NucNews - October 10, 2005 -------- NUCLEAR -------- accidents and safety State told to pay for cancer-linked death of nuclear reactor worker By Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondent 10/10/2005 http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/633780.html The Be'er Sheva Labor Court on Monday classified the cancer-related death of an employee in the Dimona nuclear reactor as a work accident and instructed the state to pay his family compensation allowance. Yosef Fahima worked as a technician at the Negev Nuclear Research Center from 1964 until his death from lung cancer in 1992. His family claimed that his death was a direct result of his working at the reactor, and filed a lawsuit against the National Insurance Institute. Labor Court judge Ilan Sofer accepted the family's argument, despite the fact that Fahima used to smoke. A panel of doctors established that exposure to radiation and carcinogenic materials, such as nickel and chrome, had increased Fahima's chances of getting cancer. "In other words," the judge ruled, "the probability of having lung cancer when combining heavy smoking and exposure to carcinogenic and radioactive material is greater than when dealing with heavy smoking alone." Fahima's family did not have to prove a direct link between the job and the disease, Sofer said, adding that it was sufficient to know that working in the Dimona nuclear reactor has a "catalyzing" effect. ---- Y-12 contractor redoing process after small explosion in 2003 October 10, 2005 (AP) http://www.wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=3960254&nav=0RYv OAK RIDGE -- The government contractor at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge says a redesign of a nuclear process is still underway after a small explosion that drew a federal fine. Plant spokesman Bill Wilburn says comprehensive reviews have been conducted since the April 2003 incident inside a sealed glove box. Three workers were exposed to smoke and uranium particulate after a small fire in the box. The workers were decontaminated and none of the exposures were considered a danger to their health. The federal government fined contractor BXWT more than $82,000 and noted the results could have been worse, had the explosion occurred earlier when workers were closer to the immediate area. Wilburn says BXWT believes all safety concerns have been resolved in the new process, which is still under development. ---- Y-12 redesigns method after blast Official says new process includes 'lessons learned' By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com October 10, 2005 Knoxville News Sentinel http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_4145841,00.html OAK RIDGE - A uranium process that resulted in a glove-box explosion 2 1/2 years ago is still under development and apparently destined for production at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant. "We are doing everything we can to make this process safe, and we believe that all safety concerns have been resolved," Y-12 spokesman Bill Wilburn said in response to questions. Wilburn said "comprehensive safety and design reviews" have been conducted since the April 15, 2003, explosion in Y-12's Building 9202. The process known as saltless direct oxide reduction was being tested inside a sealed glove box when the explosion occurred, generating a brief fire that exposed three workers to smoke and uranium particulate. The workers were decontaminated, and none of the exposures was considered to be a health concern. However, officials noted at the time that the situation could have been worse if the explosion had occurred earlier, when the workers were close to the processing operation. The glove-box explosion was the third chemical incident within 22 months involving Y-12's research group, and it prompted extensive investigations. According to summaries released to the news media, the explosion was caused by unreacted calcium, excess water and depleted uranium in an unvented container inside the glove box. That mixture generated steam and heat, overpressurizing the container of wet uranium to the point that it exploded. The explosion knocked open the glove box, allowing the uranium to react with air and catch fire. BWXT, the plant's managing contractor, refused to release the investigation reports. The News Sentinel later acquired the two reports - one by BWXT and one by an independent team of experts - but they were heavily redacted to remove sensitive information. The reports added little information to what had already been released. The government fined BWXT $82,500 for the accident and said the explosion likely could have been prevented with better risk-based planning. Wilburn indicated that the process has been redesigned with different equipment. "The equipment involved in the accident was physically dismantled and disposed of," he said. "While a few elements of the old system were kept, the upgraded prototype consists largely of new equipment." Asked if BWXT still intends to use the process in production, Wilburn said, "If the prototype tests in the R&D (research and development) facility are successful, the technology may be deployed into present or future production operations." He said he couldn't say when it might be used. "It depends on future production requirements," he said. One of Y-12's primary roles is production of warhead parts with highly enriched uranium. The 2003 explosion occurred when Y-12 workers were testing the new processing technique with depleted uranium, minus the fissile U-235. BWXT officials would not say if they plan to use the process with bomb-grade uranium, which is nearly pure U-235. Wilburn would only say that no highly enriched uranium would ever be used in Y-12's research facility In the independent accident report, the authors noted that saltless direct oxide reduction "has the potential to be a significantly improved process for producing high-quality HEU (highly enriched uranium) metal." A report by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board also noted that Y-12 intends to use the technology to replace existing processes that produce enriched-uranium "buttons." Wilburn said neither the technology nor the process is being used presently at Y-12. "We are still investigating the process after having redesigned, basically from the ground up, the part of the process that had the problem," he said. "That portion was torn down and examined and redesigned, incorporating lessons learned from the event." He said BWXT will assess the new equipment and process with nonhazardous materials and then do another series of safety reviews before testing the system with depleted uranium. A defense board report said testing with depleted uranium is expected late this year. Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329. -------- canada Ontario coal-burning plants advocates 'Neanderthals': Duncan By STEVE ERWIN October 10, 2005 (CP) http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2005/10/10/1256391-cp.html TORONTO - Ontario has no plans to listen to "Neanderthals" who want the province to keep its coal-burning power plants operating, even if that's what a report being prepared for the government recommends, says Energy Minister Dwight Duncan. Duncan offered an emphatic "no" when asked whether he'd be willing to revisit the Liberal government's promise to stop burning coal for electricity even if the Ontario Power Authority calls for exactly that in a report expected in December. "We are moving to close the coal plants, period, full stop," Duncan said in an interview with The Canadian Press. More than 80 per cent of the province's power generation needs to be rebuilt or replaced over the next 20 years. The OPA has been meeting with energy industry stakeholders to determine what sources of new power generation the province should invest in. Ontario is currently powered 49 per cent by nuclear reactors. Twenty-five per cent is supplied by hydro, 17 per cent by coal, seven per cent by gas and the remainder from wind and other alternative energy sources. Duncan has said the government will agree to build new nuclear reactors should the OPA recommend it. But he says those lobbying the authority to recommend so-called cleaner coal technology and keeping the plants open are a century behind the times. "I say to the Neanderthals . . . we're moving forward responsibly to ensure that we clean up our air," Duncan said. "We're in the 21st century. They're in the 19th century." Air pollution remains a key concern in Ontario. Fifty smog advisories have been issued for the province this year, including a rare October advisory issued last week. "I am sick and tired of having smog days in October," he said. "We had a smog day in February. We've had smog days in Algonquin Park." He's also unimpressed with a report by Energy Probe, a national energy and environmental research group, which last week listed two Ontario coal-fired plants as being among the cleanest in North America. "So we may have among some of the better of the worst forms of energy producers in North America. Who cares?" Duncan said. "We want to get rid of them. It's the equivalent of taking every vehicle, every car and every light truck off the road in this province." Duncan's resistance to coal is a mistake, argues Energy Probe executive director Tom Adams. Adams wants the province to keep at least two units at its Lambton station, south of Sarnia in southern Ontario, which rank fourth and ninth out of 403 in the report's list of the cleanest plants on the continent. Adams argues that closing the units would end up requiring the province to import coal-fired power from the United States, which would "exacerbate adverse environmental and human health impacts to Ontarians." Adams said some of the dirtiest coal-fired generators are in American states neighbouring Ontario: the Picway and Richard Gorsuch stations in Ohio and the AES Greenridge station in New York. According to Power Workers' Union president Don Mackinnon, the province can refurbish its coal plants with "the latest and greatest" clean technology for $3.3 billion. Mackinnon says that's $1.8 billion cheaper than it would cost to replace coal plants with natural gas. "We're trying to convince the OPA and the government to rethink this," says Mackinnon, whose union represents some 1,200 coal plant workers in Ontario. "I'm hoping the OPA will keep the door open on it. But in the end, all they can do is make a recommendation. The minister has the power to issue a directive with regards to the supply mix." The David Suzuki Foundation has maintained renewable energy, such as wind, biomass, solar and geothermal sources, can replace the power that will be lost by shutting down coal plants. "Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the direction that the Ontario government is taking," said Dale Marshall, the foundation's climate change policy analyst. Marshall said he believes the province has pre-determined it will look to more nuclear power to address future supply concerns. He said that's a multibillion-dollar mistake that will raise further environmental debates about the storage of nuclear waste. -------- depleted uranium Depleted Uranium, George Bush & Tony Blair Depleted Uranium Situation Requires Action By President Bush and Prime Minister Blair Monday, 10 October 2005, 4:18 pm Scoop, NZ Opinion: Dr. Doug Rokke Ph.D. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0510/S00122.htm While U.S. and British military personnel continue using uranium munitions- America's and England's own "dirty bombs" U.S. Army, U.S. Department of Energy, and U.S. Department of Defense officials continue to deny that there are any adverse health and environmental effects as a consequence of the manufacture, testing, and/or use of uranium munitions to avoid liability for the willful and illegal dispersal of a radioactive toxic material - depleted uranium. They arrogantly refuse to comply with their own regulations, orders, and directives that require United States Department of Defense officials to provide prompt and effective medical care "all" exposed individuals [Medical Management of Unusual Depleted Uranium Casualties, DOD, Pentagon, 10/14/93, Medical Management of Army personnel Exposed to Depleted Uranium (DU) Headquarters, U.S. Army Medical Command 29 April 2004), and section 2-5 of AR 70-48]. They also refuse to clean up dispersed radioactive Contamination as required by Army Regulation- AR 700-48: "Management of Equipment Contaminated With Depleted Uranium or Radioactive Commodities" (Headquarters, Department Of The Army, Washington, D.C., September 2002) and U.S. Army Technical Bulletin- TB 9-1300-278: "Guidelines For Safe Response To Handling, Storage, And Transportation Accidents Involving Army Tank Munitions Or Armor Which Contain Depleted Uranium" (Headquarters, Department Of The Army, Washington, D.C., JULY 1996). Specifically section 2-4 of United States Army Regulation-AR 700-48 dated September 16, 2002 requires that: (1) "Military personnel "identify, segregate, isolate, secure, and label all RCE" (radiologically contaminated equipment). (2) "Procedures to minimize the spread of radioactivity will be implemented as soon as possible." (3) "Radioactive material and waste will not be locally disposed of through burial, submersion, incineration, destruction in place, or abandonment" and ADVERTISEMENT (4) "All equipment, to include captured or combat RCE, will be surveyed, packaged, retrograded, decontaminated and released IAW Technical Bulletin 9-1300-278, DA PAM 700-48" (Note: Maximum exposure limits are specified in Appendix F). The past and current use of uranium weapons, the release of radioactive components in destroyed U.S. and foreign military equipment, and releases of industrial, medical, research facility radioactive materials have resulted in unacceptable exposures. Therefore, decontamination must be completed as required by U.S. Army Regulation 700-48 and should include releases of all radioactive materials resulting from military operations. The extent of adverse health and environmental effects of uranium weapons contamination is not limited to combat zones but includes facilities and sites where uranium weapons were manufactured or tested including Vieques, Puerto Rico, Colonie, New York, and Jefferson Proving Grounds, Indiana. Therefore medical care must be provided by the United States Department of Defense officials to all individuals affected by the manufacturing, testing, and/or use of uranium munitions. Thorough environmental remediation also must be completed without further delay. I am amazed that fourteen years after I was asked to clean up the initial DU mess from Gulf War 1 and almost ten years since I finished the depleted uranium project that United States Department