NucNews - October 13, 2005 -------- NUCLEAR -------- australia MPs fail to support council nuclear-free zone call Thursday, October 13, 2005 Australian Broadcasting http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200510/s1481195.htm Western Australian Opposition MPs have rejected calls for local councils to declare themselves nuclear-free zones. Albany MLA Peter Watson wants local governments to amend their town planning schemes to prohibit nuclear activity. His call is in response to the Liberal Party declaring its support for uranium mining in WA. The Liberal Member for Roe, Graham Jacobs, says his position on nuclear-free zones depends on what Mr Watson's definition of nuclear activity is. "I would certainly oppose and reject any proposal to establish a nuclear waste dump in Western Australia or the electorate of Roe or anywhere else for that matter in Western Australia," he said. "So if that's the sort of nuclear activity he's talking about I would oppose that. Now, if you're talking, though, about uranium mining, that's another issue and that's not nuclear activity." The Member for Stirling, the Nationals' Terry Redman, says he will not be following Mr Watson's lead by asking other councils in his electorate to declare themselves nuclear-free. Mr Redman says it is important that there is a community debate on uranium mining and nuclear activities. "There's a whole heap of hype out there and there are a number of people who are not informed about the real issues and I think it's important that we do promote that to the community before people make a decision on these sorts of things," he said. -------- business U.S. pressuring U.K. on Westinghouse sale October 13, 2005 Vermont Guardian http://www.vermontguardian.com/dailies/102005/1013.shtml#article1 LONDON — British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) has owned Westinghouse since 1999. But now three heavyweight Japanese and South Korean companies are bidding to take it over amid U.S. concerns that foreign ownership of a major nuclear energy company could threaten national security. As a result, pressure is mounting on the British government, which owns BNFL, to sell the company to a U.S. business, according to the U.K.’s Independent newspaper. Among the contenders are Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a long-time business partner of Westinghouse, and Toshiba, as well South Korea's Doosan Heavy Industries. But the most likely winner is apt to be General Electric, which has teamed up with the New York-based hedge fund Cerberus and Louisiana-based Shaw. NM Rothschild, BNFL's banker, is considering the offers. The British government wants to sell in part because nuclear assets bring a high price, but also to remove the risk of possible accidents from being a public responsibility. Richard Shelby, chairman of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, is one of several politicians who want to investigate potential national security threats of foreign ownership of U.S.-based companies. A move last summer by China's CNOOC to buy Unocal, the California-based oil company, caused anxiety on Capitol Hill. Although the White House-controlled Committee on Foreign Investments reviews such bids, it never had to rule on the Unocal bid because CNOOC pulled out. Since Westinghouse operates in the nuclear sector, with military applications, any foreign buyer will find it difficult to overcome the national security concerns. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission will also review any deal. -------- canada Canada drops UN disarmament resolution Peace activists say Liberal government caved in to pressure from Washington By SHAWN MCCARTHY Thursday, October 13, 2005 Posted at 3:41 AM EDT From Thursday's Globe and Mail http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051013.wxnuclear1013/BNPrint/International/ NEW YORK — Peace activists yesterday accused the Liberal government of buckling under U.S. pressure by dropping its sponsorship of a resolution on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation at the United Nations. The planned resolution, which was abandoned at a UN committee as Canada withdrew its sponsorship, sought to jump-start the negotiations after the international community failed in May to agree on measures to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and reduce the danger posed by existing arsenals. Canada had been working with five other countries to have the United Nations General Assembly establish working groups that would pick up where the non-proliferation conference left off last spring. But in a note sent to foreign capitals last week, the United States opposed the UN resolution, saying it was a "divisive proposal" that would retard, rather than advance, agreement on nuclear non-proliferation. Peggy Mason, a former Canadian ambassador on disarmament, said she was appalled when she learned yesterday that the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa had instructed its representatives in New York not to sponsor the resolution. "Canada is caving because of American pressure," Ms. Mason said. "It's so utterly unreasonable [for the U.S.] to take the position that we can't even have a discussion of these issues. . . .These are not minor matters -- nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation, the arms race in space -- these are vital to Canadian interests." Six countries -- Mexico, Sweden, Brazil, Kenya, New Zealand and Canada -- had been urging a UN committee to pass a resolution to establish working groups on disarmament and non-proliferation. Aaron Tovish of Mayors for Peace, an international non-proliferation group, said Canada's participation was key because it was the only member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the group. Rodney Moore, a spokesman for Foreign Affairs in Ottawa, said Canada had been hoping for broader support for the initiative and decided to back off when that support was not forthcoming. "To be effective, it would require the support of all states," Mr. Moore said. "It did not enjoy the support of the nuclear-weapons states and we considered their involvement to be of prime importance." Mr. Tovish said other nuclear-weapons states -- including Britian, France, China and Russia -- were prepared to allow the resolution to be adopted, while only the United States was adamantly opposed. He said the UN action was required to maintain some international discussion of the nuclear threat and how to contain it. The United States has opposed efforts that would require it to reduce its nuclear-missile arsenal, or forgo the development of new weapons. U.S. officials insist progress is being made on a number of fronts, including the securing of nuclear-weapons material, despite the logjam at the formal conference on disarmament in Geneva. "The international community needs to continue to focus on getting the CD [conference on disarmament] to work, rather than create another 'phantom' CD," the U.S. note said. The Americans warned that shifting the disarmament debate to the UN "would likely spell the end" of the conference on disarmament, and "supporters of this proposal would be fully responsible." The would-be sponsors of the resolution promised to bring the matter back before the United Nations if there is no progress in Geneva in the coming year. ---- Ontario to approve re-opening of idle nuclear reactors, sources say STEVE ERWIN Thu Oct 13, 1:32 PM ET (CP) http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/20051013/ca_pr_on_na/ont_energy_future_1 TORONTO - Two northern Ontario nuclear power units that have been idle since the mid-1990s will be refurbished now that the province has given final approval, sources said Thursday. The Ontario government will announce next week that it has approved a deal to restart Units 1 and 2 of the Bruce generation station near Kincardine, sources told The Canadian Press. It will cost Bruce Power, which runs the nuclear station, "well more" than $2 billion for the restart, one source said. A tentative deal between the two sides on the restart was reached in March. Final cabinet approval was delayed, however, as the province and Bruce Power worked out how much Bruce will be paid for the power the units produce following the refurbishment. Their restoration would return 1,500 megawatts of electricity to Ontario's power grid at a time when the industry is debating whether the province has enough power supply in coming years to meet future demand. The 1,500 megawatts would be enough to meet the annual needs of one million homes, or about 10 per cent of the province's market. However, any refurbishment of the two units at the Bruce station, which has six other units currently in operation, would take several years to complete. Dwight Duncan, who was the province's energy minister before an abrupt cabinet shuffle this week, said in March that the restart of the two units would replace about 20 per cent of the province's coal-fired generation. Ontario wants to close all of its coal-fired plants by 2009 - two years later than it first promised during the 2003 election campaign. Duncan is now Ontario's minister of finance, replacing Greg Sorbara, who resigned this week over an RCMP investigation into his former business. Donna Cansfield has taken over the energy portfolio from Duncan. -------- europe Hunting Loose Nukes in Eastern Europe 'Nightline' Gains Exclusive Access to Search for Nuclear Material Since 2002, Dr. Igor Bolshinsky has almost single-handedly removed 269 pounds of fresh, highly enriched uranium from seven countries -- enough to make about five nuclear bombs. (ABC News) Oct. 13, 2005 (ABC) http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/LooseNukes/story?id=1208241&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312 The top-secret operation began before dawn at an old Soviet reactor outside the eastern European capital of Riga, Latvia. Inside an unmarked truck was some of the most dangerous material in the world: highly enriched uranium — the basic ingredient for a nuclear bomb and a prime target for terrorists. Under a full moon and guarded by police cars and a Latvian SWAT team, the truck headed toward Riga International Airport. Dr. Igor Bolshinsky of the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration is charged with ensuring that the nuclear material is put where terrorists can't steal it. "When there is a danger of these materials to get in the hands of terrorists, it makes sense just to eliminate this material — to eliminate highly enriched uranium," Bolshinsky said. A Ukrainian-born scientist who now is a U.S. citizen, Bolshinsky has become a one-man wrecking crew for potential weapons of mass destruction. His goal: to remove material that can be used for a nuclear or dirty bombs from vulnerable research reactors in the former Soviet Union. Once the highly enriched uranium is removed, Bolshinsky sends it to a secure facility in Russia, where it is processed — or down-blended — into a less-dangerous fuel. "I think we are smart enough to realize bad things may happen — and we are smart enough to prevent it," he said. Nukes on the Loose Since 2002, Bolshinsky has almost single-handedly removed 269 pounds of fresh, highly enriched uranium from seven countries — enough to make about five nuclear bombs. And he's just getting started. By 2010, his goal is to remove 2 tons of highly enriched uranium from 14 countries, including his homeland. That's enough for about 80 nuclear bombs. Ambassador Linton Brooks, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the Energy Department's effort to secure nuclear material around the world, said the task is huge. "This is an effort which is a thousand small victories rather than one galactic one," Brooks said. -------- iran Iran judiciary shuts down conservative website TEHRAN (AFP) Oct 13, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/051013104047.zr9plcuo.html A conservative Iranian news website linked to former presidential candidate Mohsen Rezai that accused the Islamic republic of being too soft over its nuclear programme has been closed down. "Following a decision by the judiciary, the Baztab website has been temporarily shut down," the site announced Thursday. "The judiciary explained their decision by saying they had received a complaint from former members of the Supreme National Security Council although the new council has no problem with the site," it added. The Supreme National Security Council is in charge of Iran's controversial nuclear programme, which may lead to UN sanctions after the Islamic republic resumed sensitive nuclear work in August. The decision was taken because "some people within the judiciary were unhappy about Baztab's activities, in particular revelations of the financial impropriety of certain judiciary officials," the site said, without elaborating. Ultra-conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad swept to victory in June, giving hardliners complete control of government after eight years of the reformist presidency of Mohammad Khatami. Members of the Supreme National Security Council were also swapped with the change of government. Baztab is generally considered a reliable news source and has often criticised Iran's foreign policy over its nuclear dossier. The site regularly accused the previous government's nuclear negotiating team, led by Hassan Rowhani, of taking a "too fearful position" in talks with the so-called EU three of Britain, France and Germany. In recent years hundreds of publications have been shut down and scores of journalists arrested or imprisoned in a major crackdown by the judiciary, a bastion of Iran's religious right. ---- World may have to live with nuclear Iran -US study Thu Oct 13, 3:03 PM ET (Reuters) http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051013/wl_nm/iran_usa_report_dc_1 WASHINGTON - Iran is determined to acquire nuclear weapons and the United States may find it less costly to deter a nuclear-armed Iran than to dismantle its weapons program, according to two U.S.