NucNews - June 7, 2005



-------- NUCLEAR 


-------- accidents and safety

Dismantling of Japanese nuclear accident site begins

MITO, Ibaraki Pref. (Kyodo) Tuesday, June 7, 2005

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20050607a6.htm

JCO Co. began Monday dismantling its nuclear fuel-processing facilities in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, where a fatal accident occurred in 1999.

The company plans to complete the operation by March, JCO said, adding some of the dismantled facilities will be contained in drums and stored at the site for future possible restoration.

The work began in the morning after 13 workers wearing protective gear and goggles entered the compound.

The nuclear criticality accident in Tokai on Sept. 30, 1999, killed two JCO workers and exposed hundreds of other people to radiation.

Local residents, experts and antinuclear activists had sought to preserve the facilities to continue studying the causes of the accident and its effects.

But the Tokai Municipal Government agreed to demolish it in January, leading the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry to examine JCO's demolition plan.

The accident occurred when two JCO workers bypassed safe operating procedures and used metal buckets to pour an excessive amount of uranium into a processing tank, triggering a fission chain reaction. The two employees were exposed to massive radiation and later died from multiple organ failure.

The Japan Times: June 7, 2005

----

Hope Creek nuclear plant shut down for third time in less than a year

June 7, 2005, 7:47 PM EDT Newsday

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/ny-bc-nj--hopecreek-shutdow0607jun07,0,77283.story?coll=nyc-regionhome-headlines

TRENTON, N.J. -- The operators of the Hope Creek nuclear power plant have shut it down for the third time in less than a year, this time because of a leak inside the plant's drywell.

Workers manually closed down the plant at about 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday after noticing that the leakage exceeded five gallons per minute, according to PSEG Nuclear, which operates the plant.

There was no release of radiation.

Plant personnel were planning to enter the drywell to determine the source of the leak.

PSEG spokesman Skip Sindoni said it was too early to estimate when the plant might go back online.

Until Tuesday, that plant had been running for 57 days. It was closed earlier this year after a weld in a containment building failed, causing radioactive steam to leak.

A more-serious steam leak was discovered elsewhere in the plant in late 2004, causing a 3{-month shutdown.

The Hope Creek plant is one of three nuclear reactors, along with Salem 1 and 2, that PSEG Nuclear operates at a complex in Lower Alloways Creek Township in Salem County along the Delaware River.

The company is part of Newark-based Public Service Enterprise Group Inc., which is merging with Chicago-based Exelon Corp. 



-------- australia

Australian nuclear power debate hits a snag

By Saffron Howden
June 07, 2005 Australian

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,15545169%255E29277,00.html

NEW South Wales Premier Bob Carr has been granted his wish for a debate on the merits of nuclear power, but he insists his state won't become a dumping ground for waste.

As the federal Cabinet met in Canberra today to discuss the fate of future nuclear waste in Australia, the Labor Party appeared divided over whether they supported power sourced from uranium.

Federal Opposition resources spokesman Martin Ferguson was today quoted as saying he supported a debate on the issue.

"Whether the Labor Party likes it or not, this debate is not going to be closed down," Mr Ferguson told News Ltd newspapers.

But Labor's environment spokesman Anthony Albanese said the federal party remained opposed to nuclear power.

Mr Carr last week riled environmentalists by suggesting nuclear power was a viable alternative to energy sourced from fossil fuels, and it could bridge the gap between it and renewable power such as solar and wind energy.

But today, he ruled out NSW as a dumping site for nuclear waste, saying it was against state laws.

"It's against the law to establish a nuclear industry in NSW – that's what the state law says," Mr Carr said.

"The federal Government has got to look at locations that are remote, geologically stable and dry.

"The optimal locations are going to be outside NSW."

The federal Government had to take account of all the concerns about the disposal and transport of nuclear waste raised during a recent NSW parliamentary inquiry into the issue, Mr Carr said.

As the Northern Territory gears up for an election on June 18, it too has dismissed suggestions it could become the future site for a nuclear waste dump.

Meanwhile, the West Australian Government is opposed to any plans to develop nuclear power.

A spokesman for WA Premier Geoff Gallop said today his position on the issue had not changed.

"(The) Premier is opposed to uranium mining in WA, opposed to nuclear power and opposed to Western Australia being chosen as a medium level nuclear waste dump," the spokesman said.

But the federal Government remains committed to looking into the option.

Treasurer Peter Costello said it would be in Australia's interest to develop a uranium industry.

"I think we can move to a conclusion which is the development of Australia's uranium industry and the use of it for peaceful purposes would be very much in Australia's interest," he said.

"If domestic production stacks up on economic grounds, of course I would support it.

"The only point I would make is that we have large deposits of coal, we can produce electricity from coal extremely competitively."

A national nuclear waste dump, originally proposed for an outback South Australian site, was scrapped before last year's federal election campaign after resistance from the SA Government.

But The Australian  newspaper has reported the Howard Government is discarding plans to send nuclear waste to an island because of terrorism and transportation fears. 

----

Australian Mayor gets written promise on depleted uranium

Tuesday, June 7, 2005 Australia Broadcasting

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200506/s1386717.htm

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has given a written assurance that depleted uranium weapons will not be used at Shoalwater Bay in central Queensland.

The Mayor of Livingstone Shire, Bill Ludwig, had sought the assurance ahead of the joint US-Australian Exercise Talisman Sabre starting this month.

Dr Rachel Darken from the Medical Association for the Prevention of War says depleted uranium weapons have caused health problems when used in Iraq.

However, Dr Darken says she has other concerns about Exercise Talisman Sabre.

"We are still very concerned as a medical organisation that there will be a nuclear-powered submarine in the area in these exercises, and possibly other nuclear powered ships and possibly weapons on board ships," she said.



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

-------- depleted uranium

Are soldiers told the truth about ammo risks?

Tuesday, June 07, 2005 Muskegon Chronicle

http://www.mlive.com/news/muchronicle/index.ssf?/base/news-0/111824191095790.xml

The magazine Vanity Fair scooped The Washington Post when it revealed the identity of "Deep Throat." Mark Felt, then the No. 2 man at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, led Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein to the truth about the Watergate scandal that took down the corrupt presidency of Richard M. Nixon. Vanity Fair had a bigger scoop than that, though it's not clear at all whether anyone's paying much attention -- most of all, the Pentagon.

But it's important, because the ones possibly at risk are our soldiers who fight on the front lines in the war against terrorism. An unknown number have been exposed to "D.U." -- depleted uranium -- a major component of today's artillery shells and cannon rounds. Depleted uranium is used in the manufacture of casings in ammo fired by the military's major weapons systems in every service branch.

Both the beauty and the danger of D.U. is its density, which allows shells to penetrate the toughest hides of enemy defenses. Yet when it hits its target, depleted uranium literally catches fire and disintegrates into what journalist David Rose described as "a shower of uranium-oxide fragments and dust, some in the form of aerosolized particles." When this deadly dust is inhaled, wrote Rose, "such particles lodge in the lungs and bathe the surrounding tissue with alpha radiation, known to be highly dangerous internally, and smaller amounts of beta and gamma radiation."

It may not be just the bad guys who are getting this nasty stuff into their systems.

Iraq and Afghanistan, where the winds blow the sand around in great quantity, seem to be the perfect place for problematic issues with radioactive dust. Not surprisingly, the Vanity Fair report detailed numerous cases of mysterious illnesses plaguing otherwise fit, normal, young soldiers that could well be caused by exposure to D.U.-tainted dust and fragments.

More ominously, the Veterans Administration is reporting big numbers of returning troops claiming to be suffering from "undiagnosed illness" that includes muscular and skeletal ailments, respiratory problems and "ill-defined conditions" not fitting any typical medical categories. All of these reports, 27,571 as of last December, when the Vanity Fair story appeared, are non-combat related. More than 150 cases of cancer have also been reported.

The military's trustworthiness track record on these kinds of issues is suspect. In Vietnam, the Agent Orange fiasco was covered up. In the Persian Gulf War, claims of exposure to neurotoxins were pooh-poohed by the military's higher-ups until it became recognized as an epidemic. D.U. exposure, by the way, was also hitting those veterans.

The Pentagon, for its part, refuses to acknowledge that depleted uranium is a serious problem. But D.U.'s value to the military raises the question of whether it can fairly evaluate a potential threat to our own forces since it is so valuable to the ordnance with which we pound our enemies.

The Vanity Fair article raises many troubling issues, not the least of which is whether the truth is being told to our soldiers about the possible dangers of depleted uranium. They put it all on the line for America. Is America putting it all on the line for them? The answer is disturbingly unclear.



-------- iran

Iran Extends Freeze on Nuclear Enrichment

By NASSER KARIMI
Associated Press Writer
Jun 5, 2005 4:20 PM EDT

http://ap.washingtontimes.com/dynamic/stories/I/IRAN_NUCLEAR?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran injected some breathing space into the international crisis over its nuclear program on Sunday, saying it will extend its suspension of uranium enrichment until the end of July to give European negotiators time to prepare a proposal it can accept.

The announcement, which followed Tehran's agreement last month to review a European Union proposal for a new round of negotiations in the summer, provides a temporary respite in the dispute. But Iran warned against wasting the opportunity to strike a deal.

"The Europeans have time up to the end of July to prepare details of their proposal," said Ali Aghamohammadi, a spokesman for Iran's Supreme National Security Council.

"To make Iran's nuclear facilities active in a proper way, both sides should work toward providing guarantees," Aghamohammadi was quoted as saying by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
	
Europe sees suspension of uranium enrichment by Tehran as a precondition for further talks. No date has been set for the summer negotiations.

Iran suspended enrichment last November under international pressure led by the United States. Iran maintains its program is peaceful, but the EU and the United States fear the program is being used to develop nuclear weapons in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Six months of talks with Europe have made no progress on the key point of contention - Iran's insistence on the right to enrich uranium and European opposition to such plans.

Enriched uranium can be used to produce warheads, but it also can be used in the production of electricity, which Iranian officials insist is the sole purpose of their nuclear program.
	
Iran has said repeatedly that its November decision to suspend all uranium enrichment-related activities was voluntary and temporary. The Europeans have been offering economic incentives in the hope that Iran will make it permanent.

Aghamohammadi called on the Europeans to firm up the agreement reached between Iran and the Europeans last November in Paris, which committed Tehran to suspension of enrichment and all related activities while the two sides discuss a pact meant to provide Iran with EU technical and economic aid and other concessions. Since then, the two sides have sparred over the exact terms of the agreement.

France, Britain and Germany, acting on behalf of the 25-nation EU, want Tehran to abandon its enrichment activities in exchange for economic aid, technical support and backing for Iran's efforts to join the World Trade Organization.

"The two sides should have offers in line with the main goal of the Paris agreement; that is objective guarantees from our side and solid agreements from the European side," Aghamohammadi said.

Efforts to resolve the crisis also got a boost last month when the World Trade Organization agreed to open membership negotiations with Iran - a move widely seen as an immediate reward for Tehran's decision to stick with talks with Europe.

Iran first applied to join the WTO in 1996, but the United States blocked its application 22 times. The United States said in March it would drop its veto, after consultations with France, Germany and Britain, the European negotiating countries.

The United States has been skeptical of Europe's approach to Iran's atomic program, although of late President Bush has struck a gentler note. Last week he insisted that Europe-led talks with Iran "are making some progress" and defended his decision to allow Iran to apply for WTO membership as a key, but measured, step to advance those discussions.

The EU has threatened to take Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions if it resumes uranium reprocessing. Tehran says it won't give up its right to enrichment but is prepared to offer guarantees that it is not seeking to build nuclear weapons.

Aghamohammadi said Hasan Rowhani, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, would begin a weeklong tour to Yemen, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on Monday to discuss the progress of the nuclear talks and seek support for its program.

Iran hopes the four nations - in particular Yemen, a member of the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency - will support its nuclear program.

A breakdown of the EU-Iran talks would have fed U.S. hopes of having the June 13 board meeting of the IAEA refer Tehran to the U.N. Security Council for nuclear activities that Washington insists show an attempt to build weapons.

----

Iran sets new conditions on maintaining nuclear freeze

TEHRAN (AFP) Jun 05, 2005

http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050605185748.4ssmii4x.html

A senior Iranian official said Sunday that Tehran has only conditionally agreed to EU demands it maintain a suspension of sensitive nuclear activities until the end of July, the official news agency IRNA reported.

"Iran has conditionally agreed to the EU offer, and Europe has until the end of July to provide a complete proposal with details," Supreme National Security Council offical Ali Agha Mohammadi was quoted as saying.

He said the conditions were that three joint working groups and a steering committee meet before the end of July and "that there is an exchange between the European foreign ministers and the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (Hassan Rowhani)".

Tehran has continued to complain the Europeans have been seeking to drag out the talks, and therefore Iran's nuclear suspension. But the demand for talks to be brought forward may prove a headache for Eurocrats planning their summer holidays.

