NucNews - January 4, 2005



-------- NUCLEAR 


-------- britain

Wilson kept public in dark over fears on safety of nuclear plants

By Jimmy Burns
Published: January 4 2005 02:00 Financial Times 

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/14893ff4-5df5-11d9-ac01-00000e2511c8.html

Harold Wilson's Labour government was concerned about the safety of nuclear power establishments despite reassuring the public that adequate measures were in place to deal with leakage or sabotage.

The gulf between the fears shared within Whitehall and what officials were authorised to disclose publicly are contained in government files covering a period of weeks leading up to Mr Wilson's re-election as prime-minister in October 1974.

The files, released today to the public, show the vulnerability of nuclear power stations, prior to the critical review of operational practices that were forced on governments and companies during the 1980s by the incidents at Three Mile Island in the US and Chernobyl.

It was also during the 1980s that an official report revealed the level of radiation at Calder Hall, near Windscale in Cumbria, was more that 40 times higher than originally claimed when a reactor there caught fire in October 1957. Seventeen years after the accident at Windscale, the public was kept in the dark about the flaws in contingency plans for similar accidents.

Internal memorandums circulating in Whitehall in summer 1974 showed officials were being briefed to reassure the public that those in charge of nuclear installations were able to resist "an attempt to seize nuclear material by force".

In fact, as a memorandum from one senior official recognises, the statement was "barely true" in respect of installations under the responsibility of the nationalised Central Electricity Generating Board. The official stated "there must be grave doubts" as to whether police and military could reach "the two most remote sensitive sites" of Dounreay and Windscale "in time to be effective".

There was also concern within Whitehall about the security risk of plutonium transportation across the UK after a confidential analysis by agovernment scientific adviser revealed that during the mid-1970s the number of movements per annum in quantities well in excess of what constituted a "serious hazard" had risen to 213.

* Security arrangements for the Channel tunnel considered under the government of Edward Heath envisaged using a small nuclear device to seal its entrance in the event of war. The recommendation is contained in an exchange of secret memorandums and letters between senior Whitehall officials in the weeks leading to Mr Heath's election defeat in February 1974.

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NUCLEAR WASTE - CAN YOU HANDLE IT AT BIRMINGHAM'S THINKTANK?

This exhibition will enable you to find out how and why, as well as allowing you to have your own say.

By Simon Williams 	04/01/2005
24 hour Museum, Birmingham, UK

http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/exh_gfx_en/ART25457.html

Waste, terrorism, risks and our future; these are the key themes explored in the latest exhibition at Birmingham’s Thinktank until February 27.

If you are concerned or even unaware of how the UK deals with nuclear waste then this exhibition from the nuclear industry will enlighten you.

Located in the atrium of the museum at Millennium Point, the exhibition is a quick and easy guide through the issues surrounding nuclear waste via a series of touch screens.

The onscreen presentations offer a chance to get better acquainted with the issues of where nuclear waste comes from, what is being done with it and what will happen to it – from a safe distance.

In the modern world, one of our biggest concerns is the threat of terrorism, but are you aware there is more risk in importing other nations’ nuclear waste in order to reprocess it?

The display shows how we have the capability to reprocess waste with less risks; such as at the Sellafield plant where used nuclear fuel is reprocessed to take out the plutonium and uranium to make new fuel.

The interactive aspect of the exhibition also offers a feedback mechanism allowing visitors to air their own views and thoughts about nuclear power.

With the potential effect the legacy of nuclear waste will have on all our futures, this seems a key feature.

The exhibition was developed by the Science Museum in London and funded by Sellafield with the aim of making people more aware of potential risks about what is being done and what can be done in the future.

A spokesperson for Thinktank explained "science has an impact on our lives". This exhibition will enable you to find out how and why, as well as allowing you to have your own say.
	
Thinktank: Birmingham Museum of Science & Technology
Millennium Point, Curzon Street, Birmingham, B4 7XG, West Midlands, England
T: 0121 202 2222
Open: Thinktank is open seven days a week from 10am to 5pm with last admissions at 4pm.
Closed: Thinktank is closed Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

-------- business

Uranium Price May Rise 25% as Supply Falls, New Reactors Start

(Bloomberg) January 4, 2005

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=nifea&&sid=aGJLN8TbZ8qI

Jan. 4 -- Prices for uranium, used to generate 16 percent of the world's electricity, may rise a quarter this year as stockpiles of the nuclear fuel dwindle and demand is set to rise from reactors being built in China and India.

``You have gone from a buyers to a sellers' market,'' said Bob Mitchell, who holds physical uranium worth more than $26 million for Adit Capital Management in Portland, Oregon. ``Most reactors under construction haven't secured long-term supply and there is no inventory left among utilities.''

Commercial stockpiles of the fuel dropped 50 percent between 1985 and 2003 because mine output couldn't keep up with demand, according to a September report by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mine expansions may not meet demand, boosting prices for uranium at miners such as Cameco Corp., the world's biggest, and Energy Resources of Australia Ltd.

Cameco shares rose 68 percent last year and Energy Resources of Australia, which is 68 percent-owned by Rio Tinto Group, surged 94 percent. Paladin Resources Ltd., an Australian company that plans to mine uranium in Namibia, rose ninefold.

China is preparing to award an $8 billion contract to build four reactors in the world's biggest nuclear power construction program. The country plans to build 27 plants to meet a target of boosting nuclear energy output fivefold by 2020. India aims to build 17 reactors to triple nuclear power capacity by 2012.

``Uranium prices will advance in 2005,'' said Mitchell, 51, at Adit, who also owns Cameco shares as part of the $200 million he helps manage at another fund, Touchstone Investment Managers. ``In China, they'll have to build a couple more reactors a year.''

Reference Price

Spot prices of uranium rose to $20.50 a pound as of Dec. 31, according to Metal Bulletin, on concern about supply shortages. That's the highest since 1984, said a September report by Jeff Combs, president of Roswell, Georgia, U.S.-based Ux Consulting Co., which publishes spot uranium prices.

The spot market, which makes up about 12 percent of uranium sales according to the World Nuclear Association, sets a price reference for long-term contracts between miners and utilities. Uranium prices rose to a record of more than $40 a pound in the late 1970s, according to Ux Consulting's Combs.

Contract prices paid by power companies may rise to $27 a pound this year from $20 a pound last year, National Bank Financial analyst Ian Howat said in a Nov. 24 report. Long-term prices may rise to $26 a pound, Goldman Sachs JBWere Pty analyst Ian Preston said in a Dec. 14 report after attending a uranium conference in Sydney.

``It looks like current prices are here to stay and possibly rise significantly,'' Craig Kinnell, acting chief executive of Energy Resources of Australia, the world's third-biggest uranium miner, said in an interview Dec. 31.

``Inventories are falling and there has been little response to that in the way of more mine supply. Our contract prices have risen to reflect the spot price rises.''

Demand From China

China, the world's biggest energy consumer after the U.S., aims to double total power generation capacity by 2020. It needs to add two reactors a year by then to meet a target of generating 4 percent of its power from nuclear plants.

Demand from China may help uranium prices double in the next two years and triple demand for nuclear power by 2020, said Quinton George, managing director of Trinity Asset Management, which owns 18 percent of Afrikander Lease Ltd., holder of South Africa's biggest uranium deposit.

``The supply deficit will affect this market for at least the next 10 years,'' said Trinity's George. ``In the next two years we could well see uranium touching historical highs, at least doubling current prices.''

China has begun talks with Australia, holder of the world's largest uranium reserves, to enable the fuel to be exported by London-based Rio Tinto, the world's third-biggest miner, and WMC Resources Ltd., which owns the biggest deposit of the radioactive metal.

``We're working with the Australian government to get the ability to sell uranium to China,'' Bruce Brook, WMC's chief financial officer, said in an interview Nov. 30. ``These guys have announced 32 nuclear power stations to be developed over the next 16 years.''

$30-a-Pound Forecast

Melbourne-based WMC in November increased its long-term uranium forecast to $30 a pound and said its Olympic Dam deposit could become the world's biggest uranium mine if a A$4 billion ($3 billion) expansion is approved. Cameco plans to increase production 18 percent at Canada's McArthur River, now the world's biggest uranium mine.

``We've got customers who are highly-concerned about the supply chain of uranium,'' said WMC's Brook, who's also in charge of the company's uranium marketing. ``I can assure you the pricing that they have in mind is not going backward. Our expansion and one planned by Cameco won't fill the gap'' between supply and demand, he said.

World demand will outpace supply by 11 percent in the decade ending in 2013 as inventories decline, the World Nuclear Association estimates.

The decline in stockpiles has been hastened by the decision of Russia, the world's biggest uranium exporter after Canada, in October 2003 to limit its exports to conserve fuel for 25 plants it wants to build by 2020.

Reactor fuel made from former Russian nuclear weapons powers one out of every 10 U.S. homes, according to the Washington-based Nuclear Energy Institute trade group.

Lack of Transparency

Fund manager Tim Barker at BT Financial Group in Sydney said a lack of transparency in the uranium market and potential increases in supply from dismantled nuclear weapons makes it hard to tell the extent of supply shortages.

``We've been waiting for the supply gap to appear for quite a while and have heard stockpiles are running down so many times I've lost count,'' said Barker, who helps manage $30 billion, including WMC shares. ``I'm not sure the ultimate size is very well known. I suspect there's a fair amount of self-interest in the information that's available.''

Mines produced about 55 percent of the 66,000 tons of uranium used in 2003, according to the nuclear association's Web site. The 30,000 ton shortfall was made up from other sources, such as stockpiles that the association says are ``largely depleted'', and former weapons-grade uranium.

``There has been a 15-year period of inventory liquidation, there is not a lot of new mine supply,'' said Mitchell at Adit Capital, who says the fund he started in October is the first to buy physical uranium. ``Even at $30 a pound you won't get the world flooded with uranium.''



<a name="du"></a>

-------- depleted uranium

Comparing Iraqi Victims with Victims from the Indian Ocean Tsunami

by Stan Moore, Media Monitors Network
(Tuesday 04 January 2005)

http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/12337/

"Earthquakes may have aftershocks, but tsunamis do not return to attack their original victims or to attack rescuers or resisters of their destruction."

The recent destructive tsunami caused by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean was no doubt a terrible disaster. The human victims of the disaster certainly deserve rescue, support, and assistance by the entire world community. And the world community has rallied to support these victims in a massive way, which hopefully will be adequate to the cumulative needs of all the affected people.

Unfortunately, though, the Iraqi people have experienced a different sort of tragedy, which has killed well over 100,000 innocent Iraqis. The world has largely failed to rescue, support and assist the Iraqi people in their prolonged time of travail, which actually has been underway for well over a decade, but which is considerably worse since the U.S. led invasion and occupation of that ancient land. Let us make some comparisons between the tsunami and the invasion.

It appears that loss of life has been massive from both the invasion and the tsunami. The invaders have made little effort to engage in an accurate count, and have even suppressed attempts to count the total deaths by attacking and intimidating local Iraqi medical personnel. Yet, independent workers from abroad have scientifically estimated over 100,000 casualties from the occupation alone, which is roughly comparable to the known fatalities from the tsunami.

The tsunami is expected to cause disease and illness from contamination of drinking water. Yet, the occupation victims in Iraq have seen deliberate efforts by the U.S. and its allies to remove safe drinking water supplies to entire cities, to prevent Iraqis from obtaining water purification chemicals during the long period of sanctions, and to prevent critical, but basic medications from being made available to the Iraqi victims of invasion and colonization.

Tsunamis usually kill quickly by drowning and rarely severely injure people. However, Iraqi victims of the invasion have been subject to attacks by rifle fire from snipers, by blast from bombs including cluster bombs and artillery shells, by aerial attack with missiles from jets and helicopters, and other means. Countless Iraqis have been maimed, burned, paralyzed, and grievously injured.