-funded researchers who advise the Pentagon. "Can the United States live with a nuclear-armed Iran? Despite its rhetoric, it may have no choice," concluded the report by Judith Yaphe and Air Force Col. Charles Lutes, which was released on Thursday. The potential for rolling back Iran's program, once it produces a nuclear weapon, "is lower than preventing it in the first place and the costs of rollback may be higher than the costs of deterring and containing a nuclear Iran," they said. The two analysts are senior fellows at the National Defense University's Institute for National Strategic Studies, which does policy research for the Defense Department. European powers Britain, France and Germany, with U.S. support, have pursued so-far failed negotiations aimed at persuading Iran to abandon its nuclear activities. U.S. intelligence says Iran could produce a weapon in about a decade. Tehran insist its aim is peaceful nuclear energy. European and American officials have long acknowledged privately that thwarting Iran's ambitions is a long shot and the new report reinforces that view. In a 2001 report, Yaphe, a Mideast expert and former CIA analyst, judged Iran as determined to acquire nuclear weapons. Nothing in the intervening four years has diverted Tehran from the "systematic pursuit of nuclear technology that could contribute to a weapons program," the new report concluded. 'VIRTUAL NUCLEAR POWER' The report says most Iran experts believe the Islamic republic would choose to become a "virtual nuclear power," meaning it would not test but would be able to assemble a weapon quickly from prefabricated components. To U.S. ally Israel, "a nuclear-armed Iran is a clear and present danger" and most Israeli strategists "do not question if Israel should seek to remove Iranian nuclear facilities," only how or when it should be done, the report said. However, the U.S. researchers warned that a U.S. or Israeli pre-emptive military strike likely would rally Iranians around a religious fundamentalist government in Tehran that they might otherwise want to replace, spur new attacks by Iran-allied groups like Hizbollah. They also warned that if Washington sought to change the government in Tehran -- as it did in Iraq -- there is an "extremely high risk that the Iranian regime would use its nuclear weapon in a last-ditch effort to save itself." On living with a nuclear-armed Iran, the analysts said Tehran was unlikely to use its nuclear capability unless facing an overwhelming threat and while it might become more assertive in the region, superior U.S. capabilities could probably deter significant mischief. But they said the lack of direct communications between Iran and the United States, Israel and its own neighbors makes Tehran's inability to recognize "red lines" -- behavior which the other countries will not tolerate -- a great danger. "Successful deterrence depends on the ability to understand the other's thinking and accurately anticipate its behavior," the researchers said. Despite U.S. concerns that Iran might share nuclear capabilities with "terrorist" groups, Yaphe and Lutes concluded "Iran would not, as a matter of state policy, give up control of such weapons to terrorist organizations." But they acknowledged doubts about whether Tehran could control all elements of the Iranian system with access to that technology. -------- japan U.N. resolution stresses NPT Japan's annual draft has stronger disarmament message The Japan Times: Oct. 13, 2005 http://news.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=us/0-0&fp=43525b6ff29e0ad5&ei=aG1SQ879Ma-g6wHP7oS5Cg&url=http%3A//www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5%3Fnn20051013a3.htm&cid=0 Japan on Wednesday submitted a revised nuclear disarmament draft resolution to the United Nations that underscores the importance of an effective framework for the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The new draft, submitted to the First Committee of the General Assembly, declares a renewed determination to call on all nuclear powers to reduce their nuclear arms in an irreversible, verifiable and transparent manner and eventually completely eliminate such weapons. Japan has submitted draft resolutions on nuclear disarmament to the General Assembly annually since 1994. Amendments are made annually, but this is the first time in five years the draft has been comprehensively revised. The latest is titled "Renewed Determination toward the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons" after being called "A Path to the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons" for the past five years. "The new draft resolution sends a stronger message to take practical steps toward nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation as it comes at a very opportune time, with this year marking the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki," a Foreign Ministry official said. The official said the document also aims to convey a feeling of "regret" that there was no agreement at the 2005 NPT Review Conference in May in New York and that references to nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation were eliminated from the final document of the High-level Plenary Meeting of the U.N. General Assembly in September. While lamenting the collapse of the NPT talks, this year's draft resolution says the meeting's failure does not negate the NPT framework and "stresses the importance of an effective NPT review process." The statement encourages the NPT parties to take further steps toward nuclear disarmament, including "deeper reductions in all types of nuclear weapons" and calls on the United States and Russia to reduce their weapons beyond what is stated in their bilateral Treaty on Strategic Offensive Reductions. As for parties that have not signed the NPT, the current draft resolution urges them to refrain from actions that would defeat the purpose and objectives of the NPT. The draft calls on nations to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty to facilitate its early entry into force, continue moratoriums on nuclear testing and immediately begin negotiations on a proposed Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty. According to the draft, it is vital to continue nonproliferation efforts, including making an additional protocol of the International Atomic Energy Agency universal and fully implementing a U.N. Security Council resolution on nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction adopted last year. The additional IAEA protocol, formulated to reinforce the nuclear energy watchdog's safeguards in the light of its failure to discover secret nuclear-weapons development programs in Iraq and North Korea in the 1990s, authorizes the agency to inspect facilities for secret nuclear programs or banned weapons activities. Last year's resolution was adopted at the General Assembly with the support of 165 countries, with three countries -- the United States, India and Palau -- opposed. It remains unclear, though, how much impact this year's resolution will actually have on facilitating disarmament diplomacy because Washington opposes ratification of the CTBT. ---- Japan stresses global nuke treaty in disarmament resolution Thursday, October 13, 2005 at 07:13 JST Japan Today 13 October 2005 http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=1&id=351959 http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=160344 NEW YORK-ASTANA, October 13. KAZINFORM. Japan submitted a revised nuclear disarmament draft resolution to the United Nations on Wednesday, underscoring the importance of an effective framework for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The new draft resolution, which was submitted to the First Committee of the General Assembly, declares a renewed determination to call on all nuclear powers to reduce their nuclear arms in an irreversible, verifiable and transparent manner and eventually lead to a complete elimination of such weapons, Kazinform refers to Kyodo. Japan has submitted draft resolutions on nuclear disarmament to the General Assembly annually since 1994. Although partial amendments have been made yearly, it is the first time in five years that the draft resolution will undergo a comprehensive revision. The latest draft resolution, which refers to the NPT as the ''cornerstone of the international nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime,'' is titled, ''Renewed Determination toward the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons,'' after being called ''A Path to the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons'' during the past five years. ''The new draft resolution sends a stronger message to take practical steps toward nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation as it comes at a very opportune time with this year marking the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,'' a Foreign Ministry official said. The official said the document also aims to convey ''regret'' over the lack of agreement at the 2005 NPT Review Conference in May in New York and the elimination of references to nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation in the outcome document of the High-level Plenary Meeting of the U. N. General Assembly last month. While lamenting the collapse of the NPT talks, which failed to produce a final consensus document, this year's draft resolution says the meeting's failure does not negate the NPT framework and ''stresses the importance of an effective NPT review process. '' The statement encourages the NPT parties to take further steps toward nuclear disarmament including ''deeper reductions in all types of nuclear weapons'' and calls on the United States and Russia for nuclear arms reductions beyond those provided by their bilateral Treaty on Strategic Offensive Reductions signed in 2002. As for parties that have not signed the NPT -- with Israel, India and Pakistan in mind -- the current draft resolution urges them to refrain from actions that would defeat the object and purpose of the NPT. The draft also urges other nations to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty to facilitate its early entry into force, continue moratoriums on nuclear tests and immediately start negotiations on a proposed Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty. According to the draft, it is vital to continue nonproliferation efforts such as making an additional protocol of the International Atomic Energy Agency universal and fully implementing a U. N. Security Council resolution on nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction adopted last year. The additional protocol, formulated to reinforce the IAEA safeguards in the light of its failure to discover secret nuclear-weapons development programs in Iraq and North Korea in the 1990s, authorizes the agency to conduct inspection of facilities to check for clandestine nuclear programs or banned weapons activities. Last year's resolution was adopted at the General Assembly with the support of 165 countries, with three countries -- the United States, India and Palau -- opposed. It remains unclear, though, how much impact this year's resolution will actually have on facilitating disarmament diplomacy since Washington opposes ratification of the CTBT. The draft resolution is expected to be adopted at the committee later this month. -------- u.s. nuc facilities ABC report critical of K-State, MU reactors By DAVID KLEPPER The Kansas City Star Posted on Thu, Oct. 13, 2005 http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/12894155.htm Kansas State University’s nuclear reactor deserves a failing grade for lapses in security, according to an ABC News investigation of college research reactors. The investigation, in which ABC News interns attempted to gain access to the reactors on 25 campuses, found that K-State’s reactor “would get an F and zero for protection,” according to Ronald E. Timm, a security consultant who analyzed reactor security for the ABC report. Most of the other reactors fared just as badly in the ABC investigation, which airs at 9 tonight on Primetime Live. The University of Missouri at Columbia’s reactor was also criticized for poor perimeter security. Officials at both schools questioned whether the interns really knew enough about nuclear reactor security to point out flaws. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has promised to investigate any security lapses and make changes if necessary, according to NRC spokesman Eliot Brenner. When the two interns — who told reactor operators they were prospective graduate students — went to the K-State reactor, they toured the facility with a video camera and were able to gain access to the control room and the reactor room. ABC also criticized the reactor for having no metal detectors or guards. The reactor is open to tours, but all visitors must present identification and subject their belongings to a search. K-State spokeswoman Cheryl May said the reactor doesn’t have enough radioactive material to be a target for terrorists. She said the university uses the reactor for research and instruction, and opens it up to tours so the public can become more educated about nuclear science. K-State reactor director Mike Whaley worries the ABC report may bring an end to the tours, which he said attract about 2,500 people a year. The MU reactor is one of the largest research reactors in the nation and does not allow tours. Still, the ABC interns were able to walk around the building without attracting attention. According to the ABC News report, a guard booth was empty and some security gates were left open. MU spokesman Christian Basi said the reactor follows all security regulations, and that the gates were left open because traffic needed to get through. Both universities said they comply with all federal security rules for research reactors. The flaws in K-State’s security identified by ABC were found at several other campuses. Worse lapses were found at other schools. At the University of California, Irvine, the ABC interns found the reactor building door propped open with a book. The ABC News report found “virtually no security at all” at the University of Maryland reactor. -------- arizona NUCLEAR PLANT OFF LINE OVER SAFETY CONCERNS By Associated Press 10.13.2005 http://www.kgun9.com/story.php?id=714 Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station is completely shut down over safety concerns. Operators aren't sure when the nation's largest nuclear power plant will be back in operation. Two reactors at the plant 50 miles west of downtown Phoenix were shut down late Tuesday. The plant's other unit has been down for refueling and repairs since October 7th. Officials says plant operator Arizona Public Service shut down the plant's two operating reactors after it was unable to demonstrate to regulators that a key safety system would perform as designed. The problem, which involves an emergency system that cools the plant's nuclear reactors after an accident, also affects the third unit that is being refueled. An APS spokesman for says the utility has ample power to serve its customers. -------- idaho ABC News Reports on Security Flaws at University Reactors October 13, 2005 ABC News http://www.localnews8.com/home/1785176.html Idaho State University in Pocatello is one of 25 schools in the country that house a nuclear reactor in their engineering building. With the help of 10 graduate students, an ABC news investigation unit found flaws including unlocked doors, empty guard booths and guided tours providing easy access to nuclear reactors and control rooms at many of the schools. Idaho State’s reactor supervisor John Bennion says they follow all of the Nuclear Regulatory Commissions guidelines, including limiting the access to the reactor and conducting background checks on visitors. Bennion said, “The reactor is designed to be very safe and there is no way that this particular reactor could melt down. Basically this reactor has been in operation for 50 years and we have had no problems with it.” At this point it’s unclear whether the news investigation will specifically mention ISU in their piece on Thursday night, but Bennion says so far the commission hasn’t contacted them as far as making any changes to their security measures on campus. -------- maine Maine Yankee Lessons Thursday, October 13, 2005 - Bangor Daily News http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=121965 With high fuel prices and fears about shortages of natural gas, coupled with concerns over greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired plants, nuclear power is again being discussed as a source of electricity. The Maine Yankee plant, where decommissioning was certified as complete by the federal government last week, can offer important lessons as the nuclear industry, for the first time in years, seriously considers building new reactors in the United States. One lesson is that the federal government must fulfill its commitment to open a repository for nuclear waste. A second is to be transparent to the public. Opened in 1972, Maine Yankee was licensed to operate until 2008. In 1994, cracks were discovered in steam generator tubes in the Wiscasset plant. The facility was shut down for a year while the cracks were repaired. After more problems and an appearance on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's list of the worst-run power plants, the Maine Yankee board decided in 1997 to close the facility. The decommissioning of the plant was given final approval by the NRC last week. That releases most of the land for redevelopment but not 12 acres where radioactive fuel rods are stored. The rods must be stored on-site because the federal government has yet to open a repository for nuclear waste although the country's electricity customers have paid billions of dollars for such a facility. A repository was supposed to be open by 1998. Plagued by legal challenges and technical problems, a storage facility at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, which was picked by Congress in 2002 as the place to bury 77,000 tons of radioactive material, is projected to open in 2012. In the meantime, the country's most radioactive nuclear waste will remain stored at sites in 39 states, including the waterfront parcel in Wiscasset, which would be better suited to development or a park rather than an off-limits waste dump. With nuclear waste disposal moving at such a slow place, it may be time to reconsider a ban on reprocessing nuclear waste, something that is routinely done in Europe and Japan. A second lesson from Maine Yankee is that sharing as much information as possible with the public makes for better operations and less fear among nearby residents. Maine Yankee established a community advisory panel (CAP) before beginning its decommissioning. The panel, which included local scientists, government and business representatives and an outspoken opponent of the plant, helped keep local residents informed. A major benefit of the CAP, according to a company hired to evaluate the Maine Yankee decommissioning process, was that senior plant managers routinely made presentations before the public and were expected to answer questions in a manner understandable to lay members of the public. Having such a committee in place when a plant was operational would go along way toward easing public fears about nuclear power. The United States needs sources of electricity other than high-priced oil, limited natural gas and highly polluting coal. Solar and wind may help, but nuclear energy is the only existing source for large quantities of electricity. Waste and safety hurdles must be cleared before the nuclear power industry grows. -------- nevada Critics Dominate Final EPA Hearing on Radiation Rule October 13, 2005 — By Erica Werner, Associated Press http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=9016 WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency's final hearing on its proposed rule governing how much radiation could be released from Yucca Mountain drew a series of critics, mostly environmentalists who said the standard was too weak to protect future generations. Just two of 15 people who made public statements at the agency's headquarters on Tuesday expressed support of the EPA draft rule. One represented a group that wants nuclear waste moved away from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, and the other was an official with the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, which supports swift completion of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada. The dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas is proposed to hold 77,000 tons of the nation's most radioactive waste. Most speakers said the EPA's two-tiered rule -- which proposes one standard for radiation releases from the dump for 10,000 years and a much weaker one after that -- isn't protective enough. "It is a double standard, it is extremely dangerous and it is immoral," said Lois Gibbs, executive director of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, in comments echoed during the two-hour hearing by speakers from the Sierra Club, Physicians for Social Responsibility and other groups. "EPA's proposed standards do not prevent serious harm, they cause serious harm," Gibbs said. The EPA in August proposed limiting exposure near the planned dump to 15 millirems a year for 10,000 years, 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 EPA issued the draft rule after a federal court said an earlier standard the agency proposed was inadequate because it didn't establish exposure limits beyond 10,000 years. Tuesday's hearing was the final of five public hearings -- and the only one outside of Nevada -- on the draft rule before EPA closes its public comment period Nov. 21. A final rule will be issued some time after that. Elizabeth Cotsworth, director of the EPA Office of Radiation and Indoor Air, defended the rule after listening to critics Tuesday. "We believe the proposed standards are protective," she told reporters. "We'll fully consider all of the comments, analyze them, before making the final decisions." Steven R. Kraft of the Nuclear Energy Institute, which promotes nuclear power and wants Yucca Mountain to go forward, said it wasn't a good idea to try to extend the radiation standard beyond 10,000 years. "Implementation of the disposal program should not be delayed while scientists, engineers and regulators speculate about what might happen 1 million years from now," he said. After repeated setbacks -- including the court ruling against EPA's first radiation standard -- the dump is now not expected to open before 2012. -------- vermont Feds set conditions, deadline for Vermont Yankee uprate By Kathryn Casa | Vermont Guardian posted October 13, 2005 http://www.vermontguardian.com/local/102005/VYUprateLetter.shtml BRATTLEBORO — More than two years after Entergy asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s OK to boost power production at Vermont Yankee, federal regulators have thrown an all-or-nothing set of conditions on the table that the company must agree to if it wants to move forward with the so-called uprate. The extraordinary move comes as a result of Entergy's consistent failure to turn over enough information to satisfy regulators’ questions about their proposed 20 percent power increase at the 530-megawatt reactor in Vernon. “The NRC staff has decided that several license conditions and a regulatory commitment … will be necessary to address the staff’s concerns or to confirm predictions and assertions you have made,” NRC uprate project manager Richard Ennis wrote in an Oct. 12 letter spelling out the conditions. The letter was addressed to Michael Kansler, president of Entergy Nuclear Operations in White Plains, NY. Entergy officials on Friday said they would be reviewing the requirements over the weekend. “We’re pleased that the NRC review process is moving forward,” said VY spokesman Larry Smith. “We will be looking at the conditions over the weekend and provide our response next week.” The NRC gave the company until Monday to decide whether to agree to the requirements, but observers said a rejection was unlikely since it would mean no uprate. NRC Region I spokesman Neil Sheehan said Entergy must agree to all of the terms if the company expects to move forward on the uprate application. “This is an all-or-nothing deal,” he said. “We’ve laid out the terms we think are necessary to ensure that the plant can be operated safely under uprated conditions.” However, “this is not the final word,” Sheehan added. “Even if they agree to accept these conditions … it does not mean that we’re done with this application; we still have more to do with Entergy.” Still outstanding is the issue of whether the state of Vermont will agree to the uprate — an issue currently riding on a