NucNews - September 6, 2005 -------- NUCLEAR -------- accidents and safety 'A better world is possible' Each week, teens from Hillsborough and Pinellas join antiwar protesters at BayWalk. They tell why. By DONNA WINCHESTER, Times Staff Writer Published September 6, 2005 http://www.sptimes.com/2005/09/06/Southpinellas/_A_better_world_is_po.shtml ST. PETERSBURG - Every Saturday night, Lana Parker sets out to change the world. The 16-year-old St. Petersburg High School sophomore pulls on olive fatigues, laces up black combat boots and affixes a "Code Pink for Peace" button to her T-shirt. Then she heads over to BayWalk, the downtown dining, shopping and entertainment venue, to express her views on the war in Iraq and the Bush administration. For two hours, she pumps her fist in the air and chants. Not my president, not my war. Ain't no power like the power of the people. Bush, Bush, hey, hey, how many kids have you killed today? "I believe a better world is possible," Parker said during a lull in Saturday night's protest. "Protesting the war is the first step toward that." Parker is among a small group of young Pinellas and Hillsborough people who have been protesting at BayWalk for more than two years. The teens consider themselves part of St. Pete for Peace, the group that organized the protests in 2003. Brittany Foster, 15, is a relative newcomer. Foster, who attends Sickles High School in northwest Hillsborough, said she argues about politics in her American government class. She is frustrated because few of her classmates see a need to get involved in the protests. "Sometimes I ask them to come," she said. "They just laugh." Peter Likins, 16, joined the protests two months ago after the city erected metal barricades along the street at BayWalk's edge, saying the demonstrations were creating a safety hazard. Likins had little interest in protesting the war because he didn't think it would do any good. But he felt an obligation to demonstrate for the right to protest. On Aug. 6, he was one of six people arrested after a 13-year-old boy and a 33-year-old man were cited for blocking the sidewalk and put in a police van. Police said they tried to block the van from leaving. Likins was back the next week, along with 200 other protesters. He has continued to come, even though the city has removed the barricades. "It's probably my upbringing," said Likins, who is homeschooled. "My mom was a hippie and a peacenik, and my dad always wanted me to think for myself." Mitch Flowers, a 14-year-old Gibbs High School student, began attending the protests at the beginning of the summer. Like Peter Likins, he doubts they will do much to stem the war. "We're just raising awareness," he said. "We're getting people involved." He said he has learned to ignore BayWalk patrons who yell obscenities, throw drinks on him and his friends and grab at their signs. "People call us f------ idiots," Mitch said. "I just flash them a peace sign." Being arrested last month has not kept Brendan Mannion, 16, from the protests, which he joined in 2003. He thinks it is important to draw attention to poverty, decadence and hatred. "There is such a gap between rich and poor in this city," he said. "People can afford to spend $50 on a bar tab while there are people starving just down the street." The Gulfport teen, who is being homeschooled while he works toward an associate's degree at St. Petersburg College, is thinking about becoming a lawyer or a Greenpeace activist. In the meantime, he hands out fliers about peace activities to his neighbors and distributes food to the homeless in Williams Park. "I don't expect anything to change because of the protests," he said. "I just want to show people there are alternatives. Hopefully, we can get people to start thinking differently, to go out and vote and get active in the community." The protests make some teens - and their parents - nervous. Michael Vanderheyden, a 14-year-old Riviera Middle School student, says he knows kids who would like to attend the protests, but their parents won't let them. "My mom is for it," Vanderheyden said, "but she's afraid I might get hurt." Lana Parker, the St. Petersburg High student, worries, too, but she has no plans to quit. "I don't want to be shot with rubber bullets or anything," she said. "But I want to change the world before it changes me." ---- First Detailed Assessment of Chernobyl Damage Released VIENNA, Austria, September 6, 2005 (ENS) http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2005/2005-09-06-04.asp A total of up to 4,000 people could eventually die of radiation exposure from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident nearly 20 years ago, an international team of more than 100 scientists has concluded. But as of mid-2005, fewer than 50 deaths had been directly attributed to radiation from the disaster. Nearly all of the 50 people who died were highly exposed rescue workers, many who died within months of the accident but others who died as late as 2004. The new numbers are presented in a landmark digest report, "Chernobyl’s Legacy: Health, Environmental and Socio-Economic Impacts," released Monday by the Chernobyl Forum. Members of the Forum, including representatives of the three most affected governments - Belarus, Russia and Ukraine - are meeting today and tomorrow in Vienna at an unprecedented gathering of the world’s experts on Chernobyl, radiation effects and protection, to consider these findings and recommendations. The report’s estimate for the eventual number of deaths is far lower than earlier, well publicized speculations that radiation exposure would claim tens of thousands of lives. But the 4,000 figure is not far different from estimates made in 1986 by Soviet scientists, according to Dr. Mikhail Balonov, a radiation expert with the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, who was a scientist in the former Soviet Union at the time of the accident. As for environmental impact, the scientific assessments show that, except for the still closed, highly contaminated 30 kilometer area surrounding the reactor, and some closed lakes and restricted forests, radiation levels have mostly returned to acceptable levels. "In most areas the problems are economic and psychological, not health or environmental," reports Balonov, the scientific secretary of the Chernobyl Forum effort who has been involved with Chernobyl recovery since the disaster occurred. The Forum is made up of eight United Nations agencies, including the International Atomic Energy Agency, World Health Organization, United Nations Development Programme, Food and Agriculture Organization, United Nations Environment Programme, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, and the World Bank, as well as the governments of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. “This compilation of the latest research can help to settle the outstanding questions about how much death, disease and economic fallout really resulted from the Chernobyl accident,” said Dr. Burton Bennett, chairman of the Chernobyl Forum and an authority on radiation effects. “The governments of the three most affected countries have realized that they need to find a clear way forward, and that progress must be based on a sound consensus about environmental, health and economic consequences and some good advice and support from the international community,” Bennett said. In Washington, DC, Michael Mariotte, executive director of Nuclear Information and Resource Service, an anti-nuclear advocacy organization, said the statement issued by the Chernobyl Forum wrongly downplays the impact of the Chernobyl disaster. "Although the report itself remains unavailable to the public," said Mariotte, "the press release states that 4,000 people are likely to die as a result of the Chernobyl accident. This is in stark contrast to industry propaganda that insists the deaths of only about 32 to 36 emergency responders can be directly attributable to the accident." "To dismiss the loss of 4,000 lives, not to mention the non-fatal cancers and other effects, hundreds of billions of dollars in damages and permanent loss of land use, as the report appears to do, is an obscene disregard for human life and wellbeing," Mariotte declared. Saying the fire and explosion at Chernobyl Unit 4 was "a very serious accident with major health consequences," still, Bennett said the team has "not found profound negative health impacts to the rest of the population in surrounding areas, nor have we found widespread contamination that would continue to pose a substantial threat to human health, with a few exceptional, restricted areas.” The major health consequences were experienced by thousands of workers exposed in the early days who received very high radiation doses, and thousands more who developed thyroid cancer, according to the report. The digest, based on a three-volume, 600-page report and incorporating the work of hundreds of scientists, economists and health experts, assesses the 20 year impact of the largest nuclear accident in history. The Forum’s report aims to help the affected countries understand the true scale of the accident consequences and also suggest ways the governments of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia might address major economic and social problems stemming from the accident. One serious environmental concern is that structural elements of the sarcophagus built to contain the damaged reactor have degraded, posing a risk of collapse and the release of radioactive dust. The protective shelter was erected quickly, which led to some imperfections in the shelter itself and did not permit gathering complete data on the stability of the damaged unit, said the Forum, pointing out that some structural parts of the shelter have corroded in the past two decades. Strengthening of those unstable structures has been performed recently, and construction of a New Safe Confinement covering the existing shelter that should serve for more than 100 years, starts in the near future. The new cover will allow dismantlement of the current shelter, removal of the radioactive fuel mass from the damaged unit and, eventually, decommissioning of the damaged reactor. A comprehensive strategy still has to be developed for dealing with the high level and long-lived radioactive waste from past remediation activities, the Forum said. Much of this waste was placed in temporary storage in trenches and landfills that do not meet current waste safety requirements. Health Effects of Chernobyl Explosion and Fire * Approximately 1,000 on-site reactor staff and emergency workers were heavily exposed to high-level radiation on the first day of the accident; among the more than 200,0001 emergency and recovery operation workers exposed during the period from 1986-1987, an estimated 2,200 radiation-caused deaths can be expected during their lifetime. * An estimated five million people currently live in areas of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine that are contaminated with radionuclides due to the accident; about 100,000 of them live in areas classified in the past by government authorities as areas of "strict control." "The existing zoning definitions need to be revisited and relaxed in light of the new findings," the Forum recommends. * About 4,000 cases of thyroid cancer, mainly in children and adolescents at the time of the accident, have resulted from the accident’s contamination and at least nine children died of thyroid cancer; however the survival rate among such cancer victims, judging from experience in Belarus, has been almost 99 percent. * Most emergency workers and people living in contaminated areas received relatively low whole body radiation doses, comparable to natural background levels. As a consequence, no evidence or likelihood of decreased fertility among the affected population has been found, nor has there been any evidence of increases in congenital malformations that can be attributed to radiation exposure. * Poverty, lifestyle diseases now rampant in the former Soviet Union and mental health problems pose "a far greater threat to local communities than does radiation exposure," the Forum reports. Alongside radiation-induced deaths and diseases, the report labels the mental health impact of Chernobyl as “the largest public health problem created by the accident” and partially attributes this damaging psychological impact to a lack of accurate information. These problems manifest as negative self-assessments of health, belief in a shortened life expectancy, lack of initiative, and dependency on assistance from the state. “Two decades after the Chernobyl accident, residents in the affected areas still lack the information they need to lead the healthy and productive lives that are possible,” explains Louisa Vinton, Chernobyl focal point at the UNDP. “We are advising our partner governments that they