is sort of taking
the programme out on a limb with this [expansion idea]," said
the source.
"Congress likes to allocate money to easily identifiable
programmes, and for the past ten years, Nunn-Lugar has been the
budget item that destroys WMDs that were pointed at the United
States. A lot of people involved with the programme think that
adding tactical and general-purpose subs to the mix will muddle
Nunn-Lugar's goals."
According to Kenneth Luongo, executive director of the
Russian-American Nuclear Security Advisory Council, or RANSAC,
there is also the issue of drawing the Bush administration's
attention to the subs.
"While the Russians indicated an interest in dealing with
non-strategic submarines — particularly at the G-8 summit — it
is not clear whether the Bush administration is interested in
these subs or not as they have not made any statement," Luongo
told Bellona Web in a telephone interview earlier this week.
"Nonetheless, a number of G-8 nations have stated publicly their
interest in dealing with these submarines under the Global
Partnership," Luongo continued.
"But any expansion in Nunn-Lugar [for general-purpose
submarines] will be a hard sell to Congress because any money
slated for the submarines by the other G8 nations under the G8
initiative will act as a disincentive to the US government
putting money in."
There is also a strong constituency on Capital Hill of
Republicans who classify Nunn-Lugar as foreign aid — a concept
that carries a stigma in most traditionally isolationist
Republican circles. Many of these same Republicans also think
that money spent by the United States to tear down Russia's old
industrial-military complex frees up Russian cash to build new
weapons.
"They believe that all [Nunn-Lugar] is doing is helping the
Russians modernize their military, which is losing its strength
as an argument given that we've established an alliance with
them, basically, through the NATO-Russia council," said Helmke.
A further argument against scuttling the upcoming legislation,
Helmke noted, is that the money is there to support it. For
fiscal year 2003, $1bn has been committed to CTR projects, and —
thanks to the problems surrounding the Bush administration's
certification of Nunn-Lugar, there is another $500m left over
from last year.
"It won't be smooth sailing throughout, but I think it's worth
the effort and I think we can do it," Helmke said.
According to Jon Wolfsthal, Associate and Deputy Director on the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Non-proliferation
Project, "working on general purpose submarines is a fine idea,
and has a lot of non-proliferation and environmental benefits."
Table: Non-strategic submarines overview
Project/class Number built
NF/PF1 Construction years In service
NF/PF Laid-up
NF/PF
With fuel Without fuel
627/November 92/4 1955-1964 0/0 5/2 3/2
658/Hotel 6/2 1958-1964 0/0 23/1 4/1
659/Echo-I 0/5 1961-1963 0/0 0/54 0/0
675/Echo-II 15/14 1961-1966 0/0 6/10 9/4
671/Victor-I5 12/3 1963-1974 0/0 11/3 1/0
671RT/Victor-II 7/0 1971-1978 0/0 46/0 3/0
671RTM/Victor-III7 16/10 1976-1992 8/2 7/8
1/0
670A/Charlie-I 0/11 1970-1980 0/0 0/11 0/0
670M/Charlie-II 6/0 1972-1980 0/0 5/0 1/0
949/Oscar-I 2/0 1978-1981 0/0 2/0 0/0
949A/Oscar-II 68/5 1988-1997 5/5 0/0 0/0
705/Alfa9 7/0 1968-1981 0/0 3/0 4/0
945/Sierra 4/0 1982-1993 310/0 0/0 1/0
971/Akula 6/7 1986-2002 6/7 0/0 0/0
Total 96/61 22/14 45/40 27/711
Sub Total 15712 36 85 34
[1] Northern Fleet/Pacific Fleet.
[2] November class K-8 sank in 1960.
[3] Hotel class K-19 ("The widow maker") is transferred to
Nerpa shipyard for defuelling and decommissioning in April 2002.
[4] Some of Echo-II class submarines in the PF may have been
defuelled.
[5] 9 Victor-I submarines are laid up at Gremikha base in the
NF. K-314 (PF) has reactors damaged after the 1985 Chazhma
accident in the PF.
[6] 3 Victor-II submarines are laid up at Gremikha base.
[7] Victor-III are phasing out. There is an indication that
all of them are taken out of service in the PF and only 5
remains in service in the NF.
[8] Oscar-II class K-141 (Kursk) sank in 2000.
