NucNews - November 9, 2005 -------- NUCLEAR -------- africa PBMR project attracts corporate interest November 9, 2005 By Lynda Loxton, South Africa Business Report http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=2986599&fSectionId=552&fSetId=662 Cape Town - Local and foreign companies were showing increasing interest in forging links with the R14 billion pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR) nuclear technology project, parliament heard yesterday. These included component suppliers and commercial nuclear energy companies. Jaco Kriek, the chief executive of PBMR Limited, an offshoot of power utility Eskom, and Johan Slabber, the company's chief technical officer, were addressing three parliamentary committees on the eve of public environmental impact assessment hearings into the project due to start in Cape Town today. MPs had queried the fact that the cost of the project had risen from R2 billion to R14 billion and said that, after being introduced "though the back door" with little publicity, the company was ramping up its promotional activities due to increased competition from so-called fourth generation nuclear technology being developed by the US and China. Kriek said original budgets had not taken into consideration the cost of taking the plant to full commercial development. About 56 000 local jobs were set to be created once the PBMR went commercial in 2013 and the project would have a R23 billion net positive impact on the balance of payments, he said. With anti-nuclear sentiment waning, PBMR Limited had become a high profile independent company. Its main investors were British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) and the government, through the department of public enterprises, Eskom and the Industrial Development Corporation. BNFL planned to transfer its stake to a subsidiary, Westinghouse, seen as "a very positive move" as it was a leader in commercialised nuclear technology. PBMR was also negotiating equity stakes with local and international consortiums. ---- Nuclear reactor ‘could boost economy and jobs’ By Richard Davies November 9, 2005 Capetown, South Africa Herald http://www.theherald.co.za/herald/2005/11/09/news/n02_09112005.htm Cape Town – THE advantages of developing a pebble-bed modular reactor (PBMR) successfully in South Africa outweighed the risks, MPs heard yesterday. Building small-scale nuclear reactors locally would generate about 56 000 jobs, PBMR (Pty) Ltd CEO Jaco Kriek said. This could also boost the country’s balance of payments by an estimated R23-billion. Kriek also confirmed that the Coega Industrial Development Zone was one of the favoured sites for the establishment of a fully functional reactor. Saldanha in the Western Cape, and Richard’s Bay in KwaZulu-Natal have also been earmarked as potential sites. Kriek was briefing members of the environmental affairs, minerals and energy and science and technology portfolio committees on the reactors his company was hoping to build. Subject to regulatory and environmental approval, it plans to start work in 2007. This would include a demonstration reactor at Eskom’s Koeberg site, near Cape Town, as well as the construction of an associated fuel plant at Pelindaba outside Pretoria. Should the pilot reactor prove a success, the company hopes to have the first commercial 165MW “mini” reactor ready for sale in 2013. The pebble-bed modular reactor is a small-scale, helium-cooled, high temperature reactor. The name derives from the billiard ball-sized “pebbles” – 60mm graphite spheres with a uranium dioxide kernel – the reactor uses for fuel. Kriek said South Africa was a world leader in this type of technology, but warned there were “significant” risks. “First-of-a-kind technology will never be easy; it will never be risk-free. If you build a Saldanha Steel it’s not risk free, and this risk profile is higher than a Saldanha Steel, I can tell you that.” Responding to questions on the cost of the PBMR, first pegged at R2-billion, but currently operating on a R14,5-billion budget, he said communication on this in the past had “not been ideal”. The original R2-billion had been specifically for building the demonstration reactor. A breakdown of the current R14,5- billion budget included this cost, plus items such as R4,5-billion for inflation and contingencies – necessary because of the high-risk nature of the project – and an amount of R1,5-billion for the fuel plant at Pelindaba. Further cost included R3,5-billion for construction of a commercial fuel plant at the Pelindaba site. The project also employed 500 people, including 50 PhDs, and this was “not cheap”. “This is the largest team working on reactor development in the world, and it’s a South African team,” Kriek said. He was positive about achieving commercial success with the project ahead of potential rivals. “We have daily enquiries about this technology from various countries – Chile, Turkey, the US, UK, China. This is a technology that South Africa should be proud of. His colleague, Dr Johan Slabber, told members the reactor design was simple and fail-safe. “If a fault occurs, the system shuts itself down,” he said. The briefing comes amid pressure on governments around the world to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions. Many now see “clean” nuclear technology as a means of achieving this. It also comes at a time when electricity demand in South Africa is poised to outstrip supply, requiring huge investment by Eskom to meet the additional 20 000MW that will be needed by 2022. -------- britain Britain facing large energy gap By Richard Black Environment Correspondent, BBC News website Wednesday, 9 November 2005 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4423456.stm Britain is facing a shortfall in energy supply in the near future, according to a major report. Within a decade, the country may be generating only about 80% of the electricity it needs. A panel of 150 experts says fossil fuels will remain the mainstay of supply, with renewables expanding and nuclear power almost certainly needed. The panel urges the government to take steps quickly to solve the issue; doing nothing, it says, is not an option. "Up to the year 2050, fossil fuels will remain the dominant energy source - there really is no alternative," said John Loughhead of the UK Energy Research Centre, who compiled the report following a two-day conference held last month under the auspices of the Geological Society of London. The conference drew contributions from about 150 delegates representing all sectors of the energy field. "If the UK is to remain on the path of reducing atmospheric emissions of greenhouse gases, it will need to retain some nuclear capacity," Dr Loughhead told reporters at a news briefing on Wednesday. "Renewables are going to play a role, but they're going to need support if they're to continue on a downward path of cost." Nuclear closure The immediate issue is the impending closure of most British nuclear power stations and many coal-fired units. By 2015, all four Magnox nuclear stations still operating will have shut down, as will five of the seven stations running Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactors (AGRs). Under the European Large Combustion Plant Directive, many of the nation's coal-fired plants will also close in the next decade. In principle, the gap could be bridged by new power stations burning gas or coal; but this would work against the government's short term targets and long term aspirations on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. "Without the need to reduce emissions, there would not be an energy gap by 2050," said Dr Loughhead. Meanwhile, demand may continue to rise; and managing that demand, says the report, is a key issue. Technologies exist to increase efficiencies, but they are not being used to anything like their full potential, it finds - largely because the public is not properly engaged in the energy issue. This is one area in which it recommends urgent attention from the government. Another is setting up the right frameworks to encourage investment and research, setting up a long-term stable marketplace which will allow companies to plan for the future. Creating the climate "If there is a next generation of nuclear stations, they are almost certain to be built with private money," said John Loughhead. "Companies are looking at an investment spanning 80 years, from construction to decommissioning; and there is concern within the investor community about having a regulatory framework which takes account of this and which will not be changed after commissioning." The report concludes that the gap in electricity supplies left by nuclear closures will almost certainly have to be bridged by building new reactors, if the government is to fulfil its long term ambitions on climate change. "The conclusion of our discussions was that renewables can't plug the gap soon," said Charles Curtis of Manchester University and the nuclear company Nirex. "They will play a part, but it's unlikely they will provide everything we need; they need more support, more aid in deployment." There was clearly some dissention from that conclusion among experts consulted for the report. The report will be formally launched at London's Royal Society on Thursday morning, and its authors hope it will stimulate government action. Key considerations for the government are, it believes * setting up stable fiscal and regulatory frameworks * finding ways to engage the public in energy questions * stimulating the development of new technologies such as carbon capture * exploring options for new nuclear stations The government is unlikely to make a formal announcement on new nuclear build before the middle of next year, when a committee advising on options for disposing of Britain's existing nuclear waste is due to present its recommendations. The researchers were emphatic that whatever decisions are taken, the government needs to take them swiftly. "Doing nothing is not an option," commented Shaun Fitzgerald from the BP Research Institute at Cambridge University. "If you don't want nuclear, there are hard choices to be made on other issues." However, there was clearly some dissent from these conclusions among experts consulted for the report. "In the case of nuclear, the government should take a decision soon, and the decision should be 'no'," the chief executive of the solar energy company solarcentury Jeremy Leggett told the BBC News website. "More than 50% of Britain's greenhouse gas emissions come directly or indirectly from buildings; and the key to reducing that lies in renewables and energy efficiency." -------- business Envirocare hires big GOP guns Lobbyists' ties to guv, company's expansion plans questioned By Judy Fahys and Robert Gehrke The Salt Lake Tribune 11/09/2005 01:59:35 AM http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3197022 Envirocare has hired three influential Utahns, including state Republican Party Chairman Joe Cannon, to advocate for the company nationally and to help it grow. Along with Cannon, the hazardous and radioactive waste company has signed on as lobbyists two Republican Party fundraisers, Max Farbman and Greg Hopkins. Both are directors of Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s political action committee. The company says all three lobbyists focus on the national arena, drumming up new business from the government and nuclear reactors, and building relationships with national figures concerned about radioactive cleanup and disposal. "What we've asked them to do is help us with ways to expand our business operation on a national level," said Envirocare Vice President Tim Barney. Barney downplayed the idea that the new lobbyists might be assisting the company's large lobbying team at the state Capitol or with Envirocare's efforts to win approval to double its size. But Cannon noted that he did register as a Utah lobbyist for Envirocare in the past week just to be safe. Envirocare has brought on these big guns at a critical time. Since it came under new ownership last February, the company has moved swiftly into new business lines and a more national profile. Industry insiders say the company wants to have a crack at the sort of national contracts worth billions. Envirocare used to focus narrowly on federal disposal contracts, primarily from the Defense Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Department. But