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NUCLEAR
Japan nuclear plant fault kills four
Four dead, seven injured in accident at Japanese nuclear plant
Fatal accident another blow to Japanese confidence in nuclear power
Japan Nuke Plant Accident Kills 4 People
The world's worst nuclear accidents in the past 25 years
British Energy says safety slipped last year
Gulf War Illnesses -- At Home and Abroad
Pakistan sets limit to cooperation with UN nuclear probe of Iran
Rice Cites International Concern Over Iran's Nuclear Intentions
Rice Says Iran Must Not Be Allowed to Develop Nuclear Arms
Iran Dismisses Nuke Program Allegations
Bush Vows to Pressure Iran on Nuke Goals
The Bombing of Nagasaki, August 9 1945 The Untold Story
On anniversary, a warning on arms
4 Die in Accident at Japan Nuclear Power Plant
List of Recent Nuclear Accidents in Japan
NAGASAKI PEACE DECLARATION
Peru: Stolen Nukes Can't Make Dirty Bomb
U.S. Expands Greenland Relations in Support of Missile Defense
Lessons of Nagasaki for Fighting Terrorism
Bush's policy endangers U.S. security
Nuclear Energy to Go: A Self-Contained, Portable Reactor
Nevada divided on Superfund site
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Board to have special review
Engineers Assess Vermont Yankee Bid to Step Up Nuclear Power
Neb. to Pay $141M Over Radioactive Dump
MILITARY
Taliban Maintains Grip Rooted in Fear
Windfalls of War
U.S. Contract to British Firm Sparks Irish American Protest
Contracts Awarded
Local Contracts SAIC to Help Keep Planes Flying
Russia Suspicious About U.S. Deal on Danish Radar
Radical Cleric Vows to Keep Up Battle, Defying Iraqi Premier
Premier Warns Gunmen In Najaf
Iraq's Premier Takes Hard Line Against Rebels
Iraq brings back death penalty as Allawi calls on militants to disarm
CIA 'effectively' gags agent critical of terror war
Iraq invasion a "tremendous gift" to bin Laden: CIA analyst
POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE
Judge Upholds Media Subpoenas in CIA Leak Case
Iraq judge has reason for his fear His caselaod covers the one for Saddam
Reporter faces jail over silence in CIA leak probe
Hill's police force stands by questioning of journalists
Tourist Copters in New York City a Terror Target
Capitol, lawmakers targeted, officials confirm
Tourist Copters in New York City a Terror Target
Immigrants Raise Call for Right to Be Voters
POLITICS
Senator Seeks Inquiry Into Abuse Report
Senator Presses White House on Leaking Qaeda Suspect's Name
Shed wealth, minister tells Bush family, congregants
Kerry vows to hire liaison to Indians
'Effective' Power Sought for Intel Chief
9/11 Panel Roiling Campaign Platforms
ENERGY
Kerry Offers 10-Year Plan for US Energy Independence
ACTIVISTS
Permit Denial for Big Park Rally Adds to Push for Protests There
Please Join in appeal to take nuclear weapons off alert
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- accidents and safety
Japan nuclear plant fault kills four
Local authorities say there was no radiation leak at the plant
Reuters
Monday 09 August 2004,
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/45BC955A-255D-4889-8D0A-716945DE78A8.htm
A steam leak at a Japanese nuclear power plant has killed four workers in the worst accident at a Japanese nuclear facility, but officials say no radiation escaped.
Seven others were injured, some seriously, officials said.
The incident on Monday, which took place on the anniversary of the 1945 atomic bombing of the city of Nagasaki, is certain to increase public distrust of the nuclear industry in Japan, which depends on nuclear power for a third of its energy needs.
"Radioactive materials weren't contained in the steam that leaked out," an official at the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.
"We've received a report that there is no impact from radiation on the surrounding environment."
Police initially said five workers had died, but later corrected the figure to four.
Investigating
The accident occurred in a building housing turbines for the No.3 reactor at the Mihama nuclear plant in Fukui prefecture, 320km west of Tokyo.
An official at Kansai Electric Power Co Inc, which runs the plant, said the 826,000 kilowatt nuclear generation unit at the facility shut down automatically when the steam leaked from the turbine, which is in a separate building. The company was unsure when it would restart.
"We are now investigating the cause," the official said. The temperature of the leaking steam was 142C.
He said the workers involved, who were preparing to shut down the plant for maintenance, were all contractors, and 221 people were in the building at the time.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said he had not heard details of the accident. "But I think we must do our best to investigate the cause, to prevent a repeat and to implement safety measures," he said.
Chief cabinet secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda added: "I think the cause will become clear within several days."
No reactor problem
A trade ministry spokesman said there was no technical problem with the core nuclear reactor at the plant.
The Mihama plant was the first nuclear plant built by Kansai Electric. The No.1 reactor began service in November 1970.
A number of towns in Japan have held referendums in the past few years and voted against construction of more nuclear plants.
Previous accident
The worst accident at a nuclear facility in terms of radiation was at a uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, a town north of Tokyo.
That took place on 30 September 1999, when an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction was triggered after three poorly trained workers mixed nuclear fuel in a tub.
The resulting release of radiation killed two workers and forced the evacuation of thousands of nearby residents.
In a separate incident on Monday, Tokyo Electric Power Co, Japan's biggest power producer, said it had shut a nuclear power generation unit at its Fukushima-Daini plant due to a water leak.
----
Four dead, seven injured in accident at Japanese nuclear plant
TOKYO (AFP)
Aug 09, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040809112433.b435bmfq.html
At least four workers were killed and seven others were severely burned Monday by a leak of non-radioactive steam at a nuclear plant in central Japan, in the latest blow the country's troubled nuclear industry.
The power plant at Mihama, 350 kilometres (220 miles) west of Tokyo, shut down automatically when an alarm sounded just before steam at a temperature of 200 degrees Centigrade (390 Fahrenheit) leaked from a turbine and scalded workers.
The plant's operators, the Kansai Electric Power Company, stressed there was no danger of a radiation leak and no need to evacuate the area.
"This incident will have no radiation effect on the surrounding environment," the company said in statement.
A police spokesman in Fukui prefecture confirmed four people were killed and seven injured in the accident, which happened in the turbine room of a pressurised water reactor at the plant.
A spokesman for the local fire brigade said the heart of another worker stopped beating at one stage, but it was not possible to confirm the patient's condition.
An official from Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the leaked steam would not have contained radiation as the turbines in the water reactors do not come into contact with the nuclear reactors.
Monday's incident is likely to further undermine public confidence in Japan's nuclear industry which has been shaken by a series of accidents and scandals in recent years.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi expressed regret at the loss of life and stressed the need for high safety standards in an industry that provides Japan with over a quarter of its energy.
"The cause of the accident must be clarified. Prevention efforts and safety measures have to be fully enforced," Koizumi said.
Hiroshi Matsumura, managing director of Kansai Electric, apologised. "It is extremely regrettable. To those who were injured and to the public, we apologise," he told a press conference.
The latest accident happened when a nuclear reactor and a turbine connected to the reactor automatically stopped because of an alarm, Kansai Electric said in a statement.
Following the shutdown steam at over 200 degrees Centigrade (390 degrees Fahrenheit) filled up the turbine room causing severe injuries to workers trapped inside, the statement said.
The cause of the alarm was under investigation, the company said.
It was the first fatal incident at a nuclear-related plant since September 1999, when two workers were killed at the Tokaimura uranium plant northeast of Tokyo.
More than 600 people were also exposed to radiation after the workers set off a critical reaction by using steel buckets to pour uranium solution into a precipitation tank.
About 320,000 people were evacuated in the incident, regarded as the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.
Japan's nuclear power industry had only just been recovering from the crisis of confidence caused when Tokyo Electric Power Company, the world's largest energy utility, admitted in 2002 it had systematically covered up inspection data showing there were cracks in its nuclear reactors.
TEPCO was forced shut down all 17 of its reactors last year pending the all-clear from safety inspectors.
Japan, which is the third largest nuclear power producer in the world after the United States and France, is home to 52 nuclear reactors run by 10 private companies.
----
Fatal accident another blow to Japanese confidence in nuclear power
TOKYO (AFP)
Aug 09, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040809120123.u7kpq2s7.html
The accident at a Japanese nuclear plant which killed four people Monday is the latest in a series of incidents which have undermined public confidence in an industry on which they rely for much of their energy.
The workers were killed and seven others injured by a leak of non-radioactive steam in a turbine room at the plant in the central Japanese town of Mihama, 350 kilometres (220 miles) west of Tokyo.
Despite a deep-rooted aversion to nuclear facilities in Japan, the only nation to suffer an atomic bomb attack, atomic power is seen as a necessary evil by many here.
By an uncomfortable coincidence, the latest accident happened on the 59th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
There are 52 nuclear reactors operating in Japan, which, according to the Paris-based Nuclear Energy Agency, provide one quarter of the electricity needs of a nation with virtually no natural energy resources.
Public unease turned to alarm in September 1999 when three workers at a uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo, set off a self-sustaining nuclear reaction, causing the country's worst-ever nuclear disaster.
Many Japanese shuddered when the plant's loose operating procedures were exposed.
The three had been using steel buckets to pour uranium into a precipitation tank and added too much -- 2.4 kilograms (five pounds) -- setting off the reaction.
The accident in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo, was classified as the world's worst since the Chernobyl disaster of 1986.
It exposed more than 600 people to radiation and forced around 320,000 to shelter indoors for more than a day. Two of the three workers later died from their injuries in hospital.
Other nuclear accidents that shocked the nation include the December 1995 shutdown of the Monju fast-breeder reactor in western Japan after a massive sodium leak.
In March 1997, 37 people were exposed to radiation following a fire at another nuclear reprocessing plant in Tokaimura.
The following month, a tritium leak at the Fugen advanced thermal reactor in western Japan exposed 11 workers to low-level doses of radiation.
Tokaimura was in the news again in August 1997 with the revelation that 2,000 drums of nuclear waste had been leaking for 30 years.
In July 1999 more than 80 tonnes of primary cooling water leaked in one of the country's worst spills, in Tsuruga, western Japan, close to the site of Monday's accident.
A year later a nuclear reactor in Fukushima, north of Tokyo, was shut down after a suspected interior radioactive leak, the third closure in the area after a big earthquake struck five days before.
The most recent black mark on the nuclear industry's record came when Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the world's largest private utility company, was forced to close all 17 reactors for checks in mid-2003 after scandals over the systematic cover-up of inspection data showing faults in reactors.
TEPCO was forced to admit it had covered up the appearance of cracks including those in steel "shrouds" enveloping the reactor core at its nuclear plants for years, although it was later independently confirmed they did not pose an immediate threat to the safety of nuclear plants.
The International Energy Agency urged Japan last November to regain public trust in its nuclear energy programme damaged by a series of accidents and scandals.
----
Japan Nuke Plant Accident Kills 4 People
By KOZO MIZOGUCHI
Associated Press Writer
Aug 9, 2004
http://ap.washingtontimes.com/dynamic/stories/J/JAPAN_NUCLEAR_ACCIDENT?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME
TOKYO (AP) -- A nonradioactive steam leak killed four people and injured seven Monday in the worst-ever accident at a Japanese nuclear power plant, officials said. Two workers were reported in critical condition.
No radiation escaped the plant and there was no need to evacuate the area around the city of Mihama, about 200 miles west of Tokyo, officials said. Mihama's population is about 11,500.
The four dead suffered severe burns, said Takanori Amimoto, at the nearby Fukui state government office. Two workers had critical injuries, while three were in serious condition and two had minor injuries, a police official said on condition of anonymity.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi promised a thorough investigation of the accident, which follows a string of safety problems and attempted cover-ups at Japan's nuclear power plants, the source of 30 percent of Japan's electricity.
Worries about the safety of the country's 52 nuclear power plants have surged in recent years. A 1999 radiation leak northeast of Tokyo killed two workers and exposed hundreds to radiation, and three years later an investigation revealed that Tokyo Electric Power, the world's largest private utility, systematically lied about cracks in its reactors during the 1980s and 1990s.