must reach people with accurate information, not only about how to live safely in regions of low-level contamination, but also about leading healthy lifestyles and creating new livelihoods.” While recognizing the ongoing problems, Dr. Michael Repacholi, manager of the World Health Organization's Radiation Program, said, "the sum total of the Chernobyl Forum is a reassuring message." He explains that there have been 4,000 cases of thyroid cancer, mainly in children, but that except for nine deaths, all of them have recovered. "Otherwise, the team of international experts found no evidence for any increases in the incidence of leukemia and cancer among affected residents." Repacholi concludes that “the health effects of the accident were potentially horrific, but when you add them up using validated conclusions from good science, the public health effects were not nearly as substantial as had at first been feared.” In the health area, the Forum report calls for continued close monitoring of workers who recovered from Acute Radiation Syndrome and other highly exposed emergency personnel. Focused screening of children exposed to radioiodine for thyroid cancer and highly exposed clean-up workers for non-thyroid cancers should be a top priority, the report recommends. In the environmental realm, the report calls for long term monitoring of caesium and strontium radionuclides to assess human exposure and food contamination and to analyze the impacts of remedial actions and radiation-reduction countermeasures. Better information needs to be provided to the public about the persistence of radioactive contamination in some food products and about food preparation methods that reduce radionuclide intake. Restrictions on harvesting of some wild food products are still needed in some areas. Also in the realm of protecting the environment, the report calls for an “integrated waste management program for the Shelter, the Chernobyl NPP site and the Exclusion Zone” to ensure application of consistent management and capacity for all types of radioactive waste. Waste storage and disposal must be dealt with in a comprehensive manner across the entire Exclusion Zone, the report urges. In areas where human exposure is not high, no remediation needs to be done, points out Balonov. “If we do not expect health or environmental effects, we should not waste resources and effort on low priority, low contamination areas,” he says. “We need to focus our efforts and resources on real problems.” Environmental Effects of the Chernobyl Explosion and Fire * Major releases of radionuclides continued for 10 days and contaminated more than 200,000 square kilometers of Europe. The extent of deposition varied depending on whether it was raining when contaminated air masses passed. * Most of the strontium and plutonium isotopes were deposited within 100 kilometers of the damaged reactor. Radioactive iodine, of great concern after the accident, has a short half-life, and has now decayed away. Strontium and caesium, with a longer half life of 30 years, persist and will remain a concern for decades. Although plutonium isotopes and americium 241 will persist perhaps for thousands of years, their contribution to human exposure is low. * Open surfaces, such as roads, lawns and roofs, were most heavily contaminated. Residents of Pripyat, the city nearest to Chernobyl, were quickly evacuated, reducing their potential exposure to radioactive materials. Wind, rain and human activity has reduced surface contamination, but led to secondary contamination of sewage and sludge systems. Radiation in air above settled areas returned to background levels, though levels remain higher where soils have remained undisturbed. * In agricultural areas, weathering, physical decay, migration of radionuclides down the soil and reductions in bioavailability have led to a reduction in the transfer of radionuclides to plants and animals. * Radioactive iodine, rapidly absorbed from grasses and animal feed into milk, was an early concern. Elevated levels were seen in some parts of the former Soviet Union and Southern Europe, but, given the nuclide’s short half life, this concern abated quickly. Currently and for the long term, radiocaesium, present in milk, meat and some plant foods, remains the most significant concern for internal human exposure, but, with the exception of a few areas, concentrations fall within safe levels, the report states. * Following the Chernobyl explosion, animals and vegetation in forest and mountain areas had high absorption of radiocaesium, with persistent high levels in mushrooms, berries and game. Because exposure from agricultural products has declined, the relative importance of exposure from forest products has increased and will only decline as radioactive materials migrate downward into the soil and slowly decay. * The high transfer of radiocaesium from lichen to reindeer meat to humans was seen in the Artic and sub-Arctic areas, with high contamination of reindeer meat in Finland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden. The concerned governments imposed some restrictions on hunting, including scheduling hunting season when animals have lower meat contamination. Contamination of surface waters throughout much of Europe declined quickly through dilution, physical decay, and absorption of radionuclides in bed sediments and catchment soils. But because of bioaccumulation in the aquatic food chain, elevated concentrations of radiocaesium were found in fish from lakes as far away as Germany and Scandinavia. * Comparable levels of radiostrontium, which concentrates in fish bone, not in muscle, were not significant for humans. Levels in fish and waters are currently low, except in areas with "closed" lakes that have no outflowing streams. In those lakes, levels of radiocaesium in fish will remain high for decades and the Forum recommends that restrictions on fishing there should be maintained. * The most effective early agricultural countermeasure was removing contaminated pasture grasses from animal diets and monitoring milk for radiation levels. Treatment of land for fodder crops, clean feeding and use of Cs-binders - that prevented the transfer of radiocaesium from fodder to milk - led to large reductions in contamination and permitted agriculture to continue, though some increase in radionuclide content of plant and animal products has been measured since the mid-1990s when economic problems forced a cutback in treatments. Some agricultural lands in the three countries have been taken out of use until remediation is undertaken. * A number of measures applied to forests in affected countries and in Scandinavia have reduced human exposure, including restrictions on access to forest areas, on harvesting of food products such as game, berries and mushrooms, and on the public collection of firewood, along with changes in hunting to avoid consumption of game meat where seasonal levels of radiocaesium may be high. Low income levels in some areas cause local residents to disregard these rules. * Increased mortality of evergreen trees, soil invertebrates and mammals and reproductive losses in plants and animals were seen in high exposure areas up to a distance of 30 kilometers around Chernobyl. Outside that zone, no acute radiation-induced effects have been reported. With reductions of exposure levels, biological populations have been recovering, though the genetic effects of radiation were seen in both somatic and germ cells of plants and animals. Prohibiting agricultural and industrial activities in the exclusion zone permitted many plant and animal populations to expand and created, paradoxically, "a unique sanctuary for biodiversity," the Forum reports. ---- Chernobyl's Harm Was Far Less Than Predicted, U.N. Report Says By Peter Finn Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, September 6, 2005; A22 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/05/AR2005090501144_pf.html MOSCOW, Sept. 5 -- The long-term health and environmental impacts of the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, while severe, were far less catastrophic than feared, according to a major new report by eight U.N. agencies. The governments of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, the three countries most affected by radioactive fallout from Chernobyl, should strive to end the "paralyzing fatalism" of tens of thousands of their citizens who wrongly believe they are still at risk of an early death, according to the study released Monday. The 600-page report found that as of the middle of this year, the accident had caused fewer than 50 deaths directly attributable to radiation, most of them among emergency workers who died in the first months after the accident. In the wake of the world's largest nuclear disaster, there were numerous predictions of mass fatalities from radiation. The report said that nine children had died of thyroid cancer, but that the survival rate among the 4,000 children in the region who had developed thyroid cancer has been 99 percent. An expected spike in fertility problems and birth defects also failed to materialize, the study found. "The health effects of the accident were potentially horrific, but when you add them up using validated conclusions from good science, the public health effects were not nearly as substantial as had at first been feared," Michael Repacholi, manager of the World Health Organization's radiation program, said in a statement. U.N. scientists predicted about 4,000 eventual radiation-related deaths among 600,000 people in the affected area, including emergency workers and residents. That is consistent with predictions in the aftermath of the accident by scientists in the Soviet Union, of which Ukraine, Russia and Belarus were then a part. But the vast majority of residents and emergency workers received relatively low doses of radiation, comparable to naturally occurring levels of exposure, the report said. Officials said that the continued intense medical monitoring of tens of thousands of people in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus is no longer a smart use of limited resources and is, in fact, contributing to mental health problems among many residents nearly 20 years later. In Belarus and Ukraine, 5 percent to 7 percent of government spending is consumed by benefits and programs for Chernobyl victims. And in the three countries, as many as 7 million people are receiving Chernobyl-related social benefits. "The monitoring of people with incredibly low doses uses huge amounts of resources and does more psychological harm than good," said Fred Mettler, a professor of radiology at the University of New Mexico who chaired one of three health groups in the study, titled "Chernobyl's Legacy: Health, Environmental and Socio-Economic Impacts." The study, involving more than 100 scientists, was compiled by U.N. agencies, including the International Atomic Energy Agency, and representatives of the governments of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. Shortly after midnight, on April 26, 1986, after a complex chain of events at the Chernobyl plant, the water coolant vaporized and an explosion destroyed the reactor. The plant caught fire and plumes of radioactive material were released. Soviet authorities at first did not report the accident, but radioactive material was quickly detected in Scandinavian countries. Radioactive material continued to be released for another 10 days, spreading across Europe. Over the next four years, a massive cleanup operation involving 240,000 workers ensued, and there were fears that many of these workers, called "liquidators," would suffer in subsequent years. But most emergency workers and people living in contaminated areas "received relatively low whole radiation doses, comparable to natural background levels," a report summary noted. "No evidence or likelihood of decreased fertility among the affected population has been found, nor has there been any evidence of congenital malformations." In fact, the report said, apart from radiation-induced deaths, the "largest public health problem created by the accident" was its effect on the mental health of residents who were traumatized by their rapid relocation and the fear, still lingering, that they would almost certainly contract terminal cancer. The report said that lifestyle diseases, such as alcoholism, among affected residents posed a much greater threat than radiation exposure. The report said that an immediate priority is to re-secure the reactor. After the disaster, a concrete sarcophagus was built over the plant, but it was hastily constructed and is showing signs of wear. "The main potential hazard of the shelter is a possible collapse of its top structures and release of radioactive dust into the environment," the report said. David Zhania, emergencies minister in Ukraine, said last week that a new steel