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NUCLEAR
Ship carrying nuclear waste draws ire
France mulls new nuclear reactor to preserve energy options
Iran security chief to meet IAEA head ahead of key nuclear report
Iran 'Vigorously' Pursued WMD First Half 2003 - CIA
Countdown to Armageddon?
Japan's opposition gains
North Korea envoy says nuclear deterrent ready to use
Clinton - Bush should offer non-aggression pact to North Korea
N.Korea Envoy Says Nuclear Deterrent Ready to Use
N. Korea warns of nuke seizure
US warns N Korea on power plant
S. Korea: North Using Plants As Leverage
CIA Says N.Korea Already Has 'Validated' Nuke
Musharraf denies transfer of nuke technology to North Korea
U.S. Helps Russia Repatriate Weapons Usable Reactor Fuel
Russia to Step Up Retrieval of Uranium
The bomb is back
Panel backs 'battlefield' nukes
DOE to phase out exams for ex-workers
Nuclear Weapons Lab Loses 12 Keys New Locks Could Cost $1.7 Million
Louisiana Energy Services touts uranium plant in New Mexico
A-Plant's Foes Challenge U.S. on Safety Plan
Oak Ridge nuclear-waste plant nears startup
Audit Faults Energy Dept. Nuke Program
Two Wis. Utilities to Sell Nuclear Plant
Clark urges creating new agency for Iraq
China consults Powell on North Korea talks
House Approves $401 Billion Defense Bill
Clinton calls for aid to end arms crisis
Albright "Apologizes"
MILITARY
Briefly - Asia
Japan Rethinks Military's Role
Anthrax Scare Leads to Closing of Mail Centers in Washington
Pentagon Agrees to Compromise on Boeing Tankers
CHINA - Joint team eliminates Japan's chemical arms
Collective Punishment for Downing Black Hawk?
Six Killed in U.S. Helicopter Crash in Iraq
Iraq Attacks Kill 2 U.S. Soldiers and Polish Officer
Bremer Plans to Enlarge, Refocus Iraq Occupation Authority
Sharon Urges Trade of 400 Arabs for an Israeli and Remains of 3
Israelis Try to Block Prisoner Swap
Israeli Troops Kill Four Palestinians
Bush Asks Lands in Mideast to Try Democratic Ways
Turkey Won't Send Troops to Iraq
Musharraf Says Pakistan Will Match India Arms Spree
Pentagon Says a Covert Force Hunts Hussein
Defense Department Tests ChemBio Radar in Oklahoma
Pentagon to rotate troops, reduce Iraq force strength
Pentagon To Shrink Iraq Force
Lynch criticises Pentagon film of her rescue as Iraq debate rages
Jessica Lynch Criticizes U.S. Accounts of Her Ordeal
World Court: U.S. Wrong to Hit Platforms
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
9/11 Panel May Reject Offer of Limited Access to Briefings
Gov't Warns of al - Qaida Cargo Plane Plot
Anthrax scare closes more facilities
ENERGY AND OTHER
Solar Energy Lights Florida Classrooms
Groundbreaking solar cell plant to be set up in Philippines
Written in Private, Energy Bill to Go Public
Senators and Attorneys General Seek Investigation Into E.P.A. Rules Change
U.N. Postpones Debate on Human Cloning
Lilly announces link between new antipsychotics and diabetes
ACTIVISTS
Enola Gay Exhibit Criticized for Omitting Japanese Casualties
Bill for the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
Berkeley resolution: Nuke plant should be closed
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- accidents and safety
Ship carrying nuclear waste draws ire
November 07, 2003
(UPI)
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20031107-103537-1799r.htm
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, Nov. 7 -- An Argentine judge had issued an order preventing a ship loaded with spent nuclear fuel from sailing through Argentine national waters.
The Spanish language news service EFE said Federal Judge Federico Calvete's decision implies the Argentine coast guard will prevent the "Fret Moselle," loaded with 344 rods of spent enriched uranium (U-235), from entering Argentine waters.
But coast guard spokesmen told EFE they have not received any orders to bar the passage of the ship, which sailed from Botany Bay in Australia on Oct. 27, bound for The Hague, from where the cargo will be transported to France.
The judge's ruling granted a request from an environmental group that argued the Argentine Constitution expressly forbids the entry of radioactive waste.
Although the "Fret Moselle" has not reported what course it intends to sail, Argentine and Chilean environmental organizations believe the ship will sail around Cape Horn, at the southernmost tip of South America, next week.
Chilean opposition lawmakers also urged President Ricardo Lagos to prevent the ship from sailing around the cape.
-------- europe
France mulls new nuclear reactor to preserve energy options
PARIS (AFP)
Nov 07, 2003
http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031107164621.vqx5zynq.html
France said Friday it was considering building a prototype next-generation nuclear reactor to keep its options open in the face of an aging system that produces 80 percent of the country's electricity.
The announcement drew instant protest from environmental groups, which have successfully pushed Germany into a gradual withdrawal from nuclear power.
Junior Industry Minister Nicole Fontaine said the government had decided it needed to keep "all options open" when it decides between 2012 and 2015 whether to renew its nuclear power sector.
Presenting an energy "white paper", or outline policy plan, to the press, Fontaine emphasized that it does not give a blank check to the new nuclear reactor but "another choice would hardly be responsible".
The white paper said that as nuclear power plants came to the end of their lives around 2020 "France will have to be in a position to be able to decide whether or not to replace all or part of the total with a new nuclear series".
At issue, it said, was "maintenance of France's energy independence, low greenhouse gases and stable and moderate electricity prices".
The white paper calls for the construction of a new-generation European nuclear reactor (EPR) within the next eight years. Its cost, estimated at three billion euros (3.42 billion dollars), would be financed by a European partnership of industrial groups.
The Franco-German EPR project, developed since 1992 by the French state Areva group's subsidiary Framatome-ANP and Siemen, could construct a prototype and connect it to the network by 2010-2012 for testing.
France has 58 pressurized-water nuclear reactors in 19 power stations, most of which were built in the 1980s. They provide about 80 percent of the electricity consumed in France and are believed to have a lifespan of about 40 years.
Fontaine said that a test version was vital because technology was evolving rapidly in terms of safety.
A prototype would also improve the way any new power stations were financed and located, she said.
However, she effectively ruled out the possibility the country could give up nuclear power in 2015. "It's imaginable, but it's necessary to remain serious and responsible."
Fontaine said two requirements had shaped the white paper's proposals: energy independence and respect for the environment.
The government aims to increase thermal energy from renewable resources, mainly wood, by 50 percent by 2015, she said.
In line with a European Union directive, the white paper foresees the development of renewable resources to supply 21 percent of electricity consumption by 2010.
Nuclear energy is a highly controversial subject in many countries, but less so in France, where the French pride themselves on their energy independence.
Lacking major energy resources, apart from a dwindling coal industry, France decided decades ago to go nuclear. By contrast, Italy, for example, adopted a non-nuclear strategy and is now a major customer of French electricity exports, a dependency painfully highlighted by the massive and costly blackout across the Italian peninsula last summer.
A report by the International Energy Agency on Monday sounded the alarm about a looming world energy crisis, saying the electricity sector would swallow up the bulk of the 16 trillion dollars (13.9 trillion euros) needed to meet demand over the next 30 years.
France's announcement Friday sparked outrage among anti-nuclear groups and environmentalists.
The Network to Get Out of Nuclear called for a nationwide protest demonstration on January 17 in Paris.
And Greenpeace, which also is lobbying for France to abandon its nuclear dependence, said the government's plan was "a grave error".
"It mortgages away any alternative option," said Frederic Martignac of Greenpeace-France.
-------- iran
Iran security chief to meet IAEA head ahead of key nuclear report
VIENNA (AFP)
Nov 07, 2003
http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031107172514.yf600ft4.html
Iran's national security chief, Hasan Rowhani, is to hold talks Saturday with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) ahead of a much-awaited IAEA report on Tehran's nuclear activities.
The United Nations' nuclear watchdog has demanded that Iran stop enriching uranium, which could be used to build a bomb and agree to snap IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities.
Rowhani is to meeting with IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei at the UN agency's headquarters in Vienna.
ElBaradei is in charge of drafting a new IAEA report on whether Iran has honored its commitments under the international nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The United States accuses Iran, which is building a nuclear power reactor with Russian help, of secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons but Tehran vehemently denies the charge.
ElBaradei's report will be discussed by the IAEA's board of governors on November 20. If the governors find Tehran is not in compliance with the NPT, they could submit the issue to the UN Security Council, which could impose sanctions.
ElBaradei's report is to be released to IAEA member states before the November 20 meeting, perhaps as early as next Monday.
In September the UN nuclear watchdog gave Iran until October 31 to prove it was not secretly developing atomic weapons.
On October 23, a week before the deadline, Tehran submitted a report on its nuclear activities to the IAEA and insisted its nuclear program were strictly peaceful.
It also agreed, when the British, French and German foreign ministers visited Tehran on October 21, to suspend the enrichment of uranium.
But the suspension has yet to come into effect and the Islamic republic has still to satisfy the IAEA's demand that it to sign a protocol to the NPT that would permit UN nuclear inspectors to make unannounced visits to suspect sites.
"It's clear they have a lot to talk about," a diplomat close to the IAEA said of Saturday's meeting between the Iranian security chief and ElBaradei.
Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, told AFP Rowhani would try to clarify the "technicalities" of suspending Iran's uranium enrichment program, namely "how to carry out the process and how to confirm that the whole process has been carried out".
He said Iran wanted to be sure the IAEA would be in charge of verifying Iran's suspension of this program.
"We think the IAEA is the sole verifying body in this," he said.
Diplomats close to the IAEA have said that while the agency has the expertise to monitor compliance with NPT safeguards, it is not equipped to monitor the suspension of an enrichment program.
Diplomats have also said that while Iran may interpret suspension merely to mean shutting down centrifuge machines that make highly enriched uranium, Britain, France and Germany want it to cease all enrichment-related activities, including deliveries and the construction of new sites.
Salehi said Rowhani was ready "to discuss details of how to carry out this responsibility".
"We will do it in a way which will be reached through mutual understanding with others," he pledged.
Diplomats said Rowhani might be carrying a letter outlining Iran's intention to allow surprise inspections of its nuclear installations.
They said the IAEA might be delaying the release of ElBaradei's report, which has already been drafted, in the hope of being able to include such a letter as a sign of Iranian cooperation.
Salehi said a letter had already been written and would be handed over to the IAEA before the agency's November 20 board meeting. But he said it would not be submitted by Rowhani.
"(The letter) says Iran is ready to accede to the additional (NPT) protocol and says:'Please put this intention to the board and we can arrange the signing later'," he explained.
ElBaradei has already said the IAEA will report that Iran has failed to honor some of its international nuclear safeguard commitments.
But it could take months to verify the information Iran had supplied to the UN watchdog and diplomats say this could be taken by the board as a reason not to pass judgement.
"November 20 is an important milestone but we won't be able to finish our work by then," ElBaradei said on Monday.
"We will need a few more months," he said. This was particularly true of "very complex investigations" such as specifying the source of traces of highly enriched uranium found by IAEA inspectors on euqipment in Iran.
Iran says the uranium traces was simply "contamination" imported into the country on equipment it had bought abroad. It says the urnaium was not produced in Iran, as the United States alleges.
----
Iran 'Vigorously' Pursued WMD First Half 2003 - CIA
November 7, 2003
REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-security-wmd.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran ``vigorously'' pursued programs to produce nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and sought help from Russia, China, North Korea and Europe, a CIA report said on Friday.
``The United States remains convinced that Tehran has been pursuing a clandestine nuclear weapons program,'' according to a semi-annual unclassified report to Congress on the acquisition of technology relating to weapons of mass destruction.
``Iran sought technology that can support fissile material production for a nuclear weapons program,'' said the report, covering the period Jan. 1 to June 30.