Monday's leak was caused by a lack of cooling water in the reactor's turbine, said Kimihito Kawabata, a spokesman for the plant's operator, Kansai Electric Power. The steam was believed to be about 518 degrees.
After the accident, Kansai Electric officials found a hole in a condenser pipe, public broadcaster NHK reported. It did not elaborate on the size of the hole, which it said was believed to be the source of the problem.
Takahiro Seno, another spokesman for Kansai Electric Power, said the plant automatically shut down when steam began spewing from a leak in the turbine building area at the No. 3 nuclear reactor in Mihama. The No. 3 reactor started operations 1976. The Mihama plant's two other reactors were operating normally, officials said.
Koizumi expressed regret at the deaths, telling reporters that "we must put all our effort into determining the cause of the accident and to ensuring safety." He added the government would respond "resolutely, after confirming the facts."
The United States had a similar accident at the Surry nuclear power plant in southern Virginia almost two decades ago when an 18-inch steel pipe burst and released 30,000 gallons of boiling water and steam, killing four people.
In Japan's fatal 1999 accident, a radiation leak at a fuel-reprocessing plant in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo, killed two workers and forced the evacuation of thousands of nearby residents. That accident was caused by two workers who tried to save time by mixing excessive amounts of uranium in buckets instead of using special mechanized tanks.
A string of safety problems and attempted cover-ups since then has undermined public faith in nuclear energy.
In the most recent before Monday, eight workers were exposed to low-level radiation at a power plant in February when they were accidentally sprayed with contaminated water. The doses were not considered dangerous.
----
The world's worst nuclear accidents in the past 25 years
TOKYO (AFP)
Aug 09, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040809111016.xqimq2v9.html
The accident at the Mihama nuclear plant in central Japan on Monday, which killed at least four workers following a leak of non-radioactive steam, is the latest blow the country's nuclear industry.
Monday's incident was the first fatal accident at a nuclear-related plant since September 1999, when a radiation leak at an uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo, kills two workers.
Following is a list of the world's worst nuclear accidents in the past quarter of a century:
- March 28, 1979: 140,000 people are evacuated after an accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, United States. The reactor's core suffers partial meltdown, causing contamination within the plant but none outside. There are no casualties. The accident registers five on the International Atomic Energy Agency's seven-point scale of nuclear accidents.
- August 1979: A leak of uranium at a secret nuclear site near Erwin in Tennessee, United States, contaminates some 1,000 people.
- January-March 1981: Four radioactive leaks occur in succession at the Tsuruga nuclear plant in Japan. According to official figures, 278 people are contaminated.
- April 26, 1986: The world's worst nuclear incident occurs when Reactor Number Four at Ukraine's Chernobyl plant blows up after an experiment goes wrong and the top of the reactor blows off. Some 200 people are seriously contaminated, of whom 32 die within three months. The accident is only revealed after a giant radioactive cloud is registered moving across northern Europe. The fall-out is recorded as being equivalent to that from more than 200 atomic bombs of the type dropped by the US on Hiroshima in 1945. Hundreds of thousands of residents are evacuated from the area and a similar number are estimated to have been contaminated by radiation. The incident registers the maximum seven on the international scale.
- April 1993: An explosion at a secret reprocessing plant in Tomsk-7 in western Siberia releases a cloud of radioactive gas, including Uranium-235, Plutonium-237 and various other fissile materials. The number of casualties is unclear.
- November 1995: Serious contamination is reported at Chernobyl during the removal of fuel from one of the plant's reactors. The incident is reported only after an apparent attempt to cover it up.
- March 11, 1997: Work at the experimental treatment plant in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo, is partially halted after a fire and an explosion expose 37 people to radiation.
- September 30, 1999: Two workers die in an accident at the uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, Japan -- the world's worst since Chernobyl, rating four on the seven-point scale. Workers at the plant pour too much uranium into a precipitation tank as they cut corners to save time and can only watch helplessly as a blue flash signals the start of Japan's most serious nuclear accident.
It exposes more than 600 people to radiation and forces around 320,000 to shelter indoors for more than a day. Two of the workers who triggered the disaster die from their injuries in hospital, three and six months after the incident. The first had been exposed to 17,000 times the average annual dose of radiation.
-------- britain
British Energy says safety slipped last year
REUTERS UK:
August 9, 2004
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/26456/story.htm
LONDON - Safety standards at nuclear giant British Energy, the UK's biggest power producer, slipped during the last year, the company says.
"In all circumstances, safety is our number one priority...so it is disappointing to record that, during the last year, our performance against key industrial safety indicators declined slightly," Adrian Montague, chairman, told the firm's annual general meeting last week.
British Energy - which operates a fleet of eight nuclear stations across the UK and generates about a fifth of the country's electricity - was addressing the safety issue as part of a performance improvement programme, he added.
The firm is trying to boost the overall performance of its plants as part of a government-backed restructuring package agreed last year after slumping power prices pushed the firm close to bankruptcy.
"Everyone at British Energy is ready to embrace the change we need if British Energy is to re-establish itself as a safe, profitable and proud generator of emissions-free power," said Montague.
-------- depleted uranium
Gulf War Illnesses -- At Home and Abroad
August 9, 2004
dissidentvoice
by Janette Sherman, M.D.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Aug04/Sherman0809.htm
Since "Those Weapons of Mass Destruction" was published in Acres USA (0ct. 2003), I had hoped that the mainstream press would have picked up the depleted uranium (DU) issue. Alas, this is not the case.
A conservative estimate of the DU used in the 1991 Gulf War is 340 tons. In the most recent war, more than 2200 tons of DU rained down on Iraq. [1] But that is not all, some 34 tons of DU weaponry were used in Bosnia, Kosovo and Herzegovina, contaminating ground water and soil [2] and an additional 1000 tons of DU were used in Afghanistan. [3] Living close to the land, the DU levels in Afghanis after US military intervention are the highest levels measured in a human population. [4]
The General Accounting Office (GAO) strongly criticized the Pentagon for failing to accurately study conditions leading to the illnesses suffered by Gulf War veterans. A second GAO report criticized the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) and the Pentagon for wasting "millions of dollars looking for the mental stress theory [when] it has been conclusively ruled invalid." [5]
Of the 698,000 service personnel who served in the first Gulf War (GW-I) more than 230,000 veterans have health claims that have been granted by the DVA as of Nov. 2002, the latest figures available. [6] Given that the average age of those who went to war was 36, the 11,074 who have since died since GW-I do not represent usual retiree mortality rates.
Among returning veterans, birth defects are increased in the children of both men and women personnel. The birth defects rate in the civilian Iraqi population have risen exponentially in the 13 years since GW-I. While the Pentagon continues to "study" the problem, Betty Mekdeci from the non-profit organization, Birth Defect Research for Children has found otherwise, documenting the very uncommon defect, named Goldenhar Syndrome in 26 children of GW-I veterans. [7]
While returning veterans have brought their contaminated bodies home with them, the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, and sites in the US and Puerto Rico where DU was tested continue to live with the contamination. Cancer and leukemia have increased in southern Iraq, and physicians are seeing multiple cancers in patients and clusters of cancer in families near contaminated areas. [8]
The DU issue does not end with veterans and the war zones where civilians are contaminated, it extends to civilian workers in the U. S. as well. By the end of 2003, the Department of Energy (DOE) had processed only 6% of the 23,000 worker's compensation claims from former nuclear weapons plant employees. The bulk of the claims have been as a result of exposure at the nuclear facilities located at Oak Ridge, TN, Savannah Rive, SC, Paducah, KY, Hanford, WA, Rocky Flats, CO, Los Alamos, NM, Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Lab, the Iowa Ordinance Plant, and in Ohio, the Fernald and Mound Plants and the Piketon uranium enrichment plant. [9]
It is clear that radioactive materials increasingly contaminate the world's landscape, including the U. S. We know that chronic exposure to low level radiation leads to cancer, birth defects and irreversible genetic damage. [10] Recently, the Bush Administration is proposing to develop a series of "mini" nuclear bombs and to restart the testing of nuclear bombs.
How can we as a civilized society condone the use of radioactive bombs that will adversely affect not only a targeted country, but our own population as well? The lifespan of radioactive materials involves the mining of uranium, separation of isotopes, creation of plutonium, manufacture of bombs and the armaments that carry them, disposal of "wastes", and the firing of radioactive munitions. The half-life of U238 is 4.5 billion years, the age of the earth. As it decays in four steps to become lead, it releases radioactivity with each step. There is no way to stop the decay process, and no way to clean it up.
The U. S. has lost stature over the torture of prisoners as such places as Abu Gharib and Guantanimo Bay in Cuba, and will certainly lose more when the facts are broadcast that the US has rained toxic and genocidal radioactive materials throughout the world. The use of these very effective, but toxic DU weapons has made us not less, but far more vulnerable to attacks, not only from Al Qaida, but from people who have been harmed and have no recourse to right their wrongs.
What can we do? Spread the word about the hazards to life from DU contamination. Support adequate medical care for returning veterans, compensate those harmed by the manufacture and use of nuclear weapons, and compensate civilians harmed by the use of DU munitions. Most importantly, perhaps the US will regain its stature in the world community if it renounces the use of DU nuclear weapons, but more importantly by doing so we can stop adding irreversible harm to the world. Will our government listen to us the citizens? Will the international community support such measures? We can only hope so because not doing so will spell disaster for life on earth.
Janette D. Sherman, M. D. is the author of Life's Delicate Balance: Causes and Prevention of Breast Cancer and Chemical Exposure and Disease. Dr. Sherman is a specialist in internal medicine and toxicology. She has published more than 70 articles in the scientific literature. She also writes for the popular press to provide information to the concerned public. Currently she is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, and Research Associate and Lecturer with the Radiation and Public Health Project. Visit her website: www.janettesherman.com.
REFERENCES
1) Leurendu@yahoo.com.
2) UNEP News release, March 17, 2003.
3) Prof. Marc Herold: http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mwherold/page1.htm
4) Uranium Medical Research Center: http://www.umrc.net/
5) Williams, T. D., Hartford Courant. June 4, 2004.
6) Ibid
7) wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa040223_am_birthdefects.201a00bc.html
8) Al-Ali, oncologist from Basra. Data presented to the World Depleted Uranium Weapons Conference, Hamburg, Germany, ct. 16-19, 2003
9) http://www.chillicothegazette.com/news/stories/20040603/localnews/562235.html
10) Busby, Chris, Editor, 2003 Recommendations of the ECRR: The Health Effects of Ionising Radiation Exposure at Low Doses for Radiation Protection Purposes. European Committee on Radiation Risk, ISBN: 1-897761-24-4, 2003.
-------- india / pakistan
Pakistan sets limit to cooperation with UN nuclear probe of Iran
TEHRAN (AFP)
Aug 09, 2004
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040809103415.pj20miqg.html
Pakistan's foreign minister insisted Monday his country was cooperating with a UN probe into Iran's suspect nuclear programme, but ruled out allowing inspectors into Pakistan as part of the crucial investigation.
"Pakistan is a responsible member of the international community. We have been cooperating with the IAEA and sharing information," said Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, who is on a two day visit to Tehran.
"Of course we will cooperate and are cooperating," he told a press conference.
"But as far as inspections of Pakistan are concerned, that is out of the question. We are not a signatory of the NPT (nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty)."
Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have found traces of highly-enriched uranium inside Iran, leading to suspicions Iran has been trying to produce nuclear bombs and not just atomic energy as it insists.
But Tehran maintains the traces found their way into the country on equipment bought on an international black market operated by Pakistan's disgraced former nuclear chief, Abdul Qadeer Khan.
Pakistan's cooperation with the probe is crucial in resolving one of the main outstanding questions related to Iran's bid to generate nuclear energy, seen by the United States as a cover for weapons development.
The IAEA wants to take so-called "environmental samples" from Pakistan to compare them with those found in Iran -- crucial in verifying Tehran's claims.
Kasuri refused to elaborate on how Pakistan would help the IAEA in this regard, prefering only to launch into a fresh run-down on how important to his country's national security the nuclear deterrent was.
Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi meanwhile said he was confident the IAEA's board of governors would not refer Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions, a step the United States says is now more likely.
"America says that Iran's dossier should be referred to the Security Council. But for that to happen, there has to be violations -- whereas Iran has not committed any violations," he asserted.
Enrichment and the nuclear fuel cycle that surrounds it is the centre of contention between Iran and the international community.
The European Union's "big three" -- Britain, France and Germany -- have been pressing Iran to cease working on the nuclear fuel cycle in exchange for increased trade and cooperation and the guaranteed supply of nuclear fuel from abroad.
Such work is permitted under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), but the concern is that once fully mastered, a country possessing such technology can easily divert it into military usage.
Many diplomats believe that even if Iran may not be working on nuclear weapons now, it would like to have the option in the future. Iran denies charges it is seeking to develop a nuclear bomb.
Iran has agreed to temporarily suspend enrichment pending the completion of the IAEA probe, but is working on other parts of the fuel cycle and has recently resumed making centrifuges used for enrichment.
The next IAEA meeting is in September.
-------- iran
Rice Cites International Concern Over Iran's Nuclear Intentions
By William C. Mann
Associated Press
Monday, August 9, 2004; Page A16
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50644-2004Aug8.html
With Iran stepping up its nuclear program, a top White House aide said yesterday the world finally is "worried and suspicious" over the Iranians' intentions and is determined not to let Tehran produce a nuclear weapon.
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice also said the Bush administration sees a new international willingness to act against Iran's nuclear program. She credited the changed attitude to the Americans' insistence that Iran's effort put the world in peril.
She would not say whether the United States would act alone to end the program if the administration could not win international support.
Iran's foreign minister, Kamal Kharrazi, announced a week ago that his country had resumed building nuclear centrifuges. He said Iran was retaliating for the West's failure to force the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency to close its file on possible Iranian violations of nuclear nonproliferation rules.
Kharrazi said Iran was not resuming enrichment of uranium, which requires a centrifuge. But, he said, Iran had restarted manufacturing the device because Britain, Germany and France had not stopped the investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"The United States was the first to say that Iran was a threat in this way, to try and convince the international community that Iran was trying, under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, to actually bring about a nuclear weapons program," Rice said on CNN's "Late Edition."
"I think we've finally now got the world community to a place, and the International Atomic Energy Agency to a place, that it is worried and suspicious of the Iranian activities," she said. "Iran is facing for the first time real resistance to trying to take these steps."
President Bush, in his 2002 State of the Union address, included Iran with North Korea and Iraq in an "axis of evil" dedicated to developing nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.
Since then, North Korea has publicly resumed its nuclear development program. In Iraq, invading U.S.-led forces have found no such programs since President Saddam Hussein was deposed.
Iran announced in June that it would resume its centrifuge program. Afterward, the U.S. official whose job is to slow the global atomic arms race, Under Secretary of State John R. Bolton, told Congress that Iran was jabbing "a thumb in the eye of the international community."
On NBC's "Meet the Press," Rice reasserted that the world has fallen in line on Iran and said she expects next month to get a strong statement from the IAEA "that Iran will either be isolated, or it will submit to the will of the international community."
She also said: "We cannot allow the Iranians to develop a nuclear weapon. The international community has got to find a way to come together and to make certain that that does not happen."
--------
Rice Says Iran Must Not Be Allowed to Develop Nuclear Arms
August 9, 2004
By DAVID E. SANGER
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/09/politics/09nuke.html?pagewanted=all
KENNEBUNKPORT, Me., Aug. 8 - President Bush's national security adviser said Sunday that the United States and its allies "cannot allow the Iranians to develop a nuclear weapon" and warned that President Bush would "look at all the tools that are available to him" to stop Iran's program.
Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, said on the NBC News program "Meet the Press" that she expected that the International Atomic Energy Agency would make what she called "a very strong statement" in September forcing Iran to choose between isolation or the abandonment of its nuclear weapons efforts. But she stopped short of saying whether the United States could muster its allies to impose sanctions against Iran in the United Nations Security Council.
Until now, European powers and Russia have resisted American efforts to impose sanctions against Iran, which they see as a major trading partner.
Iran has insisted that its nuclear effort is entirely for the production of electric power, though the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear monitoring agency, has found evidence of covert efforts, stretching back more than 18 years, to produce highly enriched uranium suitable primarily for weapons production.
A week ago, Iran's foreign minister, Kamal Kharrazi, said his country would resume producing parts for centrifuges, the equipment needed to enrich uranium, because European nations had not brought the Atomic Energy Agency's investigations to a close.
President Bush, who took a brief break from his re-election campaign to attend a family wedding here and visit his parents, said nothing in public on Sunday. He attended an early-morning church service, went fishing with members of his family and flew back to Washington, letting his aides take the questions about Iraq, terrorism, Iran and North Korea.
Ms. Rice was responding to an article in The New York Times on Sunday that said the Bush administration's flurry of diplomatic efforts during the past 20 months to stop the progress of nuclear weapons programs in Iran and North Korea had so far failed.
In a veiled reference to the Clinton administration, Ms. Rice said "these are problems that developed in 1990's." She contended that there had been "diplomatic successes" in organizing North Korea's neighbors to confront the problem and spurring action against Iran at the Vienna-based Atomic Energy Agency.
"It was, in fact, the president who really put this on the agenda in his State of the Union address, the famous 'axis of evil' address," Ms. Rice said. "And our allies have really begun to respond."
She declined to say whether the United States would support action by Israel, which says Iran's program poses a particular threat to its national security, to attack Iran's facilities the way it attacked the Osirak reactor in Iraq in 1981.
"I think that I don't want to get into hypotheticals on this," Ms. Rice said. "I do think that there are very active efforts under way, for instance, to undermine the ability of the Iranians under the cover of civilian nuclear cooperation to get the components that would help them for nuclear weapons developments."
She said Russia had declared that it would provide help to Iran only if it returned its nuclear fuel to Russia so it could not be diverted for weapons. "I think you cannot allow the Iranians to develop a nuclear weapon," she said. "The international community has got to find a way to come together and to make certain that that does not happen."
Ms. Rice's answer about Israel was particularly notable because, in the period before the war in Iraq, she and other senior administration officials said history had vindicated the Israeli raid on Osirak. Had that attack not crippled Iraq's main nuclear reactor, they argued, Saddam Hussein might have had access to nuclear weapons before the Persian Gulf war in 1991.
But it is unclear that Israel has the military capacity to reach Iran's nuclear sites, which are much farther away and well hidden among cities.
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Iran Dismisses Nuke Program Allegations
August 9, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iran-US-Nuclear.html
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran said Monday the international community has no reason to be suspicious about its nuclear ambitions, despite allegations by the United States that it is trying to produce nuclear weapons.
``Iran has not violated any of its commitments to international treaties in its nuclear program,'' Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi was quoted as saying by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
His comments came a day after U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said the Bush administration sees a new international willingness to act against Iran's nuclear program. The world is finally ``worried and suspicious'' about the Iranian government's intentions and is determined not to let Tehran produce a nuclear weapon, she said.
Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is peaceful. Kharrazi said that whatever Iran has done in the area of nuclear energy is based on its international commitments and is in line with the country's legitimate rights.
The U.S. government contends Iran is using a civilian nuclear program as a cover for atomic weapons development.
``I think we've finally now got the world community to a place, and the (International Atomic Energy Agency) to a place, that it is worried and suspicious of the Iranian activities,'' Rice said on CNN's ``Late Edition.'' ``Iran is facing for the first time real resistance to trying to take these steps.''
On NBC's ``Meet the Press,'' Rice said she expects next month to get a very strong statement from the IAEA ``that Iran will either be isolated, or it will submit to the will of the international community.''
She would not say whether the United States would act alone to end Iran's program if the administration could not win international support.
Last week Iran announced it had restarted building nuclear centrifuges, which can be used to produce enriched uranium used in nuclear warheads, but Kharrazi said then that Iran was not resuming enrichment of uranium.
Kharrazi said Iran resumed work on centrifuges in retaliation for European nations' failure to force the IAEA, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency, to close its investigation into possible Iranian violations of nuclear nonproliferation rules.
President Bush, in his 2002 State of the Union address, included Iran with North Korea and Iraq in an ``axis of evil'' that he said was dedicated to developing nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.
Since then, North Korea has publicly resumed its nuclear development program. In Iraq, invading U.S.-led forces found no such programs after Saddam Hussein was deposed.
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Bush Vows to Pressure Iran on Nuke Goals
August 9, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-US-Iran.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush pressed Iran on Monday to give up its nuclear ambitions as Iranian officials asked European nations to help them obtain advanced technology that could be used to make the weapons.
``The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Great Britain have gone in as a group to send a message on behalf of the free world that Iran must comply with the demands of the free world,'' Bush said. ``And my attitude is, we've got to continue to keep pressure on the government, and help others keep pressure on the government.''
In a document last week, however, Tehran asked the three European powers to back Iran's insistence that it have access to ``advanced (nuclear) technology, including those with dual use'' -- a term for equipment and technical expertise that have both peaceful and military applications.
U.S. officials say the new demands, which stunned German, French and British diplomats, effectively stalled negotiations.
The Europeans have not formally responded to that demand, which was made available to The Associated Press. Instead, they urged Iran to act on its pledge to clear up nagging suspicions about its nuclear efforts by Sept. 13 when the International Atomic Energy Agency meets.
Iran said Monday that the international community has no reason to be suspicious about its nuclear work. ``Iran has not violated any of its commitments to international treaties in its nuclear program,'' Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi was quoted as saying by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
Kharrazi announced a week ago that his country had resumed building nuclear centrifuges. He said then that his country was retaliating for the West's failure to force the IAEA, the nuclear watchdog agency of the United Nations, to close its file on possible Iranian violations of nuclear nonproliferation rules.
For 3 1/2 years, the Bush administration has insisted that Iran was developing a dangerous nuclear capability. Past attempts to have the IAEA board refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council foundered, partly because of European resistance.
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Sunday the U.S. administration sees a new international willingness to act against Iran's nuclear program.
Associated Press reporter George Jahn contributed to this report from Vienna, Austria.
-------- japan
The Bombing of Nagasaki, August 9 1945 The Untold Story
August 9, 2004
Nuclear Files
http://www.nuclearfiles.org/etreligiouspers/nagasaki.htm
56 years ago this week, on August 9th, 1945, the second of the only 2 atomic bombs ever used as instruments of aggressive war (and against essentially defenseless civilian populations, at that) was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan by an all-Christian bomb crew. The well-trained American soldiers were only "doing their job"and they did it well.
It had been 3 days since the first bomb, a uranium bomb, had decimated Hiroshima, with chaos and confusion in Tokyo, where the fascist military government and the Emperor had been searching for months for a way to honorably end the war. (The only obstacle to surrender had been the United States' insistence on unconditional surrender, which meant that the Emperor Hirohito, whom the Japanese regarded as a deity, would be removed from his figurehead position in Japan, an intolerable demand for the Japanese.)
The Russian army was advancing across Manchuria with the stated aim of entering the war against Japan on August 8, so there were extra incentives to end the war quickly. The US did not want to divide any spoils or share power after Japan was defeated.
The US bomber command had for months spared Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Kokura from the conventional bombing that had leveled and burned 60+ other major Japanese cities during the first half of 1945. One of the reasons for targeting relatively undamaged cities was scientific: to see what would happen to intact buildings--and their living creatures--when atomic weapons were exploded over them.
Early in the morning of August 9, 1945, a B-29 Superfortress called Bock's Car, took off from Tinian Island, with the prayers and blessings of its Lutheran and Catholic chaplains, and headed for Kokura, the primary target (its plutonium bomb was code-named "Fat Man", after Winston Churchill). The only field test of a nuclear weapon, blasphemously named "Trinity", had occurred just three weeks earlier, on July 16, 1945 at Alamogordo, New Mexico. The molten lavarock that resulted, still found at the site today, is called trinitite.