Mohammadi said the demands were aimed at ensuring that any European proposal is in line with the "agreed aims" of a nuclear suspension agreement signed in Paris between Iran and Britain, France and Germany last November.

"The two sides must have offers in line with the main aims of the Paris agreement, which is objective guarantees on our part and firm guarantees from the European side," Mohammadi said.

Iran has pledged to suspend its activities linked to uranium enrichment, which makes what can be fuel for civilian power reactors or the raw material of atom bombs, for the duration of the negotiations.

But it insists it has the right to carry out enrichment within the framework of a peaceful nuclear programme.

Disagreement over enrichment, which the European trio wants Iran to definitively abandon in return for trade, technology and security incentives almost scuttled the EU-Iran talks that began in December.

Rowhani meanwhile reaffirmed Tehran's insistence that Europe would have to acknowledge Iran's right to the entire nuclear fuel cycle in their new offer, as he arrived on a visit to Kuwait.

Rowhani meanwhile reaffirmed Tehran's insistence that Europe would have to acknowledge Iran's right to the entire nuclear fuel cycle in their new offer, as he arrived on a visit to Kuwait.

"In Geneva, we told the three European foreign ministers that their proposals would be accepted if they stipulated that Iran can produce nuclear fuel inside Iran," he said.

A US diplomat contacted by AFP in Vienna said the United States "has no formal view on when or how often they meet as long as the EU3 holds firm on enforcing the Paris agreement and as long as Iran negotiates in good faith on that basis."

The US in particular accuses Iran of seeking nuclear weapons under the guise of an energy programme.

Iran insists its bid to master the full nuclear fuel cycle, including uranium enrichment, is merely aimed at generating electricity and is a right for any country that has signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

It has already proposed starting a phased resumption of fuel cycle work but that has already been rejected by the Europeans.



-------- russia

Aid sought to dismantle Russian nukes

By Kenji Hall, Associated Press Writer  |  June 7, 2005

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/06/07/aid_sought_to_dismantle_russian_nukes/?rss_id=Boston.com+%2F+News

TOKYO --Rich donor nations should offer more financial aid for Russia to dismantle its Soviet-era nuclear and chemical weapons stockpiles and help other countries keep nuclear material from terrorists, experts said at an international weapons conference Tuesday.

Weapons specialists from governments and think-tanks around the world assessed progress in eliminating weapons of mass destruction and protecting stored nuclear waste since 2002, when the Group of Eight wealthiest nations promised at least $20 billion over 10 years for the effort.

Former Sen. Sam Nunn said the pledges so far of $17 billion fall short of that goal and stressed that only a fraction of that amount had actually been spent. He urged delegates to consider the risks of inaction.

"Today ... it is possible that a small group of terrorists could acquire nuclear weapons in one nation, launch a nuclear attack in another nation and stagger the security and the economy of every nation," said Nunn, co-chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a charity that co-sponsored the conference.

He singled out Japan as one of the stingiest donors, pledging only $200 million compared to Washington's $10 billion contribution.

Much of the discussions focused on Russia's weapons stockpiles.

Moscow had amassed a Cold War-era fleet of 250 nuclear-powered submarines, but since the 1980s, nearly 200 of them have been removed from active duty. Moscow has promised to dismantle its aging fleet at ports in its northwest and far east and safely dispose of their nuclear reactors by 2010, officials said.

That could cost $4 billion. Reducing Russian biological and chemical weapons could cost another $8 billion.

Sergey Antipov, deputy director of Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency, said Moscow couldn't afford that on its own.

"Over the next 10 to 12 years, we can't achieve our goals without international help," said Antipov.

But critics said Moscow's reluctance to give experts greater access to military sites was hobbling progress.

Russia isn't the only concern. Research facilities in more than 40 nations possess enough enriched uranium to build a nuclear bomb, Nunn said.

Enriched uranium can be used in a reactor to generate electricity, but it can also be used to produce warheads. Much of the world's enriched uranium stores aren't protected from the possibility of theft, he added.

The G8 members are the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia.

On the Net:

Center for Strategic and International Studies: http://www.csis.org

Nuclear Threat Initiative: http://www.nti.org



-------- security

Port Security Still Flawed
New Detection Machines Come Up Short

By BRIAN ROSS and DAVID SCOTT
Jun. 7, 2005 ABC News

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/print?id=825116

The government has announced its enhanced nuclear inspection program with great fanfare, but ABC News has learned the new, drive-through detection machines being installed -- at a cost of a half-billion dollars -- cannot detect the enriched uranium that many say poses the greatest threat.

"Al Qaeda's highest goal is to have a nuclear explosion in the United States, said Rep. Ed. Markey, D-Mass., a member of the Select Committee on Homeland Security. "The equipment that is being deployed will not detect the highly enriched uranium which is the most likely source of the material they would use."

The machines, however, are triggered by materials such as kitty litter, which gives off a certain kind of gamma ray and has caused many a false alarm.

"Unfortunately, we have about a half-billion dollars worth of kitty litter detectors that will not detect enriched uranium reliably," said Dr. Tom Cochran, the director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's nuclear program.

A new report by the NRDC confirmed that the latest machines are "unlikely to detect kilogram quantities of lightly shielded high enriched uranium placed near the center of cargo-shipping containers."

This, experts say, could leave the country's ports susceptible to terrorists smuggling nuclear weapons or material in one of the thousands of containers that come into the country every day.

ABC News conducted test projects in 2002 and 2003 in which uranium shielded in lead easily passed by the detection machines in place.

But just last week in Los Angeles, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff presented the new machines as just part of a broad effort to make the country safe from nuclear terrorism.

"The end state we want to reach is not any one technology that gives us total protection, but layers of technology and people that give us as close to 100 percent as is humanly possible," he said.

Privately, however, DHS officials concede the new machines' shortcomings. The new machines can detect radioactive material that could be used in a dirty bomb, but there is still no layer of technology that will spot or stop weapons-grade uranium.

In fact, the government has taken a step backward in making our country safer, said retired Air Force Col. Randy Larsen, director of the Institute for Homeland Security.

"It makes us less secure because we're spending money on something that doesn't make us more secure and that money could be going toward things that would actually make our families more secure," Larsen said.



-------- u.s. nuc facilities


-------- california

California Panel May Sue State to Get Waste Site

A commission wants California to make good on its commitment to build a low-level radioactive dump. Ward Valley is mentioned.

By Robert Salladay, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
June 7, 2005

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/state/la-me-radioactive7jun07,1,6220541.story?coll=la-news-state&ctrack=1&cset=true

SACRAMENTO — California's tortured saga over dumping its low-level radioactive waste could take a new turn under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, thanks to his own appointees and renewed pressure from industry to act quickly.

A four-state commission dominated by officials from the low-level radioactive waste business — including two appointed by Schwarzenegger — is considering a lawsuit against California if the governor fails to build a dump somewhere in the state.

The industry — mostly nuclear power plants, laboratories and hospitals that use radioactive isotopes — is again declaring a crisis because the South Carolina dump where California sends some of its waste has threatened to end services in three years. Obtaining permits and building a new site to house such waste can take years.

"We're running out of time," said Alan Pasternak, technical director of the California Radioactive Materials Management Forum, the main lobbying group for the industry. "The state of California was supposed to have a disposal facility 12 years ago, in 1993."

Environmentalists have been watching the activities closely, fearing another full-scale push to build a dump in the state. Three years ago, then-Gov. Gray Davis signed legislation that killed the controversial Ward Valley site in San Bernardino County and set new standards for how any dump could be built.

Now, the ghosts of Ward Valley have reemerged. The Southwestern Low-Level Radioactive Waste Commission, a four-state board seeking a new dump site in California, is pressuring the Schwarzenegger administration to overturn the 2002 law.

Environmentalist are worried in part because Schwarzenegger's two appointees to the Southwestern panel come from the low-level radioactive waste industry. Donna Earley, a longtime environmental safety official at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, serves on the board of the Cal Rad lobbying group; and James Tripodes, who works for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is a former Cal Rad board member. They were appointed to the Southwestern commission last year.

"It's outrageous that appointees of Gov. Schwarzenegger could be threatening to arrange a lawsuit against California that could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars," said Daniel Hirsch, president of Committee to Bridge the Gap, a nuclear industry watchdog group. "It's particularly outrageous given the board members represent the radioactive waste industry."

Hirsch said he sees no evidence that Schwarzenegger wants to build a low-level radioactive waste site in California, which Hirsch contends is not needed because the amount of such waste has decreased in recent years. Despite the governor's appointments to the board, Hirsch said, Schwarzenegger appears to have otherwise ignored it — which may be the reason for its frustration.

The handling of low-level radioactive waste is overseen by Schwarzenegger's Health and Human Services Agency, which declined to comment in depth.

"We are aware of the commission's concerns, and we're evaluating the situation. It's all fluid right now," said Sabrina Demayo Lockhart, spokeswoman for the agency.

Pasternak, with the industry lobbying group, and some members of the Southwestern commission say they have met with the Schwarzenegger administration to discuss low-level radioactive waste but that nothing has been decided.

Bill Magavern, a lobbyist with the Sierra Club, said the Schwarzenegger administration has not asked to meet with his group over the issue, despite a request for a meeting.

"They have never solicited our opinion on these issues," Magavern said.

Under federal law, states can sign agreements with other states to build low-level radioactive sites to store medical waste, contaminated equipment or dirt from nuclear power plants or material from laboratories.

California now sends its low-level waste to two sites, the one in South Carolina and another in Utah. The sites do not accept the most highly radioactive materials, such as nuclear power plant fuel rods, which are handled by the federal government.

The Southwestern commission does not exclusively have Ward Valley in mind, but its mention raises red flags for many. California saw bitter fights in the 1990s over the site. Ward Valley is 18 miles west of Needles and the Colorado River, a key source of Southern California drinking and irrigation water. The desert valley has also long been considered a sacred site by the Ft. Mojave Indian Tribe and four other tribes that live along the Colorado in California, Arizona and Nevada.

Nora McDowell, chairwoman of the 1,100-member tribe, which has lived along the river for at least 1,000 years, said they are prepared to continue their fight if a Ward Valley dump is again proposed.

"We're together," McDowell said. "We're a lot smarter and we know what we're up against."

In a quirky alliance, the Southwestern commission was formed in 1988 by California, North and South Dakota and Arizona. Its seven-member board, with four appointed from California and one each from the other states, approves export permits for radioactive waste and is required under its agreement to eventually find a site in California for a new dump.




-------- maine

Portsmouth, ME, Shipyard nuclear license no issue

By NATE PARDUE <npardue@fosters.com>
Dover, NH Democrat Staff Writer
June 7, 2005

http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050607/NEWS23/50607011

KITTERY, Maine — Supporters of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard say the base's nuclear license, if lost, would be impossible to replace.

But nuclear officials say there are procedures in place to obtain a new license if this one goes away.

The shipyard's license allows it to handle the radioactive materials associated with nuclear submarine repair.

Those working to keep Portsmouth off the final Base Realignment and Closure list say the nuclear license is just one of the many reasons why the shipyard needs to stay open.

According to retired Capt. William McDonough of the Seacoast Shipyard Association, public opinion and lack of location are much greater obstacles to obtaining a new license than a lengthy application process.

Anti-nuclear attitudes have taken their toll on an administration already beleaguered by citizens who are fearful of the country's military direction, said McDonough.

"Do you see a pro-nuclear attitude in this country? Everyone goes into orbit if you even mention the word," said McDonough.

Equally important is a lack of available deep-water harbors around the country necessary to operate shipyards. If a base is closed, the waterfront is filled in with residential and commercial properties. Those can't be wiped away if the Navy someday decides it needs a new nuclear-capable base, said McDonough.

"To give up a nuclear license now would be foolhardy," he said.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, an independent agency established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, plays a major role in issuing the licenses needed for the detection and handling of radioactive materials.

Diane Screnci, public affairs officer for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said the U.S. Navy holds a Master Materials License for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, which allows it to use radioactive materials licensed by the NRC.

Anyone who handles nuclear materials must be issued a license, from government agencies to cardiology departments in hospitals.

Only government agencies are eligible to receive the Master Materials License, which allows for a broader use of radioactive materials. The U.S Air Force, the Veterans Administration, and the Navy are the only three government agencies holding the master license.

The Master Materials License covers all radioactive uses at a licensed site, so different licenses are not required for different uses, said Screnci.

John Kinneman, chief of the Materials Security and Industrial Branch of Region 1 of the NRC, said he had never heard the argument that closing a shipyard with a nuclear license would make it difficult to obtain again.

"If the Navy loses the license, and 10 days later decides it made the wrong decision, there are procedures in place to get it back," said Kinneman. In that case, the agency would have to look to the internal procedure it developed in conjunction with the NRC to file another application to allow radioactive uses.