Satellite imagery showed Iran was burying a uranium centrifuge enrichment facility at Natanz, a town about 100 miles south of Tehran, probably to hide it in case of military attack, the CIA report said.
Iran says its uranium enrichment program is only for the peaceful generation of electricity and not for atomic weapons. Earlier this week, it said it had handed over to the U.N. nuclear watchdog drawings of equipment to help prove that.
The CIA said it was concerned about uranium centrifuges discovered at Natanz capable of enriching uranium for use in nuclear weapons.
Iran was believed to be pursuing nuclear fuel from both uranium and plutonium, the report said. A heavy water research reactor pursued by Iran ``could produce plutonium for nuclear weapons,'' it said.
The report had only one paragraph on Iraq, noting that the U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein occurred during that period. ``A large-scale effort is currently underway to find the answers to the many outstanding questions about Iraq's WMD and delivery systems,'' it said.
Critics have suggested the White House may have exaggerated the threat Iraq posed due to weapons of mass destruction, used to justify the war, because no such weapons had been found.
NORTH KOREA, SYRIA, TERROR GROUPS
The report also briefly discussed North Korea's nuclear ambitions. In late February, Pyongyang restarted its five-megawatt nuclear reactor, which could produce spent fuel rods containing plutonium.
In April, North Korea told U.S. officials that it had nuclear weapons and signaled its intent to reprocess the spent fuel for more. ``We continued to monitor and assess North Korea's nuclear weapons efforts,'' the CIA said.
Syria has a nuclear research center at Dayr Al Hajar and broader access to foreign expertise provides opportunities to expand capabilities, ``and we are looking at Syrian nuclear intentions with growing concern,'' the report said.
The threat of terrorists using chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear materials ``remained high'' during the first half of 2003, the CIA report said. But terror groups would probably continue to favor conventional tactics like bombings and shootings, it said.
Documents and equipment recovered from al Qaeda facilities in Afghanistan showed that Osama bin Laden had ``a more sophisticated unconventional weapons research program than was previously known,'' the report said.
Al Qaeda also had ambitions to acquire or develop nuclear weapons, it said. Also it was possible that al Qaeda or ``other terrorist groups'' might try to launch conventional attacks against the chemical or nuclear industrial infrastructure of the United States to cause panic and economic disruption.
China has over the past several years taken steps to improve on nonproliferation, ``but the proliferation behavior of Chinese companies remains of great concern,'' the report said.
While China in 1997 agreed to end nuclear cooperation with Iran, the CIA said it remained concerned that some interactions continued.
The report also said the possibility of contacts between Chinese entities and entities associated with Pakistan's nuclear weapons program could not be ruled out.
-------- israel
Countdown to Armageddon?
Are the Israelis willing to start World War III?
Exclusive to American Free Press
By M. Raphael Johnson,
November 7, 2003
http://www.americanfreepress.net/11_07_03/Countdown_to_Armageddon/countdown_to_armageddon.html
According to a recent article by veteran British military analyst Joseph Vialls, Russia has sent the most advanced and feared missile in the world, owned only by Russia and China, the P270 Moskit, also known as the "Sunburn," to Damascus and Tehran. This can only be understood as a counter to the Israeli threats to use nuclear weapons against their enemies.
The Sunburn flies at an altitude of 60 feet and is nearly impossible to defend against. A few fired at Israel could make that state "history."
Add to this a new Russian air force installation near the Kyrgystan/Russia border, coupled with a Chinese base just over their western border with Kyrgystan, and Armageddon may be on the horizon. All Russian jets at this new base just outside of Bishkek are equipped with Sunburn missiles.
Vialls writes:
The gloves are off, and with America and Israel still unable to steal any oil from Iraq because someone keeps blowing the pipelines, Russian and Chinese firepower buildup suddenly slammed the door firmly shut on Caspian oil reserves in the old Soviet republics. For more than a decade American oil multinationals have been conducting "joint ventures" in the former Soviet republics bordering the Caspian Sea, with the stated intent of pumping stolen crude oil out through Turkey, then on to western markets. Now this route has been blocked permanently, and America is in no position to do anything about it, because a large part of the U.S. conventional army is currently bogged down in Iraq, being shot at and killed on a daily basis.
For many who have been watching this region as a confrontation between the United States and Israel versus Russia largely over the control of the biggest gas and oil deposits in the world, a new front has been opened.
As a response to this checkmate, Sharon recently visited Putin on Nov. 3 to meet with him concerning the nuclear issue in Iran. Quickly, Sharon permitted Palestinians to return to their jobs and eased their travel restrictions.
Since the end of the Gorbachev era, the Russian oligarchs, nearly all Jewish by ethnicity (with the noticeable exception of Vladimir Potanin), have controlled nearly all key sectors of the Russian economy. This, of course, includes Russia's major ace-in-the-hole, oil and gas. The giant YUKOS conglomerate is presently one of the largest oil companies in the world, valued at about $40 billion.
YUKOS is the result of a "loans for shares" deal brokered through the semi-coherent Boris Yeltsin in 1995. Here, the liberal Russian government swapped loyalty from the oligarchs in exchange for privatization at prices far below that of the market. This $40 billion giant was bought for about $300 million, thus looting the entire Russian economy for the benefit of a handful of Israeli citizens living in Russia.
When YUKOS's chair, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was arrested at the end of last month, the American capitalist establishment went orbital. Forgetting the 1999 New York Times's expose on massive money laundering and fraud from YUKOS, the conservative establishment began to lionize oligarchy and, specifically, Khodorkovsky.
Recently, The Financial Times weighed in with a giggly piece from Chrystia Freeland, which referred to the oligarch as a "democratic activist." About a paragraph later, the writer said-without irony-that the oligarch's model for economics is the robber baron factories of the early American 20th century. Fox News, on Nov. 3, referred to YUKOS as the most progressive corporation in Russia.
According to a Nov. 3 Agence France-Presse story, Khodorkovsky made a deal with Jacob Rothschild this year that control of the YUKOS giant would pass to Rothschild in the event of Khodorkovsky's arrest. However, the Russian government has frozen all YUKOS assets for the time being.
It is significant that YUKOS's liberal pressure group, the Open Russia Foundation, is completely controlled by Rothschild now that its founder is in jail. As their official mission statement reads, "The motivation for the establishment of the Open Russia Foundation is the wish to foster enhanced openness, understanding and integration between the people of Russia and the rest of the world."
Their board of trustees includes Rothschild and Henry Kissinger. The Washington, D.C. launch of the organization included Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Librarian of Congress James Billington, one of the leading voices against Russian traditionalism in the academic establishment. Significantly, the Open Russia Foundation recently provided Yale University with substantial grants to study the Russian economy as well as providing the Carnegie Foundation with 3 percent of its entire operating budget.
It seems that the drive to control the globe's energy is progressing. The American empire's battles in Serbia, Central Asia, Iraq and Chechnya are one and the same war. Other than fighting Israel's enemies, these adventures are also wars to control Central Asian oil and natural gas (one of the main pipelines from the Caspian Sea went straight through Serbia). The control of this wealth by the United States and Israel necessitates bypassing Russian channels. This means that the Jewish oligarchy in Russia would become the central actor in world politics.
The Israeli/CIA complex was using Khodorkovsky to sell off the assets of YUKOS to Exxon/Mobil (as well as a smaller piece to Texaco), hence bringing Russia's pipelines into the hands of the western powers. The Nov. 5 New York Times also indicated that the Bush family's Carlyle Group was involved.
It was not long after Putin began threatening the YUKOS conglomerate that neo-conservative pundits such as William Kristol and Ariel Cohen began calling Putin a "communist," "another Stalin" and "tyrannical."
The basis of these wild accusations, of course, is the fact that Putin stands in the way of Zionist domination.
From this, the roles of several other variables and players develop clearly. The State Department/Harvard University alliance was meant to "deregulate," or "privatize" much of the Russian economy precisely to keep the Russian state out of the equation. Therefore, pro-Israel oligarchs (that is, Israeli citizens living in Russia) then benefited, placing most of the economy in their hands, and, by extension, Israel's.
Russia's response has been to clamp down on further foreign penetration into defense and other sensitive industries, and specifically, to target those believed to be working for both the CIA and Mossad and attempting to control Central Asian oil.
It needs to be reiterated that where the CIA goes, Mossad goes as well. Israeli and American interests have come together in the dominance of the Central Asian region and therefore, so have liberal ideology, the Beltway set, neo-conservatism, Ivy League eggheads, Christian Zionism, the Rothschilds and the American media. Afghanistan through the Caspian Sea through to Georgia, Azerbaijan and into the Balkans (not to mention pipelines leading to oil-hungry China), have become one single theater of war over trillions of dollars in oil and gas wealth, incorporating every single power center in global politics. The battle against the New World Order is being decided in Moscow.
Therefore, all anti-Russian alliances in the region, from Islamic fundamentalism to Slavic separatism to the George Soros "Open Society" Foundation, are in the interests of the CIA/Exxon/Ivy League/NWO complex.
In Azerbaijan, for example, American elites have pushed for a "democratic" state, that is, a state not under the control of pro-Moscow Heydar Aliev, thus leaving the country open to U.S. oil investment. Aliev, of course, is promoting Russian interests in the region, and thus, has become a "tyrant" in the Beltway mind.
The American response to this situation within this region is to create the GUAAM pact, including, Georgia, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Moldova.
Cohen gives us a clue as to why this entity was brokered under NATO auspices: "The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline will export up to 1 million barrels per year of high quality Caspian crude oil by 2005." In other words, billions of dollars of oil are slated to be pumped through this region very soon, and the economic/military alliance of GUAAM is the means to ensure American control over it. This connects the Serbian, Afghan and Iraqi wars.
Russia's response to Israel's terror threats against most of the Islamic world is fully understood as both a political and economic question. Further, increasing cooperation between Russia and India, as well as China, are clear markers that Putin, one of the few actually competent leaders in world politics, is building an anti-imperialist and anti-NATO alliance with the aim of countering American/Zionist moves for the world's oil and gas wealth.
The interests, however, go even further than Zionist control over American foreign policy decision-making. Vialls writes on another topic: that the existence of the American/Zionist empire is based on the victory of American forces over the Russian and Islamic. Of course, both in Bosnia and Chechnya, the Mossad/CIA operatives have not hesitated to assist fundamentalists in fighting Slavic nationalism, largely because Slavicism is a greater threat with Putin firmly in the saddle. Islam, divided and leaderless, with a history of centuries of defeat and colonialism behind it, is only a potential force in world politics.
-------- japan
Japan's opposition gains
November 10, 2003
By Hans Greimel
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20031109-103643-4274r.htm
TOKYO - Japan's opposition made gains in elections yesterday, narrowing the ruling coalition's majority in parliament and dampening its hopes for a strong mandate to carry out ambitious economic and political reform.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party said it still had the public's support after its first election test in the lower house of parliament since Mr. Koizumi came to power more than two years ago.
"We'll be able to continue with a stable administration. I'm relieved," Liberal Democratic Party chief Shinzo Abe said after results showed his party and its two junior partners had clinched control.
Together, the LDP-led coalition took 275 seats, enough to keep a majority in the 480-member lower house and name all committee chairs, according to official results collated by public broadcaster NHK after all constituencies had reported.
The total fell short of the coalition's previous 287 seats, and Mr. Koizumi's LDP scored 237, below the simple majority it had by itself before the election.
The results showed a big boost for the opposition Democratic Party, from 137 before the elections to 177. Party chief Naoto Kan was upbeat about his party's performance.
"I can barely speak," Mr. Kan said from party headquarters in Tokyo. "I think the voters appreciated our focus on policies, and I am pleased."
While Mr. Koizumi was confident that his party - which has held power nearly nonstop for 50 years - would keep its coalition majority, even he seemed surprised at the Democrats' showing.
"I thought to myself that the Democrats are putting up a good fight," he said. "Maybe we're really moving toward a two-party system."
Election officials said final results would be announced later today.
The turnout in yesterday's voting was about 52 percent, down from the 62.5 percent who voted in the last lower house election in 2000, when the LDP cruised to victory.