Earthquakes may have aftershocks, but tsunamis do not return to attack their original victims or to attack rescuers or resisters of their destruction. The invading U.S. led forces attack "insurgents" who are resisting the brutal subjugation of Iraqis. Tsunamis do not break in doors in the middle of the night in order to detain, arrest, and confine innocent people for weeks, months or even years. Tsunamis do not detain people for lifetimes as the U.S. military leadership is attempting to do. Tsunamis do not torture people with focused technology in order to "break them" or cause them to divulge information which may not even be in the possession of the victim. Yet torture is organic and systemic to the very methodology of control of the invaded population by the U.S. led forces.

Tsunamis can result in physical renewal, but U.S. forces spread low-grade radioactivity called depleted uranium which can continue to degrade human areas of habitation and make people sick for 4.5 billion years. Depleted uranium and other toxic residues of the U.S. invasion can result in deformed babies, sick adults, and short, painful lives. Depleted uranium even sickens the invading soldiers, who are then abandoned by their own governmental and military leadership to lives of pain and chronic illness.

Tsunamis are disasters. Invasions are crimes against humanity. Tsunamis are unavoidable by human effort. Invasions and colonization must be resisted, prevented, and even punished after the fact.


-------- iran

Iran: U.S. spy planes spotted over nuke sites

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Tuesday, January 4, 2005

http://216.26.163.62/2005/me_iran_01_04.html

Iran has reported flights by U.S. military aircraft over nuclear facilities near the borders with Afghanistan and Iraq.

Iran's state-controlled media said the overflights by U.S. aircraft were spotted near a range of nuclear facilities, including the Bushehr nuclear reactor constructed by Russia.

In late December, Teheran ordered the Iranian Air Force to shoot down unidentified aircraft flying anywhere in the country, Middle East Newsline reported. Iranian officials have accused Israel and the United States of seeking to conduct reconnaissance flights over Iran.

Iran has deployed anti-aircraft missiles around major nuclear sites, including Bushehr. So far, there have been no reports of Iranian missile fire toward U.S. or Israeli warplanes.

The U.S. reconnaissance flights were conducted as Iran was said to be accelerating its nuclear weapons programs in facilities unaccessible to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The U.S. aircraft said to have entered Iranian air space included F-16 multi-role fighters and F/A-18 attack jets, the reports said. The Iranian media said the aircraft appeared to have been sent on reconnaissance missions over Iran's nuclear sites, particularly in the southwestern province of Khuzestan.

On Monday, the Iranian newspaper Aftab reported the entry of a U.S. fighter-jet on Jan. 1. The unidentified fighter was said to have flown at low altitude over the northeastern province of Khorrasan which borders Afghanistan.

Iran's air defense command contains aging U.S.- and Russian-origin surface-to-air missile batteries not regarded as a threat to U.S. fighter-jets. The Iranian systems include the U.S. Hawk MIM-23B, the Russian SA-2, SA-5, SA-6 as well as the shoulder-launched SA-18. Iran has sought to purchase the Russian-origin S-300PMU long-range system.



-------- korea

World Rushing Toward Nuclear Energy
	
January 4, 2005
By Kim Tae-gyu
Korea Times Staff Reporter

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/tech/200501/kt2005010419265911810.htm

Sky-high crude oil prices prod many governments from across the world to seek alternative energy sources other than petroleum, particularly in nuclear power.

This marks a major turnaround from the hitherto widespread anti-nuclear policies, which have been generally adopted after a series of disasters of the 1979 Three Mile Island accident and the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe.

The United States now looks to license novel nuclear plants, putting an end to the nation’s quarter-century moratorium on new nuclear facilities after the 1979 Three Mile Island debacle.

Other countries like France, Finland and China also follow the suit of the U.S. and in related measures, some nations, including the Netherlands and Switzerland, watered down their original plans of scrapping nuclear power plants.

The Netherlands reversed its plan of closing down Borssele reactors and Switzerland voted down the draft of expelling nuclear plants on a phased basis.

In comparison, Korea is now suffering headwinds in expanding its dependence on nuclear power as amply demonstrated by its failure both in forging ahead with new reactors and finding a nuclear waste dump site.

Still the pros and cons continue to confront on nuclear power, which is efficient but has a potential detriment, with both sides not likely to find the same page any time soon.

Proponents point out the nuclear power technology emits virtually no airborne pollutants and overall far less waste material than fossil fuel-based power plants.

They also claim the controversial source of energy is much more cost-effective than other electricity-generating methods.

By contrast, opponents take issue with the radioactive products released by reactors into the environment and the irritatingly long period needed to decomposing the nuclear waste.

Experts point out the spent nuclear fuel needs to be decayed for 10,000 years for it not pose a threat to health and safety. Nobody can ensure that the material can be safeguarded over such a long period of time.

All in all, anti-nuclear campaigners assert that both immediate and long-term safety concerns regarding the disposal of the nuclear wastes overwhelm any cost-related benefits.

Nuclear Power and Accidents

The world’s first nuclear reactors were used to generate plutonium for weapons and the Soviet Union and western countries started to expand their nuclear research to non-military uses of atom from the mid-1950s.

In late 1951, electric power from a nuclear-powered generator was produced for the first time in the U.S., but the Soviet Union churned out nuclear power for commercial use first in 1954.

Other countries followed the Soviet Union and the U.S. as relating technologies were further developed and the two-rounds of energy crises in the 1970s spurred a nuclear building boom across the world.

But On March 28, 1979 an accident took place, which moved the pendulum in disfavor of the nuclear power, at an American island called Three Mile Island (TMI) in Pennsylvania.

The TMI nuclear reactor suffered a partial core meltdown in early morning of the day and some scientists believe the radiation vented during the event.

Although no identifiable injuries due to radiation occurred (there is some opposition regarding the issue), it was a serious economic and public relations disaster and furthered a steep decline in popularity of nuclear power.

Approximately 70 percent of the U.S. general approved of nuclear power before the accident, but the TMI mishap caused the support to plunge to below 50 percent.

In answer to the public backlash on nuclear safety lapse, the U.S. established more stringent federal requirements and actually put an embargo on new nuclear facilities.

More concretely, no U.S. nuclear power plant has been authorized to begin construction since 1979 and just 53 of 129 plants approved at the time of TMI were ever completed.

Russia’s Chernobyl explosion in 1986, which evacuated more than 100,000 people due to radioactive particles, dealt the second blow to nuclear power protagonists and resulted in more strengthened regulations worldwide.

By far more rigid regulations hiked the costs of operating a reactor, discouraging constructors from building new nuclear plants together with strident opposition from a crop of anti-nuclear campaigners.

Mushrooming Nuclear Power Plants

However, things started to change in favor of the nuclear power as the crude oil prices sky rocket and the global regulations on green house gas emission become strict.

Oil prices have surged of late, threatening the energy security by cranking up the economic vulnerability to an oil price shock to many oil-importing countries like Korea.

Dubai oil sold $28 per barrel into 2004 but the price soared over $41 in August and stabilized in the neighborhood of $34 during the late last year.

According to the state-funded Korea National Oil Corp., Dubai oil prices are forecast to remain above the $30-per-barrel mark for this year, possibly fluctuating between $33 and $35.

The private Korea Petroleum Association also presented similar prediction but it said Dubai oil prices will likely jump to an average $45 a barrel if demand explodes as in 2004 and massive terrorism result in production cuts or distribution bottleneck.

Dubai oil prices have the foremost repercussions on the Korean economy as roughly 80 percent of the nation’s oil, amounting to about 750 million barrels per annum, comes from the Middle East.

The emission problems of fossil fuels are another stumbling block in sticking to the hitherto mainstream electricity source of the steam power generation.

Under the Kyoto Protocol agreed in 1997, industrialized countries will have to reduce their collective emissions of greenhouse gases, which are suspected of causing global warming, by 5.2 percent in 2010 compared to the year 1990.

This legally binding agreement raises concerns for many countries, which have hinged on fossil fuels for their energy sources because they are one of main culprits of the greenhouse gases.

Haunted by a scenario of extreme crude oil price volatility and the restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions in the power sector, the world started to tilt toward nuclear power again.

The U.S. Department of Energy disclosed last November a pair of nuclear reactors would be established at North Anna, Virginia and also the Nuclear Regulatory Commission recommended a month later that the permit should be issued.

It represents a major turnaround of the U.S.’ decades-long policy principle that the nation doesn’t approve new nuclear construction outright after the 1979 TMI accident.

France where the nuclear energy source supplies up to 80 percent of the country’s electricity recently said its state-owned utility would build a prototype next-generation nuclear plants.

France opted to pour three billion euros for the project, which will go ahead with the European Pressurized Water Reactor for 1,600-megawatt model by 2010.

Electricite de France, the state-owned French electricity group, said the envisioned nuclear plants will be safer, cheaper and more environmentally friendly that those in use.

The decision triggers Britain to rethink its nuclear option in the face of soaring oil prices, dwindling North Sea oil and gas reserves as well as setbacks in developing renewables.

The third nuclear plant is now under construction in the Olikiluoto region of Finland and China also plans to establish more than 20 nuclear reactors by 2020.

The Netherlands shelved its original plan of closing down Borssele plant and Switzerland reversed the draft of winding down nuclear power stations on a phased basis.

In a nutshell, economic benefits start to outweigh safety concerns of nuclear power plants in the above-mentioned situation change and the ripple effect is now being felt.

As of the end of 2003, the latest statistics available, the world had 523 nuclear reactors and the energy accounted for about 12 percent of the global power demands, according to the Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP).

``Combined with more stringent restrictions on greenhouse gases and swelling crude oil prices, the energy security woes increase the attractiveness of the nuclear generation,’’ KHNP official Shin Bo-gyoun said.

Renewable Energies

In response to the emerging global trend of building up nuclear power stations, environmentalists continue to urge a paradigm shift to renewable energy.

Renewable energy refers to energy from a source which can be managed so that it is not subject to depletion at least in a human time scale.

It includes the sun’s ray, wind, waves, rivers, tides, biomass and geothermal while excluding sources which are dependent upon limited resources such as fossil fuels and nuclear fission power.

The top advantage of aforementioned renewable energy sources is their dearth of greenhouse gases and other emission in comparison with fossil fuel combustion.

Environmental activists and civic groups have stressed wider adoption of new energy sources as articulated by Gerd Leipold, executive director of Greenpeace International at the International Solar Cities Conference held in Taegu last November.

``A massive and urgent expansion in the use of renewable energy sources is the only answer to the twin threats of climate change and nuclear proliferation,’’ Leipold said.

Ironically enough, however, the environmentally friendly power sources sometimes hurt the nature. For instance, wind turbines make intolerable noises to nearby residents and can be hazardous to flying birds while hydroelectric dams can create barriers for migrating fish.

And renewables have a visual disadvantage as shown by the large solar-electric installations outside of cities

More fundamentally inherent barrier is the fact that the renewable power sources are typically providing low-intensity energy when compared to legacy mainstream ways.

As a result, the costs of electricity production from the renewable sources are pretty high that they are not the serious competitors yet to base-load power supply except in very limited situation.

``Few, if any, environmentalists pay their attention to a grim reality that the costs of electricity from the current renewable energies are up to 18 times higher than those of electricity made from nuclear or coals,’’ said Yoo Yun-baek, an official of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE).

As of the end of 2003, Yoo said nuclear stations cost Korea slightly over 40 won to make a 1kilowatt electricity while the expense stood at about 700 won for solar energy.

Some analysts point out the conservationists should also take into account the world’s poor, numbering 2 billion people or a third of the total population, who have no access to commercial energy at all and needs cheap electricity.