[9] Alfa class submarines are equipped with one liquid metal
cooled reactor each. K-64 reactor compartment is in Sayda Bay —
storage site for defuelled submarine reactor compartments at the
Kola Peninsula — but contains spent nuclear fuel.
[10] Two more Sierras may have been taken out of operation
with only one still remaining in service.
[11] The number of the defuelled submarines in the PF may be
slightly larger.
[12] The total number of the non-strategic submarines built
excludes prototype submarines: November liquid metal (K-27),
Papa, Mike (Komsomolets) as well as some redesigned SSBNs.
Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] ,
President: Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no]
Information: info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] , Technical
contact: webmaster@bellona.no [webmaster@bellona.no]
Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box
2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway
*****************************************************************
35 Arms Inspections Are Set to Begin at Sites in Iraq
The New York Times
November 25, 2002*
*By JAMES DAO*
WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 ? The campaign to eliminate Iraq's most
deadly weapons officially begins on Monday, when 18 United
Nations inspectors are scheduled to arrive in Baghdad toting
thick dossiers on hundreds of potential weapons sites, from
warehouses to clinics to breweries to petrochemical plants.
The team plans to make its first inspection on Wednesday, when it
will scour an undisclosed site for tell-tale equipment, chemicals
and documents that could provide clues that Iraq has rekindled
covert biological, chemical and nuclear programs since 1998, when
United Nations inspectors last withdrew.
The initial searches will probably involve well-known sites long
associated with Iraq's weapons programs, and are expected to be
essentially warm-up exercises unlikely to produce confrontations
or much evidence, according to United Nations officials and other
arms control experts.
But in the coming weeks, the inspections will become increasingly
aggressive and less predictable as the team gains experience,
expands its fleet of jeeps and German helicopters and grows to
its full size: 80 to 100 people by the end of the year. The team
is led by Hans Blix, an experienced veteran of inspections by the
International Atomic Energy Agency, but includes many people with
less experience, including some who have never been to Iraq
before.
"I think Blix is under immense, quiet pressure from the United
States," said Anthony Cordesman, an Iraq expert at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
"If he doesn't go to core inspection areas quickly, he
understands he will be in a quiet confrontation with the United
States," Mr. Cordesman said.
What concerns American and United Nations officials most are two
potential Iraqi innovations for hiding weapons: mobile biological
weapons labs and underground or urban facilities for chemical and
nuclear weapons.
Weapons experts say the new urban sites are probably housed in
ordinary-looking warehouses and commercial buildings in densely
populated areas, where they would be harder to detect by spy
satellites and somewhat shielded from American bombs.
"It would be like something from `The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,' where
you go in a plain storefront and suddenly find yourself in a
weapons lab," said David Albright, a former nuclear weapons
inspector who is president of the Institute for Science and
International Security in Washington, referring to the 1960's
television spy series.
The inspectors will be following a three-part strategy, former
inspectors and United Nations officials say. First, they will
search for clear evidence of weapons production that could lead
directly to charges that Iraq is in "material breach" of United
Nations Resolution 1441 requiring it to disarm.
But given President Saddam Hussein's expertise at hiding weapons,
officials say it is more likely that violations will be
documented incrementally, through painstaking detective work that
could take months.
To that end, inspectors will be meticulously documenting two
other types of evidence: patterns of deceit and attempts to
obstruct inspections. These could range from disabling jeeps to
destroying documents to refusing to account for weapons materials
that inspectors are certain exist.
"The strategy is to come up with a dossier of deception," said
Dr. Raymond A. Zilinskas, a former United Nations weapons
inspector who is now with the Monterey Institute for
International Studies in California.
A crucial point will come on Dec. 8, when Iraq is required to
produce a comprehensive list of all its weapons sites and
dual-use installations: industrial plants, agricultural sites,
medical labs and research centers that could have both civilian
and military uses. Iraq has hundreds, possibly thousands, of such
sites.
The declaration must also account for weapons materials that
inspectors had documented before 1998: hundreds of artillery
shells potentially filled with mustard gas, Scud missiles capable
of carrying chemical or biological warheads, hundreds of tons of
poison gases, and seed stock for biological agents like anthrax
or botulinum toxin.
*Continued* 1 | 2
*****************************************************************
36 FR: DOE Oak Ridge SSAB meeting
FR Doc 02-29863
[Federal Register: November 25, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 227)]
[Notices]
[Page 70586-70587]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access
[wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr25no02-45]
-----------------------------------------------------------------
------
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Oak Ridge
Reservation; Notice of Open Meeting
AGENCY: Department of Energy.