With instructions to only drop the bomb on visual sighting, Bock's Car arrived at Kokura, which was clouded-over. So, after circling three times, looking for a break in the clouds, and using up a tremendous amount of valuable fuel in the process, it headed for its secondary target, Nagasaki.
Nagasaki is famous in the history of Japanese Christianity. Not only was it the site of the largest Christian church in the Orient, St. Mary's Cathedral, but it also had the largest concentration of baptized Christians in all of Japan. It was the city where the legendary Jesuit missionary, Francis Xavier, established a mission church in 1549, a Christian community which thrived and multiplied for several generations until, in the early 1600s, it became the target of brutal Japanese Imperial persecutions. Within 50 years of the planting of Xaviar's mission church, it was a capital crime to be a Christian. The Japanese Christians who refused to recant their beliefs suffered ostracism, horrific torture and even crucifixions similar to the Roman persecutions in the first three centuries of Christianity. After the reign of terror was over, it appeared to all observers that Christianity had been stamped out.
However, 250 years later, in the 1850s, after the coercive gunboat diplomacy of Commodore Perry forced open an offshore island for American trade purposes, it was discovered that there were still thousands of baptized Christians in Nagasaki, living their faith in a catacomb existence, completely unknown to the governmentwhich immediately started another purge. But because of international pressure, the persecutions were soon stopped, and Nagasaki Christianity came up from the underground. And by 1917, with no help from the government, the Japanese Christian community had organized and, after decades of work, built the massive St. Mary's Cathedral, in the Urakami River Valley district.
Now it turned out, in the mystery of good and evil, that St. Mary's Cathedral was one of the landmarks that the Bock's Car bombardier had been briefed on, and, looking through his bomb site over Nagasaki that day, he identified the cathedral, ordered the drop, and, at 11:02 am, Nagasaki Christianity was carbonized, then vaporized, in a scorching, radioactive fireball. And so the persecuted, vibrant, faithful center of Japanese Christianity became ground zero, and what Japanese Imperialism couldn't do in 200 years of persecution, American Christians did in 9 seconds; the entire worshipping community of Nagasaki was wiped out.
The above true (and unwelcome) story should stimulate discussion among those who claim to be disciples of Jesus. The Catholic chaplain for the 509th Composite Group (the 1500 man Army Air Force group whose only job was delivering the atomic bombs) was Father George Zabelka, who several decades later saw his grave theological error in religiously legitimating the mass slaughter that is modern war. He finally recognized that the enemies of a nation were not the enemies of God, but rather children of God whom God loved, and whom the followers of Jesus should also love. Fr. Zabelka's conversion led him to devote the remaining decades of his life speaking out against violence in any form, especially the violence of militarism. The Lutheran chaplain, William Downey, in his counseling of soldiers who were troubled by the immorality of "the bomb", later denounced all killing, whether by a single bullet or by a weapon of mass destruction.
In Daniel Hallock's important book, "Hell, Healing and Resistance" the author talks about a 1997 Buddhist retreat led by Thich Nhat Hanh that attempted to deal with the hellish post-war existence of combat-traumatized Vietnam War veterans. Hallock commented, "clearly, Buddhism offers something that cannot be found in institutional Christianity. But then why should veterans embrace a religion that has blessed the wars that ruined their souls? It is no wonder they turn to a gentle Buddhist monk to hear what are, in large part, the truths of Christ."
As a lifelong Christian, that comment stung me, but it was the sting of a sobering truth. And as a physician who deals with psychologically traumatized patients all too often, I know that it is violence, in its myriad of forms, that bruises the human psyche and soul, and that that trauma is deadly and highly contagious and spreads through the families and progeny of trauma victims.
One of the most difficult "mental illnesses" to treat is combat-induced posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In its most severe form it is virtually incurable. It is also a well-known fact that whereas most Vietnam War recruits came from churches where they actively practiced their faith, if they came home significantly traumatized by the war, the percentage returning to the faith community approached zero.
This is a serious spiritual problem for any church that, either actively or by its silence on issues of militarism, glorifies war or fails to thoroughly inform its youth about what Jesus and the earliest form of Christianity taught about conscientious objection to war and killing: that both were forbidden to the followers of Jesus.
If a worshipping community fails to at least fully inform its confirmands about the gruesome realities of the war zone before they are forced to register for potential conscription into the military, it invites the condemnation that Jesus warned about in Matthew 18:5-6: "And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea."
The purpose of this essay is to stimulate open and honest discussion (at least among the followers of Jesus) about the ethics of killing by government, not from the perspective of national security ethics, not from the perspective of military ethics (an oxymoron, according to most critical thinkers), not from the perspective of (the pre-Christian) eye-for-an-eye retaliation, but from the perspective of the Sermon on the Mount, the core ethical teachings of the founder.
Out of that discussion, if any are willing to engage in it, should come answers to those horrible realities that seem to immobilize decent Bible-believing Christians everywhere: Why are some of us willing to commit (or support or pay for others to commit) homicidal violence against other fellow children of a loving, merciful, forgiving God, the God whom Jesus clearly calls us to imitate? And what can we do, starting now, to prevent the next war, the next epidemic of combat-induced posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the next Mylai massacre, the next Auschwitz, the next Dresden, the next El Mozote, the next Rwanda, the next Jonestown, the next black church bombing, the next Columbine, the next execution of an innocent death row inmate or the next Nagasaki?
August 9, 2001, Gary G. Kohls, MD, 1306 E.8th St., Duluth, MN 55805, for Every Church A Peace Church http://www.ecapc.org
----
On anniversary, a warning on arms
The Associated Press
Monday, August 09, 2004
http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?file=533175.html
TOKYO The mayor of Nagasaki warned Monday that nuclear weapons the United States wants to develop would cause as much radiation contamination as the atomic bomb dropped on the southern Japanese city 59 years ago.
At the annual ceremony marking the anniversary of the attack, Itcho Ito recounted how tens of thousands had perished in the World War II bombing and said many victims continued to suffer.
"The mininukes that the United States is trying to develop possess terrible power, despite their smaller size," Ito told thousands gathered at the city's Peace Park. "The radiation destruction they would cause is no different from that of the bomb dropped on Nagasaki."
Ito said Washington must scrap its nuclear arsenal before the world can be free of nuclear weapons. He urged Americans to face the "terrifying reality" that the bomb's victims have lived with since the attack.
"It's clear that as long as the world's most powerful country continues to rely on nuclear weapons, other countries can't pursue nuclear nonproliferation," he said. "If humankind is to survive, the only path left for us is the abolition of nuclear weapons."
Washington has had a self-imposed ban on nuclear testing since 1992. But it has conducted so-called subcritical testing, which detonates bomb-grade plutonium but stops short of full-fledged nuclear blasts, since 1997. In June, U.S. lawmakers approved spending for research into nuclear warheads that would set off smaller explosions or destroy underground targets.
Ito pointed to the UN International Court of Justice's 1996 advisory calling for nuclear disarmament and the abolition of nuclear arms. However, the court's 15 judges were divided over whether to consider the threat or use of nuclear weapons illegal.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday reiterated Japan's policy banning the production, possession and transport of nuclear weapons within its borders.
"Our country won't change that stance," Koizumi said, echoing remarks he made Friday on the anniversary of the first atomic bombing in Hiroshima.
Koizumi also vowed to continue pressing for more nations to ratify a nuclear nonproliferation pact and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which would ban nuclear arms testing and make developing new weapons almost impossible.
At the ceremony, officials placed chrysanthemum wreaths at the foot of a peace statue. Attendees observed a minute of silence as a bell tolled at 11:02 a.m., the minute the B-29 bomber Bock's Car dropped the bomb dubbed "Fat Man" on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945. About 70,000 people were killed in the explosion.
Hiroshima had been bombed three days earlier, killing or wounding 160,000 people. On Aug. 15, 1945, Japan's surrender ended World War II.
Nagasaki this year added 2,707 people to a list of those who have died from aftereffects, putting the total number of the city's bomb victims at 134,592.
----
4 Die in Accident at Japan Nuclear Power Plant
August 9, 2004
New York Times
By JAMES BROOKE
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/09/international/asia/09CND-JAPA.html?hp
TOKYO, Aug. 9 - Blasts of non-radioactive steam killed four workers and severely burned seven others today in the first fatal accident at a Japanese nuclear power plant, according to officials.
"Radioactive materials weren't contained in the steam that leaked out," an official for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said at a news conference here. "We've received a report that there is no impact from radiation on the surrounding environment."
With no official concern over radioactive contamination from the 28-year-old plant, there was no evacuation from the nearby town of Mihama, home to 11,000 people on the Sea of Japan, about 40 miles north of Kyoto, Japan's ancient capital.
But the accident is likely to further shake confidence in nuclear power, just as high oil prices and the Iraq war are making nuclear power more attractive to economic planners.
With the world's third largest nuclear power industry, after the United States and France, Japan relies on nuclear power to generate almost a third of its electricity. Fifty-two nuclear power plants operate in the country.
Heavily dependent on oil imports from the Middle East, Japan has moved aggressively over the past year to work with Russia to develop oil and gas deposits in Siberia.
Plans to build more nuclear power plants in Japan have been slowed as public opinion has become increasingly wary of nuclear power, as evidenced by the number of towns in Japan that have held referendums and vote against building more nuclear plants.
Wariness has been fueled by accidents and by a culture of cover-up where employees have shown a far higher loyalty to their companies than to the public's right to know.
Last summer, the Tokyo Electric Power Company was forced to temporarily close all 17 of its nuclear power plants after admitting it had faked safety reports for more than a decade.
"After the Tepco scandal of two years ago, today's accident would accelerate people's worry and suspicion about the safety management of the nuclear power plants," Satoshi Fujino, a staffer at Citizens' Nuclear Information Center, a private nuclear power-watch organization, said in an interview today. "This plant is pretty old, and there are many plants even older."
Today's accident took place in the turbine building of the No. 3 nuclear reactor in Mihama, which was commissioned in November 1976 by the Kansai Electric Power Company.
In the accident, steam believed to measure about 200 degrees Centigrade, or nearly 390 degrees Fahrenheit, spewed into a room just after workers entered to take measurements before a scheduled maintenance shutdown, NHK television reported.
According to the Japanese nuclear safety official, who asked not be identified, it would be impossible for the leaked steam to contain radioactivity as the water in the steam turbines does not come into contact with water used as a coolant for the nuclear reactor.
Kansai Electric Power said it shut the 826,000-kilowatt nuclear generation unit at the facility and was unsure when it would restart.
"We are now investigating the cause," a Kansai Electric official said at a news conference.
"This incident will have no radiation effect on the surrounding environment," Kansai Electric Power said in statement. The company said that two other reactors in the Mihama complex, about 200 miles west of here, are operating normally.
Hiroshi Matsumura, managing director of Kansai Electric, apologized. "It is extremely regrettable," he said at a news conference. "To those who were injured and to the public, we apologize."
The accident took place on the anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki in World War II, and political and industry leaders were quick today to assure that a thorough investigation would take place.
"I think we must do our best to investigate the cause, to prevent a repeat, and to implement safety measures," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters.
Takuya Ito, public relations director of the Federation of Electric Power Companies, worried in an interview that the accident could further dent popular trust in nuclear power, "because these are the first deaths from an accident in a nuclear power plant in operation."
The only other fatalities in the nuclear power industry took place in 1999, at a fuel-reprocessing plant in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo. A radiation leak killed two workers, exposed 600 people to low levels of radiation and led to the evacuation of thousands of local residents. That accident was caused by three workers who tried to save time by mixing excessive amounts of uranium in buckets instead of using special mechanized tanks.
It exposed more than 600 people to radiation and forced around 320,000 to shelter indoors for more than a day. Two of the workers who set off the disaster later died from their injuries.
More recently, in February, eight workers were exposed to low-level radiation at another power plant when they were accidentally sprayed with contaminated water. The doses were not considered dangerous.
--------
AT A GLANCE
List of Recent Nuclear Accidents in Japan
August 9, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Japan-Nuclear-Glance.html
Recent nuclear accidents in Japan:
-- December 1995: Sodium leaked in a secondary cooling system at the Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor operated by the state-run Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp., or Donen. No one was injured in that accident, and no radioactivity escaped, but Donen was found to have concealed videotape footage that showed the extensive damage to the reactor.