of Defense officials and mauy others still attempt to justify uranium munitions use while ignoring mandatory requirements. But beyond the ignored mandatory actions that the willful dispersal of tons of solid radioactive and chemically toxic waste in the form of uranium munitions just does not even pass the common sense test. Finally continued compliance with the infamous March 1991 Los Alamos Memorandum ( http://www.tv.cbc.ca/national/pgminfo/du/doc1.html) that was issued to ensure continued use of uranium munitions can not be justified. In conclusion: the President of the United States- George W. Bush and The Prime Minister of Great Britain-Tony Blair must acknowledge and accept responsibility for willful use of illegal uranium munitions- their own "dirty bombs"- resulting in adverse health and environmental effects. President Bush and Prime Minister Blair also should order: 1. medical care for all casualties, 2. thorough environmental remediation, 3. immediate cessation of retaliation against all of us who demand compliance with medical care and environmental remediation requirements, 4. and ban the future use of depleted uranium munitions. References - these references are copies the actual regulations and orders and other pertinent official documents: http://www.traprockpeace.org/twomemos.html http://www.traprockpeace.org/rokke_du_3_ques.html http://www.traprockpeace.org/du_dtic_wakayama_Aug2002.html -------- europe Czech Nuclear Power Plants Tighten Security After Bomb Threat Prague (AFP) Oct 10, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/news/terrorwar-05zzzg.html Security was tightened at the Czech Republic's two nuclear power stations, Dukovany and Temelin, after an anonymous caller warned of an explosion at both plants, Dukovany spokesman Petr Spilka said Monday. The caller contacted firefighters in the region where Dukovany is situated shortly before 9pm on Sunday, Spilka said. Police searched both plants but did not find any device and emergency staff meetings were called at both facilities, he added. The plants' operation was not affected, according to Spilka, who did not specify what extra security measures had been taken. -------- iran Iran softens tone in nuclear stand-off TEHRAN (AFP) Oct 10, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/051010120158.7jf3do7f.html Iran on Monday softened its tone amid a crisis over its disputed nuclear programme, with a senior national security official asserting the country had made a "strategic choice" to pursue negotiations. "Negotiations are Iran's strategic choice in the nuclear issue, and we think that there is no other way forward except through talks," Ali Agha Mohammadi, spokesman for Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told the student news agency ISNA. "Iran wants its nuclear case to be transparent and other countries want to ease their concerns through negotiations, so therefore the only solution to reach these objectives is to talk," he added. At the centre of the dispute is Iran's work on the nuclear fuel cycle. The clerical regime insists it only wants to make reactor fuel and that it has a right to do so as a signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). But the European Union and United States fear Iran is using this atomic energy drive as a means to acquire the same technology needed to make weapons. Talks with Britain, France and Germany broke down in August, when Iran slammed the door on an offer of incentives in exchange for a cessation of fuel work. Iran also ended a freeze on fuel cycle work by resuming uranium conversion -- a precursor to potentially dual-use enrichment work. In September, the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board passed a resolution finding Iran to be in non-compliance with the NPT -- paving the way for the matter to be referred to the UN Security Council. The IAEA board also urged Iran to return to a full freeze. Iran has so far refused to do so, and had also threatened to respond to the resolution by blocking tougher IAEA inspections and even resuming enrichment itself. But in recent days regime officials have eased their tone, and both the EU-3 and Iran have been openly calling for negotiations to resume ahead of the next IAEA meeting in November -- when a Security Council referral could be on the cards. According to Mohammadi Iran could accept a compromise on uranium conversion proposed by South Africa, a country which has been supporting Iran's position, as a precursor to resuming enrichment itself. "If we need seven or eight more months of talks to reach a final decision on enrichment... during this period we could accept receiving uranium yellowcake from South Africa and sending back UF6 gas produced at Isfahan," he said. At Isfahan, Iran is converting raw mined uranium into the more concentrated yellowcake and in turn converting that into UF6 -- the gas that would eventually be fed into cascades of centrifuges, the process known as enrichment. This proposal, however, remains at odds with the position of the US and EU -- who are trying to keep Iran from possessing fuel cycle technology, and in particular from acquiring large stocks of UF6. Iran's critics point out the country is trying to produce nuclear fuel but has not even laid the foundation stones for the 20 or so power stations it claims it needs the fuel for. Mohammadi said Iran was not seeking "to make fuel that it does not need, but refuses to give up the right". -------- korea US Admits Making Mistake on Missing Uranium 10-10-2005 19:48 Korea Times http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200510/kt2005101019460311990.htm The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Monday it has confirmed that the U.S. Department of Commerce had wrongly listed a shipment of natural uranium fluoride to South Korea. ``We’ve confirmed the U.S. Department of Commerce erroneously said on its Web site that it shipped 68,693 kilograms of natural uranium fluoride to South Korea,’’ a ministry spokesman said in a statement. The listing of the uranium sparked confusion in the local media after South Korean officials denied receiving the sensitive material. The U.S. side sent a letter last Thursday saying it will correct the figure to reflect that no shipments were made, according to the statement. ``We’ve heard that the Department of Commerce mistakenly said the shipment was made to South Korea, although it was actually sent to San Francisco from Washington,’’ a ministry official said. ``We see it as a simple mistake.’’ It will take about one week for the Web site to be corrected, the statement said. -------- u.s. nuc weapons A Shot in the Arm The spread of nuclear weapons poses the greatest threat to U.S. and world security-and we'd better step up our efforts to address it. Carl Robichaud October 10, 2005 Article created by The Century Foundation http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2005/10/shot_in_the_arm.html On Friday, after winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Mohammad ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the award is a much needed "shot in the arm" for him and the agency. The boost couldn't come at a better time-the past year has been a disastrous one for the non-proliferation regime. The spread of nuclear weapons poses the greatest threat to U.S. and world security-and we'd better step up our efforts to address it. One year, one week, and what seems an era ago, John Kerry and George W. Bush stood before the nation on a televised debate and agreed that "the single most serious threat to the national security of the United States" was nuclear proliferation. The answer makes sense. If you accept George Kennan's definition of national security (a nation's ability "to pursue its internal life without serious interference") there are remarkably few threats that could seriously disrupt our way of life. Among them, we may list nuclear and biological terrorism, pandemic disease (such as avian flu), and nuclear war. And while the possibility of devastating biological scenarios is real, the most potentially destructive threat to our society and our lives still lies in nuclear attacks. If you were to start from scratch in designing a plan for our nation's security, non-proliferation mechanisms would no doubt be at the center of that strategy. The primacy of the nuclear threat is generally well-understood by academics (at least if the Princeton Project on National Security, which I attended last week, is any indication). This primacy is also understood by the American public: when asked to prioritize the "most important foreign policy goals" from a list of thirty, respondents placed "keeping nuclear weapons away from countries and groups that are hostile to the U.S. and our allies" first. Two other nuclear concerns made the top five; meanwhile protecting oil supplies, establishing a stable and secure government in Iraq, and spreading democracy failed to crack the top fifteen. It's no accident that, at least before the rationales began to multiply, the administration built its case for war against Iraq based on Saddam's WMD program-and the oft-cited image of the mushroom cloud. So, given the relative consensus around the primacy of the nuclear threat among the American public, academics, and policy makers from both parties, why do we devote so few resources and so little attention to preventing proliferation? The State Department received $0.4 billion to coordinate programs in non-proliferation and terrorism last year; administration requested $1.6 billion for Department of Energy threat reduction efforts (and another $0.4 billion for Pentagon-based programs.) But this is loose change when compared with the $16.6 billion requested this year to maintain our nuclear arsenals or the $8.8 billion to construct a ballistic missile defense system. These non-proliferation programs have seen at most modest increases while the overall defense budget has climbed from $301 billion in 2001 toward $419 billion requested in 2006 (this increase does not include spending on Iraq or Afghanistan, which are together projected to cost $70 billion in a 2006 supplemental.) Investing the $6 billion we spend in one month in Iraq into non-proliferation initiatives could transform our security for years to come. A Rising Threat There couldn't be a more critical time for such an investment. Consider that in the past few years: * North Korea has acquired nuclear weapons. * Iran has continued to patiently exploit gaps in the non-proliferation regime and is developing an arsenal. * Russia has, in accordance with the Bush-Putin agreement, placed thousands of weapons in storage, where many of them remain assembled and under imperfect surveillance. * China has pursued expensive program to modernize its arsenal. * India has gained U.S. recognition (and tacit support) of its nuclear activities. * The United States is poised to embark on the construction of a new generation of nuclear bunker busters, which could lead others to open new weapon development. * A.Q. Khan, a Pakistani citizen, has been implicated in a global black market for nuclear technology. * The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, which occurs only twice a decade, collapsed in May, leaving the international community ill-prepared to face current and future threats. * "Preventive war" has proven an ineffective, and prohibitively expensive, non-proliferation strategy in Iraq, and is not feasible in Iran. Investing in Non-Proliferation What could the United States do with its additional funds to address non-proliferation? Without getting into the nuts and bolts, there are several areas where a capital infusion might transform our capacities: * Initiate a Manhattan Project to roll back the Manhattan Project. The United States should establish several non-proliferation research centers" focused on technical innovations, and especially on more effective inspection technologies. The weapons labs currently perform some non-proliferation research, but their role should be further transformed. Technological fixes are no solution to diplomatic problems, but can facilitate them: in Reagan's formulation of "trust but verify," agreements become easier and more secure as verification becomes more effective. * Increase funding for threat reduction. Our threat reduction programs with Russia and other allies have been, at a cost of $2 billion per year, among the best investments in our security, but have received inconsistent support from the administration. Progress on this front has slowed, prompting groups such as the Center for American Progress to recommend doubling the threat reduction budget and expanding the program to other at-risk countries. Equally important is high-level diplomatic attention: the President's top goal vis a vis Russia should be to convince Vladimir Putin to cut through red tape in his ministries. * Bolster the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The IAEA is our first line of defense against proliferation, but still operates on a shoestring budget ($385 million this year, even including $120 million in additional 'voluntary' contributions). As the responsibilities of the IAEA expand (including the additional protocol) it must be fully supported; the Center for American Progress recommends increasing the Safeguards and Security Budget by 50 percent, and the United States should play a leading role. * Control the nuclear fuel cycle. On Wednesday, ElBaradei argued that the best way to prevent proliferation (with Iran as the exemplary case) is to guarantee nuclear fuel to countries that commit to not producing it themselves. There are legitimate concerns about whether such a plan would be verifiable, but investing in stronger inspection mechanisms, and establishing a fuel bank under the IAEA, would facilitate this policy shift. According to ElBaradei, this program would solve "at least 80 percent of the problem." Critics of arms control express skepticism about our ability to verify nuclear agreements. But while no inspection capacity is ever foolproof, it can be effective: in Iraq, the much maligned inspection regime had worked to deter and eliminate Saddam's WMD programs. The administration should take this rare moment of consensus to transform technical capacities-and political opportunities-to address our top security threat. Carl Robichaud is a program officer at The Century Foundation. -------- u.s. nuc facilities -------- colorado Ratcheting down the environment? By JUDITH KOHLER Associated Press Writer Monday, October 10, 2005 8:39 PM MDT http://www.coloradodaily.com/articles/2005/10/10/news/beyond_boulder/news2.txt DENVER (AP) - There was a time when Colorado's heavily populated Front Range was as well known for its brown cloud of air pollution as for the towering Rockies obscured by the haze. Threats of federal penalties, the loss of federal highway dollars and a sullied reputation prompted Denver and Colorado officials to launch a multi-pronged attack, including the mandatory use of oxygenated fuels for part of the year, wood-burning bans on high-pollution days and voluntary no-drive days. The skies cleared and the Denver area was declared in full compliance with federal clean-air standards in 2002. That progress, as well as water quality, state parks and wildlife, are threatened by the state spending limits imposed by the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, according to environmental and conservation groups. A recession and TABOR have forced state lawmakers to cut an estimated $2 billion in spending over the last three years. Environmentalists say TABOR has eroded state support for enforcement of clean air and water regulations. Seven statewide and regional environmental groups are backing Referendum C, a measure on the Nov. 1 ballot that would largely suspend TABOR for five years, allowing the state to keep more than $3 billion in tax revenue that would otherwise be refunded to taxpayers. They have also endorsed Referendum D, which would allow the state to borrow up to $2.1 billion for roads, school maintenance, pensions and other projects. The vote comes as Colorado is again under scrutiny for federal air-quality violations. It recently had to draft a plan to meet standards for ozone, the primary component in smog. The state's water quality control program was recently examined by the Environmental Protection Agency, which warned that it's significantly understaffed: there are 37 employees while a national model recommends 72. ”This budget crisis has a real human component,“ said Elise Jones, executive director of the Colorado Environmental Coalition. ”I make the assumption that I can mix formula for my 6-month-old daughter with tap water.