ACTION: Notice of open meeting.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
------
SUMMARY: This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental
Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB), Oak Ridge.
The
Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, 86 Stat. 770)
requires
that public notice of these meeting be announced in the Federal
Register.
DATES: Wednesday, December 11, 2002 6 p.m.-9:30 p.m.
ADDRESSES: DOE Information Center, 475 Oak Ridge Turnpike, Oak
Ridge,
TN.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Pat Halsey, Federal
Coordinator,
Department of Energy Oak Ridge Operations Office, P.O. Box 2001,
EM-90,
Oak Ridge, TN 37831. Phone (865) 576-4025; Fax (865) 576-5333 or
e-
mail: halseypj@oro.doe.gov [halseypj@oro.doe.gov] .
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Purpose of the Board: The purpose of
the
Board is to make recommendations to DOE and its regulators in
the areas
of environmental restoration, waste management, and related
activities.
Tentative Agenda:
[sbull] The meeting presentation will focus on the DOE
Comprehensive Waste Disposition Plan, which provides the scope,
waste
generation forecast, plans for disposal, and issues associated
with
disposition of Environmental Management Program wastes.
Public Participation: The meeting is open to the public.
Written
statements may be filed with the Committee either before or
after the
meeting. Individuals who wish to make oral statements pertaining
to
agenda items should contact Pat Halsey at the address or
telephone
number listed above. Requests must be received five days prior
to the
meeting and reasonable provision will be made to include the
presentation in the agenda. The Deputy Designated Federal
Officer is
empowered to conduct the meeting in a fashion that will
facilitate the
orderly conduct of business. Each individual wishing to make
public
comment will be provided a maximum of five minutes to present
their
comments.
Minutes: Minutes of this meeting will be available for
public
review and copying at the Department of Energy's Information
Center at
475 Oak Ridge Turnpike, Oak Ridge, TN between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Monday
through Friday, or by writing to Pat Halsey, Department of
Energy Oak
Ridge Operations Office, P.O. Box 2001, EM-90, Oak Ridge, TN
37831, or
by calling her at (865) 576-4025.
[[Page 70587]]
Issued at Washington, DC on November 19, 2002.
Belinda G. Hood,
Acting Deputy Advisory Committee Management Officer.
[FR Doc. 02-29863 Filed 11-22-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
*****************************************************************
37 South Carolina State gets plutonium deal
GreenvilleOnline.com - News
Posted Monday, November 25, 2002 - 1:56 am e-mail
The U.S. House has given South Carolina legal assurances that SRS
will not become a permanent plutonium dump.
South Carolina is well on its way to getting a guarantee the
state will not become a permanent dumping ground for plutonium.
The U.S. House of Representatives recently approved a bill that
would award South Carolina hefty financial compensation if the
federal government fails in its plan to reprocess and remove
plutonium from the state.
The successful House vote represents a victory for U.S.
Sen.-elect Lindsey Graham, who sponsored the legislation. The
bill now goes on to the Senate.
Thirty-four tons of surplus weapons-grade plutonium from
the U.S. nuclear arsenal is currently being shipped to the
Savannah River Site, where it will be converted into fuel for
commercial nuclear reactors to produce electricity or treated to
be disposed of outside the state. For some time, state officials
have been justifiably concerned the federal government would
renege on its plan to process the plutonium once it had been
delivered to the state. The fear was that SRS would become the
final resting place for the deadly nuclear material.
But the legislation approved by the House legally binds
the federal government to process the plutonium or face
substantial fines. If the program is not successfully converting
the plutonium to reactor fuel on schedule (by 2009), the federal
Department of Energy must within two years produce one ton of the
fuel or remove one ton of plutonium from the state. A failure to
meet this requirement results in a $1 million per day fee -- up
to $100 million per year -- until the requirement is met.
Other deadlines apply to make sure the program is running
successfully in a decade and continues to operate. By 2017, if
the program is not successfully operating, all remaining
plutonium must be removed immediately -- or the federal
government will again have to pay significant fees to the state.
The plutonium conversion plan will provide hundreds of
jobs for South Carolinians, and it's an important component in an
arms-control agreement with Russia. It will help ensure that
terrorists or rogue nations do not get their hands on
weapons-grade plutonium in Russia.