-- March 1997: At least 37 workers were exposed to low doses of radiation at a March 11 fire and explosion at a nuclear reprocessing plant operated by Donen in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo. Donen later admitted to initially suppressing information about the fire.
-- September 1999: Two workers were killed in a radiation leak at a fuel-reprocessing plant in Tokaimura when they tried to save time by mixing excessive amounts of uranium in buckets instead of using special mechanized tanks. Hundreds were exposed to radiation, and thousands of residents evacuated. The government assigned the accident a level 4 rating on the International Nuclear Event Scale ranging from 1 to 7.
-- February 2002: Two workers were exposed to a small amount of radiation and suffered minor burns when they accidentally punctured a spray can that ignited a plastic sheet during an inspection at Onagawa Nuclear Power Station in northern Japan.
-- February 2004: Eight workers were exposed to low-level radiation at another power plant in Tsuruga, western Japan, when they were accidentally sprayed with contaminated water. The doses were not considered dangerous.
-- Aug. 9, 2004: A cooling pipe at a power plant in Mihama burst, burning at least four workers to death and injuring seven others with a scorching explosion of steam. No radiation was released.
--------
NAGASAKI PEACE DECLARATION
By Iccho Itoh
Mayor of Nagasaki
August 9, 2004
From: FoE Sydney - Nuclear Campaign <nonukes@foesyd.org.au>
How many people in the world now remember that fateful day? At 11:02 a.m. on August 9, fifty-nine years ago, the city of Nagasaki was instantly transformed into ruins by a single atomic bomb dropped from an American warplane, killing some 74,000 people and wounding 75,000.
Today, Nagasaki's verdant cityscape attracts visitors from around the world, and its residents maintain a distinctive set of traditions and culture. Nevertheless, the city's increasingly elderly atomic bomb survivors continue to suffer from the after-effects of the bombing as well as from health problems induced by the stress of their experience. We the citizens of Nagasaki call upon the world with a renewed sense of urgency, even as we reflect upon the intense suffering of those who have already perished.
We call upon the citizens of the United States to look squarely at the reality of the tragedies that have unfolded in the wake of the atomic bombings 59 years ago. The International Court of Justice has clearly stated in an advisory opinion that the threat of nuclear weapons or their use is generally contrary to international law.
Notwithstanding, the US government continues to possess and maintain approximately 10,000 nuclear weapons, and is conducting an ongoing program of subcritical nuclear testing. In addition, the so-called mini nuclear weapons that are the subject of new development efforts are intended to deliver truly horrific levels of force. In terms of the radioactivity that such weapons would release, there would be no difference compared to the bomb dropped on Nagasaki. So long as the world's leading superpower fails to change its posture of dependence on nuclear weapons, it is clear that the tide of nuclear proliferation cannot be stemmed.
People of America: The path leading to the eventual survival of the human race unequivocally requires the elimination of nuclear arms. The time has come to join hands and embark upon this path.
We call upon the peoples of the world to recognize how scant is the value repeatedly being placed on human life, evidenced by events such as the war in Iraq and outbreaks of terrorism. Wisdom must prevail, and we must join together in enhancing and reinforcing the functions of the United Nations in order to resolve international conflicts, not by military force, but through concerted diplomatic efforts. Next year will be the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombings, coinciding with the 2005 NPT Review Conference to be held at UN headquarters.
With the approach of the coming year, let there be a convergence among the citizens of the world, NGOs, and all concerned parties who desire peace, so that the way may be opened for the elimination of those symbols of inhumanity known as nuclear weapons.
We call upon the government of Japan to safeguard the peaceful underpinnings of its constitution, and, as the only nation ever to have experienced nuclear attack, to enact into law the threefold non-nuclear principle. The combination of the threefold non-nuclear principle with nuclear disarmament on the Korean Peninsula will pave the road towards the creation of a Northeast Asia nuclear-weapon-free zone. At the same time, the specifics of the Pyongyang Declaration must be agreed upon, while Japan itself must also pursue an independent security stance that does not rely on nuclear arms.
We call upon the world's youth to study the reality of the atomic bombings and to internalize a sense of respect for life, as our young people are doing in Nagasaki. The enthusiasm and hope manifested by youth who have considered the requirements of peace and are acting accordingly will serve to enlighten an increasingly confused world. Individuals who arise to take action close at hand can and will foster the realization of world peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons.
We in Nagasaki will continue to share our experiences of the atomic bombing of our city, and will work to make Nagasaki a center for peace studies and peace promotion. It is our hope that we will thus be able to form bonds of friendship and solidarity with people throughout the world.
Today, on the 59th anniversary of the atomic bombing, as we pray for the repose of those who died and recall to mind their suffering, we the citizens of Nagasaki pledge our commitment to the realization of true peace in the world, free from nuclear weapons.
-------- latinamerica
Peru: Stolen Nukes Can't Make Dirty Bomb
August 9, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Peru-Radioactive-Material.html
LIMA, Peru (AP) -- The head of the Peruvian Institute of Nuclear Energy said Monday that two stolen nuclear measuring devices used by miners do not contain enough radioactive material to produce a ``dirty bomb.''
Institute president Modesto Montoya told The Associated Press that the missing 44-pound industrial measurers each contain about 3.5 ounces of removable, encapsulated cesium 137. They were stolen on July 31, most likely for sale to a scrap collector, he said.
Although the amount of cesium 137 would not be enough to make a radioactive bomb, it could cause serious burns if carried around in a pocket for several days, Montoya said.
The radioactive material could also contaminate a scrap yard if accidentally melted down, he said after holding a news conference to warn Lima residents.
Montoya said the measuring devices were stolen from a Lima warehouse. Shaped like two cylinders separated by a u-clamp, the 14 inch by 8 inch contraptions can be attached to tubes and small tanks.
The devices are used to measure density flows of slurry being pumped from mines to determine how much of the liquefied ore is being processed and ensure pumps are not overloaded.
In all, 23 companies in Peru have 262 of the nuclear devices, Montoya said.
Cesium 137 is a soft, silvery white metal that melts at 83 degrees. Besides various industrial applications, it is also used to treat cancer patients with radiation.
The greatest source of cesium 137 contamination worldwide came from fallout generated by atmospheric nuclear weapons tests in the 1950s and 1960s, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Most of that radiation has since decayed, however.
On the Net:
EPA web site about cesium-137: http://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclides/cesium.htm
-------- missile defense
U.S. Expands Greenland Relations in Support of Missile Defense
August 9, 2004
IGALIKU, Greenland, (ENS)
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2004/2004-08-09-02.asp
Agreements broadening environmental, economic, and technical cooperation between the United States, Denmark and Greenland were signed here on Friday after two years of negotiation. The accord, which modernizes the 1951 Defense of Greenland Agreement, paves the way for an upgrade of radar facilities at Thule Air Base to support the U.S. missile defense program.
The agreements were signed by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Greenland Deputy Premier Josef Motzfeldt, and Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller. Greenland became an integral part of the Kingdom of Denmark in 1953 and was granted home rule in 1979.
During an interview with Greenland TV on Friday, Powell said the Thule Air Base is "really designed to make sure that we have in place the kinds of surveillance operations and activities that would be useful if these rogue nations, these nations that we know were developing long-range missiles and could carry weapons of mass destruction, actually are able to put these weapons in place."
At that time it would be too late to "locate them and protect ourselves," said Powell, "the time to do that is now."
Thule would be one point in the missile defense system known as Star Wars, along with Kodiak Island and Ft. Greely in Alaska.
Powell explained that what will take place at Thule in the short term are "some fairly modest software and fairly minor hardware upgrades to the facility, which will not be obvious to the average person passing by."
"We're some distance away from determining where we might need interceptors," Powell said, "but there are no plans right now for anything other than what we have already made known to the Home Rule government and to the Kingdom of Denmark."
Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller expressed support for the U.S. missile defense system that is expected to be part of the future configuration of the Thule Air Base. "We have not said we are opposed to missile defense systems. We have never said that. We have said it cannot defend us against terrorism, all sorts of terrorism, but that doesn't mean you should not defend yourself against some sort of terrorism."
"One of the threats to the future will be wild weapons of mass destruction. So if you have better possibilities to stop one of those weapons of mass destruction, that's a good opportunity," Moeller said.
Under the new accord, an Environmental Subcommittee is established to meet regularly to identify and address environmental issues and recommend countermeasures to risks posed by environmental contamination affecting the Thule Defense Area and adjacent areas.
Powell told the TV audience, "With respect to Thule, we are going to be doing more to make sure that the environment is protected and that we are not doing anything at Thule that would in any way damage this beautiful country."
Most of Greenland lies beneath a sheet of ice up to 3,000 meters thick. This ice sheet measures 2,500 kilometers from north to south and up to 1,000 kilomters from east to west. It contains over four million cubic kilometers of ice. Around its edges, the icecap spills down in thousands of valley glaciers, which have sculpted the coast into deep fjords and dramatic landscapes.
The Declaration of Economic and Technical Cooperation establishes a Joint Committee which will oversee a Framework of Environmental Cooperation that is intended to protect the country's natural resources and landscapes. The Joint Committee's first meeting that will be held in Greenland this autumn.
Within this framework, projects outside the Thule Defense Area will take place, including surveys to plan cleanups. The parties stated the intention to conduct a survey of species in North Star Bay as a part of a broader environmental impact assessment in accordance with Arctic Environment Protection Strategy standards.
The framework includes capacity building for environmental protection and improvement, including cleanup. Greenland has the largest national park in the world. Cooperation on national park management is in the Framework of Environmental Cooperation as well as climate change assessments.
Assessments of the potential for oil and gas drilling and extraction of minerals are also planned.
At the Thule Defense Area, projects planned under the jurisdiction of the Environmental Subcommittee include measures to prevent leaks of toxic material to the Greenland environment.
Stabilization of the coastline at North Star Bay with sea walls is planned as well as the establishment of a drainage system to protect land against erosion.
Cleanup and removal of materials and infrastructure within the Thule Defense Area is set to continue, and surveys on air emissions and sewage are planned.
In addition, the U.S. intends to develop a framework for regular public presentation of environmental data for the Thule Defense Area.
Powell explained that the United States "reaffirms that the armed forces in the Thule Defense Area respect Greenland Home Rule Government environmental standards, as reflected in the Final Governing Standards applying at the Thule Defense Area, which the U.S. government updates periodically to reflect the more protective of the U.S. or Greenlandic environmental standards."
The U.S. will ensure that Thule meets environmental standards, said Powell, but other military facilities in Greenland have reverted to local authorities and are no longer a U.S. responsibility. The United States need do no more than provide technical suggestions for cleanup of those facilities, as the three parties agreed, he said.
Thule initially was created as a weather station by the United States in 1946, but its difficult relationship with the local people did not begin until May 1953.
At that time a population of 87 Inughuit, an ethnic group honored in the rest of Greenland for maintaining the old ways of hunting and fishing, was told by Danish authorities that the population had four days to leave so that the Thule Air Base could expand.
Hunting is more difficult at the resettlement community, Qaanaaq, says Uusaqqak Qujaukitsoq, leader of the exiles who are fighting a legal battle with the Danish government to get their land back. Qaanaaq is the most northerly municipality in the world.
Qujaukitsoq visited the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise that visited the area in August 2001 on a voyage to publicize the downside of the U.S. missile defense system, Star Wars.
The Greenpeace log of that voyage, which had a Greenlandic translator aboard, quotes Qujaukitsoq as saying he is opposed to Star Wars, which he fears will make his homeland a bomb target.
He was also very concerned with the legacy of chemical and radioactive pollution from the U.S. military presence in this area, the log states.
In 1968 a U.S. B52 plane carrying four nuclear bombs crashed on the ice in Bylot Sound 12 miles from the base, and large quantities of plutonium were spread in the environment. Read an eyewitness account of the crash here.
Sediment from the ocean floor near where the plane went down showed high levels of radioactive plutonium contamination in a 1991 study.