last month, it bought a decontamination and decommissioning business and began its first major cleanup-removal-transportation-disposal job in Massachusetts. In Utah, the company is expecting another record year, taking in more than 12 million cubic feet of radioactive and hazardous waste in the first half of 2005, but expecting its mainstay of government contracts to begin tapering off. Envirocare also has been pushing to expand to nearly double its current size of nearly one square mile. The expansion already has the approval of the state Division of Radiation Control. And the company is pressing to quickly dispense with an appeal brought by the environmental group, the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL) in time for the question to be taken up this winter by the state Legislature and governor. Huntsman's office distanced itself from Envirocare's efforts to enlarge its facility and operations. "The governor has concerns about any proposal that would expand our capacity for this kind of waste," said Mike Mower, Huntsman's deputy chief of staff. Hopkins, a former director of the Utah GOP and a key fundraiser for the governor, insisted his work is not related to any particular legislation before Congress. "We're not doing anything related to their expansion to their facility in Utah," he added. Meanwhile, a lobbyist disclosure report filed with the Secretary of the U.S. Senate says Farbman and Hopkins are "assisting [the] company in gaining support for expanded operations." But Barney and Hopkins both insisted that is unrelated to the pending Utah expansion. "That's kind of an inopportune choice of words because we've explicitly asked them not to help them with our expansion in Utah," Barney said, adding that the specific terms of their work is confidential. "We're a company that operates in a competitive environment and it's important for us to do that." Cannon said in an interview Tuesday, he has helped arrange meetings with members of Congress and their staffs, but he primarily deals with issues before federal regulators. In an ironic twist, Cannon's law firm merged last spring with the firm pushing a high-level reactor fuel storage site in Tooele County that has been proposed by a consortium of utilities called Private Fuel Storage. It is a project Envirocare President and CEO, Steve Creamer, vocally opposes, although the PFS members are also the kind of low-level waste customers Envirocare is now trying to line up. Cannon said he has been friends with Creamer for years. They both worked in 2003 on "Plan B," an effort to derail the PFS disposal site and offer high-level waste disposal on Utah school trust lands in southeastern Utah. The two say they have since dropped Plan B. The Utah GOP has also hired Farbman and Hopkins to raise money for Republican causes and candidates, said Cannon. "My impression is they are not very busy on the governor's stuff" but on the party fundraising, he said. "Utah is a small state," Cannon added, referring to Hopkins and Farbman's important expertise in raising money. "That is one of the problems." While Cannon sees nothing inappropriate nor conflict of interest in these relationships, HEAL does. Vanessa Pierce, program director for HEAL, accused Envirocare of "purposely" bringing on board people with close ties to the governor as it pushes for his favorable vote on the expansion. She noted that the governor's brother-in-law, Rick Durham, is a partner in one of the investment groups that bought Envirocare earlier this year. Durham used to be CFO of the Huntsman Corp. and is a trustee of the Jon and Karen Huntsman Foundation. "With all the folks Envirocare has hired," Pierce said, "the only way they could get closer to the governor is if they hired [first lady] Mary Kaye [Huntsman]." Mower, the governor's aide, said Huntsman would "certainly re-evaluate our relationship" if Farbman and Hopkins were registered as state lobbyists. Hopkins is currently listed as "inactive" on the state's lobbyist registration site. Farbman's only listed lobby client is the Western Governors University. Envirocare has a record of lining up high-profile lobbying help. In 2003, U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah pushed for federal legislation that would allow Envirocare to accept highly-concentrated waste from an Energy Department cleanup in Fernald, Ohio, that, in effect, was hotter than the radioactive waste allowed in the state. Bishop had been a lobbyist for Envirocare before going to Washington. Pierce said Utahns say over and over they don't want to be the radioactive dumping ground of the nation, but continue to work the backrooms of politics to defeat the public will. "Envirocare's first loyalty is to their stakeholders and their shareholders," she said. "And, consequently, they're going to pull whatever political levers they need to double their size and double their profits." fahys@sltrib.com gehrke@sltrib.com Envirocare's new power hitters Max Farbman Ties to Envirocare: Registered as lobbyist in late September. Ties to Huntsman: A director of the governor's political action committee, which solicited $25,000 last year from the businessman who now heads Envirocare. The governor later returned the money, intended to help pay for his inauguration. Fundraiser for the Utah Policy Partnership, a Huntsman non-profit think tank. Other important ties: Fund-raising for Utah Republican Party. Greg Hopkins Ties to Envirocare: Registered as lobbyist in late September. Ties to Huntsman: A director of the governor's political action committee, which solicited $25,000 last year from the businessman who now heads Envirocare. The governor later returned the money, intended to help pay for his inauguration. Huntsman transition team director. Fundraiser for the Utah Policy Partnership, a Huntsman non-profit think tank. Other important ties: Worked for U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah; Fundraising for Utah GOP Party; Former Utah Republican Party executive director. Joe Cannon Ties to Envirocare: Hired as lobbyist last March; longtime friend of Envirocare President and CEO Steve Creamer. Other important ties: Utah GOP Party Chairman since 2001; former assistant administrator for Air and Radiation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Member of the Washington, D.C. law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Saw Pittman, the same firm that represents Private Fuel Storage, the company proposing to store high-level nuclear waste in Tooele County. ---- Nuclear industry needs students By KAITLIN O'FARRILL Florida Independent Alligator Contributing Writer Wednesday, November 9, 2005 http://www.alligator.org/pt2/051109engineering.php Wanted: Graduate students to meet the need of the nuclear energy industry's most limited resource: workers. Several universities including UF have begun confronting the Nuclear Energy Institute's 2004 predicted shortage of nuclear scientists and engineers in the United States over the next five to 10 years. "If you are a nuclear engineer, now is a very good time," said Alireza Haghighat, chairman of the UF Department of Nuclear and Radiological Engineering. "You can name your price." Commercial nuclear power generation utilities are expected to lose about 28 percent of employees to retirement, and replacements are few, according to the NEI Web site. The problem stems from the years of slow growth that followed the initial rapid rise of nuclear technology. "In the 1960s and 1970s, nuclear technology was top of the line," Haghighat said. "Everyone wanted a piece of it." Orders for new plants were canceled after the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania; the last nuclear reactor was built in 1995. The industry focused on maintenance instead of growth and stopped hiring. Now, as the industry looks to expand nuclear power to supply more than 23 percent of U.S. electricity needs, college graduates are needed. "It's a problem nobody really talks about," Haghighat said. "We need time to train, and do we have it?" In response to the situation, the NRE at UF, one of about 20 universities in the nation offering nuclear programs, is taking steps to increase the number of students entering utility jobs, Haghighat said. "We have grown significantly in the last four years," he added. Under Haghighat, the number of undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in the department more than doubled, with 30 percent enrolled in nuclear engineering. However, limited funds permit acceptance of only 10 percent of graduate applicants. "We simply cannot afford all those students," Haghighat said. Florida Power & Light and Progress Energy have started to build relationships with UF by providing scholarships, research grants and hosting recruitment events. The rising demand places students in the position of control. "The jobs really come to us," said Taylor Moulton, president of UF's chapter of the American Nuclear Society. "I have never had to send off my resume." -------- canada Saskatchewan should look at nuclear power: Lingenfelter Last Updated Nov 9 2005 08:21 AM CST CBC News http://www.cbc.ca/sask/story/lingenfelter051109.html?ref=rss A former NDP cabinet minister is trying to refuel the nuclear debate in Saskatchewan. Dwain Lingenfelter, who was once considered a possible successor to former Premier Roy Romanow before leaving government, has been talking about the merits of nuclear power lately. It's a message he brought to business leaders in Saskatoon yesterday. Lingenfelter's idea is to build a nuclear power plant in Saskatchewan for Alberta's massive oil sands. "The opportunity is big. The only question is can we reach out and grab it?" Lingenfelter said in a speech to the North Saskatoon Business Association Tuesday. The Saskatchewan NDP is officially opposed to nuclear power and it's rare someone from the party takes such a pro-nuclear stance. But Lingenfelter, who went to work for a Calgary oil company after leaving the NDP government, insists this is not about politics. "It's got to do with what's best for the economy and the environment at this moment," he said. Although the current government favours uranium mining, it doesn't want nuclear waste or a power plant. Lingenfelter said that's hypocritical – if the province will not move forward, he suggests, uranium mining should stop. On that point, one anti-nuclear lobby group couldn't agree more. "For both economics and social economics it's better not to mine," said Michael Poellet, who speaks for Saskatoon's Inter Church Uranium Committee. Lingenfelter said it's important for people to speak up about the future of nuclear power in Saskatchewan, whether they support it, or not. -------- depleted uranium Radioactive Tank No. 9 comes limping home by Bob Nichols, November 9, 2005 San Francisco Bay View http://www.sfbayview.com/110905/radioactivetank110905.shtml Across the plains of Kansas, destroyed, radioactive Abrams tanks, perched on railroad flatcars, rolled towards an uncertain future. Only one thing was certain. They would be radioactive forever. This would be their everlasting death mask. The Pentagon deceptively calls it "depleted uranium." The Abrams tanks are constructed with a layer of radioactive uranium metal plates. The big tanks fire a giant uranium dart at 2,100 mph, much faster than an F-16 fighter aircraft, mach III to airplane pilots and very, very fast to the rest of us. American taxpayers paid to ship the tanks to Iraq and to return them for disposal or re-building in the United States. The tanks are 12 feet wide and weigh a stout 70 tons, or 140,000 pounds. The enduring vigorous stupidity of the U.S. military pretends that radiation is one of those things that if you can't see it, it can't hurt you. They are thoroughly delusional, of course. A National Academy of Sciences report released June 30, 2005, finds that there is no safe level of radiation. Any radiation is bad. From America to Iraq and back, these giant radioactive hulks can only sicken and kill Americans. On top of the sheer, unrelenting stupidity of playing with radiation with unsuspecting soldiers, now the neo-con government is involving everyday Americans in their radiation madness. The Pentagon can't even follow simple radiation hazard mitigation instructions. Their own rules and regulations have the force of law throughout the world. Yet they are ignored in the United States. Dr. Doug Rokke Dr. Doug Rokke is the Pentagon's former director of the U.S. Army Depleted Uranium Project. When contacted on Oct. 22, he viewed Chris Bayruh's photographs and made this statement about the radioactive tanks in Kansas: "The radioactive damaged Abrams tanks that were left unsecured on a Kansas railroad track are a perfect example of exactly how not to ship damaged radioactive equipment and how not to protect our Army's Abrams tanks from possible sabotage and compromise of classified battle systems." On Oct. 10, prior to the discovery of the radioactive tanks, Dr. Rokke made the following statement. It is eerily predictive of what would happen in Kansas three days later. "U.S. Department of Defense officials continue to deny that there are any adverse health and environmental effects as a consequence of the manufacture, testing and/or use of uranium munitions to avoid liability for the willful and illegal dispersal of a radioactive toxic material - depleted uranium." Dr. Rokke continued, "They [the U.S. military] arrogantly refuse to comply with their own regulations, orders and directives that require United States Department of Defense officials to provide prompt and effective medical care to all exposed individuals." (See Note 1 below.) "They also refuse to clean up dispersed radioactive contamination of equipment as required by Army regulations." (See Note 2.) "Specifically, they are required (see Note 3) to accomplish four things: 1) Military personnel must 'identify, segregate, isolate, secure and label all RCE' (radiologically contaminated equipment). 