Gov. Hodges this year sued the federal government to try
to halt the plutonium shipments, but now that federal legislation
is making its way through Congress, Hodges or Gov.-elect Mark
Sanford should drop the suit. Graham's legislation clearly offers
the protections the state needed to ensure South Carolina won't
become a permanent destination for the nation's surplus
plutonium.
Copyright 2001 The Greenville News. Use of this site signifies
*****************************************************************
38 Theft at Los Alamos under scrutiny
BruinWalk.com
By *Noah Grand* DAILY BRUIN REPORTER ngrand@media.ucla.edu
University of California President Richard Atkinson pledged to
"take decisive action" in response to multiple federal
investigations at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
In a statement released Friday, Atkinson said he was "very
concerned" about recent allegations of theft and cover-ups at the
UC-managed nuclear lab.
"We intend to find out what occurred, correct any deficiencies,
and discipline anyone who has engaged in improper activity,"
Atkinson said.
The UC oversees the operations of three national laboratories ?
Los Alamos, Berkeley and Livermore ? for the Department of Energy
and the National Nuclear Security Administration.
An internal lab document leaked to the non-partisan Project on
Government Oversight listed over $1.3 million in lost and stolen
computers, power supplies and other equipment in fiscal year
2001.
There are no suspects in any of the incidents of theft, and no
arrests have been made, according to the document.
Atkinson's statement places the value of unlocated items at a
lower number ? slightly over $1 million.
Because computers are missing from the lab ? which is responsible
for maintaining the safety of U.S. nuclear weapons ? POGO is
concerned that national security has been breached.
"Whenever you have computers going out the door you've got a
problem because you don't know what was on those computers," said
Pete Stockton, a senior investigator for POGO.
Atkinson said it is up to individuals to maintain national
security at the lab, and anyone breaking that trust will be
punished.
"There will be zero tolerance for any level of illegal activity
by those entrusted with safeguarding our national security,"
Atkinson said.
Lab press aide Jim Danneskiold said there is no record of any
classified computers being missing or stolen.
Los Alamos uses methods of counting its inventory that are common
within the federal government and is in compliance with federal
guidelines, said UC press aide Jeff Garberson.
In addition to the DOE investigation of missing inventory, the
FBI is investigating whether employees have made unauthorized
purchases with lab funds.
The UC is currently reviewing its policy to try and prevent these
purchases, according to Atkinson's statement.
Stockton, who was a special assistant on security matters for
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson during the Clinton
administration, said the current investigations could jeopardize
the UC's lab management contract.
The Congressional commerce and energy committee and the committee
on science are also getting involved in the investigation, he
said.
The UC has managed Los Alamos since 1943; its current contract to
run Los Alamos lasts until September 2005.
"The university is very anxious to be perceived as a good,
effective contractor," Garberson said.
But the recent security breaches at Los Alamos bring the UC's
effectiveness as a contractor into question, Stockton said.
"Change certainly should be considered," Stockton said. "Whenever
you have a government contractor that has lost control of its
programs you should definitely consider it."
for questions or concerns about this
article.
*****************************************************************
39 Final DOE word: K-25 water is 'safe'
The Oak Ridger Online -- Area News --
12:14 p.m. on Monday, November 25, 2002
R. Cathey Daniels
Oak Ridger staff
Drinking water is safe at the K-25 plant, and that's the final
word according to the Department of Energy.
DOE released this morning its final report on a controversial
years- long effort slated to determine whether the sanitary
water at K-25, or East Tennessee Technology Park, was
contaminated, and if so, whether workers were exposed through
drinking, showering or in the preparation of food.
The study was initiated in July 2000, after employees voiced
concern that cross-connections in water lines for sanitary,
firefighting and cooling waters, steam and storm drains could
have resulted in exposure to hazardous materials at the plant.
"An independently-prepared report on water quality at the East
Tennessee Technology Park Š found no specific evidence of
plant-wide contamination in sanitary water at the site," stated
the DOE release.
"We have known from previous reviews that water is safe to
drink at ETTP," said DOE's Oak Ridge Operations Assistant
Manager for Environmental Management Gerald Boyd. "With the
findings presented, we have completed our task of examining
water quality issues at the site."