In 1995, the Danish government admitted some responsibility and paid US$15.5 million to the 1,700 Danish and Greenlandic locals who had worked at the Thule Air Base and were exposed to high levels of radiation from the incident.
The Greenpeace log says Qujaukitsoq and other local hunters said that "they are now catching animals with deformities that they have never encountered before, including seals without hair."
In 1996, Qujaukitsoq's group, called the Hingitaq 53 (The Exiled 1953), filed suit on behalf of the survivors and their descendants, 610 individuals, seeking the right to return to Thule. If allowed, this suit would have closed the air base completely and given compensation for the loss of hunting and fishing rights.
A settlement of 17,000 kroner (roughly $2,288) was offered to each plaintiff in August 1999, with collective damages of 500,000 kroner ($67,294). The Inughuit, seeking 238 million kroner ($32 million), rejected the offer.
The case continues before the Danish Supreme Court. In September 2002, the United States agreed to give back by the end of the year Dundas, a town that had been absorbed by Thule. Locals believe this is a good first step but do not want to stop there, the Greenpeace log explains.
Local politician Axel Lund Olsen, who is deputy mayor of Qaanaaq and principal of Qaanaaq School, said, "If one day a war begins, people are afraid that if a bomb would hit Thule Air Base, all of the food we eat from the sea would be destroyed."
-------- terrorism
Lessons of Nagasaki for Fighting Terrorism
Monday, August 9, 2004
by Graham Allison,
Boston Globe / Common Dreams
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0809-07.htm
THE NUCLEAR bomb dropped on Hiroshima became an icon of the nuclear age, seared into the collective consciousness of postwar Americans by John Hersey's classic book. Fewer Americans remember much about the destruction of Nagasaki three days later on Aug. 9, 1945, and fewer still have reflected on lessons it offers for threats we face today.
The bomb dropped on Nagasaki remains the single most powerful weapon ever used. Dubbed "Fat Man," it produced an explosion greater than all conventional bombs dropped by Allied forces on both Germany and Japan in the war. Within four months, the blast and thermal radiation killed 70,000 people. In less than five years, half of the population of Nagasaki was dead.
In response to this second blast -- and the implied threat of more to come -- Emperor Hirohito raised Japan's white flag in unconditional surrender, announcing in a radio broadcast: "The enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is, indeed, incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives. Should we continue to fight, it would not only result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization."
While the world avoided the extinction threatened by the Cold War, today we face a new nuclear threat in the form of terrorism. Today, in countries all over the world, thousands of bombs' worth of nuclear weapons and materials remain poorly guarded, vulnerable to theft by terrorists or opportunists looking to sell them to the highest bidder.
What if Al Qaeda acquired a nuclear bomb? In releasing its report, the 9/11 Commission underscored bin Laden's nuclear ambitions. As the commission members said, "Our report shows that Al Qaeda tried to acquire or make weapons of mass destruction for at least 10 years." In commission chairman Thomas Kean's words, "Everybody feels that they are trying to mount another attack, and everybody feels that, given their ideology, they're doing their best to make it chemical, biological and nuclear because it kills more people."
For most Americans, the question of what bin Laden could possibly hope to achieve by such devastation has been confused by Bush administration rhetoric that characterizes Al Qaeda as "nothing but cold-blooded killers."
To the contrary, any careful reader of bin Laden's fatwas, statements, and tapes will find a chilling but quite specific list of strategic objectives. Bin Laden's demands of America include:
- Withdrawal of all American troops from Saudi Arabia.
- Elimination of American political and economic influence from Muslim countries.
- End of the "Judeo-Christian crusades" that have occupied and/or corrupted Muslim countries.
- End of American's military, financial, and public support for regimes in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and other Arab countries.
Imagine, God forbid, that bin Laden acquires two nuclear weapons in the months ahead and conducts a nuclear terrorist attacks on an American city. As horrible as that first attack would be, what would he then demand of the United States to prevent the second, and what would President Bush or his successor be willing to do?
This unthinkable scenario, in which an American president would have to consider compromise, even secretly, with a nuclear terrorist, need not become reality. The largely unrecognized good news about nuclear terrorism is that this ultimate catastrophe is, in fact, preventable. What is required is to prevent terrorists from getting their hands on a nuclear weapon or material from which such a weapon could be made.
A serious campaign to prevent terrorists from acquiring nuclear weapons will require both more political will from the United States and our allies and a new strategic approach, emphasizing a doctrine of Three Nos.
The first strand of the strategy -- no loose nukes -- requires securing all nuclear weapons and weapons-usable material, on the fastest possible timetable, to a new gold standard.
No new nascent nukes means no new national capabilities to enrich uranium or reprocess plutonium.
The third No -- no new nuclear weapons states -- draws a bright line under the current eight nuclear powers and says unambiguously, no more.
Such an approach is ambitious, and negotiating the politics of implementing it will require sustained attention at the highest levels. But it is feasible and affordable, and more important, it is absolutely essential to ensure that no American president is ever left with no better choice than Emporer Hirohito, forced to surrender, not to an army of liberation, but to a terrorist's blackmail.
Graham Allison is director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. His latest book is "Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe."
-------- treaties
Bush's policy endangers U.S. security
Lawrence J. Korb
Monday, August 09, 2004
"IHT"
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6670.htm
While unexpected, the decision by the Bush administration last month to oppose inspections and verification as part of the Fissile Materials Cutoff Treaty is not surprising. Since taking office, the administration has taken a number of steps that have undermined the ability of the United States and the world community to curb the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
But given the fact that Bush agrees with most analysts that the greatest danger facing the United States is a nuclear weapon falling into the hands of a rogue state or terrorist group, his actions are counterproductive and defy good sense.
The fissile materials cutoff would ban the production of enriched uranium and plutonium, the two ingredients used for setting off a chain reaction nuclear explosion. It was designed to reinforce the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and impose restraints on the three nuclear powers which are not parties to that treaty.
By refusing to establish an inspection regime for the fissile materials cutoff, the Bush administration has thwarted a 10-year effort by the international community to lure Pakistan, India and Israel into accepting some oversight of their nuclear production programs.
The Nonproliferation Treaty strikes a grand bargain among the five declared nuclear powers and the rest of the world that the non-nuclear states will not develop nuclear weapons, in return for which the nuclear powers will reduce and eventually eliminate their own nuclear weapons.
Since coming into office, the Bush administration has undermined this reciprocal arrangement in a variety of ways, despite the fact that it could make America safer and more secure.
First, instead of eliminating nuclear weapons, the Bush administration is seeking funds to develop two new nuclear weapons, a low yield "mini-nuke" and a robust nuclear earth penetrator or "bunker buster." Second, because the development of these new weapons will require testing, the administration has refused to submit the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty to the Senate for ratification and has instead sought funds to ready the Nevada test site for future testing. In its proposed 2005 budget, the administration has requested $6.8 billion for conducting research and expanding U.S. nuclear capabilities.
This is twice the amount the U.S. spent in this area a decade ago.
Third, since these new nuclear weapons are in reality first-use weapons, the administration has revised its nuclear strategy. In its December 2001 Nuclear Posture Review, the administration made clear that it would be prepared to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states, including launching preemptive attacks with nuclear weapons against nations that were close to acquiring nuclear arsenals.
This new strategy may well have led North Korea and Iran to accelerate their own nuclear programs.
Fourth, while arguing that other nations cannot withdraw from the Nonproliferation Treaty, the Bush administration itself withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and has actually deployed a national missile defense system in Alaska. Although this system is designed to combat an intercontinental missile threat from North Korea, it has already provoked Russia to increase its nuclear capabilities and may well provoke China to do the same.
In addition to undermining the Nonproliferation Treaty, the Bush administration has weakened America's own nonproliferation efforts. For example, it has decreased funding for the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction initiative that has deactivated more than 6,000 nuclear warheads in the former Soviet Union.
Moreover, while the administration signed a Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty with Russia that commits both sides to reduce the number of operationally deployed nuclear weapons to between 1,700 and 2, 000 by Dec. 30, 2012, it plans to keep another 3,000 nuclear weapons in storage, refuses to include new verification mechanisms in the treaty, and has not agreed to compliance beyond 2012.
Preventing Iraq from acquiring nuclear weapons or passing them on to a terrorist group like Al Qaeda was a primary justification for a war that has caused thousands of American casualties and cost the American taxpayer hundreds of billions of dollars.
Yet in its approach to nonproliferation, the administration is doing things that increase the dangers of nuclear weapons falling into the wrong hands.
Lawrence J. Korb is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. He also served as assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration.
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
Nuclear Energy to Go: A Self-Contained, Portable Reactor
by Gabriele Rennie
July/August 2004
"Science and Technology Review",
published by Lawrence Livermore National Laboraty
http://www.llnl.gov/str/JulAug04/Smith.html
NUCLEAR energy supplies 20 percent of the electricity used in the U.S. and 16 percent of that used throughout the world. But as the global use of nuclear energy grows, so do concerns about the vulnerability of nuclear plants and fuel materials to misuse or attacks by terrorists. A Livermore team is part of a Department of Energy (DOE) collaboration that is addressing both the growing need for nuclear energy and the concern over nuclear proliferation by pursuing a concept called SSTAR, a small, sealed, transportable, autonomous reactor.
SSTAR is designed to be a self-contained reactor in a tamper-resistant container. The goal is to provide reliable and cost-effective electricity, heat, and freshwater. The design could also be adapted to produce hydrogen for use as an alternative fuel for passenger cars.
Most commercial nuclear reactors are large light-water reactors (LWRs) designed to generate 1,000 megawatts electric (MWe) or more. Significant capital investments are required to build these reactors and manage the nuclear fuel cycle. Many developing countries do not need such large increments of electricity. They also do not have the large-scale energy infrastructure required to install conventional nuclear power plants or personnel trained to operate them. These countries could benefit from smaller energy systems, such as SSTAR, that use automated controls, require less maintenance work, and provide reliable power for as long as 30 years before needing refueling or replacement.
Many of the countries in need of nuclear energy are among the 187 nations that have signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) enacted in 1970. Under the terms of this treaty, the five acknowledged nuclear-weapon states-the U.S., Russian Federation, United Kingdom, France, and China-agreed not to transfer nuclear weapons, other nuclear explosive devices, or related technology to those signatory states that have no nuclear weapons. These nonnuclear states agreed not to acquire or produce nuclear weapons or nuclear explosive devices, and in exchange, they have access to peaceful nuclear technology developed by the five nuclear signatories. Unfortunately, the NPT has some weaknesses, as demonstrated by the recent disagreements with Iran and North Korea. Although both countries had signed the NPT, their nuclear energy programs are not in keeping with their treaty agreements.
To address this problem, DOE is funding an initiative to develop a conceptual design of a reactor that will deliver nuclear energy to developing countries and significantly reduce the proliferation concern associated with expanded use of nuclear power. Three national laboratories are collaborating on this initiative. Lawrence Livermore, which leads the collaboration, is researching materials and coolants for the reactor and evaluating how it can be deployed. Argonne is designing the reactor, and Los Alamos is contributing its expertise on coolant and fuel technologies.
The SSTAR design will accomplish DOE's goals by allowing the U.S. to provide a tamper-resistant reactor to a nonnuclear state while still safeguarding the nation's sensitive nuclear technology. SSTAR will also secure the nuclear fuel because, after its operation, the sealed reactor will be returned to a secure recycling facility for refueling or maintenance.
Designed to be deployable anywhere in the world, SSTAR may also meet a national need. In the U.S., the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) oversees more than 100 nuclear power plants that were built during the 1960s and 1970s. SSTAR would provide a secure and cost-effective system to replace older nuclear reactors as well as aging fossil-fuel plants, particularly in an isolated location. Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, and Argonne national laboratories are designing a self-contained nuclear reactor with tamper-resistant features. Called SSTAR (small, sealed, transportable, autonomous reactor), this next-generation reactor will produce 10 to 100 megawatts electric and can be safely transported on ship or by a heavy-haul transport truck. In this schematic of one conceptual design being considered, the reactor is enclosed in a transportation cask.