Korean Option

In the wake of the energy crises in the 1970s, Korea has desperately sought energy security policy to reduce its lopsided dependence on oils.

As the sixth-biggest nuclear power producing country in the planet, Korea today operates a total of 19 nuclear reactors, which combine to provide 40 percent of the nation’s total electricity requirement.

According to the MOCIE, the country plans to install nine more reactors by 2015 with the aim of increasing the role of nuclear fission.

``In deciding the proportion of respective power sources in our energy mix, we have three criteria of environmental friendliness, economical efficiency and supply-demand stability. Based on the three benchmarks, we think we need to increase the number of nuclear reactors,’’ said Yoo of the MOCIE.

Unlike the government scheme, however, Korea’s new reactor in Wolsong, North Kyongsang Province, is suffering a delay of longer than one and a half years than its initial schedule and more serious distress lies in finding sites for nuclear refuse.

After setting up a policy for building a nuclear wastes storage site 18 years ago, the nation has yet to complete possibly the longest-pending state project.

As the most recent setback in last November, no region applied to accommodate a low-and intermediate-level radioactive waste dump, which the government pushed to build by 2008.

A permanent storage site would be available no earlier than 2010 even if the construction starts today while the interim storage facilities of nuclear plants will run out of space from 2008.

To site the right place, the Korean government vowed to provide subsidies to townships which host nuclear waste dumps in an effort to improve their local attractiveness to no avail.

In fact, fixing the waste site has become extremely difficult in many nations as potential neighbors to nuclear facilities have increasingly protested against them on the grounds of environmental dangers.

In this climate, costs of decommissioning the retired nuclear power reduce its commercial viability and some even go so far as to say the nation should jettison nuclear fission as an energy source.

From the perspective of both the energy security and economy, in response, Yoo pointed out such assertion doesn’t make any sense that the country producing not a drop of petroleum should scrap the energy source, which supplies about 40 percent of its total energy demands.

One conservative estimate puts the additional annual energy cost at up to $6.5 billion in replacing Korea’s nuclear power with thermal power.

Experts point out the answer would stand somewhere between the two extremes of hard-core nuclear proponents and aggressive anti-nuclear activists.

``The bottom line is that we have to find a balance between safety and cost. Nuclear power retains the potential to be a sustainable energy source and we should keep a tab on its detrimental facet at the same time,’’ Kyung Hee University professor Hwang Joo-ho said.

Hwang said Korea’s dependency on nuclear energy should reach at least 50 percent for several considerations like national energy security although social consensus should come first before such measures. 



-------- mideast

IAEA Finds Egypt Secret Nuclear Program

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 4, 2005
Filed at 6:57 p.m. ET

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Nuclear-Agency-Egypt.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- The U.N. atomic watchdog
agency has found evidence of secret nuclear
experiments in Egypt that could be used in weapons
programs, diplomats said Tuesday.

The diplomats told The Associated Press that most
of the work was carried out in the 1980s and 1990s
but said the International Atomic Energy Agency
also was looking at evidence suggesting some work
was performed as recently as a year ago.

Egypt's government rejected claims it is or has
been pursuing a weapons program, saying its
nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

``A few months ago we denied these kinds of claims
and we do so again,'' Egyptian government
spokesman Magdy Rady said. ``Nothing about our
nuclear program is secret and there is nothing
that is not known to the IAEA.''

But one of the diplomats said the Egyptians
``tried to produce various components of uranium''
without declaring it to the IAEA, as they were
bound to under the Nuclear Nonproliferation
Treaty. The products included several pounds of
uranium metal and uranium tetrafluoride -- a
precursor to uranium hexafluoride gas, the
diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

Uranium metal can be processed into plutonium,
while uranium hexafluoride can be enriched into
weapons-grade uranium -- both for use in the core
of nuclear warheads.

The diplomat said the Vienna-based IAEA had not
yet drawn a conclusion about the scope and purpose
of the experiments. But the work appeared to have
been sporadic, involved small amounts of material
and lacked a particular focus, the diplomat said.

That, he said, indicated that the work was not
directly geared toward creating a full-scale
program to make nuclear weapons.

The diplomat said that Egypt's program was not
``cohesive.''

``It's not like Iran, where there was a clear plan
to produce'' uranium hexafluoride, the gas that
turns into enriched uranium when spun in
centrifuges, he said.

He also warned against comparisons to South Korea,
which conducted larger-scale plutonium and uranium
experiments in 1982 and 2000 without reporting
them to the agency.

Iran, which the United States accuses of having
nuclear weapons ambitions, developed a
full-fledged uranium enrichment program over
nearly two decades of clandestine activity
revealed only in mid 2002. Iran says it plans to
enrich only to levels used to generate nuclear
fuel and not to weapons-grade uranium.

In Vienna, IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said the
agency would not comment on the revelations about
Egypt.

Cairo has denied in the past it is trying to
develop a nuclear weapons program.

The country appeared to turn away from the pursuit
of such a program decades ago. The Soviet Union
and China reportedly rebuffed its requests for
nuclear arms in the 1960s, and by the 1970s, Egypt
gave up the idea of building a plutonium
production reactor and reprocessing plant.

``We've seen the reports and I don't think we have
anything to offer at this point except what we've
said all along, which is, we expect all nations to
cooperate with the International Atomic Energy
Agency,'' White House spokesman Scott McClellan
said. ``We're sure they will look into this matter
and I would just point out that Egypt is a
signatory to the nonproliferation treaty.''

Egypt runs small-scale nuclear programs for
medical and research purposes, and Rady said the
IAEA is monitoring that program.

``Nothing about our nuclear program is secret and
there is nothing that is not known to the IAEA,''
he said. ``We don't have a secret program for
energy. All our program is known.''

Plans were floated as recently as 2002 to build
the country's first nuclear power reactor. But no
construction date has been announced, and the
pro-government Al-Ahram Weekly reported late last
year that the plant site near the coastal town of
Al-Dabaa might be sold to make way for tourism
development.

Although Egypt signed the nonproliferation treaty,
it has become in recent years one of its most
vocal critics, mainly because of concerns about
Israel's undeclared nuclear arsenal and more
recent fears about Iran's nuclear agenda.

Tuesday's revelations come two months after
diplomats told the AP that the IAEA had discovered
plutonium particles near an Egyptian nuclear
facility.

Back then, Egypt's foreign and energy ministers
rejected the reports -- but the diplomat again
verified them Tuesday, adding that agency has not
been able to determine if those traces were
evidence of a secret weapons program or simply the
byproduct of peaceful research.

The revelations reflect more efficient IAEA
policing of countries' nuclear program for
evidence of clandestine, weapons-linked
activities, including environmental sampling and
other high-tech methods.

Diplomats told the AP in October that Taiwan was
among countries snared by such technology, with
the agency suspecting it of conducting experiments
with plutonium up to the mid-1980s -- something
Taiwan denied.

On the Net:

International Atomic Energy Agency:
http://www.iaea.org



-------- missile defense

Rude awakening to missile-defense dream

By Scott Ritter, January 04, 2005 Christian Science Monitor 

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0104/p09s02-coop.html

DELMAR, N.Y. – On Christmas Eve 2004, the Russian Strategic Missile Force test fired an advanced SS-27 Topol-M road-mobile intercontinental ballistic Missile (ICBM). This test probably invalidated the entire premise and technology used in the National Missile Defense (NMD) system currently being developed and deployed by the Bush administration, and at the same time called into question the validity of the administration's entire approach to arms control and disarmament.

From 1988 to 1990, I served as one of the American weapons inspectors at the Votkinsk Machine Building Plant in Russia, where the SS-27 and its predecessor, the SS-25, were assembled. When I started my work in Votkinsk, the SS-25 missile was viewed by many in the US intelligence community as the primary ICBM threat facing the United States. A great deal of effort was placed on learning as much as possible about this missile and its capabilities.

Through the work of the inspectors at Votkinsk, as well as several related inspections where US experts were able to view the SS-25 missile system in its operating bases in Siberia, a great deal of data was collected that assisted the US intelligence community in refining its understanding of how the SS-25 operated. This understanding was translated into several countermissile strategies, including aerial interdiction operations and missile-defense concepts.

The abysmal performance of American counter-SCUD operations during the Gulf War in 1991 highlighted the deficiencies of the US military regarding the aerial interdiction of road-mobile missiles. Iraqi Al-Hussein mobile missiles were virtually impossible to detect and interdict, even with total American air supremacy. Despite all the effort put into counter-SCUD operations during that war, not a single Iraqi mobile missile launcher was destroyed by hostile fire, a fact I can certify not only as a participant in the counter-SCUD effort, but also as a chief inspector in Iraq, where I led the United Nations investigations into the Iraqi missile program.

The rapid collapse of the Soviet Union did not leave much time for reflection on the American counter-mobile missile launcher deficiencies. In mid-1993, the Department of Defense conducted a comprehensive review to select the strategy and force structure for the post-cold war era. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the threat to the US from a deliberate or accidental ballistic missile attack by former Soviet states or by China was judged highly unlikely. In Votkinsk, US inspectors observed a Soviet-era defense industry in decline. SS-25 missiles were produced at a greatly reduced rate, and the next generation missile, a joint Russian-Ukrainian design, was scrapped after a few prototypes were produced, but never launched.

After the resounding Republican victory in the midterm 1994 congressional elections, a new program for missile defense was proposed covering three distinct "threat" capabilities ranging from "unsophisticated threats" (an attack of five single-warhead missiles with simple decoys), to highly sophisticated threats (an attack of 20 single-warhead SS-25 type missiles, each with decoys or other defensive countermeasures). Funding for this program ran to some $10.8 billion from 1993 to 2000.

When President Bush came to power in 2001, there was a dramatic change in posture regarding ballistic missile defense. The administration announced it was withdrawing from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, clearing away development and operational constraints. At the same time, the administration laid out a comprehensive plan that envisioned a layered missile-defense system. After studying the SS-25 missile for years, the US military believed it finally had a solution in the form of a multitiered antiballistic missile system that focused on boost-phase intercept (firing antimissile missiles that would home in on an ICBM shortly after launch), space-based laser systems designed to knock out a missile in flight, and terminal missile intercept systems, which would destroy a missile as it reentered the earth's atmosphere.

The NMD system being fielded to counter the SS-25, and any similar or less sophisticated threats that may emerge from China, Iran, North Korea, and elsewhere, will probably have cumulative costs between $800 billion and $1.2 trillion by the time it reaches completion in 2015.

However, the Bush administration's dream of a viable NMD has been rendered fantasy by the Russian test of the SS-27 Topol-M. According to the Russians, the Topol-M has high-speed solid-fuel boosters that rapidly lift the missile into the atmosphere, making boost-phase interception impossible unless one is located practically next door to the launcher. The SS-27 has been hardened against laser weapons and has a highly maneuverable post-boost vehicle that can defeat any intercept capability as it dispenses up to three warheads and four sophisticated decoys.

To counter the SS-27 threat, the US will need to start from scratch. And even if a viable defense could be mustered, by that time the Russians may have fielded an even more sophisticated missile, remaining one step ahead of any US countermeasures. The US cannot afford to spend billions of dollars on a missile-defense system that will never achieve the level of defense envisioned. The Bush administration's embrace of technology, and rejection of diplomacy, when it comes to arms control has failed.

If America continues down the current path of trying to field a viable missile-defense system, significant cuts will need to be made in other areas of the defense budget, or funds reallocated from other nonmilitary spending programs. With America already engaged in a costly war in Iraq, and with the possibility of additional conflict with Iran, Syria, or North Korea looming on the horizon, funding a missile-defense system that not only does not work as designed, but even if it did, would not be capable of defending America from threats such as the Topol-M missile, makes no sense.