The DOE has reportedly spent over $2 million in contracting for
the report, which was conducted by a three-company team composed
of Parallax Inc., Malcolm Pirnie and Terragraphics, as well as
Richard Bird, a physician based in Massachusetts.
The Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee has been
responsible for oversight of the project, mainly through its
Citizens' Advisory Panel. CAP chairman Norman Mulvenon, who said
he was involved in all phases of the work, said this morning:
"I am satisfied that the report is valid and correct."
However, the investigation of sanitary water at the former
gaseous diffusion plant has been marred by controversy,
including computer hard drives that turned up missing, and lost
records following the demolition of Building K-1001 where
several sick workers say they were employed.
In addition, DOE called off the hunt in February, citing a lack
of funds and stating that nothing further of significance could
be learned.
Workers at public meetings in 2001 reported that they suspected
they drank from water earmarked for firefighting use.
A draft report was released in August 2001. Interviews were
conducted with current and former workers and plant records were
searched including many stored at an inactive records vault,
according to the executive summary of the final report. In
addition, sanitary monitoring records and state records were
reviewed.
The final report states:
* The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation
records show "no violations" of water quality at the site.
* Several individual occurrences of auxiliary system water
mistakenly used for sanitary purposes were found, three
instances to firefighting water lines and one to cooling water,
according to the report.
* An analysis of the firefighting and cooling water showed some
drinking water standards were exceeded, but those criteria for
protecting worker exposure were not exceeded. "So consumption of
this water is unlikely to result in adverse health effects in
workers," stated to the report.
* Some of the chemical analysis showed the presence of two
chemicals, 1-H-benzotriazole or tolyltriazole, both regarded
moderately toxic when ingested, for which no drinking water
standards are available.
"The potential for adverse health effects of water containing
diluted BZT or TTA is uncertain," stated the report.
* One identified cross-connection was found between sanitary
water and firefighting water at the Steam Plant, but, said the
report, "There is no evidence of sanitary water contamination
caused by this cross-connection." Backflow prevention devices
were installed in the mid-1970s.
* Two possible cross-connections were located, one at the K-1004
laboratory complex, and one at the clear well of the K-802 Pump
House. In both instances, according to the report, there is "no
evidence" of contamination of sanitary water at these points.
R. Cathey Daniels can be contacted at (865) 220-5515 or
danielsrcd@oakridger.com.
All Contents ©Copyright The Oak Ridger
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40 Russia: FSB Seizes Ecologists' Computers
[http://book.moscowtimes.ru/index.htm]
Monday, Nov. 25, 2002. Page 3
By Yevgenia Borisova Staff Writer
The Federal Security Service raided the offices of a Irkutsk
environmental group on Friday and seized computer hard drives
containing ecological information pertaining to a planned $2.5
billion oil pipeline to be built through Siberia to China.
In their search of the Baikal Environmental Wave office, FSB
officers also seized maps showing contamination around the
Angarsk chemical plant, which works with uranium,
environmentalists said.
The official explanation for the search was Baikal Wave's
contract with the Sosnovgeos geological laboratory for the
creation of the maps in February. But environmentalists said the
timing indicated the maps were only a pretext and the real aim
was to prevent them from compromising the planned pipeline, which
is to be built by Yukos.
"Officers pretended they were looking for some secret maps in our
office, but those maps were made public in the beginning of the
year," Marina Rikhvanova, co-chair of Baikal Environmental Wave,
said by telephone from Irkutsk on Friday. "We believe they were
interested in confiscating the ecological expertise materials
that we were preparing for public hearings on the oil pipeline,
which will take place Nov. 27."
A deputy head of the FSB's regional office in Irkutsk, Alexander
Nikolyuk, told Rossia television on Sunday that no criminal
charges will be filed against the environmental group.
Charges of disclosing state secrets will be filed, however,
against "those who supplied secret information, including reports
about radiation safety, to the environmentalists, but not against
the environmentalists themselves," he was quoted by The
Associated Press as saying.
The FSB did not respond to faxed questions Friday.
The Moscow office of Greenpeace, which works with the Irkutsk
group, issued a statement suggesting that Yukos was behind the
FSB raid. "Use of the state law enforcement structures by big
commercial companies to stand behind their financial interests,
unfortunately, is not such a rare phenomenon in our routine
life," the statement said.