One Size Fitting Many Needs
SSTAR is designed as a lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) that can supply 10 to 100 MWe with a reactor system that can be transported in a shipping cask. Fast reactors typically use liquid metal coolants, such as lead, lead-bismuth, or sodium, instead of water. Neutron kinetic energy is about 250 kiloelectronvolts in LFRs-much greater than in LWRs, where the low mass of hydrogen in the water coolant slows neutron velocity and, thus, energy to about 0.025 to 0.05 electronvolt. With fast-moving neutrons, SSTAR could produce the fissile material it needs to fuel continued operation at the same time that it generates energy. Spent fuel in the form of uranium and plutonium would remain in the reactor to generate power for up to 30 years. The spent reactor would then be returned to a secure recycling facility to close the fuel cycle and to minimize the high-level wastes generated by nuclear reactors, thus reducing the space and infrastructure needed for the long-term storage of radioactive wastes. The concept for recycling is to have almost all of the waste burned in the reactor's core.
According to project leader Craig Smith, a nuclear engineer in Livermore's Energy and Environment Directorate, the reactor will be about 15 meters tall by 3 meters wide and will not weigh more than 500 tons-small and lightweight enough to be transported on a ship and by a heavy-haul transport truck. "With SSTAR, countries won't need a large nuclear reactor industry to benefit from nuclear energy," says Smith. "Because the supplier nation will provide both the reactor and the associated fuel-cycle services, the host nation can produce electricity without needing an independent supply of uranium or other fuel at the front end of the cycle. The host nation also won't have to dispose of the nuclear waste at the back end of the cycle."
In addition, the current SSTAR design reduces the potential for a terrorist to divert or misuse the nuclear materials and technology. Nuclear fuel will be contained within the sealed, tamper-resistant reactor vessel when it is shipped to its destination, and the spent reactor core will be returned to the supplier for recycling.
SSTAR addresses proliferation concerns with other features as well. No refueling is necessary during the reactor's operation, which eliminates access to and long-term storage of nuclear materials on-site. The design also includes detection and signaling systems to identify actions that threaten the security of the reactor. And because of the reactor's small size and its thermal and nuclear characteristics, the design can include a passive method to shut down and cool the reactor in response to hardware or control failures.
When it is upright, SSTAR will be about 15 meters high and 3 meters wide, and its total weight will not exceed 500 tons. This compact size will allow the nuclear reactor to be transported on a ship and by a heavy-haul transport truck.
Reduced Operating Costs
SSTAR also offers potential cost reductions over conventional nuclear reactors. Using lead or lead-bismuth as a cooling material instead of water eliminates the large, high-pressure vessels and piping needed to contain the reactor coolant. The low pressure of the lead coolant also allows for a more compact reactor because the steam generator can be incorporated into the reactor vessel. Plus with no refueling downtime and no spent fuel rods to be managed, the reactor can produce energy continuously and with fewer personnel.
SSTAR may also reduce costs for the transportation industry by providing a cheaper source of fuel to power passenger cars. Because LFRs can potentially operate at high temperatures (up to about 800°C), the reactor can be used to generate the heat required for efficient production of hydrogen, which is the preferred fuel for fuel-cell vehicles and hybrid vehicles burning hydrogen in an internal combustion engine. (See S&TR, June 2003, Flexibly Fueled Storage Tank Brings Hydrogen-Powered Cars Closer to Reality.) As oil production becomes more expensive and constraints on carbon dioxide emissions tighten, the search for alternatives to fossil fuels becomes more important. SSTAR has the potential to address a critical national and international need for the future.
Tackling the Design Challenges
Several challenges must be addressed before the SSTAR design is ready for prototype testing. The Livermore team must develop materials for the fuel and coolant boundary that are compatible with the coolant. Lead, especially when alloyed with bismuth, tends to corrode the fuel cladding and structural steel. Controlling the oxygen in the coolant will help reduce corrosion. In addition, the team must identify materials that would best withstand the damaging effects of long-term exposure to fast neutrons. Structural damage could include material swelling and ductility loss, both of which may limit the life of the reactor.
In 2003, the Laboratory's SSTAR team participated in a feasibility study with a team from the Central Research Institute for Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI) in Japan. In this study, the two teams evaluated a modified design, developed by the Japanese team, for a small liquid metal-cooled reactor using sodium as a coolant. A scientist from CRIEPI is now working at Livermore, and the teams are sharing the results from their respective projects.
Passive safety features also will be developed to ensure that any failure in the control system will shut down the reactor and initiate a natural convection system to cool the reactor core and reactor vessel. The characteristics of these features will depend on the geometry and mechanical support system provided for the nuclear reactor. In addition, the prototype will test the performance of the passive safety features and the system designed to monitor them.
Because the spent reactor will be radioactive, the research team must develop packaging and transportation systems so the reactor can be removed safely. The team also must design a process to cool the reactor while it is being shipped to the recycling facility. The design criteria for meeting these challenges may affect the maximum power level that can be achieved.
License-by-Test Certification
NRC plans to certify the SSTAR design using a new license-by-test approach, rather than the license-by-design approach that it used to certify most of the existing commercial nuclear power plants. NRC's license-by-test process is similar to the certification process used by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration for commercial airliners. To be certified, the SSTAR prototype must demonstrate in a test environment that it can safely withstand accidents, including the most improbable ones such as failure of the active shutdown and shutdown heat-removal systems.
But the tri-laboratory collaboration has more work to do before an SSTAR demonstration. According to Smith, the team plans to refine the SSTAR design and then develop a prototype reactor, which could be ready for testing as early as 2015. The Livermore team feels confident that SSTAR will provide a new-generation reactor-one that is safe, proliferation-resistant, and able to operate anywhere in the world.
-Gabriele Rennie
Key Words: Central Research Institute for Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI); lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR); Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT); nuclear reactor; small, sealed, transportable, autonomous reactor (SSTAR).
For further information contact Craig Smith (925) 423-1772 (smith94@llnl.gov).
-------- nevada
Nevada divided on Superfund site
August 09, 2004
(AP)
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040809-121535-9567r.htm
RENO, Nev. - Gov. Kenny Guinn, under pressure from a ranking Nevada senator and the Environmental Protection Agency, says he might rethink his opposition to a federal Superfund cleanup declaration for a huge abandoned mine contaminated with toxic waste and uranium.
Mr. Guinn, other state officials and local politicians have contended that the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection is making progress at the former Anaconda copper mine bordering Yerington, an agricultural town in northern Nevada.
They also have argued that one-time Anaconda parent Atlantic Richfield Co. (ARCO) is cooperating. Officials also fear the stigma of the area's being labeled a Superfund site, a designation that would turn over responsibility and enforcement authority to the federal government.
Federal authorities, however, said the recent discovery of unusually high levels of radiation in soil samples at the mine is a sign that federal help is needed.
"We realize the cleanup is going to be much more significant than any of us anticipated," said Bob Abbey, Nevada director for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
Mr. Guinn's spokesman, Greg Bortolin, told the Associated Press last week that the Republican governor "is open-minded and is receptive to the possibility of a Superfund listing as a result of the information that continues to come to light."
Senate Minority Whip Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, said state regulators lack the muscle to force ARCO to clean up the hundreds of acres of toxic waste, some of it radioactive.
"This is big business overwhelming a little state, and the state doesn't have the power to fight them," said Mr. Reid, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate.
"This is a cesspool full of very, very toxic substances, and [ARCO] should write a check to clean it up. The only way they will do that is if it is declared a Superfund site," Mr. Reid said.
Dan Ferriter, ARCO's environmental manager in charge of the site, took exception to Mr. Reid's criticism, saying the cleanup already is subject to "fairly extreme" regulatory oversight.
"We are doing much, much more than would be required for a mine closure by the state of Nevada, and we are doing more than we would at most Superfund sites," Mr. Ferriter said Friday.
Early groundwater tests at the 3,600-acre site showed uranium at up to 200 times the U.S. drinking-water standard, apparently the result of decades of chemical processing of copper ore in acid-leaching ponds. Uranium also was present in the copper ore.
One new soil sample shows alpha radiation levels at nearly 200 times more than natural background levels, and four other samples are in the range of 25 to 90 times normal, the BLM reported last month. More tests are pending.
Anaconda Copper Co. mined the site from 1953 to 1978.
ARCO is responsible for the cleanup because it once owned Anaconda and a more recent owner of the site has gone bankrupt. ARCO has spent about $50,000 since January testing wells and providing bottled water to about 40 households near the mine, Mr. Ferriter said.
-------- new mexico
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Board to have special review
ROGER SNODGRASS, roger@lamonitor.com,
Los Alamos Monitor
http://www.lamonitor.com/articles/2004/08/09/headline_news/news02.txt
Los Alamos National Laboratory will be getting a visit before the end of the month from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, said John T. Conway, its chairman.
The DNFSB is an independent agency within the federal government that monitors defense related nuclear laboratories on health and safety issues.
The abrupt suspension of all activities at the laboratory on July 15 as a result of cascading security and safety violations is a concern to DNFSB.
"We have no responsibility on the security side," Conway said by telephone from Washington, D.C., on Friday. As for safety, he said, "We are watching very carefully. When you shut something down and then start it back up, you have to make sure you start it up in a safe manner."
Conway said he had met with lab Director G. Peter Nanos during his Washington trip and had spoken to him by phone since that time.
DNSFB has had an ongoing institutional dialogue with LANL on safety issues.
For example, a letter on May 21 from Conway to Linton Brooks, the nation's top nuclear official, warned of the "unmitigated consequences predicted for the worst nuclear accidents at Technical Area 18."
TA-18 is the Criticality Experiments Facility just off Pajarito Road, where nuclear materials are used in controlled reactive experiments.
While accidents at other LANL sites might be worse, Conway said in the letter, those would require a catastrophic event like an earthquake or major fire to happen, but TA-18's worst-case scenario could be caused by a sequence of operator errors.
An uncompliant operator's mistakes could lead to melting and partial vaporization of a plutonium core sample, he said, a very serious risk considering that the site is located only three miles from the town of White Rock.
A conservative estimate of maximum exposure in that case would be 40 times the level set by the Environmental Protection Agency.
DNFSB's site representative Charles Keilers said last week he has been monitoring the lab's surveillance and maintenance efforts for keeping the facilities in a safe state, pending the resumption of productive work.
He is providing daily updates to the board, in addition to his normal weekly reports.
"The problems will be fixed," he said. "No one has figured what it's going to cost or the timeline... LANL's going to do a lot of internal assessment."
In Keilers' most recent weekly report, dated July 2, he noted TA-18's own management self-assessment (MSA) validated DNFSB's warning letter of May 21.
"The MSA discusses the strong sense of pride, ownership, and accountability at TA-18, but mentions that personnel are concerned about: high levels of stress and anxiety, increasing programmatic pressure, and programmatic schedules and security requirement sometimes being prioritized over safety," said Keilers' report.
"TA-18 is a good example of what's driving the whole lab," Keilers said this week. "People who are highly stressed are trying to do a good job."
TA-18, he said, was shut down a week before everybody else.
He added, "They're good at what they do, it's just they have to be better than good."
Conway said a second site representative has been assigned to Los Alamos.
Tom Burns, who has been working at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, will be working with Keilers by mid-August.
"The board wants (the people at Los Alamos) to succeed," said Conway. "The work they're doing is essential to the national security of the country. We want them to succeed and to work safely."
Bradbury reopens
John Rhoades, director of the Bradbury Science Museum, said Friday that the museum would resume its normal schedule.
The doors will open Monday at 1 p.m., according to the regular hours.
The museum, operated by Los Alamos National Laboratory, has been closed for more than two weeks as part of the total stand down at the laboratory.
Rhoades said all the staff and managers were involved in a comprehensive assessment.
"We looked at everything from our exhibit wiring to our science demonstrations, how we use ladders, how we drive our trucks," he said.
The museum has had more than a million visitors in its history without a serious accident.
But Rhoades said they did find things that needed fixing.
"Our recorded evacuation announcement wasn't loud enough. We need to be more careful in how we moved tables and chairs around for special events," he said. "There were things we could improve."