shelter for the plant would cost nearly $2 billion and that the country hoped to have it built by 2008 or 2009. About 28 foreign governments have already agreed to contribute more than $750 million to the project. The report also found that except for a nearly 20-mile exclusion zone around the reactor, radiation levels have returned to acceptable levels in many areas where land had been abandoned for fear of contamination. "By radiological criteria alone a significant part of the abandoned agricultural lands (more than 70 percent) could be returned to economic use," the report said. The abandonment of large tracts of land, combined with a ban on hunting, has led to a dramatic increase in wild animals and birds, including wolves, elk, wild boars, white-tailed eagles, owls, cranes and black storks. "Without a permanent residency of humans for 20 years, the ecosystems around the Chernobyl site are now flourishing," the report said. "It looks like the nature park it has become." ---- False Information Said Worsened Chernobyl U.N. Agency Official Says False Information, Unnecessary Evacuations Worsened Chernobyl Effects By SUSANNA LOOF Associated Press Writer Sep 6, 2005 http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1100810&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/06/AR2005090600557.html VIENNA, Austria— False information and unnecessary evacuations driven by panic worsened the effects of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident, leaving some people with anxiety levels twice as high as normal, a U.N. nuclear watchdog agency official said Tuesday. Though the accident itself had a severe impact, "the situation was made even worse by conflicting information and vast exaggerations in press coverage and pseudoscientific accounts of the accident reporting, for example, fatalities in the tens or hundreds of thousands," said Tomihiro Taniguchi, a deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Taniguchi, speaking at a scientific conference on Chernobyl's effects, also said many of the 350,000 people evacuated and resettled by authorities would have been better off staying home. People affected by Chernobyl have been found to "have anxiety levels twice as high as normal, with a greater incidence of depression and stress symptoms," Taniguchi said in the statement, read on behalf of IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei. Those people came to view themselves as "helpless, weak and lacking control over their futures," he said. "Their circumstances were exacerbated by severe economic hardship … and the prevalence of misconceptions and myths regarding health risks." In a 600-page report prepared for the conference and released Monday, scientists said 56 deaths could be attributed directly to radiation released by the accident, and the final death toll could reach 4,000 far less than initially feared. The report was compiled by 100 scientists on behalf of the Chernobyl Forum, a group comprising the IAEA, seven other U.N. agencies and the governments of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine where Chernobyl is located. The environmental group Greenpeace criticized the report, accusing it of "whitewashing" the effects of the accident. Forum chairman Dr. Burton Bennett said the meeting and the report aim to reach a consensus on the effects of the accident so people affected by it can move forward "in a more positive way." ---- Chernobyl helped make nuclear plants safer - IAEA By Francois Murphy Tue Sep 6, 2005 10:27 AM ET (Reuters) http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050906/sc_nm/nuclear_chernobyl_dc_2 VIENNA - The world's worst nuclear accident at Chernobyl in 1986 helped improve nuclear safety by showing the importance of international cooperation, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Tuesday. The explosion at a Ukrainian nuclear reactor at Chernobyl spewed a cloud of radioactivity over Europe and the Soviet Union, killing 56 people to date, U.N. agencies said on Monday. Roughly 4,000 would die in total because of radiation exposure at the time, fewer than previously thought, they added. "What might be considered one of the few positive aspects of 'Chernobyl's legacy' is today's global safety regime," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei said in a statement. "The first lesson that emerged from Chernobyl was the direct relevance of international cooperation to nuclear safety ... It also made clear that nuclear and radiological risks transcend national borders -- that 'an accident anywhere is an accident everywhere'," the statement said. The statement, delivered by IAEA deputy director general Tomihiro Taniguchi at a conference on Chernobyl, was backed by the Chernobyl Forum made up of U.N. agencies and the governments of the worst-hit countries -- Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. The IAEA oversees nuclear safety and polices the global pact against the spread of nuclear weapons -- the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty -- but also promotes the peaceful use of nuclear energy. A report by the Chernobyl Forum released on Monday, which provided the expected death toll of 4,000, said roughly 350,000 people in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia were evacuated from their homes because of the disaster. "Since that time, international cooperation has become a hallmark of nuclear safety, resulting in innumerable peer reviews, safety upgrades, bilateral and multilateral assistance efforts, safety conventions, and the body of globally recognized IAEA safety standards," the statement said. The Forum aims to provide an authoritative account on Chernobyl's effects so a scientific consensus can be reached. ElBaradei said that now, 19 years after Chernobyl, the nuclear industry had regained a reputation for safety. "It has taken nearly two decades of strong safety performance to repair the industry's reputation," he added. ---- Chernobyl Impacts Wrongly Downplayed Statement of by Michael Mariotte, executive director of Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) on UN Chernobyl Report SEPTEMBER 6, 2005 http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0906-07.htm WASHINGTON - September 6 - “A press release issued today by the International Atomic Energy Agency about a United Nation’s Chernobyl Forum report on the health consequences of the 1986 Chernobyl accident demonstrates once again how habitually and dramatically the nuclear industry understates the impacts of a reactor accident. Although the report itself remains unavailable to the public, the press release states that 4,000 people are likely to die as a result of the Chernobyl accident. This is in stark contrast to industry propaganda that insists the deaths of only about 32 to 36 emergency responders can be directly attributable to the accident. However, the press reports to date indicate that, despite these findings, the UN is downplaying the accident’s impacts. To dismiss the loss of 4,000 lives, not to mention the non-fatal cancers and other effects, hundreds of billions of dollars in damages and permanent loss of land use, as the report appears to do, is an obscene disregard for human life and wellbeing. And the real consequences, when considering the entire affected population, are likely to be much higher. Furthermore, the 4,000 fatality estimate appears to be based on a population of only 600,000 exposed individuals. Given that tens of millions of people were exposed to Chernobyl radiation, a study using the standard method of accounting for radiation damage (the “linear no-threshold” method) among the entire affected population would be expected to find far greater casualties. This is especially significant considering that the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in June 2005 2005 (in a report entitled “Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation, VII”) reaffirmed the “linear no-threshold” model and concluded that there is no safe exposure level to radiation. NIRS urges full disclosure of the report to the public. Until this happens, the scant information made available to date clearly is insufficient to provide knowledgeable analysis on the report, nor does it allow for peer review of the report’s findings and conclusions.” ---- IAEA 'whitewashing' impact of Chernobyl nuclear accident: Greenpeace Tue Sep 6, 2005 10:54 AM ET (AFP) http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050906/ts_afp/ukrainenuclear_050906132121%3b_ylt=A9FJqZGcyh1DGsYA7QPPOrgF%3b_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl AMSTERDAM - The Greenpeace environmental group denounced a UN report that radiation released from Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant nearly two decades ago may cause fewer deaths than expected as "whitewashing" the impact of the world's worst nuclear accident. The United Nations report, which found that only 56 people have so far died and 4,000 may eventually perish from the effects of the disaster, was being discussed at a two-day conference in Vienna sponsored by the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA). "It is appalling that the IAEA is whitewashing the impacts of the most serious industrial accident in human history," said Jan Van de Putte, a Greenpeace nuclear campaigner, in a statement released by the organization's headquarters in Amsterdam. "Denying the real implications is not only insulting the thousands of victims -- who are told (they are) sick because of stress and irrational fears -- but it also leads to dangerous recommendations, to relocating people in contaminated areas," Van de Putte said. Greenpeace charged that a more careful reading of the 600-page report and other published research by UN bodies leads to a different conclusion. The ecological group also cited omissions in the report. For example, it said that the 4,000 deaths only relate to a studied population of 600,000, whereas radiation was spread over most Europe and the report omits the impact on millions of Europeans. Also the World Health Organization referred to a study of 72,000 Russian workers at the nuclear plant, but Greenpeace said the number of workers in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine was estimated at nearly 10 times that figure. The report to be discussed by nuclear, health and development experts in Vienna concludes that out of more than 600,000 people who suffered the most exposure from the accident -- reactor staff, emergency and recovery personnel in 1986-87 and residents of the nearby areas -- an estimated 3,940 are expected to die from radiation-induced cancer and leukemia. ---- Activists reject Chernobyl report Tuesday September 06, 2005 14:52 - (SA AFP) http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/zones/sundaytimesNEW/basket7st/basket7st1126011175.aspx KIEV - Activists in Ukraine rejected a United Nations report that found health and environmental effects from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster nearly two decades ago to be less than initially feared. The United Nations report, which found that only 56 people have so far died and 4,000 may eventually perish from the effects of the disaster, was being discussed at a two-day conference in Vienna sponsored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). "Their goal is to push for development of nuclear energy," said Oleksiy Pasyuk, of the environmental group Ukraine National Ecology Center. "They want to lower distrust of nuclear energy. We are worried that they are suggesting allowing people to once again live in the affected areas," Pasyuk said. The report said that, aside from a 30-kilometre zone immediately surrounding the reactor that exploded in 1986 and several closed forests and bodies of water, radiation levels have normalised in many place that today are still widely considered dangerous. Volodymyr Usatenko, who advises a parliamentary commission on nuclear safety, likewise dismissed many of the report's findings. "The report is based on absolutely false figures," he said. "It is based on official data, on data from a government that never felt responsible." The UN report, which was being discussed by nuclear, health and development experts in Vienna, concludes that out of more than 600,000 people who suffered the most exposure from the accident - reactor staff, emergency and recovery personnel in 1986-87 and residents of the nearby areas - an estimated 3,940 are expected to die from radiation-induced cancer and leukaemia. Chernobyl's number-four reactor, in what was then the Soviet Union and is now Ukraine, exploded on April 26, 1986, sending a radioactive cloud across Europe. ---- Chernobyl Radiation Death Toll 56 So Far - UN Story by Francois Murphy REUTERS AUSTRIA: September 6, 2005 http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/32359/story.htm VIENNA - The number of people killed by radiation as a