determination of whether an NRC inspection of the plant meets the terms set forth by conditional state approval, and how several other questions before an NRC advisory panel are resolved. “So there is still a lot that has to play out on this application, but this would go a long way in addressing the concerns the NRC technical staff has about the application,” Sheehan said. In their letter to Entergy, federal regulators are calling for, in some cases, hourly monitoring of plant conditions; the ongoing assessment of several questionable components of the reactor including the problematic steam dryer; the installation of gauges and other monitoring devices; and a gradual and closely watched uprate acceleration that could be halted at any sign of problem. Coming in the midst of a longer than normal review process, the conditions are an unusual step on the part of a regulatory agency that has approved each of more than 100 uprates in one year or less. State officials praised the NRC move, saying it was indicative of a stringent NRC review of the uprate proposal. But according to David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, the conditions reveal “a high-stakes gamble” because they indicate that neither the NRC nor Entergy really know how Vermont Yankee will respond under uprated conditions. “They shouldn’t be conducting nuclear experiments. That’s what a laboratory is for,” said Lochbaum. “We have national laboratories around the country that could model these conditions instead of conducting a big experiment at a reactor in a small town in Vermont.” The terms also will mean additional uprate-related costs for the company, which already has spent about $60 million to modify the 33-year-old reactor in preparation for the uprate. “We have imposed conditions before on extended power uprate applications, but probably not as many conditions and this regulatory commitment as are involved here,” said Sheehan. Among the NRC’s foremost concerns is the integrity of Vermont Yankee’s steam dryer, a non-safety related component that removes moisture from steam before it enters the turbines. Steam dryer cracks have been discovered subsequent to uprates at other reactors including the Quad Cities Unit 2 in Illinois, which shut down twice starting in July 2002, after a nearly 18 percent uprate increased vibrations, causing the dryer to crack. But cracks occurred in Vermont Yankee’s dryer even before an uprate. In April 2004, VY engineers found 20 fissures in the dryer. A plant spokesman told the Vermont Guardian last year that engineers had modified VY’s steam dryer “to substantially strengthen it and to provide added confidence in its ability to perform properly under uprated conditions.” The NRC conditions also would impose what Sheehan called “an additional operating restriction” to account for “uncertain conditions in the reactor core analysis,” based in part on the more highly enriched fuel that VY officials have been loading into the plant during the most recent refueling outages in preparation for the uprate. “We’re uncertain about what this means in terms of the safety margins,” Sheehan said. “If they are going to go with the changes they want to have, not strictly the enrichment but also the amount of bundles they’re going to be changing out … we want to make sure there are adequate safety margins in place,” he said. Entergy is expected to complete loading the enriched fuel during its refueling outage later this month. Lochbaum said the NRC has imposed a “penalty” because regulators have not yet been convinced by General Electric, the fuel rod manufacturer, about the fuel’s reliability. But according to state nuclear engineer Bill Sherman, “It’s a question of the nuclear operating characteristics … It’s not about fuel integrity or safety systems, but more about how long they can operate the fuel.” Uprate necessity Vermont Yankee’s proposed 20 percent increase, or “extended power uprate” — so-called because it is the largest allowed at a commercial reactor — is widely seen as a pre-requisite for the 20-year relicensing of Vermont Yankee when the existing license expires in 2012. All the power currently produced in Vernon is under contract at below-spot market rates. The additional power production is expected to make the plant more profitable for Entergy, which bought the Vernon reactor from a coalition of New England utilities in 2002. Unprecedented involvement in the uprate on the part of the state, as well as by a Brattleboro-based grassroots citizens group, the New England Coalition, is seen as one reason why the approval process has taken this long. “Vermont’s congressional team has let the NRC know that they’re looking over their shoulder; the state of Vermont has intervened; the Public Service Board has asked for an independent engineering assessment, and an NRC public meeting was swamped with people,” said New England Coalition’s technical advisor, Ray Shadis. “That has happened nowhere else in the country.” “If one focuses public attention and political attention and media attention on these processes, safety is greatly improved because the NRC knows that people are looking over their shoulders,” he added. Vermont Public Service Department officials, who have by and large been supportive of the uprate, said they were pleased with the NRC’s requirements. “We are basically very happy with the letter,” said Sherman. “It illustrates to me the results of a pretty stringent review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.” Lochbaum said the gauges and monitoring devices required to meet the conditions could cost Entergy between $1-2 million. Asked whether he was concerned that increased costs would lead to a hike in the cost of VY power, Public Service Commissioner David O’Brien said he was not. “My belief is that the cost of these measures, whatever that may be, will not adversely effect the price of power coming out of that plant” because it will be remain significantly below the wholesale power market,” he said. Contrasted against skyrocketing oil and natural gas prices, O’Brien said, “I’m not worried about the economics of nuclear power. The NRC’s move comes at a time when the Louisiana-based Entergy Corp. is relying heavily on its nuclear arm to stave off financial woes resulting from Hurricane Katrina. The parent company of Entergy Nuclear, the nations’ second-largest nuclear generator, sustained as much as $1 billion in damages as a result of the hurricane. -------- wisconsin Federal agency reviewing incident at UW nuclear reactor RYAN J. FOLEY Associated Press Posted on Thu, Oct. 13, 2005 http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/12894122.htm MADISON, Wis. - The nuclear research reactor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is so small that an explosion from a suicide bomber or powerful car bomb would not cause a nuclear incident, UW officials said Thursday. They commented in response to an ABC News investigation showing two interns were allowed in the doorway of the Wisconsin lab carrying bags that could have contained an explosive device. ABC said its investigation found "gaping security holes" at the nation's 25 nuclear research reactors. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees the nation's power plants, said it would review the incidents documented by ABC, "and that does include their activities at the Wisconsin campus," said spokesman Scott Burnell. UW officials at a news conference acknowledged a student worker erred in allowing the undercover reporters inside a door that was locked. But they said the reactor, near Camp Randall football stadium, posed no risk to the public because it is only a fraction of the size of nuclear power plants and is well protected. The reactors are used to generate heat for experiments, but nuclear watchdogs warn that terrorists could spread radioactive material by detonating a bomb in them or could steal the highly enriched uranium to produce a so-called dirty bomb. Neither scenario could happen at the Wisconsin lab, according to Michael Corradini, UW-Madison's director of nuclear engineering and engineering physics, who spoke to reporters during a tour Thursday. Noting that the garbage can-sized reactor is behind 12 feet of concrete at the bottom of a pool of irradiated water, he said any would-be thief would die in the process. A suicide bomb would not penetrate the reactor, he said. And after Vietnam War protesters detonated a car bomb to blow up a UW building in 1970, a federal government study concluded that a car bomb outside the reactor would not cause a nuclear incident, lab director Bob Agasie said. "This is much ado about nothing," Corradini said. "I don't think there's any reason to overblow things and scare people." But the ABC report, as posted on the network's Web site, quoted a security consultant as saying the UW incident showed a complete lack of security. The June incident described by ABC involved two interns posing as students who showed up asking for a tour of the reactor. After being refused twice because such tours must be planned, they started knocking on the locked reactor door until a student worker answered. The worker again turned down their tour request but allowed them to take pictures in the doorway. The women were about 15 feet from the concrete barrier guarding the reactor, but hundreds of people are allowed that kind of access during public tours of the lab every year, Corradini said. "Honestly we could have done better when these people posed as students and tried to gain access," Corradini said. "We have to have rules followed more precisely. Students have been retrained appropriately." -------- MILITARY In Caspian, US-led security workshop targets 'Purple' menace BAKU (AFP) Oct 13, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/051013030736.btc04xtb.html A handful of countries on Russia's southern flank face a weapons proliferation threat from "Purple," a theocratic republic on the Caspian Sea that sponsors terrorism and has a covert nuclear weapons program. This at least is the basis of a fictitious scenario at the heart of a three-day security workshop sponsored this week by the United States in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan including all Caspian and Black Sea littoral states, with the exceptions of Russia and Iran. In the "Black Sea and Caspian Sea Maritime Nonproliferation Conference," an indoor exercise which began Tuesday in Baku, the theocratic government of "Purple" has used oil profits to obtain nuclear arms under cover of a peaceful nuclear energy program, drawing US sanctions in the process. Delegates to the conference insist that the scenario, although it has a familiar ring about it, has no existing country in mind. But a "player handbook" distributed to participants and obtained by AFP makes clear it bears more than a few glaring similarities to the real thing. "It's clear, they're talking about Iran," said Azad Isazade, an independent military analyst based in Baku. The oil-rich Caspian region is of strategic interest to the United States both as a source of energy and of security threats from poorly secured Soviet-era weapons in demand in the Middle East, US officials have said. At the conference, naval officers from Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Romania, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and the United States "explore new avenues to cooperate" in "preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction and other illicit trafficking by sea," the handbook said. Russia, at the northern end of the Caspian, shares these interests but stayed away from the Baku workshop "so as not to irritate Iran," with which Moscow has close economic ties, particularly in the field of nuclear power, Isazade said. Azerbaijan has been at pains to reassure Iran that its growing military cooperation with the United States was not a threat. The handbook's text "doesn't mean that specifically Iran is the country that poses a threat to the whole Caspian region," said Farkhad Talizade, deputy commander of Azerbaijan's border guard service. US officials also insisted Iran was not being targeted in the exercise. "We've got a generic threat that is named generically and is not oriented to any country," said US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Currier. Washington however has not limited itself to theoretical training exercises in the oil-rich Caspian region. The US has undertaken the construction of two radar installations near Iran's northern border and south of Russia and has encouraged both Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan to beef up their sea defenses in order to counter "transnational threats" in the region. Washington has spent some 30 million dollars on upgrading Azerbaijan's coastguard with a radar system, personnel training and repair of ships and recently said it wanted to spend 135 million dollars to improve Azerbaijan's and Kazakhstan's sea forces. -------- arms EU agrees on plan to