The Bush administration would do well to reconsider its commitment to a national missile-defense system, and instead reengage in the kind of treaty-based diplomacy that in the past produced arms control results that were both real and lasting. This would not only save billions, it would make America, and the world, a safer place.

• Scott Ritter is a former intelligence officer and weapons inspector in the Soviet Union (1988-1990) and Iraq (1991-1998). He is author of 'Frontier Justice: Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Bushwhacking of America.' 



-------- georgia

Leak Prompts Nuclear Plant Shutdown

1/4/2005 1:25:49 PM Associated Press

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/georgia/news-article.aspx?storyid=30207

BAXLEY, GA - One of two units at a southeast Georgia nuclear plant has been shut down because of a water leak in a drywell.

Southern Nuclear said workers manually shut a 924-megawatt unit at the Edwin I. Hatch plant in Appling County shortly after midnight Monday to repair the leak. A second 924-megawatt unit continued to operate at full power, officials said.

"It's not a major safety issue because it was in the drywell, which is protected from the outside," said Roger Hannah, a regional spokesman for the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

One megawatt powers about 1,000 homes. The Hatch plant, powered by boiling water reactors, serves customers throughout the state.

None of the plant's customers lost power during the shutdown, said Southern Nuclear spokeswoman Regina Waller. "The unit was shut down safely," she said. "It did not effect the customers in any way."

The company did not say when the unit would return to service because they still were looking for the source of the leak.

Southern Nuclear, a unit of Southern Co., operates the station for Georgia Power, Oglethorpe Power Corp. of Atlanta, Municipal Electrical Authority of Georgia and the city of Dalton.



-------- idaho

REACTOR CLEANUP

Jan 4, 2005 NBC News - KPVI TV, Idaho

http://www.kpvi.com/index.cfm?page=nbcstories.cfm&ID=2109

Officials at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory are pushing to start cleanup of a closed reactor by the end of April.

That is when Bechtel contract at the site ends. The power burst reactor once tested nuclear reactor fuels under different operating conditions.

The reactor is not fully decommissioned, so officials say the work done now will be a good head start.

A site report says asbestos, radioactive contamination, lead bricks and cadmium used for shielding are potential contaminants.

The spring cleaning would cost nearly 6-(m) million dollars, but it would save 15-thousand dollars annually in maintenance and surveillance costs. 



-------- new jersey

Human Relations, Equipment Failures Plague Nuclear Plant

WASHINGTON, DC, January 4, 2005 (ENS)

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2005/2005-01-04-09.asp#anchor2

Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff will meet with representatives of Public Service Electric and Gas (PSEG) on Wednesday to discuss the results of an NRC special inspection conducted at the Hope Creek nuclear power plant.

The inspection was performed at the power plant operated by PSEG in Hancocks Bridge, New Jersey, in response to a steam line failure and shutdown with complications that occurred there on October 10, 2004.

But there are concerns about communication between staff and management at the plant, that could have led to the steam line failure and other equipment problems with a recirculation pump and with exhaust piping for a high-pressure coolant injection pump.

While the NRC says the special inspection "did not identify any serious safety violations," the agency concluded that "there were numerous indications of weaknesses in corrective actions and management efforts to establish an environment where employees are consistently willing to raise safety concerns."

The Hope Creek nuclear plant is located 18 miles southeast of Wilmington, Delaware, the nearest large population center which is home to some 74,000 people. It remains shut down.

The NRC explains that, "Some PSEG staff and managers felt that the company had emphasized production to a point that negatively impacted the handling of emergent equipment issues and associated operational decisionmaking."

"Additionally," the agency said, "management has not been consistent in its support of station staff identifying concerns and providing alternate views."

"We found examples of unresolved conflicts and poor communication between management and staff, as well as underlying staff and management frustration with poor equipment reliability. The equipment issues stemmed, in part, from weaknesses in implementation of station processes such as work management and corrective action," the NRC said.

Following the October 10 steam line failure and shutdown, an NRC team of five full-time and four part-time members was asked to evaluate the circumstances surrounding it.

The review included an assessment of whether the steam pipe failure could have been prevented and an independent evaluation of equipment and human performance issues that complicated the shutdown of the reactor.

The Wednesday meeting to address these issues will be open to the public for observation. It is scheduled to begin at 7 pm at the Holiday Inn Select Bridgeport, located off Exit 10 of Interstate 295 in Swedesboro, New Jersey. Before the session is adjourned, NRC staff will accept questions and comments from the public.

“PSEG made a commitment to meet with us and discuss the results of our special inspection and the key technical issues facing the Hope Creek nuclear power plant before it returns to service,” said NRC Region I Administrator Samuel Collins. “This meeting adheres to that pledge and affords us an opportunity to delve into these issues in a public setting.”

Although the units have been operated safely, the NRC says it is "concerned that if the work environment issues are left unaddressed, these issues could have a negative impact on plant safety, particularly as it relates to the handling of emergent equipment issues and associated operational decisionmaking."

In addition to a discussion of the special inspection results, Wednesday's meeting will include a review of the issues associated with the plant’s “B” reactor recirculation pump and exhaust piping for the high-pressure coolant injection pump.

The NRC staff expects to complete its assessments of those issues by Wednesday, but if they are not finished by the time of the meeting, the agency would either delay the session or, more likely, conduct a subsequent management meeting with PSEG to discuss them.

That meeting, which also would be open to the public for observation, would take place before the Hope Creek plant can return to service from its current refueling and maintenance outage.

The special inspection team will document its findings and conclusions in a report to be issued within 45 days after the January 5 meeting.

The operating license for Hope Creek was issued on July 25, 1986, and expires on April 11, 2026. 



-------- utah

NRC: Ruling On Utah Nuclear Waste Site Likely In Feb

Tuesday January 4, 4:44 PM EST
By Jon Kamp; Dow Jones Newswires; 312-750-4129; jon.kamp@dowjones.com 

http://money.iwon.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt.jsp?cat=USMARKET&src=704&feed=dji&section=news&news_id=dji-00054820050104&date=20050104&alias=/alias/money/cm/nw

CHICAGO (Dow Jones)--A key U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission decision on the safety of a planned privately funded nuclear waste storage facility in Utah will likely come in mid-February, slightly behind an expected schedule, an NRC spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Private Fuel Storage LLC, a consortium of eight companies proposing the huge and controversial temporary storage site, was expecting a decision from the NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board in mid-January. But a recent filing questioning the project's life span from Utah state officials, who have strongly opposed a waste dump, bumps back the schedule, NRC spokeswoman Sue Gagner said.

The NRC board received the information in mid-December. It has 60 days from the case's most recent filing to make a decision.

"That takes us to mid-February," Gagner said.

The NRC board is now considering whether the Utah site, planned southwest of Salt Lake City, could adequately withstand an F-16 fighter jet crash or an ordinance hit from a nearby testing range. If the board approves the project, the NRC's three commissioners must then decide whether to officially issue a license for the site.

Private Fuel Storage envisions a 40-year life span for the project, which the group hopes will cover a gap between now and whenever the U.S. Department of Energy meets its obligation to take waste from utilities. Critics in Utah, though, have argued the facility could become a quasi-permanent storage site.

In the December NRC filing, Utah officials claimed a DOE official recently said at a meeting that the agency couldn't accept waste sealed in the kind of containers planned by Private Fuel Storage, said Connie Nakahara, attorney for the Utah Department of Environmental Quality. Those comments furthered concerns that Utah, which doesn't have any nuclear plants of its own, will be stuck with the waste indefinitely, Nakahara said.

A DOE spokesman wasn't able to comment on the matter Tuesday. According to Sue Martin, spokeswoman for Private Fuel Storage, there is no doubt the agency would accept waste from the site's so-called "dry cask" storage containers.

"We produced documents that clearly state that the Department of Energy will take fuel that has been put into dry cask storage," she said. "The kinds of casks we use are not unique in the industry by any means."

She noted that the Utah site is only seen as a stopgap for utilities that are running short on spent fuel storage space at nuclear plants themselves. The DOE was supposed to start taking waste in 1998, but the most optimistic estimates put its planned permanent waste dump in Yucca Mountain, Nev., at least 12 years behind schedule.

"If DOE had been on time, or even a few years late, our facility wouldn't even be necessary," Martin said.

The Private Fuel Storage site would store up to 40,000 metric tons of nuclear waste in 4,000, 180-ton concrete and steel storage casks on an aboveground concrete pad. If the project is approved early this year, it could open in 2007, Martin said.

The project is seen costing about $3 billion through its lifetime.

Private Fuel Storage backers include Entergy Corp. (ETR), FirstEnergy Corp. ( FE), Southern Co. (SO), Xcel Energy Inc. (XEL), American Electric Power Co. ( AEP) and units of FPL Group Inc. (FPL), Edison International (EIX) and Dairyland Power Cooperative.



-------- MILITARY 


-------- asia

In Sri Lanka Tamil Tiger Guerrillas Directing Aid Effort
In Ruined Town, Rebels Outperform Officials

By John Lancaster
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, January 4, 2005; Page A08

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45028-2005Jan3.html

MULLAITTIVU, Sri Lanka, Jan. 3 -- The beachfront road is gone, along with all the neighborhoods behind it. The Catholic church is a shattered husk. On the buildings left standing, a grimy ring six feet above the ground records the depth of the water when the wave first crashed upon the town.

By Monday afternoon, however, destruction was not the only story in Mullaittivu, which lost an estimated 3,000 of its 5,300 residents to the Dec. 26 tsunami, according to local officials. The other story was the gradual return of order.

Most of the corpses had been burned. The ground had been sprayed with disinfectant. The streets had been cleared of rubble. Volunteers were erecting makeshift utility poles. And down the road a few miles, 1,500 displaced residents were being sheltered in the classrooms of a college, complete with medical clinic, outdoor kitchen and adequate supplies of donated clothing and food.

While international aid agencies, and to a lesser extent the Sri Lankan government, have each played a role in reviving this part of the country, aid experts say that most of the credit for the surprisingly well-organized relief effort goes to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a guerrilla movement of the ethnic Tamil minority that controls large chunks of the north and east.

From 1983 until early 2002, the Tamil Tigers fought for an independent homeland in a conflict that claimed more than 60,000 lives. Known for suicide bombers and fanatical teenage fighters trained to swallow cyanide capsules in the face of capture, the Tigers are regarded as one of the world's most formidable guerrilla armies, equipped with long-range artillery, surface-to-air missiles and a small navy of gunboats and supply ships.

They also pride themselves on self-sufficiency, operating a de facto state-within-a-state, with its own police force and judicial system -- and now a relief effort that in some ways appears to be outperforming government recovery operations to the south.

"These people have been displaced a lot, so they're quite good at banding together," said Ryan Anderson, a field coordinator for the U.N. World Food Program in the area, who said the Tigers organized search-and-rescue operations in the first hours after the waves struck.

For all their emphasis on independence, the Tigers maintain some contact with the rest of the country -- the government pays the salaries of schoolteachers in Tiger-controlled areas, for example -- and in recent days there have been tentative signs of cooperation on relief efforts, such as easing barriers to the shipment of supplies through government and rebel checkpoints.

That has raised hopes for a peace process that began with a cease-fire agreement nearly two years ago but only last month appeared to be on the verge of collapse when the Tigers' leader, Velupilla Prabhakaran, warned that the movement might have no alternative but to resume the war.

Neither the Tigers nor the government "can repair this unprecedented damage without some kind of political settlement," said A.T. Ariyaratne, the founder and president of the Sarvodaya Movement, Sri Lanka's largest nongovernmental organization. "Both sides can't go to war. That is definite. This is a very great opportunity we have where both sides should come together first for relief, then for rehabilitation, which can be followed with reconciliation."