Since the Navy and the other government agencies manage their own licensing programs, the NRC doesn't have to micromanage every step of the reapplication process. That doesn't mean the NRC is completely "hands-off," said Kinneman.

"It lets them operate without (the NRC) having to work out every detail," said Kinneman. "By setting up their own internal controls, they are allowed, within bounds we set, to authorize activities without coming back to the NRC. They can control their own destiny."

The commission reviews the those internal processes approximately every other year. In the time between, the NRC employs consultants to work with the agencies to answer any questions or address concerns with licensing.

According to Screnci, the Navy dictates how easy or difficult it is for shipyards to be permitted to handle nuclear material. "We issue a Master Materials License to the Navy," said Screnci. "The Navy then issues permits of use at various locations as part of their internal setup."

The Navy's Radiation Safety Committee manages its Master Materials License and issues Navy Radioactive Material Permits to individual facilities using NRC-regulated radioactive material.

The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is licensed to handle radioactive material in two ways.

One is for radioactivity associated with naval nuclear propulsion plants. The other is for general radioactive material, or G-RAM.

G-RAM includes "a small number of sealed radiation sources used for radiography, radiation detection instrument calibration, and material analysis," according to Danna Eddy, deputy public affairs officer at the shipyard.

In both instances, the reapplication for licensing is possible, provided the facility demonstrate all the necessary controls and procedures required by the appropriate authority.

At the shipyard, a joint Navy Department of Energy (DOE) program authorizes the handling of radioactive equipment and material associated with the nuclear propulsion plants. Regulatory control over G-RAM falls to the NRC, according to Eddy.

Like McDonough, members of the New Hampshire and Maine congressional delegations fear the nuclear license will be too difficult to obtain if lost.

The time it takes to negotiate for a nuclear license and the environmental regulations that affect licensing would be "impossible" to overcome, according to a statement from Sen. Susan Collins, R-ME.

"It took decades of negotiations with various agencies--federal, state, and local--for PNSY to obtain all of its current permits and licenses, including its nuclear license.

"Environmental regulations at all levels of government would make it impossible for a facility elsewhere to obtain a new nuclear permit," the statement read.

According to McDonough, all four active public shipyards hold nuclear licenses. The four shipyards are: Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Wash.; Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Hawaii; Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Va., and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's closure and realignment recommendations call for the retention of one nuclear-capable shipyard on each coast.

McDonough feels Pearl Harbor, despite holding a nuclear license with Puget Sound in the west, didn't fall into the West Coast category because it is located in the Pacific Ocean.

"They'll say Pearl Harbor is not on the west coast, they'll say it's in the Pacific," said McDonough. "If you believe everything they say, we're closed."


-------- nevada

Wildfire on Nellis range escalates north of Yucca Mountain

Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Las Vegas Review-Journal

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Jun-07-Tue-2005/news/26678786.html

A lightning-sparked wildfire on the Nellis Air Force Range north of Yucca Mountain and 25 miles east of Beatty grew to 20,000 acres on Monday, authorities said.

A multiagency team of 136 firefighters and support personnel was battling the blaze, which began Friday. It was not under control late Monday after being fanned by strong winds over the weekend, said Forest Service spokeswoman Beth Short.

She said no structures were threatened, but two single-engine air tankers, three helicopters and six hot shot crews, in addition to fire engines and water tenders, had been called in to put out the fast-burning brush fire.

The attack was being led by the Bureau of Land Management, which has an arrangement with the Department of Defense to suppress fires on the Air Force range.

No injuries had been reported, Short said.

A spokesman for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration said the fire had spread Monday afternoon to the west-central edge of the Nevada Test Site, north of the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.

Yucca Mountain sits along the test site's southwest boundary, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The spokesman, Kevin Rohrer, said the fire at one time was about one mile west of the north tunnel entrance to the Yucca Mountain Project.

----

YUCCA MOUNTAIN - DOE - Water flow studies sound

Accuracy of information called into question by e-mails in which scientists discussed falsifying documents

By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Las Vegas Review Journal June 7, 2005

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Jun-07-Tue-2005/news/26679274.html

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department has tentatively concluded that Yucca Mountain water flow studies were technically sound, even though scientists who conducted them had discussed falsifying quality control documents, a DOE executive said Monday.

Auditors discovered "the majority -- about 80 percent" of the problems in 1999 and 2000, shortly after the research was completed by U.S. Geological Survey hydrologists, according to John Arthur, Yucca Mountain deputy director.

Further, the USGS scientists' findings about how surface water might infiltrate cracks toward nuclear waste tunnels were consistent with other research conducted on the mountain, Arthur said.

"The net infiltration estimates are technically defensible," Arthur said at a Yucca managers' meeting with officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Pahrump. The meeting was telecast to NRC headquarters outside Washington.

But even though the USGS work may be sound, Arthur told the NRC that the data will not be used in an upcoming DOE license request to establish a nuclear waste repository at the Yucca site.

"While the numbers look good, we also recognize they are only as good as the integrity of the individuals that prepared them," Arthur said. "Our action is to make sure we have other individuals and organizations look to make sure the information is either replaced, redone or remediated so it stands up in our license application."

The water infiltration studies were called into question by a cache of e-mails that were made public in March.

The messages, written between 1998 and 2000, include two or three USGS scientists saying that dates and names had been made up, and that "fudge factors" were used to satisfy quality assurance requirements for their research.

Investigations by inspectors general into possible criminal activity were convened. At the same time, DOE has undertaken multiple internal studies to determine whether project science was compromised and to dissect its quality assurance program for Yucca Mountain.

The allegations amounted to another embarrassment for the Yucca project that had been set back by a court ruling last summer and by budget shortfalls on Capitol Hill.

A Yucca Mountain critic said he was not surprised that the Energy Department is finding minimal impact from the e-mail messages.

"It was going to be a whitewash from square one," said Bob Loux, director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. "We predicted how this was going to look when they announced their investigation."

Nevada officials had called for an independent probe of the e-mails. Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., has assigned staff members from his federal work force subcommittee to investigate the messages, but they have announced little progress. 




-------- new hampshire

Seabrook nuke plant security probed

By Susan Morse
smorse@seacoastonline.com
Tue. June 7, 2005 Hampton Union

http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/hampton/06072005/news/46391.htm

SEABROOK - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has sent a special inspection team to review security at the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant.

The weeklong inspection began Monday and is a follow-up on NRC-identified findings from an inspection in May, according to a statement from the NRC’s regional office in King of Prussia, Pa.

Resident inspector Glenn Dentel confirmed the inspection Monday and said he could not speak to specific security concerns.

Dentel said the inspection is being conducted by three members of the NRC’s regional office in Pennsylvania, one inspector from NRC headquarters in Rockville, Md., and resident inspector Steve Shaffer.

Inspectors are on site following reports of a breach in the plant’s intruder-alert alarm system installed last October. The security failure was identified in an internal plant document leaked to Seacoast Newspapers last month.

The report blamed an inadequate Perimeter Intrusion Detection System design and also deficient testing of the system, according to the document.

FPL Energy Seabrook Station spokesman Al Griffith said he could not comment on security.

"At no time have we lost the ability to protect public health and safety," he said.

The NRC inspection comes two days after U.S. Rep. Marty Meehan, a Democrat from Lowell, Mass., was given a private tour of the nuclear power plant, according to a report published in the Lowell Sun.

Meehan requested the tour and a meeting with plant officials and the NRC, said Griffith.

"We actually appreciate Congressman Meehan taking the time and opportunity to do that," Griffith said. "It gave him a new appreciation of Seabrook’s security, to see first-hand how multi-layered it is, not reliant on any one piece of equipment. He said afterwards it was safe."

Meehan could not be reached for comment.

Meehan reportedly said several breakdowns in the plant’s security system should be cause for deep concern.

U.S. Representatives John Tierney and Edward Markey, also of Massachusetts, have both written letters to the NRC decrying the breakdown in the security system.

Locally, 1st District Rep. Jeb Bradley released this statement:

"I have toured the Seabrook plant several times in the past and observed the extensive security measures they have in place there. All commercial nuclear plants, including Seabrook, have security measures in place that are designed to protect against a wide range of threats.

"Relative to this recent situation, it is my understanding that at no time was safety or security compromised at the Seabrook plant or in the surrounding communities.

"The Seabrook plant takes security very seriously and will work in conjunction with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Department of Homeland Security to correct any problems that may exist.

"We have been in contact with officials at both the Seabrook plant and the NRC and will continue to monitor the situation closely."



-------- new mexico

Sandia Lab's 'Z Machine' fires objects faster than Earth moves through space

Technique helps compute Jupiter/Saturn mass, improve peacetime fusion capsule design, stabilize stockpile

Public release date: 7-Jun-2005
Contact: Neal Singer
nsinger@sandia.gov
505-845-7078
DOE/Sandia National Laboratories 

http://www4.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-06/dnl-zfo060605.php

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Sandia National Labs has accelerated a small plate from zero to 76,000 mph in less than a second.

The speed of the thrust was a new record for Sandia's Z Machine - sometimes referred to as the fastest gun in the West. Actually the fastest in the world, it is now able to propel small plates at 34 kilometers a second, faster than the 30 km/sec that Earth travels through space in its orbit about the sun, 50 times faster than a rifle bullet, and three times the velocity needed to escape Earth's gravitational field.

Sandia is a National Nuclear Security Administration lab.

The immediate purpose of these very rapid flights is to help understand the extreme conditions found within the interiors of the giant planets Saturn and Jupiter, hasten the achievement of virtually unlimited energy through peacetime atomic fusion, and provide more information about the condition of the U.S. nuclear stockpile without having to explode a nuclear weapon.

"This is one of the few ways on earth to get hard information on problems at the outer reaches of science, rather than having to rely on complex speculations that may or may not be correct," says Marcus Knudson, lead scientist on the effort.

Z's hurled plates strike a target after traveling only five millimeters. The impact generates a shock wave - in some cases, reaching 15 million times atmospheric pressure - that passes through the target material. The waves are so powerful that they turn solids into liquids, liquids into gases, and gases into plasmas in the same way that heat melts ice to water or boils water into steam.

The difference is that the process takes place at far higher temperatures and in much shorter times than the kitchen stove could ever approach. The pressures produce states of materials rarely seen or measured in the laboratory. Says Yogi Gupta, a professor known for his work in shock physics at the Washington State University in Pullman, "If you had asked me a few years ago if we could send something this fast, I would have said you were joking. But mankind is always trying to create conditions in the laboratory that imitate extreme conditions [found elsewhere]."

When shock waves penetrate a capsule containing deuterium (an isotope of hydrogen), researchers learn more about how hydrogen behaves under extreme conditions, providing more information for humanity's effort to eventually achieve controlled nuclear fusion, the process that drives the sun. Harnessed in a power plant, this potentially low-environmental-impact method could achieve virtually unlimited energy from sea water.

By creating states of matter extremely difficult to achieve on Earth, the flyer plates also provide hard data to astrophysicists speculating on the structure and even the formation of planets like Jupiter and Saturn. Says Didier Saumon, an astrophysicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, "The internal structures of Jupiter and Saturn are composed mostly of hydrogen, so knowing its equation of state [how hydrogen and its isotopes behave at pressures from one to 50 million atmospheres] is highly relevant to how we infer the interior properties of these planets. Z gave us hard data."

A paper on the flyer plate results, first presented in a technical talk to the American Physical Society, has been submitted to the Journal of Applied Physics.

More technical information

The plates are small - only 30 mm by 15 mm in cross-section, and 850 microns thick. The trick in accelerating the fragile aluminum plates at 10-to-the-10th Gs (force of Earth's gravity) without vaporizing them lies in the finer control now achievable of the magnetic field pulse driving the flight.

The arrival of energy at the target is staggered over three hundred nanoseconds, so that the amperage arrives less like a brick wall that would vaporize the plate and more in controllable increments.

This requirement was better achieved by a recent upgrade that removed a single laser formerly used to trigger current in Z's thirty-six cables simultaneously. In its place, 36 laser switches were installed - one for each cable. This change permits researchers to shape the electrical pulse that arrives at the target, with a corresponding modulation in the magnetic field driving the plate.

An upgrade of Z planned for next year is expected to achieve plate velocities of 45 to 50 km/sec, says Marcus, driving targeted materials further into their plasma regime.

Z's former record in propelling plates was 21 km/sec, set two years ago.

###

Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies, and economic competitiveness.

Release and images are available at: http://www.sandia.gov/news-center/news-releases/2005/nuclear-power/z-saturn.html

Sandia media contact: Neal Singer, nsinger@sandia.gov, (505) 845-7078

Sandia National Laboratories' World Wide Web home page is located at http://www.sandia.gov. Sandia news releases, news tips, science photo gallery, and periodicals can be found at the News Center button. 



-------- north carolina

GE Nuclear considers consolidating nuclear operations in N.C.