2) 'Procedures to minimize the spread of radioactivity will be implemented as soon as possible.' 3) 'Radioactive material and waste will not be locally disposed of through burial, submersion, incineration, destruction in place, or abandonment' and 4) 'All equipment, to include captured or combat RCE, will be surveyed, packaged, retrograded, decontaminated and released.' "The past and current use of uranium weapons, the release of radioactive components in destroyed U.S. and foreign military equipment, and releases of industrial, medical and research facility radioactive materials have resulted in unacceptable exposures." Dr. Rokke added, "Therefore, decontamination must be completed as required by U.S. Army Regulation 700-48 and should include releases of all radioactive materials resulting from military operations. "The extent of adverse health and environmental effects of uranium weapons contamination is not limited to combat zones but includes facilities and sites where uranium weapons were manufactured or tested, including Vieques, Puerto Rico, Colonie, New York, and Jefferson Proving Grounds, Indiana. "Therefore, medical care must be provided by the United States Department of Defense officials to all individuals affected by the manufacturing, testing and/or use of uranium munitions. Thorough environmental remediation also must be completed without further delay. "I am amazed," exclaimed Dr. Rokke, "that 14 years after I was asked to clean up the initial DU mess from Gulf War I and almost 10 years since I finished the depleted uranium project, United States Department of Defense officials and many others still attempt to justify uranium munitions use while ignoring mandatory requirements. "But beyond the ignored mandatory actions, the willful dispersal of tons of solid radioactive and chemically toxic waste in the form of uranium munitions just does not even pass the common sense test. "Finally, continued compliance with the infamous March 1991 Los Alamos Memorandum (see Note 5) that was issued to ensure continued use of uranium munitions cannot be justified. "In conclusion," Dr. Rokke urged, "the president of the United States, George W. Bush, and the prime minister of Great Britain, Tony Blair, must acknowledge and accept responsibility for willful use of illegal uranium munitions - their own "dirty bombs" - resulting in adverse health and environmental effects." "President Bush and Prime Minister Blair also should order: 1) medical care for all casualties, 2) thorough environmental remediation, 3) immediate cessation of retaliation against all of us who demand compliance with medical care and environmental remediation requirements, 4) and ban the future use of depleted uranium munitions," Dr. Rokke concluded. A little old lady in tennis shoes Leuren Moret is a world famous scientist and radiation specialist who formerly worked at the Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab, where she became a whistleblower in 1991. She has spoken out about the danger of uranium munitions to humanity in more than 42 countries. Moret has appeared in four documentaries about uranium munitions (depleted uranium). "Beyond Treason" debuted in August 2005 and won the Grand Festival Award at the Berkeley Film Festival. The newest film, "Blowin' in the Wind," was nominated during its debut the first week of November in Australia for an Academy Award. Moret was an expert witness at the International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan and serves as an adviser and expert witness in court cases regarding radiation exposure. Her statement, made Oct. 24, about the dead tanks in Kansas follows: "Sally Devlin, a little old lady in tennis shoes, went to a public meeting several years ago, held by the Air Force in Pahrump, Nevada. Two officers told the citizens of the town that the Air Force would be moving 80 old target practice tanks and tons of old depleted uranium munitions through their town. "The radioactive bullets had been picked up off the Nellis gunnery ranges by order of the state of Nevada and were being transported to the Nevada Test Site [a nuclear weapons test site] to be buried as radioactive waste. "When Mrs. Devlin politely asked them how they would prevent the residents of the town from being contaminated by the radioactive dust on the tanks and bullets, the officers said, 'We're wrapping them in Saran Wrap.' She told them that would be unacceptable and stopped the Air Force dead in their tracks," Moret concluded. Whether it is Saran Wrap in Nevada or nothing at all in Kansas, the Pentagon just doesn't get it when it comes to uranium radiation dispersing weapons. It is way past time to take all their nuclear weapons and uranium munitions away from them and send them home to get real jobs. They are clearly incapable of protecting this country from all dangers, including those created by our own U.S. military. The U.S. military shows so little regard for Americans in Kansas, one wonders what on earth they have done to Iraq. The U.S. military has distributed an estimated 8 million pounds of weaponized ceramic uranium oxide gas, aerosols and dust on a practically defenseless little country of 26 million people (see Note 6), according to an estimate by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark. What is this lethal radioactive weapon supposed to do? Why was it used? Ceramic uranium oxide gas is a genocidal weapon, for God's sake. It persists in the environment forever. In Leuren Moret's pithy words, "The Iraqis are uranium meat." The politicians, Pentagon staff, generals, commanding officers and others responsible for this war crime must be arrested, tried, convicted and appropriately punished for their crimes against humanity. There is another explanation Another explanation is that the U.S. Army and other branches of the military are far from stupid. They are, in fact, the most lethal and carefully planned military in the history of the world. The extensive use of weaponized uranium oxide gas, aerosols and dust is not an accident or an oversight. They did it on purpose. If this is true, they purposely used a genocidal weapon over at least a 15-year period. No, this is not a callous mistake of empire; it is a calculated act of genocide to weaken the oil- and gas-rich countries of Central Asia, including Iraq. Take your choice: they are either stupid or genocidal monsters. A British group has estimated the weaponized ceramic uranium oxide will account for an additional 25 million cancers in Iraq in the next several years. There are only 26 million Iraqis to start with, minus the nearly 1.7 million killed by war or sanctions since 1991, plus some live births. A National Academy of Sciences report released June 30, 2005, finds that there is no safe level of radiation. The committee dismissed the idea that any radiation could be harmless or beneficial. The radioactive tanks in Kansas and Iraq are the same. They are placed there at great expense by the senior American political and military leadership, with premeditated malice. The bottom line purpose of a 140,000-pound radioactive tank is to kill people. Uranium munitions a war crime Dennis Kyne, noted speaker and writer, is a former drill instructor (DI) and a 15-year veteran of the Army as well as a Gulf War vet (see www.denniskyne.com). Kyne makes a point of how "hot" or radioactive the tanks in Kansas would be if they were hit by "friendly fire" to get beat up so much. They could be contaminated with as much as 30,000 times background radiation. That is what uranium munitions do to a tank, bunker or building. Karen Parker, a prominent U.S. international human rights lawyer, says there are four rules derived from humanitarian laws and conventions regarding weapons: 1. Weapons may only be used against legal enemy military targets and must not have an adverse effect elsewhere (the territorial rule). 2. Weapons can only be used for the duration of an armed conflict and must not be used or continue to act afterwards (the temporal rule). 3. Weapons may not be unduly inhumane (the "humaneness" rule). The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 speak of "unnecessary suffering" and "superfluous injury" in this regard 4. Weapons may not have an unduly negative effect on the natural environment (the "environmental" rule). "DU weaponry fails all four tests," Parker states. "First, DU cannot be limited to legal military targets. Second, it cannot be 'turned off' when the war is over but keeps killing. "Third, DU can kill through painful conditions such as cancers and organ damage and can also cause birth defects, such as facial deformities and missing limbs. Lastly, DU cannot be used without unduly damaging the natural environment. "In my view, use of DU weaponry violates the grave breach provisions of the Geneva Conventions," Parker concluded, "and so its use constitutes a war crime, or crime against humanity." Notes 1. "Medical Management of Unusual Depleted Uranium Casualties," DOD, Pentagon, 10/14/93, "Medical Management of Army Personnel Exposed to Depleted Uranium (DU)," Headquarters, U.S. Army Medical Command, 4/29/04, and section 2-5 of AR 700-48 . 2. AR 700- 48: "Management of Equipment Contaminated With Depleted Uranium or Radioactive Commodities," Headquarters, Department of the Army, Washington, D.C., September 2002, and U.S. Army Technical Bulletin TB 9-1300-278: "Guidelines For Safe Response To Handling, Storage, and Transportation Accidents Involving Army Tank Munitions or Armor Which Contain Depleted Uranium," Headquarters, Department of the Army, Washington, D.C., July 1996, http://traprockpeace.org/du_pam_700-48.pdf. 3. Section 2-4 of United States Army Regulation 700-48 dated Sept. 16, 2002, specifies these requirements. 4. IAW Technical Bulletin 9-1300-278, DA PAM 700-48. Maximum exposure limits are specified in Appendix F. 5. http://www.tv.cbc.ca/national/pgminfo/du/doc1.html 6. Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark's estimate, http://www.covertactionquarterly.org/demonize.html Photos: "RADIOACTIVE" is stenciled on Abrams tanks in these pictures taken Oct. 13, 2005, in Topeka, Kansas. Photo: Chris Bayruh http://www.sfbayview.com/110905/images/DEADTANKINKANS14.jpg This radioactive tank sitting exposed on a flatbed railroad car in Topeka, Kansas, should have been "encapsulated," according to U.S. Army Regulation 700-48, which has the force of law. Photo: Chris Bayruh http://www.sfbayview.com/110905/images/DEADTANKINKANS3.jpg This is another of the destroyed radioactive tanks in Topeka, Kansas. Children were playing around the tanks. Photo: Chris Bayruh http://www.sfbayview.com/110905/images/DEADTANKINKANS.jpg -------- europe No disagreement with EU on Iran nuclear file - Russian minister 09/ 11/ 2005 (RIA Novosti) http://en.rian.ru/russia/20051109/42034316.html MOSCOW, November 9 - Russia and the European Union have no disagreements over the issue of the Iranian "nuclear file", the Russian foreign minister said Wednesday. "There are no contradictions here," Sergei Lavrov said. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that the EU troika of Germany, Britain and France would not refer Iran's file to the UN Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions on the Islamic republic if the country is found to be in breach of its international obligations. Straw also praised interaction with Russia over Iran. -------- korea North Korea Rushes To Finish Reactor Increased Plutonium Capacity Could Enhance Bargaining Position at Talks By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, November 9, 2005; A24 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/08/AR2005110801899_pf.html North Korea has said it plans to finish building a 50-megawatt nuclear reactor in as little as two years, allowing it to produce enough weapons-grade plutonium for 10 weapons annually, according to the first public report of an unofficial U.S. delegation that visited Pyongyang in August. The new reactor would represent a tenfold leap in North Korea's ability to produce fuel for nuclear weapons, which could give it significant leverage in talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear programs. North Korea tentatively agreed in September to "abandon" its programs, but the talks -- which resume today in Beijing -- must still resolve how quickly Pyongyang gives up its weapons and what types of incentives it will receive. North Korea is "moving full speed ahead with its nuclear weapons programs," said Siegfried S. Hecker, a former director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, during a presentation at a conference sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. North Korea currently possesses a working five-megawatt reactor, which it restarted in 2003 after the collapse of a 1994 agreement to freeze its programs. The reactor currently produces five to seven kilograms of plutonium a year. North Korean officials told Hecker the reactor's fuel rods were unloaded in April of this year to extract plutonium; operations resumed in June. Outside analysts and U.S. officials believe North Korea currently has as much as 53 kilograms of plutonium, enough to produce about 10 or more weapons. Before North Korea restarted its reactor in 2003, the United States believed North Korea possessed enough plutonium for only one or two weapons. As North Korea's stockpile of plutonium increases, analysts said, Pyongyang can more easily threaten its neighbors and might even be tempted to sell some of it. In 2004, Vice President Cheney warned that an increasingly cash-strapped North Korea might seek to peddle its nuclear technology or fissile material -- including, Cheney said, to terrorist groups. "They're poised to continue their program, to make more plutonium and to strengthen their deterrents," Hecker said, summarizing his talks with the director of North Korea's nuclear facilities and other senior North Korean officials. "We have to assume that the North Koreans also have made at least a few primitive nuclear devices." Hecker, along with Stanford University scholar John W. Lewis, visited the Yongbyon nuclear facility in January 2004, when he saw the unfinished 50-megawatt facility was crumbling and in disrepair. During that visit, the North Koreans showed Hecker a jar that they said contained recently reprocessed plutonium from the five-megawatt reactor. On the most recent trip, Hecker and Lewis did not return to Yongbyon, but they did meet with the facility's director, Ri Hong Sop. The trip was not sponsored by the U.S. government, but Hecker and Lewis have privately briefed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her top aides on their findings. Ri told Hecker that construction will start soon on the larger reactor. A redesign has been completed and construction workers are preparing to return, he said. Ri did not give an estimated completion date but implied it would be finished in a couple of years, Hecker said, rather than five or six as estimated by some analysts. North Korea has said it has an urgent need for electric power, and Ri told Hecker the electricity generated by the 50-megawatt reactor would go into North Korea's electrical grid. Hecker said Ri acknowledged that such graphite-moderated reactors are not very efficient for electricity, but make very good weapons-grade plutonium. The Institute for Science and International Security said that in June 2005, commercial satellite imagery did not show significant construction activity at the 50-megawatt site. But a more recent photograph from Sept. 11 indicated preparation for construction, including restoring a building near the reactor. David Albright, president of ISIS, said that "age has taken its toll" on the building and that it was optimistic to think that it would be completed in two years. But he said that if North Korea did begin reconstruction, "it would be seen as undermining the agreement to end all nuclear programs." In an interview last week in Palo Alto, Calif., where Hecker is a visiting professor at Stanford, Hecker said Ri told him that the smaller reactor is operating well at full power. Hecker said that if this is correct, it would probably increase estimates of the plutonium obtained by North Korea. The North Korean government is refurbishing the fuel fabrication facility to make more fuel for the reactors, Ri said, adding that a few spare rods remain for the smaller reactor and some rods were produced for the 50-megawatt reactor before 1994. North Korea also has a small research reactor supplied by the Soviet Union that uses enriched uranium fuel. Ri said North Korea has received no new fuel since 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed, so the reactor is run sparingly to produce isotopes for thyroid cancer therapy. Some Bush administration officials believe the research reactor must be shut down as part of any accord as it is suspected of being used for small-scale plutonium production. But others have said it could be converted into a low-enrichment fuel facility, in part to keep North Korean scientists employed. ---- Main task outlined for nuclear talks 2005-11-09 22:54:21 (Xinhuanet) http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-11/09/content_3759112.htm BEIJING, Nov. 9 -- The main task of the fifth-round six-party Korean Peninsula nuclear talks, which began here Wednesday morning, is "to outline details, ways and procedures for the implementation of the joint statement adopted in September," said Chinese chief negotiator. The task should be fulfilled in line with the principle of "commitment to commitment and action to action," said Wu Dawei, also Chinese vice foreign minister, at the opening session of the talks. In the joint statement, adopted at the fourth round of the six-party talks which ended in last September, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) agreed to abandon all its nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs in exchange for energy aid and security guarantees. Wu suggested the fifth round be carried out in phases: the delegation heads of the six nations first table a general scenarioand a working group or expert panel works out detailed rules and submit them to the delegation heads for consultations. At a press briefing Wednesday evening, spokesman of the Chinese delegation Qin Gang said all delegation heads agreed at the plenary meeting that it would be an appropriate choice to set up working teams or expert panels to implement the joint statement, but more discussions were needed for a detailed and operable mechanism. Qin said given the fact that the negotiators still differed in how to implement the joint statement, the Chinese delegation hopedthey would adopt a pragmatic, flexible and discreet attitude to find a solution that is acceptable to all. Meanwhile, Song Min-soon, the Republic of Korea (ROK) chief negotiator, said the on-going talks would talk about three topics. The topics included DPRK's abandonment of nuclear weapons, economic and energy aid to the DPRK and the normalization of bilateral ties between certain countries, Song told reporters Wednesday evening. Song said the current phase of talks was not aimed at reaching any agreement, but rather making preparations for substantial talks at the next phase of talks. "The current phase of talks will not talk about the constitution of the expert teams," He said. The ROK diplomat also urged all parties to focus on the joint statement and not to deviate from the framework set up by the document. So far, the United States and the DPRK are still divided over when the DPRK should open up to disarmament inspectors and whetherin return it would receive compensation including a new light-water nuclear reactor for energy. The US side claimed that the DPRK should first abandon its nuclear program and create a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, then other issues could be discussed. "When the DPRK is back to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons with the IAEA safeguards, at an appropriate time we'll have a discussion about the subject of the provision oflight water reactor," US chief negotiator Christopher Hill told reporters Wednesday morning. On the possible DPRK-US bilateral meetings during the current talks, Hill said many two-way discussions would be held and it waslikely for them to meet with the DPRK counterparts. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, so far the six parties have held 16 rounds of bilateral consultations. But no information of US-DPRK contact was available. Sasae Kenichiro, Japan's chief negotiator, called on all parties to voice their stances on how to implement the joint statement reached in September. He said Japan would "actively voice its opinions in detail" forthe implementation of the joint statement, Sasae told reporters when leaving the hotel Wednesday morning. The six-party talks involves China, the DPRK, the United States,the Republic of Korea, Russia and Japan. China has hosted four rounds of the six-party talks since August, 2003. -------- pacific NZ foreign minister calls for improved US relations WELLINGTON (AFP) Nov 09, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/051109032254.gmsn64ly.html New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said Wednesday his country and the United States should improve relations by putting aside their long-standing disagreement over nuclear policy. Relations between Wellington and Washington have been strained for two decades by New Zealand's ban on nuclear arms and power, introduced by David Lange's Labour government after winning power in 1984. Peters wants to begin mending ties with the US from next week when he makes his first overseas trip as foreign minister to South Korea for a summit of the 21 economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). The controversial politician who has campaigned for cutting immigration from Asia was chosen as foreign minister by Prime Minister Helen Clark last month as part of a deal to win the support of his New Zealand First political party for her minority government. "I'll take it step by step and I hope to be in the United States early next year and I'll begin to advance this relationship," Peters told Radio New Zealand. "I think we really need to go back and say over these last 20 years what could we have done better -- not changed our nuclear policy because that's the wish of the New Zealand people -- but what could we have done better on both sides to start to learn from our experience." New Zealand was forced to leave the ANZUS defence alliance with the US and Australia after the ban on nuclear-powered and armed ships. Relations have continued to be strained and New Zealand has not been offered a free trade agreement with the US, unlike neighbour Australia which remains one of Washington's closest allies. Peters said he was optimistic the US would be open to a closer relationship with New Zealand after outgoing US ambassador Charles Swindells called in July for a more open and honest dialogue between the two countries. Swindells said the two countries needed to move beyond the disagreements of the past two decades. Peters said the former US ambassador was calling for the nuclear issue to be put to the side. "What I'm really arguing for is to look at the other areas where New Zealand and the United States have a significant common cause