NucNews - October 28, 2005 -------- NUCLEAR -------- africa Nuclear is not the answer Cape Argus South Africa October 28, 2005 http://www.capeargus.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=137&fArticleId=2971065 I write in response to the report "Pebble bed model pencilled in for 2011" (October 20). It seems strange that the government is going ahead with plans for the PBMR when in fact the EIA has not yet been approved. At the climate change conference Haresh Haricharum, director of nuclear technology at the Department of Minerals and Energy, promulgated the myth of nuclear power being a viable mitigation option. He had clearly not taken into account the nuclear fuel cycle. The mining and enrichment of uranium produces greenhouse gases, as does managing nuclear waste for hundreds of thousands of years. Promoting one environmental disaster to solve another catastrophe just seems absurd. Renewable energy is being researched and implemented throughout the world - why is South Africa so behind? Olivia Andrews Earthlife Africa -------- asia Vietnamese scientists gather to discuss use of nuclear power (28-10-2005) Vietnam News http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=05SOC281005 DA LAT — Scientists met in Da Lat City in the central highland province of Lam Dong on Wednesday for a conference hosted by the Viet Nam Institute of Atomic Energy to discuss recent issues on the peaceful application of nuclear energy. About 200 Vietnamese scientists were joined by experts from Japan and Angola at the 6th biennial conference on science and nuclear energy. Scientists discussed 164 separate reports, 8 of which focused on Viet Nam’s strategies for nuclear applications by 2020. These reports were the result of two years of atomic research programs in the country, focused on development planning and provisions for training specialised technicians. Other reports touched on topics including physics, nuclear reactors, radiation safety, and nuclear science applications in agriculture, biology, and health. Director of the Viet Nam Institute of Atomic Energy Vuong Huu Tan said the event was also organised to showcase the latest achievements of Vietnamese scientists in nuclear research and its application in industry and healthcare. The conference also provided an opportunity for local scientists to exchange views and work together to promote the development of Viet Nam’s nuclear research programmes. Tan told participants that in recent years the Party and Government have been interested in nuclear energy. The Government instructed that a feasibly study for building a nuclear power plant in Viet Nam be undertaken, and called for a draft law on nuclear energy to be compiled. He said the country also invested in the Cyclotron-30 Acceleration Centre, the first of its kind in south-eastern Asia. Director of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Science and Education Do Nguyen Phuong told participants that Viet Nam’s nuclear energy sector needed to translate Governmental instructions into concrete goals and action plans. He pointed out that the sector needed to train qualified staff, build infrastructure facilities to accommodate atomic energy development, boost research programmes and apply nuclear technology more extensively. Critical shortage The Viet Nam Institute of Atomic Energy’s Dr Tran Thanh Lien said the country faced a critical shortage of highly-qualified staff capable of implementing nuclear power programmes, citing the national goal of operating a nuclear power plant by 2020. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) estimates that between 3,500 and 4,500 qualified officials and staff are needed to operate a nuclear electric plant. Ha Noi National University and Da Lat University currently accept about 30 students each year into their nuclear science programmes. Up to 100 new students would need to begin studying each year to fulfil staff requirements within the next 12 to 15 years. Viet Nam presently has about 600 workers in the nuclear energy sector. -------- australia Retired scientist talks up Aust nuclear prospects Friday, October 28, 2005 Australian Broadcasting http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200510/s1493302.htm The former head of the Australian Atomic Energy Commission (AAEC) says it is morally indefensible for Australia to mine and export uranium but not bury the waste. Keith Alder is one of a number of retired nuclear scientists who are pushing for a rethink of Australia's resistance to nuclear power. He says global warming from the burning of fossil fuels is causing many, including some in the Howard Government, to revisit the issue. He says there are safe ways to bury the waste and Australia should be providing a facility to the world. "I've had people pointing out it is morally incorrect," he said. "If you're prepared to dig the stuff up and sell it to people to generate electricity, then you have a moral responsibility to look after them." Mr Alder, who also headed the Lucas Heights Research Establishment in New South Wales, says Australia will inevitably convert to nuclear power. He says concern over greenhouse gas emissions and climate change has brought nuclear energy back into the frame. Mr Alder says technological developments have improved the safety of nuclear plants and the disposal of waste. He says Australia cannot go on burning coal, and clean energy options such as solar and wind will not suffice. "I think what the people are going to have to realise is nuclear power is absolutely inevitable," he said. "The question in Australia is not whether we'll ever have it, the question is simply when we'll have it." -------- britain Writers issue scrap Trident call BBC NEWS 28 Oct 2005 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4383590.stm The £15bn cost of replacing Britain's nuclear deterrent, Trident, should be spent on defeating poverty "at home and abroad", the government has been told. A group of writers, led by 2005 Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter, say there is "no legitimate political, military or moral reason" for replacing Trident. The authors also say, in a letter to the Guardian, that doing so would breach non-proliferation obligations. A decision on whether the warheads will be replaced is due this Parliament. Backbenchers debate The letter, in Friday's edition of the newspaper, says the cost of replacing Trident "would be better spent on defeating poverty at home and abroad, and providing for employment, education and health". In 2000, the UK was one of five countries to give "an unequivocal undertaking to work towards the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals", it says. John Reid has suggested Trident will be kept But supporters of nuclear weapons say replacing an existing nuclear capability does not count as a contravention. The letter, which is also signed by authors Joanne Harris and Marian Keyes, poet Adrian Mitchell and actress Lindsey Duncan, comes just a few days before the Parliamentary Labour Party is due to debate the issue of Trident's replacement. It urges backbenchers to oppose replacement and to "press for policies that will lead to genuine peace and security". Party split? Labour MPs Paul Flynn, John Austin and Gordon Prentice are to table a question on the "wisdom of spending billions on Trident replacement" to Monday's meeting of the party's backbenchers. Defence Secretary John Reid has already suggested that Trident will be replaced when it is decommissioned in 20 years, although no debate on the issue has yet taken place. The issue is likely to split the Labour Party, which at one time supported the policy of unilateral disarmament. Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament chairwoman Kate Hudson said the British public understood that the money would be better spent on key services and fighting poverty. ---- Say no to Trident Friday October 28, 2005 The Guardian http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/comment/0,11026,1602704,00.html The increased debate taking place inside the Labour party on the question of Trident replacement is welcome (Reid: UK needs new nuclear deterrent, September 13). We see no legitimate political, military or moral reason for replacing Trident. It is estimated that this would cost at least £15bn, which would be better spent on defeating poverty here and abroad, and providing for employment, education and health. A replacement would contravene the UK's commitment to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. At the 2000 review conference on the treaty, the UK and the other four declared nuclear-weapons states gave an "unequivocal undertaking to work towards the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals". We therefore urge all Labour MPs to oppose Trident replacement and press for policies that will lead to genuine peace and security. Lindsey Duncan, Joanne Harris, Marian Keyes, Adrian Mitchell, Harold Pinter, Kate Hudson (chair, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) ---- Taxpayers to pick up nuclear bill The clean-up operation is costing £1m Friday, 28 October 2005 (BBC) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4386546.stm Taxpayers must foot a £1m bill to clean up a spill of highly radioactive liquid waste at the Dounreay nuclear complex in Caithness. The plant's cementation plant has been closed until next summer as a result of the accident. Four workers were suspended but no disciplinary action has been taken against them. The problem at the reprocessing site occurred during the night shift on 26 September. An operator failed to see that the lid of a drum was sealed shut as he prepared to release a batch of highly-radioactive waste into it. Enforcement notices The liquid poured over the lid. A number of alarms were ignored and a total of 260 litres of the liquor ended up settling into sumps on the floor. An extensive in-house investigation has found that no single factor was to blame though it noted there had been an over-reliance on automated controls. Operator, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) expects to receive two formal enforcement notices in the wake of the spillage from its regulator, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate. Less than three weeks later, another part of the site was closed in a second alert. -------- depleted uranium Stockpiling a Hurricane By Fr. John Rausch Arlington VA Catholic Herald Columnist (From the issue of 10/27/05) http://www.catholicherald.com/rausch/05rausch/rausch1027.htm After Hurricane Katrina delivered a body blow to New Orleans, one local official