That outcome is far from certain, however. Because of the unresolved conflict, the government has never directly provided development funds to the Tigers and is not likely to start doing so now, according to Jehan Perera of Sri Lanka's National Peace Council, a Scandinavian-funded group. The Tigers, in turn, are unlikely to allow the government to perform reconstruction work independently out of concern that doing so would weaken their claim to legitimacy.

"They don't want the government delivering big benefits to the people," Perera said. "I'm not very optimistic."

Daya Master, a spokesman for the rebel group in Kilinochchi, its main administrative center, said in an interview Monday that government aid to the stricken coastal areas could help "build up the atmosphere" for rapprochement. But he also accused the government of favoring the country's ethnic Sinhalese majority in its distribution of aid and confirmed that the Tigers would insist on controlling reconstruction funds themselves.

Eric Fernando, a spokesman for President Chandrika Kumaratunga, said the government was "most definitely" interested in improving the coordination of relief efforts and had just appointed a task force for doing so.

The needs are plain enough. At least 5,000 people are confirmed dead in Tiger-controlled areas, according to Master, with thousands more missing. One of the hardest-hit areas was Mullaittivu, once a picturesque fishing village backed by rice paddies and thick jungle about 175 miles northeast of Colombo, the capital, and an hour's drive over potholed roads from Kilinochchi.

In some respects, the area was relatively well prepared for a natural disaster. Because it is a war zone, it has been starved of resources relative to the rest of the country, and U.N. aid agencies and other humanitarian groups had a sizable presence here before the wave struck. They were therefore able to assess the situation quickly and begin shipping in supplies with relatively little delay.

Moreover, said Anderson of the World Food Program, "we have better freedom of movement than ever before" because both sides have eased inspection procedures for relief convoys. The government has trucked modest supplies of rice and other dry rations to the Tiger-controlled areas, although most of the aid has come from Sri Lankan individuals and charities as well as international humanitarian organizations, aid workers said.

In Mullaittivu and elsewhere, Tigers have been out in force collecting and burning bodies for the past several days. With that job largely complete, the rebel movement is turning its attention to restoring electricity and other basic services, said P. Ambigai Seelan, a local official who was supervising the effort here Monday.

"All the activity that's been going on here has been guided or sponsored" by the Tigers, he said. "The central government hasn't given anything, really."

The Tigers have also been taking the lead in sheltering refugees, establishing an emergency task force along with representatives of international aid organizations and the central government, which maintains a low-key administrative presence in the area. In Mullaittivu district, which includes the town and surrounding areas, the tsunami drove about 24,000 people from their homes; about 11,000 of them are now living in 19 camps scattered throughout the area, local authorities said.

The camp at the college seemed well organized. At the medical clinic, boxes of antibiotics and other medicines were heaped on the floor. R. Thayaparan, 28, a medical student volunteer, said the camp has not experienced any serious outbreaks of disease. Nearby, cooks prepared a meal of lentils, potatoes and bread. Around the corner, people waited patiently in a line for bags of new clothing provided by a Danish charity. Children played marbles in the dirt.

Tamil Tigers were much in evidence. Though none wore a uniform and most kept weapons and other trappings of the insurgency under wraps, women wearing military-style canvas belts over long shirts saw to the needs of other women and children. Directing the overall effort was E. Maran, 28, a former guerrilla whose forearm bears an ugly scar from a bullet wound he suffered while fighting government forces in 1995.

"Government bureaucracy is lethargic -- that is natural in Sri Lanka -- but it is more so when it comes to the north and east," said Maran, who speaks flawless English that he learned at a Tiger-run training academy. "When it comes to emergencies like this, we are well aware they are not up to the demands."


-------- britain

British Army restricted ethnic recruits

Tuesday, 4 January, 2005
BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4143811.stm

The British Army secretly restricted the number of recruits from ethnic minorities for 20 years, newly released official documents show.

From 1957 Army medical officers were instructed to note all new recruits with "Asiatic or Negroid features".

The data were used to limit the number of "non-white" troops in the Army.

The secret system was uncovered after about 50,000 government files were made public on the first working day of the Freedom of Information Act.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) says the report "does not reflect the current situation" within the armed forces.

Many of the government papers had been kept hidden from the public for decades under the 30-year rule.

But under the Act, implemented on 1 January, the public gains the right to see documents held by more than 100,000 bodies.

	
The determination of the characteristics is at the discretion of various medical officers, and could include Chinamen, Maltese or even swarthy Frenchmen
Confidential Army briefing paper

The army's recruiting system was even kept secret from government ministers and official race monitors, the documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show.

It appears from the documents, released to the National Archives, that the information was used to limit the number of ethnic minority troops, designated "D factor" personnel.

Medical officers were given considerable latitude in deciding who was classified as "D factor" or non-white. It could even include people of Mediterranean appearance or a "swarthy Frenchman", according to the documents.

The system was outlined in a confidential briefing paper, written for the Adjutant General of the Army in 1972.

"Officially, we state that we do not keep statistics of coloured soldiers," it says.

Division

"In fact, we do have a record, resulting from the description put on the attestation paper by the medical officer, of the features of the recruit.

"At Manning and Record offices, a broad division is drawn between north European and all others, and punch cards for the latter are punched in such a way they can be identified if required."

It added: "The determination of the characteristics is at the discretion of various medical officers, and could include Chinamen, Maltese or even swarthy Frenchmen."

The system was supposed to help the Army ensure its quota restrictions on non-Europeans was adhered to.

In February 1974, Denis Brennan in the Adjutant General's office said the way the Army recorded colour was "complex".

He said: "We do not feel it would be appropriate to mention it to ministers."

The Army chose to lie when asked for a breakdown of serving coloured officers by the Institute of Race Relations in 1972. The Army had agonised over what to do for nine months.

The Institute was told by the Army it did not keep such data. In fact, the Army's "D factor" data showed how few non-white personnel there were.

Unsatisfactory

There was only one non-white soldier in the Royal Military Police and one in the Intelligence Corps.

Defence Secretary Denis Healey had referred to "the unsatisfactory situation with regard to strengths of coloured men in certain Army regiments" in 1968.

By the mid 1970s, officials noted "the matter seems to have died".

Fighting

When challenged, the Army would always highlight the numbers of non-white soldiers in its sports teams.

There were reports of fighting between black and white soldiers in the Queen's Division in 1975.

However, government ministers were assured: "There are members of the coloured community in every branch of the services."

An MoD spokesman said the Army now took ethnic minority recruitment very seriously.

"We strive to employ the best recruits irrespective of their ethnic backgrounds," he said.

The Army fully complied with equal opportunities legislation and had an "excellent relationship" with the Commission for Racial Equality, the spokesman added. 



-------- israel / palestine 

Israel accuses Palestinians of harbouring five anti-aircraft missiles

(AFP) Jan 04, 2005

http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050104133219.fn5se57w.html

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip have five anti-aircraft missiles, which pose a serious threat to Israeli helicopters, the head of the domestic spy agency said Tuesday, parliamentary sources said.

Avi Dichter told the foreign affairs and defence committee that movable Stinger missiles had been smuggled into Gaza from Egypt which could pose a serious threat for Israeli assault helicopters, the sources added.

The domestic intelligence chief warned against any Israeli withdrawal from the Philadelphi corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border, as part of Israel's plan to evacuate soldiers and settlers from the Gaza Strip by the end of the year.

"A withdrawal from the Philadelphi corridor would make southern Israel a new southern Lebanon," said Dichter, referring to daily attacks on soldiers from Hezbollah militants until Israel evacuated the area in May 2000.

The Israeli government has yet to make a decision on whether to also withdraw from the Gaza border as talks continue with Cairo on Egyptian means to control its side of the border after territory comes under Palestinian control.



-------- prisoners of war

Ugly Truths About Guantanamo

By Richard Cohen cohenr@washpost.com
Washington Post
Tuesday, January 4, 2005; Page A15

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A45936-2005Jan3?language=printer

Somewhere in the U.S. government is the person who came up with the idea of fusing the wail of an infant with an incessant meow from a cat food commercial to torment detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Detainees were also subjected to popular songs by the likes of Eminem and Rage Against the Machine. What Liberace would have done to an observant Muslim, I can only imagine, but it is a mad genius who realized that ordinary American culture can, with repeated exposure, be nearly lethal. God help us all.

In George Orwell's novel "1984," it was rats, as I recall, that were used to torture Winston Smith. It was not that the rats could do real physical damage; rather it was that Smith was phobic about them -- "his greatest fear, his worst nightmare" -- and so he succumbed, denounced his beliefs and even his girlfriend, and went back to his pub where he wasted his days drinking gin. This was Orwell's future, our present.

The term "Orwellian" is much abused, and back in the actual year 1984 I thought Orwell himself overrated. The essential novelist of the 20th century, I thought then, was Kafka, who realized that there is no more efficient murder weapon than what the critic George Steiner called "the lunatic logic of the bureaucracy."

Orwell, however, was off by only 20 years. With immense satisfaction, he would have noted the constant abuse of language by the Bush administration -- calling suicidal terrorists "cowards," naming a constriction of civil liberties the Patriot Act and, of course, wringing all meaning from the word "torture." Until just recently when the interpretation of torture was amended, it applied only to the pain like that of "organ failure, impairment of body function, or even death." Anything less, such as, say, shackling detainees to a low chair for hours and hours so that one prisoner pulled out tufts of hair, is something else. We have no word for it, but it is -- or was until recently -- considered perfectly legal.

The administration's original interpretation of torture was promulgated by the Justice Department, under John Ashcroft, and the White House, under its counsel, Alberto R. Gonzales. The result has deeply embarrassed the United States. Among other things, it produced the abuses of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, which we were assured were an unaccountable exception. My God, if only higher authorities had known.

Now we all know. The International Committee of the Red Cross has complained that some of what has been done at Guantanamo -- Guantanamo, not Abu Ghraib -- was "tantamount to torture." The American Civil Liberties Union has complained, but that you would expect. So, though, have the FBI and military lawyers, former and current. Just about across the board, the Bush administration has raised itself above the law. It pronounced itself virtuous, but facing a threat so dire, so unique, that Gonzales found the Geneva Conventions themselves "obsolete." Such legal brilliance does not long go unrewarded. He has been nominated to become attorney general.

The elevation of Gonzales is supposed to be a singular American success story. This son of Mexican immigrants bootstrapped his way to Harvard Law School and from there to Bush's inner circle, first in Austin, then in Washington. There he came up with a brilliant definition of torture, one so legally clever that only the dead could complain and they, of course, could not. Everyone was off the hook. Is it any wonder the Senate will probably soon confirm him? By next year, he will undoubtedly receive a cherished Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded to those who successfully serve the president but dismally fail the nation. In the audience, unseen but nonetheless present, Orwell and Kafka look on.

The revelations coming out of Guantanamo are hideous. The ordinary abuse of prisoners, the madness instilled by gruesome incarcerations, the incessant lying of the authorities, plus the mock interrogations staged for the media, in which detainees and their interrogators share milkshakes -- all this soils us as a nation. It's as if the government is ahistorical, unaware of how communists and fascists also strained language and ushered the world into torture chambers made pretty for the occasion. We now keep some pretty bad company.

The Bush administration has fused Orwell with Kafka in the same way someone fused the cry of an infant with that of a cat from the Meow Mix television commercial. The upshot is Gonzales, ticketed maybe for the Supreme Court because he winked at torture and yessed the president. He's Kafka's man, Orwell's boy and Bush's pussycat. Know him for his roar.

Meow.



-------- spies

Dubious Purge at the CIA

By Haviland Smith
Washington Post
Tuesday, January 4, 2005; Page A15

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A45940-2005Jan3?language=printer

Porter Goss, the new CIA director and a devoted political ally of President Bush, has brought with him to Langley a Praetorian Guard from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Against the backdrop of his hands-off management style, they are making it clear, without much tact or subtlety, what their goal is: They have come to shake the place up.