and see if we can improve on that," he said. "If they can offer a free trade agreement to Morocco then we've got to be in with a chance to improve our relationship." -------- security High-tech sniffers to stop 'dirty' bombs Federal officials plan to deploy a new generation of nuclear detectors By Mark Clayton | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor November 09, 2005 http://search.csmonitor.com/search_content/1109/p01s03-ussc.html If a terrorist tried to sneak a "dirty" bomb into the United States, would anyone notice? Possibly. Radiation detectors rushed into service since 9/11 might sound the alarm at seaports, border checkpoints, and mail-handling facilities. Then again, the sensors have been set off by everything from loads of kitty litter to bananas. And a smart terrorist could hide a basketball-size chunk of highly enriched uranium by using lead shielding less than an inch thick. That's why the US is set to begin deploying a new generation of radiation detectors intended to be America's "last line of defense" against weapons of mass destruction. By early spring, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will pick technologies from among 10 companies, whose newest generation of nuclear detectors was tested in the Nevada desert this summer. Their devices will begin field-testing at a few ports of entry by next June, with a full-production decision expected by 2007. Some experts are breathing a sigh of relief. "We're now on the cusp of seeing the next generation of [nuclear and radiological] detectors," says Benn Tannenbaum, a physicist and expert on sensor technology at the Center for Science, Technology & Security Policy at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington. But others say the US is not moving fast enough to install a multilayered defense against one of its biggest security threats. While billions of dollars have been spent on biological countermeasures, nuclear detection efforts have lagged. "Little steps are being taken that may be in the right direction," says Richard Wagner Jr., a senior staffer at Los Alamos National Laboratory, who served in the Pentagon during the Reagan administration. "It's the rate of progress I'm concerned about." Alarming evidence That pace may be picking up as disturbing evidence accumulates. About a year ago, the National Intelligence Council warned that "undetected smuggling has occurred, and we are concerned about the total amount of [nuclear and radiological] material that could have been diverted or stolen in the past 13 years" around the world. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has documented 650 cases of trafficking since 1993, echoed that report. About $300 million has been spentby the Department of Homeland Security since 1994 to deploy 470 radiation-detection systems at America's border crossings and ports, according to a Government Accountability Office report in June. But their shortcomings have become obvious. In March, DHS officials told Congress port detectors were working and had registered at least 10,000 radiation hits. But questions about the value of those hits arose in a June congressional hearing, when the security manager for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey reported 150 "false positives" per day. That amounted to a false alarm - and possibly a time- consuming search - for about 1 in every 40 shipping containers. The resulting delays, in turn, often caused detection sensitivity to be turned down, crippling a sensor's ability to detect weapons material, the Port Authority security manager and other experts say. Next-generation sensors will generally be far smaller, often mobile, and smarter - networked with other sensors and able to detect the difference between radiation emitted from a nuclear bomb and a load of bananas. New homeland security office Overseeing the effort is a brand new office within the Department of Homeland Security devoted to one goal: detecting terrorist nuclear material before it can get into the country. Established by presidential directive in April, its first assignment is to create a network of US nuclear detectors as part of a larger "global architecture" of detectors to be deployed overseas. "We anticipate mobile detection systems and fixed systems ... that enable us to achieve randomness and screening around the country, in transit zones, aircraft in flight, and container ships," says Vayle Oxford, acting director of the new DHS Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO). He envisions detectors that would screen "target areas" like high-risk cities, and some that could alert security forces to investigate. In sum, it's a new concept that will need huge databases to collect and collate data from what could become thousands of WMD sensors on bridges and buildings. "What we're trying to do with global architecture is to knit this together," Dr. Oxford says. DNDO received $318 million in fiscal year 2006 funding - about $90 million more than President Bush requested from Congress. Today only a few truly advanced detection systems are actually deployed, including one at MassPort in Boston and another at a border crossing with Mexico near San Diego, Dr. Tannenbaum says. By 2007, DHS expects to decide on the best technology to put into 2,500 advanced detectors to be rolled out nationwide. Innovative technologies One possible technology, from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is RadNet, a kind of global positioning system married to a radiation detector packed into a cellphone. The idea is that this "cellphone sniffer" could be carried by police officers on their daily routes - all the while detecting radiation and transmitting coordinates to a computer that maps hot zones for investigation. Another contender: Princeton University's Miniature Integrated Detection System (MINDS), which can distinguish between types of radiation using sophisticated software. So far, MINDS systems are scanning for suspicious material at a major train station on the East Coast and a military base in New Jersey, as well as being evaluated for airports and mail facilities. Scientists at the Livermore lab are working on an even more futuristic nuclear detector that could sense a bomb made of highly enriched uranium, which emits little radiation and is easily shielded. Other countries are coming on board. A year ago, the European Union and the US agreed to cooperate on development of sensor technology. Canada last year noted that its Ottawa International Airport would be getting detectors that would sense material likely to be in a dirty bomb, a non-nuclear device that uses conventional explosives. Even local entities are getting involved. Last year several Las Vegas hotels announced deployment of nuclear and chemical sensors. MetroRail in the nation's capital has been moving to upgrade its chemical and biological sensors. WMD sensors: not sufficient? Few experts, however - Oxford included - believe WMD sensors are enough. Most agree the primary defensive layer must be locking down and monitoring with new smart detectors the insecure nuclear materials in places like the research reactors of the former Soviet Union. The next layer would be smart sensors at ports overseas to screen cargo before it is loaded onto a ship bound for the US. Some critics, though, say the bulk of funds should be spent securing loose nuclear material overseas and creating sensor networks to make sure that it doesn't end up in the wrong hands. If it did, the argument goes, all the sensors in the world might not be enough. "This could become a Maginot line for us, creating a false sense of security," says Randall Larsen, CEO of Homeland Security Associates, an Arlington, Va., consulting firm. "Anyone smart enough to get this stuff could sneak it past detectors." Still, other experts say sensor networks abroad combined with a last line of defense in the US are critical. "If you have a better defensive system, the attacker has to work that much harder, recruit more people, put on more shielding," says Mr. Wagner. "The bigger the operation gets, the better chance our people have of detecting and stopping it." ---- Congress Watch: Coleman plans nuke hearings Posted 11/9/05 By Danielle Knight US News http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/051109/9congresswatch.htm?track=rss Sen. Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican and chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations plans to hold hearings throughout 2006 on safeguards against nuclear and radiological terrorism. In calling for the hearings, Coleman cited findings in a Government Accountability Office report on the International Atomic Energy Agency. "The threat of rogue proliferation actors such as A. Q. Kahn or terrorist networks acquiring nuclear weapons underscores the need for a robust IAEA," says Coleman. "The concerns raised by GAO are very troubling and need to be addressed immediately to ensure the IAEA remains a key component of global security." The GAO report says the IAEA faces a number of challenges that limit its ability to implement strengthened safeguards against nuclear proliferation and terrorism. "Despite successes in uncovering some countries' undeclared nuclear activities, safeguards experts cautioned that a determined country can still conceal a nuclear weapons program," says the report. Two thirds of signatories to the 1970 Treaty on Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons have not brought into force the "Additional Protocol" – designed to give the agency new authority to search for clandestine nuclear activities –says the report. Also, safeguards are significantly limited or not applied to many signatories, it says, because they possess small quantities of nuclear material or they do not have a comprehensive safeguards agreement. The IAEA also faces a "looming human capital crisis" because large number of inspectors and management personnel are expected to retire in the next five years. The GAO recommends that the Department of State work with the IAEA to consider eliminating or reducing the number of agreements that limit IAEA's authority to implement strengthened safeguards in countries with small quantities of nuclear material. It also recommends that it establish better measures to evaluate the effectiveness of safeguards and nuclear security activities. In a letter attached to the report, the State Department generally agreed with the GAO's recommendations. -------- u.s. nuc weapons NEW INFRASTRUCTURE FOR NEW NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS Chairman Nils J. Diaz U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at the 26th Annual INPO CEO Conference November 2, 2005 Atlanta, Georgia Last revised Wednesday, November 09, 2005 http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/commission/speeches/2005/s-05-016.html Slides http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/commission/speeches/2005/new-infastr-for-nuc-pwr-plants.pdf [TITLE SLIDE] Good afternoon. It is a pleasure to be here and have the opportunity to address you again at INPO’s CEO Conference. I would like to thank INPO for their kind invitation and their hospitality. Also participating at this meeting are NRC Commissioners Merrifield, Jaczko, and Lyons, as well as NRC’s EDO, Luis Reyes and Regional Administrators Bill Travers and Jim Caldwell. You can direct any difficult questions to them. It has been my privilege to attend this conference for 10 consecutive years, not a record but a good run. During that time, I have witnessed the positive transformation in the performance of the NRC and the nuclear industry. These performances, and specifically the licensees’ interrelated safety and reliability performance, have been instrumental in establishing the necessary platform for increased public acceptance of nuclear energy, and for the support expressed for it by the President and the Congress of the United States. [SLIDES 2 and 3] At the potential cost of showing my years - of experience that is - I would like to state that the NRC is a stronger and better agency that I believe the industry is also stronger and better, and our nation continues to get stronger and better. Challenged, yes, but stronger. The nuclear industry and the NRC have key roles to play in ensuring the continuing strength and improvement in the nation’s energy security and well being. The roles are changing, and changing fast; moving