Earlier, Mr. Abe said the LDP might lose its single-party majority, but insisted the coalition still would have a public mandate for reform.
"If the three parties of the ruling coalition achieve a majority, I will take that as a sign of having won the public's trust," he said.
The impact of swing voters as well as the public's reaction to issues such as Mr. Koizumi's push to send peacekeepers to Iraq could have affected his margin of victory. The Democratic Party has fiercely opposed Mr. Koizumi's Iraq policies.
Other hot topics included a proposal to amend Japan's pacifist constitution to give the military more flexibility in the post-September 11 era of terrorism, and the reform of public pensions - a big concern in a country with one of world's fastest-aging societies.
But the economy remained the public's top priority.
Mr. Koizumi credited his reforms for spurring a fledgling recovery from more than a decade of economic stagnation. He has warned voters not to derail the rebound by ousting him.
Mr. Kan accused the LDP of being long on promises and short on results, and said he could do better.
-------- korea
North Korea envoy says nuclear deterrent ready to use
07.11.2003
NZ Herald - REUTERS
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3533004&thesection=news&thesubsection=world
LONDON - North Korea's envoy in Britain said on Thursday that Pyongyang had a nuclear deterrent that was ready to use and powerful enough to deter any US attack.
Ambassador Ri Yong Ho told Reuters in an interview that North Korea would only use its capability in self-defence. Asked if North Korea had a nuclear bomb, he said: "What we are saying is, a nuclear deterrent capability."
North Korea has long hinted that it had a nuclear bomb. It said last month it was prepared to demonstrate the existence of its nuclear deterrent "when an appropriate time comes".
But Thursday's comments appear to be the first time it has explicitly stated that it has a nuclear weapon ready to use.
The ambassador said the deterrent was made with plutonium, most of which was recently reprocessed, and was now ready to use should the United States attack.
The latest crisis in North Korea-US relations erupted in October 2002 when US officials said Pyongyang was pursuing a clandestine nuclear weapons programme that violated its international commitments.
The crisis showed signs of deepening on Thursday when the United States proposed suspending a project to build nuclear power stations in the communist country.
Ri said the suspension, if it went ahead, would have a "very negative impact on the dialogue process" aimed at defusing the standoff.
The reactor project is based on a 1994 agreement under which the North Koreans froze their nuclear arms programme in return for two light-water reactors.
-----
Clinton - Bush should offer non-aggression pact to North Korea
November 7, 2003
Hi Pakistan
http://www.hipakistan.com/en/detail.php?newsId=en44276&F_catID=&f_type=source
HONG KONG: Former US president Bill Clinton said on Thursday his successor George W. Bush should do "one last mega-deal" with North Korea and offer a non-aggression pact in return for unlimited access to nuclear laboratories in the state.
Speaking during a question and answer session after delivering a keynote speech at a CEO forum here, Clinton said despite the determination of North Korea to pursue its nuclear weapons programme. "I don't believe they want to drop a nuclear bomb on Japan or South Korea. They want to eat and stay warm," said Clinton.
"They don't want to disappear from history like East Germany and they don't want to be disrespected and that's why they want the non-aggression treaty," he said.
"I think we (the US) should offer them a mega deal; help with food, help with energy, help with becoming a self-sustaining economy in return for total access to all the labs and all the sites and taking the plutonium rods out of (North) Korea altogether and giving them a non-aggression pact. "I think we should give them that because we're never going to be aggressive against them unless they violate the pact anyway," said Clinton.
The move would be consistent with the wishes of the Chinese, Russians and Japanese who have played a part in defusing the year-long stand-off between the US and North Korea, he added.
Meanwhile, North Korea threatened to seize an international consortium's assets on its soil if the US-led group suspends a nuclear power project in the communist state without compensation.
The North's foreign ministry spokesman told the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) that the consortium, the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation, would be banned from taking out equipment, facilities, material and technical documents from the communist country.
The consortium set up by the United States and its allies is in charge of building a nuclear power plant for energy-starved North Korea. But the multi-billion dollar energy project may be halted after the consortium met in New York this week for talks on suspending work amid lingering tensions over North Korea's nuclear weapons ambitions.
After a two-day meeting, the consortium said on Tuesday it would announce a decision on the fate of the project no later than November 21.
Late Thursday, the North Korean spokesman denounced the United States and the consortium for delaying work in building two light-water nuclear reactors (LWR) and demanded compensation for the delays. "North Korea will hold them accountable for this to the last," the spokesman said in an interview with KCNA.
Also yesterday, officials said North and South Korea agreed to build a permanent centre for reunions of families separated by the division of the Korean peninsula more than half a century ago.
The agreement was reached at three-day talks between Red Cross authorities from both sides at Mount Kumgang, north of the inter-Korean border, where the centre will be built, they said.
In the mean time, China's Foreign Ministry said its point man on North Korea travelled to Washington to prepare for a new round of six-nation talks on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme.
Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi was to meet with U.S. officials on Thursday and Friday (today), ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said.
----
N.Korea Envoy Says Nuclear Deterrent Ready to Use
November 7, 2003
REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-korea-north-nuclear.html
LONDON (Reuters) - North Korea's envoy in Britain said that Pyongyang had a nuclear deterrent that was ready to use and powerful enough to deter any U.S. attack.
Ambassador Ri Yong Ho told Reuters in an interview on Thursday that the reclusive communist state, which is locked in a standoff with Washington over its nuclear intentions, would only use its capability in self-defense.
Asked if North Korea had a nuclear bomb, he said: ``What we are saying is, a nuclear deterrent capability.''
Asked what sort of deterrent, he added: ``When we say deterrent, it can be anything, but the effect is that the U.S. side will have to be very careful if they are to attack us... (it is) powerful enough to deter any U.S. attack.''
North Korea has long hinted it had a nuclear bomb. It said last month it was prepared to demonstrate the existence of its nuclear deterrent ``when an appropriate time comes.''
But Thursday's comments appear to be the first time it has explicitly stated that it has a nuclear weapon ready to deploy.
Ri, giving his first interview since taking up his post in London, said the deterrent was made of plutonium, most of which was recently reprocessed but was extracted before a 1994 freeze on its nuclear weapons program under a pact with Washington.
Asked if the deterrent was ready to use right now, he replied: ``Yes.''
Asked if North Korea would only use it in self-defense, he added: ``Of course. Self-defense is a right of any nation, only in self-defense.''
In response, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli repeated the long-standing U.S. position that, ``we have no intention of attacking North Korea.''
The latest crisis in North Korea-U.S. relations erupted in October 2002 when U.S. officials said the communist state was pursuing a clandestine nuclear weapons program that violated its international commitments.
In an apparent bid to defuse the crisis, Washington last month offered Pyongyang unspecified security assurances for the first time, in exchange for a complete, verifiable and irreversible end to its suspected weapons program.
CONCESSIONS?
Washington has ruled out a formal non-aggression treaty.
Ri said Pyongyang was prepared to make concessions on its original demand for a formal non-aggression treaty. ``We are prepared to consider written assurances on non-aggression,'' he said.
If it deemed the U.S. proposal to be ``genuine,'' North Korea stood ready to restart six-way talks on the nuclear standoff, Ri said. North Korean officials were contacting U.S. officials to get more details of the U.S. proposal, he added. But Ri stressed Washington must commit to a ``peaceful coexistence'' and show a willingness for ``simultaneous action,'' shorthand for both sides taking steps at the same time to answer conflicting concerns and resolve the crisis.
``If the U.S. proposal is truly based on simultaneous actions then we could hold a new round of talks. If the U.S. insists on denying this simultaneous action, it will only increase the suspicions on our side,'' he said.
The United States has played down the idea of simultaneous actions. ``'Simultaneity' is not a word that we would use,'' State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said last week.
Ri said North Korea's foreign minister sent a letter on Monday to the Italian presidency of the European Union and top EU foreign affairs officials explaining Pyongyang was willing to consider the U.S. offer of security guarantees and attend talks if it approved of the U.S. proposal.
China hosted an inconclusive round of six-way talks in August. Ri would not be drawn on a possible date for new talks.
But Ri said Washington's planned suspension of a project to build nuclear power stations in North Korea had raised doubts about whether Washington was sincere about defusing the crisis.
Ri said the suspension, if it went ahead, would have a ``very negative impact on the dialogue process...This is why we can't talk about dates (for talks) yet,'' he added.
The United States wants to suspend the project for one year to see what comes of diplomatic attempts to persuade Pyongyang to abandon nuclear weapons programs. The reactor project is based on a 1994 pact under which the North Koreans froze their nuclear arms program in return for two light-water reactors.
Analysts said North Korea was seeking to up the ante with Washington with its comments on a nuclear deterrent.
``They've got the best of both worlds here -- a virtual deterrent. They may not have (nuclear capability) but everybody thinks they have and have to assume they have...It's the next best thing to having one,'' said William Drennan, Korea expert, United States Institute of Peace, a government-funded thinktank.
----
N. Korea warns of nuke seizure
November 07, 2003
By David R. Sands
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20031106-115235-7083r.htm
North Korea yesterday threatened to seize the assets and equipment at a construction site for two new nuclear power plants being built by the United States and its allies if the Bush administration follows through on a threat to kill the project.
A spokesman for the North Korean Foreign Ministry said that an expected decision by the United States and its allies to shutter the $4.6 billion nuclear project could endanger plans for a second round of multilateral talks on Pyongyang's military nuclear program.
The North "will never allow them to take out all the equipment, facilities, materials and technical documents ... until this issue is settled," the unnamed spokesman said in a statement transmitted by the official KCNA news service.
The nuclear plants, now less than half-built at the remote North Korean coastal village of Kumho, were to be the centerpiece of a 1994 Clinton administration deal to entice North Korea to end its secret drive for nuclear weapons.
A consortium of the United States, South Korea, Japan and the European Union is expected to announce Nov. 21 a freeze in the project, saying the North's new nuclear programs have nullified the 1994 deal.
State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said the North Koreans must allow the consortium to remove its assets and equipment from the site under the terms of the 1994 accord.
"All of this is happening because North Korea violated its commitments under the [agreement]," Mr. Ereli said. "That's what started this whole thing."
South Korea has the most workers at the Kumho site and has invested an estimated $850 million in the project to date.
"We are seriously concerned and strongly urge the North to withdraw its decision immediately," a spokesman for the South's Unification Ministry told reporters in Seoul yesterday.
The dispute throws a new kink into diplomatic efforts to hold a second round of talks on the North's nuclear programs.
The United States, North and South Korea, China, Russia and Japan held an inconclusive first round of discussions in Beijing in August.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, the Bush administration's point man in the Beijing talks, for nearly three hours yesterday at the State Department on a possible resumption of the talks.
Mr. Wang, who meets with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell today, said through an interpreter after the meeting that he saw a "good opportunity" to revive the negotiations following his trip late last month to Pyongyang.
In London, North Korea's envoy in Britain told Reuters news agency yesterday that Pyongyang had a nuclear deterrent that was ready to use and powerful enough to deter any U.S. attack.
Asked if North Korea had a nuclear bomb, Ambassador Ri Yong-ho said in an interview: "What we are saying is, a nuclear deterrent capability." He said it would only be used in self-defense.
North Korea said last month it was prepared to demonstrate the existence of its nuclear deterrent "when an appropriate time comes."
The Bush administration is demanding an immediate end to the North's nuclear efforts.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has demanded a security guarantee from Washington and economic aid as his price for cooperating.
Mr. Kelly said the United States continued to work with its partners on the talks, but told reporters there was "no date" to announce yet for new talks.
The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) is expected to announce formally on Nov. 21 that the construction of the two light-water nuclear reactors will be suspended for a year.
U.S. officials have made clear they will oppose any effort to revive the project after that.
"Our view is the project should have no future," Mr. Ereli said earlier this week.
The North Korean spokesman yesterday accused the United States of pressing to kill the Kumho project as a way of undermining the Beijing talks.