EMERY P. DALESIO
Posted on Tue, Jun. 07, 2005
Associated Press

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/business/11836590.htm

RALEIGH, N.C. - General Electric Co. is considering consolidating its nuclear power business in North Carolina in anticipation that U.S. regulators will allow electric utilities to build a new generation of power plants, a company spokesman said Tuesday.

GE will decide by late summer whether to spend about $40 million to build a new facility in Wilmington, where the world's largest industrial conglomerate moved its global nuclear power headquarters two years ago, division spokesman Tom Rumsey said.

"There's every indication from the president on down that we're looking at some new builds in the nuclear industry," Rumsey said. "Wherever we're planted, that's where the hiring will be. ... We're trying to set ourselves so that if and when this growth occurs and we do get orders for new plants, we'll be able to grow."

Moving from three other locations - San Jose, Calif.; Memphis, Tenn.; and Huntersville - and hiring costs in Wilmington could push the price of consolidating to nearly $50 million, Rumsey said. The company is seeking tax breaks and other incentives from state and local governments to cover a good portion of the tab, he said.

"We're not saying, `Hey governor, give us $50 million.' We're hoping to partner with the state to help drive the economic growth," Rumsey said.

In 2003, GE Nuclear Energy relocated its worldwide headquarters from San Jose to Wilmington, investing $4 million and bringing 200 jobs paying an estimated average salary of $100,000 a year.

Gov. Mike Easley's administration agreed to compensate GE $5.9 million for that move if it maintains jobs there for nine years.

The state Commerce Department, which negotiates business incentives designed to attract new businesses to North Carolina, declined to comment on whether it is talking with GE, spokeswoman Alice Garland said.

New Hanover County's board of commissioners approved offering GE $2.1 million over seven years, The Star-News of Wilmington reported last month.

GE's nuclear business is part of the company's energy division, based in Atlanta, which delivered revenues of $17.3 billion last year, or 11 percent of GE's 2004 revenues.

Nuclear power provides about 20 percent of U.S. electricity production, but no new nuclear plants have been ordered since 1978. More than 100 orders for new reactors have been canceled, including all ordered after 1973.

The Bush administration has pushed incentives for building nuclear plants as part of its energy policy, developed in part to combat the rising cost of fossil fuels. Last year, natural gas prices jumped 24 percent, while the price of coal rose 12 percent.

U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said last month the first new nuclear power plant in more than two decades could be completed by 2014 under Bush administration proposals to reduce construction risks and speed licensing.

Consolidation would initially add about 100 jobs to GE's Wilmington nuclear operations, about 80 of them white-collar, Rumsey said. More than 900 GE workers in Wilmington already service and build nuclear power plants worldwide, as well as manufacture nuclear fuel.

The company also would add about 100 jobs to the 900 workers at a separate aircraft parts manufacturing plant in Wilmington, Rumsey said. About 80 percent of those new positions would be production jobs.

Jobs at GE are prized. The Wilmington operation posted eight job openings in December and had 3,000 qualified applicants, Rumsey said.



-------- pennsylvania

Berwick (PA) Nuclear Reactor Unit 2 Shuts Itself Down

Tuesday June 07, 2005 10:17am
BERWICK, Pa. (AP)

http://www.abc27.com/news/stories/0605/234006.html

Unit Two at PPL's Susquehanna Nuclear Power plant shut down automatically Monday afternoon.

Plant officials say the nuclear plant turned off around 12:30 pm because of a problem in the electric transmission network.

Workers are trying to determine what caused the problem.

The power plant's Unit one reactor remains up and running at full power.

The Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant is located near Berwick in Salem Township, Luzerne County. 



-------- virginia

Virginia: Powered by activism
In Louisa County, he has a history of opposing and challenging nuclear plants

BY GREG EDWARDS
RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Jun 7, 2005

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031783141466

Jerry Rosenthal grew up comfortably in Richmond, where family discussions about geography, history and politics foreshadowed his future as a community activist and nuclear-power critic.

Rosenthal's family owned Standard Drug Co., a 58-store chain that was sold to CVS in 1993. He attended Thomas Jefferson High School before heading off to the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school, where he met his wife, Faye.

After college, Rosenthal lived in Connecticut for a while before moving back to the Richmond area. He and Faye had joined the back-to-the-land movement and bought a farm in Louisa County. The rest of his family thought he was nuts, Rosenthal recalled.

His interest in environmentalism is probably rooted in the social movement that began in the 1960s, which rejects rampant American consumerism and is based on the idea of living a self-sufficient life close to nature.

Though he does financial consulting for small businesses now, Rosenthal still farms. He said he makes 80 cents an hour raising organic vegetables and beef.

Concerned Citizens of Louisa County, a group with which Rosenthal has come to be identified, was formed in 1978. "Its membership has fluctuated over the years depending on the issue."

During the early 1980s, the group focused on the plans of Dominion Virginia Power (known then as Virginia Electric & Power Co.) to move high-level radioactive waste from its nuclear plant in Surry County to its North Anna plant in Louisa for storage. The Surry plant's waste storage pool had been filled with nearly all the used-fuel rods it could hold.

The group persuaded the county Board of Supervisors to hire a lawyer to challenge the company's proposal in federal court and before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees the nation's nuclear power plants.

After a four-year fight, the company dropped its plan to move the waste, even though it had obtained a federal license to ship the fuel. The change of heart was made after federal regulators approved the company's proposal to store used-fuel rods in dry storage casks at the Surry plant.

"I went with VEPCO people to Congress to ask them and the [regulatory commission to approve the dry casks]," Rosenthal said. Since then, several other issues related to North Anna have come up.

Most recently, Rosenthal and the citizens group have been watching and commenting on Dominion Virginia Power's efforts to prepare the two-reactor North Anna plant for one or two additional reactors. The company says it has no plans to build more reactors but says it wants to be ready should it need to.

Dominion Virginia Power has applied for a federal permit that would allow it to set aside a reactor site at the plant for 20 years. It also is participating in a Department of Energy program to test a new reactor licensing program that would allow the company to obtain reactor construction and operating licenses in the same process.

Much of the time his watchdog role has been a lonely one, Rosenthal said, but with Dominion Virginia Power's new applications, a virtual explosion of interest has occurred. A new group has formed whose membership draws from beyond the borders of Louisa County: the People's Alliance for Clean Energy.

Rosenthal said the group has two goals: to promote alternative clean energy and to stop the building of new reactors at North Anna. With Republicans in charge of the government and willing to put up more than $350 million in taxpayer money to locate new reactors at the plant, the fight is going to be a tough one, he said.

Federal agencies have become promoters of nuclear energy, Rosenthal complained. "They want socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor."

Other public-interest groups, including the Sierra Club, Public Citizen, and the Nuclear Information and Retrieval Service, have joined in the latest fight -- a development that Rosenthal welcomes. More than 150 people showed up for a regulatory hearing on the company's draft environmental analysis of its new reactor site, he noted with satisfaction.

The hot water created by additional reactors at North Anna would harm fishing and other uses of the North Anna reservoir, Rosenthal contended. He also objects to a site permit that would give the company up to 20 years to build a reactor. During such a long period, he said, water use, population around the lake and other factors could change.

Rosenthal has toured the North Anna plant and Dominion Virginia Power listens to his views even if it doesn't agree with him on some things, company spokesman Richard Zuercher said. Zuercher characterizes the company's relationship with Rosenthal as cordial.

Many people in Louisa County support the North Anna plant and an eventual expansion, Rosenthal acknowledged. He said, however, that people realize his opposition to the plant is based on good intentions.

Louisa has reaped a lot of tax money and jobs from the plant, he said. The company has "brought in wonderful people who have had a positive impact on the community."

"That still doesn't make the plant safer," he said.

Rosenthal doesn't buy the nuclear industry's argument that more plants are the answer to concerns about greenhouse gases flowing from fossil-fuel-burning power plants. He characterizes that argument as "jumping out of the CO2 frying pan into the plutonium fire."

The industry still hasn't dealt with the issue of what to do with nuclear waste, Rosenthal said, suggesting that the proposed federal waste repository in Nevada may never open because of technical reasons.

Building more nuclear power plants is not the answer for energy independence, said Rosenthal, who lives 18 miles from the North Anna plant. "The first thing to do is concentrate on efficiency and conservation."

Any ideas? Staff writer Greg Edwards can be reached at (804) 649-6390 or gedwards@timesdispatch.com



-------- MILITARY 

Global Military Spending Tops $1T Mark

By MATTIAS KAREN, Associated Press Writer Tue Jun 7, 3:40 PM ET

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050607/ap_on_re_eu/arms_report

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Global military spending in 2004 broke the $1 trillion barrier for the first time since the Cold War, boosted by the U.S. war against terror and the growing defense budgets of India and China, a European think tank said Tuesday.

Led by the United States, which accounted for almost half of all military expenditure, the world spent $1.035 trillion on defense, equal to 2.6 percent of global gross domestic product, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said.

Besides its regular defense budget, the United States has allocated $238 billion since 2003 to fight terrorism, according to the report. "These appropriations are now assuming extraordinary proportions," said SIPRI researcher Elisabeth Skons, who co-authored the organization's annual report.

Adjusted for inflation, the figure for global military spending in 2004 is only 6 percent lower than its Cold War peak in 1987-1988, Skons said.

Total military expenditure grew 6 percent in 2004 over the previous year, in line with an average annual increase since 2002, the institute said. South Asia, northern Africa and North America made the largest increases. In Western Europe and Central America, military spending fell.

But the report said the figures might be on the low side as countries are increasingly outsourcing services related to armed conflicts, such as military training and providing logistics in combat zones, without classifying them as military expenditures.

Such outsourcing has more than doubled in the last 15 years, and was estimated to have reached $100 million during 2004, SIPRI researcher Caroline Holmqvist said. The researchers predicted it would double again from current levels by 2010.

"This is a global phenomenon," Holmqvist said, adding it was difficult to provide exact figures. "This is an industry that is not largely regulated."

As a region, South Asia saw the biggest rise in military expenditure, largely because India boosted its defense budget by 19 percent in a move that could provide a "real setback" to the country's attempts at ending a decades-long conflict with neighbor Pakistan, Skons said.

"Just a few years ago, it looked like they would be able to reach a peaceful settlement," she said. "Now India has increased (military spending) again."

The report is based on official national budgets in most cases, and independent studies for countries like China, where, Skons said, "it's obvious that the official figures are very wrong."

The government-funded institute estimated that China increased it defense budget by about 10 percent in 2004, to $35.4 billion — a figure that is about 70 percent above the government's official figure, Skons said.

Petter Stalenheim, co-author of the report, said India's large increase in military spending might be a way of challenging neighbor China as the supreme power in Asia but there was little sign of a growing arms race between the countries.

"Objectively, you can see that both India and China are increasing their military expenses by a rather large percentage," Stalenheim said. "But at the same time, neither one says they're directed toward each other."

The report also said China, which traditionally imported military equipment from Russia, is increasingly turning to other countries.

"(China) is very much dependent on Russia, and being dependent is not something that any country would like," SIPRI researcher Siemon Wezeman said. "What their wish would be is to become an independent producer of everything they need."

However, it may take as long as 50 years for China to catch up with the West in arms production, he said.

The United States accounted for 47 percent of all military expenditure while Britain and France each made up 5 percent of the total. In all, 15 countries accounted for 82 percent of the world's total military spending.

The arms trade also grew sharply, with the top 100 makers of weapons increasing their combined sales by 25 percent between 2002 and 2003, the report said. Those companies sold weapons and arms worth $236 billion worldwide in 2003, compared to $188 billion a year earlier. The United States accounted for 63 percent of all arms sales in 2003, the report said.

While conflicts in the Middle East were responsible for much of military spending, the rest of the world is also laying out more on security, the report said.

"It's hard to put the United States in the center, or blame everything on the U.S.," said Alyson J.K. Bailes, the think tank's director.

"Despite all the ongoing problems, the state of world security is a great deal better than it was in the Cold War," Bailes said.

On the Net:

SIPRI: http://www.sipri.org

----

Mass Indigenous-led Rebellion Forces Bolivian President to Resign

Tuesday, June 7th, 2005 Democracy Now!

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/07/1334228

For weeks, tens of thousands of indigenous Bolivians have led an uprising against the government, demanding the nationalization of the country's energy resources and an overhaul of the constitution. Last night, President Carlos Mesa went on national television and announced he was stepping down. We go to Cochabamba, Bolivia to speak with Jim Shultz of The Democracy Center. [includes rush transcript] The indigenous-led rebellion in Latin America"s poorest country, Bolivia, has taken a dramatic turn. After weeks of massive protest that have crippled large sections of the country, President Carlos Mesa appeared on national television and told the country he was stepping down. As he spoke, tens of thousands of protesters remained in the streets of the capital la Paz.

    * Bolivian President Carlos Mesa

Bolivian President Carlos Mesa, speaking last night on national television. This is not the first time that Mesa has offered to resign. In early May, as the protests against his government intensified, Mesa submitted his resignation to the Congress but it was refused in what many saw as a public show. This time, analysts say, that is not the case.