from a perennial defensive position to a front line opportunity to maintain and enhance energy security, and indeed, the security and well-being of the nation. We should welcome the new roles and the opportunity, but, as the saying goes, be careful what you ask for . . . With the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and other key factors in place, it appears that the game plan for potential new reactor licensing applications is being set. The next two slides summarize some factors influencing the prospects of constructing nuclear power plants: [SLIDE 4] Factors positively influencing the prospects of constructing new nuclear power plants: Support by the President and the Congress for expanding the use of nuclear power, including incentives for the first six plants Concerns with the Nation’s energy security High cost of oil and natural gas Environmental considerations Low and stable electrical production costs from nuclear Low interest rates and inflation Renewed interest by utilities in building new nuclear power plants NRC’s establishment of an improved licensing process [SLIDE 5] Factors with potential negative influence on the prospects of constructing new nuclear power plants: High capital cost of new nuclear power plants Financing considerations New licensing processes have not yet been fully tested [SLIDE 6] The potential is large and the tasks are sobering. There is a need for a new infrastructure for new nuclear power plants that includes: Improved environmental assessments Improved techno-legal framework Improved reactor design and construction Reliable suppliers Well-qualified personnel I am going to focus my comments this afternoon on the licensing process and the needed infrastructure, and the connectivity between them, with emphasis on the NRC role. Before I go any further, I want to clearly set where the NRC is today, regarding its key role, in the nation’s energy security. In 1997, the NRC’s Strategic Plan stated – [SLIDE 7] NRC’s mission is to regulate the Nation’s civilian use of byproduct, source, and special nuclear materials to ensure adequate protection of the public health and safety, to promote the common defense and security, and to protect the environment. In 2004, the NRC’s Strategic Plan stated that the NRC’s mission is to – [SLIDE 8] License and regulate the Nation’s civilian use . . . to ensure adequate protection of public health and safety, promote the common defense and security, and protect the environment. The addition of the word “license” derives directly from the NRC’s statutory responsibility to review and decide, in a timely fashion, applications for licenses, and to grant the applications if the requisite health, safety, security, and environmental standards are met, and to deny them if they are not. Furthermore, NRC’s Strategic Plan for 2004 – 2009 includes one Strategic Objective [SLIDE 9]: Enable the use and management of radioactive materials and nuclear fuels for beneficial civilian purposes in a manner that protects public health and safety and the environment, promotes the security of our nation, and provides for regulatory actions that are open, effective, efficient, realistic, and timely. This is a profound and challenging objective that reflects the NRC’s statutory responsibilities. On a personal note, it represents most of what I have tried to achieve during my tenure as Commissioner and then Chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. I could talk for a while about the meaning of the word “enable”; it is a catchy and very complex word. In fact, I recently have been spending a significant amount of time discussing its full meaning with the senior managers of the agency, in the context of the Strategic Objective. Instead, I am going to turn the tables on the nuclear industry and show one example of how you have enabled and should continue to enable the use of nuclear energy for beneficial civilian purposes, in a manner that protects public health and safety, common defense and security, and the environment. Last year, I talked to you about “Excellence in Safety Management,” and in particular about Unplanned Reactor Shutdowns of more than 6 months duration [Slide 10]. Congratulations, you have managed well the country’s nuclear fleet. The average for extended plant shutdowns of more than six months has decreased from about six per year for the period of 1979 to 1997 to about one per year since then. I have frequently stressed the contribution of safety to reliability, and vice versa. I believe the improved performance has also resulted in enhanced safety as well as reliability. I am sure that major, additional impacts can be surmised from every period of performance shown on this figure. As demonstrated by the unplanned extended shutdown issue, the challenge faced by the nuclear industry and by the NRC in the upcoming years is far broader and deeper than new reactor licencing and its infrastructure. A necessary enabler of new reactor licensing is continuing safety and reliability of operating nuclear power plants. Excellence in operations is an enabler, and I appreciate INPO’s contributions in this regard. Excellence in safety, security, and preparedness is an enabler. Excellence in applications for license renewals, power uprates, and license amendments is an enabler. Better, wider use of risk-informed and performance-based PRAs for design, operation, and maintenance, is an enabler. We should enable the capabilities of the new generation of managers and practitioners to effectively perform their duties. And, last but not least, to enable the licensing of new reactors, the industry needs to submit for the docket, high quality, complete, indeed excellent, thoughtfully assembled applications that clearly conform to the regulations and are fully supported by the vendor, architect/engineer, constructor, and supplier (i.e., the complete infrastructure). The NRC will then be able to do its job, in accordance with the quoted strategic objective. All these and more need to be done well. There is an old saying, often overused but dramatic, that may fit the present situation: “Failure is not an option.” The potential deployment of new nuclear power plants comes after a long hiatus in nuclear power plant licensing and construction. The lack of predictable financing, electric demand, design, construction, and regulation resulted in the long delays or cancellations of the 70's and 80's. There should be at least one good result from that experience: everyone today should be better prepared. There is no forgiveness in this business; expect none, for you will get none. However, there are rewards for anticipation, for preparation, and for simplicity. Simplicity is the mother of wisdom and the grandmother of achievement. The entire nuclear business is different and still changing and no one should underestimate the difficulty in successfully engaging it in the construction mode. However, everyone today knows better, and should be able to execute better. Yet, it has been difficult to establish where are the horses in relationship to the carriage. Just a few years ago, the vendors were ahead of the utilities, with three banked standard certified designs. There were no buyers. There now appears to be a significant expression of interest from utilities, specifically in three reactor designs that are not yet completed for use in a COL [SLIDE 11]. A regulatory note: the governing technical rule for standard certified designs is 10 CFR 52.47. It requires that an evolutionary design, like the EPR, provide an essentially complete design prior to certification. For reactor designs with simplified, inherent passive or other means to accomplish their safety functions, like the AP 1000 and the ESBWR, the scope of the design must be complete and the applicant must demonstrate the performance of safety functions. [SLIDE 12] Either way, at COL application time, it will be highly desirable that you submit the complete safety case, ready for rigorous review, and ultimately for hearing. A standard certified design, with a complete rulemaking, has definite advantages. On the other hand, there is much good to be said about an essentially complete design. There is also much good to be said about a COL application supported by an adjudicated Early Site Permit and a Standard Certified Design by rulemaking. I fully understand that Part 52 permits different schemes for a COL, yet there is something to be said for simplicity. I believe that – [SLIDE 13] Expectations and Permutations are often not a good Combination That having been said, assuming the submission of a top-notch COL application, with an approved site and certified design, that clearly meets all regulatory requirements, the current estimated time from application to a decision on a COL, including adjudication, is about three years. [SLIDE 14] Assuming that the inspections, tests, analyses, and acceptance criteria (ITAAC) specified in the COL are satisfied during and on completion of construction, the time for construction, ITAACs, fuel loading, and initial operations is currently estimated to be about five years, for a total time estimate of eight years from COL application to initial operation. I proposed that the need to continue doing all we are used to doing well is now challenged by having to do all we are going to have to do very soon, very well. I believe the NRC needs to, and you need to, recognize that – * the challenge to be faced is likely to be more complicated than originally presumed; * there is a need to stay ahead of the curve to meet external and internal expectations; * the ability to recognize problems and the flexibility to address them promptly as they occur is essential; and, * available resources must be used wisely and new resources must be sought when needed. You will notice that all four of the conclusions imply that a successful outcome to a major challenge requires careful and complete preparation, the ability to perceive the challenge from a complete perspective, and the ability to bring the needed resources to bear on resolution in a timely manner. Let me summarize for you some of my own views and concerns: * I envision the next few years as posing the most serious challenge the NRC and the industry have faced in a generation, a “rising tide” of new responsibilities and difficult decisions that cover a wide spectrum of activities. Not the least of these is the potential necessity to resume new licensing activities after a long hiatus, with a new set of rules, players, reactors, construction methods, infrastructure, and high national demands. * The NRC and the industry are more experienced with adjusting to downsizing and tight budgets than we are with expanding projects and resources. The preparation necessary to do more with less is quite different than preparing to do much more with more. * Success in this context requires increased attention and sensitivity to external expectations, which are and will remain extremely high and extend across the board to the public, industry, the Congress, and the world – everyone will be watching and judging our actions. NRC will expect high quality and that schedules are followed. Industry will expect that NRC timetables will be met. The public will demand enhanced safety and must receive broad access to the decision-making process. Congress will expect all of this, and accountability. * The NRC and the industry have made and will continue to make a number of necessary changes to address key issues, including the integration of existing reactors’ safety, security, and emergency preparedness, and to address early the safety/security interface for new reactors. Everyone must ensure that these new frameworks will work as they should in the new, changed environment and must be willing to made additional changes should they prove necessary. * The NRC is not a technical agency. It is a techno-legal agency. It must realize, internalize, and act according to that fact. The nuclear industry must also pay close attention to the techno-legal interface. The techno-legal interface is a key to doing the job right; it has to be transparent, and yes, managed. * The NRC and the industry will face the new challenges that lie ahead with the largest increment of new staff and new managers that has been required in some time. * Effective communications, internal and external, is being raised to a new level; everyone is affected. * Everyone must live up