Yukos spokesman Alexander Shadrin denied any connection to the
raid. Yukos, he said, is in regular contact with Baikal Wave and
in early November supplied it "with complete ecological data on
the project. It would not have been serious to now be getting it
back via the FSB."
"If [the project] does not meet environmental protection
standards, no construction will take place," he said. "And, look,
remember that it is not our pipeline -- we are fulfilling a state
order under a Russian-Chinese intergovernmental agreement."
The pipeline, to be developed jointly by Yukos and state-owned
China National Petroleum Corp., is to run for nearly 2,500
kilometers from Angarsk near Irkutsk to China's industrial
northeast.
Shadrin said the feasibility study had been sent to the State
Construction Committee and Natural Resources Ministry for their
approval.
Rikhvanova said environmentalists' main concern was that the
pipeline not run either through the Tunkinsky nature reserve in
Buryatia or close to Lake Baikal. Both areas, she said, are prone
to earthquakes. "We can't allow any pipeline in this area because
of the threat to water reserves in case an earthquake damages
it," she said.
Up to 350,000 people die annually of diseases caused by a
polluted environment, Alexei Yablokov, director of the Center for
Ecological Policy, said Friday at a news conference.
Speaking at the same news conference, ombudsman Oleg Mironov said
he asked State Duma deputies on Wednesday to hold hearings on
ecological matters.
© Copyright 2002, The Moscow Times. All Rights Reserved. Visit
*****************************************************************
41 FSB Raids Siberian Eco Group, Confiscating Maps and Computers
Violation of the right to have access to environmental
information is becoming a regular practice in Russia. This
section covers these alarming developments.
MOSCOW - Officers of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, raided
the office of an Irkutsk-based environmental organization,
confiscating 15 computer hard drives they allege contain
ecological information pertaining to a planned $2.5bn oil
pipeline to be built through Siberia to China, ecological
activists in Siberia, Moscow, as well as the FSB, said Monday.
The founder of the Cheka/KGB/FSB Felix Dzerzhinsky was removed
from the Lubaynka Square in Moscow, the headquarters of the
Russian security police, in early 1990s. The comeback of the Iron
Felix is unlikely to symbolise the return of the political
reprisals, but rather Russia's new market economy, where the
security police has become one of the financially interested
players.
www.fsb.ru
Charles Digges, 2002-11-25 14:43
While searching the offices of the Baikal Environmental Wave
Friday afternoon, activists and FSB officers confirmed in phone
interviews that several 1:500000-scale maps showing areas
surrounding areas contaminated by radioactivity around the
Angarsk chemical combine — a uranium enrichment facility — as
well as a list of the group's volunteer workers were also seized.
Activists also were detained at the office of Baikal Wave for
several hours while the FSB conducted the search, and they were
allowed access neither to telephones or fax machines, activists
said in interviews. As of Monday morning, phone and fax lines
were still not working at the office.
Alexander Nikolyuk, a deputy head of the FSB's regional office in
Irkutsk, said Sunday in televised remarks on Rossiya — a
state-run national television broadcaster with close ties to the
Kremlin — that no criminal charges would be filed against the
ecological group. He did say, however, that charges of disclosing
state secrets would be filed against "those who supplied the
secret information, including reports about radiation safety, to
the environmentalists, but not against the environmentalists
themselves," he said.
The official explanation for the search was Baikal Wave's
contract with the Sosnovgeos geological laboratory for the
creation of the maps, signed in February — and on Monday a
spokesman for the Irkutsk FSB, who did not want to give his name,
told Bellona Web that charges of spreading state secrets had been
filed against the lab.
But the environmentalists said the timing indicated the raid and
the map seizures were only a pretext for the real purpose of the
raid, which was to prevent the ecological group from interfering
with the construction of the pipeline, which is to be built by
the Russian oil giant Yukos.
"Officers pretended they were looking for some secret maps in our
office, but those maps were made public in the beginning of the
year," Marina Rikhvanova, co-chair of Baikal Environmental Wave,
said in a telephone interview from her home in Irkutsk on Sunday.
She also emphasized that the computer equipment taken contained
no information relative to the maps, and was thus confiscated to
create a disruption. Furthermore, she said copies of the maps had
been furnished nearly 10 months ago to the Irkutsk Regional
administration, Russia's nuclear regulatory agency Gosatomnadzor,
or GAN, Sanepidnadzor, the government health inspectorate, and
finally Radon, which works to decontaminated radioactive areas.