open up arms industry LYNEHAM, England (AFP) Oct 13, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/051013180917.djxenuiz.html European Union defence ministers have agreed on a new plan to open Europe's arms industry up to internal competition, which is likely to come into effect next year, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on Thursday. "We ... are in a good position to take a decision at our meeting next month on the 21st of November on a code of conduct," he told reporters at Lyneham airbase in southwest England. "It is a very important decision." The plan involves a voluntary system drawn up by the European Defence Agency (EDA) which would see defence contracts worth more than one million euros (1.2 million dollars) advertised on a single electronic portal so companies could tender for them. "It would produce a much-needed increase in cross-border competition which will in turn provide better value for the European taxpayer and ... the European defence industry," Solana said. At the moment, member states quietly lump about half their defence deals under a piece of European Union legislation -- Article 296 -- which is meant to exempt them from normal market rules only when their security interests are under threat. But the European Commission, the EU's competition watchdog, plans to crack down on abuses of the article and has forced the industry's hand. EDA head Nick Whitney said the code of conduct would take about six months to put into place and that countries could sign up to it when they are ready. "We envisage that perhaps there would be a six month implementation period leading up to the thing actually going on line in the middle of next year," he said, on the sidelines of an informal meeting of EU defence ministers. "During that period a number of countries will probably be reflecting at to whether they can move that fast to join the code when it begins," he said. He would not say which countries were ready to take part, saying only that it was a great majority, although Solana confirmed that Britain and France would be involved. -------- asia Rice, on Way to Central Asia, Reprimands Uzbekistan By Robin Wright Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, October 11, 2005; A13 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/10/AR2005101001675_pf.html SHANNON, Ireland, Oct. 10 -- Signaling a deepening split with one of the United States' closest allies in the war on terrorism, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rebuked Uzbekistan on Monday for spurning appeals from abroad on human rights and called the Tashkent government "out of step" with political trends in the rest of Central Asia. The United States can find alternatives to Uzbekistan to fight the war on terrorism, Rice told reporters as she flew to the region for a tour that is pointedly avoiding the country. Uzbekistan has provided a base at Karshi-Khanabad, known as K-2, for military and humanitarian operations in neighboring Afghanistan since shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The Bush administration is seeking to retain overflight rights for warplanes and shipments of relief goods, U.S. officials say. But Washington has now virtually given up on any further cooperation from President Islam Karimov, who in July ordered U.S. forces to leave K-2 within six months. He also quietly ended cooperation on counterterrorism programs, U.S. officials have said, effectively walking away from a broad agreement for cooperation on terrorism issues signed when Karimov visited President Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks. "Uzbekistan is out of step with what is happening in this region as a whole," Rice told reporters on the first leg of her flight to Central Asia. "The ability of Uzbekistan to progress economically and politically is going to depend on the freedom and creativity of its people, and that's not happening." "As to the issues we have had with Uzbekistan on military access to K-2, we have been very clear: We will continue to fight the war on terrorism. We will continue to do it effectively. We have many ways to do it," Rice said. It was the toughest and bluntest language from a top Bush administration official since relations began to deteriorate after Uzbek security forces staged a bloody crackdown against an uprising in the city of Andijan in May. Karimov rejected U.S. and European calls for an independent inquiry, and Rice expressed concern that the long-standing Uzbek leader is no longer listening to the outside world. On Rice's first swing through Central Asia as secretary of state, the Bush administration is pointing to Kazakhstan as the new regional model. President Nursultan Nazarbayev has ruled Kazakhstan -- which at roughly the area of Western Europe is the world's ninth-largest country -- since before the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, but Rice called him a reformer. "The Nazarbayev government has a chance to be a real leader in Central Asia on both economic and political reform," Rice said. "I believe he is someone who can be persuaded to use his leadership and his considerable popularity to move Kazakhstan to the next level and then lead this region." Rice's trip, which will also take her to Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, comes at a time of mixed signals in oil-rich Kazakhstan, with national elections now less than two months away. Opposition groups have come under new government pressure, with some leaders imprisoned or exiled. The Democratic Choice for Kazakhstan was banned this year, according to a State Department official. Last month, the company that had produced seven newspapers sympathetic to the country's fledgling opposition coalition -- For a Just Kazakhstan, which is fielding a single candidate against Nazarbayev -- refused to print the papers. "Scared of growing democratic forces, and on the eve of crucial presidential elections, the authorities have decided to eliminate the opposition media in the best Soviet tradition: phone calls from above and undercover games," the coalition said in a published statement. Parliament this year passed two tough laws, one criminalizing extremist and opposition activity as a threat to national security and one banning foreign nongovernmental organizations. A constitutional court later rejected the law against the foreign groups, but U.S. officials said more than 30 American and international organizations had been harassed. Rice said she would press Nazarbayev to ensure that the upcoming election is free and fair, by allowing international observers and ensuring all candidates have access to the media. The State Department is now portraying Central Asia as a region of new opportunities, particularly since Kyrgyzstan's street revolution this year against another leader who had ruled since the Soviet breakup. "It's an extremely important time to go to Central Asia," Rice said, as the region is in the midst of a historic transition. "I will say to all the Central Asians that the United States looks forward to broader, deeper, stronger relations and to be a partner as they reform economically and politically and as we fight the war on terrorism," Rice said. Central Asia is increasingly important to the Bush administration, as reflected in a reorganization planned at the State Department that will group the five Muslim former Soviet republics together with South Asia. Former State Department spokesman Richard A. Boucher is slated to head the division. But Rice is also treading carefully during her Central Asia debut. She will not hold major meetings with political opposition figures, talking to them only on the sidelines or having one of her deputies handle the talks. ---- Lithuanian president visits Afghanistan VILNIUS (AFP) Oct 11, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/051011074820.q8mhd0ay.html Lithuanian president Valdas Adamkus left Vilnius in the early hours of Tuesday for a two-day visit to Afghanistan, a spokeswoman for the president said. "Adamkus will meet Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai and will talk about Lithuania's contribution to the reconstruction of Ghor province on the first day of his visit," Rita Grumadaite told AFP. "He will visit Lithuanian troops later in the day and will also have a meeting with Ahada Afzali, governor of Ghor province," Grumadaite added. Some 100 Lithuanian troops are currently deployed in Afghanistan, where the Baltic state leads a NATO reconstruction team in Ghor. The number of Lithuanian troops in Afghanistan is to rise to 130 by the end of 2005. This is the first time that Lithuania, which joined NATO in March 2004, is leading a NATO mission, at the head of other, older NATO members, including Britain, Denmark and Iceland. During his visit to Afghanistan Adamkus plans to meet the head of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), Mauro del Vecchio, and NATO representatives. "It is planned that the Lithuanian president will also meet United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who will be visiting the region at the same time," Grumadaite said. Adamkus' trip was kept secret until his departure, for security reasons. From Afghanistan, Adamkus is scheduled to go to Zagreb, Croatia, for a meeting of presidents of eastern and central Europe. -------- europe Britain urges EU to invest in military reform LYNEHAM, England (AFP) Oct 13, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/051013182341.k1jfh69a.html British Defence Secretary John Reid urged his EU counterparts on Thursday to invest in flexible, mobile military forces, amid concern over whether the bloc can respond to modern security challenges. "Europe must work together to make its forces more deployable, more sustainable and more interoperable for today's threats," he told reporters during a meeting of European Union defence ministers in southwest England. "We must invest more in research, and we must spend our defence budgets more effectively," he said. Britain assumed the six-month rotating EU presidency in July. Before they set their minds to business, the ministers were treated to a 40-minute display of British firepower, as the host country showed how it would secure a hostile airport with just the sort of forces it thinks the EU needs. In the first-ever exercise of its kind before EU defence ministers, fighter planes, transport and refuelling aircraft, helicopters, artillery and ground troops were all involved in a five-phase exercise. Harrier jump jets flew in low over the ministers' heads to destroy "enemy" vehicles dotted around the Royal Air Force base in Lyneham, guided to their targets by an advance team of reconnaissance paratroopers. "We now need the sort of forces we saw this morning. Flexible, deployable, quick, speedy, high readiness," Reid said. The informal meeting comes amid renewed calls to boost EU defence spending as the bloc's area of operations spreads from the Balkans to Africa. It also comes after US General Joseph Ralston and General Klaus Naumann of Germany warned that Europe could be overwhelmed by security challenges such as international terrorism unless it starts pooling its defences. "Staying the course is not an option -- indeed, it is a recipe for disaster. Seen in this light, defence integration is not just an appealing or interesting idea: it is an imperative," they said in a report. "They are absolutely right," said Reid, whose country is one of only a few EU member states spending around or above two percent of gross domestic product on their defence budgets, as recommended by NATO. The ministers also discussed the bloc's biggest military operation, the EUFOR mission in Bosnia, and are expected to take a decision late next month on gradually scaling it down. "Over the next six weeks we will be planning for the mission's second year, and as part of that we will be looking forward to the transition towards the use of EU civilian rather than military instruments," Reid said. "Of course that will not happen until the time is right," he added. Almost 10 years after the signing of the Dayton peace accord, which ended Bosnia's three-year war in December 1995, the country has a reformed military, and recently made moves to unify its ethnically-divided police force. "I think we are constructing already what is going to be the follow up of the mission to Bosnia Hercegovina," said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. Solana added that he expected the EU to begin talks with Bosnia on an association agreement -- seen as the first step toward joining the bloc -- before the 10th anniversary of the Dayton accord on December 14. In other developments, the ministers agreed on a new code of conduct to open Europe's arms industry to competition, which will come into effect next year. "We envisage that perhaps there would be a six-month implementation period leading up to the thing actually going on line in the middle of next year," said European Defence Agency head Nick Whitney. "During