to the standards that are required. Someone told me the other day: the train is leaving the station. [SLIDE 15] I asked of myself and the NRC staff, and maybe you should ask yourself: If the train is leaving the station, Am I on it? Do I know where it is going? Do I know what to do once I am on the train? Do I know if everybody on the train knows what they should do? Do I have the plan, the tools, the resources I will need to get it to its destination? Do I and everyone else know what to expect during the trip? Do I know what to do when it gets to its final destination? The Nuclear Regulatory Commission realizes that we have to anticipate, define, prepare, and execute at a different level. We are going to keep doing well all the things we do well, day in and day out, but we are going to be better at managing the new and the different, the one or two of a kind, the first, and then the second, and so on, and so on. We are going to pay special attention to the techno-legal interface, internally and externally, because they have to march forward together. I cannot emphasize enough the importance that this interface has for everyone that is going to be involved in new nuclear power plant construction. At the beginning of my talk, I mentioned the Energy Policy Act, the NRC mission, and the new Strategic Objective, which is indeed a governing objective. I am going to articulate a high and viable goal for the NRC that captures all of the above in one measurable outcome: Use of the Energy Policy Act’s risk insurance program should not be the consequence of NRC fault in the thoroughness and timeliness of its review. I am sure you realize I am placing the burden on you. If you come to the NRC with a COL application, it should have one requisite ultimate quality: the safety case and other required components are of such excellence that the application can pass the tests of staff review, NRC hearing, and courts of law. Anything less lacks the predictability the nation expects and many demand. On a final note, I believe you should know that I am an optimist, and that I am very encouraged by the seriousness of the energy debate and the solutions that our country is adopting and considering to secure our energy future. The fact that my many scars are reacting to the weather front should be food for thought, and, I hope, action. I am convinced that the NRC and the nuclear industry have the capability to respond to the challenges ahead. Thank you. -------- u.s. nuc facilities -------- california National Ignition Facility gets last-minute reprieve By Betsy Mason CONTRA COSTA TIMES Wed, Nov. 09, 2005 http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/13120327.htm LIVERMORE - Lawrence Livermore Laboratory's crown jewel, the National Ignition Facility, narrowly escaped the budgetary chopping block late Monday, when the House and Senate agreed to include $327.4 million in the federal energy and water budget for the superlaser project. In July, the Senate voted to cut $146 million of the requested $337 million for NIF, including its full $142 million construction budget. Earlier, the House had voted to include the entire $337 million request. NIF is about 80 percent complete after eight years and $2.8 billion, and lab employees have been anxiously waiting for the House and Senate to reconcile their budgets in conference. "I strongly support completing the project," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said in a statement Monday after the conference. Though $10 million was lost from the laser's "demonstration" budget -- which covers a hodgepodge of activities including planning, assembly, activation and staff training -- the entire construction budget was restored, eliciting a reaction of relief at the Livermore lab. "We appreciate the vote of confidence," said Livermore Lab director Michael Anastasio in a statement Tuesday. "We are committed to bringing NIF on line as quickly and efficiently as possible and we look forward to working with the National Nuclear Security Administration to minimize the impact of the $10 million (fiscal year 2006) shortfall and to optimize the overall Stockpile Stewardship Program and our national security responsibilities." Construction of the $3.5 billion, 192-beam superlaser project is scheduled to be completed in 2009. The project's goal is to achieve nuclear fusion ignition, to be used in the maintenance of the country's nuclear weapons stockpile without actually testing weapons. "I'm pleased that my colleagues in the House and Senate have recognized the eight years and nearly $2.8 billion invested in construction of NIF, and have restored funding to this critical component of our nation's stockpile stewardship program, which ensures safe maintenance of America's nuclear arsenal without testing," said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo, Tuesday. In September, Tauscher and Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, led a bipartisan group of 33 members of the House that signed a letter to the Senate and House Appropriations subcommittees on energy and water touting NIF's merits and pressing Congress to restore funding. "This is a tremendous win for the Tri-Valley and our nation," Pombo said in a statement Tuesday. "There's no question the funding of NIF is critical to our national security efforts." But not everyone is rejoicing about NIF's go-ahead vote. The superlaser money could be better spent on Katrina relief efforts and environmental cleanup for sites with radioactive contamination, according to Livermore-based lab watchdog group Tri-Valley CARES. Construction costs have soared above the $1.8 billion initially budgeted for the project, Loulena Miles of Tri-Valley CARES said in a statement Monday. Miles and others, including Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., are skeptical that NIF will ever reach its goal of ignition. "We are disappointed that Congress didn't cut this dangerous taxpayer boondoggle," Miles said. Betsy Mason covers science and the national laboratories. Reach her at 925-847-2158 or bmason@cctimes.com. ---- Lawrence Livermore to get most of its laser funding Keay Davidson, San Francisco Chronicle Science Writer Wednesday, November 9, 2005 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/11/09/MNG5SFL2OC1.DTL&type=printable The U.S. Senate has restored most of the funding for a giant super-laser project at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, after more than four months of uncertainty about its fate. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said a joint Senate-House conference had agreed on funding for the Energy and Water Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2006 that would include $327 million for the laser project, known as the National Ignition Facility. That's still $10 million short of the $337 million the Bush administration sought for the project. In June, Domenici, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, spearheaded a Senate effort to kill construction funding for NIF. He originally fought for funding of the super-laser project in Congress in the 1990s, but he soured on it because of concerns about its budget overruns, delays, and the potential for sucking money from other scientific programs. Domenici still doubts it will live up to its original billing, he said in a statement late Monday. "Although we've settled on continuing construction at NIF, I remain skeptical that (Department of Energy) will be able to deliver on its promises regarding schedule, cost and scientific capability regarding NIF," Domenici said. If the project -- an array of 192 laser beams that function as if they were one monster laser -- is ready and running by 2009, as scheduled, it will be used mainly in a program that aims to ensure that the nation's aging arsenal of nuclear weapons remains reliable for decades to come. For years, Livermore officials have regarded the project as central to the lab's post-Cold War future as one of the nation's three nuclear weapons laboratories. They hope to use the laser to simulate thermonuclear explosions on a small scale so that they can refine computer codes used to model real nuclear explosions. In this way, they hope to improve ways of ensuring that U.S. nuclear weapons will detonate as designed for decades to come, even if the nation never resumes full-scale nuclear bomb tests. To date, the project has cost more than $3 billion, considerably more than its originally projected cost of less than $2 billion. "We are committed to bringing NIF on line as quickly and efficiently as possible," Livermore Director Michael Anastasio said in a statement Tuesday. Also, "we look forward to working with the National Nuclear Security Administration to minimize the impact of the $10 million FY 06 shortfall," he added, alluding to the $10 million cut. E-mail Keay Davidson at kdavidson@sfchronicle.com. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/11/09/MNG5SFL2OC1.DTL -------- colorado Cotter Corp. closes six mines James Shea, Montrose Daily Press Writer Wednesday, November 9, 2005 http://montrosepress.com/articles/2005/11/09/local_news/2.txt URAVAN — Increased fuel costs and limited uranium and vanadium production forced the Cotter Corporation to close six mines on Montrose County’s West End this week. “We had 49 people on the West Slope that were affected by this,” Cotter Corporation Manager of Administration Jerry Powers said. Powers said the company began mining ore three years ago at mines on the West End. Before the closure, Cotter Corporation had three mines producing uranium and vanadium, two mines close to production and one mine it leased from another company. Once the ore was extracted from the mine, it was shipped to a processing facility in Canon City. Powers said the company will also close the mill once the remaining ore is processed. “We are going to continue to operate the mill for 60 days,” he said. Powers said despite the increased price for uranium and vanadium, the company was not able to make the mines profitable. He said the mines were small and could not produce enough material to make the operations viable. “It’s an economic decision,” Powers said. “Trying to get the ore to a mill was difficult.” Montrose County’s West End has been a longtime producer of uranium and vanadium. In the 1940s and 1950s, the area produced uranium used in nuclear power and weapons production. However, by the late 1970s, the price of uranium plummeted and all of the mines closed. Over the last few years, there has been renewed interest in uranium mining. The price has nearly tripled, hovering around $33 per pound, due to decreased inventory and renewed interest in nuclear power around the world. Powers said miner workers, foremen and clerical workers were impacted by the layoffs. He said the decision was not a “full closure,” but the company did not have a timeline for opening the mines or mill site. Montrose County Commissioner Allan Belt, whose district includes the West End, said the company’s decision will be hard economically for the area. “This may just be the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Belt said. He said the county will not be able to provide much assistance given the recent failure of the county’s sales tax referendum. “It’s an absolute economic disaster, potentially,” Belt said. Down the road, Powers said the company will watch the Department of Energy’s decision on opening new uranium leasing tracts. The DOE leases uranium mines on federal lands and is studying the viability and impact of opening new mines on the Western Slope. “We are actively going to look at those,” Powers said. Tracy Plessinger, the DOE’s Uranium Lease Program Manager, said the agency is conducting an environmental assessment on the lease tracts. The agency has 13 active leases and must decide whether to open 25 other leases. “Those we could reopen and put out to competitive bid,” Plessinger said. She said she has heard about the mines closing but was waiting for a written statement from the company. If the company is closing the mines permanently, Plessinger said the company could be required to begin remediation work on the mines. “I really need to see what they say is their business decision,” Plessinger said. But she added that there is strong demand for uranium leases and she would be surprised if the mines will be closed permanently. “There still seem to be companies that think it is economically viable,” Plessinger