compared the city to the aftermath of a nuclear bomb without the radiation. Indeed, throughout the Gulf Coast whole neighborhoods were leveled and even small towns washed away. The United States had never experienced destruction in recent times so wide and intense within its boarders. But, a hurricane does not equal a nuclear bomb. With a hurricane, no radiation lingers for decades at ground zero and not every tree and house is vaporized. Before TV images of the hurricane's rubble fade from mind, the analogy to a nuclear blast can spark a needed meditation. The United States continues to stock pile nuclear weapons for deterrence and defense. Multiple times more devastating than hurricanes, nuclear weapons have the power to wreak incalculable destruction on our planet. The question: what would motivate people of faith to react to the nuclear threat in the way they would prepare for an impending hurricane? Photos of Hiroshima and Nagasaki show the annihilation of two cities from first-generation nuclear weapons. Few buildings stood after the blast, yet people crawled out from cellars and walked around bewildered. Some people had been incinerated instantly. Some suffered burns over most of their bodies, and others after years died slowly from radiation sickness. To Americans, all this human destruction remained some place else, "out there." Numbers keep the devastation abstract. Hiroshima probably lost 100,000 people the first day, Nagasaki perhaps 50,000. Numbers are numbing. The recent earthquake in Pakistan claimed more than 40,000 lives; the tsunami last year over 400,000. Who can envision that many people? The death toll from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (estimated above 1,000) appears small in comparison, but to Americans who had so many loved ones affected in New Orleans and around the Gulf Coast, the enormity of the tragedy gripped the heart. Tragedies hit loved ones, not only regions — that's the meditation coming from the hurricanes. Nuclear weapons annihilate loved ones, not just targets — that's the meditation coming from people of faith. A great storm is approaching and its dark clouds already appear visible. Depleted uranium (D.U.) shells, composed of low-level radioactive waste, can penetrate most kinds of armor on the battlefield. When a D.U. shell strikes metal, the D.U. vaporizes, then settles as dust blown by the wind. That dust can enter the body by inhaling, ingesting or through open wounds. In the 1991 Persian Gulf War the United States used over 320 tons of D.U. (944,000 rounds), according to the Pentagon. The United States maintains D.U. poses no significant health risks, but the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority estimates a half-million people in Kuwait and Iraq could eventually die from the D.U. used in that first gulf war. After the 1991 war, cancer rates increased 7 to 10 times in Iraq, and birth deformities increased fourfold to sixfold. Returning home after the first gulf war, thousands of the estimated 436,000 U.S. soldiers who entered the area contaminated from D.U. radioactivity reported sicknesses associated with lungs and kidneys. Some developed leukemia. These American soldiers bring home the reality of nuclear weapons. To possess nuclear weapons means exposing loved ones to sickness. In a natural disaster like a hurricane, the victims depend on help from the larger community. With the politics of nuclear weapons, the world depends on people of faith to confront their leaders to heed the admonition of Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican Nuncio to the United Nations: "The Holy See again emphasizes that the peace we seek in the 21st century cannot be attained by relying on nuclear weapons." Fr. Rausch is a Glenmary priest who lives, write and organizes in Appalachia. ---- Commentary: Soldiers who refuse to go back to Iraq are justified in decision Thursday 27 October @ 19:28:18 Pulse of Twin Cities by Chante Wolf http://www.pulsetc.com/article.php?sid=2122 With more and more news filtering through the White House censors about torture and senseless killing of children and other Iraqi civilians, I ponder about what are the real images of American values? Have we encouraged our men and women in uniform to sink below Saddam Hussein? What is the difference between Hussein using torture at Abu Ghraib or U.S. soldiers doing the same thing? What is the difference between Hussein using chemical weapons during his eight-year war with Iran (purchased from the U.S. Commerce Department) or our military using napalm, microwave devices, depleted uranium bombs and bullets, cluster and sound bombs, and 800 cruise missiles? When did earning a combat infantry badge become more important to an officer’s career path than following the guidelines of the Geneva Convention or international law? What happened to the regulations that state it is perfectly legal for soldiers to refuse unlawful and immoral orders? And who are the soldiers who now refuse to participate in our unethical, illegal and immoral invasion and occupation of Iraq? They include Kevin Benderman, Jimmy Massey, Stephen Funk, and Camilo Mejia (just to name a few—there are over 5,500 soldiers who have refused to report back to duty). Camilo Mejia, a former U.S. Army soldier, is coming to the Twin Cities Nov. 4 through 6. In his own words, he talks about what war changed in him as a human being in an article posted as “Regaining my humanity”at CodePink4Peace.org. for February 17, 2005. “When I saw with my own eyes what war can do to people, a real change began to take place within me. I have witnessed the suffering of a people whose country is in ruins and who are further humiliated by the raids, patrols, curfews of an occupying army. My experience of this war has changed me forever. “One of our sergeants shot a small boy who was carrying an AK-47 rifle. The other two children who were walking with him ran away as the wounded child began crawling for his life. A second shot stopped him, but he was still alive. When an Iraqi tried to take him to a civilian hospital, Army medics from our unit intercepted him and insisted on taking the injured boy to a military facility. There, he was denied medical care because a different unit was supposed to treat our unit’s wounded. After another medical unit refused to treat the child, he died. “I also learned that the fear of dying has the power to turn soldiers into real killing machines. In a combat environment it becomes almost impossible for us to consider things like acting strictly in self defense or using just enough force to stop an attack. By putting my weapon down, I chose to reassert myself as a human being.” Mr. Mejia will speakon Nov. 4: noon, brown bag lunch, St. Thomas University at Murray Harrick building, Fireside Room; 5 p.m., Macalester College at Weyerhauser Board Room; 7 p.m., University of Minnesota – Blegen Hall. Nov. 5: 10 a.m., Resource Center of the Americas, Lake St. & Minnehaha Ave.; 6 p.m., pre-talk reception, Holy Trinity Church, 2730 E. 31st St., Mpls. Nov. 6: 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., St. Joan of Arc Church, 43rd St. & 3rd Ave. S., Mpls. || Chante Wolf is the Vice President of the local Veterans for Peace, Chapter 27. She served 12 years in the United States Air Force and deployed to Saudi Arabia in support of Operation Desert Shield/Storm during the first Persian Gulf war. She can be reached for comment on this article: chantewolf7@hotmail.com -------- europe Strike threatens to halt work on nuclear plant in Finland HELSINKI (AFP) Oct 28, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/051028133430.26iz2heo.html The Finnish Construction Trade Union threatened on Friday to call a strike among its members building a nuclear reactor near Pori in southwestern Finland after union inspectors had been denied access to the site. "Our executive committee has been given permission to announce a strike notice if we don't solve the problem" in negotiations on Monday with representatives of electric company TVO, deputy union chief Kyoesti Suokas told AFP. The Finnish Construction Trade Union, which has about 80,000 members, sent two representatives to the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor building site on October 25, but they were turned away because they had not received prior permission to visit the site. "They insist that our officers cannot visit the site without permission of the building companies. It's the first time ever. We have always had completely free access on building sites," Suokas said. "This is very important because our union is the only organization able to supervise that (labor) agreements are fulfilled," he added. TVO officials were unavailable for comment on Friday. Several hundred construction workers, technicians and engineers from 20 different countries are building a pressurized water reactor under the direction of French nuclear energy group Areva and German engineering giant Siemens. The construction site itself is managed by the French group Bouygues. The 1600 megawatt, third-generation reactor is expected to become operational in 2009, at an estimated cost of three billion euros (3.64 billion dollars). It will supplement four existing nuclear reactors which were built in the 1970s. Going against prevailing attitudes in many European countries, the Finnish parliament approved the construction of the nuclear reaction in 2002 on the basis that it would help reduce pollution and ensure energy independence in the Nordic country. -------- india 'Russia, US helping India for N-energy' Oct 28, 2005 http://www.centralchronicle.com/20051029/2910195.htm MoscowExternal Affairs Minister Natwar Singh said here that Russia and the United States were helping India within the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to open the door to civil nuclear energy. ''Russia is helping us within the NSG. Recently the NSG held its meeting in Vienna and Russia and US helped us,'' Mr Singh said at a press conference yesterday. However, he refused to give details of the discussion on the issue with his Russian counterparts, saying ''I would not deliberate on this.'' He said while Indian participation in Sakhalin-1 project demonstrated the joint capabilities and mutuality of interests, India was fully prepared with its technical and financial resources to expand its presence in the Russian energy sector. ''We hope that energy cooperation would emerge as a strong pillar of our strategic partnership,'' Mr Singh said, pointing out that Russia was one of the largest producers of oil and gas and India was a rapidly growing energy market. Indian