that period a number of countries will probably be reflecting as to whether they can move that fast to join the code when it begins," he said. He would not say who was ready to take part, although Solana confirmed that Britain and France would be involved among a majority of EU states. ---- EU ministers discuss Bosnia as Britain rolls out firepower LYNEHAM, England (AFP) Oct 13, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/051013121735.55bw0ppv.html European Union defence ministers on Thursday reviewed the bloc's mission in Bosnia, as concern mounted about whether EU military forces are adapted to meet today's security challenges. The ministers discussed the EU's most ambitious operation abroad informally over lunch at an airbase in southern England, amid speculation that the EUFOR mission there could be down-graded. The Bosnian Serb parliament recently adopted reforms to unify the country's ethnically divided police force and the international envoy has said the EU could soon open talks with Bosnia on a stabilisation and association agreement. The new progress comes just before the 10th anniversary of the Dayton peace accord that ended Bosnia's three-year war in December 1995. Before they set their minds to business, the ministers were treated to a 40-minute display of heavy British firepower, as the host country showed how it would secure a hostile airport. In the first-ever exercise of its kind before EU defence ministers, the military used fighter planes, transport and refuelling aircraft, helicopters, artillery and ground troops in a five-phase exercise. Harrier jump jets flew in low over the ministers' heads to destroy "enemy" vehicles dotted around the Royal Air Force base in Lyneham southern England, guided to their targets by an advance team of reconnaisance paratroopers. Field artillery was dropped in by Chinook helicopters and fired off rounds as C-130 aircraft deployed supplies and a huge C-17 transport jet landed on a sixpence to bring in jeeps, a truck and personnel. The ministers are also scheduled to examine a plan to inject real competition into Europe's arms industry through voluntary, non-binding code of conduct drawn up by the European Defence Agency (EDA). Under it, defence contracts worth more than one million euros would be advertised on a single electronic portal so companies could tender for them. At the moment, member states quietly lump their defence deals under a piece of EU legislation -- Article 296 -- which is meant to exempt them from normal market rules only in cases where their security interests are under threat. But the European Commission, the EU's competition watchdog, plans to crack down on abuses of the article and has forced the industry's hand. The talks come amid renewed calls to boost EU defence spending, notably in research and development and in key areas such as mid-air refuelling planes, as the EU's theatre of operations spreads from the Balkans to Africa. They also come after US General Joseph Ralston and General Klaus Naumann of Germany warned that Europe could be overwhelmed by security challenges like international terrorism unless it starts pooling its defences. "Staying the course is not an option -- indeed, it is a recipe for disaster. Seen in this light, defence integration is not just an appealing or interesting idea: it is an imperative," they said in a report. British Defence Secretary John Reid, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency and is hosting the informal talks, told the Financial Times that NATO and the EU must work more closely together. "Part of the big challenge facing us is to make both NATO and the European Union more effective and to make sure, so far as possible, they are complementary, they operate in partnership, and not competitors in a zero-sum game," he said. -------- latin america Missile cache is secure, Nicaragua tells Rumsfeld Posted 10/13/2005 12:58 PM (AP) http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-10-13-nicaragua_x.htm KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. — Nicaraguan military officials have assured Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that a cache of about 1,000 Soviet-era surface-to-air missiles is secure, even though its destruction has been stalled. Rumsfeld, at a two-day conference with Central American defense and security ministers, told reporters that the Nicaraguan military has done all it can to address the issue, which is a subject of continuing concern to the United States. "They have in every way possible guaranteed their security," Rumsfeld said. "And that is, from our standpoint, encouraging." Nicaragua's minister of defense, Avil Ramirez Valdizia, repeated his message to reporters Thursday, saying the warehouses holding the missiles have been secured. As the meetings ended, Rumsfeld said the United States and Central America had forged greater cooperation this week on fighting crime and preparing for natural disasters. The ministers said they continue to work on legal issues that prohibit several of the countries from participating in joint military operations. But they said they will take steps toward setting up a rapid-response force for disasters. Costa Rica and Panama do not have military forces, but do have national police. "We made useful progress toward increasing cooperation of our armed forces in important areas such as planning and training together to better prepare for future natural disasters and jointly combatting transnational threats," Rumsfeld told reporters. Last year, Nicaragua's governing Constitutionalist Liberal Party, whose leader, Arnoldo Aleman, is in prison, halted plans to destroy the missiles, which U.S. officials see as a threat to civil aviation. The country initially had planned to eliminate them. U.S. officials are concerned about political unrest in the country, including an alliance between Aleman and Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega. The meeting with the Nicaraguan defense minister was one of several private sessions Rumsfeld had during the conference. Rumsfeld, who has been juggling military disaster relief efforts in the U.S., Pakistan and Guatemala, told Central American leaders that the next unknown crisis can only be resolved if democracies work together. "It is clear the better the relationships and the better organized we are with respect to security matters, the better able we will be to deal with disasters, natural or manmade," he said. In the past week the Pentagon has poured military resources, including helicopters, medical teams, food and engineers, into Guatemala, where mudslides buried entire villages, and Pakistan, where an earthquake has killed thousands. At the same time, the military continues to provide relief to the hurricane-ravaged U.S. Gulf Coast. Other nations have reached out to help displaced Louisiana and Mississippi residents since hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Security and defense ministers from Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and the United States are attending the conference. Mexico, Colombia and the Dominican Republic sent observers. --- Rumsfeld voices confidence that Nicaraguan missiles are safe KEY BISCAYNE, Florida (AFP) Oct 13, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/051013182800.f8nq8zm4.html Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday he had been reassured about the Nicaraguan army's control over 1,000 Russian-made SAM missiles. The United States wants Managua to get rid of the Soviet-made SAM-7 missiles, which Washington fears could fall into the hands of terrorists. Managua obtained them from the Soviets during the 1979-1990 Sandinista Revolution, to fight US-funded contra rebels. "I've been assured that the existing missiles are being kept in a secure manner, which is very reassuring," Rumsfeld said referring to talks with Nicaraguan Defense Minister Avil Ramirez at a meeting of defense and interior chiefs from Central America on this island just off Miami. "The cooperation between the government, ministers and armed forces has been great," Rumsfeld added. "We are certain that we will soon have excellent news" on the final fate of the missiles Ramirez said. Of the more than 2,000 missiles Managua acquired almost half have been destroyed, according to the Pentagon. Disposal of the rest has sparked a political row between Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos and opposition forces who want to be asked for permission to proceed with the destruction of the weapons. ---- US-Central America security deal fails KEY BISCAYNE, Florida (AFP) Oct 13, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/051013194539.uay03s38.html A two-day meeting of Central American ministers and US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ended Thursday without a regional security deal, but with agreement to meet again. The defense and interior ministers sought agreement on creating a regional response team for natural disasters and building a Central American battalion for peacekeeping missions. The meeting had also sought an agreement allowing the region's armed forces to participate in international operations against drugs, gangs and trafficking in persons, among other crimes. The Pentagon pushed for regional cooperation after approval of CAFTA, a freed-trade agreement covering the Dominican Republic, Central America and the United States. Rumsfeld said "the recognition of the critical relationship between security and economic opportunity" was key to making the agreement work. "We made useful progress toward increasing cooperation of our armed forces in important areas such as planning and training together to better prepare for future natural disasters and jointly combating transnational threats," he said. The most divisive issue was coordination between regional armed forces in multilateral operations. "We are ready to cooperate on these threats," said Nicaraguan Defense Minister Avil Ramirez. "Our countries' armies do not have jurisdiction to capture or interdict gangs or persons tied to drug trafficking," he said. "We want a mechanism that allows us to overcome legal obstacles." -------- russia / chechnya Militants attack government buildings in Russia, killing 49 10/13/2005 11:51 AM (AP) http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-10-13-russia-attack_x.htm NALCHIK, Russia — Scores of Islamic militants launched simultaneous attacks on police and government buildings in this city in Russia's turbulent Caucasus region Thursday, sparking battles that killed at least 49 people. Chechen rebels claimed responsibility for the attacks, which forced the evacuation of schools and left corpses littering the streets of Nalchik, the capital of the republic of Kabardino-Balkariya. The Chechen rebels' decade-long struggle against Russia, originally a separatist movement, has melded increasingly with Islamic extremism in the past decade and spread far beyond Chechnya's borders to encompass the whole turbulent Russian Caucasus region. President Vladimir Putin ordered a total blockade of Nalchik, a city of 235,000, to prevent militants from slipping out, and he said armed resisters would be shot, according to Russian Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Chekalin. Estimates of the number of militants involved ranged from 60 to 300. The attacks began with heavy arms fire and explosions, and sporadic shooting continued for four hours afterward. Officials gave conflicting casualty figures, ranging from 49 to as many as 63. Fyodor Shcherbakov, a spokesman for presidential envoy Dmitry Kozak, said 49 were killed — 25 rebels were killed, 12 police officers and 12 civilians. He said the number was constantly rising as bodies were being discovered. Hours earlier, officials said 63 people had been killed. Chekalin said that figure included 50 militants and at least 10 police officers. Local Health Ministry spokesman Stepan Kuskov said at least three civilians were among the dead, and 84 people were wounded. The ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Dr. Asker Zhigunov as saying 15 civilians' bodies had been brought in to a city hospital. Dmitry Kozak, Putin's envoy to the southern region, said Thursday's attackers were holding hostages at a police station, but he did not specify whether they were civilians or officers. A spokeswoman for the republic's Interior Ministry, Marina Kyasova, said police on the upper floors of the building were battling attackers on the ground floor, and denied that hostages had been taken. Deputy Russian Prosecutor General Vladimir Kolesnikov told the Interfax news agency that 12 militants had been detained. His estimate for the number of militants involved was 80 to 100, the news agency reported. Police and security forces have fought pitched battles with Chechen rebels across the region, often engaging in urban warfare, and the militants have employed terrorist methods including suicide bombings and the seizure of more than 1,000 