result of the Chernobyl disaster, the world's worst nuclear accident, is so far 56, much lower than previously thought, United Nations organisations said on Monday. A report compiled by the Chernobyl Forum, which includes eight UN agencies, said the final death toll was expected to reach about 4,000 -- much lower than some previous estimates -- and that the greatest damage to human health was psychological. The disaster occurred at 1:24 a.m. on April 26, 1986, when an explosion at Reactor 4 of the Ukrainian power plant spewed a cloud of radioactivity over Europe and the Soviet Union, particularly contaminating Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. "Claims have been made that tens or even hundreds of thousands of persons have died as a result of the accident. These claims are exaggerated," the Chernobyl Forum report said. UN officials said the death toll was 47 emergency workers and nine children who had died of thyroid cancer. Most of the 4,000 deaths would be among emergency workers exposed to high radiation doses shortly after the accident, who were at higher risk of contracting cancer even decades later. The forum includes the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank and the governments of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. "The mental health impact of Chernobyl is the largest public health problem unleashed by the accident to date," said the report on health, a text from which the report was derived. About 4,000 people developed thyroid cancer as a result of the accident, most of them children and adolescents in 1986. The survival rate, however, had been almost 99 percent, based on figures in Belarus, the report said. Another group that suffered greatly was the thousands of emergency workers who helped extinguish the blaze and entomb the reactor in concrete. They and staff at the plant received very high radiation doses shortly after the accident. "By and large, however, we have not found profound negative health impacts to the rest of the population in surrounding areas, nor have we found widespread contamination that would continue to pose a substantial threat to human health, with a few exceptional, restricted areas," said the forum's Chairman, Burton Bennett. THREAT NOT WIDESPREAD The forum's report "Chernobyl's Legacy: Health, Environmental and Socio-Economic Impacts" examines the effects of the disaster as its 20th anniversary approaches. The report is itself a digest of another, 3-volume, 600-page report by hundreds of scientists, economists and health experts. Greenpeace, however, challenged the report's findings, saying in a statement that the reports it was based on contained contradictory information and research had been omitted. Apart form reactor staff and emergency workers exposed on the day of the disaster, most emergency workers and residents of contaminated areas received relatively low radiation doses, comparable to background levels, the UN said in a statement. Apart from thyroid cancer, there was no evidence of any increase in cancer or leukaemia rates among local residents, it said, nor was there evidence of decreased fertility or of a higher rate of congenital malformations. For the 350,000 people moved out of contaminated areas, however, relocation was a "deeply traumatic experience" which often left them unemployed, the UN statement said. People from areas near Chernobyl were labelled as 'victims' rather than 'survivors', which led them to view themselves as "helpless, weak and lacking control over their future", it said. "This, in turn, has led either to over-cautious behaviour and exaggerated health concerns, or to reckless conduct, such as ... overuse of alcohol and tobacco, and unprotected sexual activity," the statement added. Many evacuated areas were now safe, the report said. Apart from the still closed, highly contaminated 30-km (19-mile) area surrounding the reactor and some closed lakes and restricted forests, radiation levels had mostly returned to acceptable levels, the statement said. Benefits offered to 'victims' were expanded to 7 million people. These needed to be scaled down or target only high-risk groups, though it would be unpopular, it said. The forum is holding a two-day conference on the consequences of Chernobyl in Vienna starting on Tuesday. ---- UN, Ukraine see low Chernobyl toll, environmentalists protest VIENNA (AFP) Sep 06, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050906172220.gu2gzgvg.html Belarus, Russia and Ukraine joined UN experts Tuesday in saying fears of radiation effects from the Chernobyl nuclear accident nearly two decades ago were exaggerated. However, environmentalists protested that the experts' estimated eventual death toll of up to 4,000 people was much too low. Kalman Mizsei, from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), told the UN-sponsored Chernobyl Forum that met in Vienna Tuesday: "For the vast majority of people, the fears associated with exposure to radiation from Chernobyl have been exaggerated. "The damage, both to human health and natural environment, has been much smaller than commonly assumed," he said. "People in the affected communities can, with very few exceptions, pursue normal lives," Mizsei told the forum, which brings together experts from eight UN agencies, as well as the governments of the main affected countries Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. A report by the forum said that the total number of people expected to die over time from cancers from the disaster was likely to be at most 4,000 out of some 600,000 people who were subjected to radiation in the most affected regions, far lower than other predictions of tens of thousands. It also said there had been only 56 deaths so far -- 47 rescue workers who received whole-body high doses of radiation and nine children who had died from thyroid cancer. The forum's conclusions are "ridiculous," Greenpeace environmental group researcher William Peden told AFP. "It is way too early to make such bold assertions when so many questions remain unanswered and many thousands more may die in decades to come," Peden said. Oleksiy Pasyuk, of the Ukraine National Ecology Center, said in Kiev: "We are worried that they are suggesting allowing people to once again live in the affected areas... Their goal is to push for development of nuclear energy." In Belarus, physicist Georgi Lepnin, who himself received massive doses of radiation as a rescue worker at Chernobyl, said: "The figure of 4,000 dead is a huge under-estimate." He said that some 10,000 of the 200,000 rescue workers, the so-called liquidators, had died even if authorities tried to pass this off by saying they had perished from heart attacks and other non-cancer causes. Other ecologists said that many more than 600,000 people were affected. But US radiation expert Fred Mettler explained that people who got lower doses than those in this group were at no higher risk from cancer than anyone in the general population. "After all, the whole northern hemisphere can be said to have been affected by contamination from Chernobyl," Mettler said. The explosion on April 26, 1986, of the number four reactor at the Chernobyl power plant in what was then the Soviet republic of Ukraine sent a radioactive cloud across Europe in what was the worst nuclear accident in history. Burton Bennett, who chaired the meeting, said the 4,000 figure should be taken as a sign of the extent to which authorities have "overplayed the health consequences" of the accident. He said misinformation was responsible for a range of psychological problems as people in the region of Chernobyl thought they were doomed to get cancer, when in fact their exposure to radiation had been relatively low. Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the UN's watchdog atomic agency, said in a speech read out to the opening session that "poverty, mental health problems and 'lifestyle' diseases have come to pose a far greater threat to affected communities than radiation exposure." Mizsei said an "industry has been built on this unfortunate event," with 22 percent of the 1991 national budget of neighbouring Belarus being dedicated to Chernobyl relief, a figure that has since dropped to six percent. Russian Nadezda Gerasimova said "that the most grave results of the Chernobyl accident were in the social area rather than in the radiological area" and that the time had come to cut down on some benefits to people, although many resisted this. ---- UN Chernobyl figures a 'fraction of reality': Norwegian environmental group OSLO (AFP) Sep 06, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050906154456.l88n0knj.html The Norwegian environmental group Bellona on Tuesday rejected a UN report on the effects of the Chernobyl nuclear accident, saying it portrayed just "a small fraction" of the real impact. The UN report found that 56 people have died so far and 4,000 may eventually perish from the effects from the 1986 disaster at the Ukrainian nuclear power plant -- many fewer than initially feared. But Bellona, which specializes in Russian nuclear issues, said the UN figures underestimated the reality. The potential death toll of 3,940 is "just a small fraction" of the total, Bellona nuclear physicist Nils Boehmer told AFP, adding that "many questions remain unanswered". He suggested that the figures, which were provided by Ukrainian authorities, were skewed. "It's easy to get the figures that you want. ... I'm a little sceptical as to the nature of the information that we're getting," he said. According to the 600-page document, more than 600,000 people suffered radiation exposure from the accident, including reactor staff, emergency and recovery personnel and residents of surrounding areas. The report was presented at a conference Tuesday in Vienna joining nuclear, health and development experts from eight UN agencies, meeting under the aegis of the International Atomic Energy Agency. "The goal of the International Atomic Energy Agency is to promote nuclear power for civilian uses. It has a vested interest in minimizing the impact," Boehmer stressed. "Before, it was talking of fewer than 100 victims. Now it's talking about several thousand dead. This is a dramatic increase in the death toll," he said. ---- Ukraine activists reject UN report on Chernobyl effects KIEV (AFP) Sep 06, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050906121203.9kzh0eep.html Activists in Ukraine on Tuesday rejected a United Nations report that found health and environmental effects from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster nearly two decades ago to be less than initially feared. The United Nations report, which found that only 56 people have so far died and 4,000 may eventually perish from the effects of the disaster, was being discussed at a two-day conference in Vienna sponsored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). "Their goal is to push for development of nuclear energy," said Oleksiy Pasyuk, of the environmental group Ukraine National Ecology Center. "They want to lower distrust of nuclear energy." "We are worried that they are suggesting allowing people to once again live in the affected areas," Pasyuk told AFP. The report said that, aside from a 30-kilometer zone immediately surrounding the reactor that exploded in 1986 and several closed forests and bodies of water, radiation levels have normalized in many place that today are still widely considered dangerous. Volodymyr Usatenko, who advises a parliamentary commission on nuclear safety, likewise dismissed many of the report's findings. "The report is based on absolutely false figures," he told AFP. "It is based on official data, on data from a government that never felt responsible." The UN report, which was being discussed by nuclear, health and development experts in Vienna, concludes that out of more than 600,000 people who suffered the most exposure from the accident -- reactor staff, emergency and recovery personnel in 1986-87 and residents of the nearby areas -- an estimated 3,940 are expected to die from radiation-induced cancer and leukemia. Chernobyl's number-four reactor, in what was then the Soviet Union and is now Ukraine, exploded on April 26, 1986, sending a radioactive cloud across Europe. -------- australia Costello fuels states' nuclear talk By Michelle Grattan September 6, 2005 The Age http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/costello-fuels-states-nuclear-talk/2005/09/05/1125772465103.html Jakarta - STATE governments should be able to develop nuclear power if they want to, Peter Costello says, but he has conceded that Australia's abundance of coal means nuclear energy is probably not commercially viable here. In his first intervention in the nuclear energy debate, the Treasurer said the issue should be one of economics alone, subject to the proper safeguards. "I don't think we should rule it out on principle," Mr