“ Opponents of the referenda argue that any revenue exceeding spending caps should continue to be refunded to taxpayers because families and businesses can do more good with the money than government can. Jones said it makes more sense for the state to make sure it has enough money to protect basic public and environmental health. ”I can't do that as a private citizen,“ she said. One prominent TABOR supporter, former state Senate President John Andrews, labeled the argument a ”environmental scare scenario.“ Under TABOR, Colorado's revenue is increasing enough to finance such essential functions as protecting air and water quality, Andrews said. ”The squeeze in the budget doesn't come from growth limits under TABOR. It comes from a lack of political will in the Legislature to control the ballooning costs of public schools and medical welfare“ or Medicaid, Andrews said. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has financed its air-quality programs through fees and federal funds for several years. The water-quality monitoring and enforcement program followed suit after budget shortfalls forced lawmakers to quit using money from the general fund, the state's main back account. -------- florida Drilling and nukes stir nary a worry By ROBERT TRIGAUX, Times Business Columnist Published October 10, 2005 http://www.sptimes.com/2005/10/10/Columns/Drilling_and_nukes_st.shtml Where's all the outrage? Where's the squawking? Funny how higher A/C bills and gasoline prices can influence even deep-seated points of view. In the past week, a major provider of electricity in the Tampa Bay area and Central Florida unveiled plans to start hunting for a site for a brand-new nuclear power plant. Floridians' response to Progress Energy? Nary a peep of concern. But plenty of talk about bringing new jobs to rural Florida or, perhaps, finding a good use for some of the many now-used-up phosphate mines. In the past week, Gov. Jeb Bush and key members of Congress have endorsed a long-term deal that, if finalized, could allow oil rigs 125 miles off the Gulf Coast. That's a big concession from the current bans, long backed (until now) by Bush, that banned drilling within 200 miles of Tampa Bay. "President Is Urged To Press Florida On Gulf Drilling" read the headline in Friday's Wall Street Journal. So where is the Floridian backlash? It's not visible from where I sit. Not long ago, talk of a new nuclear plant on Florida soil, or plans to weaken the rules keeping oil rigs away from Florida's coastline and tourists would have generated unrelenting howls of protest, legal actions and gnashings of teeth. Not anymore. Not since hurricanes Katrina and Rita plowed through the Gulf Coast oil and gas rigs and refineries, sending area gas prices briefly above $3 a gallon and area electricity rates heading up toward $100 per 1,000 kilowatt hours. Not since global warming, a byproduct of burning oil and coal, has begun to be taken more seriously. A price-chastised and more sober state and nation are looking anew at energy options once considered unthinkable. A week ago, Progress Energy Florida chief executive officer Bill Habermeyer told the St. Petersburg Times the power company will likely propose a site in Florida for a nuclear power plant and submit a design to federal regulators this year. The likely spots range from the existing Crystal River power facility in Citrus County, where Progress Energy's one and only Florida nuclear plant operates, to rural sites in Polk, Seminole, Osceola and Highlands counties in Central Florida. "When you look at the choices ahead, I think nuclear provides a better alternative," Habermeyer told the Times. Florida's five nuclear reactors (Miami's Florida Power & Light operates four and Progress Energy operates one) help generate about 15 percent of Florida's electricity. Plants that run on natural gas are the fastest growing - projected to handle as much as half the electricity demands for the state in the future. But gas has become very expensive, very fast - another reason nuclear power is regaining some credibility. It has been 22 years since the last nuclear reactor went online in Florida. A new nuclear plant in Florida would probably not start operating until 2015. These projects take time. The Bush brothers - President George and Gov. Jeb - are giving their stamp of approval to more nukes in the U.S. energy mix. President Bush's support of nuclear power development has revived industry interest. So has the recently passed federal energy legislation that provides incentives and subsidies for new nuclear power plants. Gov. Bush also gave his blessing to nuclear power last week after the news of Progress Energy's plans. Bush said he has asked the state Department of Environmental Protection to review and, presumably streamline, the requirements the state places on utilities for power plant permits. Nuclear power, Bush told the Sun-Sentinel, "is the safest, cheapest form of energy and provides the most stability as it exists with the current technology." Orlando economic development leaders responded to the possibility of a nearby nuclear power plant with little surprise or worry. "My sense is that given our energy woes, the unrest in the Middle East and our dependence on foreign oil, and the nuclear industry's relative safe track record over recent years, people are not as squeamish about nuclear energy as they used to be," said Joe Kilsheimer. He's a good observer of Orlando area trends as a public relations executive and former Orlando Sentinel reporter, and also a board member of the Council for Sustainable Florida, a Tallahassee group that advocates for practices that are proenvironment and probusiness. Tico Perez, a Republican and a prominent lawyer who serves on the board of the city-owned Orlando Utilities Commission, suggests the idea of a nuclear power plant is not on anybody's radar. He suggests a site would be hard to find in the area because nuclear power plants require vast amounts of water for cooling. "Everyone thinks it is just a balloon to get a better deal or easier permitting, or some other concession from another county," Perez said. No outrage there. Maybe I could find an environmental advocate to be upset over another nuke plant. I called Charles Lee, executive vice president of the Audubon Society of Florida. Ha! Was I wrong. Sure, Lee told me his group would be concerned if a nuclear power plant was built on some of the remaining sensitive ecosystems left in the state. Lee had been part of a team 15 years ago that helped Florida Power Corp. (now Progress Energy) look for future power plant sites in Central Florida. Tens of thousands of acres of old phosphate mines, long tapped out, in Central Florida might make a logical site for a power plant, he said, if the water needed for cooling could be found. Unexpectedly, Lee said nuclear power plants offer some environmental benefits to a state on the verge of being overrun by development. Nuclear power plants on Florida's coastline operate with a 12-mile safety boundary around them where development is banned. That means some of the greatest stretches of natural Florida left along the coasts are adjacent to nuke plants. "If those nukes were not here with their safety zones, the reality is, those places would now be wall-to-wall condos," Lee said. "A new nuclear plant might exclude thousands of acres from future development." Where's all the outrage of old about nuclear power and gulf drilling? It's sharply diminished, it seems, and replaced with some new outlooks on the future of energy in Florida. - Robert Trigaux can be reached at 727 893-8405 or trigaux@sptimes.com -------- nevada Critics Attack EPA's Yucca Mountain Rules By ERICA WERNER 10/10/05 16:11 (AP) http://channels.netscape.com/news/story.jsp?floc=FF-APO-1152&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20051010%2F1611456643.htm&sc=1152 WASHINGTON - Scientists and environmentalists said Monday that radiation limits proposed for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada aren't strict enough to protect the public. ``This rule is a transparent attempt to accommodate the industry,'' Arjun Makhijani, a nuclear physicist who has been critical of the Yucca project, told reporters on a conference call a day ahead of an Environmental Protection Agency hearing on draft regulations. ``In the proposed EPA rule, every norm of radiation protection that has been established for the general public since the late 1950s ... is to be thrown overboard,'' Makhijani said. The EPA in August proposed limiting exposure near the planned dump to 15 millirems a year for 10,000 years into the future, then increasing the allowable level to 350 millirems a year for up to 1 million years. That higher level is more than three times what is allowed from nuclear facilities today by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. A standard chest X-ray is about 10 millirems. The 350 millirem level is ``an extremely unacceptable risk,'' said Dr. Robert M. Gould, chairman of Physicians for Social Responsibility's security committee. He said that annual exposure to that level of radiation over a lifetime would carry a one in 36 chance for someone to develop cancer. EPA spokesman John Millett emphasized that the rule is a draft and a final standard won't be issued until after the public comment period ends Nov. 21. Tuesday's meeting at EPA headquarters is the agency's fifth and final public hearing on the rule; the four earlier hearings were in Nevada. ``It's a draft rule at this point, but again, the rationale for the 350 additional millirems from 10,000 years and beyond deals with the amount of uncertainty that we're faced with in projecting out 10,000 years, in addition to being equivalent to radiation levels commonly experienced in other parts of the mountain West,'' Millett said. Scientists on Monday's call disagreed with EPA's decision to link its draft rule to so-called ``background radiation'' that occurs naturally in the environment, arguing that such radiation can be dangerous in itself and that some EPA estimates of it were too high. The planned Yucca Mountain dump is designed to hold 77,000 tons of radioactive waste, mostly spent fuel from nuclear reactors, beneath a volcanic ridge 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The EPA issued the draft rule now under consideration after a federal court said the agency's first standard was inadequate because it didn't establish exposure limits beyond 10,000 years. The dump's opening date has been repeatedly delayed and is now expected in 2012 or later. On the Net Yucca Mountain project: http://www.ymp.gov Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov -------- new york 'Spent fuel' gone from UB reactor October 10, 2005 Buffalo Business Journal http://buffalo.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2005/10/10/daily12.html?jst=b_ln_hl Spent nuclear fuel has been removed from the University at Buffalo's South Campus research reactor, UB officials announced Oct. 10. The spent fuel has been deposited in an Idaho storage site maintained by the U.S. Department of Energy. The removal of the spent fuel from the Buffalo Materials Research Center is an early step in the facility's decommissioning. The spent fuel has been stored onsite since the reactor facility ceased operation in June 1994. The nuclear fuel was removed from the BMRC during the week of Sept. 19 by a licensed contractor, NAC International Inc., in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Energy and UB personnel and arrived at the Idaho site Sept. 28, UB reports. Final decommissioning and release of BMRC site is not expected to be completed for several years. ---- Spent Nuclear Fuel Removed From U.B. Posted by: Maria Sisti, Assignment Editor Updated: 10/10/2005 9:59:10 PM http://www.wgrz.