Whatever is going on, it is at the behest of the White House, and it probably does not focus on faulty intelligence about weapons of mass destruction but rather on the conduct of the Iraq war and its aftermath. In that context, the administration's wrath seems directed toward the clandestine service, that component of the CIA that recruits and handles spies (not the component that publishes intelligence estimates). Since Goss's arrival in Langley, much of the senior management of the clandestine service has been fired or has quit, reportedly to be replaced with more compliant officials.

David Brooks of the New York Times wrote in a vituperative column in mid-November that we were viewing a death struggle between the White House and the CIA. He claimed that the CIA had been trying to contribute to the president's defeat in the election by leaking classified material designed to bolster the idea that the Iraq policy was ill-conceived and going badly. Apparently, that idea was absolutely correct.

It appears that the CIA, both the clandestine service and the intelligence directorate, had indeed been leaking a wide variety of secrets. They could and should have been prosecuted for the unauthorized disclosure of classified information. They were not. Instead, it appears that the administration has found in their actions a welcome excuse for collective punishment of the CIA.

Given the way the Bush White House has handled intelligence during the past three years, it makes sense that it is angry at the clandestine service. The officers in that service are often required to give their opinions about policies in advance of their implementation. It is unlikely that any clandestine service officer, having spent a career in the Middle East, would see our current policy there as flawless. Thus many in the White House probably see the clandestine service as a nest of enemies. They might just want to consider an alternative possibility: that the service is made up of professionals who would like to save their country from the further embarrassment and potential difficulties of a truly flawed and dangerous Iraq policy.

Once a year, all CIA station chiefs write a message to the director of central intelligence giving their analysis of how things are going in the country to which they are assigned. These analyses are straightforward and normally show extraordinary understanding of local realities. They contain the kind of candor that, if it were to get unvarnished to a Bush White House or to the media (as the most recent one from Baghdad recently did), would likely infuriate the administration. After all, this is the president who will not acknowledge any shortcomings in either his policy or its outcome in Iraq.

Given his dogged adherence to the righteousness of that policy, it makes sense that the president would be angry with the clandestine service. It seems quite possible that the service is being punished for having been right, or at least unsupportive of administration policy. The agency's statutory responsibility is to speak the truth, whether the truth supports the president's plans or not. It would appear that this concept is not shared by this administration.

Porter Goss and his troops from the Hill are wreaking havoc on the best current line of defense we have against terrorism. However angry this administration is with the clandestine service, whose officers run human intelligence operations, those operations are the last, best hope we have to keep up with the terrorist problem. Purging the CIA at this unfortunate moment, when we need to be dealing with real issues of terrorism, is cutting off our nose to spite our face.

The writer is a retired CIA station chief who served in east and west Europe, the Middle East and as chief of the agency's counterterrorism staff. 


-------- us

Gonzales Nomination Draws Military Criticism
Retired Officers Cite His Role in Shaping Policies on Torture

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 4, 2005; Page A02

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45727-2005Jan3.html

A dozen high-ranking retired military officers took the unusual step yesterday of signing a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee expressing "deep concern" over the nomination of White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales as attorney general, marking a rare military foray into the debate over a civilian post.

The group includes retired Army Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The officers are one of several groups to separately urge the Senate to sharply question Gonzales during a confirmation hearing Thursday about his role in shaping legal policies on torture and interrogation methods.

Although the GOP-controlled Senate is expected to confirm Gonzales to succeed Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, some Democrats have vowed to question him aggressively amid continuing revelations of abuses of military detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The letter signed by the retired officers, compiled by the group Human Rights First and sent to the committee's leadership last night, criticizes Gonzales for his role in reviewing and approving a series of memorandums arguing, among other things, that the United States could lawfully ignore portions of the Geneva Conventions and that some forms of torture "may be justified" in the war on terror.

"Today, it is clear that these operations have fostered greater animosity toward the United States, undermined our intelligence gathering efforts and added to the risks facing our troops serving around the world," the officers wrote, referring to the Bush administration's detention and interrogation policies.

Although it stops short of directly opposing Gonzales's nomination, the three-page letter contains sharp criticism of his decisions related to military legal issues and argues that he is "on the wrong side of history."

"Repeatedly in our past, the United States has confronted foes that, at the time they emerged, posed threats of a scope or nature unlike any we had previously faced," the letter reads. "But we have been far more steadfast in the past in keeping faith with our national commitment to the rule of law."

In addition to Shalikashvili, other prominent signatories to the letter include retired Marine Gen. Joseph P. Hoar, former chief of the Central Command; former Air Force Chief of Staff Merrill A. McPeak; and Lt. Gen. Claudia J. Kennedy, the Army's first female three-star general. Several, including Shalikashvili, supported the failed presidential candidacy of Democrat John F. Kerry.

Richard H. Kohn, a military historian at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who specializes in military-civilian affairs, said the letter is extremely rare, if not unprecedented.

"I don't know of any precedent for something like this," Kohn said. "A retired group of military officers bands together to virtually oppose a Cabinet nominee? And a non-military one? It is highly unusual, to say the least."

A number of other groups are gearing up this week to criticize or oppose Gonzales's nomination. The American Civil Liberties Union -- which has forced the release of hundreds of pages of records documenting apparent abuses in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay -- said in a news release yesterday that the Senate should sharply question Gonzales about detainee issues as well as his close ties to President Bush.

Another organization of liberal religious leaders plans to release a letter today calling on Gonzales to "denounce the use of torture under any circumstances."

-------- 

US warships, planes and troops deployed for tsunami relief

WASHINGTON (AFP) 
Jan 04, 2005

http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050104181329.8yo4xlou.html

An array of US warships, planes and helicopters and more than 13,000 military personnel have been sent to the Indian Ocean after the Asia tsunami disaster:

The main US military assets deployed so far:

-- The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier group is operating off the northern coast of Sumatra, the area of Indonesia hardest hit by the December 26 tsunami. The two helicopter squadrons, including nine SH-60s, are being used to carry supplies to stricken coastal areas.

The carrier also is capable of distilling 400,000 US gallons (1.5 million litres) of fresh water a day and has a 49-bed hospital with three intensive care units and one operating room.

The strike group also includes two destroyers, a guided missile cruiser and an oil supply ship.

-- The USS Bonhomme Richard, a helicopter carrier, arrived Tuesday in the Indian Ocean at the head of a seven ship group. It carries 19 helicopters, including two CH-53 heavy lift helicopters, eight CH-46 medium lift helicopters, four SH-60 helicopters, two UH-1 helicopters and two AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopters.

A force of some 2,200 marines are aboard the amphibious assault ships.

The Bonhomme Richard expeditionary strike group also includes an amphibious transport dock, USS Duluth, and a dock landing ship, the USS Rushmore, to enable amphibious operations in coastal areas. Other ships in the group include a guided missile cruiser, a destroyer, a frigate, and a 378-footmetre) coast guard cutter.

The group carries 12 rigid hull inflatable boats, and five landing craft.

It has an operating room, a stocked blood bank, and 48 hospital beds.

-- The USS Fort McHenry, another dock landing ship, carrying equipment and 400 marines set sail Tuesday from Okinawa, Japan for Indonesia.

-- Six container ships each capable of storing 90,000 gallonslitres) of fresh water and producing tens of thousands more a day are enroute to the region from Guam and South Korea, officials said.

-- A high speed catamaran is enroute from Okinawa to Utapao, Thailand with military equipment, food, cots and clothing. It will be used as a shuttle for military equipment and people between Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

-- US military aircraft deployed in the region include 16 C-130 cargo planes, nine P-3 reconnaissance aircraft, four KC-135 air refueling tanker planes, and 46 helicopters, according to the Pentagon. Longer range C-17 and C-5 aircraft are being used to fly supplies into the region.



-------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE


-------- justice

Gonzales faces torture questions

January 04, 2005
By Charles Hurt and Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050103-115533-8546r.htm

The Justice Department's revised policy on the treatment of enemy prisoners raises thorny new questions for the confirmation hearings this week of White House chief counsel Alberto Gonzales, President Bush's nominee to be the next attorney general.

    "I welcome the administration's reversal on this and hope it represents a true rejection of the White House's ill-conceived effort to contort the definition of torture that was secretly issued two years ago," said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "There is much to answer for."

    While Mr. Gonzales' confirmation still seems likely, the revised policy gives Democrats more ammunition to grill Mr. Gonzales — and by extension the White House — over the prisoner-abuse scandal.

    Specifically, Democrats say Mr. Gonzales and other White House officials wrote legal memos about the status of enemy fighters captured in Afghanistan and Iraq that created an atmosphere condoning torture.

    On Thursday, the Justice Department released a new memo outlining the government's position on torture, aimed at clarifying earlier government memos criticized by some for not taking a hard enough stance against the mistreatment of prisoners.

    Coming on the eve of Mr. Gonzales' confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the new memo seems to have only encouraged critics of Mr. Gonzales and the government's policies toward enemy prisoners.

    Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the memo "is certainly an improvement over the government's previous policies, but the new memo only serves to highlight just how wrong the Bush administration's past policies were."

    "The new memo raises more questions about Mr. Gonzales than it answers," he added.

    The Bush administration says the new memo, written by its acting chief counsel Daniel Levin, is not a change in policy and that the government has never granted any official approval for torture or abuse.

    But the new memo does directly contradict an August 2002 memo sent to Mr. Gonzales by stating that the definition of "torture" is broader that just pain "equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death."

    In addition to defining "torture" as suffering "even if it does not involve severe physical pain," the new memo opens by stating that, "Torture is abhorrent both to American law and values and to international law."

    Apparently unchanged is the administration's position that the detainees from the Iraq war be held as illegal combatants — rather than prisoners of war. Such a classification means the detainee is not protected by the rules of the Geneva Conventions.

    Mr. Leahy said the new memorandum "sidesteps two significant sections of the original policy that claimed the president had the power to override our torture laws and immunize from prosecution anyone who commits torture under his order."

    White House spokesman Scott McClellan yesterday defended the policy.

    "We have a responsibility to protect the American people, and that includes preventing enemy combatants from returning to the battlefield or rejoining the fight once they have been captured," he said. "We also expect those detainees to be treated humanely and in accordance with our laws."

    Several human rights groups have sought to turn the Gonzales nomination into a referendum on abuses of detainees and the Bush administration's role in them.

    More than two dozen groups have challenged the Judiciary Committee to scrutinize Mr. Gonzales' "record, his positions and his future plans for the Justice Department."

    Several retired military leaders this week joined the growing list of persons and groups calling on the committee to "closely scrutinize" the Gonzales nomination.

    In a letter, they urged the panel to examine Mr. Gonzales' role in setting U.S. policy on torture, saying they were concerned about his recommendation that the Geneva Conventions not be applied to the conflict in Afghanistan.

    The letter was signed by several former generals and admirals, including Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Hoar, former commander of U.S. Central Command who led the efforts to enforce the naval embargo in the Persian Gulf and the no-fly zone in the south of Iraq after the first Gulf war; Army Gen. James Cullen, who last served as the chief judge of the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals; and Rear Adm. John Hutson, who served as the Navy's judge advocate general from 1997 to 2000.

    While Mr. Gonzales is likely to be confirmed, several congressional sources said the nomination challenge was part of an effort by his critics to establish a record that could deny him appointment to the Supreme Court if a vacancy occurs in the next four years.

    Mr. Gonzales has often been mentioned as a potential Bush nominee to the high court. 



-------- prisons / prisoners

Federal Prisoners to Recycle Government Computers

WASHINGTON, DC, January 4, 2005 (ENS)

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2005/2005-01-04-09.asp#anchor6

Federal prison inmates are going to be used to recycle U.S. government computers under a contract made between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and UNICOR last month.