hostages last year in a school in the town of Beslan, about 60 miles southeast of Nalchik. The extremism is spreading despite the government's harsh anti-terrorist methods, from targeted killings of rebel leaders such as Aslan Maskhadov to paying rewards for information to the demolition of houses where suspected rebels have found refuge. Alexander Ignatenko, a top Russian expert on Muslim extremists, said international terrorist groups viewed Kabardino-Balkariya and other provinces in the Caucasus as a new front line that could encourage the transfer of Islamic militants from other countries. Military and police reinforcements were being sent to the city; a truckload of soldiers heading for Nalchik overturned, injuring 18 servicemen, a duty officer for regional road police said. The Kavkaz-Center website, seen as a voice for rebels loyal to Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, said it had received a message on behalf of the Caucasus Front. It said the group is part of the Chechen rebel armed forces and includes Yarmuk, an alleged militant Islamic group based in Kabardino-Balkariya. Chekalin said Thursday's fighting began after police launched an operation to capture about 10 militants in a Nalchik suburb, and that the attacks were aimed at diverting police. All 10 suspected militants were killed, he said. Gunmen launched simultaneous attacks against three police stations, the city's airport and the regional headquarters of the Interior Ministry and Federal Security Service, police said. The attack at the airport was repelled, the facility was placed under military control and all flights were canceled, news reports said. (Related story: Tourists snub Russia, fearing crime) The militants also attacked the regional headquarters of the Russian prison system, the Emergency Situation Ministry's press office said. Interfax said a border guards' office also came under attack. A teacher from School No. 5, who gave only his first name, Spartak, said children had been evacuated from the building, which is near a police station and an anti-terrorism office at the center of the attacks. Black smoke billowed from the building as panic-stricken parents searched for their children in the school yard. (Related story: Cops, gunmen battle in school) Windows and doors at the local Federal Security Service office were smashed. Snipers crouched on the building's roof, and masked soldiers were in the streets, where two armored personnel carriers were parked. A crowd of bystanders stood about 100 yards from the building, with no cordon keeping spectators away. In December, gunmen raided the Drug Control Agency branch in Nalchik, killing four employees, looting an arsenal and setting the office ablaze. Earlier this year, Putin ordered security forces to deal more severely with suspected Islamic militants in the south. Law-enforcement agencies have launched a series of sweeps targeting suspected extremists outside Chechnya. -------- spies CIA to lead effort to gauge reliability of intelligence By John Diamond, USA TODAY 10/13/2005 10:31 PM http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-10-13-nationalclandestineservice_x.htm WASHINGTON — The CIA will develop standards to determine the reliability of information from informants and spies to prevent intelligence errors such as bad information on Iraq's weapons. The change, announced Thursday by National Intelligence Director John Negroponte, reflects the growing importance of dependable spies in the war on terrorism. Just last week, a suspected hoax by a U.S. military source in Iraq spurred a security alert in New York City's subway system. The agency's role in developing those standards is part of a reorganization of the U.S. clandestine intelligence system announced by Negroponte. From the time of its creation in 1947, the CIA dominated the collection of intelligence from human sources, but the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks led to changes that increased the role of the FBI and Pentagon in espionage operations. Not only will the CIA run its own spies, it will take the responsibility for training FBI and Pentagon intelligence field officers and try to keep the different agencies out of each other's way. The CIA's Directorate of Operations, its covert intelligence branch, will now be called the National Clandestine Service, based at CIA's headquarters in Langley, Va., Negroponte said. Negroponte named the CIA the lead agency for intelligence collection from human sources but left unresolved potential conflicts in clandestine operations being run by the Pentagon, FBI and CIA. The organizational change, Negroponte said in a statement, will give the United States "a more cohesive and truly national human intelligence capability." CIA Director Porter Goss said the move, approved after lengthy negotiations among FBI, CIA and Pentagon officials, "underscores the CIA's proud position as the center of gravity for humint in our intelligence community." Humint is the term used in the intelligence community for information from human sources, not satellites or other technology. Goss said an undercover official identified only as "Jose" would run the new clandestine service. The CIA has not been given absolute power over other agencies' spy activities, two senior U.S. intelligence officials said at a briefing at CIA headquarters. A CIA overseas station chief won't be able to order the military not to conduct a covert operation. The Pentagon or FBI also won't be forced to tell the CIA about their intelligence collection before reports are sent to senior government officials. "We won't tell the FBI (or Pentagon) how to do their business," one of the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because only Goss and Negroponte are authorized to discuss it publicly. In theory, the president could end up determining which agency would conduct an operation. The use of multiple intelligence agencies gives decision makers "competing narratives" of intelligence, said Brian Jenkins, a terrorism expert at RAND Corp., a think tank. In Washington, however, "it often seems that Osama bin Laden is enemy No. 2. No. 1 is the agency across the hall or street or river," Jenkins said. ---- CIA says Bush ignored prewar forecasts AAP Thursday Oct 13 08:46 AEST http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=67020 The Bush administration paid scant attention to prewar US intelligence on Iraq predicting the ethnic and tribal turmoil that now threatens the future of the country, a newly released 2004 CIA report says. The report said US policymakers instead concentrated more on the agency's assessments of Iraq's weapons program, which helped them make the case for the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq but turned out to be flawed and misleading. "Intelligence assessments on post-Saddam issues were particularly insightful," the report said. But it added: "In an ironic twist, the policy community was receptive to technical intelligence (the weapons program) where the analysis was wrong, but apparently paid little attention to intelligence on cultural and political issues (post-Saddam Iraq), where the analysis was right." Administration officials justified the 2003 invasion in part on assertions that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was a threat to the region and the United States. No such weapons have been found and investigations have blamed the CIA for huge lapses in its prewar intelligence. The report, published in the current issue of the quarterly CIA magazine, Studies in Intelligence, was commissioned by former CIA director George Tenet. He resigned last year after fierce criticism over the faulty Iraqi weapons assessments. The report said the agency was largely correct in its estimate of cultural and political postwar issues and "accurately forecast the reactions of the ethnic and tribal factions in Iraq". The Bush administration suggested early in the Iraq war that American forces would be greeted as liberators by a grateful Iraqi people. President George W Bush initially took a cavalier approach to the insurgency, suggesting it would be no threat to US forces there and declaring: "Bring 'em on!" But more than two years later the country is gripped by a deadly Sunni Arab insurgency against the Shi'ite and Kurdish-led government and US troops and nearly 2,000 US troops have been killed. Presented in July 2004, the report said prewar Iraq intelligence also concluded accurately that Saddam had no operational or collaborative ties with al-Qaeda and calculated the war's impact on oil markets. The CIA report, produced by a team led by former CIA deputy director Richard Kerr, was issued as the last in a series of three reports on Iraq intelligence. It is unclassified but has not been released publicly until now. The two earlier reports remain classified. US involvement in Iraq also came under fire from former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, who said the CIA's faulty WMD intelligence only provided the pretext for a long-standing US policy of regime change. "We had two policies in Iraq. A publicly stated policy of containment through the maintenance of economic sanctions linked to disarmament, and ... regime change. Regime change was the dominant policy," he said during an event to promote his new book, Iraq Confidential. -------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE -------- human rights Philadelphia mayor plans to end homelessness Posted 10/13/2005 8:49 AM (AP) http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-10-13-philadelphiahomeless_x.htm PHILADELPHIA — City officials announced a 10-year plan to eradicate homelessness in Philadelphia after meeting with advocates and others trying to best tackle the problem. Mayor John F. Street said $10 million in city, state and federal funds have already been earmarked for the plan. However, he said that it was unclear where additional funding will come from in subsequent years, and how much will be needed beyond the initial amount identified. "The political will is here," Robert Hess, a city deputy managing director, said Wednesday. "Can we be the first American city to end homelessness? Yes, we can." Street estimated that about 400 people currently are homeless in downtown Philadelphia. That is up from recent years, though still fewer than half the number from 1998, Street said. The $10 million is in addition to the $64 million annual budget of Philadelphia's emergency services office and $30 million annually in other funds for counseling and medical care to the homeless. The plan came together as officials talked with 300 people citywide, including advocates for the homeless, about how to best tackle the problem, Hess said. -------- POLITICS -------- us politics Democrats Chant "Shame" in Congress After Bills Pass Benefiting Big Businesses Thursday, October 13th, 2005 Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/13/1359253 In the weeks after Hurricane Katrina, legislation in the Senate and House has been criticized as beneficial to corporations while sidelining the victims of the disaster. Recently, House Republican leaders pushed through a bill to make it easier for oil companies to build new domestic refineries. [includes rush transcript] The bill passed 212-210 but only because the house leadership extended the vote by 40 minutes during which time two Republicans switched their vote. The legislation will streamline government permits for refineries, open federal lands for future refinery construction, weaken environmental protections, and offer subsidies to build refineries even though oil companies are making record profits. The bill would also limit the power of community or citizen groups because if they filed a lawsuit to challenge the location of a refinery they would be required to pay an oil company’s legal costs whether they win or lose the lawsuit. In the initial vote tally, it looked as if the bill was going down to defeat two votes shy of approval. Democrats called for gaveling the vote closed to no avail. During the extra 40 minutes of voting House Speaker Dennis Hastert, majority whip Roy Blunt and former Majority Leader Tom Delay all pressured other Republicans to change their votes. After the vote, Democrat Henry Waxman asked from the floor, "Doesn’t this make the House a banana republic?" The Louisiana Katrina Reconstruction Act was introduced last month by Louisiana Senators Mary Landrieu, who is a Democrat, and David Vitter, who is a Republican. The LA Times reported this week that lobbyists representing transportation, energy and other special interests dominated the panels advising the senators in crafting the legislation. Most of the lobbying firms are major campaign contributors and several have donated heavily to the campaigns of Landrieu and Vitter. The bill is estimated to cost $246 billion dollars and includes billions of dollars of business for clients of the lobbyists. The act has been criticized as a missed opportunity to