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=32189 An early step toward decommissioning the University of Buffalo's research reactor is now complete. College officials announced Monday the spent nuclear reactor fuel at the south campus facility has been removed and taken to a nuclear materials storage site in Idaho. The Buffalo Materials Research Center ceased operation in June 1994 and university personnel had maintained the fuel in storage on-site since then. The shipment arrived at the Idaho National Laboratory on September 28th. That site is maintained by the U.S. Department of Energy. Concerns over national security prevented U.B. officials from announcing the transfer of the material until ten days after the shipment arrived. Final decommissioning of the Main Street site is not expected to be complete for several years. -------- pennsylvania NRC Asked to Hold License Transfers for Pennsylvania Nuclear Plants HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania, October 10, 2005 (ENS) http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/oct2005/2005-10-10-09.asp#anchor5 Harrisburg area nuclear activist Eric Epstein has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to postpone the license transfers of Three Mile Island-1 and Peach Bottom until AmerGen and Exelon can bring their emergency preparedness plans into compliance with their NRC issued licenses. The transfers are part of a proposed merger between Exelon Corp. and Public Service Electric and Gas. "The NRC can not transfer out-of-compliance licenses," Epstein said. "Nor can Exelon pretend that the problems will fix themselves." Epstein says his request was based on the findings of a NRC staff member with 40 years of experience. He cites the work of Michael Jamgochian, a senior nuclear engineer, who found that the children in Pennsylvania are not safe during a nuclear emergency because they are unplanned for during an evacuation. He also found that Pennsylvania nuclear power plants do not meet with the federal regulations requiring emergency planning for preschool children. Epstein asked the NRC to hold the Indirect and Direct License transfers for Three Mile Island-1 and Peach Bottom 2 & 3 in abeyance until the licensees can bring their emergency plans into compliance with their operating licenses and NRC regulations. Epstein also requested that the emergency plans at Three Mile Island-1 and Peach Bottom 2 and 3 be revised prior to the merger in order to meet NRC licensing obligations. ---- ABC News Investigation On Nuclear Reactors On College Campuses Including Penn State Thursday October 13, 2005 7:12pm ABC 27 Reporter: Dennis Owens, Harrisburg Television http://www.abc27.com/news/stories/1005/268440.html State College, PA - A four-month abc news investigation found gaping security holes at many of the college nuclear reactors. Unmanned guard booths, unlocked buildings, and again and again easy access with no background checks, no metal detectors, to nuclear reactors containing some of the most dangerous material in the world, radioactive uranium that would be the dirt of a dirty bomb. Dan Hirsch/Nuclear Safety Advocate, "It is shocking, it is irresponsible, and it is after 9/11 something that is simply unacceptable." We conducted our investigation with 10 graduate students who are Carnegie Fellows..the students began their research, as terrorists might. "Why is that one part highlighted?" Using the Internet before heading out to the colleges around the country. Tamika Thompson/Carnegie Fellow, "Once I knew the name of the reactor, it was a gold mine." At Penn State University, the reactor is in it's own building, just down the road from a day care center. "There is the front entrance of the reactor." When the students arrived they could see the guard behind the shack, but there appeared to be a problem. Tamika Thompson/Carnegie Fellow, "He was sitting in the lawn chair outside of the booth and he was sleeping." Later on a tour inside, the guide provided a revealing fact. Tamika Thompson, "He said, "Well, I'm not supposed to tell you that, but the guard is not armed." Officials at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission say the guard is not a guard, he is a watchman, and not part of the school's federally approved security plan. Nuclear watchdog groups say if that's the case it's an indictment of what the federal government calls security...Brian Ross, abc news, New York. Abc news will have more on this investigation of World News Tonight and Prime Time Live. Dennis Owens was in State College and brings reaction from a Penn State spokesperson concerning this investigation. -------- tennessee Employees rally in support of RACE Oct 10, 2005, 05:19 PM NBC News WMCTV http://www.wmcstations.com/Global/story.asp?S=3960902 Monday afternoon, nearly 50 employees of Radiological Assistance Consulting and Engineering, or RACE, rallied in front of Memphis City Hall, saying the truth about what they do is not reaching the public. RACE is a Memphis based company that would like to burn radioactive waste. After much debate, the Memphis City Council will consider a special permit that will allow RACE to do so at Tuesday's council meeting. The materials RACE would like to dispose of by burning at its Memphis facility include radioactive wastes from hospitals and nuclear reactors, mostly materials like exposed plastic and sheets. Employees at the rally said their company is the victim of a campaign of mistruths, and claimed what the facility will do is not unsafe. "We're safe," one employee said, "I'm 100% confident." Still, Memphis City Council member Carol Chumney said she has concerns about growing evidence that children downstream from the Oak Ridge Nuclear Reservation are having health problems. "We really don't need this here," she said. "Most cities have moved away from it, and if we have an opportunity to limit it or stop it, we should take it." RACE Co-Chair Bob Applebaum said the issue has been confused. He claims City Council members are not approving the incinerator, even though it has already been approved by the state. The council will be voting on a special use permit that allows the company to store radioactive waste, as other Memphis companies do. "The safety questions are answered by licenses and permits given to us by other agencies which have experts in safety," Applebaum said. "The city council has no expertise in safety. They should not even be considering it." Chumney said she is disturbed that RACE is trying to line up clients with radioactive waste that would head to Memphis from all over the world. "I don't think that we need to be the dumping ground for the world," she said. -------- washington Energy Department Likely To Miss Deadline for Nuclear Treatment Plant at Hanford Site October 10, 2005 — By Shannon Dininny, Associated Press http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=8984 YAKIMA, Washington — The federal government says it likely will miss the deadline to open a multi-billion-dollar nuclear waste treatment plant, delaying cleanup of highly radioactive materials leftover from a site that made Cold War weapons. The Energy Department, which already has delayed the project three times at the Hanford nuclear reservation, halted construction on major portions of the plant last month amid skyrocketing costs stemming from a seismic study. The study found the government had underestimated the impact a severe earthquake could have on the treatment plant, which is the federal government's largest construction project. A department spokesman said the study's findings mean the project will probably miss a deadline in 2011, when the plant was to be fully operational. "Based on our review to date, there are a number of technical issues that have made it clear we likely will not be able to meet the 2011 milestone," Energy Department spokesman Mike Waldron said. On Thursday, the agency notified state officials that a new cost estimate and schedule for completing construction on the plant will not be ready before June. The treatment plant has long been considered the cornerstone of cleanup at Hanford, which was created in the 1940s as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project. Today, it is the nation's most contaminated nuclear site. The greatest risk is posed by 53 million gallons (201 million liters) of decades-old radioactive waste in 177 underground tanks. Retrieval of the waste is a priority because some of the tanks are known to have leaked, threatening the aquifer and the Columbia River less than 10 miles (16 kilometers) away. Federal officials refused to release a new cost estimate for the plant -- currently tagged at more than $5.8 billion (euro4.78 billion). Congress has estimated the latest problems could push the cost as high as $10 billion (euro8.23 billion) and delay the start by four years. "We continue to be frustrated by this update, but at the same time agree that USDOE and the contractors should do the job right and not make promises they cannot keep," Sandy Howard, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Ecology, said Friday. Cleanup of the entire 586-square-mile (1,500-square-kilometer) Hanford site is expected to total $50 billion (euro41.17 billion) to $60 billion (euro49.41 billion), with completion by 2035. -------- MILITARY -------- spies Spies: Who's in Charge? —Mark Hosenball Newsweek, Oct. 10, 2005 issue A key question raised by 9/11 reform legislation is how involved the new National Intelligence czar will be in managing human-spy operations of the CIA and military agencies, which sometimes compete for informants. Four officials familiar with intel-policy discussions, who asked not to be identified because the subject matter is sensitive, say intel czar John Negroponte will sign a declaration soon formalizing the CIA's continuing role as human-spy coordinator. But these officials also say Negroponte has hired a deputy whose job will be coordinating intel "collection" among all U.S. agencies. And, the officials add, this deputy will probably hire a lieutenant whose job will include... ensuring that agencies like the CIA and the military don't trip over each other recruiting secret agents. Even legislators who wrote the bill setting up the intel czar's office can't agree on how it should work. In a report issued last week, the GOP majority on the Senate intel committee said that the CIA had not done its job as human-spy coordinator. So, Republicans say, the intel czar should take over the role. Committee Democrats disagree: the CIA "must remain in charge," the report said. For now, Negroponte's office appears willing to leave agent coordination to the CIA, subject to "oversight" by the intel czar's office. Still, the talk of the intel community is that CIA veterans are nervous about their agency's losing out. Some are looking for jobs elsewhere—including Negroponte's office. -------- us SEALs launching public effort to recruit new members CORONADO, Calif. 10/10/2005 Associated Press http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-10-10-seals-recruitment_x.htm The Navy SEALs prefer to operate in the shadows, but the Pentagon's need to increase the ranks of the elite terrorist-hunting commando force is prompting an unusually splashy recruiting effort. Navy SEAL Mitchell Hall, who won a Bronze Star in 2001 in Afghanistan, hopes to use the upcoming Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii to spread the word about the need for more recruits. The competition will make the 31-year-old chief petty officer a spokesman for the community of self-described quiet professionals and put him in front of the cameras he spent years avoiding. The change in recruiting methods comes amid the Pentagon's increasing reliance on special operations and the call for a 15% increase in SEALs over the next several years. The SEALs have a legendary reputation as an elite, highly skilled fighting force, but it is hard to find candidates with the necessary physical conditioning. Just to get a chance to try out, SEAL recruits must swim 500 yards, then breeze through a series of push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups and run 1.5 miles — all within strict time limits. This year, 500 of the 823 SEAL recruits — or 60% — failed the test in the first days of boot camp. "We can't survive on that any longer," said Master Chief Petty Officer Andy Tafelski, 51, who has a key role in the recruiting effort. "The pipeline has to become more efficient." For the SEALs, who consider themselves the best of the best, lowering their standards is out of the question. Hall, 31, will be competing in the Oct. 15 Ironman — a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile marathon — wearing a blue jersey emblazoned with a Navy SEAL insignia. He won the Navy SEAL's Superfrog Triathalon in September and now his goal is to finish among the top 100 in Hawaii's Ironman. "When I'm out there at hour five or whatever it is, and I feel like I'm hurting pretty bad, I've had experience with the same things doing activities in the SEALs," he said. To boost the SEALs' ranks, the Navy is also working with recruiters to begin testing potential SEALs before they get to boot camp and making sure they have the physical skills. Mentors will work with those who qualify to prepare them for what comes next. Every SEAL must finish one of the world's toughest entrance exams, a six-month training program that typically weeds out three of every four candidates. The Navy also is creating a SEAL rating — a formal job description _that should allow candidates to more quickly begin formal SEAL training. Previously, SEALs — the name stands for Sea, Air, Land — had to attend school to learn traditional jobs held by Navy sailors. Driving the changes is the need to add 400 men by fiscal 2008, bringing the total number of SEALs from 2,600 to about 3,000. Special operations units in the Army and Air Force also are planning to increase their ranks, and U.S. Special Operations Command is offering bonuses of up to $150,000 to keep the most experienced operators from bolting to the more lucrative private sector. The SEALs are looking to the fill the grueling Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training program at Coronado, outside San Diego, to its full capacity of 850 students — something that has never happened, Tafelski said. -------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE -------- human rights Indian Tribes and Hurricane Katrina: Overlooked by the Federal Government, Relief Organizations and the Corporate Media Monday, October 10th, 2005 Democracy Now http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/10/1335220 We take a look the plight of American Indians living in southeast Louisiana weeks after hurricane Katrina hit the gulf coast. Tribal leaders say they have been overlooked by the media, relief organizations and the federal government. [includes rush transcript] Though there has been massive attention to the devastation brought by Hurricane Katrina, some victims have been overlooked. An estimated 4,500 American Indians living along the southeast Louisiana coast lost everything to Hurricane Katrina according to state officials and tribal leaders. Hurricane Rita, which hit four weeks after Katrina, dealt another blow to the tribes. Officials estimate that 5,000-6,000 American Indians lost their homes or possessions in that storm. The Louisiana tribes most affected by the back-to-back hurricanes are the United Houma Nation, the Pointe-au-Chien Tribe, the Isle de Jean Charles Indian Band of Biloxi-Chitimasha, the Grand Caillou-Dulac Band and the Biloxi-Chitimasha Confederation of Muskogees. Tribal leaders have complained that they are being overlooked by the media, by relief organizations and by the federal government. Houma Nation Chief Brenda Dardar-Robichaux said in an article published in the Houma Nation newspaper last week, "We are an Indian tribe here that is falling