Ambassador to Moscow Kanwal Sibal said there were several agreements in the pipeline to be signed during the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in early December. They include agreements on intellectual property rights (IPR), defence cooperation, the utilization of rupee debt, fight against drug trafficking, Russia's entry into the WTO, facilitating visa to Indian businessmen, and mutual aid in natural disasters. ''We have a lot of work ahead of us, and even if some of the agreements are not signed, a large step will be made in bringing our positions closer together in any event,'' Mr Sibal said. He said the two countries also hope to sign an agreement on Joint Study Group on comprehensive cooperation to strengthen bilateral relations in the areas of economy, trade and investment. -------- iran Iran leader defends Israel remark Protesters in Tehran burned Israeli flags Friday, 28 October 2005 (BBC) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4384264.stm Iran's president has defended his widely criticised call for Israel to be "wiped off the map". Attending an anti-Israel rally in Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his remarks were "just" - and the criticism did not "have any validity". His initial comment provoked anger from many governments, and prompted Israel to demand Iran's expulsion from the UN. Egypt said they showed "the weakness of the Iranian government". A Palestinian official also rejected the remarks. Defiant rally Tens of thousands of Iranians took part in the rally in Tehran which Iran organises every year on the last Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan to show solidarity with the Palestinian struggle. Shouting "Death to Israel, death to the Zionists", the protesters dragged Israeli flags along the ground and then set them on fire. Palestinians recognise the right of the state of Israel to exist and I reject his comments Iran comments: Your views Many carried posters and placards sporting the slogan "Israel should be wiped off the map". Joining the protest, Mr Ahmadinejad said: "My words were the Iranian nation's words. "Westerners are free to comment, but their reactions are invalid," Mr Ahmadinejad told the official Irna news agency. Some demonstrators wore white shrouds in a symbolic gesture expressing readiness to die for their cause. "Ahmadinejad talks on behalf of all Iranians. We are ready to die for Palestine," Mohammad Mirzayi, a member of a volunteer Shia militia group, told the Reuters news agency. 'Inexperience' While most Muslim and Arab capitals have remained silent on the president's remarks, a few have spoken out - including Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat. "Palestinians recognise the right of the state of Israel to exist and I reject his comments," he told the BBC News website. "What we need to be talking about is adding the state of Palestine to the map and not wiping Israel from the map," he said. Tehran says the West's reaction is linked to its nuclear plans Egypt, which has signed a peace treaty with Israel, also rejected the Iranian line. "In principle, we are way beyond this type of political rhetoric that shows the weakness of the Iranian government," said an official at the Egyptian embassy in London. Turkey's prime minister called on the Iranian president "to display political moderation". Our world affairs correspondent Paul Reynolds says that the UK Foreign Office does not regard President Ahmadinejad's statement on Israel as a new policy but more as a sign of his inexperience and the very local focus of his government. UK officials suspect that he has held such views for years and that what is happening is that ideologues like him are now in power and are having their views exposed, he adds. While there is no sense that Iran is backing down, there are Iranians who are concerned that their country could become increasingly isolated under this new ultra-conservative government, reports the BBC Frances Harrison in Tehran. Diplomatic drive Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom meanwhile said Israel would call for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. "We have decided to open a broad diplomatic offensive," Mr Shalom said. So far no action has been taken at the UN, but Secretary General Kofi Annan took the unusual step of rebuking Iran for the comments. Iran has dismissed the international furore as a means of pressing Iran to compromise on its nuclear programme. Negotiations have stalled between the EU and Iran over attempts to persuade Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions. ---- Iran softens on Israel October 28, 2005 The Australian http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17064336%255E1702,00.html IRAN sought today to smoothe the effects of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comment that Israel should be "wiped off the map", saying through its Moscow embassy that he did not mean to "speak up in such sharp terms". "Mr Ahmadinejad did not have any intention to speak up in such sharp terms and enter into a conflict," the Iranian embassy in Moscow said in a statement. It was the first official reaction to strong criticism from the European Union, Russia and others. "It's absolutely clear that, in his remarks, Mr Ahmadinejad, president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, underlined the key position of Iran, based on the necessity to hold free elections on the occupied territories." The change came as British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Iran would be seen by the rest of the world as a "real threat" if it persists with its hard line on Israel and its suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons. Speaking at the end of a day-long EU summit, Mr Blair said he felt "a real sense of revulsion" after President Ahmadinejad's comments. "If they continue down this path, then people are going to believe that they are a real threat to our world security and stability," he said. In an apparent reference to the United States, Mr Blair - whose nation holds the rotating EU presidency - said "we will have discussions with our main allies over the next few days" on how to respond to President Ahmadinejad's remarks. "Calls for violence, and for the destruction of any state, are manifestly inconsistent with any claim to be a mature and responsible member of the international community," he said. The prime minister speculated that some members of the Iranian regime probably thought that the rest of the world has been "sufficiently distracted" with other issues to notice what it was doing and saying. "I think they will be making a very big mistake if they do that," he said. "I have never come across a situation of the president of a country saying they want to wipe out - not that they've got a problem with, or an issue with - but to wipe out another country. This is unacceptable." Israel, which alleges Iran is seeking nuclear weapons and long-range missiles that could strike at its heart, responded Thursday by saying the Islamic republic should be drummed out of the United Nations. Britain, France and Germany, the three biggest EU powers, have sought to woo Tehran with promises of aid and trade in return for pledges not to develop nuclear weapons that would tip the balance of power in the Middle East. The International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board of governors in September found Iran in non-compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty, paving the way for the issue to be referred to the UN Security Council. The matter is to be taken up at the next IAEA board meeting in Vienna, scheduled for November 24. -------- japan Japan to host US nuclear-powered warship, sparking row YOKOSUKA, Japan (AFP) Oct 28, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/051028084526.z7xno884.html Japan said Friday it had agreed to host a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier here in 2008 for the first time, prompting protests in a nation still sensitive about atomic issues. The US Navy said in a statement that one of its nine Nimitz-class aircraft carriers would replace the conventionally powered USS Kitty Hawk when it returns to the United States to be decommissioned. "We believe that, through the replacement, the strong presence of the US Navy in our country will contribute to maintaining the security of Japan and maintaining the international peace and security of the Far East," Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told reporters. He said it was "inevitable" that the United States' conventionally-powered aircraft carriers would eventually all be replaced by nuclear-powered ones. The Kitty Hawk, the navy's oldest active ship, has been stationed since 1998 at the port of Yokosuka 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Tokyo where the nuclear-powered warship will also be based. Opposition by local residents could prove a headache for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, whose hometown and constituency is Yokosuka. Yokosuka Mayor Ryoichi Kabaya deplored that the Japanese government had made the agreement with Washington in the face of his city's opposition. "Sudden notice was given without any consultations before and this makes us doubt how much of the city's intention had been taken into consideration and feel very regrettable," he said. The navy said it opted for a nuclear-powered carrier because the unpredictable security environment in the western Pacific required that its most capable ships be forward deployed. Japan's history as the only country to have been attacked with a nuclear weapon -- it was bombed by US forces in World War II at Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- has made the basing of nuclear powered warships here controversial. The Navy said the US forces, "along with their counterparts in the Japan Self-Defense Forces, make up the core capabilities needed by the alliance to meet our common strategic objectives." Nihon Hidankyo, a group of survivors of the atomic bombings, said that if the warship was attacked, radiation damage would be devastating. It is "an outrageous act that offends the Japanese people who pray for peace," it said in a statement, demanding the agreement be repealed. Officials said there had been 1,200 port visits over the years by nuclear powered warships. But in the past, the navy has based only conventionally powered carriers in Japan because of Japanese sensitivities. The only other conventionally-powered aircraft carrier in the US fleet, the USS John F. Kennedy, was slated for elimination in the Pentagon's proposed 2006 budget but received a temporary reprieve from Congress. The agreement comes ahead of a set of defense consultations on Saturday that will bring top US and Japanese defense and foreign affairs officials together in Washington. Japan and the United States reached an agreement here on Wednesday on the relocation of a controversial US air base on Okinawa island, where Tokyo said it aims to reduce the number of US troops by several thousand. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Hosoda said the planned deployment of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier here was "nothing to do" with the relocation of Futenma air base. -------- pacific Accusations of cover-up over nuclear contamination in French Polynesia AUCKLAND (AFP) Oct 28, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/051028210845.2hrajo5h.html Unexpectedly high levels of radiation contamination are being found in French Polynesia nearly a decade after France ended nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll, the territory's President Oscar Temaru was reported as saying Saturday. Up to five people a day are being sent to private hospitals in New Zealand for diagnosis and treatment for what may be radiation illnesses and Temaru has accused France of covering up the health and environmental consequences of the testing, the Christchurch Press said. "We have a lot of health problems," he said while flying here with New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark after attending the Pacific Forum summit in Papua New Guinea. France conducted 41 atmospheric nuclear tests over Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls between 1966 and 1974, and followed with 134 underground tests at the same sites between 1975 and 1991. Eight more tests tok place in 1995-96. A commission set up by Temaru to investigate the consequences of the nuclear tests is due to report next month. But he said the French Defence Ministry was refusing to cooperate, kept secret files in Paris, and insisted Mururoa and Fangataufa were off limits. Commission members recently went to Tureia, 115 kilometres (70 miles) northeast of Mururoa and the closest resident population to the tests, and found "very high levels of contamination" in the atoll, Temaru said. "We need a neutral organisation to come to Tahiti, and France should open those secret archives," he said. -------- ukraine Ukraine dumps nuclear wastes and chemical poisons at Russia's borders 10/28/2005 16:48 Pravda http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/88/354/16381_nuclear.html Ukraine's activities with poisonous and radioactive activities may result in another Cheronbyl When the notorious orange revolution finally ended in Ukraine and Viktor Yushchenko took the office of the Ukrainian President, the official Kiev gave a secret promise to several Western states. Ukrainian politicians said that the state was ready to accept spent nuclear fuel and chemical wastes from the West. Strangely enough, Yushchenko did not have enough money to build up-to-date burial facilities for it. Ukraine had to abide by its obligation, though, taking into consideration the fact that it was receiving adequate financial assistance from the West. The solution was found quickly: the Ukrainian administration decided to dump the radioactive and toxic garbage very close to Russia's borders. There are a lot of desolate mines in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine, so it was decided to use the mines as storage facilities. Nuclear and chemical wastes were buried in several mines and quarries very close to settlements. It is worthy of note that the abandoned coal mines are not equipped to house such dangerous cargoes. Therefore, Ukraine may experience another Chernobyl in the event a state of emergency occurs there. Russia's territory is situated very close to the mines. Nuclear dust may cover six Russian regions. To crown it all, such a perspective does not seem to be exciting for Europeans either, who still shudder at the sound of the word "Chernobyl." The Taiwanese newspaper Independent Morning Post has recently published a sensational material. Ukraine, the newspaper wrote, sold over 500 tons of warfare agent, sarine, to China several years ago. This poisonous gas had been stored in Ukraine for years, during the existence of the Soviet Union. Ukraine decided to get rid of the dangerous substance before international inspectors could find it: sarine was sold to China. It goes without saying that Kiev has been rejecting any accusations of illegal sales, nor has it acknowledged the fact of storing other internationally banned poisonous substances. Ukraine's then-commander of radioactive and chemical defense, Viktor Litvak, told reporters several years ago that there were practically no warfare agents in Ukraine. The official acknowledged the presence of a meager quantity of mustard gas and a kilo of phosgene. Viktor Yushchenko is certain, though, that the real state of affairs is different: the now-resigned Secretary of the Ukrainian Security Council, Peter Poroshenko, informed Yushchenko of the opposite quite a while ago. However, the Ukrainian government does not seem to be willing to inform neighbors of its commercial "chemical" activities. Ukrainian media outlets report about numerous occurrences of poisoning among the population living in various parts of the country. Children living in the settlement of Khomutets, the Poltava region of Ukraine, have been suffering from a whole bouquet of diseases for almost seven years: the loss of eyesight and memory, pancreatitis, etc. The territory of the settlement has been contaminated as a result of leakage of an unknown poisonous substance. There are over 50 military chemical objects in Ukraine. However, there is absolutely no information about them whatsoever. Specialists of ecology have never succeeded to obtain comprehensive data about the state of affairs on those warehouses and test grounds. Agents of the Ukrainian security service have recently detained three officers, who tried to sell 80 kilos of strong poison, chloropicrin, which they had stolen from a warehouse. This fact proves that Ukraine does not hurry to bid farewell to its Soviet past. -------- u.n. U.N. Anniversary Highlights Grim Situation By JACQUELINE CABASSO Friday, October 28, 2005 Daily Californian http://www.dailycal.org/article.php?id=20192 As we commemorate the 60th anniversary of the United Nations, we should also recall the 60th anniversary of the first use of nuclear weapons. Two U.S. atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945 and killed more than 210,000 men, women and children. The lucky ones were instantly incinerated. Others died slowly and painfully from burns and radiation sickness. Cancers and birth defects continue. The survivors live daily with the memory of "hell on earth." After World War II, the U.S. led the world in founding the United Nations, to prevent countries from attacking each other and create procedures to resolve international conflicts. The U.S. ratified the U.N. Charter, a treaty that became part of the "supreme law of the land" under the U.S. Constitution. The first resolution adopted by the U.N. General Assembly called for "the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons." Unfortunately, we haven't made much progress. Today there are nearly 30,000 nuclear weapons in the world, over 10,000 in the U.S. arsenal. The United States is modernizing its nuclear stockpile and has declared contingencies for pre-emptive use of nuclear weapons in its national security strategy. Every nuclear weapons scientist at the Livermore and Los Alamos National Laboratories is an employee of UC, which has managed the labs since their inception. Much U.N. machinery has been created to address the challenges of nuclear disarmament. The U.N. also hosts reviews of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which requires the United States and the four other original nuclear weapon-owning states to negotiate the elimination of their nuclear arsenals. The U.N. International Court of Justice issued an authoritative interpretation of Article VI of the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1995, declaring that all nations are obligated to conclude negotiations on the elimination of nuclear weapons. But, as the mayor of Hiroshima told the court, "History is written by the victors. Thus, the heinous massacre that was Hiroshima has been handed down to us as a perfectly justified act of war. As a result ... we have never directly confronted the full implications of this horrifying act for the future of the human race." Virtually all nations are now U.N. members, but serious power imbalances are impeding progress in many areas.Worst of all, the Security Council's permanent members, the five original nuclear weapon states, wield exclusive veto power in that body. In the run-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, a war of aggression initiated in violation of the U.N. Charter, President Bush told the American public, "We cannot wait for the final proof-the smoking gun-that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud." He didn't tell us the mushroom cloud was more likely to come from the United States. This spring, the United States held up the five-year review of the treaty by refusing to acknowledge commitments it had made in 1995 and 2000 to "systematic and progressive efforts" to implement Article VI. For nine years, the United States has blocked consensus in the U.N. Conference on Disarmament. And just last month, the United States succeeded in stripping any reference to nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament from the U.N. 60th anniversary World Summit Outcome document. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called this a "disgrace" and "inexcusable." Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency and winner of the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize, has declared: "The U.S. government demands that other nations not possess nuclear weapons. Meanwhile it is arming itself ... If we do not stop applying double standards we will end up with more nuclear weapons ... We must make reliance on nuclear weapons obsolete. We have to look at nuclear weapons the same way we look at genocide or slavery-as taboo." Despite its problems and failures, if the U.N. didn't exist we'd want to invent one. As American citizens it's up to us to hold our government accountable to international law while we work for nuclear abolition and democratic reform of the United Nations. As UC students, it's your responsibility to see that your university upholds international law. Without this, celebrating the United Nations has less meaning. Jacqueline Cabasso is executive director of the Western States Legal Foundation. She spoke at the Oct. 24 rally on Sproul for the 60th anniversary of the United Nations. Reply to opinion@dailycal.org. -------- u.s. nuc facilities -------- california San Onofre desalination plant study authorized By Terry Rodgers SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER October 28, 2005 http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20051028-9999-7m28desal.html A mothballed nuclear power plant at San Onofre could have a second life as a desalination facility that would supply drinking water to San Diego and Orange counties. Water supply agencies for the two counties are taking a comprehensive look at using the plant's seawater intake system. Existing 12-foot-wide pipes that extend several thousand feet offshore may be suitable for a desalination project capable of producing 50 million to 100 million gallons of drinking water per day. Such a site would help San Diego County achieve its broader goal for desalination to contribute 15 percent of the region's drinking-water supply. The San Diego County Water Authority took the lead yesterday by allocating up to $825,000 to explore the proposal's feasibility. It chose RBF Consulting to conduct an analysis, which will take up to two years to finish. State and federal grants will cover nearly two-thirds of the study's cost. The study is expected to address the potential environmental effects of drawing seawater into the pipes. Such water intake typically kills small fish, fish larvae and other marine life. The California Coastal Commission has required Southern California Edison to spend millions of dollars to restore wetlands and kelp beds to offset the loss of marine life from the cooling system for its two remaining nuclear plants at San Onofre. The San Diego County Water Authority's long-range plans call for generating as much as 80 million gallons per day of drinking water from desalination. The earliest the San Onofre site could begin operating is 2020, said John Liarakos, a water authority spokesman. First in line is a proposal to build a desalination plant by 2011 at Carlsbad's Encina power plant by the Agua Hedionda Lagoon. The facility would produce 50 million gallons of drinking water per day. An environmental impact study is under way for this site, which would be developed in a public-private partnership with Poseidon Resources. The water authority is also considering potential desalination sites in San Diego's South Bay, Liarakos said. Southern California Edison and Marine Corps officials at Camp Pendleton have given their approval to proceed with further studies at San Onofre, said Bob Yamada, manager of the water authority's desalination division. The retired Unit 1 nuclear plant is on property leased to Edison by the Navy through about 2025, said Ray Golden, an Edison spokesman. "Our site at San Onofre is attractive for a desalination project for several reasons," Golden said. "First, it's located at an already industrialized site. It also has access to high-voltage electricity, which is essential for desalination. And it already has the infrastructure to draw in and discharge large volumes of seawater." Terry Rodgers: (619) 542-4566; terry.rodgers@uniontrib.com -------- nevada Salton Sea shore developers must first pick through bomb test site Benjamin Spillman The Desert Sun October 28, 2005 http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051028/NEWS0701/510280330 EL CENTRO - The people trying to sell an economic future on the desolate shores of the Salton Sea will first have to confront the troubled lake's Cold War past. Backers of a plan to use development revenue to fund a revival at the sea bet they can build thousands of homes on a defunct testing site used by the group that developed the atomic bomb. They're also considering relocating some of a wildlife refuge that hosts millions of migrating birds and converting thousands of acres of farmland to seaside homes and businesses. Those are just some of the obstacles to converting California's largest - and possibly most maligned - lake from a Golden State punch line to the economic centerpiece for a burgeoning region of more than half a million people. On Thursday, board members of the La Quinta-based Salton Sea Authority arguably took a small step toward that goal when they voted to keep talking with a group of bankers and real estate developers poised to invest $2 million in the billion-dollar effort. The test site, the refuge and the prospect of luring residents and recreation seekers to the isolated shores of the Salton Sea to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue were among doubts swirling about the crowded meeting. But the prospect of dawdling while the sea continues its decline into a salty, muddy mess also troubled board members. “Maybe the flaws we are looking for are not as serious as the one we possess right now,” board member Russell Kitahara said. While board representatives from Riverside and Imperial counties and the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla tribe — the governments that surround the sea — consider the effects of the financing and development deal, they’ll also face questions about the safety of the test site and other obstacles. The secrecy that for decades veiled the nation’s atomic research programs makes some leery of the Salton Sea Test Base. “They were using the lake for target practice,” said Dan Hirsch of the Los Angeles-based group Committee to Bridge the Gap. The group monitors the government’s obligations to clean defunct defense sites. “All sorts of bomb material went into the lake, lots of it missed the lake,” Hirsch said. “You can clean stuff up. The question is under all this secrecy have they done that?” Victor Yack of Newport Beach said he spent six months at the test base in 1947 as an Army MP guarding Manhattan Project scientists. Yack, 77, described watching bombers drop mock bombs made of wood and concrete that he then had to clean up, picking up all of the fragments. He said he didn't see anything that looked hazardous but the secrecy made it tough to learn much. “Everything was always so hush-hush, no matter where I was,” Yack said. “Unless you were involved with the technology of it, you knew nothing.” Yack, who went on to found a small chain of flower shops in Orange County and the San Gabriel Valley, said he wouldn’t expect to find dangerous waste at the old test base. But he still wouldn't buy a house there. “I think it is just ungodly over there,” he said. “You ever been there in the summertime?” Records indicate that from the 1940s to the 1960s, the test base played a role in the Manhattan Project and was used by the Atomic Energy Commission and Sandia National laboratories, which acquired the site in 1946. There’s no record of radioactive bomb testing there. But even bombs with mock warheads can be hazardous if they contain lead or depleted uranium, Hirsh said. He also pointed out a 1995 report from the Department of Energy: Estimating the Cold War Mortgage. The document included a survey of the Salton Sea Test Base and said activity there contributed to environmental contamination at 23 sites. “Whatever the Atomic Energy Commission was doing at the Salton Sea was not benign,” Hirsch said. “The Salton Sea Authority seems to be completely in the dark as to what toxic contamination existed at the site and how much of it has been cleaned up,” he said. Not so, Salton Sea Authority director Ron Enzweiler says. He provided an Oct. 21 letter from John Scandura, an official with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, pledging to participate in additional cleanup, if necessary. The letter said the state group would work with the authority, developers and others to ensure redevelopment at the former base “is conducted in a manner that protects on-site workers and future users of that property.” Others questioned what the region would lose if the authority’s proposed development relocated the boundaries of the Sonny Bono Salton Sea Wildlife Refuge. About 400 species of birds have been spotted at the refuge, making it the second-most diverse national refuge in terms of birds. Refuge manager Chris Schoneman said pushing the refuge to the southeast corner of the sea could confuse birds that make regular pit-stops there during annual migration. “You just can’t move the land and expect birds to make the adjustment,” Schoneman said. In addition to questions about the test site and the bird refuge, Ron Gaul of Ocotillo said he was wary of possibly converting 15,000 acres of Imperial Valley farmland into homes. Gaul, an environmental organizer, said eliminating agriculture from one of its remaining Southern California strongholds could undermine the economy. “There is no global view here,” said Gaul, who described the nation’s cash crops as “something China still buys from us.” Gene Fulop of Palm Desert said he prefers earlier sea-saving plans that called for canals to exchange water from either the Pacific Ocean or the Gulf of California. But the discussion of sea proposals also had Fulop, a former seaside resident, envisioning a return to the days when anglers, boaters, water skiers and swimmers made the Salton Sea one of the most popular destinations in the state. “Once the sea is cleaned up, the boating and everything can come back,” Fulop said. Ultimately, the Salton Sea Authority sidestepped a recommendation to ink an exclusive deal with bond underwriters Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and real estate developers New River Development Company LLC. But they did decide to continue reviewing the firms’ proposals and directed Enzweiler to iron out the legal details and fine print for a contract that could be ready by the board’s Dec. 8 meeting. “This has sort of rushed along and considered like a fait accompli,” board member Marion Ashley said. “We just want to look at it and get comfortable with the total arrangement.” ---- Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository to Be Redesigned WASHINGTON, DC, October 28, 2005 (ENS) http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/oct2005/2005-10-28-09.asp#anchor3 The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) has instructed its managing contractor to devise a plan to operate the Yucca Mountain repository as a primarily “clean” or non-contaminated facility. Yucca Mountain is the Department of Energy’s potential geologic repository designed to store and dispose of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. If