"What matters is why Washington is so getting on the nerves of [North Korea] at a time when the resumption of the six-party talks is high on the agenda," the spokesman said.
Mr. Ereli said yesterday the United States did not believe the Kumho project and the Beijing talks should be linked.
Pyongyang claimed it had the right to seize the assets at Kumho if the United States and its KEDO partners failed to complete construction.
But a July 1996 protocol signed by KEDO and the North appears to back Mr. Ereli's contention that such a seizure is not permitted.
"The property and assets of KEDO, wherever located and by whomsoever held in [North Korea], shall be immune from search, requisition, confiscation, expropriation, or any other interference," according to the protocol.
----
US warns N Korea on power plant
From correspondents in Washington
November 7, 2003
Agence France-Presse
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7794905%255E1702,00.html
THE United States warned North Korea today not to seize the assets of an international consortium if it suspends a plan to build a nuclear power plant on its soil.
A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman earlier said the consortium, led by the United States, European Union, South Korea and Japan, could be prevented from taking equipment, documents and other items out of the Stalinist state.
"North Korea is obligated to allow the safe removal of equipment from the site," said State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli.
"KEDO has reminded North Korea of its obligations in this regard, and we expect it to comply."
The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation (KEDO) was set up to build the plant under a now-ruptured 1994 anti-nuclear pact between Washington and Pyongyang.
But the multi-billion dollar project looks set to be halted as a nuclear showdown rages with the Stalinist state.
After a two-day meeting in New York, the consortium said on Tuesday it would announce a decision on the fate of the project by November 21.
The United States had demanded at least a suspension of the project, despite reservations from South Korea that such a move could enrage North Korea and dent prospects for new talks on the North's attempts to build nuclear weapons.
The project was mandated under the 1994 US-North Korea Agreed Framework, which Washington considers was broken by Pyongyang's renewed attempts to develop weapons.
Under the deal North Korea froze a plutonium processing facility in return for regular fuel oil shipments from the United States. South Korea and Japan were to pay for the bulk of the reactor construction.
The US government cut the fuel shipments to North Korea late last year and has withheld funds for the consortium.
The project to build two 1000-megawatt light-water nuclear reactors was originally scheduled for completion this year. But experts say there it could not be finished before 2008/2009.
----
S. Korea: North Using Plants As Leverage
November 7, 2003
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Koreas-Nuclear.html
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea's threat to seize equipment and technical data from two nuclear power plants being built there is aimed at gaining leverage in future six-nation talks on its nuclear weapons development, a South Korean official said Friday.
The communist state made the threat Thursday, days after a U.S.-led group tentatively agreed to suspend the $4.6 billion project in retaliation for the North's atomic weapons programs.
``I don't think this will affect the six-nation talks,'' South Korea's Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun said at a briefing. ``I think it is part of developing a negotiating card for future six-nation talks.''
North Korea said it will block the United States and its allies from removing equipment and technical data from the two nuclear power plants. It also demanded full compensation for the project.
The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, a U.S.-led consortium, has been building two light-water reactors in the North as part of a 1994 deal between Washington and Pyongyang. Under the deal, North Korea promised to freeze and eventually dismantle its nuclear weapons programs for energy aid.
All four members of KEDO's executive board -- the United States, South Korea, Japan and the European Union -- said they favored suspending it for at least one year. They will make a final decision by Nov. 21.
Despite its angry reaction to the proposed suspension, North Korea did not revoke last week's agreement ``in principle'' to return to the six-nation talks, which have been stalled since discussions in Beijing in August.
``North Korea is saying that it would raise the compensation issue at six-nation talks,'' Jeong said.
Representatives of the United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia met in August in Beijing to discuss ending the standoff over its nuclear weapons program nuclear crisis. But the meeting ended without agreement on a next round.
Jeong stressed KEDO is discussing a suspension, not termination, of the project.
``Suspension means that it is on the shelf. It means that we can always use it again anytime,'' he said.
Meanwhile in Pyongyang, inter-Korean economic talks stalled as the South rejected the North's request for electricity.
South Korea's chief negotiator, Kim Gwang-lim, said supplying the North with electricity could put financial strains on other inter-Korean projects, including a planned industrial park in North Korea, according to South Korean pool reports which didn't elaborate.
Earlier this year, North Korea said that trains were running irregularly and power was frequently going out at factories because of an acute energy shortage.
Although Washington says it sees ``no future'' for the nuclear reactor project, South Korea, Japan and the EU favor suspending the project for one year, instead of halting it completely. They want to use the prospect of reviving the project to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions.
The 1994 deal went sour in October 2002 when U.S. officials said North Korea admitted running a secret weapons program. Washington and its allies later cut off 147 million gallons of annual free oil shipments -- also part of the 1994 deal.
Pyongyang claims the United States also reneged on the 1994 deal. It cites Washington's failure to keep its promise to build one of the two light-water reactors by 2003, and its refusal to make compensations for economic losses caused by the delays.
North Korea retaliated by expelling U.N. nuclear monitors. Last month, it said it was building more atomic bombs besides one or two bombs it already is believed to possess.
-------
CIA Says N.Korea Already Has 'Validated' Nuke
November 7, 2003
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-security-korea-cia.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea appears to have built one or two nuclear weapons it could be confident would work even without a test nuclear blast, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has told Congress.
``We assess that North Korea has produced one or two simple fission-type nuclear weapons and has validated the designs without conducting yield-producing nuclear tests,'' the CIA said in written replies to questions from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
The CIA's Aug. 18 statement was made public recently by the Federation of American Scientists on its Web site (www.fas.org/irp/congress/2003-hr/021103qfr-cia.pdf).
Some experts said on Friday they had expected Pyongyang to carry out a test blast just as India and Pakistan did in 1998 to show the world they were members of the nuclear club, but the CIA's statement suggests this is not necessary.
``Testing would confirm (the existence of a nuclear capability) but it's not changing what they already believe,'' said Daniel Pinkston, a North Korea expert at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California.
North Korea is widely reported to have been carrying out nuclear weapon-related tests, short of blasts, since the 1980s to develop what it now says is a nuclear deterrent that is ready to use.
``Pyongyang at this point appears to view ambiguity regarding its nuclear capabilities as providing a tactical advantage,'' the spy agency said. A test nuclear explosion could spark an international backlash that would isolate the reclusive Communist state further, the agency added.
Robert Norris, who has tracked North Korea's nuclear program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said it was not surprising Pyongyang had reached this point.
``They've been working on this for several decades,'' he said.
David Albright, a physicist who is president of the Institute for Science and International Security, said the CIA statement suggested a belief the North had already ``weaponized'' a nuclear device that could be dropped from a plane or delivered by missile.
North Korea's envoy in Britain told Reuters in an interview Thursday the North possessed a ``nuclear deterrent capability ... powerful enough to deter any U.S. attack.''
The latest crisis in U.S.-North Korean relations began in October 2002, when U.S. officials said the North had been pursuing a clandestine nuclear-weapons program that violated its international commitments.
The State Department said on Friday it was optimistic about chances for a fresh round of six-way talks on North Korea's suspected nuclear arms program after Secretary of State Colin Powell met a key Chinese diplomat.
The Chinese official, Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi, told reporters after his talks with Powell that Beijing was working to set up a new round of discussions among officials from the United States, the two Koreas, Japan, Russia and China.
-------- pakistan
Musharraf denies transfer of nuke technology to North Korea
November 7, 2003
(NNI)
http://www.pakistanlink.com/headlines/Nov03/07/08.html
SEOUL: Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf Thursday denied any cooperation with North Korea of nuclear technology transfer and rejected all such reports.
Musharraf who also held meeting with Republic of Korean leader, Roh Moo-Hyun on the second day of his official visit to Seoul has said this in an interview to Korea Herald, an English daily.
Pakistan has been accused of helping North Korea for its alleged nuclear bomb development programme. The reports appeared in international media had suggested that Islamabad cooperated with Pyongyang' atomic ambitions in return for help in developing ballistic missile in Islamabad. Pakistan however continued denying such reports and even up today, no evidence of such cooperation was surfaced.
"I would like to assure ROK people and government that all reports linking Pakistan to North Korea's nuclear programme are totally incorrect and malicious in nature," Musharraf told Korea Herald.
The one-hour meeting between Musharraf and Roh Moo-Hyun, focused on the nuclear crisis and bilateral relations, especially trade, South Korean officials said and added the international and regional issues as well as subjects like international terrorism also came under discussion.
Cooperation agreements on information-technology and energy and mineral industries were signed, they said.
Musharraf earlier described the one-year standoff between Pyongyang and Washington as a "grave crisis" and urged North Korea to show restraint and avoid escalating tension.
But he made no direct call in support of international demands that Pyongyang scrap its nuclear weapons, according to the published interview transcript.
"Pakistan is opposed to nuclear proliferation and is committed to universal and complete nuclear disarmament," Musharraf was quoted as saying. "We hope that despite its admission of nuclear capability North Korea would avoid escalating tension as it entails grave consequences for all."
North Korea says it wants a denuclearized Korean peninsula, but at the same time claims it has developed nuclear bombs and is making more to cope with what it calls a "hostile" US policy.
At a first round a six-way nuclear crisis talks in Beijing in August the Stalinist state threatened to declare itself a nuclear power and conduct a nuclear test, according to US officials.
Pakistan carried out a nuclear test in 1998 in a tit-for-tat step following India's tests, after years of running clandestine atomic programmes. Islamabad holds non-proliferation as the central pillar of its nuclear policy, Musharraf said. "I want to assure my Korean friends that it is unthinkable for Pakistan to engage in any activity that could be detrimental to the security of South Korea," he said.
The Pakistani leader said he fully supported multilateral negotiations to resolve the Korean nuclear crisis as hopes rose for a new round of six-way talks bringing together the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States before year-end.
The nuclear crisis erupted in October last year when Washington said North Korea had admitted to running a nuclear programme based on enriched uranium in violation of a 1994 nuclear freeze accord.
According to US media reports, Pakistan supplied North Korea with designs for gas centrifuges needed for the production of weapons-grade uranium. The North Korea deny running a uranium-based programme but say they have built bombs from a plutonium-based programme.
Musharraf arrived Seoul yesterday (Wednesday) from China on a three days official visit and met this morning (Thursday) with his Korean counterpart, which was the first meeting between the two leaders.
He already held meeting with his Korean counterpart President Hu Jintao and is planned to meet the business community besides visiting various military and civilian installations.
-------- russia
U.S. Helps Russia Repatriate Weapons Usable Reactor Fuel
WASHINGTON, DC, (ENS)
November 7, 2003
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2003/2003-11-07-01.asp
Highly enriched uranium of Russian origin that has been used in research reactors around the world is being sent back to Russia with financial help from the United States, Russian and U.S. energy officials announced today.
Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham and the Minister of the Russian Federation for Atomic Energy Aleksandr Rumyantsev signed a joint statement today to repatriate high-enriched uranium (HEU) research reactor fuel of Russian origin back to Russia.
The United States will provide financial assistance to the program, but a specific price tag was not mentioned.
"Under this program, we are focusing our efforts on repatriating Russian-supplied fuel from more than 20 research reactors in 17 countries," Secretary Abraham said. "Moreover, we plan to convert these targeted research reactors so that they use low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel instead of HEU."
HEU can be directly used in manufacturing nuclear weapons, but when blended with natural uranium it becomese low enriched uranium (LEU), which cannot be used in weapons.
U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham addresses the International Atomic Energy Agency annual conference in September. (Photo courtesy IAEA) In a joint statement released today, Abraham and Rumyantsev said, "Our common objective consists of reducing, to the greatest extent possible, and, ultimately, eliminating the use of such materials in civilian nuclear activity."
The signing concludes a four day visit by Minister Rumyansev with Secretary Abraham which included trips to the Partnerships for Prosperity and Security Trade Show in Philadelphia and to the United Nations First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in New York City.