through the cracks. Nobody has made contact with us except the native media. Everything we are doing has been a grassroots effort, and it's taken weeks to get this far with the help of many volunteers and private donations. We're basically doing it on our own." The problem is made worse for the Houma nation and some of the smaller tribes because they lack federal recognition from the government and the accompanying money that comes with such official acknowledgement. * Brenda Dardar-Robichaux, Principal Chief of United Houma Nation. * Charles Verdin, Chairman of the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe. For information on sending donations to Native American tribes in need that have been affected by Hurricans Katrina and Rita. RUSH TRANSCRIPT AMY GOODMAN: We are joined on the phone now by Brenda Dardar-Robichaux, the Principal Chief of the United Houma Nation. We are also joined by Charles Verdin, the Chair of the Pointe-au-Chien Indian tribe. We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Let’s begin with Brenda Dardar-Robichaux, can you describe where in Louisiana the tribe is and what has happened? BRENDA DARDAR-ROBICHAUX: I'll begin by giving a brief history. We were once in the area of Baton Rouge, that's our state capital. Baton Rouge stands for Red Stick, which was a boundary marker between us and a neighboring tribe. We migrated south and were once in the area of New Orleans. If you were to visit Louis Armstrong Park, you would see a commemorative plaque that states it was our ceremonial grounds and our hunting grounds, and we played the traditional game of stickball there. We continued to migrate south and our largest population lives along the bayous of Terrebonne Parish and Plaquemines Parish, all along the eastern coast. In the mid-30s and -40s there were no educational opportunities for our children, so some tribal members moved back to the New Orleans area, because they could attend school there. And it's those isolated settlements and communities that was destroyed with Hurricane Katrina. And then we forward a few weeks and Hurricane Rita came, and the people who live along the bayous of southeast Louisiana were devastated by Hurricane Rita. If you know anything about storms, Rita came to us and was on our eastern side, which brings a tremendous amount of flooding. And that’s what happened to our bayou communities. AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about right now, the kind of aid that you are getting? BRENDA DARDAR-ROBICHAUX: The aid we have gotten has been from people who are upset with the administration, from people who feel that they did not act quickly enough and properly, and people who want to come out and make a difference. And we are humbled and blessed that they have come to our rescue. They have been providing us with much needed services to be able to recover from the storm, and it has been Indian tribes and Indian organizations throughout the United States that has come to our aid, as well. AMY GOODMAN: Can you describe what federal recognition has to do with it or not having federal recognition that you have been fighting for for several decades? BRENDA DARDAR-ROBICHAUX: Right. We have been in the federal recognition process now for 21 years, and we still have not received what is called the final determination from the federal government. And that has hindered our relief efforts, as well, because we're not qualifying for certain money, certain funding, certain relief aid that would be out there if we were a federally recognized tribe. And so we are having to do this on our own. And as I said earlier, we are blessed that Indian tribes and Indian communities and people from throughout the United States have come to help us in our relief efforts. If you were to look at my yard right now, there’s probably about 20 tents that are set up, people from all over the United States who are coming in and helping us to provide services, everything from outreach, bringing much needed food and cleaning supplies and medical needs to our Indian communities, as well as a group of construction workers who’s trying to do roof repair and just cleaning, just basic cleaning. With our flooding came a lot of sludge and mud that went into the homes. And it really takes a major effort to be able to clean all that out. And so they are in there, lending a hand, helping some of our tribal elders clean their homes, as well. We had a group with the Eagles Organization who came down and provided much needed medical assistance. They were administering tetanus shots, as well as flu shots, and providing just basic general first aid and medical needs. Because when our tribal members are in the middle of all of this, trying to clean and recover, they are really not taking care of themselves. They are not addressing their medical needs. They are not taking their medications. They are not eating properly. And so we have been able to do outreach and make sure that they are getting the proper nourishment and that they are receiving medical attention. AMY GOODMAN: We are also joined by Charles Verdin, Chair of the Pointe-au-Chien Indian tribe. Did I pronounce that right? CHARLES VERDIN: Yes, ma’am. AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about where your tribe is and how it has been affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita? CHARLES VERDIN: We are located about 60 miles southwest of New Orleans, and we are right on the coast, about 15 miles from the Barrier Islands from the Gulf of Mexico. We are a small community. We have been there since the earliest time, you know. We are basically from the Chitimachas, and then we have other Indian tribes that’s come over history to live with us as the Indians were being moved around from one end to the other. But we are just a small fishing community. Most of our tribe who lives in our community are all fishermen, either from shrimping, crabbing, and oystering; all others do work for the oil field. But we were -- our community was covered with water. We had anywhere from eight to nine feet of water. And some of the homes that were high on [inaudible], that were pulled up before, you know, we are doing okay, but those who were not able to pick their homes up, you know, we have about 40 homes that were taken over from water. AMY GOODMAN: What presence is there of FEMA, of the federal government in your area? CHARLES VERDIN: FEMA has visited a couple of families, and a couple of families have received some help. But most of our members have received nothing and have not even seen FEMA. AMY GOODMAN: What do people understand they have to do to get help? CHARLES VERDIN: It’s just a long process with paperwork, and a lot of our members are older members who do not have no education. So if somebody comes there and gives them forms, you know, they have -- they don't know what to do with it. So, we try to get people out there to help them fill out these forms. And it just takes some time. AMY GOODMAN: Brenda Dardar-Robichaux, what about you, in terms of the presence of FEMA? When we were down in the New Orleans - Baton Rouge area right after Katrina, as we drove between the two cities, there was always that exit for Houma, and we understood that there was a mass evacuation site or infirmary there of about 1,000 people who were in Houma. How does that relate to the Houma Nation? BRENDA DARDAR-ROBICHAUX: We have -- we did have quite a few of our tribal members that did have to evacuate to one of the local shelters. And right after Hurricane Rita hit I was able to go down and visit the bayou. I wanted to see firsthand the devastation that our tribal members would be facing. And when I got to visit, you could not even see the line in the highway. So I went over to the shelter later that afternoon after our site visit and visited with about 35 families who were in one of the local shelters and told them that we were there to help them to try to provide relief effort by way of clothing that had been donated to us by Wal-Mart, as well as some food supplies, because a lot of them left with just a couple of changes of clothing, never imagining that they would lose everything in their homes. And so, in visiting with them, I invited them to come to our relief center the following day, which they did. But while they were there, they received a call from the shelter that stated that they had to get out. It was 11:30 in the morning, and they had to be out by noon because, as the lady put it, they were being thrown out, and I can't tell you the sadness that overtook the shelter and just tears from parents and children asking their mothers, “But where are we going to go.” Because they knew that they could not go back into their homes that were still flooded, and at the same time they had to leave that shelter, and what they ended up doing was moving them to the larger shelter that still had people from the New Orleans area that had been evacuated there. But some of them chose to go back into their homes, even though they were in no condition for them to return to. They chose to go back into their homes. And so we do have some tribal members who are living 30, 20 people, family members, in one home, maybe three bedrooms, one bath. And so, we are just trying to take each other in, community to community, friend to family, just trying to recover from this. But we do have some of our tribal members that are still in shelters. And when we contact FEMA and tell them about some of the struggles we are facing -- I have a family, for instance, in the New Orleans area, and it’s a lady raising her grandchildren, and we visited the community in Lafitte. Her trailer, her home had no floor to it. Her floor was an area rug that she had put down. She had Visqueen strapped to the top of her ceiling. And that’s what she was living in. So we contacted FEMA and said what does it take to get one of these mobile homes here, because if a person like this does not qualify, then tell me who does. And we’ve really had problems getting FEMA's attention. And we are not asking for a lot, but if there's a need, then these needs should be addressed. And our tribal members do understand that they have got to fill out an application in order to be serviced. We understand that. But a lot of our tribal members have a very limited education. So what we were asking FEMA was to allow us to help them to help our tribal members in this process, because they don't know enough, you know, they are not formally educated enough to understand the paperwork. So we would want to be there with them, because a lot of them speak only our native language of French and they just cannot communicate well because of language barriers, because of cultural barriers and so we would want to assist them in this paperwork process. And that has not happened, as of yet. FEMA has not come to allow us to help them help our tribal members. AMY GOODMAN: Charles Verdin of Pointe-au-Chien Indian tribe, what is the spirit of the people of your tribe right now? CHARLES VERDIN: We still have lot of them that got their spirits up. A lot of them, you know, just have been through this ordeal already. And, you know, we rebuild. You have some of our older people that’s just tired. They’re getting to old to do this cleanup job like this, and some of their spirits are down. And some of them talk about getting out, you know. But we tried to get some kind of relief to help them rebuild higher. And when I talked to them about this, they were all for it. And some older members again are -- they don't like the idea of going too high up. The home would have to be picked up about 10-12 foot high, and it would be hard for them to go up and down. So we are trying to get some process to where we could fix them up. It would be kind of hard, but with this we have no help from FEMA. We’re trying to do this with a local group and a couple other Indian tribes who came in the area to help us. AMY GOODMAN: Who came in to help, which tribes? CHARLES VERDIN: We have a group from the Poarch Creek out of Alabama, and with the Mennonites. They have made no promise yet but they’re in our area, you know, looking and talking with people and see what kind of help they could give us. And I guess within the next month or so we ought to know. But they did send some mattress down to our area, because we still had some people that were sleeping on the floors and some of us were sleeping in their cars and staying by their home, where they could do some cleaning up during the daytime, and nighttime it either smelled too bad or just plain too hot. So -- AMY GOODMAN: Well, Charles Verdin, Chair of the Pointe-au-Chien Indian tribe, and Brenda Dardar-Robichaux of the United Houma Nation, Principal Chief, I want to ask you to stay with us. We’re going to go to break, and when we come back, I want to talk about the significance of this day, of what is recognized as “Columbus Day,” what others call “Indigenous Peoples Day,” and what this means to you. -------- police New Orleans man denies police officers' allegations 10/10/2005 (AP) http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-10-10-nobeating_x.htm NEW ORLEANS — A retired elementary teacher who was repeatedly punched in the head by police in an incident caught on videotape said Monday he was not drunk, put up no resistance and was baffled by what happened. Robert Davis said he had returned to New Orleans to check on property his family owns in the storm-ravaged city, and was out looking to buy cigarettes when he was beaten and arrested Saturday night in the French Quarter. (Related video: Beating caught on tape) Police have alleged that the 64-year-old Davis was publicly intoxicated, a charge he strongly denied as he stood on the street corner where the incident played out Saturday. "I haven't had a drink in 25 years," Davis said. He had stitches beneath his left eye, a bandage on his left hand and complained of soreness in his back and aches in his left shoulder. A federal civil rights investigation was begun in the case. Davis is black; the three city police officers seen on the tape are white. But Davis, his attorney and police spokesman Marlon Defillo all said they do not believe race was an issue. "He does not see it as a racial thing," said Davis' lawyer, Joseph Bruno. Officers plead not guilty Two city officers accused in the beating, and a third officer accused of grabbing and shoving an Associated Press Television News producer who helped document the confrontation, pleaded not guilty Monday to battery charges. Trial was set at a hearing Monday for Jan. 11. Afterward, officers Lance Schilling, Robert Evangelist and S.M. Smith were released on bond. They left without commenting. Police Superintendent Warren Riley said any misconduct would be dealt with swiftly. He noted the video showed "a portion of that