Costello told reporters travelling with him in Indonesia. "On principle, we should accept it — I see it as an economic question." Mr Costello predicted that the greenhouse issue would bring nuclear power back into debate, because it would be seen as a cleaner form of energy than fossil fuel. But he said he did not believe it would be commercially viable for Australia, at least in the short term, because of the price and quantity of Australian coal. Ultimately it would be up to energy companies to decide if it was economically viable to pursue nuclear power. "I don't think the Government should ban it. We should have rigorous safety standards, very rigorous safety standards, then it becomes a question of commercial provider," he said. "If any state instrumentality believes that it's become commercial, it should be left up to them to either develop it themselves or to commission a private developer and to buy-back," Mr Costello said. A number of ministers are speaking out on the nuclear power debate, which has recently gained momentum. Education Minister Brendan Nelson has urged that it should be on the agenda, while Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said that Australia, as the holder of the world's largest marketable uranium reserves, had a responsibility to supply clean energy to other countries . Mr Costello said high oil prices would increase the demand for nuclear power internationally, making Australian uranium attractive to Japan as well as European and other countries. Australia has about 70 per cent of the world's proven resources of uranium. Mr Costello said it would be "pretty silly" for Australia to say it was opposed to developing nuclear energy locally while exporting it to other countries. Victorian Premier Steve Bracks previously said he did not support "nuclear energy or the use of uranium to fuel electricity generation in Victoria". A spokesman said last night that the Victorian Government would not support the development of nuclear power in the state on economic grounds. Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has also previously dismissed using nuclear energy because it would threaten the coal industry in the state. A spokeswoman for Mr Beattie last night said she did not believe he would change his mind. A spokeswoman for South Australian Premier Mike Rann said SA would "definitely not" be looking at developing its own nuclear power. Mr Costello's comments came as a parliamentary inquiry continued hearings into the development of non-fossil fuel energy in Australia. -------- depleted uranium Invention: Burning bullets * 15:41 06 September 2005 * NewScientist.com news service * Barry Fox http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7955 A bunker-busting shell that gets so hot on impact that it burns its way through concrete and steel is being developed by the US Navy's Warfare Center in Virginia. The shell contains a mixture of aluminium polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and perchlorate oxydiser, moulded together into an aerodynamic shape. To prevent the mixture from disintegrating as it travels through air at high velocity the shell is wrapped in a soft Teflon tape, which is wound tight under high tension, heated and topped with epoxy glue to prevent unravelling. Its high-velocity impact acts as a catalyst, forcing the two chemicals together in a red hot reaction. The projectile gets so hot so fast that it should instantly burn its way through armour plating or other defences. And the burning shell would avoid the environmental pitfalls of radioactive depleted uranium - currently the most common material used in armour-piercing shells. Read the burning bullets patent here. http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220050183618%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20050183618&RS=DN/20050183618 ---- Pollution Chokes the Tigris, a Main Source of Baghdad’s Drinking Water by Dahr Jamail Jun 6, 2004 New Standard http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=481 Water from the Tigris River -- consumed by Iraqis in Baghdad every day -- is contaminated with war waste, and much of it goes untreated despite obligations of a US company to reconstruct vital facilities. Baghdad, - With reconstruction of a highly inadequate water treatment and distribution system at a near standstill throughout much of Central Iraq, some residents of Baghdad are left with little choice but to drink highly polluted water from the Tigris River. Aside from a newly formed Iraqi non-governmental organization that is focusing on the cleanup of one section of the river, not much is being done to improve Baghdad residents’ access to potable water, and US contractors appear unable or unwilling to help. While many areas of Baghdad have access to drinking water from a few of the functional treatment plants, millions of residents remain without a clean, reliable source. All too many of these unfortunates turn to the rotten banks of the Tigris, which snakes prominently through the heart of Baghdad collecting toxins as it flows. Abdul Salam Abdulali works on the river, running a dredging machine. A river man for most of his life, he has long been employed by a company that dredges the muddy Tigris, but which was recently incorporated into the Ministry of Water Resources. "I am married to the water," he said standing atop his dredging machine as it floated atop the river. "But it is too polluted now. I wish I could eat the fish, but when I cut them open I can smell the oil." The residents of the impoverished Baghdad neighborhood called Sadr City are often forced to drink untreated water directly from the Tigris. They are also plagued by diarrhea; many reportedly suffer from recurring kidney stones. Sadr City shopkeeper Ranzi Amher Aziz joined a chorus of voices protesting the lack of potable water in this Baghdad slum. "The situation here is worse now than before the war," he said, echoing others’ complaints. Many here say they cannot see any sign of the US making an effort to help. Aziz stood near a pool of raw sewage in the street. "There has been no work here by the Americans to give us clean water or fix the sewage problem," he said. Tigris River water is a concentrated cocktail of pesticides, fertilizers, oil, gasoline and heavy metals, reports Dr. Husni Mohammed, an Iraqi who holds a PhD in Environmental and Biological Science and has researched the condition of the Tigris. Raw sewage mixes with particles from antiquated piping and US-fired depleted uranium munitions, he says, plus remnants from untold amounts of other chemicals released by American and Iraqi weaponry used since the 1991 Gulf War. In an alarming development, Dr. Mohammed’s research has additionally concluded that Iraqi and US military waste during the 2003 invasion deposited oil and benzene into the river. The health effects of benzene -- an ingredient found in gasoline and jet fuel -- are well known and severe. Short-term exposure can cause significant damage to the nervous system and dramatic suppression of the immune system. Consistent consumption of benzene-tainted water can cause long-term effects including cancer (particularly Leukemia), birth defects and damage to the reproductive system. Heavy metals in drinking water are also known to damage the liver, brain and other vital organs. Adding to the hazards, very few sewage treatment plants in Baghdad are operational. Raw waste from the city of five million residents can be pumped through the sewer system, completely bypassing any treatment, and flow right into the river. Statistics underscore the widespread suffering of Iraqis. The incidence of diarrheal diseases, such as typhoid, dysentery and cholera, doubled between August 2002, before the US-led invasion, and a year later. So reported the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), a UN agency tasked with coordinating responses to severe humanitarian crises. Seventy percent of all children’s sicknesses are linked to contaminated water, the report adds. Over one year into the occupation, the situation is not seen by most residents here as having improved much. Therefore, some have begun to take on the responsibility and work of enacting changes they do not believe can wait for foreign authorities or the new interim government to undertake. Shwaqi Kareem, the president of the National Association for Defense of Environment and Children (NADEC), founded the non-governmental organization (NGO) because he felt it was time to start cleaning up a particularly polluted section of the Tigris. He hopes to remove the garbage, stop the deluge of raw sewage that is flowing into the river and establish gardens along the banks. Kareem said the Tigris is in worse condition now than before the invasion, and blames the US’s disinterest in taking care of a waterway considered vital by Iraqis. NADEC draws on the labor of around 1,000 workers, said co-founder Salim Kamel. Some are paid, but the majority are volunteers. "We get some money from the municipality," Kamel said, "but some of the volunteers are business owners who donate money as well." Kareem is reluctant to work with the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in the cleanup; he blames the Coalition for allowing companies to dump their garbage and sewage into the river over the past year. A contractor interviewed inside the Coalition-run "Green Zone" area echoed Kareem’s sentiments. Awshalim Khammo recently quit his job in frustration after working to clean up the areas of the CPA near the Tigris. "I tried all last year to help improve the Palace ground and the river side within the Green Zone, but things went from bad to worse," he said. Khammo complained in particular about dumping -- which he referred to as a "disaster" -- near the Kellogg Brown and Root warehouse and yards on the east end of the presidential palace. Bechtel Corporation was awarded a no-bid, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract on April 17, 2003 worth $680 million. The controversial contract made Bechtel and its subcontractors responsible for the rehabilitation of the Sharkh Dijlah water treatment plant in Baghdad, as well as the Kerkh Waste Water Treatment Plant. Repeated contacts with various authorities in charge of civilian press access to water treatment projects yielded no invitations to verify progress made on any Baghdad area water treatment facilities. The brochure produced by Bechtel to highlight its work in Iraq concerning the drinking water situation only gives a concrete finishing date for two projects, one of which is the rehabilitation and capacity-building of the Sharkh Dijlah plant. Work on the plant, Bechtel’s number two priority in Baghdad since June 2003, is expected to increase potable water by 225 million liters per day. The work was due to be completed by this month. According to the Washington Post, however, Baghdad officials said Bechtel spent four months studying plans for the expansion made by Iraq’s state-run water company, finally concluding they were acceptable. They then reissued the same orders for the same parts from the same supplier Iraqi engineers had tried to acquire them from. Bechtel estimates it will spend $16 billion on the project, carrying out the work essentially as had previously been done by Iraqi engineers no longer permitted to participate. Bechtel admits the water treatment plant is still being rehabilitated, but says the delay is caused by extra capacity. "We are expanding the treatment capacity of the plant by 50 percent over the design capacity, or 50 million gallons per day," said company spokesperson Francis Canavan. "Our work is expected to be completed in the fall." Dr. Abdul Latif Rashid, the Minister for Water Resources in Iraq, told the BBC that the poor state of Iraq’s infrastructure and past mismanagement are to blame for some of the water problems Iraqis are now facing. The UN’s OCHA report spread the blame more broadly: "Three wars and 13 years of sanctions, as well as the Coalition invasion and the looting that followed it, have dealt a heavy blow to the country’s already creaking water system." Kerkh Wastewater Treatment Plant -- another Baghdad area plant in Bechtel’s Implementation Plan -- is currently undergoing rehabilitation efforts, according to a company spokesperson, who said, "Last week, the Kerkh Wastewater Treatment Plant, which we are rehabilitating, began treating sewage for the first time in years, when one-third of the plant reopened." During a boat tour of the Tigris’ banks taken to inspect treatment facilities, NADEC founder Shwaqi Kareem pointed to a massive outpouring of brownish gray wastewater flowing right into the river. The source of this vile discharge? "The Kerkh Wastewater Treatment Plant," said Kareem. ---- Tests point to health damage of DU in Iraq September 6, 2005 Vermont Guardian http://www.vermontguardian.com/dailies/0904/0906.shtml