UNICOR is a self-sustaining corporation that uses prison laborers and is part of the Justice Department's Federal Bureau of Prisons. UNICOR was awarded one of eight contracts to dispose of some of the 10,000 computers the federal government discards each week.

The U.S. government buys seven percent of all computers sold in the world. When they are replaced by more modern models, the U.S. EPA is making an effort to keep some of them and other used electronic equipment out of landfills and warehouses.

In December 2004, the agency has awarded its first contracts to dispose of the unwanted computers in an "environmentally responsible" manner.

Called Government Wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs) for Recycling Electronics and Asset Disposition (READ) services, the contracts provide federal agencies with a method of recycling and disposing of excess or obsolete electronic equipment.

UNICOR says its electronics recycling program provides inmates with valuable skills and processes the equipment in a responsible way. If a computer cannot be reused, it is broken down into component parts that are recycled. The glass from all CRT monitors is recycled in a glass-to-glass process.

But critics say the program exposes prison laborers to dangerous chemicals while they labor for 20 cents to $1.26 per hour.

Electronic equipment contains toxic materials such as lead, mercury, chromium, cadmium, and beryllium, which, if mishandled, could be released into the environment, the EPA said. "This complex waste stream poses challenging management issues and potential liability concerns for federal facilities," the agency said.

"We scream bloody murder when other countries use prison labor, yet here we are under our own noses seeing this becoming one of the fastest growing industries," said attorney Ted Smith, executive director of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition last year when a commercial computer company gave UNICOR a contract to recycle its computers.

Including the one with UNICOR, the EPA has awarded eight contracts - three nationwide, three in the eastern United States and two in the west.

The other contractors are Molam International of Marietta, Georgia, Supply Chain Services of Lombard, Illinois, Asset Recovery Corp. of St. Paul, Minnesota, Hesstech of Edison, New Jersey, Liquidity Services Inc. of Washington, DC, Global Investment Recovery of Tampa, Florida, and Hobi International of Batavia, Illinois.

The basic contracts approved December 16, 2004 run for one year with up to four possible one year extensions, with a combined potential value of up to $9 million.

Contractors must maintain an audit trail to the equipment's final destination to ensure that reclamation and recycling efforts are documented.

In fiscal year 2005 alone, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) expects federal agencies to spend almost $60 billion on information technology equipment, software, infrastructure and services. 



-------- torture

Interrogating Torture Rules

January 04, 2005
Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0104/p08s03-comv.html

On Thursday, the public will get a peek inside the Bush administration's long and secretive interagency debate over what constitutes torture of terror-related detainees, and whether torture during interrogations should even be allowed.

The occasion is the Senate hearing for the nomination of White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales to be attorney general. Mr. Gonzales was a lead architect of the post-9/11 legal doctrine on defining torture in order to avoid using it.

Mr. Bush clearly stated in February 2002 that US interrogators should not use torture. For that much, he should be praised. In 1994, the US ratified an antitorture treaty, certifying its renunciation of torture, a decision that should also help protect US soldiers and agents from torture themselves.

But the Senate needs to probe Gonzales on some points.

Why, for instance, did the administration wait until a week before this hearing to correct the mistakes of an August 2002 memo on torture? Was it timed for this hearing?

But more important: Does the administration really endorse the idea that any president, as commander in chief, has the discretion to allow torture in extreme circumstances?

And why is the White House so reluctant to draw up a long list of specific rules on the types of treatment of detainees that are banned?

Does Gonzales take any responsibility for the many reports of abuse and torture of detainees because of the administration's vague and ambivalent attitude on torture and the Geneva Conventions?

To its credit, the administration's 17-page memo issued last week as legal guidance for interrogators does broaden the definition of torture so that it becomes less likely. The 2002 memo tried to argue that torture is committed only when "excruciating and agonizing pain" is inflicted on detainees. Now the threshold for defining the severity of pain is lower.

Americans need to know clearly that their government abhors and abstains from the use of torture.



-------- us politics

Beware big government

AGAINST LEVIATHAN: GOVERNMENT POWER AND A FREE SOCIETY
    By Robert Higgs
    The Independent Institute, $29.95, 424 pages

By Doug Bandow
Published January 4, 2005, Washington Times Books

http://www.washingtontimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20050103-085312-4605r
    
    The era of big government is over, famously proclaimed President Bill Clinton. Alas, a decade later Leviathan is still with us, an ever-present threat to our liberties. In "Against Leviathan: Government Power and a Free Society," Robert Higgs collects earlier essays presenting the case against expansive government meddling in a free society.

    "What should we call the vast hodgepodge of statutes, regulations, court rulings, government bureaus, police departments, law courts, military organizations, and assorted authoritative busybodies under whose weight we Americans are now suffering?" Mr. Higgs asks. He, like the famous political philosopher Thomas Hobbes, chooses Leviathan. "Unlike Hobbes, however," notes Mr. Higgs dryly, "I do not recommend that beast."

    Mr. Higgs boils the case against Leviathan down to fraud: "government is not what it claims to be (competent, protective, and just), and it is what it claims not to be (bungling, menacing, and unjust)." This deceit is compounded by the fact that "The one thing it will not do is simply leave us alone."

    Moreover, he challenges the foundation of the welfare state: income redistribution. Arguments over income distribution center around how much wealth the various quintiles of the population possess. But "these figures are virtually worthless," Mr. Higgs argues.

    Indeed, more equality isn't necessarily better. Politicians usually rely on tax-and-spend politics. Mr. Higgs points to 19 "neglected consequences" of such a strategy. For instance, higher taxes discourage productive activity; transfers encourage beneficiaries to be dependent and discourage them from working. Charitable involvement diminishes. Liberty suffers.

    Indeed, Mr. Higgs argues: "Ironically, in the full-fledged transfer society, where governments busy themselves redistributing income by means of hundreds of distinct programs, hardly anyone is better off as a result." Only those doing the transferring, that is, those in government, tend to be unambiguous beneficiaries.

    The harm of government activism is evident even when Washington most passionately proclaims its commitment to the public weal. The Food and Drug Administration, for instance, is supposed to ensure that medicines and medical devices are safe and effective. But raising development costs and delaying product approval kill by the thousands, what Mr. Higgs calls "a silent epidemic of unnecessary suffering and avoidable deaths."

    Particularly fine is Mr. Higgs' demolition of the claim that World War II delivered the economy from the doldrums. Building products and hiring people in order to visit death and destruction on others is no economic stimulant. Although "history texts tell the tale in dreary monopoly," he writes, the claim of war prosperity "rests on evidence that will not bear scrutiny."

    The government doesn't even fulfill its core missions. He writes: "When I was younger and even more ignorant than I am today, I believed that government... performed an essential function -- namely, the protection of individuals from the aggressions of others."

    Alas, the U.S. government has proved to be a poor guardian of its citizens. Asks Mr. Higgs: "Why do so many of us continue to fall victim to murder, rape, assault, robbery, burglary and other crimes too numerous to catalog? Where's the vaunted government protection?" Moreover, the ever provocative Mr. Higgs writes, "When government agents arrest and prosecute people for actions that those persons have every just right to undertake -- from smoking pot to gambling to trafficking in sexual services to selling unlicensed services or 'unapproved' medicines -- those government functionaries act not as protectors of the public but as agents of naked tyranny."

    There's much more in "Against Leviathan." After delivering so much bad news about how government really operates, Mr. Higgs offers little positive hope for change. In the aftermath of September 11, "a new surge of government growth has begun in the United States." Despairs Mr. Higgs: "If the Americans cannot block the march of Leviathan, others are even less likely to do so."

    Yet it is important to remember that people and ideas matter. Together they sparked the American Revolution, dismantled slavery and tore down the Berlin Wall. They also can face down Leviathan. Robert Higgs has shown us what we are losing when Leviathan consumes our liberty. That knowledge is the key to winning back our freedom.

    Doug Bandow is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute and a former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan.



-------- ENERGY 


-------- alternative energy

Hutchinson Salt Mine First to Take Biodiesel Underground

HUTCHINSON, Kansas, January 4, 2005 (ENS)

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2005/2005-01-04-09.asp#anchor4

The Hutchinson Salt mine in Hutchinson, Kansas is the first mine of any kind in the United States to use 100 percent biodiesel fuel called B100 to power its machines underground.

Biodiesel is a renewable, alternative fuel to petroleum diesel and is made from soybeans grown in the United States as well as other fats and vegetable oils. It burns cleaner, reduces emissions like particulate matter by 47 percent and cuts carcinogens 80 to 90 percent. Biodiesel is sulfur free, non-flammable and biodegrades faster than sugar.

“We use B100 biodiesel in everything underground that runs on diesel,” said Max Liby, vice president of manufacturing for the mine. “The main benefit is we’ve cleaned up soot in the air and have cut particulates."

"Workers, particularly the operator of the loaders, like the soy biodiesel much better because they say particulates do not get in their nostrils and the air is noticeably cleaner," said Liby.

"Also, lubricity is much greater than if we used regular diesel fuel, so the injector pumps and injectors work more efficiently. The soy biodiesel actually cleans the injectors,” he said.

The Hutchinson Salt Company’s main product is highway salt for icy weather. Clients include the states of Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa and Illinois, and the city of Chicago.

The salt mine is one of more than 500 fleets using biodiesel fuel. That number is expected to continue to rise, in part due to a biodiesel tax incentive bill that became law on January 1. The tax incentive is expected to make biodiesel more accessible to the general public as it will narrow the cost gap between biodiesel and regular diesel fuel.

“Biodiesel is a great fuel for use inside mines,” said Harold Kraus, soybean farmer and a director of the National Biodiesel Board, an industry association. “It is made from a natural product, so the air mine workers breathe from B100 is also natural. Besides cutting emissions, biodiesel also has a pleasant odor when it burns,” he said.

“Soybeans are important to Kansas not only for the vegetable oil biodiesel comes from, but also for the animal industry, as Kansas is the largest producer of packed beef in the United States,” Kraus said.

“The animal industry is the largest user of soybean meal, for its feed, plus the waste fat from animals can be made into biodiesel,” he said.

Other biodiesel users include the Missouri Department of Transportation, all four branches of the military, NASA, Harvard University, the National Park Service, U.S. Postal Service, and L.L. Bean. About 300 retail filling stations make various biodiesel blends available to the public, and more than 1,000 petroleum distributors carry it nationwide. 


-------- OTHER


-------- environment

Arkansas Hazwaste Incinerator Explodes, Burns

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas, January 4, 2005 (ENS)

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2005/2005-01-04-09.asp#anchor1

About 2,600 residents and more than 100 prisoners were evacuated on Sunday morning when a hazardous waste incineration plant in El Dorado, Arkansas, exploded and caught fire. Local responders closed nearby highways and streets and imposed an evacuation. El Dorado is about 15 miles north of the Arkansas border with Louisiana.

The plant that exploded, Teris LLC, operates rotary kilns for solid incineration and thermal oxidation for liquid incineration. At least two regulated chemicals are on-site - ethyl chloride and trimethylamine - both flammable.

The facility reported that an employee attempted to extinguish a small fire that quickly burned out of control in one of two waste storage warehouses at Teris. The warehouse stored about 4,500 drums of hazardous waste.

Explosions at the Teris hazwaste facility rocked El Dorado, Arkansas. (Photo courtesy EPA)
The fire continues to burn in the part of the warehouse that stored lithium and magnesium waste. Numerous drums containing magnesium have exploded continually. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Teris was reluctant to fight the fire with water due to the potential water reactive nature of the metal waste.

The facility concentrated on keeping structures and adjacent buildings cool to prevent further escalation in the fire. Local responders supported this strategy and were willing to allow the fire to burn out.