approved, the site would be the nation’s first geological repository for disposal of this type of radioactive waste. The site is located on federally owned land on the western edge of the Nevada Test Site in southern Nye County, Nevada, about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Operating the site “clean” will improve the safety, operation, and long-term performance of Yucca Mountain, the OCRWM said, announcing the design change on Tuesday. The direction for the change in design, outlined in a letter to contractor Bechtel SAIC, means that most spent nuclear fuel would be sent to the repository in a standardized canister that would not require repetitive handling of fuel prior to disposal. Before today, plans called for shipping spent fuel assemblies in various types of canisters to the repository where workers would handle 70,000 tons of spent fuel up to four separate times per fuel assembly. "Our new path forward will provide clear direction to improve safety and reliability as well as reduce programmatic risk,” OCRWM’s Acting Director Paul Golan said. “While this change requires coordination with utilities and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), we are confident that the simpler we make the design, the more reliable the project will be.” The new design is intended to simplify fuel handling and the construction of the repository, while easing complexities of Yucca Mountain’s post-construction operations. The new path envisions spent fuel being delivered to Yucca Mountain primarily in standard canisters which are then placed in a waste package for emplacement, without handling individual fuel canisters. Switching to a clean facility frees the project from having to construct several multi-million square-foot, multi-billion dollar facilities for handling spent fuel. It also reduces the potential hazards caused by the oxidation of bare spent nuclear fuel during handling. Under the previous plan, the design was to construct large handling facilities that would prepare fuel for emplacement into the repository once it is received from utilities or other sources. These facilities would have been inerted, meaning the composition of the air in the facilities would be altered to reduce potential oxidation. The old design was unique to the proposed repository, as no similar facilities had ever been built or licensed in the United States. “The old plan is complex and adds a dimension of uncertainty to obtaining an NRC license. Nothing like this has even been licensed,” Golan said. “The program needs to make a solid, fully defensible technical case to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and this change takes a degree of complexity out of the licensing process. The bottom line is that this new path gives us simplification in design, licensing, and construction, while increasing worker and public safety.” The letter, signed by OCRWM’s deputy director W. John Arthur, specifies development of a "conceptual design," or CD-1, package that addresses simpler surface facility and canister operations. The final package will be submitted to the Secretary of Energy’s Acquisition Advisory Board for review. If the board approves the package, it will become the project’s baseline design. U.S. Senators from Nevada Harry Reid, a Democrat, and John Ensign, a Republican, released a joint statement, saying, “After 20 years of work, DOE’s big announcement is that they will now start working towards a clean, uncontaminated site. We have said all along the project is not safe and the science is bad, but never thought DOE would actually admit it." “Something like what DOE proposed today would mean a major reassessment of the proposed project," the Nevada senators said. "We certainly appreciate the likely decades long delay this announcement means. But this proposal is just words and a made up scenario with no substance or fact," they said. "DOE being sent back to the drawing board on this misguided and fraud-riddled project is the result of the united front our entire delegation has put forward.” -------- new mexico Nuclear licensing board concludes safety hearing Source: AP 10/28/2005 http://www.krqe.com/expanded.asp?ID=12612 -- A nuclear licensing board has heard from environmentalists and a company seeking to build a uranium enrichment factory in southeastern New Mexico. The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board now must determine whether a company's plans for disposing of depleted uranium by burying it 30 to 50 feet deep were adequately evaluated. Louisiana Energy Services wants to build the factory near Eunice to make fuel for commercial nuclear power plants. But two Washington-based environmental groups contend LES's disposal plans would pose a threat for billions of years. They also argue the company has not financially prepared for contingencies, including the possibility that it will have to change how it disposes the waste. LES says environmentalists have overestimated the threat. -------- utah Utah Facility opposes nuclear deposits N.S. Nokkentved Central Utah DAILY HERALD Friday, October 28, 2005 http://www.harktheherald.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=67548 In an ironic twist of fate, the state's only commercial radioactive waste landfill wants to keep the country's only privately owned high-level radioactive waste site out of Utah. The two companies are not competing and handle completely different kinds of waste, said Tim Barney, vice president of Envirocare of Utah LLC. But he would like to convince members of Private Fuel Storage LLC not to bring spent fuel from commercial power reactors to a proposed site in Utah. "I don't think it's the right policy for the country," Barney told the Daily Herald editorial board Thursday. Personally, Barney thinks utilities that own nuclear reactors ought to let the federal government assume responsibility for the spent fuel and keep it where it is generated. The Minnesota-based PFS plans to build a 100-acre storage site on the Goshute Indian Reservation in Skull Valley for up to 44,000 tons of highly radioactive spent fuel in 4,000 concrete and steel canisters. The company has a lease for 820 acres with the tribe for up to 40 years. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in September approved a license, which has not yet been issued, for the facility. The state has no authority to regulate spent fuel, and it doesn't have authority over reservation land. The site still faces a few regulatory steps and potential legal challenges. Envirocare operates a landfill for low-level radioactive waste. It's customers include companies that are members of PFS. Envirocare disposes low-level waste from the same reactors that might send their spent fuel to Skull Valley. Barney emphasizes that though the two kinds or waste are very different, some people confuse the low-level waste disposal at Envirocare with the spent fuel storage PFS proposes. "We're very frustrated with being linked to them," Barney said. PFS head John Parkyn contends that it is safer to gather spent fuel in one location than to keep it stored above ground at reactor sites around the country. It also is the country's current radioactive waste policy to gather spent fuel at a single site. Ultimately, the high-level waste would be sent to a federal repository proposed deep beneath Yucca Mountain, Nev. That site, however, is troubled and may not open. Nevada Democrat Sen. Harry Reid, however, has proposed legislation similar to what Barney suggests. Utah Republican Sen. Bob Bennett has recently dropped his support for Yucca Mountain and adopted a position similar to Reid. N.S. Nokkentved can be reached at 344-2930 or at nnokkentved@heraldextra.com. This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D1. -------- vermont VT Panel puts off power boost advice after raucous meeting October 28, 2005 (WCAX) http://www.wcax.com/global/story.asp?s=4039112&ClientType=Printable MONTPELIER, Vt. -- The Vermont State Nuclear Advisory Panel concluded a sometimes heated and raucous meeting Thursday by putting off a decision whether to support Vermont Yankee's request to boost its power output by 20 percent. VSNAP Chairman David O'Brien, commissioner of the Department of Public Service, said some of the panel's other members were "wasting the taxpayers' time" by demanding more discussion about how Vermont Yankee's proposed power increase output could affect the state's economy. The comment came during heated debate between O'Brien on one side and panel members Sen. Mark MacDonald, D-Orange, and Timothy Nulty over whether further discussion was warranted. Nulty asked the panel to adopt a resolution _ strongly opposed by O'Brien _ calling on the Public Service Board and Legislature to reject the power increase request by Vermont Yankee owner Entergy Nuclear, or demand new terms from Entergy more favorable to Vermont ratepayers. The panel eventually agreed to put off further deliberations and a vote to its Nov. 22 meeting. The Public Service Board conditionally approved the power boost in March of 2004, saying it wanted the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to conduct a special independent engineering assessment of the plant before the Vermont board would give final approval. The NRC did a special inspection, but it didn't satisfy the board's condition, Nulty said in his resolution. It was clear that Nulty's motion would have passed had the vote occurred Thursday. But MacDonald, one of its supporters, argued for a full airing of "the economic impacts on the state of Vermont before the public and the press," saying that such a discussion had not occurred during past VSNAP deliberations on the power increase. O'Brien said he would prefer an immediate vote _ to get it over with, he said in a later interview. "Some of my fellow panel members seem to want to spend a lot of time talking about the same thing over and over again," O'Brien said. "We've got a lot of things to take care of and very little time." He listed Vermont Yankee's proposal to store highly radioactive waste in concrete and steel casks on the plant's grounds in Vernon; review of a Nuclear Regulatory Commission report on the power boost request that is soon to be made public; an unplanned outage at the plant in July; the plant's plan to seek an extension beyond 2012 of its operating license and other issues. "We've got outages across the state from the bad weather storm" this week, "concerns about possible winter outages because of the effects of Hurricane Katrina, the dry cask storage docket before the Public Service Board ... I just don't