Earlier in the day, Mesa had to be evacuated from the presidential compound after the crowds in the streets swelled so large that there was a real threat the demonstrators could storm the building. A few hours later, Mesa returned to the building under heavy military escort and prepared to deliver his address to the country.

While much of the news reporting on Bolivia has interpreted the massive demonstrations as protests calling for the nationalization of the country's natural gas resources, that is just one part of the much bigger picture. The country is more than 2/3 indigenous. These communities are calling for what they call a "nationalization of the government," a total overhaul of Bolivia's system and true representation of the communities that constitute a majority of the country.

Late last night, one of the best-known Bolivian opposition figures, the socialist Congressmember Evo Morales held a news conference.

    * Congressmember Evo Morales

Among the demands Morales laid out were for Carlos Mesa's presidency to be immediately ended. He also called on the leaders of the Bolivian Senate and House to waive their rights to succeed Mesa. Morales, instead, called on the President of Bolivia"s Supreme Court to organize elections. Morales said it was the only way out of the crisis.

We go now to Cochabamba, where we are joined on the line by longtime Bolivia activist Jim Shultz. He runs an organization called the Democracy Center and writes a blog that can be found at DemocracyCtr.org. He is also author of a new book called "Deadly Consequences: The International Monetary Fund and Bolivia"s Black February."

    * Jim Shultz, Executive Director of the Democracy Center in Cochabama, Bolivia. He writes a blog on the situation in Bolivia that can be found at DemocracyCtr.org.

RUSH TRANSCRIPT

AMY GOODMAN: This is Bolivian President, Carlos Mesa.

      CARLOS MESA: I have made the decision to present my resignation from the office of President of the Republic. This is a resignation that has only one objective, the objective that Bolivian society keeps in mind that the sacrifice has to be genuine, and it cannot be any other thing, and that I cannot do anything else but to hand over this responsibility so that a solution can be reached that gets us out of this situation, which is putting the country and its future at serious risk. 

AMY GOODMAN: Bolivian President Carlos Mesa, speaking last night on national television. This is not the first time Mesa has offered to resign. In early May, as the protests against his government intensified, he submitted his resignation to the congress, but it was refused in what many saw as a public show. This time analysts say it's not the case. Earlier in the day Mesa had to be evacuated from the presidential compound after the crowds in the streets swelled so large there was a real threat the demonstrators could storm the building. A few hours later Mesa returned to the building under heavy military escort and prepared to deliver his address to the country. While much of the news reporting on Bolivia has interpreted the massive demonstrations as protests calling for the nationalization of the country's energy resources, that's just one part of the much bigger picture. The country is more than two-thirds indigenous. These communities are calling for what they call a nationalization of the government, a total overhaul of Bolivia's system and true representation of the communities that constitute the majority of the country. We go now to Cochabamba, where we are joined on the line by long-time Bolivia activist, Jim Shultz, runs an organization called the Democracy Center, writes a blog that can be found at DemocracyCtr.org. He’s also author of a new book called Deadly Consequences: The International Monetary Fund and Bolivia’s Black February. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Jim Shultz.

JIM SHULTZ: Good morning, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s good to have you with us. Can you talk about the latest?

JIM SHULTZ: Well, your listeners have it. Last night the President, Carlos Mesa, announced his resignation. And this is not a charade. I don't think he’s going to find the congress rejecting his resignation this time around. What’s going on is a very complicated political game. The demand from the people on the streets here is for two things. One is that the country retake control of its oil and gas resources and, second, that this constituent assembly be convened to rewrite the constitution and to rewrite the political rules. It’s clear to the power in this country that something is going to have to happen. And so, there’s been this effort over the weekend to placate the protests with something different, which would be new elections. Constitutionally the way that it works here if the president resigns and the two leaders of the congress both either resign or refuse to take over the presidency, it automatically triggers a caretaker presidency by the president of the supreme court in new elections. The Catholic Church has been trying to broker such a deal over the weekend, and Mesa was willing to be a part of that. It is unclear whether his resignation will trigger that scenario, because the two congressional leaders have not made their intentions clear about what they're going to do. So we could end up being actually in a much worse situation over the next 24 hours, because if his successor, the president of the senate, Hormando Vaca Diez, if he were to actually assume the presidency, I think that this country will explode. He is a far, far less respected figure than even Carlos Mesa was.

AMY GOODMAN: What will happen right now, do you think? I wanted to turn for a minute to Evo Morales, who was also recorded speaking last night. Evo Morales, of course, the socialist congress member. Many have talked about him being a future president. Among the demands Morales has laid out were for Carlos Mesa's presidency to be immediately ended. He also called on the leaders of the Bolivian senate and house to waive their rights to succeed Mesa. Morales instead called on the president of Bolivia’s supreme court to organize elections. He said it was the only way out of the crisis. Your response, Jim Shultz?

JIM SHULTZ: Well, I'm not sure I even agree with Evo on this. I’m not sure that the people who in the streets are going to be happy with a call for new elections. Here’s the situation. If they call new elections, they're talking about calling new elections under the existing system, under the existing rules. So you have hundreds of thousands of people in this country in the streets demanding that the rules of politics be rewritten. I’m not sure that's saying, “Well, we're not going to rewrite the rules, but now we're going to elect a new government under the old rules.” I’m not sure that really satisfies people. It doesn't address the issue of gas and oil. And it doesn’t address the issue of holding a constituent assembly. And frankly, I think if we were to hold elections in August, September, October in this country, I think that the most likely victor is going to be another former president, Tuto Quiroga, who is a former I.B.M. executive who doesn’t even live here now. He lives primarily in the United States, and who in his one year in office killed more people than his predecessor, the former dictator did in four years. So I think there’s a trap here. And I don't know that just holding new elections – if new elections were held along with a commitment for the nationalization of oil and gas and a commitment for a constituent assembly, then there might be some sort of a package there. But new elections on its own? I don't see it settling this country down.

AMY GOODMAN: If this were to go according to the constitutional rules, it would go to -- the head of the senate would become the next president, but can you talk about what would happen if he were to take power?

JIM SHULTZ: Well, Evo Morales, he said a couple weeks ago, he said if this guy takes office it'll last ten minutes, maybe twenty. I think that, first of all, Hormando Vaca Diez, who's the gentleman we're talking about, he is a politician allied with the former president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, who was kicked out of this country for killing his own people two years ago. He is from Santa Cruz, and those people who've been following the story understand that one of the things that's going on here in Bolivia is this regional split, where Santa Cruz, which is the wealthy area of the country where a lot of the oil and gas is located, is trying to demand autonomy and essentially get control of the oil and gas, or at least get larger share of the oil and gas. So to put a Santa Cruz politician linked to a deposed president in the presidential palace at this moment in time is just about the stupidest thing that can happen.

AMY GOODMAN: Jim Shultz, finally, there has been some concern expressed that exploiting the vacuum in power, though the power definitely looks like it's in the hands of the people right now, that generals representing the far right wealthy in Santa Cruz could step into the void.

JIM SHULTZ: You know, I'm not as pessimistic about that as other people are. My sense is that -- and the military I think has made this clear, remember this is a country that lived under dictatorship for many years --any Bolivian over the age of 30 has lived under a dictatorship, old enough to remember what it's like. And so the military, I think, is very hesitant to do that kind of thing. The only way in which I would see a military takeover, and this could change, would be if literally there was no government. If there was no succession, no government, there just seemed to be no central authority whatsoever, I can imagine then the military stepping in. But there is a constitutional process in play here. It is being respected, and it needs to play out, and I think that will happen. And in the meantime, I think the pressures in the streets are going to continue, and I don't think that people are going to accept anything short at this point of nationalization, of the retaking of oil and gas into public hands.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you very much, Jim Shultz, for joining us. Jim Shultz, speaking to us from Cochabamba, Bolivia. Again, the President of Bolivia, President Mesa, has offered his resignation as there is mass protest in the streets. 

----

Venezuela seizes Colombian missile parts

Tuesday, June 7, 2005 Posted: 1:34 PM EDT (1734 GMT)
	
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/06/07/missile.parts.reut/index.html?section=cnn_latest

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuelan police seized a cargo of Colombian warplane missile components being transported to Israel and detained a warehouse manager employed by the German air freight company Lufthansa Cargo, officials said Tuesday.

"Some of these missile parts contained nitrogen which make their transport dangerous," Venezuelan Information Minister Andres Izarra said.

The seizure comes at a time when relations between Venezuela and Colombia, which share a long common frontier, have been strained in the past years by border disputes and rows over security.

Venezuelan authorities were investigating the cargo which was intercepted in transit at the weekend at Caracas' Simon Bolivar airport.

Colombia's air force, which had sent the parts, said they were non-explosive missile electrical components which it was delivering to a company in Israel for maintenance.

Izarra corrected an earlier public announcement by the office of Venezuela's attorney general, which had reported that five warplane "missiles" had been found late Saturday in a container at Lufthansa Cargo's warehouse at the airport.

In a statement, Lufthansa Cargo confirmed that one of its Venezuelan employees had been detained.

"This seems to have happened due to transportation of sensitive pieces of freight. Lufthansa Cargo only transports freight respecting IATA (International Air Transport Association) and government regulations," the statement said.

The Colombian air force said in its statement released by Colombia's embassy in Caracas that the seized items "were not dangerous for transport by air because they were electrical parts which do not contain any explosive component."

Lufthansa representatives said they were cooperating with the Venezuelan authorities in the investigation.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez often complains that Colombia's government does not do enough to stop a four-decades-old war against leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitaries from spilling over the border.

Colombia and the United States have accused left-winger Chavez of sheltering the rebels, a charge he denies.


-------- spies

Bill Would Give CIA More Power Overseas
Legislation Covers All Human Intelligence

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 7, 2005; A04

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/06/AR2005060601535_pf.html

The CIA would be given authority to coordinate all human intelligence activities overseas, including those carried out by Pentagon and FBI personnel, under legislation proposed by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in the fiscal 2006 intelligence authorization bill.

At a time when the CIA appears to be losing its preeminence in clandestine operations abroad, the House panel suggested language in the bill that it said was designed to clarify roles of the CIA director and the new director of national intelligence (DNI) regarding the collection of human intelligence outside the United States "by any department, agency or element" of the U.S. government.

In the past, the CIA has exercised similar authority in most cases, but the House panel decided to try to put that into law as a result of increased overseas operations by many government agencies, and reports that several Pentagon teams had been found operating overseas without the knowledge of CIA officials.

Under the House committee proposal, CIA Director Porter J. Goss would develop a process for coordinating clandestine human intelligence activities overseas, but it would be "subject to the approval of the DNI," John D. Negroponte, according to the panel's report, made available yesterday.

The House panel also revived a proposal that would limit Negroponte's authority to transfer Pentagon or other intelligence specialists within the intelligence community. Under the current law, Negroponte must provide prompt notice of any transfer only to the appropriate congressional committees.

Under the proposal, he could not make such a transfer until he had informed the committees with proper jurisdiction, "and received a response."

Rep. Jane Harman (Calif.), the ranking minority member on the committee, and other Democrats described the proposal as "a pocket veto" of the DNI's personnel transfer authority in additional views printed in the report. They said they opposed the provision and noted that when the same language was proposed in the Defense Department's fiscal 2006 authorization bill in March, a DNI spokesman opposed it.

Harman and the others warned that if the provision is not changed, they will move to strike it when the bill reaches the House floor, "and we believe we will be successful."

In another action, the House panel said it made "significant" reductions in "expensive technical collection systems," which congressional sources described as new large satellites. Money saved from redirecting satellite spending was aimed at increasing "human intelligence and analysis," the committee said in its report.

The panel said the intelligence community "has resisted terminating even badly flawed major systems acquisitions," a reference to multibillion-dollar satellites that in the past have been criticized by members of the Senate intelligence committee.

The panel report, which keeps classified the overall amount proposed for next year's intelligence activities -- said to be in excess of $41 billion -- does note authorizing $446 million in an account that is to be the "principal source of funding" for Negroponte's new team. The Congressional Budget Office estimates $268 million in costs next year, according to the House panel report.


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


-------- drug war

Supreme Court Rules Against Medical Marijuana Use

Tuesday, June 7th, 2005 Democracy Now!

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/07/1334233

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that the federal government can prosecute the sick for the medical use of marijuana, even in states where it is legal. In a 6-3 ruling, the court agreed with the Bush administration that the regulation of controlled substances, including marijuana, is the province of Congress without exception. [includes rush transcript] Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority "If there is any conflict between federal and state law, federal law shall prevail."

The ruling does not strike down laws in 11 states that allow medicinal use of marijuana. The court was not asked to declare such statutes illegal. But the decision does mean that those laws will not protect anyone using medical marijuana from federal prosecution should a U.S. attorney or the Justice Department decide to bring charges.