All in all, he added, "We're glad to be re-opening."
-------- vermont
Engineers Assess Vermont Yankee Bid to Step Up Nuclear Power
August 9, 2004
VERNON, Vermont, (ENS)
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2004/2004-08-09-01.asp
Today a team of inspectors from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission begins a three week engineering design assessment at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon to determine if the 32 year old reactor is capable of safely generating an additional 20 percent more power. The 510 megawatt boiling water reactor is located five miles south of Brattleboro, in the southeastern corner of the state.
The plant operator, Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. has applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for an "uprate" of 20 percent, equivalent to the greatest increase in a commercial nuclear power plant's maximum power level ever approved by the NRC. Uprates require major modifications to major equipment such as the high pressure turbines, condensate pumps and motors, main generators, and/or transformers.
Safety concerns have been raised by the Vermont government. The Vermont State Nuclear Advisory Panel voted unanimously at its July 29 meeting to seek a formal hearing on the issue of the pressure inside the reactor's containment system if a power uprate is approved.
The advisory panel, headed by David O'Brien, commissioner of the Department of Public Service, voted unanimously to pursue the federal hearing process over what it perceives to be the biggest safety issue if the power increase goes ahead.
'Brien said his department waited more than six months to hear the NRC's interpretation of Entergy Nuclear's proposal, and when it arrived it was "vague and unsatisfactory," he said.
Vermont Governor James Douglas, a Republican, has been noncommittal about the uprate.
The uprate issue was complicated by a fire in the Vermont Yankee's main transformer that forced a hot shutdown of the plant and an emergency declaration on June 18. It was the first "unusual event" declared there in seven years, officials said. There was "no release of radiation to the environment," Entergy said.
Entergy has identified that the root cause of the main transformer fire relates to "weaknesses with the preventive maintenance performed on the 22 KV electrical system."
The plant is now operating at full power, but the NRC still considers the fire an "unresolved item" because "additional information is needed to determine if these issues are more than minor," the federal agency said.
In addition, the NRC faulted Entergy for not notifying the officials of Vermont and surrounding states in a timely manner. In a July 26 Integrated Inspection Report to Entergy Site Vice President Joy Thayer, the NRC cited Entergy for "Failure to make timely notification of States upon declaration of unusual event on June 18, 2004."
In addition, Vermont Yankee staff lost track of two pieces of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel, an oversight that come to public attention in April. On July 13, the two pieces were located in the power plant's spent fuel pool where they belonged, but the incident raised questions about the plant's management at a time when Entergy is doing its best to convince state and federal agencies and the public that an uprate is a safe and beneficial move.
The Vermont Public Service Board has ruled in favor of the uprate, but with the condition that an independent engineering assessment be performed to ensure the reliability of the plant.
The engineering assessment that begins today is supposed to be independent. Jim Dyer, director of the NRC's Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR) at NRC headquarters, said, "Based on the team's qualifications and demonstrated ability to identify issues on previous inspections, I'm confident this team will perform a rigorous inspection at Vermont Yankee."
The eight engineers conducting the inspection include three contractors and five NRC inspectors. The team leader is Jeffery Jacobson, a program manager in NRR's Inspection Program Branch. He has led inspection teams numerous times during his 19 years with the agency, said Dyer, "including several that raised significant safety issues."
"None of the NRC employees on the team has been involved in Vermont Yankee oversight in at least the past two years, and none of the private contractors has been employed by Entergy Nuclear in at least the past two years," Dyer said.
"The NRC is closely coordinating the inspection with the state of Vermont. Vermont state's Nuclear Engineer, Bill Sherman, will observe the inspection," said Dyer.
But Sherman already has gone on public record in support of the uprate. On November 5, 2003, Sherman testified on behalf of the Vermont Department of Public Service in an uprate hearing before the State of Vermont Public Service Board.
Estimating the costs and benefits, he said, "The proposal has a net benefit of approximately $9.8 million."
Sherman said that uprates granted elsewhere have been reliable. "Extended Power Uprate plants have accumulated over 25 reactor-years of operating experience at uprated power levels. While Quad Cities 2 has experienced extended outages, the other plants have had good operating records. This suggests that extended uprate-related outages are less likely rather than more likely."
Sherman's only comment on safety was an expression of confidence in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission." Based on my interaction, I can see that NRC does not take Entergy's application for granted, but is embarked on a thorough and questioning review," he said.
He reminded the Board that "nothing in these actions restricts" the Vermont Department of Public Service's review of nuclear safety or the positions it may take before the NRC.
The New England Coalition, an anti-nuclear watchdog group is urging state and civilian oversight of the engineering assessment. "State and citizen participation in the assessment process is the surest way to guarantee public safety," the coalition says.
To complicate matters, unionized workers at the Vermont Yankee have authorized a strike to begin in less than two weeks, during the NRC inspection.
The plant's 148 unionized workers voted unanimously on Wednesday to strike when the contract expires at midnight August 19.
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Unit 8 chairman Corey Daniels told the "Brattleboro Reformer" newspaper that the strike could affect the plant's safety. People on the picket line would include maintenance mechanics, reactor plant operators, technicians, and radiation protection workers.
He said that although Entergy has a contingency plan to bring in other workers in case of a strike, no other workers understand the plant's unique characteristics.
The newspaper quoted Vermont Yankee spokesman Rob Williams as saying, "It's common for nuclear power plants to have contingency plans, but the plant plans to concentrate on satisfying the union members." He would not speculate on what would happen if the workers strike.
New England Coalition Executive Director Peter Alexander said the Vermont Yankee should be shut down if a strike is called.
Entergy Nuclear, a unit of New Orleans based Entergy Corporation, is the second largest U.S. nuclear operator with 10 units and the largest operator in the Northeast. The company purchased Vermont Yankee in 2001.
The nuclear plant is located just north of the Massachusetts border across the Connecticut River from New Hampshire.
-------- us nuc waste
Neb. to Pay $141M Over Radioactive Dump
August 9, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Nuclear-Dump-Lawsuit.html
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- Nebraska will pay $141 million for blocking efforts to build a low-level radioactive waste dump and will be allowed to continue to oppose locating the dump in the state, under the settlement of a lawsuit accepted Monday.
The dump was to have been built in northeastern Nebraska and take waste from Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas. Low-level radioactive waste includes contaminated tools and clothing from nuclear power plants, hospitals and research centers.
The Central Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact Commission -- representing the five states -- voted 3-1 Monday to accept Nebraska's proposed settlement of the court fight. Kansas voted against and Nebraska could not vote.
U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf in Lincoln ruled in 2002 that former Nebraska Gov. Ben Nelson, now a U.S. senator, engaged in a politically motivated plot to keep the regional dump from being built in Nebraska. State officials had argued they did not license the dump because of concerns about possible pollution and a high water table at the proposed site.
Kopf ordered Nebraska to pay $151 million in damages plus interest, but did not address the issue of where the dump should be placed. Nebraska agreed Monday to drop its appeal of that decision.
The dispute had its genesis in 1970, when Nevada, South Carolina and Washington state grew tired of accepting low-level radioactive waste from the rest of the country. As a result, Congress told the states in 1980 to build their own dumps or join regional groups to dispose of the waste.
No regional compact has built a dump yet.
Jim O'Connell, Kansas' representative on the commission, said he voted against the settlement because of the way Nebraska blocked construction of the site.
``It means that a state can conduct ... what amounts to a sham review of a license application, do so at an exorbitant cost and then, when eventually being caught at it, can absolve itself by refunding the money,'' he said.
But Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns called the deal a success for the state, noting that with interest, the $151 million judgment would have brought Nebraska's total bill to $207 million. And the other states had initially insisted after the 2002 ruling that Nebraska was still obligated to host a nuclear waste dump, Johanns said.
``Considering the potential downside of this, this is a good settlement for the state,'' Johanns said. He said tax revenues are improving and he thinks he can pay the settlement without seeking a tax increase.
Nebraska is in the middle of an ongoing budget crisis and lawmakers will use the legislative session beginning January to find the money. ``It won't be easy, but at least it will be behind us,'' said state Sen. Roger Wehrbein, chairman of the budget-writing Appropriations Committee.
Nebraska has offered to pay Texas a flat fee of $25 million to take the low-level radioactive waste from the five states, plus $5 million to cover any unforeseen expenses for storing it. The Texas Legislature has already approved the establishment of two other private waste disposal facilities.
A spokesman for Nelson, David DiMartino, said the senator had not seen the settlement and could not be reached for comment because he was traveling overseas.
His chief of staff, Tim Becker, said he was sure the settlement will be an issue in Nelson's 2006 re-election bid, especially if Johanns runs against him as expected.
``It has been a political issue -- I suspect it will continue to be a political issue,'' Becker said.
On the Net:
Central Interstate Compact: http://www.cillrwcc.org/
-------- MILITARY
-------- afghanistan
Taliban Maintains Grip Rooted in Fear
In Afghan Mountains, U.S. Forces Face Elusive Foe Bent on Disrupting Elections
By Keith B. Richburg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, August 9, 2004; Page A10
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A50666-2004Aug8?language=printer
PARLAY, Afghanistan, Aug. 8 -- Sifullah is just 14 years old, but he knows enough to be afraid to bring tea.
"If anybody sees me bringing tea, they'll ask me why I am helping the coalition forces," he said softly to a small group of U.S. soldiers and a reporter. "I'm afraid of the Taliban."
The Taliban guerrillas usually come out at night, walking from the other side of the mountain, Sifullah said. They have long beards and usually dress in white, with big black or white turbans. Often they carry AK-47 assault rifles on their shoulders and 9mm pistols at their sides. Sometimes they have satellite telephones. They search the stone huts of this village for weapons, making the women wait outside.
And they come with a message: Do not help the Americans and their allies fighting in Afghanistan, and do not register to vote in the Oct. 9 presidential election, or you and your family will be killed.
Here in the northeast corner of Kandahar province, still considered a Taliban stronghold more than 2 1/2 years after the repressive Islamic movement was ousted from power, Sifullah's story was corroborated over and over -- by an old man who fled to a nearby village after receiving threats, by a 16-year-old who was held for five hours while the Taliban searched for his older brother, and by a local militia commander whose brother was killed by the Taliban and who now works closely with U.S. forces.
Taliban fighters are abundant in the mountains, they all agree. When U.S. forces are in the area, the guerrillas emerge, staging hit-and-run attacks before disappearing back into the rock-strewn landscape.
U.S. troops say their battle against the Taliban is a classic guerrilla war against an elusive foe who refuses to show his face.
"They're scared," said Capt. Brian L. Peterson, commander of Alpha Troop, a reconnaissance and surveillance unit of the 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division, based in Honolulu. "We've got to pry them out of the rocks to come out and fight."
"They know the air power that we command is devastating for them if they try to mass in number, so they are comfortable working at the small-unit level," said Staff Sgt. Joe Schoch, 29, a member of a long-range surveillance team. He added: "The tactic they are using right now is either hit-and-run or bait-and-ambush. As soon as the choppers come, they're dropping their weapons and picking up their goats."
The biggest problem, U.S. soldiers and residents here say, is that as soon as the Americans leave, the Taliban will return. "We are happy that you guys are here," said Sifullah, who wore a green traditional Afghan shirt that was stained and dirty, a cap and black sandals. "But we are worried when you go back. They will ask why we were talking to coalition forces, and who helped them."
To Peterson and Schoch, Sifullah pleaded: "Please, make a base here and stay for a long time. When you are here, they are not disturbing us."
Taliban tactics were underscored as Peterson's unit left Parlay on Sunday, heading back toward Kandahar. At 5 p.m., the convoy discovered the bodies of seven men close to the roadside; all apparently had been killed at close range. Most appeared to have been shot in the back of the head, with the bullet wounds exiting in front, and one seemed to have had his head bashed in.
The soldiers collected the bodies using the only two available body bags, as well as rain ponchos, and carried the corpses on the hoods of their Humvees. The blood was still fresh, indicating that the attack had taken place only hours before, according to an Army doctor traveling with the group who inspected the bodies.
The initial speculation