There was a noticeable air plume emitting from the fire going north to northwest. The EPA was requested to provide air monitoring support to the local and state responders, and sent up its Airborne Spectral and Photographic Environmental Technology (ASPECT) plane to monitor the air as the fire was allowed to burn itself out.

"Preliminary review of the ASPECT data collected shows low concentrations of triethylamine in the immediate downwind plume," the EPA said, a finding consistent with what the Teris facility reported. "No other significant compounds were detected," the agency said.

The EPA monitored air in the surrounding community, focusing on the areas downwind of the fire, and found that the data "indicates safe air quality levels at all locations monitored."

Teris contracted for additional air monitoring from the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health, LLC.

Approximately 600 residents have still not been allowed to return home. The cause of the explosions and fire is under investigation.

The two warehouses on the site were permitted for storage of containerized hazardous waste, as well as several agitated tanks for the storage of liquids awaiting incineration. The materials are "characterized as waste because there is no longer any economical use for them," the EPA said. "Incineration has been determined to be the most cost effective and environmentally sound method of disposal for this waste."

The EPA said the materials stored for incineration include petroleum products and other organic and inorganic chemicals in varying degrees of purity.

"The majority of the products are completely reacted, diluted, or mixed with dirt and debris," the agency said. "All products brought into the facility are profiled and analyzed by technical chemists to determine the proper disposition. The waste products are then subjected to extreme heat which breaks the chemicals down into its basic molecular structure, eliminating its hazardous components."

Teris' El Dorado plant is permitted to process a wide range of "hard to handle" material. It is the first commercial waste treatment company in the United States to be certified as compliant with the ISO 9002 standard, an internationally recognized quality system designed by the International Organization for Standardization. 

----

Poll: Majority Rejects Arctic National Wildlife Drilling

UTICA, New York, January 4, 2005 (ENS)

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2005/2005-01-04-09.asp#anchor7

Americans oppose opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling by a solid 55 percent to 38 percent margin, according to the latest Zogby poll, taken just before Christmas 2004.

Their opposition is even stronger, 59 to 25 percent, to what Zogby pollsters called a proposed "backdoor maneuver" that would use the annual Congressional budget process to let the oil industry into the Refuge.

In addition, 80 percent of those polled say that conservation, improved fuel efficiency and the development of renewable energy alternatives are the best ways to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. Only 17 percent say that more drilling on America's public lands is the solution.

From December 13 through the 15, 2004 Zogby International conducted interviews of 1,203 likely voters chosen at random nationwide for The Wilderness Society and other national conservation groups.

Eight out of 10 of those surveyed said that conservation, more fuel-efficient cars, and development of renewable energy sources are preferable to drilling on public lands as a way to reduce dependence on foreign oil.

By contrast, only one in six voters, 17 percent, say that drilling for more oil and gas in the United States, including areas within wildlife refuges and other public lands, is the best way to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil.

Instead, the vast majority of voters are evenly divided between "conserving more, wasting less, and developing more fuel-efficient cars so we use less oil and gas" (41%) and "relying less on oil and gas and expanding development of alternative forms of energy like wind, solar, and ethanol" (39%).

There are no demographic subgroups where the drilling option comes within 10 points of either the conservation/fuel efficiency or development of alternatives options.

Even among Republicans (65%) and Bush voters (68%), nearly two-thirds favor conservation or alternatives over drilling, Zogby pollsters report. Independent voters supported conservation or alternatives over drilling by an overwhelming 89% - 8% margin. 

------

Russia Plans Laws Against Polluting Industry in 2005

January 4, 2005
by Oliver Bullough
REUTERS

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/28773/story.htm

MOSCOW - Russia plans its first laws to crack down on industrial polluters next year, and will force offending companies to invest in clean technology rather than pay fines, the natural resources minister said on Friday.


Yuri Trutnev said it was time to rein in Soviet-era industries. His comments were published as part of the government's plans for next year on the official Web site (www.pravitelstvo.gov.ru).

Towns across Russia are poisoned by factories. At the most polluted sites, such as the Arctic town of Norilsk, plant life is dead for km (miles) around the smokestacks and people complain of breathing problems and other symptoms.

"We talk a lot about ecological problems, but the state has no real levers of influence in this area," said Trutnev in the published comments.

"Therefore the natural resources ministry has taken the decision to create the first legal initiatives in this extremely sensitive sphere with the aim of creating ... a single ecological code."

Russia's factories are at best two-and-a-half times less energy efficient than their European competitors, and the new laws would aim to reduce pollution.

"The first step would have to be the creation of a system encouraging our main polluters -- industrial concerns -- not to pay fines but invest money in modernising production to meet ecological demands," Trutnev said. Environmental groups say Russia has done little since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 to clean up industry that, in communist times, aimed only to maximise production. Trutnev confirmed that combating pollution would be difficult.

"Since this question affects all of Russian industry, we must approach it cautiously and thoroughly. I think that already in the second quarter of 2005, a series of legal initiatives will be sent for the cabinet to examine."

Some Russian firms have pinned hopes on mechanisms spelled out in the Kyoto pact on climate change, which aim to encourage foreign firms to invest to cut pollution.

In other plans, Trutnev said the ministry would aim to build more roads to increase logging access to Russian forests, build new reservoirs to improve water supply and boost oil exploration -- something he said oil companies were neglecting.

"It is not a secret that the country is divided into spheres of influence between the big oil companies. As a result, the state does not receive much cash from auctions. We will resolve this problem together with the Federal Antimonopoly Service." 

----

Looking Beyond Enforcement at the EPA
An Independent and a Career Auditor, Inspector General Breaks the Mold -- and, She Says, an Occasional Rule

By Dale Russakoff
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 4, 2005; Page A13

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A45645-2005Jan3?language=printer

The sofa in Nikki Tinsley's office in the Environmental Protection Agency sports one of those fluffy little pillows with needlepoint lettering that you expect to say "Home Sweet Home." A closer look reveals something much saucier: "If You Obey All the Rules, You Miss All the Fun."

This is not the watchword one expects from an inspector general, whose job it is to make sure her agency follows federal rules, laws, regulations, ethical codes and budgets. So is this a joke of some kind?

"No, it's not a joke. It's really me. We are not just about following rules," said Tinsley, the EPA's inspector general since 1999. "We want to know if the rules make sense."

Tinsley recently has issued investigative reports concluding that a number of them do not. In late September, for example, she reported that a rule promulgated by the EPA "has seriously hampered" clean-air litigation against electric utilities by scaling back a requirement that polluters install emissions controls when adding to their facilities.

The same day, even as EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt was on the campaign trail for President Bush, touting the nation's air as "the cleanest most Americans have ever breathed," another IG report found that smog levels in major metropolitan areas had remained the same or gotten worse, making the air unhealthful.

The reports put Tinsley, a registered independent appointed by President Bill Clinton, squarely in the crossfire of presidential politics. Democrats invoked them to attack President Bush's environmental record, and Republicans denounced them as partisan, saying Tinsley should stick to the traditional preserve of inspectors general -- waste, fraud and abuse.

"I find the timing of the release of this clearly politically driven document to be highly suspect," Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said at the time of Tinsley's report on the clean-air rule. ". . . The IG report can be taken no more seriously than a CBS news program."

A Republican staffer suggested that the committee may investigate Tinsley to determine whether she is biased. Democrats dismissed the suggestion as a preemptive strike at a forthcoming IG investigative report on another proposed EPA rule -- this one regulating mercury emissions from power plants.

"Just because you don't like the message doesn't mean you can shoot the messenger," said Sen. James M. Jeffords (I-Vt.), ranking minority member of the Senate environment committee. "The EPA under the Bush administration has fought any oversight by Congress tooth and nail and ignored basic information requests. I believe the role of inspector general at the EPA has never been more important. We are lucky to have someone of Ms. Tinsley's experience and independence."

A certified public accountant with almost 30 years in federal government auditing -- at the General Accounting Office (now the Government Accountability Office) and the Interior Department before the EPA -- Tinsley hardly seems flustered by the uproar. She pointed out that she has audited both Democratic and Republican administrations, and that neither has liked criticism.

"The joke among auditors is that the two biggest lies are 'We're here to help you' and the response 'We're glad to have you,' " she said with a laugh.

Tinsley's office has done more than 60 audits and evaluations this year, mostly without notice. She is the agency's in-house auditor of financial statements and recommends periodic improvements in information, procurement and management systems.

Among her other recent findings: serious weaknesses in the EPA's system for protecting the nation's drinking water from bioterrorism; delays in toxic waste cleanups -- and resulting public health hazards -- caused by Superfund budget shortfalls; and poor EPA oversight of grants, including a multimillion-dollar award to an arm of an ineligible lobbying organization.

Tinsley has been identifying accountability problems for a decade in the EPA's grants program and is recognized among fellow inspectors general as a grants expert. She now heads a government-wide team of 17 IGs as well as state auditors and the GAO that aims to improve accountability for more than $360 billion in grants annually.

Indeed, even as Inhofe was accusing Tinsley of partisanship during the fall campaign, he was drawing on her other work to demand reforms in the way the EPA awards and oversees $4 billion in grants.

IGs at major agencies generally are presidential appointees -- in others, the administrator appoints them -- but they report to Congress and the public as well as their departments and do not turn over with administrations. There is no fixed term of office, and inspectors general are rarely removed, usually only for cause.

Congress created the position to root out waste, fraud and abuse, in hopes of raising public confidence in government. IGs more recently have been evaluating how effectively agencies pursue their goals, and Tinsley is a leader on this frontier, according to Gaston L. Gianni Jr., her counterpart at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and leader of the presidentially appointed IGs council. He calls Tinsley "a tremendous leader in the IG community."

Hardly the stereotype of the green-eyeshaded auditor, Tinsley is one of only two women among presidentially appointed IGs. Tinsley's long career in government auditing is increasingly out of fashion among IGs. A study by the Democratic staff of the House Government Reform Committee found that most of Bush's IG appointments have come from Republican political backgrounds, such as congressional or White House staffs, whereas Clinton's were mostly career public servants. The report cited Janet Rehnquist, daughter of the chief justice, appointed by Bush at the Department of Health and Human Services; she resigned in 2003 amid a congressional investigation into alleged politicization of her office. The investigation concerned 19 senior staff changes and her decision to delay a critical audit of Florida's pension fund until after Gov. Jeb Bush's (R) 2002 reelection. Rehnquist has said the staff moves were appropriate, and she has denied any political motive in the audit delay.

Tinsley said it is unlikely that government auditors will apply to be inspectors general in the future. She pointed out that the 2004 National Defense Authorization Act conditioned pay raises for Senior Executive Service employees on performance evaluations. But IGs cannot be evaluated by their departments without creating an appearance of conflict of interest. Along with existing restrictions on bonuses, this could cost IGs drawn from the SES up to $55,335 a year, she calculated. IGs are hoping Congress will change this, she said.

Another of Tinsley's distinctions is her life story. While in the Kansas City, Kan., office of the EPA, she fell from her family's horse barn and broke her back, losing the use of her legs. Asked how she rebuilt her life, she said simply, "I never thought I wouldn't get well again."

An avid outdoorswoman before her accident, she took up kayaking, in which she said her artificially low center of gravity is an advantage. She also completed the 2003 New York City Marathon in the wheelchair division, after having worked out for much of the year with her daughter and her communications director, Eileen McMahon, both of whom ran on foot.

A daughter of two government workers, Tinsley grew up in Ohio and worked in Denver and Kansas City before coming to Washington in 1995 as deputy IG. Asked where she will go next, she smiled, glanced matter-of-factly at the crutches beside her chair, then answered: "Somewhere where the pavement doesn't freeze."