The latest ruling stems from a lawsuit brought in 2002 by two women -- Diana Monson and Angel Raich -- who have used marijuana to gain relief from excruciating pain under recommendation from their doctors. After DEA agents raided Monson"s home, they sued the government to stop further raids.

Monday's Supreme Court ruling reverses a decision of a San Francisco appeals court. Raich spoke to reporters shortly after the decision was announced.

    * Angel Raich

Shortly after the Supreme Court ruling yesterday, we spoke with medical marijuana rights activist, Ed Rosenthal. He is a leading authority on cannabis and has served as an expert witness on marijuana cultivation in federal and state trials. He was arrested by federal agents in 2002 has since been convicted on three marijuana cultivation felonies. I began by asking him about his arrest.

    * Ed Rosenthal

RUSH TRANSCRIPT

AMY GOODMAN: Raich spoke to reporters yesterday shortly after the decision was announced.

      ANGEL RAICH: Just because the Supreme Court today has ruled against me does not mean that the war on patients should begin. It means that it’s time for the federal government to have some compassion and have some heart. And to please use common sense. Do not waste taxpayers' dollars by coming in and locking us up. We're ill. We're not trying to be disobedient. We're just using this medicine, because it’s what’s saving our lives. 

AMY GOODMAN: Angel Raich, one of the two women who sued the government in 2002 over the medical use of marijuana. Shortly after the Supreme Court ruling yesterday we talked with medical marijuana rights activist, Ed Rosenthal, who joined us in our studio. We're going to break and we come back and talk to him about the significance of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, the War and Peace Report, as we talk now about the U.S. Supreme Court decision, turning to marijuana rights activist, Ed Rosenthal, a leading authority on cannabis, has served as an expert witness on marijuana cultivation in federal and state trials, arrested by federal agents in 2002. He has since been convicted on three marijuana cultivation felonies. I began by asking him about his own arrest.

ED ROSENTHAL: I was growing starter plants so that patients could grow their own marijuana, and the federal government came and arrested me at 6:00 a.m. I ran downstairs. I thought a neighbor might need help. I was naked. Luckily, that way they couldn't shoot me. I had nothing hidden. They saw everything. And they were looking for – and then they went over to my nursery, which was in a 1,500 square foot building; it was about 400 square feet of cultivation, and this was a big Oakland warehouse that they were talking about. And what they found there was mother plants and cuttings so that -- that were being rooted so that patients could use them. And then I went to trial. And the judge wouldn't let the jury hear that I was an officer of the City of Oakland or that I had been -- that I was growing the plants for patients, and they arrested me two hours after they found me guilty.

AMY GOODMAN: So they convicted you?

ED ROSENTHAL: They convicted me two hours after I was found guilty. The jury started calling the news media saying that they were duped, that they felt dirty, that they had been conned by the government because they hadn't been able to hear the whole story, which was that I was an officer of the city growing medical marijuana.

AMY GOODMAN: Explain what you mean when you say you were an officer of the City of Oakland.

ED ROSENTHAL: The city created a position called an officer – a health officer of the city to cultivate and specifically allowed us to cultivate marijuana. The city's theory was that officers working for the city and fed -- city and state governments are protected from the drug laws. For instance, a narcotics officer who carries or sells marijuana, if there wasn't something to protect him, he could be arrested. So that was -- under that same idea, they thought I was protected, and the city government told me that I was protected. I was sworn in. I was congratulated for being sworn in by city people. And then when it came time to the trial, the judge would not let the jury hear that.

AMY GOODMAN: And yet, when were you sentenced, he did.

ED ROSENTHAL: Yes. There was so much public pressure, and it was so much of an issue in the area, that the -- I think, that the judge felt that it was better for the federal government to concede a little. So he didn’t want the damage that would have been done to drug laws if I had been jailed. And what the judge did was he sentenced me to one day in prison, time served.

AMY GOODMAN: And you had served already. But now, your case –

ED ROSENTHAL: They owe me twelve hours.

AMY GOODMAN: Your case remains in court.

ED ROSENTHAL: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: Because?

ED ROSENTHAL: And it’s been held in stasis until this decision. And they were going to base their decision in part on this decision on what happened with the Raich case, but in my case there were so many irregularities and technical deficiencies. For instance, the judge himself said that the prosecutor had lied to the grand jury, but he said that that was of no significance.

AMY GOODMAN: Lied about what?

ED ROSENTHAL: Well, he said to the grand jury that they were – that when he got the indictment, that they were going after these big, big drug dealers and they weren't going after the medical marijuana clubs. And that was an out and out lie.

AMY GOODMAN: Explain what this whole movement is about, what these clubs are, why you are so committed to it.

ED ROSENTHAL: Well, medical marijuana can help literally millions of people in the United States, and I don't want to go into the whole medical thing of it, but basically we have receptor sites in various parts of our body for a natural cannabinoid. It’s called anandomide. And because of that, it’s a very effective drug for many situations, from nausea, headaches, different kinds of pains, aches, stress release. And it goes on. And there are a lot of scientific studies on this done both in this country on animals and outside the country on humans. It’s the safest medicine that you can have. There’s never been a recorded case of a person dying from the use of marijuana. Just none. So that's what this is about.

AMY GOODMAN: Angel Raich's story?

ED ROSENTHAL: She has inoperable brain cancer. And the cancer has been held in check by constant use of marijuana. It isn’t growing. She’s not the only one. There’s a fellow by the name of Steve Kubby, who was brought to trial in California on state charges, who has – who also has inoperable brain cancer. So she sued – so Angel, along with Diane Munson sued the federal government so that she could obtain -- to protect her sources of marijuana who were giving it to her for free, and there was no commerce. So she said since the nexus of the federal laws to the state’s is commerce, and since there was no commerce, that she should be free from the federal laws, and in a contradiction, the Supreme Court actually ruled -- just now ruled that even though there wasn't commerce, this affects commerce.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about the Supreme Court Justices who dissented. Three of them, Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Justice Clarence Thomas, and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

ED ROSENTHAL: Well, you know, they're part of that ultra right Republican group that believes in states’ rights above everything, and that's why they voted for this. This is a – this was a states’ rights issue. First, it’s a marijuana exception to the Constitution. And the marijuana exception to the Constitution says that even though it might be unconstitutional because it’s such a dangerous drug, even though it hasn't killed anybody ever, it should -- we can abridge or abrogate the other Constitutional provisions to keep marijuana from people. And they’ve said that so many -- there have been so many cases regarding marijuana, and each time they ruled against it, and they used spurious grounds to rule against it. And, in fact, this case actually, I think it’s made great progress, because it’s the first time that it wasn't a unanimous decision against marijuana. We’ve won three. Now we just need another two.

AMY GOODMAN: So where do you see this whole movement going right now? Do you see this as a tremendous setback?

ED ROSENTHAL: No, I see it as an advance. As I said, this is the first time Supreme Court Justices have ever ruled in favor of marijuana. We have got three of them, we just need another two. And, you know, Plessy v. -- you know, I don't think we'll have the same time frame, but this is sort of like a little past Plessy v. Ferguson in the Civil Rights Movement, and where the -- originally the Supreme Court caused a setback in integration and fair treatment of races, but on the other hand this is going to cause -- there's a lot of -- every time that the federal government has tried to do something with marijuana, there has been blowback. In 1937 marijuana was made illegal. There were 50,000 marijuana users, now there are 50 million. That’s pretty, you know – look at that blowback.

AMY GOODMAN: How does the U.S. compare to the rest of the world?

ED ROSENTHAL: In terms of -- let's talk about, you know, the democracies in European countries that we compare ourselves with, it’s just like with -- similar to the death penalty, except, you know, where the United States is in the Dark Ages, and the European governments are much more enlightened, except for one thing, the majority of voting Americans believe that medical marijuana should be legal. And every time they've had chance to vote for it, they voted in favor of it in all of these initiatives in 10 different states. And also the majority of people in the United States, while they don't think that marijuana as a whole should be legal, they don't think that marijuana users should go to jail. And that’s significant. And take this, for instance: if a kid uses marijuana and gets convicted of a marijuana misdemeanor, they're ineligible for any federal government help with their education. It’s something that doesn't happen to rapists, burglars, any other kind of criminal class, just drug users, marijuana specifically.

AMY GOODMAN: They can never get a federal grant again for their education?

ED ROSENTHAL: Life. For their life, yes.

AMY GOODMAN: Ed Rosenthal, I want to thank you very much for being with us.

ED ROSENTHAL: Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: Ed Rosenthal is with Green Aid, a long time marijuana rights activist. 

----

Court rules state can't protect medical pot users

June 07, 2005
By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050606-102806-8384r.htm

State laws do not protect people whose doctors recommend marijuana to ease pain caused by cancer and other serious illnesses, and those who use it can be prosecuted by federal authorities, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday.

    In a defeat for marijuana advocates who successfully lobbied 10 states to allow the drug's medicinal use, the high court -- in a 6-3 ruling -- overturned a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco that said medicinal marijuana users Angel Raich and Diane Monson, both of California, were immune to federal prosecution.

    The use of marijuana at the recommendation of a doctor has been legal in California since voters approved Proposition 215 in 1996. Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington state have enacted similar laws.

    "Our case law firmly establishes Congress' power to regulate purely local activities that are part of an economic 'class of activities' that have a substantial effect on interstate commerce," Justice John Paul Stevens said in the majority decision. "We have never required Congress to legislate with scientific exactitude.

    "When Congress decides that the 'total incidence' of a practice poses a threat to a national market, it may regulate the entire class."

    Justice Stevens also said exempting for cultivation by patients and caregivers would only increase the supply of marijuana in California, adding that "no small number of unscrupulous people will make use of the California exemptions to serve their commercial ends whenever it is feasible to do so."

    Joining in the majority were Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Clarence Thomas dissented.

    "If Congress can regulate this ... then it can regulate virtually anything and the federal government is no longer one of limited and enumerated powers," Justice Thomas said in a dissenting opinion.

    Justice Department officials said they were pleased with the court ruling. John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said the nation's "national medical system relies on proven scientific research, not popular opinion."

    The federally mandated Controlled Substances Act prevents the cultivation and possession of marijuana, even by those who claim "medicinal" use. Mrs. Raich, who has brain cancer, and Mrs. Monson, who grew marijuana in her yard to alleviate chronic back pain, sued the government in federal court in 2002 after raids a year earlier by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

    The two women, who were among those arrested, claimed they were protected by passage of California's Proposition 215.

    The appeals court later agreed, ruling that the use of medical marijuana was noncommercial and, as a result, was not subject to congressional oversight. The government said homegrown marijuana represented interstate commerce because it affected the "overall production" of the drug.

    "With this ruling, Congress and the Justice Department have a choice: They can choose to waste taxpayers' dollars and undermine states' rights by arresting and prosecuting seriously ill patients who possess and use medical cannabis in compliance with state law, or they can choose more worthwhile priorities, like protecting national security and targeting violent criminals," said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the District-based National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

    Congress is expected to vote later this month on a bipartisan amendment offered by Reps. Dana Rohrabacher, California Republican, and Maurice D. Hinchey, New York Democrat, that would prohibit the federal government from spending taxpayers' dollars to prosecute patients who comply with their state's medical marijuana laws. 


-------- homeland security / national intelligence

Emergency Preparedness against the 'Universal Adversary'

by Michel Chossudovsky
7 June 2005 (revised)
For media inquiries: crgeditor@yahoo.com
Centre for Research on Globalisation
Centre de recherche sur la mondialisation

http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO506A.html
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0506/S00099.htm

Orwellian "Scenarios"

A recent Report of the Homeland Security Council entitled Planning Scenarios describes in minute detail, the Bush administration's preparations in the case of a terrorist attack by an outside enemy called the Universal Adversary (UA).

The Universal Adversary, is identified in the scenarios as an abstract entity used for the purposes of simulation. Yet upon more careful examination, this Universal Adversary is by no means illusory. It includes the following categories of potential "conspirators":

    "foreign [Islamic] terrorists" ,

    "domestic radical groups", [antiwar and civil rights groups]

    "state sponsored adversaries" ["rogue states", "unstable nations"]

    "disgruntled employees" [labor and union activists].

According to the Planning Scenarios Report :

"Because the attacks could be caused by foreign terrorists; domestic radical groups; state sponsored adversaries; or in some cases, disgruntled employees, the perpetrator has been named, the Universal Adversary (UA). The focus of the scenarios is on response capabilities and needs, not threat-based prevention activities." (See Planning Scenarios )

The domestic radical groups and labor activists, which visibly constitute a threat to the established political order, are now conveniently lumped together with foreign Islamic terrorists, suggesting that the PATRIOT anti-terror laws together with the Big Brother law enforcement apparatus are eventually intended to be used against potential domestic "adversaries".