All agencies said through spokesmen Monday that they had received
the maps and that they were public information. The spokesman for
GAN's Irkutsk offices, who requested anonymity, added that the
information contained on the maps did not even specify locations
of workshops of the Angarsk plant or even the boundaries of the
facility. The facility itself is located underground and used for
the production and enrichment of uranium for use in civilian
reactors.
"These maps are specifically related to areas of radioactive
contamination, that is all," he said. "And that information is
public information."
FSB agents interviewed Sunday on Moscow's TVS, however, said that
the maps would be confiscated from all organizations to which
Baikal Wave had sent them.
Rikhanova and others believed there was another motives behind
the raid — mainly a move by well-connected financial powers to
strong-arm the organization into silence about its opposition to
theYukos pipeline.
"We believe they were interested in confiscating the ecological
expertise materials that we were preparing for public hearings on
the oil pipeline, which will take place on November 27th," she
said. The absence of the maps, she said, would severely handicap
any public presentation that could be made against the pipeline.
Moscow's Greenpeace, in a lengthy statement, supported that
assertion, writing: "Use of the state law enforcement structures
by big commercial companies to stand behind their financial
interests, unfortunately, is not such a rare phenomenon in our
routine life," the statement read.
"The search conducted at Baikal Ecological Wave," it continued,
"coincided with the conducting of expert ecological fitness tests
to in connection with the construction of and oil pipeline by
Yukos through the territory of the Tunkinsky National Park.
Baikal Wave has been a leading opponent of this construction."
Another possible motivation for the raid is Angarsk chemical
combine Director Victor Shopen, who was outraged to learn that
Baikal Wave had furnished the Irkustk administration with reports
of contaminated water and soil, sources at the combine who
requested anonymity told Bellona Web.
Rikhvanova said environmentalists' main concern was that the
pipeline not run either through the Tunkinsky nature reserve in
Buryatia or close to Lake Baikal. Both areas, she said, are prone
to earthquakes.
The Baikal Environmental Wave
The Baikal Environmental Wave based in Irkutsk was founded by a
group of environmentally concerned scientists in 1990.
[http://www.baikalwave.eu.org/]
"We can't allow any pipeline in this area because of the threat
to water reserves in case an earthquake damages it," she said
Neither the Moscow nor the Irkutsk office of the FSB responded to
further questions faxed over the weekend. The FSB spokesman in
Irkutsk Monday confirmed over the telephone Nikolyuk's remarks on
Rossiya, saying that maps and computer equipment had been taken,
but would not discuss their alleged contents, but added that the
confiscated computer hard drives would likely be returned to the
environmental group on Monday. The spokesman denied there was any
connection between the raid and the interests of Yukos oil.
Yukos spokesman, in remarks Alexander Shadrin denied, in remarks
to The Moscow Times, that Yukos had any connection to the raid.
Yukos, he said, is in regular contact with Baikal Wave and in
early November supplied it "with complete ecological data on the
project. It would not have been serious to now be getting it back
via the FSB."
"If [the project] does not meet environmental protection
standards, no construction will take place," he said, according
to the paper. "And, look, remember that it is not our pipeline —
we are fulfilling a state order under a Russian-Chinese
intergovernmental agreement."
Nevertheless, Vsevolod Medvedev, the chief geologist from
Sosnovgeos working on the mapping project with Baikal Wave, told
Bellona Web he had been questioned by the FSB.
"I asked [during the interrogation] why what was not secret a
year ago is now secret, but they just laughed," he said.
"Information about radioactive contamination cannot be classified
because of ecological law. There are no secrets in these
documents."
Nikitin case background
The Nikitin case — all about the process against Aleksandr
Nikitin starting from October 1995 and until today.
[http://www.bellona.no/en/international/russia/envirorights/nikit
in/index.html]
Bellona's Alexander Nikitin, a former naval captain who spent
four years fighting espionage charges for drawing attention to
the Russian Navy's negligence with its nuclear waste, is familiar
with the procedures deployed by the FSB against Baikal Wave.
Nikitin was fully acquitted in September 2000.
"This is the usual situation in today's Russia and the whole
question is who will be next," said Nikitin. "The question
concerns the monitoring of radioactive contamination and
radioactive contamination in that area," he added.
He continued that "this is not a new theme — it's come up in the
north and it's come up in the Far East. We have long said this
can't be a state secret because the law says it can't be a state
secret.