have time to sit and talk about the same thing over and over." Vermont Yankee spokesman Robert Williams said officials at the plant were growing frustrated with the VSNAP process. "In the past, that panel has served a very constructive role as a forum for public discussion that promotes a general understanding of nuclear issues in the state," Williams said. "At recent meetings, the panel has shown very little interest in our activities but appears to be trying to second-guess the Public Service Board." The news on the economic impacts of the power boost are far from all negative, officials said. Vermont is to get some of the extra power Vermont Yankee would generate if it is allowed to boost its power output. Because of the recent run-up in energy prices, the estimated benefit to the state from the ability to buy that power, to be delivered between now and the current license expiration in 2012, had increased from $12 million to $19 million, said Sarah Hofmann, chief public advocate for the Department of Public Service. But the risks to the state if demanding 20 percent more power from the 33-year-old reactor causes it to break down before its license expires in 2012 are "huge," she said. Vermont Yankee is under contract with Vermont's utilities to sell them electricity _ about a third of the state's needs _ between now and 2012 at a price that is less than half of what the going price for wholesale power was Thursday on the New England market. -------- MILITARY -------- iraq Almost 70% of Iraq Deaths Under Age of 30 Friday, October 28th, 2005 Headlines Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/28/1435238 MTV has compiled some new statistics on the 2,000 US troops killed in Iraq. Nearly a third were between the ages of 20 and 22, with the highest fatality rate--about 12 percent--being among 21-year-olds. Nearly 70 percent of U.S. casualties are under the age of 30. Forty percent left behind spouses and 30 percent were survived by children. -------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE -------- courts / tribunals Padilla Files New Appeal to Supreme Court Friday, October 28th, 2005 Headlines Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/28/1435238 Lawyers for Brooklyn-born Jose Padilla--the man accused of plotting to set off a dirty bomb inside the United States--have asked the US Supreme Court to limit the government's power to hold him and other U.S. terror suspects indefinitely and without charges. Padilla, who is a US citizen, has been held for over three years in solitary conferment on a Navy brig. No charges have ever been filed against him and he has never appeared before a judge. Justices refused on a 5-4 vote last year to review Padilla's rights, ruling that he contested his detention in the wrong court. One of Padilla's attorneys, Donna Newman, said the new case asks when and for how long the government can jail people in military prisons. She said the Bush administration's position "is not only can we do it, we can do it forever. In my opinion, that's very problematic and something we should all be very concerned about," she said. Justices will not decide until late this year whether to hear Padilla's appeal. -------- POLITICS -------- corruption THE DARK HEART OF DICK CHENEY 10/28/2005 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE http://www.uexpress.com/printable/print.html?uc_full_date=20051028&uc_comic=gg WASHINGTON -- Dick Cheney is, by all accounts, probably the oddest -- and the most dourly ambitious -- duck in the administration's pond of wing-flapping, sky-diving and prideful birds. He rarely speaks, running things quietly and secretly from behind the White House's closed doors, where he maintains his own administrative staff (roughly 60 persons, almost as many as the president's). When he does speak, it is usually either a sarcastic observation or rejoinder. As to his knowledge of Iraq, many remember how, on "Meet the Press" just before the Iraq war, he told Tim Russert, "I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators." He is an enigma to many who have known him. President George H.W. Bush almost pleaded with a friend of mine, a journalist, in Houston recently: "Please -- tell me -- what has happened to Cheney?" There was always a brooding, Hobbesian Cheney just beneath the misleading openness he learned in his native Wyoming. But this week, the vice president took a turn into the deepest heart of human darkness. This week, unprecedented in history, an elected vice president of the United States of America proposed that Congress legally authorize the torture of foreigners by Americans. The Washington Post titled its devastating editorial "Vice President for Torture." I would say that the deceptive man from sunny Wyoming has become the Marquis de Sade of America. Think about it -- he is insistent upon making torturers of many of our young soldiers -- your children. In both the Afghan and the Iraq war, the U.S. has been involved -- as never before in ANY war -- with carefully conceived methods of torture -- "waterboarding" or simulated drowning, mock execution, beatings until death, the deliberate withholding of pain medication, the burning and desecration of enemy bodies, and every possible form of sexual perversion. These acts were the direct outcome of the president's, Cheney's and Donald Rumsfeld's errant dismissal of the Geneva Accords, to which we are a signatory, of an international treaty against torture negotiated and ratified by the Reagan administration and, not least, of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids "cruel and unusual punishment." Although such directions would HAVE to have come from the top, not one top-ranking general or officer has been punished. Only the privates from West Virginia and the Carolinas, who would be protected by a responsible military from debauching their service -- and themselves -- with such sick acts, are in jail. But now the grand inquisitor Cheney, who took five deferments in the Vietnam War rather than experience it for himself, wants more. Sen. John McCain, who DOES know what war is all about, put forward an amendment to the $440 billion military spending bill banning the military and all government agencies from engaging in torture. Ninety senators voted for the new law, including 46 Republicans. So Cheney stepped in with a further amendment to the McCain amendment, which transfers torture to the CIA to use against the many foreign prisoners it is secretly holding abroad. These men have "disappeared," just like they do in the old banana republics and the gulags of the totalitarians. "I suspect what Cheney's been saying to McCain is that we've got a few people who know the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and the others," political scientist Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institution mused with me. "That we've got to use any means necessary to get information from very specific people. He's looking toward short-term goals without any understanding of the long-term consequences, which gets to the underlying reason why McCain is pushing ... The rules are in place to protect US. If this becomes official policy, then the enemy says that they can do the same thing." But anyone who has studied the use of torture knows it doesn't work. Prisoners will tell their tormentors exactly what they want to hear. Among Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq, too often, torture has become the "sport" of sociopaths. (According to Cherif Bassiouni, the renowned human rights and international law professor at DePaul University in Chicago, with fully 30 percent of our army recruits being kids with criminal sentences who were allowed to work their way out in the military, we are already courting trouble.) Bassiouni told me that he has been called in as an expert witness on some of the trials of the foreigners held at Guantanamo. "You look at them," he told me with a deep impatience, "and you see how insignificant they are! One guy was a driver in Kandahar for one of the terrorists -- for a week. In my No. 2 case, the fellow operated a video shop." Bassiouni then told of the private contractors who operate wholly on their own. He outlined how team after team of interrogators comes in. The first team says they "got something," so the second has to "get something," too. They charge $200 per hour per person to interrogate, and more than likely, they draw out their time clock by torturing prisoners. For four men for four hours, that's $3,200 of taxpayer money paid for the ugly demeaning of everything America once stood for. With the neocons and Cheney and their dark lusts, we are eating our own principles alive. "America has lost its capacity for being indignant," Dr. Bassiouni summed up. "Where has our capacity for indignation gone? When a nation loses its respect for the Constitution and its treaties, what is next? And leaving even that aside, the next American serviceman who is being tortured -- and we can't go to his rescue -- will show us exactly what we have done." -------- investigations Statement by Joseph Wilson Friday, October 28, 2005 Fox News http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,173854,00.html Statement of Ambassador Joseph Wilson, wife of CIA agent Valerie Plame, regarding the indictment by the Grand Jury of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby: The five count indictment issued by the grand jury today is an important step in the criminal justice process that began more than two years ago. I commend Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald for his professionalism, for his diligence, and for his courage. There will be many opportunities in the future to comment on the events that led to today's indictment. And, it appears that there will be further developments before the grand jury. Whatever the final outcome of the investigation and the prosecution, I continue to believe that revealing my wife Valerie's secret CIA identity was very wrong and harmful to our nation, and I feel that my family was attacked for my speaking the truth about the events that led our country to war. I look forward to exercising my rights as a citizen to speak about these matters in the future. Today, however, is not the time to analyze or to debate. And it is certainly not a day to celebrate. Today is a sad day for America. When an indictment is delivered at the front door of the White House, the Office of the President is defiled. No citizen can take pleasure from that. As this case proceeds, Valerie and I are confident that justice will be done. In the meantime, I have a request. While I may engage