NEW YORK -- After National Guardsman Gerard Matthew returned home from his Iraq tour a year and a half ago, he learned that members of another unit, who accepted an offer by the New York Daily News, had tested positive for depleted uranium (DU) contamination. Since he had spent much of his time lugging around DU-damaged equipment, Matthew also decided to get tested, and it turned out he was the most contaminated of them all. According to a story by Dave Lindorff for In These Times magazine, Matthew next urged his wife to get an ultrasound check of their unborn baby. They discovered that the fetus had a condition common to those with radioactive exposure: atypical syndactyly. The right hand had only two digits. Now Matthew is angry at a government that never warned him about DU’s dangers. No one knows how many U.S. soldiers have been contaminated. Despite regulations authorizing DU tests for anyone who suspects exposure, the military avoids doing them—or delays until they are meaningless, Lindorff writes. At the war’s start, the United States refused to allow UN or other environmental inspectors to test DU levels within Iraq. Now the UN won’t go near Iraq because of security concerns. Yet the Pentagon still insists, without field evidence, that DU is safe. To date, only about 270 returned troops have been tested for DU contamination by the military and Veterans Affairs. But those tests, mostly urine samples, are useless 30 days after exposure; by that time most of the DU has left the body or migrated into bones or organs. The Daily News paid for costlier tests that could pinpoint uranium inside the body and identify the special isotope signature of man-made DU. Four of the nine tested positive; all had symptoms of uranium poisoning. Even harder evidence may soon arrive. Connecticut State Representative Pat Dillon, D-New Haven, an epidemiologist, has crafted legislation that both Connecticut and Louisiana have unanimously passed, authorizing returned National Guard troops to request and receive specialized DU contamination tests at the Pentagon’s expense. Bob Smith, a veteran in Louisiana who spearheaded the push for legislation in Louisiana, claims that 14 to 20 other states are considering similar measures. If enough Guard troops test positive, reservists and active duty troops and veterans are likely to demand similar tests, which can cost upwards of $1000 per person. -------- iran Iran changes tack in nuclear standoff A report on Iran's nuclear program found a 'lack of transparency' as well as 'good progress' on certain issues. By Scott Peterson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor September 06, 2005 http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0906/p06s01-wome.html ISTANBUL, TURKEY – Iran's first fear about its controversial nuclear program has long been that it could provoke a US or Israeli military strike. And a close second, until now, has been concern in Tehran that Iran could be referred to the United Nations Security Council for violations of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). But even as Western diplomats begin to step up efforts to go after Iran at the UN - canvassing began in Vienna Monday, in the wake of the latest Iran report by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) - Iran appears to be changing tack. Tehran is minimizing the risk of Security Council sanction, which in turn is undermining the carrot-and-stick approach used by the EU and Washington in recent years to convince Iran to end all nuclear efforts. "To a certain extent, [Iranian officials] have lost their fear of the Security Council," says Davoud Hermidas Bavand, a professor of international law at Alameh University in Tehran. "Some even say that Iran should take the issue to the Security Council, against the IAEA," he says, because a technical issue has become "politicized." Shortly after the hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn in as president a month ago, Iran took a long-anticipated step of breaking IAEA seals at its Isfahan plant, ending a unilateral suspension of uranium-conversion activities. The US says those activities - which the IAEA reports have converted seven tons of raw uranium into gas that can be enriched - are aimed at producing nuclear weapons. Iran denies the charge, saying it needs nuclear power, and that its right to master nuclear fuel technology is enshrined in the NPT. The suspension was part of an earlier deal between Iran and Britain, France, and Germany, which sought to make it permanent in August by offering modest incentives. Iran rejected the proposal, which included no guarantees from the US of safety or waiving of current sanctions, prompting the Europeans to cancel meetings set for late August. The confidential report, released Friday, found that 2-1/2 years of "intensive inspections and investigation" have not clarified outstanding issues, and that "Iran's full transparency is indispensable and overdue." Still, the IAEA reported "good progress" in resolving a string of issues since 2003, and confirmed that traces of weapons-grade uranium found on centrifuge parts - held up by some US officials as evidence of a clandestine bomb effort - originated in Pakistan, as Iran has claimed. Iran's new nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, said IAEA criticism was politically motivated, and that violations were "neither legal or technical." "The tide of opinion in Tehran seems to have shifted," says Gary Samore, a nonproliferation official during the Clinton administration and vice president of the MacArthur Foundation in Chicago. "Over the last two years, Iran's policy has been dominated by the desire to avoid referral to the Security Council, and Iran has been prepared to accept limits on its nuclear program in order to achieve that," says Mr. Samore, who is releasing an Iran dossier Tuesday under the auspices of the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London. "It does appear that Iran feels it's in a much stronger position." High oil prices may give Tehran confidence that the council would not jeopardize the flow of Iran's petroleum into the market, says Samore. Other factors include American preoccupation with Iraq, and the decisive victory of Mr. Ahmadinejad at the polls last June. Likely allies of Iran on the council include China and Russia, which is building a nuclear-power plant at Bushehr. Over the weekend, Russian officials made clear they saw "no reason" to send Iran to the council. Mr. Larijani is due to arrive in Pakistan Wednesday, after visits to China and India to galvanize non-Western support. "The belief that [the US and EU] can weaken the will of this great nation with the baton of the Security Council is mistaken logic, and they are only losing their dignity," Larijani told Iranian state TV. "Gone is the time when they could deny Iran its rights by threatening it," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi, said on Sunday. "It is our legitimate right to have peaceful nuclear technology, and we will not give that up." Europeans hope for a shift during talks between Ahmadinejad and other world leaders, including Russia, at the UN General Assembly in New York next week. The IAEA board of governors meets on Sept. 19 to consider the case. "Ahmadinejad, and [Iran] in general, feels less threatened by the possibility of sanctions - they perceive they are stronger, and much more in control," says Hadi Semati, a political scientist from Tehran University, who is currently at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. "Domestically in Iran, it's going to be very hard for anyone to come out and say: 'OK, we're going to get rid of our [nuclear] fuel cycle' to get a few promises. That is political suicide. "They know the Europeans are terrified to take Iran to the Security Council, because then the question is: 'What next?' '' says Mr. Semati. And "down the line, [they feel] the US is bent on regime change anyway, even if it's not declared policy - so why bother?" But such conclusions in Tehran are a high-stakes gamble, as is likely to be any Security Council response. Numerous safeguard violations over the past 20 years means that "until Iran restores confidence in its nuclear program, it should accept limits on activities that are dual use, and have military applications," says Samore. "There is a very strong legal case, [but] Council members are going to be very reluctant to impose significant sanctions on Iran." A tough stance could prompt Iran to relaunch uranium enrichment, kick out inspectors, or - as some hard-liners have demanded - pull Iran out of the NPT. "I think the council will react very cautiously, very incrementally," adds Samore. "It will take time, but there is no urgency. Iran is still a couple of years from having a nuclear-weapons capability, and there are some pretty significant technical problems." -------- japan Japan to support nuclear power in Asia amid soaring oil costs September 6, 2005 (AFP) http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillatestnews.asp?fileid=20050906110241&irec=6 TOKYO: Japan plans to promote nuclear energy, which has been controversial at home, in other Asian nations such as Vietnam and Indonesia to help them diversify from oil, a trade ministry official said on Tuesday. "We could help establish a system for nuclear power generation that should be in line with (global) nuclear non-proliferation and domestic laws in countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia," the official said. Japan will dispatch experts to the two countries, which in turn will send officials here to study with the nuclear safety agency, said the official in the nuclear policy division. As Indonesia and Vietnam plan to start generating nuclear power, "Japan wants to offer help for its peaceful, safe use," he said. "It would also beneficial to Japan as it contributes to easing an energy crunch and reducing global warming," he said. Japan had proposed earlier this year to help neighbor and growing rival China construct nuclear power plants, he added. Japan depends on nuclear power for 30 percent of its energy needs but the figure is unlikely to grow sharply in the future as few towns are willing to host nuclear plants for fear of an accident and amid slack growth in electricity demand in the barely growing Japanese economy. Japan's offer of assistance comes amid soaring oil prices triggered by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina to the U.S. Gulf Coast. Japan has been promoting eco-friendly industry as part of its commitment to the Kyoto Protocol, the landmark treaty on global warming reached in Japan's ancient capital. (*) -------- space Nuclear rocket testing may be revived for NASA By Joe Bauman Deseret Morning News Tuesday, September 06, 2005 http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,605152333,00.html The atomic rocket has again reared its radioactive head. The nuclear-powered rocket seemingly was an idea that had its day in the 1960s, then died. In the early 1990s, the Deseret Morning News (then named the Deseret News) discovered that in 1965 a nuclear-powered rocket had been tested at the Nevada Test Site. Bolted down, the engine roared for 10 1/2 minutes, "sending skyward a plume of nearly invisible hydrogen exhaust that had just been thrust through a superheated uranium fission reactor," wrote Lee Davidson, the paper's Washington Bureau chief. "Three days later, the Atomic Energy Commission found radioactive iodine 131 in town water at Caliente, Nev.," about 90 miles west of Cedar City. An AEC report said the fresh fission products probably came from an open-air nuclear bomb test in China. But it acknowledged some could have come from the atomic rocket or an underground nuclear bomb detonation at the NTS on June 16, 1965. The nuclear rocket project was abandoned but now may be revived. The impetus is that NASA is now preparing to send humans to Mars and probes to more distant targets. A fission-powered rocket could reach sites more quickly, planners believe. "Ground Test Facility for Propulsion and Power Modes of Nuclear Engine Operation" was recently posted on the Web site maintained by the Savannah River National Laboratory, Aiken, S.C. Written by the laboratory's Michael R. Williams, the report was presented at an engineering convention in Tucson, Ariz., in July. The review was sponsored by the federal government, says the cover page, but its opinions don't necessarily reflect those of the government. "Existing DOE (Department of Energy) ground test facilities have not been used to support nuclear propulsion testing since the Rover/NERVA programs of the 1960s," says the report. NERVA stands for Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application. "Unlike the Rover/NERVA programs, DOE ground test facilities for space exploration enabling nuclear technologies can no longer be vented to the open atmosphere." Savannah