incident." "The actions that were observed on this video are certainly unacceptable by this department," Riley said. Two other officials in the video appeared to be federal officers, according to police. Numerous agencies have sent officers to help with patrols in the aftermath of Katrina. Stephen Kodak, an FBI spokesman in Washington, said none of its agents had been disciplined. He said the FBI was taking part in the Justice Department's civil rights probe. Asked about curfew Davis said he had been walking in the French Quarter and approached a mounted police officer to ask about the curfew in the city when another officer interrupted. "This other guy interfered and I said he shouldn't," Davis said. "I started to cross the street and — bam — I got it. ... All I know is this guy attacked me and said, 'I will kick your ass,' and they proceeded to do it." He said he did not know why the punches were thrown. The confrontation came as the New Orleans Police Department — long plagued by allegations of brutality and corruption — struggles with the aftermath of Katrina. (Related story:La. beating raises new security issues) The APTN tape shows an officer hitting Davis at least four times in the head outside a bar. Davis twisted and flailed as he was dragged to the ground by several officers. Davis's lawyer said his client did not resist. "I don't think that when a person is getting beat up there's a whole lot of thought. It's survival. You don't have a whole lot of time to think when you're being pummeled," Bruno said. Davis was kneed and pushed to the sidewalk with blood streaming down his arm and into the gutter. The officers accused of striking Davis were identified as Schilling and Evangelist. TV producer roughed up Mayor Ray Nagin said, "I don't know what the gentleman did, but whatever he did, he didn't deserve what I saw on tape." During the arrest, another officer, identified as Smith, ordered APTN producer Rich Matthews and a cameraman to stop recording. When Matthews held up his credentials, the officer grabbed the producer, leaned him backward over a car, jabbed him in the stomach and unleashed a profanity-laced tirade. Police said Davis was booked on public intoxication, resisting arrest, battery on a police officer and public intimidation. The head of the New Orleans police union said the officers told him they had acted appropriately. "They feel they were justified in their actions and they were using the amount of force necessary to overcome the situation," Lt. David Benelli told WDSU in New Orleans. -------- ENERGY Ont. coal-burning plants advocates 'Neanderthals': Duncan By STEVE ERWIN October 10, 2005 (CP) http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2005/10/10/1256391-cp.html TORONTO - Ontario has no plans to listen to "Neanderthals" who want the province to keep its coal-burning power plants operating, even if that's what a report being prepared for the government recommends, says Energy Minister Dwight Duncan. Duncan offered an emphatic "no" when asked whether he'd be willing to revisit the Liberal government's promise to stop burning coal for electricity even if the Ontario Power Authority calls for exactly that in a report expected in December. "We are moving to close the coal plants, period, full stop," Duncan said in an interview with The Canadian Press. More than 80 per cent of the province's power generation needs to be rebuilt or replaced over the next 20 years. The OPA has been meeting with energy industry stakeholders to determine what sources of new power generation the province should invest in. Ontario is currently powered 49 per cent by nuclear reactors. Twenty-five per cent is supplied by hydro, 17 per cent by coal, seven per cent by gas and the remainder from wind and other alternative energy sources. Duncan has said the government will agree to build new nuclear reactors should the OPA recommend it. But he says those lobbying the authority to recommend so-called cleaner coal technology and keeping the plants open are a century behind the times. "I say to the Neanderthals . . . we're moving forward responsibly to ensure that we clean up our air," Duncan said. "We're in the 21st century. They're in the 19th century." Air pollution remains a key concern in Ontario. Fifty smog advisories have been issued for the province this year, including a rare October advisory issued last week. "I am sick and tired of having smog days in October," he said. "We had a smog day in February. We've had smog days in Algonquin Park." He's also unimpressed with a report by Energy Probe, a national energy and environmental research group, which last week listed two Ontario coal-fired plants as being among the cleanest in North America. "So we may have among some of the better of the worst forms of energy producers in North America. Who cares?" Duncan said. "We want to get rid of them. It's the equivalent of taking every vehicle, every car and every light truck off the road in this province." Duncan's resistance to coal is a mistake, argues Energy Probe executive director Tom Adams. Adams wants the province to keep at least two units at its Lambton station, south of Sarnia in southern Ontario, which rank fourth and ninth out of 403 in the report's list of the cleanest plants on the continent. Adams argues that closing the units would end up requiring the province to import coal-fired power from the United States, which would "exacerbate adverse environmental and human health impacts to Ontarians." Adams said some of the dirtiest coal-fired generators are in American states neighbouring Ontario: the Picway and Richard Gorsuch stations in Ohio and the AES Greenridge station in New York. According to Power Workers' Union president Don Mackinnon, the province can refurbish its coal plants with "the latest and greatest" clean technology for $3.3 billion. Mackinnon says that's $1.8 billion cheaper than it would cost to replace coal plants with natural gas. "We're trying to convince the OPA and the government to rethink this," says Mackinnon, whose union represents some 1,200 coal plant workers in Ontario. "I'm hoping the OPA will keep the door open on it. But in the end, all they can do is make a recommendation. The minister has the power to issue a directive with regards to the supply mix." The David Suzuki Foundation has maintained renewable energy, such as wind, biomass, solar and geothermal sources, can replace the power that will be lost by shutting down coal plants. "Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the direction that the Ontario government is taking," said Dale Marshall, the foundation's climate change policy analyst. Marshall said he believes the province has pre-determined it will look to more nuclear power to address future supply concerns. He said that's a multibillion-dollar mistake that will raise further environmental debates about the storage of nuclear waste. -------- alternative energy Cargill of US to Build German Biodiesel Plant REUTERS UK: October 10, 2005 http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/32897/story.htm LONDON - Cargill said on Friday it is to build a 25 million euro ($30 million) biodiesel plant near Mainz, Germany with the capacity to produce 200,000 tonnes of fuel per year. Construction on the plant in west-central Germany is expected to start during the current quarter with production commencing in August 2006, the US-based privately-owned agribusiness said. Cargill said the plant will turn vegetable oils into fatty acid methylesters, or biodiesel. The company has an oilseed crushing plant in Mainz. The European Commission is currently encouraging the production of biodiesel to help meet targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Cargill announced earlier this year it would expand its oilseed crushing plants in Germany to allow it to maintain supplies for its food customers as well as meeting growing demand for biodiesel. -------- OTHER -------- environment As Polar Ice Turns to Water, Dreams of Treasure Abound By CLIFFORD KRAUSS, STEVEN LEE MYERS, ANDREW C. REVKIN and SIMON ROMERO October 10, 2005 NY TIMES http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/10/science/10arctic.html?ei=5094&en=64e93c8fc877d5f2&hp=&ex=1129003200&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print CHURCHILL, Manitoba - It seems harsh to say that bad news for polar bears is good for Pat Broe. Mr. Broe, a Denver entrepreneur, is no more to blame than anyone else for a meltdown at the top of the world that threatens Arctic mammals and ancient traditions and lends credibility to dark visions of global warming. Still, the newest study of the Arctic ice cap - finding that it faded this summer to its smallest size ever recorded - is beginning to make Mr. Broe look like a visionary for buying this derelict Hudson Bay port from the Canadian government in 1997. Especially at the price he paid: about $7. By Mr. Broe's calculations, Churchill could bring in as much as $100 million a year as a port on Arctic shipping lanes shorter by thousands of miles than routes to the south, and traffic would only increase as the retreat of ice in the region clears the way for a longer shipping season. With major companies and nations large and small adopting similar logic, the Arctic is undergoing nothing less than a great rush for virgin territory and natural resources worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Even before the polar ice began shrinking more each summer, countries were pushing into the frigid Barents Sea, lured by undersea oil and gas fields and emboldened by advances in technology. But now, as thinning ice stands to simplify construction of drilling rigs, exploration is likely to move even farther north. Last year, scientists found tantalizing hints of oil in seabed samples just 200 miles from the North Pole. All told, one quarter of the world's undiscovered oil and gas resources lies in the Arctic, according to the United States Geological Survey. The polar thaw is also starting to unlock other treasures: lucrative shipping routes, perhaps even the storied Northwest Passage; new cruise ship destinations; and important commercial fisheries. "It's the positive side of global warming, if there is a positive side," said Ron Lemieux, the transportation minister of Manitoba, whose provincial government is investing millions in Churchill. If the melting continues, as many Arctic experts expect, the mass of floating ice that has crowned the planet for millions of years may largely disappear for entire summers this century. Instead of the white wilderness that killed explorers and defeated navigators for centuries, the world would have a blue pole on top, a seasonally open sea nearly five times the size of the Mediterranean. But if the Arctic is no longer a frozen backyard, the fences matter. For now it is not clear where those fences are. Under a treaty called the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, territory is determined by how far a nation's continental shelf extends into the sea. Under the treaty, countries have limited time after ratifying it to map the sea floor and make claims. In 2001, Russia made the first move, staking out virtually half the Arctic Ocean, including the North Pole. But after challenges by other nations, including the United States, Russia sought to bolster its claim by sending a research ship north to gather more geographical data. On Aug. 29, it reached the pole without the help of an icebreaker - the first ship ever to do so. The United States, an Arctic nation itself because of Alaska, could also try to expand its territory. But several senators who oppose any possible infringement on American sovereignty have repeatedly blocked ratification of the treaty. Indeed, not everyone agrees that warming of the Arctic merits concern. No one knows what share of the recent thawing can be attributed to natural cycles and how much to heat-trapping pollution linked to recent global warming, and some scientists and government officials, particularly in Russia, are dismissive of assertions that a permanent change is at hand. "We are not going to have apple trees growing in Vorkuta," said the mayor of that coal-mining city, Igor L. Shpektor, who is also the president of Russia's union of Arctic cities and towns. But the current thaw is already real enough for the four million people within the Arctic Circle, including about 150,000 Inuit. "As long as it's ice," said Sheila Watt-Cloutier, leader of a transnational Inuit group, "nobody cares except us, because we hunt and fish and travel on that ice. However, the minute it starts to thaw and becomes water, then the whole world is interested." Increasingly, big corporations, the eight countries with Arctic footholds and other nations farther south are betting on the possibility of a great transformation. Energy-hungry China has set up a research station on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen and twice deployed its icebreaker Snow Dragon, which normally works in Antarctica, to northern waters to conduct climate research. Interest in Arctic-hardy vessels has picked up so much that in January, Aker Finnyards, a giant shipbuilder based in Helsinki, created a subsidiary just to develop ice-hardened ships. Its new double-ended tanker slips smoothly through open water bow first but can spin around and use an icebreakerlike stern to smash through heavy floes. A Finnish energy company bought two for about $90 million apiece, and after buying one Russia licensed the design and is building two more. In January, the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research held a closed two-day meeting to hear from experts on the implications of a warming, opening Arctic. "There are likely to be a number of foreign-policy issues that must be addressed by the United States and other nations" if the climate trends persist, said a summary of the meeting. "These issues include the availability and potential for exploitation of energy, fisheries and other resources; access to new sea routes; new claims under Law of the Sea; national security; and others." A look at a map of the globe with the North Pole at its center explains why a new frontier matters. Some countries that one might think of as being half a world part appear as startlingly close neighbors, and relatively speaking, they are. In the days of empire, Rudyard Kipling called jockeying among world powers in Central Asia the Great Game. Christopher Weafer, an energy analyst with Alfa Bank in Moscow, says this new Arctic rush is "the Great Game in a cold climate." The Petroleum Rush To understand the practical terms of this new competition for territory, opportunity and resources, a good place to begin is Hammerfest, Norway, one of the northernmost towns in the world and one of 12 Arctic settlements visited over six