In a joint appearance at the UN on Wednesday, Abraham told the delegates that more than 170 tons of Russia's HEU has been converted to non-weapons grade material for use in American commercial reactors. "Altogether, 500 metric tons of Russia's HEU will be converted and used to support civilian nuclear power," he said.
The Bush administration is committed to creating a stockpile in the United States of low-enriched uranium derived from Russian HEU, further reducing HEU inventories, Abraham told the UN delegates. "This stockpile will be used to augment our strategic uranium reserve to enhance our domestic energy security."
The United States has identified 174 tons of excess HEU that will be blended down and used for civil purposes, the secretary said. "To date, over 40 metric tons have been downblended and like Russia, we remain committed to disposing of 34 metric tons of excess plutonium."
"The goal of minimizing international commerce in HEU has long been a pillar of U.S. nonproliferation policy," Abraham said today at the signing ceremony in Washington. "This program exemplifies the strength of the U.S. and Russian Federation partnership to reduce the threat of terrorism and prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction."
The U.S. and the Russian Federation, in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), began work on fuel return in December 1999. The program was designed to support the return of Soviet or Russian supplied fresh and irradiated HEU fuel, currently stored at foreign research reactors, to the Russian Federation.
Russian Minister for Atomic Energy Aleksandr Rumyantsev at the IAEA annual meeting in September (Photo courtesy IAEA) Fuel return efforts are already underway. In late September, Russia accepted 14 kilograms of fresh Russian origin HEU from Romania. The HEU was airlifted from Bucharest to Russia where it is waiting to be down-blended to LEU and used for nuclear power plant fuel fabrication.
In Romania, the United States will provide up to $4 million for the purchase of low-enriched uranium for a research reactor that will be converted from HEU to LEU. "This is key to reducing the reactor's attractiveness to terrorists or other threats, even as the reactor will continue to be used for peaceful purposes," said Abraham, who stressed that these conversions must take place "on an urgent basis."
The U.S. and Russia also reached an agreement on the next fresh fuel shipment, which is planned to be implemented by the end of this year.
Preparations are also in progress for the transfer of spent HEU fuel from Uzbekistan to Russia.
"Our governments have completed negotiations on a bilateral agreement under which more then a dozen other countries will become eligible to ship their fresh and spent research reactor fuel to Russia for safe and secure disposition," Secretary Abraham said today. "I am delighted to report that this agreement will soon be finalized and signed."
As part of the global campaign to minimize commercial use of HEU, Abraham told the 2nd annual Carnegie Nonproliferation Conference in Moscow September 19 that the United States has converted half the research reactors using HEU of U.S. origin to LEU.
The United States has "completed a campaign in which 38 research reactors in 22 countries using HEU of U.S. origin have been converted to LEU, keeping over 3,300 kilograms of weapon usable material off the market," Abraham said.
The U.S. Energy Department is developing a new low enriched uranium fuel, which can help replace HEU fuel in additional remaining reactors, Abraham told conference delegates in Moscow.
In their joint statement today, the two energy officials said their cooperation on the research reactor fuel is a "mutual contribution to the reduction of global stockpiles of weapons usable nuclear materials and, therefore, to reducing the threat of international terrorism and preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction."
Their agreement comes just in time for the International Conference on Research Reactor Utilization, Safety, Decommissioning, Fuel and Waste Management taking place next week in Santiago, Chile. Organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency the conference will focus on the 278 research reactors now operating in 59 countries.
----
Russia to Step Up Retrieval of Uranium
November 7, 2003
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Russian-Nuclear.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Under a new agreement with the United States, Russia will retrieve highly enriched uranium it shipped to civilian research reactors in 17 countries, reducing the likelihood of theft.
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and Russian Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev signed the bilateral statement on the uranium retrieval Friday and said another agreement securing Russian uranium from a dozen other countries ``is in its final stages.''
The announcement is the latest attempt to address growing concern about the large amount of weapons-suitable highly enriched uranium that is kept at active and idle research reactors in dozens of countries.
Most of this uranium fuel, which is weapons grade and could be used in a crude nuclear device if obtained by terrorists, originated in either Russia or the United States as part of a program to promote peaceful nuclear research. In some cases reactor operators do not have the money to ship the material back.
The U.S.-Russia statement ``confirms our common objective of reducing, and to the extent possible, ultimately eliminating the use of highly enriched uranium in civil nuclear activity,'' said Abraham.
The agreement involves 20 reactors in Eastern Europe and countries formerly part of the Soviet Union. A joint statement said two shipments of Russian-origin highly enriched uranium, or HEU, already had been retrieved and preparations were underway to transfer fuel from a research reactor in Uzbekistan.
The HEU in Uzbekistan has been of particular concern because of the country's close proximity to Afghanistan and to Islamic groups tied to al-Qaida terrorists.
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the private Arms Control Association, said the Russian agreement is ``a step forward ... a good move.'' But he said how good it is will depend on how quickly the Russians act and how comprehensive their retrievals are.
The agreement gave no timetable.
But Abraham said Russian fuel shipments are already underway. In September, Russia retrieved 14 kilograms of fresh HEU from a reactor near Bucharest, Romania, he said.
The United States has been replacing much of the highly enriched uranium it sent overseas with low-enriched uranium fuel similar to what is used in commercial nuclear power plants, thereby reducing the nuclear proliferation threat.
Abraham said Thursday that about 50 percent of the U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium has been retrieved from overseas research reactors. In many of the other cases the task has been complicated because the reactors cannot easily use the low-enriched substitute.
Harvard University researchers said in a report last year that there are 345 operating or idle research reactors in 58 countries that have highly enriched uranium that could be converted for use in a weapon by terrorists if they obtained the material.
Security varies widely at these facilities, the report said.
``In some cases security is provided by a single sleepy watchman and a chain-link fence,'' wrote Matthew Bunn, a researcher at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
The Harvard report cited several cases of large amounts of highly enriched uranium at poorly secured research reactors in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Among them were a reactor in Ukraine that has 75 kilograms of uranium and another in Belarus with 300 kilograms of highly enriched fuel.
In August, 2002, a joint operation between the United States and Russia resulted in 1,797 pounds of highly enriched uranium being whisked away from a poorly secured research reactor near Belgrade, Yugoslavia and returned to Russia. The uranium had been provided by Russia in 1976.
-------- u.s. nuc weapons
The bomb is back
by Security and Defence editor Hans de Vreij,
7 November 2003
Radio Netherlands
http://www.rnw.nl/hotspots/html/nuc031107.html
The threat of nuclear weapons has simmered on the international backburner since the end of the Cold War. Now, it's moving fast to the top of the global agenda. North Korea, Iraq and Iran are just the latest in a series of countries unable to resist the temptation to violate international rules and develop the ultimate weapon of mass destruction.
The UN's nuclear watchdog boss this week urgently called on the world community to halt the looming threat of nuclear proliferation. Mohamed Elbaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, would like to see all plutonium and enriched uranium produced worldwide to be placed under international control. Launching a proposal to that effect on Tuesday, Mr Baradei also stated that all countries should agree to unannounced IAEA inspections. Cat and mouse
In Mr Elbaradei's view, the measures are needed to prevent certain states or terrorist groups from producing nuclear weapons. That threat, he said, is growing. North Korea and Iran are the latest examples. After pulling out of the 1986 Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, Pyongyang is now playing a dangerous cat-and-mouse game with the world's major powers (the US, China, Russia and Japan) - a "game" some would simply call nuclear blackmail. The North Korean government claims that it possesses nuclear weapons and is demanding a large pile of money as well as a non-aggression treaty from the US in exchange for giving up its weapons, whether they exist or not.
The Netherlands supports the IAEA's initiative to put the worldwide production of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium under international control.
A foreign ministry spokesman told Radio Netherlands on Thursday that the Hague government shares the Mr Elbaradei's concerns and will do what it can to assist in finding a solution. "The Netherlands is certainly sympathetic towards Mr Elbaradei's proposals", the spokesman said.
The United States has given a more guarded response. "Mr Elbaradei's plans are worth studying," the US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham stated on Wednesday. Iran is the other recent example of a country suspected of harbouring nuclear aspirations. Unlike North Korea, Tehran is still a signatory to the NPT and it has pledged a full disclosure of all its nuclear activities. This week, Mr Elbaradei said the reports submitted by the Iranian government were currently under review. He added that it was extremely desirable that Iran allow IAEA inspection teams unrestricted access to its nuclear installations.
Dirty bomb
It's an undisputed fact that Iraq was seriously interested in pursuing a nuclear weapons programme in the 1980s and 1990s. Neither is there any doubt that this ambition is currently shared by many terrorist groups. A "genuine" nuclear weapon may be out of their reach, but a dirty nuclear bomb (a heap of radioactive material packaged in a conventional bomb) certainly isn't.
However, "rogue states" and terrorists do not represent the only threat to the current Non-Proliferation Treaty. It limits the number of legitimate nuclear powers to the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, provided that they move to dismantle their nuclear arsenals and assist the rest of the world in developing atomic energy for peaceful purposes.
Violations
But 35 years after the treaty went into force, nobody can seriously maintain that there's been a substantial drive to dismantle nuclear weaponry. Moreover, the Security Council has been unable to prevent countries such as Israel, India and Pakistan acquiring nuclear capability.
In another threat to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the United States and Russia have announced plans to modernize their nuclear arsenals. This declared intention by these two nuclear superpowers is a direct contravention of the spirit of the treaty.
Further proliferation looms and it will be only a matter of time before rogue states and terrorists resort to nuclear weapons, unless the UN Security Council move to adopt drastic measures. Not so long ago, very civilized nations (in addition to less savoury ones) such as Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa and Brazil entertained concrete plans in that direction. These plans were put on ice following international pressure, but of course they can easily be taken up again.
----
Panel backs 'battlefield' nukes
Bill would remove prohibition on smaller low-yield warheads
James Sterngold,
San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, November 7, 2003
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/11/07/MNGO12SD981.DTL
A House-Senate conference committee finalized an agreement Thursday that will reverse a decade of self-imposed restraint on the development of so- called battlefield nuclear weapons, repealing a law that had prohibited the production of smaller, more usable warheads.
Although the repeal has not been announced officially yet, lawmakers hammering out a final defense authorization bill said that it had completed language that will remove the limits on the development of the low-yield weapons. Republicans tried but failed to repeal the law last year.
The Bush administration argues that it needs the new bombs to destroy caches of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of potential enemies. But Democrats and other opponents say that because the warheads are smaller and thus more usable, they make nuclear exchanges more likely and encourage foes to build their own nuclear deterrents.
Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., who was one of the co-sponsors of the Spratt- Furse Amendment, the original ban enacted a decade ago, said he was disappointed that the restraint had been removed. But he vowed to continue the efforts to prevent aggressive expansion of the military's still substantial nuclear arsenal.
The law being written by the conference committee lifts the old prohibition, but it also requires the administration to come back to Congress for approval if it wants to begin the actual detailed engineering work on warhead production.
Spratt called the removal of the ban highly symbolic, since Congress must agree to manufacture of the new warheads, but even that creates problems by sending a provocative signal to other countries, he noted.
"The symbolic effect is not to be dismissed," said Spratt, adding, "We're coming back to fight another day."
The Bush administration has pushed hard for elimination of the law, saying that the U.S. military needs new kinds of smaller nuclear warheads that can destroy deeply buried bunkers or other hardened targets without causing the kind of indiscriminate devastation larger warheads would incur.
Congressional Democrats have insisted that the United States -- which already has more than 10,000 nuclear warheads -- does not need new weapons and that development of the smaller warheads will just encourage potential enemies, such as North Korea and Iran, to rush and build their own deterrent forces.
The conferees essentially adapted the version of the bill agreed on in the Senate earlier.
But there is clear ambivalence even among Republicans about how far the administration should be allowed to go in its aggressive nuclear programs.