in public discourse, my wife and my family are private people. They did not choose to be brought into the public square, and they do not wish to be under the glare of camera. They are entitled to their privacy. This case is not about me or my family, no matter how others might try to make it so. This case is about serious criminal charges that go to the heart of our democracy. We, like all citizens, await the judgment of the jury in a court of law. Thank you. -------- propaganda wars Cartoonist Writes Names of All 2,000 Soldiers Killed in Iraq Friday, October 28th, 2005 Headlines Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/28/1435238 As the US military death toll in Iraq surpassed 2,000 dead this week, Atlanta Journal Constitution editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovich marked the tragic milestone by hand-writing the name of each one in his Wednesday editorial cartoon. Together, their names spell out the question: WHY? The Pulitzer Prize-winning Luckovich told Editor and Publisher, "I was trying to think of a way to make the point that this whole war is such a waste. But I also wanted to honor the troops I believe our government wrongly sent to Iraq." Luckovich says he spent 12 or 13 hours this past weekend writing in most of the names -- roughly in the order of when the soldiers died. The paper's publisher and various editors were also involved in the effort. When it looked like the names might not be readable, the editors gave permission for the cartoon to be published much larger than Luckovich's drawings usually appear in the Journal-Constitution. -------- ENERGY Diamond Nanotube Composite Could Save Energy, Advance Fuel Cells CHICAGO, Illinois, October 28, 2005 (ENS) http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/oct2005/2005-10-28-09.asp#anchor7 Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory have combined the world's hardest known material – diamond – with the world's strongest structural form – carbon nanotubes. They say a new process for "growing” diamond and carbon nanotubes together opens the way for its use in a number of energy-related applications. The resulting material has potential for use in applications that appear likely to benefit the environment - low-friction, wear-resistant coatings, catalyst supports for fuel cells, high-voltage electronics, low-power, high-bandwidth radio frequency microelectromechanical/nanoelectromechanical systems, thermionic energy generation, low-energy consumption flat panel displays and hydrogen storage. The nanoscale is about a thousand times smaller than micro, that is, about 1/80,000 of the diameter of a human hair. Approximately three to six atoms can fit inside of a nanometer, depending on the size of the atom. “Diamond is hard because of its dense atomic structure and the strength of the bonds between atoms,” said John Carlisle, one of the developers of the new material. “The larger the distance between atoms, the weaker the links binding them together. Carbon's bond strength and small size enable it to form a denser, stronger mesh of atomic bonds than any other material.” Diamond has its drawbacks, however. Diamond is a brittle material and is normally not electrically conducting. Nanotubes, on the other hand, are incredibly strong and are also great electrical conductors, but harnessing these attributes into real materials has proved elusive. By integrating these two novel forms of carbon together at the nanoscale, a new material is produced that combines the material properties of both diamond and nanotubes. The new hybrid material was created using Ultrananocrystalline™ diamond (UNCD), a novel form of carbon developed at Argonne. The researchers made the two materials - ultrananocrystalline diamond and carbon nanotubes - grow simultaneously into dense thin films. A surface covered with a mixture of diamond nanoparticles and iron nanoparticle "seeds” was exposed to the argon-rich, hydrogen-poor plasma normally used to make UNCD. The diamond and iron “seeds” catalyzed the UNCD and carbon nanotube growth. The plasma temperature and deposition time were regulated to control the speed at which the composite material grows, since carbon nanotubes normally grow much faster than UNCD. "Experimenting with these variables led us to the right combination,” said researcher Jeffrey Elam. ---- Husky Energy to Build C$145 Million Ethanol Plant REUTERS CANADA: October 28, 2005 http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/33208/newsDate/28-Oct-2005/story.htm TORONTO - Husky Energy said Thursday it will build a C$145 million (US$123 million) ethanol plant that will replace an existing 25-year-old facility. The company said the plant, which is scheduled to be fully operational by mid-2007, will have production capacity of 130 million liters of ethanol per year. The plant will be built on the site of Husky's existing plant at Minnedosa, Manitoba and is the company's second major ethanol facility. Ethanol, made from grain or other plant sources, reduces greenhouse gas pollutants because the plants absorb carbon dioxides as they grow. ($US1=$1.17 Canadian) -------- ACTIVISTS The Epic Crime that Dares Not Speak its Name Royal Air Force officer to be tried before a military court for refusing to return to Iraq by John Pilger October 28, 2005 New Statesman http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=PIL20051028&articleId=1158 A Royal Air Force officer is about to be tried before a military court for refusing to return to Iraq because the war is illegal. Malcolm Kendall-Smith is the first British officer to face criminal charges for challenging the legality of the invasion and occupation. He is not a conscientious objector; he has completed two tours in Iraq. When he came home the last time, he studied the reasons given for attacking Iraq and concluded he was breaking the law. His position is supported by international lawyers all over the world, not least by Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, who said in September last year: "The US-led invasion of Iraq was an illegal act that contravened the UN Charter." The question of legality deeply concerns the British military brass, who sought Tony Blair's assurance on the eve of the invasion, got it and, as they now know, were lied to. They are right to worry; Britain is a signatory to the treaty that set up the International Criminal Court, which draws its codes from the Geneva Conventions and the 1945 Nuremberg Charter. The latter is clear: "To initiate a war of aggression... is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." At the Nuremberg trial of the Nazi leadership, counts one and two, "Conspiracy to wage aggressive war and waging aggressive war", refer to "the common plan or conspiracy". These are defined in the indictment as "the planning, preparation, initiation and waging of wars of aggression, which were also wars in violation of international treaties, agreements and assurances". A wealth of evidence is now available that George Bush, Blair and their advisers did just that. The leaked minutes from the infamous Downing Street meeting in July 2002 alone reveal that Blair and his war cabinet knew that it was illegal. The attack that followed, mounted against a defenceless country offering no threat to the US or Britain, has a precedent in Hitler's invasion of Sudetenland; the lies told to justify both are eerily similar. The similarity is also striking in the illegal bombing campaign that preceded both. Unknown to most people in Britain and America, British and US planes conducted a ferocious bombing campaign against Iraq in the ten months prior to the invasion, hoping this would provoke Saddam Hussein into supplying an excuse for an invasion. It failed and killed an unknown number of civilians. At Nuremberg, counts three and four referred to "War crimes and crimes against humanity". Here again, there is overwhelming evidence that Blair and Bush committed "violations of the laws or customs of war" including "murder... of civilian populations of or in occupied territory, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war". Two recent examples: the US onslaught near Ramadi this month in which 39 men, women and children - all civilians - were killed, and a report by the United Nations special rapporteur in Iraq who described the Anglo-American practice of denying food and water to Iraqi civilians in order to force them to leave their towns and villages as a "flagrant violation" of the Geneva Conventions. In September, Human Rights Watch released an epic study that documents the systematic nature of torture by the Americans, and how casual it is, even enjoyable. This is a sergeant from the US Army's 82nd Airborne Division: "On their day off people would show up all the time. Everyone in camp knew if you wanted to work out your frustration you show up at the PUC [prisoners'] tent. In a way it was sport... One day a sergeant shows up and tells a PUC to grab a pole. He told him to bend over and broke the guy's leg with a mini Louisville Slugger that was a metal [baseball] bat. He was the fucking cook!" The report describes how the people of Fallujah, the scene of numerous American atrocities, regard the 82nd Airborne as "the Murdering Maniacs". Reading it, you realise that the occupying force in Iraq is, as the head of Reuters said recently, out of control. It is destroying lives in industrial quantities when compared with the violence of the resistance. Who will be punished for this? According to Sir Michael Jay, the permanent under-secretary of state who gave evidence before the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee on 24 June 2003, "Iraq was on the agenda of each cabinet meeting in the nine months or so until the conflict broke out in April". How is it possible that in 20 or more cabinet meetings, ministers did not learn about Blair's conspiracy with Bush? Or, if they did, how is it possible they were so comprehensively deceived? Charles Clarke's position is important because, as the current British Home Secretary (interior minister), he has proposed a series of totalitarian measures that emasculate habeas corpus, which is the barrier between a democracy and a police state. Clarke's proposals pointedly ignore state terrorism and state crime and, by clear implication, say they require no accountability. Great crimes, such as invasion and its horrors, can proceed with impunity. This is lawlessness on a vast scale. Are the people of Britain going to allow this, and those responsible to escape justice? Flight Lieutenant Kendall-Smith speaks for the rule of law and humanity and deserves our support.