months by correspondents of The New York Times preparing this series of articles. Hammerfest, once an austerely beautiful fishing village burned to the ground by the Nazis in World War II, is starting to swell with young people from other parts of Norway, Finland, Russia and Asia, as well as with highly trained technical workers from Europe and North America. They are drawn by Snohvit (in English, Snow White), a mammoth complex being built to receive natural gas piped from the Barents Sea and liquefy the gas for shipping. The Norwegian government, which controls Snohvit in part through its majority ownership of the energy company Statoil, is desperate for Snohvit to be a success and put the country in the forefront of Arctic energy exploration. Being first, however, has had its challenges in the severe operating environment of the High North, as Arctic areas are called in Norway. Overruns have put the price of Snohvit at $8.8 billion, almost 50 percent above its original estimate. The project has a firm backer in John Doyle Ong, the blunt United States ambassador in Oslo. Snohvit is scheduled to start sending liquefied natural gas to the Cove Point port in Maryland in 2007, just as American imports of liquefied gas from competing sources in the Middle East and Africa are set to rise rapidly. Importing natural gas from a stable country like Norway - already the world's third-largest oil exporter, after Saudi Arabia and Russia - is a rare option these days. "Norway's importance to the United States in terms of our national energy policy is increasing with every passing year," Mr. Ong said. But the United States' interests go beyond that - too far beyond for many in Norway. In September, the opening of frontier areas in the Barents and Norwegian Seas emerged as a central issue in elections that brought a leftist coalition to power, with some coalition members favoring a ban on Arctic oil and gas exploration in environmentally sensitive areas. And besides supporting Snohvit, Mr. Ong, a former energy executive, has stepped into disputes between Norway and Russia over a large gray zone in the Barents. His insistence that Arctic-related matters be "trilateral" rather than bilateral is viewed as belligerent by some Norwegians. In private, Norwegian officials welcome the heft of the United States in its negotiations with Russia. Norway is eager to resolve the territorial dispute so that some order, and Norwegian drilling expertise and environmental standards, can be imposed on Arctic exploration. Because as large as Snohvit is, it is dwarfed by a far bigger gas field to the east in Russian waters. That field, called Shtokman, is being developed by Gazprom, Russia's gas behemoth. In September, Gazprom selected five companies - Statoil and Norsk Hydro from Norway, Total from France and Chevron and ConocoPhillips - as finalists in a search for partners to develop Shtokman, in the Barents Sea, 350 miles north of Russia's Kola Peninsula. The development costs are estimated at $15 billion to $20 billion. The field is reported to hold more than double all of Canada's gas reserves. "They're going to find more of them," Mr. Weafer, the Moscow-based energy analyst, said of Arctic gas deposits. "It's the next energy frontier." And while natural gas is certainly valued, the prize that is generating the biggest interest is oil. Virtually every large international energy company is studying how eventually to win permission from Norway and Russia to explore in the Barents, and the Norwegian Polar Institute has been contacted repeatedly by oil companies to explore the feasibility of drilling in the icier waters north of Spitsbergen. Jan-Gunnar Winther, director of the institute, said the seasonal melting of the polar cap might allow access to more petroleum deposits but also create more challenges. "A warmer climate in the north would mean more icebergs, rather than less," he said. "There will be obstacles in getting to the petroleum, but if oil prices stay high there will be enticements as well." A push into the Barents Sea could help redraw the politics of energy allegiances, and gas in particular puts Russia in a strong position. "It has a good chance of becoming a more effective counterbalance to OPEC," Mr. Weafer said. As for Norway, the warming world gives it the chance to seek influence far beyond its size. Energy-hungry countries that might have written off the Arctic not long ago are showing considerable interest in Norway's opening of the Barents; one visitor to Oslo in September was India's oil minister, seeking a role in exploration. And if a route farther north opens just four or five months of the year, Norway could even become a major supplier of oil and gas to China, said Sverre Lodgaard, director of the Norwegian Institute for International Affairs. Norway is trying to position itself as "a dwarf among giants," Mayor Alf Jakobsen of Hammerfest said. "We're attracting young people to Hammerfest instead of sending them away, for the first time in years. The opportunity to become a springboard into the Arctic is upon us." Fisheries Head North Charlie Lean easily recalls when he realized that big changes were sweeping the fish stocks along the northern shores of Alaska. Just over 10 years ago, when Mr. Lean was the state's fisheries manager for the northwest region, a call came in from the tiny Eskimo outpost of Kivalina, on the Chukchi Sea 150 miles northeast of the Bering Strait. A village elder was reporting "a massive fish kill" in the Wulik River, Mr. Lean said. Everyone assumed it was from some toxic spill upriver at the giant Red Dog zinc mine. "I rounded up a plane and blasted off and flew up there," he said. "Flying overhead I could see right away it was the end of a pink salmon run. They were dying of natural causes as they always do once they spawn." The elders had never seen a run of this salmon species. But they have shown up every year since. The colonization of new rivers by pink salmon is just one of many changes in fish and crab stocks that appear linked to retreating sea ice and warming waters in the Chukchi Sea and, farther south, the Bering Sea. The changes are important because the Bering is rich with pollock, salmon, halibut and crab, already yielding nearly half of America's seafood catch and a third of Russia's. Recent studies have projected that in a few decades there could be lucrative fishing grounds in waters that were largely untouched throughout human history. In a 2002 report for the Navy on climate change and the Arctic Ocean, the Arctic Research Commission, a panel appointed by the president, concluded that species were moving north through the Bering Strait. "Climate warming is likely to bring extensive fishing activity to the Arctic, particularly in the Barents Sea and Beaufort-Chukchi region where commercial operations have been minimal in the past," the report said. "In addition, Bering Sea fishing opportunities will increase as sea ice cover begins later and ends sooner in the year." But problems could emerge, as well, as stocks shift from the waters of one country to those of another. Snow crabs, for example, appear to be moving away from Alaska, north and west toward Russia, as the sea ice retreats. They depend on nutrients that sink to the bottom from algae growing under the ice. The valuable fishery could eventually move entirely out of American waters, some federal fisheries scientists said. The fishing industry, a business where surviving one year to the next is the main worry, has largely not taken notice of the changes, although American crab boats are finding they have to steam farther and farther to haul in a decent catch. "If the crabs move over into the Russian zone," said Glenn Reed, the president of the Pacific Seafood Processors Association in Seattle, "there's not much to be done about that except hope they come back someday." Who Governs What "Stalin once just drew a line from Murmansk to the North Pole and then to Chukchi and said, 'U.S.S.R. Polar Region' - and nobody worried about it," said Artur N. Chilingarov, an Arctic explorer and deputy speaker of Russia's lower house of Parliament. Now, instead of Stalin, the lines will be drawn by an international commission and the geography of the seabed itself. That means that the Arctic land grab could be decided in part inside a lab at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. There, at the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping, scientists are studying sonar scans of the seabed from a 2002 expedition on a United States Coast Guard icebreaker in waters north of Barrow, Alaska. In the lab, Larry Mayer, the center's director, gave a reporter a joystick-driven virtual tour of the seabed two miles beneath the ice. The ocean appeared on a wall-size screen as a basin with ridges and valleys dropping into the depths around the edges, representing oceanographers' best guess at the topography before the expedition. Then Dr. Mayer pushed a button, adding depth data from the survey, which used new multibeam sonar. Suddenly a giant underwater mountain sprouted up 10,000 feet where the old chart had shown only a vague bump. One of the old depth-sounding voyages had passed within a few miles but missed it. "That's the state of our knowledge," said Dr. Mayer, who named the undersea mountain Healy, after the icebreaker. Such physical features matter enormously to nations seeking to expand their undersea territory under a murky clause, Article 76, in the Law of the Sea. With only fragments of the Arctic ever surveyed, by icebreaker or nuclear submarine, various countries are mounting new mapping expeditions to claim the most territory they can. The exclusive economic zone controlled by a country generally extends 230 miles from its shores. But under Article 76, that zone can expand if a nation can convince other parties to the treaty that there is a "natural prolongation" of its continental shelf beyond that limit. The shelf is the relatively shallow extension of a landmass to the point where the bottom drops into the oceanic abyss. But in many places, the drop-off is a gentle slope or is connected to long-submerged ridges that, if precisely mapped, might add thousands of square miles to a country's exploitable seabed. Claims of expanded territory are being pursued the world over, but the Arctic Ocean is where experts foresee the most conflict. Only there do the boundaries of five nations - Russia, Canada, Denmark, Norway and the United States - converge, the way sections of an orange meet at the stem. (The three other Arctic nations, Iceland, Sweden and Finland, do not have coasts on the ocean.) "The area does get to be a bit crowded," said Peter Croker, chairman of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, which assesses claims. It is composed of experts appointed by countries that ratified the treaty. Disputes over overlapping claims must be worked out by the countries involved, but the commission weighs control over areas that would otherwise remain international waters. Countries that ratified the treaty before May 13, 1999, have until May 13, 2009, to make claims. Other countries have 10 years from their date of ratification. Russia adopted the treaty in 1997, and four years later laid claim to nearly half the Arctic Ocean. The commission's technical panel rejected the claim, and now Russia hopes the recent voyage of its research ship Akademik Fyodorov to the North Pole will yield mapping data in its favor. In June, Denmark and Canada announced that they would conduct a joint surveying project of uncharted parts of the Arctic Ocean near their coasts. Denmark is particularly interested in proving that a 1,000-mile undersea mountain range, the Lomonosov Ridge, is linked geologically to Greenland, which is semiautonomous Danish territory. If it finds such a link, Denmark could make a case that the North Pole belongs to the Danes, Danish officials have said. Canada could also claim a huge area, and then face challenges from the other Arctic nations. The United States could petition for a swath of Arctic seabed larger than California, according to rough estimates by Dr. Mayer and other scientists. But while the government financed Dr. Mayer's survey, it has not made a definitive move toward staking a claim. American ratification of the Law of the Sea treaty has repeatedly been blocked by a small group of Republican senators, now led by Senator James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma. They say, among other things, that the treaty would infringe on American sovereignty. In a Senate hearing last year, Mr. Inhofe said, "I'm very troubled about implications of this convention on our national security." The deadlock has persisted even though the Bush administration in 2002 described ratification of the Law of the Sea and four other treaties as an "urgent need." Many proponents of the treaty, including the Pentagon, the American Petroleum Institute and Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, say this paralysis leaves the United States on the sidelines while others carve up an ocean. "We need to be in the game, at the table, talking about fisheries management, mineral extraction, freedom of navigation," said Adm. James D. Watkins, a retired chief of naval operations who is chairman of the United States Commission on Ocean Policy. Mr. McCain said, "I think what it would require really is a hard push from the president." Treaty or no, territorial disputes ultimately imply questions about a country's ability to defend its interests. Here, too, the United States has shown less urgency while Canada has acted more aggressively to ensure sovereignty over a fast-changing domain it had long neglected. Already, oil tanker traffic is rising and fishing boats are going farther north. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is concerned that melting seaways could make it easier for narcotics traffickers to reach indigenous communities, and for organized crime to exploit the growing diamond trade. And the United States, which disputes Canada's control over parts of the petroleum-rich Beaufort Sea, has in the past sent vessels unannounced through other Arctic waters that Canada claims. Three years ago Canada began patrolling the most remote Arctic reaches with army rangers, a mostly Eskimo force of 1,500 irregulars. Next year the military plans to launch Radarsat 2, a satellite system that will allow surveillance of the Arctic and sea approaches as far as 1,000 miles offshore. The military is also buying three reinforced tankers to supply ships patrolling the north. The fleet of Twin Otters, the primary surveillance and transport planes in the north since the 1960's, will be replaced with bigger, faster transports. And senior officials are touring places that offer little but symbolic value. Canada's aim is not only to tighten control of its territory, but also to establish a strong posture in future talks over the Northwest Passage, the long-sought shortcut from Europe to Asia across the top of Canada. Bill Graham, the defense minister, said, "I don't see the Northwest Passage as something for another 20 years, but at the rate of present global warming, we know that it will be within 20 years and we have to get ahead now." This summer he made a point of visiting Hans Island, a two-mile-long rock claimed by both Canada and Denmark. The Pentagon has focused elsewhere. The Navy spent up to $25 million a year on polar research in the 1990's, and in April 2001 produced a report warning that weapons and ships were not designed with arctic conditions in mind, and that charts, navigational systems and support networks were inadequate for the north. "Safe navigation and precision weapons delivery capability," the report said, "may be significantly constrained unless these shortfalls are addressed." But in the budget shake-up after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Navy severely reduced spending for polar research. At the same time, America's three large icebreakers are deteriorating. One of them, the Polar Sea, is inoperable and docked in Seattle, where it is being readied for a year or two of repairs. No replacements are planned. Three Shipping Passages Churchill, Manitoba, and Murmansk, on the Russian Arctic coast, are unlikely sister cities. Churchill is not a city at all, but a barren outpost of 1,100 people on the western shore of Hudson Bay. It survives on the 15,000 tourists who visit each year for the chance to see and photograph migrating polar bears. Murmansk, by contrast, has a population of 325,000, making it the biggest city inside the Arctic Circle. Founded in 1916 as Romanov-on-Murman, just before the revolution wiped out the Romanovs, it is a place of stolidly attractive old buildings, newer high-rises, wide boulevards and green parks. Though it lies north of Churchill, which is ice-bound up to eight months a year, Murmansk's harbor is kept free of ice by the Gulf Stream, the ideal base for the Russian Arctic fleet and commercial shipping. One thing the communities have in common, however, is hard times. Churchill, never much to begin with, lost most of its population when Canada finished phasing out the Fort Churchill military base in the 1980's. Murmansk, like much of the rest of Russia, lost economic ground with the collapse of the Soviet Union. But the more relevant connection is an accident of geography and a shared dream: that the thawing of the Arctic Ocean would help create the so-called Arctic Bridge, a shipping route with their ports as the logical terminals. The advantage of maritime shortcuts across the top of the world can be startling. For example, shipments from Murmansk to midcontinental North America by the well-worn route through the St. Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes to Thunder Bay, in western Ontario, typically take 17 days. The voyage from Murmansk to Churchill is only 8 days under good conditions, and from Churchill, rail links snake down through Manitoba, the American Midwest and points south all the way to Monterrey, Mexico. For Murmansk, an extended shipping season in Arctic ports that are now frozen much of the year could mean a boon in traffic - to the west and, perhaps once again, to the Far East. The city was once the anchor of the Soviet Union's Northern Sea Route, which stretched to nearly 3,500 miles to the rich nickel mines at Norilsk and on to newly established Arctic colonies at Dikson, Khatanga, Tiksi and Pevek before reaching the Bering Sea. At its height, in 1987, more than seven million tons of cargo traversed the icy route. But when the Soviet Union collapsed, so did the Northern Sea Route. Today it handles only 1.5 million tons. The Murmansk Shipping Company, newly privatized, now uses its icebreakers for tourist cruises to the North Pole - $15,000 to $20,000 a ticket, depending on the cabin. The same way an Arctic Bridge could drastically cut the distance to Canada, a revived Northern Sea Route could shorten the journey for goods and raw materials from Northeast Asia to Europe by 40 percent. Vladimir M. Chlenov, the transportation minister from the Siberian republic of Sakha, a vast region that borders the Laptev Sea, envisions dozens of ships carrying gold, timber and other resources up the Lena River to the port of Tiksi, and from there through ice-free seas to Europe and Asia. The waters near the Siberian shore - when free of ice - are too shallow for giant cargo ships, and the infrastructure needed for navigation has deteriorated. But a study conducted from 1993 to 1999 by researchers from Russia, Norway and Japan found that a route once sustained by Soviet diktat could also be viable for private enterprise. There is, of course, a third Arctic shipping route besides the Arctic Bridge and the Northern Sea Route: the Northwest Passage. It would be the last of the three main routes to succumb to the thaw. But some Canadian officials, eyeing what will happen in 20 years, say it is all the more justification for investing in the rebirth of Churchill. "We're gearing up for the future," said Mr. Lemieux, the Manitoba transportation minister. "We look to be the gateway, the logistical hub of the world for circumpolar navigation." A lucky winner would be Pat Broe, the American who bought the Port of Churchill in 1997 almost as an afterthought, for a token $10 Canadian. Looking to expand his railroad company, OmniTrax, he had already paid $11 million for 810 miles of denationalized tracks in Manitoba. He acquired the port at auction, figuring he would rather own it than have someone else use it as a "toll booth" for his railroad. Mr. Broe, a private man, declined to be interviewed for this article. Since his acquisitions, OmniTrax estimates it has spent $50 million modernizing the port to accommodate big ships carrying exports like grain and farm machinery to Murmansk, and incoming Russian products, including fertilizer and steel. By some hopeful estimates, Churchill's shipping season could eventually grow to 8 or even 10 months a year, compared with the current 4. Michael J. Ogborn, OmniTrax's managing director, said he could see a future for Churchill when "the activity at the port will be as busy as an anthill, with machines, people, freight and ships at dock." For now, though, there is a problem. While the port has continued to ship grain to Europe and North Africa, it is still waiting for its ship to come in - any ship from Russia, to demonstrate the advantages of the Arctic Bridge. "There is still a huge marketing effort needed to educate shippers why they should ship through Churchill," Mr. Ogborn conceded. And in an arena where sharp elbows are often the norm, there is great cooperation between Canada and Russia, not least through Russia's ambassador to Canada, Georgy E. Mamedov. A spreader of good will, the ambassador has even suggested using decommissioned nuclear submarines to transport cargo under the ice. On a visit to Churchill last year, he appointed his local driver honorary Russian consul, and stopped at the "jail" for polar bears that wander into town, laying his hand on the big black nose of one anesthetized inmate and addressing it fondly in Russian. In the months since, Mr. Mamedov has talked ebulliently of the Arctic Bridge in meetings with Canadian officials, business groups and reporters. "Go to Churchill," he said in one interview. "Go there." Clifford Krauss reported from Canada for this article, Steven Lee Myers from Russia, Andrew C. Revkin from New Hampshire and Washington, and Simon Romero from Norway. Craig Duff contributed reporting from Canada, Norway, Russia and Alaska. -------- health Envisioning a 21st-century quarantine 10/10/2005 3:03 PM (AP) http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-10-10-quarantine_x.htm WASHINGTON — Quarantine — or some version of it — in a 21st-century flu pandemic would look very different from the medieval stereotype of diseased outcasts locked in a do-not-enter zone. President Bush's specter of a military-enforced mass quarantine is prompting debate of the Q-word as health officials update the nation's plan for battling a pandemic — a plan expected to define who decides when and how to separate the contagious from everyone else. "All the options need to be on the table," said Marty Cetron, head of quarantine at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Bush's comments recall how quarantines were enforced in parts of this country in the 1890s, when armed guards patrolled streets to keep victims of smallpox and other dread diseases confined to their homes. "The image that perhaps was inadvertently conveyed is really a setting in extreme that's less likely," Cetron cautioned. "There's a whole range of options in the public-health toolbox for ways to achieve this goal of social distancing." For three years the CDC has been helping states plan how they would enact quarantines in case of a bioterrorism attack. The instructions stress using the least restrictive means necessary to stem an infection's spread. And public health officials expect a U.S. quarantine today to almost always be voluntary, with incentives to cooperate. In case of a horrific outbreak, quarantined areas would get first shipments of scarce medicines. "I don't think either the Tennessee National Guard or the U.S. Army and Marines will try to establish a cordon sanitaire around Nashville," said William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University, an influenza expert who advises the federal government. "That's not going to happen." Actually, "we practice in this country quarantine every day," said Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. "If a child gets the measles, their mothers are expected to keep them at home." Vaccination is the cornerstone of fighting a pandemic, and quarantine-like steps are supposed to be brief, "designed to buy time until we have an adequate supply of countermeasures," CDC's Cetron said. The SARS epidemic of 2003 illustrated that "the public will voluntarily comply with measures to both protect themselves and their loved ones" — if doctors make the case that the steps are for their own good, he added. Legally, "isolation" is the term for separating people who already are sick from others. That happens routinely in hospitals, as they limit access to patients being treated for certain infections. "Quarantine" means restricting the movement of still healthy people who may have been exposed to an infectious disease, in case they're carrying it. It's almost always for a brief time; during SARS, for instance, hospital workers exposed to suspect cases were asked to stay home from work during the respiratory disease's 10-day incubation period. States have the primary legal authority to enact quarantines during outbreaks within their borders. Federal quarantine authority involves preventing infectious diseases from entering the country and stopping interstate spread. Expanding that authority to encompass a military role might entail legislation, something lawmakers' staffs have begun mulling as public health experts downplay the need. With SARS, CDC used its existing authority to stop that virus from spreading here like it did in Asia: Over three months, CDC workers delayed on the tarmac 12,000 airplanes carrying 3 million passengers arriving from SARS-affected countries. Anyone with SARS symptoms was isolated. Anyone possibly exposed was told what symptoms to watch for in the next 10 days and how to seek help without exposing entire emergency rooms if symptoms arose. SARS showed that tracking down patients and people they may have exposed — allowing individuals, not large areas, to be contained — can work, Cetron said. At the same time, a super-flu would demand more intense measures because it would spread more easily, perhaps even before symptoms appeared. Drafts of the pandemic plan make clear that affected communities would probably close schools, shut down large gatherings and restrict travel. Ramping up gradually is crucial to minimize social and economic fallout, Schaffner cautioned. He offered his home city of Nashville as an example: Authorities first might urge people to watch the Titans play football on TV instead of at the stadium, and to avoid shopping malls. Then schools might close for a while. Then people might be told to postpone holidays or business trips to Nashville, all steps to stem transmission by minimizing contact — but well short of compulsory quarantine. "We're going to have to permit ourselves a graduated, intelligent response to the magnitude of the threat," he concluded. -------- ACTIVISTS Bishop Says Hunger Strike Just the Start of Campaign To Save Brazilian River October 10, 2005 — By Michael Astor, Associated Press http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=8985 CABROBO, Brazil — A Brazilian bishop savored the success of his 11-day hunger strike Friday, sipping chicken soup and mulling the government's pledge to delay the rerouting of a major river in Brazil's arid northeast. Bishop Luiz Flavio Cappio ended his strike Thursday, when the government agreed to have further discussion on shifting the course of the Sao Francisco River. But Cappio said his struggle to save the ailing river was just beginning. "My gesture alone would be incomplete. What gives it weight is the movement of society and the discussion that comes now," Cappio said close to the site where work on the rerouting is set to begin near Cabrobo, 1,100 miles northeast of Rio de Janeiro. Cappio met Thursday with Brazil's Minister of Institutional Relations Jacques Wagner, who traveled to this poor, dusty town with a letter from President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva promising to extend discussion of the $2 billion water project. Silva also agreed to increase funds to rehabilitate the polluted river and grant Cappio a personal audience. The Sao Francisco wends over 1,600 miles through the heart of Brazil and is essential for water and transportation. But today, some 90 percent of the forest along the river's banks has been cut down, causing it to dry up. Raw sewage from some 200 towns and cities pour into the Sao Francisco every day, and seven hydroelectric dams have altered the river's natural flow. Once navigable over 1,057 miles, the river today it is only navigable along 373 miles. The government says that changing river's course will benefit some 12 million poor people. But Cappio and his supporters say it will harm the river and benefit only a handful of construction companies and agribusiness firms. "I hope and trust that the government keeps its part of the deal, if it doesn't I will come back to Cabrobo," Cappio said.