The Spratt-Furse Amendment prohibited the development of warheads with an explosive force of less than 5 kilotons - one third the power of the atomic bomb that killed 140,000 people when it was dropped over Hiroshima. It was put in place after the end of the Cold War to prevent what Spratt called "backsliding" into an arms race that would end up encouraging the spread of the weapons.
In a separate conference committee working out the final details of the Pentagon's budget for the next fiscal year, lawmakers agreed to far less money than Bush had sought for research into several specific new warhead designs and a new factory for producing the plutonium cores of warheads. In that instance, even many Republicans sought to slow the president's efforts.
E-mail James Sterngold at jsterngold@sfchronicle.com.
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
DOE to phase out exams for ex-workers
Friday, November 7th, 2003
Tri-City Herald,
Associated Press & Other Wire Services
By John Stang Herald staff writer
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/story/4350305p-4359363c.html
PORTLAND -- Federally funded medical exams on former Department of Energy workers will be phased out and replaced with a new program by Sept. 30, said a medical researcher involved in the current project.
Hanford Advisory Board member Tim Takaro told other members Thursday in Portland that DOE recently made the change.
Takaro is a doctor, a faculty member in the occupational medicine department at the University of Washington and a key participant in Northwest medical checkups on former DOE plutonium production workers.
DOE has been paying for the exams for nonradiation-related health problems in former workers at its atomic bomb production sites across the nation, including Hanford. Separate programs are set up for construction and production employees.
The exams look for health problems related to exposure to beryllium, asbestos, noise and other industrial sources. And DOE is legally required to make sure the exams take place because some workers exposed to beryllium who contracted lung diseases may be eligible for federal compensation.
Takaro and Hank Hartley, outreach coordinator for the Hanford Building Trades Medical Screening Program, said they recently learned from DOE officials that funding problems are leading the federal agency to revise how the checkups are managed.
Takaro is concerned about plans to phase out the current program before DOE has figured out how to replace it since the backlog of people signed up for medical exams is greater than what can be handled by Sept. 30.
DOE officials with the program in Washington, D.C., could not be reached Thursday afternoon about the plan.
In Hanford's case, former production workers can call toll-free 1-888-277-6886 to schedule checks, which are mostly conducted in the Tri-City area.
Hanford has at least 65 buildings identified as places where workers may have been exposed to beryllium. No current Hanford processes use beryllium, although workers could be exposed to it during cleanup work.
The program has tried to contact more than 70,000 former Hanford production workers, reaching about 30,000.
Almost 2,000 have been checked in the past five years, although momentum is picking up, Takaro said. Doctors have examined about 600 former Hanford production people so far this year.
Another 3,000 have signed up and are waiting for medical checks, but Takaro believes that's too many to be finished in the next 11 months. In addition, the Hanford Building Trades Medical Screening Program has checked about 2,400 current and former Hanford construction workers in the past six years, Hartley said in a phone interview.
He said there are about 80,000 living current and former Hanford construction workers eligible for the checks. The program has contacted about 4,600.
So far, that program has identified two cases of chronic beryllium disease and 49 people who are extra sensitive to beryllium, Takaro said.
And 52 percent of the checked 2,400 people show some significant exposure to asbestos and 78 percent have shown some hearing losses, Hartley said.
The construction worker's program has a small waiting list of people wanting medical checks, he said.
"I feel there are a lot more men and women out there who deserve to go through this program," Hartley said.
-------- california
Nuclear Weapons Lab Loses 12 Keys New Locks Could Cost $1.7 Million
By Brian Faler
The Washington Post
Friday, November 7, 2003; Page A13
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9866-2003Nov6.html
Officials at a national nuclear weapons laboratory in California have lost a dozen keys to the facility, according to a report released yesterday by the Energy Department's inspector general.
Gregory H. Friedman, the inspector general, said officials at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have lost nine master keys and three magnetic key cards to the facility -- and, in some cases, do not know why or how long they have been missing.
The lab will need to replace about 100,000 locks in 526 buildings, according to the inspector general's report. That will cost taxpayers about $1.7 million -- although Friedman noted that some government officials dispute those figures.
More broadly, he said the facility did not have adequate measures in place to ensure that such incidents are reported in a timely manner -- or to readily identify and address any potential vulnerabilities in its security that may have resulted.
The lab is managed by the University of California under a contract with the Energy Department. The university has already been under fire for security lapses at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which it also manages.
"We regret that the events covered in the report were very unfortunate," said Livermore spokesman David Schwoegler. "But once we were made aware of this, our senior management acted aggressively to correct both the key and card issues."
Schwoegler said the lost keys presented only "minimal increased risk to classified information," thanks to redundant security systems, and that there is no evidence security has been breached.
He said Livermore officials estimate they will have to change only 1,300 locks at a cost of $330,000. He also said the lab is in the process of replacing its locks.
-------- new mexico
Louisiana Energy Services touts uranium plant in New Mexico
By The Associated Press
November 8, 2003
http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/090203/bus_uran001.shtml
An international consortium that wants to build a billion-dollar-plus facility to produce fuel for nuclear reactors told Gov. Bill Richardson it will not dispose of byproduct uranium in New Mexico.
Richardson's office on Monday released a statement from the governor about the $1.2 billion uranium enrichment plant, along with a letter to Richardson from Louisiana Energy Services president James Ferland.
Louisiana Energy, or LES, announced last week the plant would be built off N.M. 176 five miles east of Eunice near the Texas-New Mexico border. Ferland has said construction could begin within three years if the permit process goes smoothly.
The consortium must apply for a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license for the facility, which would use technology owned by Urenco to produce the fuel. Urenco, a joint British-Dutch-German venture, is the consortium's principal partner.
LES switched to New Mexico after community resistance in Hartsville, Tenn., where it had proposed to build the facility after meeting opposition in Louisiana, its first choice.
Ferland's letter to Richardson pledged there would be no disposal or long-term storage _ beyond the life of the plant _ of uranium byproduct cylinders in the state and that LES only would temporarily store cylinders on-site.
"The NRC license will only allow for storage and not disposal on-site," and the company will aggressively pursue disposal outside the state, Ferland wrote.
The company also agreed to a surety bond that provides funds for decontamination of the LES plant and ultimate disposal of any cylinders that may remain if the company defaults.
Ferland said the planned Lea County facility would provide uranium for the U.S. nuclear industry with oversight from the NRC and the state Environment Department.
Richardson, U.S. Sens. Pete Domenici and Jeff Bingaman, Rep. Steve Pearce, state Land Commissioner Pat Lyons, Attorney General Patricia Madrid, LES officials, Lea County officials and other dignitaries are expected to attend an official ceremony Tuesday marking the plant's announcement.
The plant is expected to employ 200 to 400 people during construction and about 250 during operation. The company said the annual payroll will be about $10 million with average salary of about $50,000.
Domenici, R-N.M., in February asked LES to look at establishing the plant in southern New Mexico. In a letter to LES executive director George Dials, Domenici noted LES reviewed a site near Carlsbad before choosing Tennessee and that other New Mexico sites could have been proposed.
Carlsbad Mayor Bob Forrest had cited the nearby Waste Isolation Pilot Plant _ the federal government's underground nuclear waste dump _ as an asset for the project. Dials, then with the U.S. Department of Energy, helped secure WIPP's licensing.
In April, LES announced it would review other sites after environmental groups opposed the Hartsville location. Environmentalists contended LES did not answer questions, including how it would handle leftover depleted uranium.
Louisiana Energy Services did not get a zoning change needed for the Tennessee project, the local economic development agency refused to extend its option to buy land for the plant and a Canadian partner withdrew. In addition, the NRC license application was delayed repeatedly.
In 1998, LES abandoned a seven-year attempt to build the plant in Claiborne Parish after opponents accused it of targeting the area because it was predominantly poor and black.
-------- new york
A-Plant's Foes Challenge U.S. on Safety Plan
November 7, 2003
By LYDIA POLGREEN
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/07/nyregion/07NUKE.html
WHITE PLAINS, Nov. 6 - Opponents of the Indian Point nuclear power plant filed an administrative appeal on Thursday seeking to overturn federal approval of plans to protect residents near the plant's two reactors in case of an emergency.
The appeal, which was filed by Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky and was signed by nearly 50 local, state and federal officials, is the final step before opponents can file a lawsuit against the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which approved the hotly disputed plan in the summer. Opponents claim the plan will not adequately protect residents from a radiation release or other catastrophe at Indian Point.
The appeal comes as opponents of the plant reassess their efforts to shut down the twin reactors, which sit on the Hudson River about 35 miles north of Midtown Manhattan in Westchester County.
"We are redrawing the battle on a bunch of fronts," Mr. Brodsky said. "We have won the battle for public opinion, won the support of the county and state governments and now we are up against a faceless federal bureaucracy."
Many local officials and environmental groups argued that the emergency plan would not adequately protect residents, but the emergency management agency approved the plan, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission swiftly concurred.
A spokesman for Indian Point said yesterday that the questions raised by opponents of the plant about the emergency plan had been addressed.
"This is just another tired effort to keep the ball alive," said Jim Steets, a spokesman for Entergy, the company that owns the plant. "Really, what they ought to be doing is ensuring themselves of a reliable electrical supply instead of trying to remove electrical supply."
Alex Matthiessen, executive director of the environmental group Riverkeeper, said the strategy was to press on every front and to identify problems with the plant in an effort to kill it with a thousand cuts.
"Every time Indian Point gets targeted or highlighted as a nuclear power plant with problems, it adds more to a case we have already built," Mr. Matthiessen said, "which is that this plant is a dangerous facility and it is only a matter of time before something terrible happens."
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and other Congressional representatives have called for hearings into the process the emergency management agency and the regulatory commission used in approving the plan, and Representative Eliot L. Engel, who represents a district near Indian Point, sponsored legislation passed by the House this week to require the Coast Guard to assess the plant's vulnerability to a water attack.
-------- tennessee
Oak Ridge nuclear-waste plant nears startup
$200M processing site is expected to begin operations in early '04
By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com
November 7, 2003
Knoxville News-Sentinel
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_2409080,00.html
OAK RIDGE - A nuclear-waste processing plant is expected to begin operations here in early 2004, setting the stage for hundreds of shipments to Nevada and New Mexico over the next decade.
The facilities will be used to process highly radioactive wastes and package them in a form considered safe for shipment and disposal. Some of the wastes are remnants of the earliest nuclear operations in Oak Ridge, dating back to the World War II Manhattan Project, and have been stored at Oak Ridge for decades.
The processing plant's startup is about a year behind schedule, but the U.S. Department of Energy official overseeing the $200 million project said he's generally satisfied - all things considered.
"I certainly would have been more pleased had we been able to do this a year ago, but the good thing is the American taxpayer isn't forking the bill for the delay,'' said Gary Riner, the DOE project manager.
Foster Wheeler Environmental Corp. invested about $76 million to build the Oak Ridge facility as part of a 1998 agreement with DOE.
The company was reimbursed $24 million from DOE about a year ago after getting all the necessary permits for the facility. But Foster Wheeler won't recoup the rest of the investment or make a profit until it begins waste shipments to the Nevada Test Site and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
Construction of the sophisticated waste-processing plant is complete, but the nuclear facilities are still undergoing a lengthy set of safety reviews.
In late October, Foster Wheeler pronounced the operations ready to go and awaiting DOE's approval.
A team from the federal agency's Oak Ridge office currently is evaluating the plant. Afterward, Foster Wheeler will have an opportunity to fix any flaws before the plant undergoes a final "operational readiness review'' by DOE staff from Washington.
The startup was delayed this summer after Foster Wheeler identified problems during tests of equipment used to handle liquid wastes called "supernates." One of the issues, according to Riner, was dried materials sticking to equipment in the discharge chute. The recipe was altered to improve the flow, he said.
Other changes were made to reduce the flammability of waste powders, Riner said.
The DOE official said it's possible that processing operations could be cleared to start in December if no additional problems are found, but he said January is more likely.
The Oak Ridge plant will process wastes in liquid, solid and sludge forms. But all of the wastes are radioactive, and some of them are among the hottest ever stored here.