River might be a good place to test a prototype fuel element test reactor, referred to as the "nuclear furnace" of the rocket during the earlier program, the report indicates. The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory's Advanced Test Reactor could be involved in some features of the program, it adds. The location is about 45 miles west of Idaho Falls, Idaho. The Nevada Test Site, however, was not seen as a good place for the testing. Test facilities at the NTS's Nuclear Research and Development Area consist of three reactor test cells, an engine test stand, two large assembly-disassembly facilities and two remote control facilities that were reassigned to other purposes, it says. "Furthermore, these facilities no longer comply with current environmental and nuclear safety standards and regulations regarding nuclear propulsion system testing for the reactor concept levels envisioned," the report adds. Design and operation of the Ground Test Facility is expected to require a major engineering project "to provide a system capable of removing fission products from the engine exhaust. . . . "The facility had to be capable of handling both normal operating conditions, as well as off-normal conditions that might arise from a catastrophic engine failure." The report promotes the Savannah River Site as a place to develop fuel for the nuclear rocket. Using it to produce the nuclear fuel "and act as the lead laboratory for excess HEU (highly enriched uranium) deposition . . . will minimize logistic and nuclear proliferation concerns," the report says. Tunnels at the Nevada Test Site, built for nuclear bomb testing, were considered as a possible location. "Although location of the Ground Test Facility underground might provide an additional margin of safety, there are still a number of questions concerning the use of existing tunnels or new tunnels" at the test site for this purpose, the report says. Drawbacks cited to using the NTS tunnels include: • The tunnels may be needed in the future as sites for underground nuclear shots. • They are far enough away from existing nuclear rocket test facilities at the NTS to complicate the logistics of their use. • "Given the large volumes of gas that would be released during engine tests, the existing volumes of these tunnels does not appear to be adequate to contain exhaust gases at acceptable pressures." That problem would be magnified if abnormal situations developed during testing. • "During normal operations, the tunnels would be contaminated by fission products." Another option considered was cleaning up the exhaust gases and then releasing them to the atmosphere "as was done in the Nuclear Furnace program in the 1960s." Cleansing the exhaust gases could involve spraying them with water to cool them, and use of filters, dryers and hydrogen cooling to condensing water vapor. "Charcoal beds would be used" to remove xenon and krypton gases from the exhaust "which was then flared to the atmosphere." Contacted by telephone, Williams said the study was preceded by an evaluation by NASA in 1993. The earlier study "included the Nevada Test Site as well as Savannah River Site and a number of other sites." Since 1993, he said, "some areas have not improved significantly and others have improved," apparently referring to the suitability of testing the nuclear rocket. "We felt that our (Savannah River's) situation had improved, because indeed some of the facilities we had missions for no longer have missions, making them available for reuse." The new report was not good news to J Truman, a Malad, Idaho man who grew up in Enterprise, Washington County, and is president of the anti-nuclear testing group Downwinders. As the nuclear rocket plans mature, other DOE facilities will "want the plum themselves," he said. "Really, there are only three areas with both limited populations and the wide-open, vast stretches of land under federal control" where tests could be proposed, he said. They are White Sands Missile Base, N.M.; the Nevada Test Site, and the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. "I think it will be a fight between New Mexico, Nevada and Idaho." In Truman's opinion, the only place where politicians would welcome such a test facility is Idaho. -------- u.s. nuc facilities -------- louisiana Entergy Prepares to Restart Nuclear Plant Tue Sep 6, 2005, 4:46 PM ET Associated Press http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050906/ap_on_bi_ge/katrina_nuclear_plant_hk3_1 CHICAGO - Entergy Corp. is preparing its 1,100-megawatt Waterford nuclear plant near New Orleans for restart after it shut before Hurricane Katrina hit last week, a company executive said Tuesday. Leo Denault, Entergy's chief financial officer, didn't say when the plant is expected online but said it will be ready when needed. Entergy is steadily reducing the number of post-storm outages in its territory, which means the need for power is increasing. As of Tuesday morning, Entergy had restored power to about 631,000 of 1.1 million customers who lost service after Katrina, and was seeing its power load at 77 percent of normal, Denault said on a conference call with analysts. Entergy usually has a 3,000-megawatt power supply shortfall, but a monthslong loss of customers in and around New Orleans will shrink that gap. Both the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Federal Emergency Management Agency have to authorize a Waterford restart after ensuring certain functions are in working order. The NRC said late Friday that the agencies were likely to visit early this week. A spokesman wasn't available for immediate comment Tuesday. Entergy said it's seeking "new and creative" ways to handle the financial impact of Katrina, one of the worst storms in the United States in more than a century. Entergy sustained four times the number of outages it had ever recorded before — at its worst, 1.1 million customers lost service. Among the near-term solutions being explored are securing low-cost financing, extending the depreciable life of assets and redirecting power contracts from New Orleans. C. Dale Sittig, one of five commissioners on the Louisiana Public Service Commission, said regulators will work with Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco to help find some federal government relief. Entergy hasn't released any estimates of what it will cost to restore power. Complicating the recovery of restoration and repair costs and the collection of lost revenue is the displacement for what may be several months of 350,000 customers Entergy serves in and around New Orleans. Sittig has estimated Entergy could lose 100,000 customers due to Katrina. Entergy's financial reserves for storm damage have been depleted by previous storms and are currently at a deficit of $80 million, Denault said. Owing to the hurricane, Entergy said it's unable to reaffirm previously issued 2005 earnings estimates. Entergy shares rose 11 cents to close at $75.66 Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange. -------- south carolina NRC TO CONDUCT SPECIAL INSPECTION AT OCONEE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Last revised Tuesday, September 06, 2005 http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2005/05-038ii.html Office of Public Affairs, Region II 61 Forsyth Street SW, Atlanta, GA 30303 http://www.nrc.gov No. II-05-038 September 2, 2005 CONTACT: Ken Clark (404) 562-4416 Roger D. Hannah (404) 562-4417 E-mail: opa2@nrc.gov The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will begin a special inspection September 6 that will look into an August 31st unplanned shutdown of Duke Energy’s Oconee Unit 3 nuclear power plant, located near Seneca, S.C. The two-person NRC team will look into the circumstances surrounding the event, including the design of some equipment and systems involved, the response of plant employees and the adequacy of plant procedures. During the shutdown, all safety systems performed as required including the start of both Keowee hydro units, and plant operators stabilized the plant quickly. However, the NRC staff determined that the shutdown should be examined more closely with a small team dedicated to that task. The NRC’s resident inspectors at Oconee responded to the shutdown and are continuing to review the event prior to the arrival of the special inspection team. “There were no public health and safety impacts, but we want to make sure we completely understand the sequence of events and whether there are lessons to be learned,” said NRC Region II Administrator William Travers. The NRC team’s findings and conclusions will be documented in a report within 30 days after the special inspection is completed. That report will be available from the NRC Region II Office of Public Affairs or by accessing the NRC web-based document system at www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. -------- MILITARY -------- arms Singapore in talks with Boeing to buy F-15 as next fighter SINGAPORE (AFP) Sep 06, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050906134742.ibyy6vd8.html Singapore announced Tuesday that it was in talks with Boeing to buy a new generation of fighter planes, marking a victory for the US-made F-15 Eagle in its dogfight with the French-built Rafale. A Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) statement said it was "in the process of seeking final clarifications and contract negotiation with Boeing" for a contract estimated in the industry to be worth about one billion US dollars. Military aviation sources said the wording of the announcement on what is called the Next Fighter Replacement Programme was a mere formality, and that it was a done deal for Boeing. The Rafale and F-15 were shortlisted after the Eurofighter Typhoon was knocked out of the running for new fighters to replace a squadron of aging A4SU Super Skyhawks, upgrades of US-made aircraft first bought in the 1970s. Singapore has not released details of its intended purchase but industry sources said a fighter squadron typically has 20-24 aircraft. Its choice for its next fighter was keenly awaited in the world arms industry because the wealthy city-state is regarded as a picky buyer whose choices influence other countries' decisions. Singapore also operates F-16 Fighting Falcons and F-5 Tigers. Part of its air force is stationed in friendly countries like the United States, France and Australia because it does not have enough air space for training. Robert Karniol, Asia-Pacific editor of Jane's Defence Weekly, said he was "a bit surprised" by the announcement of final talks with Boeing. "It's an extraordinarily complicated selection process," the Bangkok-based Karniol told AFP, adding that the Rafale would have had "longer legs" as the new-generation aircraft for Singapore. "I don't see the F-15 twenty years from now being particularly effective in that environment," he said. "The Singaporean procurement will be done in at least two phases and this decision is part one... there is a part two to follow. "Either they will buy some more F-15s or another type of aircraft and my guess is if they select the F-15 now, they would go for another aircraft in phase two." The Singapore statement came two weeks after the US Defense Department notified Congress of the possible sale to Singapore of weapons, logistics and training as part of a proposed F-15 fighter sale. The weapons include advanced supersonic air-to-air missiles and satellite-guided bombs. "This proposed sale includes weapons and logistics for the F-15 aircraft," the US Defense Security and Cooperation Agency said in a statement. The agency said the proposed sale of weapons and logistics for the aircraft was worth 741 million dollars if all options are exercised. The weapons include 200 AIM 120C Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles, 50 Joint Direct Attack Munitions with 500-pound warheads, 30 AGM 154A-1 Joint Standoff Weapons with 500-pound warheads, 30 AGM 154C Joint Standoff Weapons, and 200 AIM 9X Sidewinder missiles. Last April, Singapore dropped the Eurofighter Typhoon from its shortlist, leaving the Rafale and F-15 in a final duel. Defence spending for the current financial year of 9.26 billion Singapore dollars (5.8 billion US) accounts for 31.2 percent of the national budget, one of the highest in Asia. France, which hosts a squadron of Singaporean Skyhawks at a training facility, had lobbied strongly for the Rafale but Singapore is a close American ally. French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie visited Singapore earlier this year to urge the republic to pick the Rafale and President Jacques Chirac himself had pushed for the plane during an earlier visit to Singapore. The Rafale is a multi-role combat aircraft, capable of performing a wide range of missions day or night in all-weather conditions. For its part Boeing has pointed to the F-15's performance in actual