The pipeline, to be developed jointly by Yukos and state-owned
China National Petroleum Corp., is to run for nearly 2,500
kilometers from Angarsk near Irkutsk to China's industrial
northeast.
Shadrin said the feasibility study had been sent to the State
Construction Committee and Natural Resources Ministry for their
approval, The Moscow Times said.
Bellona Correspondent Rashid Alimov and Tatyana Artemova of
"Posev" magazine, contributed to this article.
Publisher: [bellona@bellona.no] , President:
[frederic@bellona.no] Information: [info@bellona.no] , Technical
contact: [webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00
Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo,
Norway
*****************************************************************
42 IVINS: In the Age of Corporatism, Liberals Are the New
Conservatives
The Salt Lake Tribune --
Monday, November 25, 2002
BY MOLLY IVINS CREATORS SYNDICATE
AUSTIN, Texas -- Readin' the newspapers anymore is eerily
reminiscent of all those bad novels warning of the advent of
fascism in America. It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis was a
bad book, and the genre shades off into right-wing paranoia
about black helicopters, including the memorably awful Turner
Diaries. I don't use the f-word myself -- in fact, for years,
I've made fun of liberals who hear the approach of jackbooted
fascism around every corner. But to quote a real authority on
the subject, "Fascism should more properly be called
corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate
power." -- Benito Mussolini.
Paul Krugman recently quoted "the quite apolitical Web site
Corporate Governance, which matter-of-factly remarks, 'Given the
power of corporate lobbyists, government control often equates
to de facto corporate control anyway."' It's gettin' downright
creepy out there.
The most hair-raising news du jour is about Total
Information Awareness, a giant government computer spy system
being set up to spy on Americans and run by none other than John
Poindexter of Iran-Contra fame.
Total Information Awareness will provide intelligence
agencies and law enforcement with instant access to information
from e-mail, telephone records, credit cards, banking
transactions and travel records, all without a search warrant.
It will, said Poindexter, "break down the stovepipes" that
separate commercial and government databases. The just-passed
Homeland Security Bill undermines the Privacy Act of 1974, which
was intended to limit what government agencies can do with
personal information.
And can we trust the government to keep all this information
solely for the task of tracking terrorists? Funny you should
ask. The Wall Street Journal reports this week that shortly
after Sept. 11, the FBI circulated the names of hundreds of
people it wanted to question to scores of corporations around
the country, sharing the list with car-rental companies, banks,
travel firms, casinos, truckers, chemical companies and power
plants.
"A year later, the list has taken on a life of its own, with
multiplying -- and error-filled -- versions being passed around
like bootleg music. Some companies fed a version of the list
into their databases and now use it to screen job applicants and
customers." The list included people who were not suspects at
all, just people the FBI wanted to talk to because they might
have had some information. But, the Journal reports, a
Venezuelan bank's security officer sent the list, headed
"suspected terrorists sent by the FBI," to a Web site.
The great writer on the subject of totalitarianism was
George Orwell, and 1984 is always worth re-reading. Damned if
GeeDubya Bush didn't pop up the other day to announce that we
must fight a war "for the sake of peace." That's not vaguely
Orwellian, it's a direct steal.
For those who relish irony, there's a comical extent to
which liberals are the new conservatives, exactly where the old
principled Republicans used to be -- reluctant to get involved
in foreign wars, suspicious of foreign entanglements, harping on
fiscal responsibility and worried about constitutional freedoms.
Personally, I still believe internationalism makes more
sense than isolationism because our major problems in the future
-- global warming, overpopulation and water shortage -- are
going to have to be dealt with on a global basis. It is
inarguable that this is the most anti-environmental
administration since before Teddy Roosevelt. The corporatists in
this administration, particularly those from the oil bidness,
apparently have some grand imperialist schemes to keep us in
cheap oil indefinitely.
As a matter of foreign and environmental policy, it makes a
lot more sense to lay rail, promote renewable energy and get
serious about conserving oil. We subsidize the hell out of the
oil bidness with innumerable tax breaks, loopholes and support
programs. For heaven's sake, why not support renewable energy,
instead? Why should we ask our military to die for cheap oil
when the rest of us aren't even being asked to get better
mileage?
Creators Syndicate, Inc.
To find out more about Molly Ivins and read features by
other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the
Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.
© Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on
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