A series of projects were conducted during the past 15 years to remove gunk from underground tanks and other storage sites that were leaking or considered unsafe. The radioactive materials were transferred to storage facilities near the Foster Wheeler plant in Melton Valley, west of Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The supernates will be the first wastes processed at the Foster Wheeler facility, with liquids drawn into the processing system as needed from the nearby storage tanks.
Once dried and repackaged, those materials will be loaded into casks and sent by truck to the Nevada Test Site for disposal. About 280 shipments to Nevada are expected, Riner said.
The sludges and solids containing long-lived "transuranic" elements - such as plutonium, curium and americium - will be packaged later and trucked to the WIPP underground repository at Carlsbad, N.M. More than 550 shipments of transuranic waste are planned to New Mexico, although Oak Ridge officials are still waiting on approval to send some of the hottest materials.
All shipping casks meet standards set by Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Riner said.
Once the processing of nuclear waste begins, access to the Oak Ridge plant will be severely restricted. But Riner and other officials provided a tour of the facilities during a recent break between inspections.
Each of the waste forms will be processed in a different area of the plant, but all areas are heavily shielded to protect workers from radiation.
Some processing equipment has redundant systems side by side, so that one can be activated if the other fails. That way, workers won't have to go into hot zones in order to fix a problem.
"That's the whole design premise behind this facility,'' Riner said. "Everything is shielded to limit the human interface with radiation."
Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329.
--------
Audit Faults Energy Dept. Nuke Program
November 7, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Nuclear-Cleanup-Audit.html
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (AP) -- An Energy Department program touted as a model for cleaning up and reusing old nuclear weapons installations has saved far less money than claimed by project managers and has actually delayed the cleanup of the most contaminated spots, an internal audit found.
Since 1996, the department has spent $51 million on incentives and $242 million in site preparation work to transform the shuttered K-25 uranium enrichment site in Oak Ridge into an industrial park.
Oak Ridge program managers and the leasing organization created to bring tenants claim that K-25's reindustrialization, copied to a lesser extent at other Energy Department sites, has saved taxpayers more than $500 million. This week, in fact, the Environmental Protection Agency gave the project an award for excellence.
But the department's inspector general said in the recent audit that no more than $4 million in savings from the reuse program could be verified, only 5 percent of the site's total building space has been leased and less than 3 percent of the site has been demolished.
Most of the 1,500-acre site is slated for demolition, but the department has not yet determined exactly how much of the property is too contaminated to reuse.
K-25 contains more than 500 buildings and other structures on guarded property tainted by hazardous chemicals and low-level radioactivity. For four decades, the site was used to produce uranium for bombs and nuclear reactors.
``I think you have to keep it all in context,'' said Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., whose district includes Oak Ridge. ``We are committed to reindustrialization, but it can always be done better and more effectively and efficiently.''
The audit by Inspector General Gregory Friedman said work on the most contaminated and unsafe building -- the half-mile-long, U-shaped K-25 Building itself -- ``was deferred while buildings with perceived reuse potential have been cleaned up in an effort to increase commercial tenants.'' The work on that building has yet to begin.
Friedman concluded in an Oct. 14 memo that the money might have been better used to ``decontaminate, decommission and demolish'' the site's higher-risk facilities.
Jessie Hill Roberson, the department's assistant secretary for environmental management, said the audit omitted important cleanup work that had been accomplished, but said the department agreed with the recommendation to steer money toward the cleanup of the more contaminated areas.
In 2002, the Energy Department pledged to finish the multibillion-dollar cleanup by 2008, nearly a decade ahead of previous timetables. Wamp said congressional negotiators will soon endorse a $1 billion cleanup appropriation for K-25 for use next year.
-------- wisconsin
Two Wis. Utilities to Sell Nuclear Plant
November 7, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Nuclear-Plant-Sale.html
MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Two Wisconsin utilities are selling a nuclear power plant on the Lake Michigan shore to a Virginia company for about $220 million in cash.
Wisconsin Public Service Corp. of Green Bay owns 59 percent of the 545-megawatt Kewaunee nuclear power plant, and Alliant Energy Corp. of Madison owns the rest.
The deal announced Friday with Richmond, Va.-based Dominion Resources Inc. is expected to close in the fall of 2004, pending regulatory approval.
The Wisconsin utilities said they would pass on the earnings from the sale to customers in future rate proceedings.
Wisconsin Public Resources expects to receive about $130 million, and Alliant subsidiary Wisconsin Power and Light expects to get about $90 million through the sale.
The Wisconsin utilities also have agreed with Dominion to buy power from the plant through 2013, when the plant's operating license expires. The utilities did not disclose terms of that agreement, which also needs regulatory approval.
The utilities said they weren't looking to sell the plant until Dominion approached them.
``We saw this as a unique opportunity to ... have our customers benefit from nuclear power, while providing us a greater certainty about the cost going forward,'' Alliant spokesman Chris Schoenherr said.
Dominion will receive funds worth about $392 million from the Wisconsin utilities. The funds were set up to pay for the eventual decommissioning of the plant. The utilities have no plans to decommission the plant but are required to plan for the eventuality, Schoenherr said.
The plant, located 35 miles south of Green Bay, employs about 460 workers. Dominion plans to retain those workers.
The plant opened in 1974 and is operated by Nuclear Management Co. of Hudson, Wis. Upon completion of the transaction, Kewaunee will be operated by Dominion Energy, an operating unit of Dominion.
In afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Dominion shares fell 19 cents to $60.96, Wisconsin Public Resources fell 11 cents to $44.75 and Alliant shares rose 4 cents to $24.57.
On the Net:
Alliant Energy: http://www.alliantenergy.com
Wisconsin Public Service: http://www.wisconsinpublicservice.com/
Dominion: http://www.dom.com/
-------- us politics
Clark urges creating new agency for Iraq
November 07, 2003
By Stephen Dinan
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20031106-115236-9543r.htm
Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark said yesterday the United States must remain militarily engaged in Iraq but turn over rebuilding to a new international body tasked with creating a new Iraqi government.
Mr. Clark, a retired Army general, said the United States should apply the lessons he learned as commander of U.S. forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina and NATO forces in Kosovo to rebuilding Iraq.
In a speech at South Carolina State University, he proposed turning over command of the military operation to NATO, and creating a new international authority with responsibility for rebuilding.
"The Coalition Provisional Authority, by which America controls Iraq today, should be replaced. But it is simply unrealistic to have the United Nations take over this daunting task - it's not able and it's not willing," he said.
"We must create a new international structure - the Iraqi Reconstruction and Democracy Council - similar to the one we created in Bosnia with representatives from Europe, the United States, Iraq's neighbors, and other countries that will support our effort," he said.
Mr. Clark also said President Bush has failed to attract critical international support; the candidate said he would work on contentious issues at which Mr. Bush has balked.
"Our allies would be more willing to help us on Iraq if we are willing to work together on issues of concern to them, like climate change, the International Criminal Court, and a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty," Mr. Clark said.
He also said Saddam "did pose a national security challenge" and was in violation of U.N. resolutions. But Mr. Clark said going to war was not justified because Iraq did not pose an imminent threat.
Mr. Clark and eight other Democrats are vying for their party's nomination to challenge Mr. Bush in 2004.
Yesterday, one of those challengers - former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean - got a prized endorsement from the 1.6-million member Service Employees International Union.
A formal announcement will come next week, but SEIU President Andrew L. Stern emerged from a union board meeting declaring Mr. Dean their candidate.
"We are hopeful that there are other unions who share our members' excitement for Dr. Dean's candidacy," Mr. Stern said in a statement afterward.
The SEIU is the largest union in the AFL-CIO. Another large union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, also is considering endorsing Mr. Dean.
The SEIU endorsement caps a tumultuous few days for Mr. Dean.
He has taken a whipping from fellow candidates about his comments that Democrats should be courting "guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks," and issued an apology of sorts yesterday.
But Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat and a fellow candidate for president, yesterday began a broad attack on Mr. Dean, using the Confederate flag comments as the root.
"I think Americans deserve straight talk. I think they ought to know who Howard Dean is," Mr. Kerry said.
Mr. Dean, the front-runner in some of the early nomination contests, has found strong support among Democratic activists who opposed going to war in Iraq. But Mr. Kerry argued that Mr. Dean's record of support from the National Rifle Association, as well as his previous support for cuts in Medicare, should make those activists think twice.
----
China consults Powell on North Korea talks
WASHINGTON (AFP)
Nov 07, 2003
http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031107180213.782cg516.html
China forged ahead with its bid to convene new six-nation talks on the simmering North Korea nuclear crisis on Friday, as Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi briefed Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Wang was at the State Department for the second straight day, following his talks with the Bush administration's North Korea pointman, Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly on Thursday.
"We had very good discussions," Wang said as he left the building.
"Preparations for a new round of six party talks in Beijing have started," Wang said through a translator, but refused to answer further questions.
The United States and other parties are still hoping that another round of talks, to follow inconclusive discussions in Beijing in August, could take place before the end of the year.
The talks, which Washington sees as the only way out of the crisis which erupted a year ago, also include Russia, South Korea, Japan and North Korea.
North Korea agreed in principle last week to attend a new round of talks.
Wang's shuttle has included a recent trip to Pyongyang with parliamentary chief Wu Bangguo.
In the next step of its initiative, China is sending vice foreign minister Dai Bingguo to South Korea to exchange views on the issue November 9-12 and to Tokyo November 12-16.
The United States and Russia are also expected to consult in Washington in coming weeks.
Both China and the United States have downplayed the idea that Beijing's envoys are acting as go-betweens between Washington and Pyongyang.
But on Wednesday, Powell appeared to suggest that part of Beijing's role at least was to act as an informal messenger to the Stalinist state.
Powell recalled how he met former Chinese foreign minister Tang Jiaxuan in March and "reinforced President (George W.) Bush's message that China needed to rise to its responsibilities in dealing with this regional problem."
"The very next day the vice premier (Qian Qichen), who is here with us today, flew to North Korea and delivered that message, that there would be no alternative to multilateral talks in which all countries of the region would be fully involved.
He then noted how Bush outlined his views on the crisis to Chinese President Hu Jintao in Bangkok last month.
"Following that meeting, National People's Congress Chairman Mr. Wu (Bangguo) went to Pyongyang and discussed it with the North Koreans," said Powell during a speech in Texas.
----
House Approves $401 Billion Defense Bill
November 7, 2003
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Defense-Spending.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A $401 billion defense bill approved by the House on Friday would grant Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld the increased control he sought over 700,000 civilian employees -- a change the Pentagon says will free more troops for combat positions.
Democrats opposed provisions of the bill affecting the civilian work force, nuclear weapons research and environmental laws. But most joined Republicans in a 362-40 vote for the bill authorizing 2004 defense programs.
``There is so much in this bill that takes care of the troops, their families, their needs, their capability of waging war -- and we are at war,'' said Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.
The bill increases soldiers' pay by an average of 4.15 percent and extends recent raises in combat and family separation pay.
The Senate is likely to approve the bill early next week. It would then go to President Bush for his signature.
The bill offers compromises on two of the most contentious defense issues in Congress. It calls for the Air Force to lease 20 Boeing 767 planes as midair refueling tankers and buy 80 more. Some senators had objected to the Pentagon's earlier proposal to lease all 100 planes as too costly.
It also partially overturns rules preventing disabled veterans from receiving some of their retirement pay. Democrats said the compromise plan wouldn't help about 400,000 disabled veterans, but they failed in a 217-188 vote to have House-Senate negotiators reconsider the issue. The vote was mostly along party lines.
``I commend the House for passing the Defense Authorization conference report and showing strong bipartisan support for America's national security, our troops, and their families,'' Bush said. ``The legislation also makes good progress toward transforming and modernizing our military so that it is best prepared to protect Americans.''
Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colo., said Democrats took no steps on the issue when they controlled the White House or Congress. ``Now we get this phony posturing after a deal has been worked out to really try to deal with the problem. I think that's a cheap shot,'' he said.