combat as one of its main advantages. -------- russia / chechnya Putin tells West not to interfere in ex-Soviet republics I am no authoritarian and will not alter constitution to seek re-election, Russia’s President declares By Michael Binyon, September 06, 2005 UK Times http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1766679,00.html RUSSIA will not tolerate outside interference in former Soviet republics or any attempts to destabilise countries on Russia’s borders, President Putin declared last night. Still angry at the Orange Revolution that toppled Ukraine’s pro-Russian leader in December, Mr Putin denounced non-governmental organisations that were quietly backed by Western governments and fomented uprisings in Moscow’s former sphere of influence. “Our foreign partners may be making a mistake,” he said during a 2½-hour meeting in the Kremlin with Western academics and journalists, including The Times. “We are not against any changes in the former Soviet Union. We are afraid only that those changes will be chaotic. Otherwise there will be banana republics where he who shouts loudest wins.” Mr Putin poured scorn on the new Ukrainian Government of President Yushchenko, saying that it was riven by corruption and had caused the collapse of an agreement for a new Russian gas pipeline to Western Europe. He had warned Europe of those consequences, he said, but “no one wanted to listen to us — and we have to be listened to”. Mr Putin’s confident performance was clearly intended to soften his image in the West, where he is seen as increasingly authoritarian, and to rebut rumours that he was planning to stay on in office when his term expires in 2008. “No, I am not going to run for president in 2008. No, we are not going to amend the constitution,” he insisted. He also denied that he was an authoritarian, but said that all states should work out their democratic systems according to their culture and society: “We simply cannot copy everything. That would be counter-productive.” To the charge that he was trying to introduce some kind of “managed democracy” he replied: “I don’t know what this is. Democracy either exists or it doesn’t exist. It cannot be set apart from the rule of law.” Mr Putin expressed his shock at the devastation in New Orleans. “It is simply awful. I look at it and can’t believe my eyes. It tells us that, however strong and powerful we believe ourselves, we are nothing in front of nature and God almighty.” He said he had ordered helicopters and planeloads of emergency aid to be made ready if the US asked for them. He had not personally spoken to “George”, but his officials were in daily contact with their US counterparts. But on the highly contentious issue of Iran he was less emollient. He expressedconcern over Tehran’s nuclear programmes, but insisted that it had done nothing illegal to date, and should not yet be referred to the UN Security Council. Everybody had to move cautiously and sensibly, on this issue and North Korea. That would be “a great achievement of international diplomacy”. Mr Putin was predictably uncompromising over Chechnya. Speaking only two days after receiving a delegation of bereaved mothers from Beslan, he said Shamil Basayev, who masterminded the school’s seizure, had to be caught or eliminated as soon as possible. He condemned Western news outlets that, hiding behind “some demagogic rhetoric” about freedom of expression, had given him and other terrorists the platform of publicity. Mr Putin said Russia’s relations with China were now better than they had been for at least 40 years. He tried to allay worries that the recent joint military manoeuvres were intended as a warning and said that this new closeness represented no threat to Japan or Korea. But he referred sarcastically to Japan’s attempts to resolve the dispute over the Kurile Islands, arguing that Russia was ready to do a deal in 1956. Mr Putin was equally scathing about attempts by Estonia and Latvia to reopen a border dispute with Russia. He said that he had been willing to sign a deal with Estonia — even though it had refused to attend the 60th anniversary celebrations of VE Day in Moscow in May — because he believed it was time to turn a new page. But Estonia’s Parliament had tried to insert language from a 1920 treaty that Russia found “absolutely unacceptable”, and which would set a precedent for reopening any number of territorial rows in Europe. What would it mean for the border between Poland and Germany, he asked? Mr Putin said Russia’s economic outlook was extremely bright, largely because of high oil prices. But he insisted that the country would not spend the windfall earnings irresponsibly, or fuel inflation. He wanted to invest the money in a stability fund, encouraging high technology, boosting health, housing and science, and repaying Russia’s loans. But he accepted that corruption throughout Russia was still a big problem, as it was in all countries in transition. He laughed when asked about corruption within the Kremlin itself, insisting that officials who sat on the boards of state companies were there simply to guard state interests. Mr Putin, a committed Christian, said that religion had a big place to play in Russia, and the Government, without dictating to churches or mosques, would do everything to restore property to them and help them to expand. Russia had built dozens of new mosques and synagogues recently, including the largest synagogue in Europe. He said it was also considering a proper commemoration of the Holocaust, including perhaps even the building of a Holocaust museum. -------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE New Orleans Police Break Out of Their 'Fort Apache' Story by Michael Christie REUTERS USA: September 6, 2005 http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/32364/story.htm NEW ORLEANS - To New Orleans Police Sgt. Justin Crespo, the sign hanging over the garage entrance to the 1st District station near the French Quarter a week after Hurricane Katrina struck says it all -- "Fort Apache." "The first night after, we started taking fire out of Treme...," Crespo said on Monday, pointing to a low income housing development that rose up from behind the jazz city's famed and eerie mausoleum-filled St. Louis cemetery. "They were shooting at us, they were shooting at military helicopters. So one of the guys said this is just like Fort Apache in the Bronx, and the name stuck," Crespo said referring to the 1981 movie, starring Paul Newman, of a police station that was more like a fort in hostile territory. "They were shooting at the helicopters that were bringing them food," added another officer. He said there was no obvious explanation why the gunmen should do this. For a couple days, around 80 New Orleans police officers were trapped in the station -- pinned down on one side by sniping from gangs in the barrio, and on the other by rapidly rising floodwaters from the Mississippi River. Returning fire but armed only with the bullets they had in their firearms, they took cover in a neighboring building that was two stories higher. The police took a sledge hammer with them, in case they needed to break through a wall to reach the roof to escape the flood. The New Orleans police force has come under severe criticism for failing to protect the people of its city from the hurricane, and then from gangs of looters, rapists and murderers that ran amok in the chaos that followed. Many officers deserted. New Orleans Police Department Deputy Chief Warren Riley said only about 1,000 of the force's 1,641 officers were accounted for. TOUGH TIME "Some left for various reasons, some of which we understand. Some of their homes were totally destroyed. Others were looking for missing spouses and family members. Others who didn't stay, that's a subject for a different day," he told reporters. Crespo and other officers said they were having a tough time looking after themselves. Most had no idea where their families were during the storm and at least two have since committed suicide, he said. Officers in the 1st District felt so besieged they barricaded the street around their station to ward off attacks. They hunkered down, trying to protect their feet against infections from sewage-fouled waters outside, and using a filing cabinet as a television antenna. "Nine days. I got a shower today," Crespo said. "We were on baby wipes and alcohol." Trapped like everyone else in a city under water, the police resorted to looting for shoes, dry socks and food. "We didn't take anything that's not essential," Crespo said, showing off brand new white sneakers. The US government, also under fire for its response to one of the worst natural disasters the country has ever seen, poured troops, police, special forces and emergency management teams into the devastated city by Monday. Dozens of helicopters thundered overhead as Crespo and other officers in the 1st District prepared to begin patrolling their neighborhoods again. Police, FBI, Army and National Guard SUVs, lorries and Humvees roared through ghostly abandoned streets while air boats and other vessels plied flooded neighborhoods. People were still being rescued. "It was scary but we had each other so we kept our sense of humor," said Shani White, three months pregnant, after she and her husband Kenny were plucked from a flooded out office building by Sheriff Marlin Gusman in a boat. "My baby is going to be called Marlin," she said. And if it's a girl? "Marlina." (Additional reporting by Mark Babineck) -------- ENERGY -------- alternative energy China Mulls Raising Renewable Energy Commitment Story by Emma Graham-Harrison REUTERS CHINA: September 6, 2005 http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/32360/story.htm BEIJING - China, the world's second-largest oil consumer, may boost its long-term commitment to renewable energy use by 50 percent, a top policy maker said on Monday. Beijing currently aims to get one-tenth of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, and this year passed a law forcing power suppliers to buy more electricity from plants that do not burn fossil fuels. But with imports rocketing and the environmental toll of dirty coal climbing -- Premier Wen Jiabao said on Monday it met 75 percent of the country's energy needs -- officials are eyeing an even more ambitious programme. "By 2020 renewable energy (could) account for 15 percent of energy production in China, including large-scale hydropower projects," Shi Lishan, director of renewable energy at the policy-setting National Development and Reform Commission, told an energy conference in Beijing. The new target was being discussed by top officials, he told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference, although he declined to give a date when it might be confirmed. The impact on river systems of projects like the giant Three Gorges Dam, the largest in the world, means some environmentalists object to them being counted with generators like wind-turbines or solar panels. At present renewable sources provide around 7 percent of China's energy, Shi said. Acid rain affects around one-third of a country that the World Bank says has 20 of the 30 most air-polluted cities in the world, providing strong incentives to seek more clean energy. Global warming is also a growing concern for the world's number-two emitter of greenhouse gases. China faces a range of natural challenges from desertification to seasonal typhoons that could be exacerbated by hotter weather. It has approved the Kyoto Protocol on climate change and, although it has no obligation to cut carbon dioxide emissions during the pact's first phase to 2012, analysts say it is keen to show it is a good global citizen. INDUSTRIAL CHANGE Home to increasing numbers of energy-intensive factories -- its aluminium industry alone accounted for around five percent of all power used last year -- China should also consider shifting its economic structure in the long run, some experts say. "Encouraging the growth of the service sector in China would...tend to make the economy less energy-intensive," David Dollar, World Bank director for China, told the conference. "It's also true that most consumption is services, so if China has policies that encourage people to consume more, that would also tend to shift the industrial structure," he added. The government has said it plans to crack down on inefficient firms, phasing out old and inefficient machinery. "(We should) publish a list of those industries and enterprises that are backwards and high-energy consuming and force those businesses out of use," said Zhu Guangyao, deputy director of the State Environmental Protection Administration. It is also keen to clean up its coal-burning plants, exploring technologies ranging from gasification to carbon storage -- where greenhouse gases are buried in porous rock for long-term storage rather than released into the atmosphere.