While the Universal Adversary is "make-believe", the simulations constitute a dress rehearsal of a real life emergency situation:

"The scenarios have been developed in a way that allows them to be adapted to local conditions throughout the country"

Fifteen Distinct Scenarios

The scenarios cover the entire array of threats:

15 distinct threat scenarios to the Security of America carried out by four categories of enemies: Islamic terrorists, radical groups, rogue adversaries and labor activists.

The scenarios simulate operations carried out by the Universal Adversary (UA). They include inter alia a nuclear detonation (with a small 10-Kiloton improvised nuclear device, anthrax attacks, a biological disease outbreak including a pandemic influenza, not to mention a biological plague outbreak. Various forms of chemical weapons attacks are also envisaged including the use of toxic industrial chemicals, and nerve gas. Radiological attacks through the emission of a radioactive aerosol are also envisaged. (See Text box below)

What is revealing in the "doomsday scripts" is that they bear no resemblance to the weaponry used by clandestine urban "terrorists". In fact, in several cases, they correspond to weapons systems which are part of the US arsenal and which have been used in US sponsored military operations. The description of the nuclear device bears a canny resemblance to America's tactical nuclear weapon ("mini nuke") , which also has a 10-kiloton yield, approximately two-thirds of a Hiroshima bomb. That Homeland Security should actually envisage a make believe scenario of large scale nuclear attacks by 'domestic radicals' and/or Islamic terrorists borders on the absurd.

With regard to the nerve gas attack scenario, in a cruel irony, it is the same type of nerve gas (as well as mustard gas) used by the US military against civilians in Fallujah.

Building a Consensus

These simulations are applied to sensitize and "educate" key decision makers. The simulated data, the various categories of 'conspirators", the types of deadly weapons envisaged in the simulations are part of this knowledge base. The political objective of the Bush administration is to create a broad consensus: a feeling of allegiance and commitment within the emergency preparedness community.

The nature of the adversaries and the dangers of the attacks (ranging from nuclear detonations to nerve agents and anthrax) become "talking points". In the scenarios, the conspirators including the "domestic radical groups" and "disgruntled employees" are described as being in possession of "weapons of mass destruction".

In the comprehensive 2005 anti-terrorist TOPOFF-3 exercises , (similar to war exercises, conducted recently under the auspices of Homeland Security) precise data sources were simulated and used to identify potential conspirators.

This "world of fiction" underlying the scenarios becomes real. The data sources "replicate actual terrorist networks down to names, photos, and drivers license numbers."

The scenarios create for the more than 10,000 TOPOFF-3 participants, a carefully designed "reality model" which shapes their behavior and understanding:

"Planners included the threats they considered most likely or devastating, said Marc Short, a [Homeland Security] department spokesman."

The "reality model" script of threats and conspirators replaces the real world.

These fabricated realities penetrate the inner-consciousness of key decision makers. The reality model script molds the behavior of public officials, it builds a "knowledge" and "understanding", namely a shared ignorance regarding the war on terrorism and the "adversaries" who oppose the administration's war and homeland security agendas.

A world of fiction becomes reality. The scenarios "enable exercise players to simulate intelligence gathering and analysis", in preparation of an actual emergency situation which, according to the scenarios' assumptions, would lead to mass arrests of presumed terror suspects.

Fiction becomes fact.

Conversely fact becomes fiction. "Ignorance is strength". The "scenarios" require submission and conformity: for those key decision-makers at the federal, State and municipal levels, the US government, namely the Bush Administration is the unquestioned guardian of the truth. The outright lies concerning Osama, Zarqawi, the "rogue enemies" of America, "weapons of mass destruction", not to mention 9-11, are upheld as indelible truths.

What we are dealing with is a process of indoctrination, which develops a new righteousness and which ultimately abolishes the Rule of Law. In the words of Central Command General (ret) Tommy Franks:

"A terrorist, massive, casualty-producing event [will occur] somewhere in the Western world it may be in the United States of America that causes our population to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass, casualty-producing event." (Cigar Aficionado, December 2003)

"Reality Model" Script based on "Flimsy Intelligence"

The process of emergency preparedness could be launched, even in the case of a threat based on "intelligence", which proves at some later date to be unfounded. In the scripted "scenarios", the pictures and IDs of potential conspirators in police data banks are real, leading immediately in the case of an actual emergency to mass arrests.

Known and documented, several of the post-911 terrorist threats were in fact based on fake intelligence. Several of the high profile code orange terror alerts had been fabricated outright. (See Fabricating Intelligence as a Justification for War, See also http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO505D.html )

Acknowledged by Tom Ridge, upon retiring from his position as Sec of Homeland Security:

"there was only flimsy evidence to justify raising the threat level& Ridge [said] .he often disagreed with administration officials who wanted to elevate the threat level to orange, or "high" risk of terrorist attack, but was overruled... There were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said, 'For that?' " (USA Today , 10 May 2005)

Fake intelligence is part of the disinformation campaign. It plays a key role in building the "war on terrorism" consensus. It builds a justification for war. The national security doctrine rests on the existence of an outside enemy, which threatens the Homeland.

The falsehoods created by this "flimsy intelligence" are embodied in the terror attack "scenarios" and exercises. Lies are transformed into indelible truths. The latter are shared by State officials, private sector decision-makers and "first responders" in a national emergency situation, if and when it occurs.

In other words these Orwellian "scenarios" assume that the various threats must be taken seriously, irrespective of the source of the intelligence or the reliability of the intelligence. The scripted "scenarios" and anti-terror TOPOFF exercises are based on fake terror threats, which requires the production of fake intelligence.

Martial Law

Both the "scenarios" and the TOPOFF-3 anti-terror exercises were barely mentioned in the media. In other words, ww are not dealing with a propaganda ploy directed towards the broader American public. The propaganda in this case is targeted. It takes the form of "training" and emergency preparedness:

"We are moving forward in applying lessons learned to anticipate and address all possible attack scenarios," an F.B.I. spokeswoman said, asking not to be named because her department was not the lead author of the document. "With enhanced law enforcement and intelligence community partnerships, we are able to better detect terrorist plots and dismantle terrorist organizations." (NYT 26 Feb 2005)

The "Scenarios" were developed for "Use in National, Federal, State and Local Homeland Security Preparedness". They instill in public and private sector officials and participants a sense of responsibility, duty and awareness in relation to something which is ultimately fictitious.

The "scenarios" and anti-terrorist exercises develop observance and compliance by public officials, law enforcement, intelligence, military and civilian federal and State employees, etc.

Moreover, the scenarios also envisage the circumstances under which Martial Law could be triggered in the case of a threat by the Universal Adversary. In other words, fake intelligence could indeed be used to trigger a martial law situation in America, much in the same way as (deja vu) fake intelligence was used "to fit the policy" of invading Iraq, as revealed in the controversial Downing Street Secret Memo.

In a real life emergency, instructed by the relevant authorities, law enforcement officials would proceed to arrest the Universal Adversary, including members of radical groups, labor activists, etc.

Law enforcement officials would no longer be instructed to uphold the Rule of Law. In fact quite the opposite.

The arrests would be conducted on behalf of officials in high office, who have broken the law, and who are known to have committed extensive war crimes.

In the "reality model" script, the US State, its military-intelligence apparatus and war planning machine become the guardians of the peace. The State is above the law.

The "reality model" script not only sets the stage for Martial Law, it also constitutes an obvious political and legal safeguard against prosecution and/or impeachment of the President and his entourage.

Some 88 members of Congress, in a letter addressed to President Bush, have recently demanded "whether there was a coordinated effort with the U.S. intelligence community and/or British officials to "fix" the intelligence and facts around the policy [of waging an illegal war on Iraq] as the leaked document states?"

Under martial law, the Rule of Law is banished. The lies, crimes and atrocities of the real world are substituted by a "reality model" script of fictitious attacks by fictitious "conspirators". Those who in any way question to existence of the Universal Adversary would themselves be the object of possible arrest or prosecution.

Financing the Police State Apparatus

A large amount of "real money" from tax payers pockets is used to protect America against a non-existent enemy, the Universal Adversary.

Under the guise of emergency preparedness, the administration has allocated more than of 40 billion dollars to beefing up the police state apparatus, an amount broadly equivalent to the "official" budget of the CIA.

The scenarios and exercises of terror attacks are being used by Homeland Security Sec Michael Chertoff, to push "risk-based planning" as a central theme of the DHS, also with a view to boosting the Homeland Security budget.

Out of the $41.1 billion, some $27 billion are allocated to discretionary expenditures. A hefty $3.6 billion are allocated "to train and equip first responders [i.e. consensus building], such as police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians." ( http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0205/020705c1.htm ).

A multibillion dollar Domestic Nuclear Detection Office is envisaged, with a mandate to "detect and report attempts [by conspirators] to import, assemble or transport nuclear explosive devices, fissile material, or radiological material intended for illegal use"

The ultimate result (and intent) of these various counterterrorism initiatives, is not to "make America safer" against possible attacks by a non-existent Universal Adversary. Quite the opposite, emergency preparedness is the pretext for the militarization of civilian justice and law enforcement (See Frank Morales, "Homeland Defense" and the Militarisation of America, Frank Morales, Sept 2003 http://globalresearch.ca/articles/MOR309A.html.)

The Homeland Security agenda consists in breaking within America, all forms of social resistance and opposition to the "war on terrorism".

    *** ******* ***


    TEXT Box: "Scenarios" of Selected Threats

    Radiological: In this scenario, the Universal Adversary (UA) purchases stolen CsCl to make an RDD or “dirty bomb.” The explosive and the shielded 137Cs sources are smuggled into the country. Detonator cord is stolen from a mining operation, and all other materials are obtained legally in the United States.

    *** # # # ***

    In this scenario, terrorist members of the Universal Adversary (UA) group assemble a gun-type nuclear device using highly enriched uranium (HEU) – used here to mean weapons-grade uranium – stolen from a nuclear facility located in the former Soviet Union. The nuclear device components are smuggled into the United States.

    *** # # # ***

    Plague is a bacterium that causes high mortality in untreated cases and has epidemic potential. ... In this scenario, members of the Universal Adversary (UA) release pneumonic plague into three main areas of a major metropolitan city – in the bathrooms of the city’s major airport, at the city’s main sports arena, and at the city’s major train station.

    *** # # # ***

    Anthrax spores delivered by aerosol delivery results in inhalation anthrax, which develops when the bacterial organism, Bacillus anthracis, is inhaled into the lungs. A progressive infection follows. This scenario describes a single aerosol anthrax attack in one city delivered by a truck using a concealed improvised spraying device ... For federal planning purposes, it will be assumed that the Universal Adversary (UA) will attack five separate metropolitan areas in a sequential manner. Three cities will be attacked initially, followed by two additional cities 2 weeks later.

    *** # # # ***

    Blister Attack: Agent YELLOW , which is a mixture of the blister agents sulfur Mustard and Lewisite, is a liquid with a garlic-like odor. Individuals who breathe this mixture may experience damage to the respiratory system. Contact with the skin or eye can result in serious burns. Lewisite or Mustard- Lewisite also can cause damage to bone marrow and blood vessels. Exposure to high levels may be fatal. In this scenario, the Universal Adversary (UA) uses a light aircraft to spray chemical agent YELLOW into a packed college football stadium. The agent directly contaminates the stadium and the immediate surrounding area, and generates a downwind vapor hazard.

    *** # # # ***

    Industrial chemicals: In this scenario, terrorists from the Universal Adversary (UA) land in several helicopters at fixed facility petroleum refineries. They quickly launch rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and plant improvised explosive devices (IEDs) before re-boarding and departing, resulting in major fires. At the same time, multiple cargo containers at a nearby port explode aboard or near several cargo ships with resulting fires. Two of the ships contain flammable liquids or solids. The wind is headed in the north-northeast direction, and there is a large, heavy plume of smoke drifting into heavily populated areas and releasing various metals into the air....

    *** # # # ***

    Sarin is a human-made chemical warfare agent classified as a nerve agent. Nerve agents are the most toxic and rapidly acting of the known chemical warfare agents. ... In this scenario, the Universal Adversary (UA) builds six spray dissemination devices and releases Sarin vapor into the ventilation systems of three large commercial office buildings in a metropolitan area. The agent kills 95% of the people in the buildings, and kills or sickens many of the first responders. In addition, some of the agent exits through rooftop ventilation stacks, creating a downwind hazard....

    *** # # # ***

    Chlorine gas is poisonous and can be pressurized and cooled to change it into a liquid form so that it can be shipped and stored. When released, it quickly turns into a gas and stays close to the ground and spreads rapidly. Chlorine gas is yellow-green in color and although not flammable alone, it can react explosively or form explosive compounds with other chemicals such as turpentine or ammonia. In this scenario, the Universal Adversary (UA) infiltrates an industrial facility and stores a large quantity of chlorine gas (liquefied under pressure). Using a low-order explosive, UA ruptures a storage tank man-way, releasing a large quantity of chlorine gas downwind of the site. Secondary devices are set to impact first responders.