begin creative and equitable reconstruction of the devastated region. Keith Ashdown of the non-partisan watchdog group, Taxpayers for Common Sense, said that the lobbyists were exploiting the catastrophe. “They are using Katrina to get funding they haven’t been able to get in the past. You want to help the region but the bill they put together has a lot of projects that aren’t needed. This is congressional looting at its worse.” * John Walke, Director for the Natural Resource Defense Council in Washington DC. * Ivor van Heerden, Deputy Director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Public Health Research Center and Director of the Center for the Study of Public Health Impacts of Hurricanes in Baton Rouge. Van Heerden oversaw Louisiana’s coastal restoration program as an official in the state’s Department of Natural Resources RUSH TRANSCRIPT AMY GOODMAN: Then House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi, took the floor. NANCY PELOSI: Mr. Speaker, my parliamentary inquiry is it not bringing dishonor to the House of Representatives for this body to act -- DENNIS HASTERT: The gentle lady -- gentle lady is not stating a prop -- NANCY PELOSI: -- in the shameful way that it did -- DENNIS HASTERT: The gentle lady is not stating a proper parliamentary inquiry! NANCY PELOSI: -- This is not part of the culture of corruption of the Republican Party to dishonor the wishes of the American people who have spoken. DENNIS HASTERT: Does the gentle lady have a parliamentary inquiry? NANCY PELOSI: I have a parliamentary inquiry. When are you going to honor -- AMY GOODMAN : Soon afterwards the Republican leadership tallied the vote, and House Democrats made their voices heard. DENNIS HASTERT: Has every member voted? Does any member wish to change their vote? On this vote, the ayes are 212 the nays are 210, the majority voting affirmative. The bill is passed. Without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. HOUSE DEMOCRATS: [Chanting.] Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame! AMY GOODMAN : Democrats chanting “Shame!” on the floor of the House. We’re joined now by John Walke, Director of the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, D.C. Welcome. JOHN WALKE: Good morning. AMY GOODMAN : What happened? JOHN WALKE: This was Washington at its worse. This vote was an abuse of power. It was an abuse of the process. The bill was pushed through without any hearings, no testimony. It was taken up in a day. Changes were made up until the last minute in the law. There was arm- twisting by the now-indicted former Majority Leader of the House, Tom Delay. There were vote switches by Republicans after this arm-twisting; and before the vote, the Republican leadership, under pressure, admitted that the bill would do nothing to affect gasoline prices, nothing to affect heating oil prices this winter. After the vote, some people who switched their votes admitted the same thing. And now we have oil company executives saying: Thank you very much, but we still don't plan to build any new refineries in this country, despite whatever bill you just passed. This is political theater. We had political aides to the Republicans admitting that they did this just to have a trophy to take back home during the Columbus Day recess to tell the voters that they had done something about gasoline prices. But it was a sham and it was a shame. AMY GOODMAN : Well, the Louisiana Katrina Reconstruction Act was introduced last month by Louisiana Senators Mary Landrieu, Democrat, and David Vitter, Republican. The L.A. Times reports this week that lobbyists representing transportation, energy, and other special interests dominated the panels advising the Senators in crafting the legislation. Most of the lobbying firms are major campaign contributors. Several have donated heavily to the campaigns of Landrieu and Vitter. The bill’s estimated to cost $246 billion -- that’s a quarter of a trillion dollars -- and includes billions of dollars for business -- for clients of the lobbyists. The act has been criticized as a missed opportunity to begin creative and equitable reconstruction of the devastated region. Keith Ashdown of the non-partisan group Taxpayers for Common Sense said the lobbyists were exploiting the catastrophe, saying, quote: “They're using Katrina to get funding they haven't been able to get in the past. You want to help the region, but the bill they put together has a lot of projects that aren’t needed. This is congressional looting at its worst,” he said. We’re also joined by Ivor van Heerden. He served on the Senate advisory panel for the reconstruction act. He’s the Director of the Center for the Study of Public Health Impacts of Hurricanes at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. You were on the advisory panel for the senators. What happened? IVOR VAN HEERDEN: Well, John Barry asked me in my personal capacity to join this team, given my hurricane experience and also that I had run the state's coastal restoration program. You know, I took it at face value. I know John well. And, you know, I obviously had some concerns, given that I’d spent many, many days in New Orleans. I’d seen the flooding. I’d seen some of the bodies. I also had concerns because I knew some of the levees hadn’t been overtopped, as was being claimed at the time. So, I immediately launched and expressed my concerns, as well as advocating that we set up something equivalent to the Tennessee Valley Authority, a nonpartisan group headed by a czar and having the good technical and scientific advisory boards or processors, and in this way we could get around federal and state agency inter- and intra-agency jealousies and turf wars. AMY GOODMAN : And so, what happened? IVOR VAN HEERDEN: Well, we – I sent out an email expressing my ideas. I was obviously very critical of the Corps of Engineers, because of the levee failures. I thought, you know, with the Corps being in charge, we hadn’t restored our coast and we had second-class levees, so we needed a different approach. I also then followed with a number of emails when the initial plan came out, expressing my concern over some of what I thought would be viewed as pork, in other words the deepening of some of the navigation channels. And the most unfortunate thing is, one of the members of the panel -- at the time I didn’t realize they were all lobbyists or mostly lobbyists -- then took it upon himself to try and attack me in the state of Louisiana through a series of emails; and that's when I first really became aware that something was amiss and also first became aware that this was dominated by lobbyists. AMY GOODMAN : And so, what is being done about this? So these lobbyists writing the legislation? IVOR VAN HEERDEN: Well, I think, you know, no matter how well-intentioned the two senators from Louisiana were in trying to get this forward, they have missed the opportunity because, you know, unfortunately Louisiana has the reputation of – let me not say corruption, but, you know, of perhaps not doing things the way they should be done. And this has just played into Louisiana's critics hands, and, you know, I think it has hurt us. Hopefully we can bounce back from this and get something truly representative of the people's needs with the people involved making some of the suggestions. AMY GOODMAN : Ivor Van Heerden, I want to thank you for being with us, Deputy Director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Public Health Research Center. And John Walke, being here in Washington D.C., what do you think ultimately will come from this, the writing of the bills by these lobbyists, certainly not by the victims? JOHN WALKE: Well, unfortunately, there has been a tidal wave of exploitation of the hurricanes and the victims, but the unfortunate solution coming out of Washington is to kick these victims while they're down and to try to get away with attacks on public health protections in the Gulf and across the country. And as the other guest just informed us, it’s clear why. It’s because the lobbyists have taken over the process. There’s a raid on the federal treasury and a raid on public health protections. AMY GOODMAN : Well, John Walke, I want to thank you for being with us from Natural Resources Defense Council. -------- ENERGY -------- alternative energy E.ON to Build UK Biomass Power Station REUTERS GERMANY: October 13, 2005 http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/32961/story.htm FRANKFURT - German utility E.ON will invest 130 million euros ($156 million) to build Britain's largest dedicated biomass power station in Lockerbie, Scotland, it said on Wednesday. E.ON said it would start building the 44 megawatt station, which could provide 70,000 homes with power, in late 2005. It is expected to come on stream at the end of 2007. "Renewable energies make an important contribution to secure and sustained energy supplies," Chief Executive Wulf Bernotat said, adding that they were becoming increasingly important in the firm's power station mix. E.ON already operates hydro, wind and biomass power stations in Europe with a total output of some 6 gigawatts, about 10 percent of its total power production capacity. E.ON has built a significant market position in Britain after its 15-billion-euro acquisition of Powergen in 2002 and the purchase of Midlands Electricity for 1.6 billion euros in 2003. E.ON also said last month it was considering a cash offer for Scottish Power, Britain's fifth-biggest energy supplier -- a move that could make it Britain's biggest in power generation and second-biggest in terms of energy customers. ---- French Biofuel Sector in Race for New Output Target Story by Muriel Boselli REUTERS FRANCE: October 13, 2005 http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/32960/story.htm PARIS - France's biodiesel industry is under pressure to build new factories, sign supply deals with farmers and secure contracts with crushers as it races to meet new government output targets, industry players say. The sector has welcomed the government's stated aim to be Europe's leading biofuel maker by 2010, when all fuels should contain seven percent of the cleaner-burning alternatives, but says much still needs to be done to achieve the goal. "For ten years we battled to obtain production capacity and got nothing, and now everything is happening at once," said Xavier Beulun, president of oilseed growers association (FOP). FOP and its financial arm Sofiproteol own over half of Diester Industrie, the main biodiesel producer in France. As traditional fuel prices have rocketed, interest in biofuels has mushroomed around the world. France, the biggest agricultural producer in Europe, believes it is well placed to take advantage of the new "green gold". Biofuels in France are divided between biodiesel largely made from rapeseed which is then blended with diesel and ethanol, a combustible fuel made from beet or cereals which can be blended with conventional fuel. Oilseed growers are gearing up to take the lion's share of the production increase. "We are today producing around 400,000 tonnes of Diester (biodiesel) per year and our output capacity from 2008 will reach at least 1.5 million tonnes," Beulun said this week at a press conference to announce plans for Diester Industrie's new plant on the western coast of France at Montoir Saint Nazaire. "And that could even go up to 1.7 million tonnes," he added. The plant, with a capacity of 250,000 tonnes will start by mid-2007. US agribusiness giant Cargill will adapt its existing crushing facility in Saint-Nazaire to help supply the plant. FIXED PRICE France has announced plans to launch a tender later this month for 1.8 million tonnes of new biofuel capacity in order to reach its 2008 production target. The farm ministry has said this would be split between between 1.33 million tonnes of biodiesel and 465,000 tonnes of ethanol. Diester Industrie plans to bid for at least 600,000 tonnes in the tender. "Other companies will have to bid for the rest because we won't be able to go further than that," Beuleun said. But to reach full capacity, Diester Industrie said it needed to secure long-term supplies from rapeseed growers by raising the fixed price farmers receive. "One important thing we're doing is fixing the price we buy rapeseed at 240 euros ($287.5) (per tonne) for 2005 crop which is above the Euronext (French futures) level and five euros more than last year," Philippe Tillous-Borde, director general of Sofiproteol said. November futures are now trading below 230 euros. But Beulun, who is also a rapeseed producer, said the price should be raised quickly to secure supplies. "It is important the price should reach 260 euros quickly as we have to pay farmers on a long-term basis," Beulun said. -------- -------- energy -------- -------- OTHER -------- environment -------- -------- genetics -------- -------- health -------- -------- imf / world bank / wto (economics) -------- poverty -------- ACTIVISTS -------- --------