The civil service restructuring was one of Rumsfeld's top priorities. Pentagon officials said restrictions on hiring, firing and promoting employees forced them to use military personnel for jobs better suited for civilians. That argument found a ready audience among lawmakers who say the Pentagon doesn't have enough troops to meet its commitments worldwide.
Democrats said the bill goes too far in stripping overtime guarantees and job protection rules.
``It will undo decades of some of the most important worker protections enacted by Congress and supported by decades of Republican and Democratic presidents,'' said Rep. Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 House Democratic leader.
Republicans countered that many of the rules are outdated.
``When it comes to our civil service, the tradition of preserving traditions has become a tradition,'' said Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va.
Unions opposed the changes. John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the bill ``basically changes the Department of Defense into a fiefdom for Donald Rumsfeld.''
The bill lifts a decade-old ban on research into low-yield nuclear weapons and authorizes $15 million for continued research into the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, a powerful nuclear weapon capable of destroying deep underground bunkers. The administration would have to return to Congress before development of the weapons begins.
Republicans said there is no harm in exploring weapons that may be needed one day to destroy hidden stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. Democrats said the provision could trigger a new arms race and increase the likelihood of nuclear war.
Democrats also objected to exemptions given to the military to provisions of the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Both were among a series of exemptions sought by the Pentagon, which claims that environmental laws have restricted training exercises. Environmentalists say the laws have had minimal effect on training and that the exemptions go too far.
In other provisions, the bill:
--Makes it easier for foreign-born service members and their families to become citizens.
--Encourages the military to buy from American manufacturers, but eliminates requirements the House wanted.
--Authorizes $9.1 billion for ballistic missile defense, $6.6 billion for the construction of seven new ships, $4.4 billion for developing the Joint Strike Fighter and $3.5 billion for 22 F/A-22 Raptor fighters.
Most of the funding authorized in the bill will come from a $368 billion defense appropriations bill signed by Bush on Sept. 30.
The bill s H.R. 1588
On the Net:
Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov
----
Clinton calls for aid to end arms crisis
Hong Kong - Reuters
November 7, 2003
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/11/07/1068013344855.html
Former US President Bill Clinton yesterday said Washington should offer food and energy supplies to North Korea in return for access to its laboratories to help resolve a crisis over the North's nuclear program.
"I think we ought to offer them a mega deal. Help with food, help with energy, help with becoming a self-sustaining economy... in return for total access to all the labs, all the sites, taking the plutonium rods out of North Korea altogether," Clinton told a business forum in Hong Kong.
"I don't believe that North Korea wants to drop a bomb on South Korea or Japan. I think what they want to do is eat and stay warm."
His comments came after Washington proposed suspending a project to build nuclear power stations in North Korea for a year to see what comes of diplomatic attempts to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation, the international consortium building the nuclear power stations in North Korea, is expected to officially announce a decision on the future of the light-water reactor project by November 21.
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Albright "Apologizes"
by Sheldon Richman,
November 7, 2003
http://www.fff.org/comment/com0311c.asp
In 1996 then-UN Ambassador Madeleine Albright was asked by 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl, in reference to years of U.S.-led economic sanctions against Iraq, "We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that is more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?"
To which Ambassador Albright responded, "I think that is a very hard choice, but the price, we think, the price is worth it."
That remark caused no public outcry. In fact, in January the following year Albright was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as President Clinton's secretary of state. In her opening statement to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which was considering her appointment, she said, "We will insist on maintaining tough UN sanctions against Iraq unless and until that regime complies with relevant Security Council resolutions."
Apparently no member of the committee asked her about her statement on 60 Minutes. Albright was confirmed.
Why bring this up now? Albright has just published her memoirs, Madam Secretary, in which she clarifies her statement. Here's what she writes:
I must have been crazy; I should have answered the question by reframing it and pointing out the inherent flaws in the premise behind it. Saddam Hussein could have prevented any child from suffering simply by meeting his obligations.... As soon as I had spoken, I wished for the power to freeze time and take back those words. My reply had been a terrible mistake, hasty, clumsy and wrong. Nothing matters more than the lives of innocent people. I had fallen into the trap and said something I simply did not mean. That was no one's fault but my own. (p. 275)
In the paragraph before this one she complains about the 60 Minutes report because "little effort was made to explain Saddam's culpability, his misuse of Iraqi resources, or the fact that we were not embargoing medicine or food."
When one reviews the facts, it is clear that Albright's explanation is woefully inadequate. First, it contains an apparent contradiction. She says food and medicine were not embargoed, but then she says Saddam Hussein could have avoided the suffering "simply by meeting his obligations." Does that mean more food would have been available had Hussein done what the U.S. government wanted? If so, weren't American officials at least partly responsible for the harm done to the Iraqi people? Hussein certainly did not let his people starve. The New York Times and Washington Post have reported that in answer to the sanctions, Saddam Hussein maintained an elaborate food-rationing program for rich and poor, presumably to hold the loyalty of the Iraqi people, which the sanctions were supposedly intended to dissolve. Iraqis are reported to be reluctant to give up the program even though Hussein is gone and the sanctions are over.
Albright is being disingenuous. Although food wasn't formally embargoed when the sanctions began in 1990, Iraq was hampered in importing it because initially Iraqi oil couldn't be exported. No exports, no imports. The UN's "oil for food" program, started six years later, after Hussein dropped his opposition, was supposed to remedy that. But it didn't entirely. Counterpunch.org reported in 1999, "Proceeds from such oil sales are banked in New York.... Thirty-four percent is skimmed off for disbursement to outside parties with claims on Iraq, such as the Kuwaitis, as well as to meet the costs of the UN effort in Iraq. A further thirteen percent goes to meet the needs of the Kurdish autonomous area in the north." With the remaining limited amount of money, the Iraqi government could order "food, medicine, medical equipment, infrastructure equipment to repair water and sanitation" and other things. But - and here's the rub - the U.S. government could veto or delay any items ordered. And it did.
As Joy Gordon reported in the November 2001 Harper's,
The United States has fought aggressively throughout the last decade to purposefully minimize the humanitarian goods that enter the country.... Since August 1991 the United States has blocked most purchases of materials necessary for Iraq to generate electricity, as well as equipment for radio, telephone, and other communications. Often restrictions have hinged on the withholding of a single essential element, rendering many approved items useless. For example, Iraq was allowed to purchase a sewage-treatment plant but was blocked from buying the generator necessary to run it; this in a country that has been pouring 300,000 tons of raw sewage daily into its rivers.
For Albright to say that food and medicine were not embargoed is to evade the fact that critical public-health needs could not be addressed because of the sanctions. Preventing a society from purifying its water and treating its sewage is a particularly brutal way to inflict harm, especially on its children. Disease was rampant, and infant mortality rose because of the sanctions. Let's not forget that destruction of Iraq's infrastructure was a deliberate aim of the U.S. bombing during the 1991 Gulf War.
No wonder two UN humanitarian coordinators quit over the sanctions. As one of them, Denis Halliday, said when he left in 1998, "I've been using the word 'genocide' because this is a deliberate policy to destroy the people of Iraq. I'm afraid I have no other view."
Albright now writes that her answer to Stahl was "crazy" and that she regretted it "as soon as [she] had spoken." Yet she did not take back her words between 1996 and Sept. 11, 2001. According to journalist Matt Welch, after being plagued by student protesters she "quietly" expressed regret for her statement in a speech at the University Southern California shortly after 9/11. But neither her office nor the Clinton administration issued a prominent clarification to the American people or the world. Could that be because her initial answer was sincere and that her belated apology was issued with her legacy in mind? We can be sure of one thing: word of her response spread throughout the Arab world. Maybe even among some of the 9/11 terrorists.
Sheldon Richman is senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation, and editor of Ideas on Liberty magazine and author of "'Ancient History': U.S. Conduct in the Middle East since World War II and the Folly of Intervention.". Send him email.
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Briefly - Asia
Combined dispatches and staff reports.
November 07, 2003
Washington Times
http://www.washtimes.com/world/briefly.htm
VIETNAM
Defense chief heads for U.S. tomorrow
HANOI - Twenty-eight years after the end of the Vietnam War, Vietnamese Defense Minister Pham Van Tra heads to the United States tomorrow for the first visit by the communist nation's top military officer.
The four-day Washington foray by the conservative general marks the start of a new era of engagement at a level unthinkable a few years ago.
"Tra's visit to the United States is highly significant," said Carl Thayer, a specialist on U.S.-Vietnam relations at the Australian Defense Force Academy. Gen. Nguyen Dinh Uoc of the Defense Ministry's Military History Institute here added: "It will make bilateral relations more comprehensive by developing military ties between the two countries."
CHINA
Joint team eliminates Japan's chemical arms
BEIJING - Nearly 100 Chinese and Japanese chemical-weapons specialists descended on Qiqihar city in northeastern Heilongjiang province yesterday to dispose of weapons left by retreating Japanese armies nearly 60 years ago.
The team will work with Chinese diplomats, specialists and engineers to dispose of chemical weapons that were collected after World War II and stored in a local warehouse, Xinhua news agency reported. Although the weapons were sealed, one man was killed and 42 were injured in August by leakage from rusted containers.
INDONESIA
Martial law in Aceh extended six months
JAKARTA - The government will extend by six months martial law in troubled Aceh Province, where nearly 1,500 people have been killed in military offensives since it was imposed May 19 to crack down on rebels of the Free Aceh Movement.
After a meeting led by President Megawati Sukarnoputri, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, coordinating minister for political and security affairs, disclosed the extension term, effective Nov. 16.
"The government decided to extend the martial law in Aceh for six months, and every month, it will be evaluated." Mr. Yudhoyono told reporters.
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Japan Rethinks Military's Role
November 7, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Japan-Mulling-the-Military.html
YOKOSUKA, Japan (AP) -- Time seems to have stood still at this base that was once home to the Imperial Japanese Navy: Black submarines flying the rising sun flag huddle in the morning mist, while sailors clamber over their gray-hulled warships.
But outside the gates, Japan is rethinking decades-old attitudes about its military and the commitment to pacifism on which this nation rebuilt itself from the ashes of World War II.
Reflecting the anxieties of a country concerned it can no longer take its security for granted, the issue has become a hot button as Japan prepares for parliamentary elections on Sunday.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's ruling Liberal Democratic Party has pledged to draft a proposal by 2005 to revise the 1947 constitution under which occupied Japan renounced armies, navies and the right to make war. Even the largest opposition party agrees on the need to debate the constitutional status of the nation's military, which exists in a legal gray zone as a ``self-defense force.''
The popular prime minister already has won broad support for initiatives loosening the reins on Japan's tightly controlled armed forces. Japanese warships from this base south of Tokyo have steamed into the Indian Ocean to provide logistical support for the war in Afghanistan.
Heading into the election, people list concerns they feel hit close to home -- pension checks, doctors bills, highway tolls. Then there's one that's too close: North Korea.
``North Korea is just scary,'' said Tsunehiro Suzuki, a 48-year-old office worker in Yokosuka, which is Koizumi's home district as well as headquarters to Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force and the U.S. Seventh Fleet.
``People in this country feel a lot less secure than back when the Soviet Union was supposed to be the enemy,'' Suzuki said.
Japan was shaken when North Korea test-fired a missile over its territory in 1998. It was shocked again when Kim Jong Il admitted last year that North Korean agents had kidnapped a dozen Japanese in the 1970s to steal their identities.
That threat pushed the government to launch the country's first spy satellites and move ahead with plans for a U.S.-developed missile shield, both of which have been criticized as contrary to the spirit of the constitution.
Suzuki scoffed at the suggestion.
``Whether you're talking about defending the country or doing our share in international peacekeeping, military force is involved,'' he said. ``Yet our constitution says we're not supposed to have a military.''
Some analysts accuse Koizumi and his conservative allies of scaremongering to push their agenda.
``They're using North Korea and the Chinese to reinforce this need to be stronger and more autonomous,'' said Ron Morse, professor of Ja