    *** # # # ***

    In this scenario, agents of the Universal Adversary (UA) use improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to detonate bombs inside a sports arena and create a large vehicle bomb (LVB). They also use suicide bombers in an underground public transportation concourse and detonate another bomb in a parking facility near the entertainment complex. An additional series of devices is detonated in the lobby of the nearest hospital emergency room (ER). The event is primarily designed for an urban environment, but could be adapted for more rural area events such as county fairs and other large gatherings. Casualty estimates would be reduced as a function of a reduced target population and less population density at target points.
    The fire is ignited approximately 1 hour after the start of the entertainment event. The detonation of explosives is delayed approximately 10 to 15 minutes after the ignition of the fire in order to allow for detection, evacuation, and response of emergency services providers. The detonation of explosives at the hospital site will be the hardest to time for maximum effect and may need to be coordinated by some communication among cell members. In any case, the hospital device should be detonated before the arrival of casualties from the entertainment venue....

    *** # # # ***

    The U.S. food industry has significantly increased its physical and personnel security since 2001. A successful attack could only occur following the illegal acquisition of sensitive information revealing detailed vulnerabilities of a specific production site [by terrorist plant workers]. However, in this scenario the Universal Adversary (UA) is able to acquire these restricted documents due to a security lapse. The UA uses these sensitive documents and a high degree of careful planning to avoid apprehension and conduct a serious attack.
    The biological agent is delivered to terrorists (plant workers).... The UA delivers liquid anthrax bacteria to pre-selected plant workers. At a beef plant in a west coast state, two batches of ground beef are contaminated with anthrax, with distribution to a city on the west coast, a southwest state, and a state in the northwest. At an orange juice plant in a southwestern state, three batches of orange juice are contaminated with anthrax, with distribution to a west coast city, a southwest city, and a northwest city.
    In this scenario, members of the Universal Adversary (UA) enter the United States to survey large operations in the livestock industries. The UA targets several locations for a coordinated bioterrorism attack on the agricultural industry. Approximately two months later, UA teams enter the United States and infect farm animals at specific locations.

    *** # # # ***

    In this scenario, the Universal Adversary conducts cyber attacks that affect several parts of the nation’s financial infrastructure over the course of several weeks. Specifically, credit-card processing facilities are hacked and numbers are released to the Internet, causing 20 million cards to be cancelled; automated teller machines (ATMs) fail nearly simultaneously across the nation; major companies report payroll checks are not being received by workers; and several large pension and mutual fund companies have computer malfunctions so severe that they are unable to operate for more than a week. Individually, these attacks are not dangerous – but combined, they shatter faith in the stability of the system. Citizens no longer trust any part of the U.S. financial system and foreign speculators make a run on the dollar.

    *** # # # ***

    Source: The Homeland Security Council, PLANNING SCENARIOS Executive Summaries Created for Use in National, Federal, State, and Local Homeland Security Preparedness Activities


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Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Centre for Research on Globalization.


-------- POLITICS


-------- us politics

US Senator 'losing patience' over situation in Iraq

By Guy Dinmore in Washington
Published: June 7 2005 21:29 Financial Times

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/abf66ab8-d791-11d9-9f43-00000e2511c8.html

Senators considering the nomination of Zalmay Khalilzad as the next US ambassador to Iraq on Tuesday heard a sober assessment of the situation there, with one leading Democrat doubting he could still support a US troop presence if significant progress were not made within a year.

Joseph Biden, the senior Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, said on returning from his fifth visit to Baghdad that he and the American public were losing patience.



-------- ENERGY 



-------- alternative energy

CLP to Invest in New Wind Power Project in China

REUTERS HONG KONG: June 7, 2005

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/31143/story.htm

HONG KONG - Hong Kong utility CLP Holdings Ltd. said on Monday its unit plans to invest in a second wind power project in China's eastern province of Shandong, as the company steps up its commitment to renewable energy.

CLP Power Asia, which partners with China's largest power producer, China Huaneng Group, holds a 45 percent stake in the venture and will invest 165 million yuan (US$19.9 million) for the first phase of the project at Weihai in Shandong Province.

CLP said in a statement that the first phase of the wind power project has a generation capacity of 19.5 megawatt and is targeted for commission in 2006. CLP said the Weihai wind farm is expected to boost its generation capacity to about 150 MW eventually.

The firm's investment in the Weihai wind farm came after a 27 MW wind farm in Shandong's Changdao it built last December.

"We are delivering on our commitment to develop renewable energy," managing director of CLP Power Asia, Richard McIndoe, said in a statement.

CLP said it hopes renewable energy resources would represent about 5 percent of the group's total generating capacity by 2010.

(US$1=8.28 yuan)

---

Spain's Acciona in Chinese Wind Turbine Venture

REUTERS SPAIN: June 7, 2005

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/31142/story.htm

MADRID - Spain's Acciona said on Monday it agreed a joint venture to produce wind power turbines in China, boosting its shares which have lagged those of rival Spanish builders.

Acciona's wind power unit EHN and the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced a plan to invest 24.6 million euros ($30.2 million) initially to build 400 turbines a year in Nantong for the Asian market.

The project could potentially bring 400 million euros in annual revenue for the venture, they added.

Production could rise to 600 turbines per year in the short term, Acciona said. The project would focus on the Chinese market but also pursue exports as Acciona seeks to expand its wind power business.

Acciona's wind power unit EHN and CASC will hold 45 percent each in the venture, with the Hispano-Chinese marketing company Inceisa owning the other 10 percent, Acciona said in a statement.

A second agreement will create a joint venture for research and development in biomass, biofuels, wind energy and wind turbine components.

Acciona shares added to early session gains upon the announcement and were up 2.5 percent at 1500 GMT, topping the leader board of Spain's Ibex-35 index of most-traded stocks.

Acciona stock also outperformed the DJ Stoxx index of European construction stocks, which was down 0.3 percent.

But Acciona had lagged behind other Spanish builders during a recent rally for the sector. Its stock rose 5.3 percent in the past month versus 21.3 percent and 12.1 percent respectively for Spanish rivals Sacyr Vallehermoso and ACS.

"Acciona's agreement in China is good news because the Spanish builder has been able to position itself in a market with high growth potential in wind energy," said Roberto Barrio, an analyst in Madrid for Portuguese broker Espirito Santo.

Acciona has been developing its energy business under a diversification plan in recent years and with help from a cash windfall from the sale of a stake in mobile phone giant Vodafone

Acciona's energy division provided 38 percent of group core profit in the first quarter.




-------- energy

China Launches Energy Efficiency Programme

REUTERS CHINA: June 7, 2005

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/31134/story.htm

BEIJING - China, the world's second-largest energy consumer, has launched an $80 million programme with the United Nations to promote efficient use of energy and cut pollution, UN and government officials said on Monday.

Beijing, struggling to fuel the world's fastest-growing major economy in the face of rapid demand growth, increasing reliance on oil imports and recurrent power shortages, aims to quadruple GDP by 2020 while just doubling its energy consumption.

The programme aims to reduce energy consumption by nearly 19 million tonnes of coal equivalent in the first three-year phase of the programme, cutting carbon emissions by 12 million tonnes.

With relatively dirty coal used to generate over two-thirds of the country's power, air pollution is also moving up the government agenda because of its impact on health and growth.

"(It) seeks to remove barriers to the widespread application of energy conservation and efficiency in China's major energy end users -- industry and buildings," Khalid Malik, UN Resident Coordinator in China, told a news conference.

With industrial users accounting for around 70 percent of energy consumption, the government plans to invite six firms from energy-intensive sectors -- steel, chemicals and cement -- to join voluntary pilots over the next three years, said an official from the National Development and Reform Commission said.

The construction sector is another key target, making up some 20 percent of the country's energy demand -- and energy efficient designs a key factor in future power use, NDRC programme coordinator Niu Bo added.

Energy efficiency standards and labelling for electrical goods in the residential and service sector ranging from refrigerators to air-conditioners would also be brought in over three years.

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) will provide $17 million for the first three-year phase of the programme, the Chinese government will supply $31 million and another $32 million will come from the private sector, Malik said.

Premier Wen Jiabao has urged the country to step up power conservation to relieve an energy crunch that is impeding economic growth.

The government issued China's first medium and long-term plan for energy conservation late last year under which China would aim to burn 2.25 tonnes of coal for every 10,000 yuan ($1,200) worth of GDP by 2010, down from 2.68 tonnes per 10,000 yuan in 2002.

($US1=8.276 Yuan)




-------- ACTIVISTS

Ethiopian police, protesters clash

Tuesday 07 June 2005, 20:30 Makka Time, 17:30 GMT  Aljazeera

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/45A4FC7F-C3CC-4289-9A95-E294BDF0B371.htm

Ethiopian security forces beat rock-throwing students protesting against the result of the 15 May parliamentary election they say was rigged, opposition parties and students said.

A second day of demonstrations turned violent after protests on Monday at Addis Ababa University left one person dead and saw more than 500 arrested.

On Tuesday, about 100 students at a technical college tried to stage a protest march but were forced to stay inside their campus by riot police and paramilitary soldiers, witness Sao Okutsu, a teacher, said.

The ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and the police have accused the main opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) of inciting the students.

Tension has been rising in Africa's top coffee grower since the election, with the opposition accusing the EPRDF of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of intimidation and vote-rigging.

"I am weak. I can't tell you what they did to us. They beat us too much on our heads, they pulled our hair, beat our eyes and our feet," said student Aserat Made.

The government imposed a month-long ban on public demonstrations after the polls.

The CUD and the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces said the students had protested because the ruling party was trying to "defraud the public of their votes". They urged the government to release those arrested.

Harsh measures

"The harsh measures taken by the government would worsen the already unstable and tense environment and is a great concern," the opposition said in a statement.

On Tuesday, students began throwing rocks, which littered the streets outside the college near the city's Mexico Square, prompting security forces to storm the campus and force the students to the ground, Okutsu said.

"Students sitting on the ground in the campus were being beaten harshly by the police," he said before police hurried him away.

Police fired tear gas to disperse scores of relatives and friends of the students who had arrived to plead for their release.

A student leader said the students would continue to boycott classes until arrested colleagues had been released.

"We can't continue to study unless they release our fellow brothers," said a sobbing 16-year-old student who gave her name as Leya.

Police have been deployed throughout the city, with armed security forces blocking roads with armoured cars to keep pedestrians and journalists away from the college.
Reuters

----

Twelve arrested in Scotland after nuclear base break-in

Tue Jun 7, 2005 10:12 AM ET

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050607/wl_uk_afp/g8britaindefencenuclear_050607141202

LONDON (AFP) - Twelve activists were arrested after breaching an outer fence at Faslane naval base in Scotland, home to Britain's Trident nuclear submarines, a spokeswoman at the base said.

Two others who climbed up a tree inside the Royal Navy base that is home to Britain's strategic nuclear deterrent, 40 kilometres (25 miles) northwest of Glasgow, were being monitored Tuesday.

The protesters cut through a perimeter fence late Monday night, forcing the base to shut down temporarily.

The spokeswoman said that 12 activists were being held by Ministry of Defence police, while the pair in a tree were under surveillance, allowing the base to reopen.

The Faslane base, on the River Clyde, has long been a focus for anti-nuclear protests. Last January, two activists were detained after getting through one of the outer fences.

The break-in comes after reports that Prime Minister Tony Blair has decided to equip Britain with a new generation of nuclear weapons to replace those currently deployed on Trident submarines.

Britain has four Trident submarines in service. They each have 16 multiple warhead nuclear missiles with a range of 12,000 kilometres (7,500 miles).

In May, The Independent newspaper quoted a unnamed senior defence source as saying that a decision "in principle" to replace Trident had been taken "very recently."

Anti-nuclear campaigners said their break-in marked the 23rd anniversary of their settlement by the naval base.

Spokeswoman Pat Freeborn said protesters erected a banner in trees reading: "Faslane Peace Camp - 23 years of resistance."

"This protest was held to register our disgust and shock at Tony Blair's decision to order a replacement for the Trident nuclear weapons system," she said.

"People in Scotland are becoming increasingly aware and unhappy that their backyard is being used as Britain's nuclear and military playground."

A peaceful protest, including the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, is planned for July 4, two days before the start of the Group of Eight summit at the Gleneagles resort in central Scotland.

The 12 arrested Tuesday were expected to appear in court later in the day, a Ministry of Defence spokesman said. They were being questioned at the base on suspicion of a breach of the peace and malicious mischief.

"The arrests follow the activation of an intruder alarm at the base which in turn activated the full number of security measures," the spokesman said. "All of the people were arrested in non-sensitive areas."

The Independent report said that a new nuclear deterrent would cost some 10 billion pounds (14.9 billion euros, 18.3 billion dollars).

The newspaper's source said it took an extremely long time to build new nuclear weapons, which is why the decision had to come far in advance of decommissioning the Tridents, expected in 2024.