said. The DOE will make a decision on the EA some time during the middle of next year. The Cotter Corporation was founded in 1956. It was purchased by Commonwealth Edison and later sold to General Atomics in 2000. The company has long been a source of controversy. During World War II, some of the uranium used in the Manhattan Project was processed in Canon City. During the transportation or processing, radioactive waste was released into the air and discovered around Canon City. The company’s mill site was declared a Superfund Site in 1984, because of the large amount of toxic waste and nuclear material. Some published reports have stated that the company wants to move away from uranium and vanadium production and into zirconium, a metal used in pottery. Cotter Corporation President Richard Cherry said the company could not make the Western Slope operation economically viable, but he was optimistic about the future. “Recent trials to increase mining and processing output from Colorado ore is showing promise, but cannot be implemented in the current production environment,” Cherry said in a released statement. “We hope as we move forward with these changes, the company will again be able to expand its employment in both locations.” Contact James Shea via email at Jamess@montrosepress.com -------- florida Officials insist UF nuclear reactor safe By JUSTIN RICHARDS Alligator Writer Wednesday, November 9, 2005 http://www.alligator.org/pt2/051109reactors.php Almost a month after an ABC News special decried "gaping security holes" at universities' nuclear reactors, UF has not upgraded its reactor security because university officials disagree with the network's report. UF spokesman Steve Orlando said the university's nuclear-engineering department, featured in the news report, is reviewing its procedures. However, he called the ABC report flawed. "We know what we have in place is safe. There's no question of that. Sometimes it comes down to people's perception of what's safe," he said. Joe Hice, UF associate vice president for marketing and public relations, said his office received about a dozen calls from concerned parents after the Oct. 13 report. Orlando said most callers were easily calmed, but one father hung up on the person taking his call. Brian Ross, the ABC News reporter who led the investigation, said in a phone interview that UF officials are "giving a sugar-coated version of the truth." Ross said the biggest danger at UF's research reactor, which hosts routine guided tours, was its lack of security guards and metal detectors. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not require these provisions at research reactors due to their size and relatively low risk, according to the commission's Web site. Ross expressed concern about a "dirty bomb," which uses conventional explosives to spread nuclear material. He cited a 1981 report filed by UF with the federal government that imagined a worst-case scenario in which radioactive contamination spread a half-mile from the reactor. But an excerpt of the report, released by the NRC, states that the scenario is "unrealistic" and "extremely conservative and unlikely to occur under any circumstances." Ross said officials from the Department of Defense, NRC and U.S. Congress have told him university research reactors are troublesome. "It's a very real concern," Ross said, "and it's unfortunate that the University of Florida doesn't seem to want to take it seriously." But NRC spokeswoman Beth Hayden said otherwise in an interview. "ABC is trying to use this to scare people. We feel like they're perfectly safe and perfectly secure," she said. Hayden said the notion that saboteurs could access UF's nuclear material, which is underwater and beneath 50 tons of concrete, is not feasible. "Even to get to this fuel would take hours, hours of work - large cranes. And it just wouldn't happen because there would be a response by the local law enforcement," she said. For security reasons, NRC officials could neither confirm nor deny video surveillance at the reactor, but they said unauthorized activity would bring a swift, armed response. Ross said ABC has tentative plans to follow up on the report, pending further developments. -------- kentucky KY Uranium plant site funding endorsed Congressional approval of $105 million for cleanup, $42.9 million for uranium hexafluoride project is predicted Joe Walker jwalker@paducahsun.com 270.575.8656 Wednesday, November 09, 2005 Paducah Sun http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/news2005/nn12188.htm The Paducah area stands to receive much of the roughly $333 million approved for Kentucky projects by the House/Senate Conference Committee as requested by U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell. Included Monday night in the fiscal 2006 Energy and Water Appropriations Conference Report, the funding is expected to be approved by the House and Senate later this week, McConnell said. It then will go to President Bush for his signature. McConnell, R-Louisville, is a senior member of the Appropriations Committee and a member of the conference committee. He said the legislation has:  $105 million for continued cleanup at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, including additional funds to accelerate the characterization and offsite disposal of scrap metal and low-level radioactive waste.  $85.8 million to build depleted uranium hexafluoride (UF6) plants at Paducah and Piketon, Ohio. Paducah is expected to receive $42.9 million of the sum for a factory to convert 39,000 canisters of the hazardous waste into a more stable compound. The plant will create 200 construction jobs and 150 permanent jobs.  Language calling for an independent study of 1,825 of the Paducah cylinders to determine if phosgene is present. McConnell wrote the provision in response to recent news reports that traces of the chemical — acquired by the Department of Energy from the Army´s Chemical Warfare Service in the 1940s and 1950s — might be causing corrosion in some of the canisters. Despite a September DOE inspector general´s memo to the contrary, Energy Department officials recently briefed members of the Kentucky delegation that only 31 Paducah cylinders are suspect and it is “very unlikely’ that phosgene is present. “I understand DOE believes that phosgene poses no risk to workers or the community,’ McConnell said, “but I believe it is worth seeking an independent opinion before the conversion facility begins operations in 2007.’  $465,000 toward continued operation of a mobile health unit that screens current and former Paducah plant workers for early signs of lung cancer. The unit also travels to Piketon and Oak Ridge, Tenn.  A provision calling for an independent study to determine the best use of the plant property after the plant closes and is cleaned up. The language was requested by he Paducah Area Community Reuse Organization, an economic development group. PACRO director John Anderson said earlier that the study might take three years and would address whether the Energy Department should offer to buy contaminated property of plant neighbors.  $23 million for an ongoing project to double the size of Kentucky Lock to handle increased tonnage of larger barge traffic. The Bush administration previously had no new money for the work, now 25 percent complete.  $90 million for the new Olmsted Locks and Dam, stretching from Olmsted, Ill., to the Kentucky shore. The project will replace locks 52 and 53 on the Ohio River, and be the largest locking facility in Kentucky in terms of tonnage. The conference report also has $70 million for an ongoing expansion of McAlpine Locks and Dam at Louisville, and nearly $2 million for energy-related projects involving the University of Louisville. U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Hopkinsville, who gave House support, applauded the “key funding victories for public safety and enhanced growth in western Kentucky.’ ---- Study of phosgene threat at Paducah plant urged McConnell puts order into bill By James R. Carroll jcarroll@courier-journal.com The Courier-Journal http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051109/NEWS0104/511090481/1008/NEWS01 WASHINGTON -- Congress has been asked to order an independent study of whether a toxic gas left in depleted uranium cylinders poses a danger at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. A House-Senate conference committee on Monday night approved the study, which was proposed in response to an Oct. 25 article in The Courier-Journal. The newspaper reported that a memo from the Department of Energy's Inspector General's Office said as many as 1,825 cylinders had phosgene mistakenly left in them and may be corroding. Some experts have said that a leak could release hydrogen fluoride, a toxic gas. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., inserted the study order in the final spending bill for energy and water programs and projects, which was approved by the conference committee. McConnell was a member of the committee. The measure is expected to pass the House and Senate this week and be sent to President Bush. Bill Cossler, president of United Steelworkers Local 5-550, which represents hourly workers at the Paducah plant, said he welcomed the study. "It's a very good idea," Cossler said. "We had told him this was a concern of ours and feel having an independent study is far more prudent." In the spending bill, McConnell also included: $105 million for ongoing cleanup of chemical and radiological contamination at the Paducah plant; $42.9 million for continued construction of the facility that will process the depleted uranium; $465,000 for health monitoring of current and former workers at the Kentucky facility and its sister plants in Portsmouth, Ohio, and Oak Ridge, Tenn. Staff writer James Malone contributed to this story. -------- nevada Nuclear Waste Funding Slashed in 2006 Energy Budget WASHINGTON, DC, November 9, 2005 (ENS) http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2005/2005-11-09-01.asp Plans for the nation's first permanent high-level waste repository appear to be faltering. Legislators agreed Monday to a $30.5 billion energy and water budget for Fiscal Year 2006 that cuts spending for storage of high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, Nevada and requires the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to assess risks of storing spent nuclear fuel at the power plants where it was used. The Senate and House joint conference report provides a total of $450 million for Yucca Mountain, the nation's first permanent geologic high-level waste repository at a desert location 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, on the grounds of the Nevada Nuclear Test Site. Language is included directing the Department of Energy to begin a spent nuclear fuel recycling plan and to set up a competition to determine if there are communities or states that want to volunteer to be the site for a recycling reprocessing facility. The lawmakers allotted $50 million for these activities. "No matter what side of Yucca you're on, the truth of the matter is Yucca is not on the schedule that even was predicted the last time. It's behind schedule," Senator Pete Domenici, a New Mexico Republican and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee's energy and water subcommittee. The $450 million budget is "just barely enough to keep it alive," said Domenici, a Yucca Mountain supporter. Senator Harry Reid, a longtime opponent of Yucca Mountain, said he was successful in slashing the budget for the Yucca Mountain project, planned to contain 77,000 tons of the country's most highly radioactive material - waste from Defense Department sites and spent nuclear fuel. The Department of Energy had previously said the agency would need $1.2 billion to keep the project on track. "The Yucca Mountain project is fraught with inadequate science and insidious mismanagement," Reid said. "The project is never going to open and each year we grow closer to killing it." Last year Energy Department officials had hoped to quickly submit a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and open Yucca Mountain by 2010. But a series of stumbling blocks have slowed the project, including the discovery of employee emails showing falsification of scientific data and a court ordered rewrite of radiation safety standards. Opponents, including all Nevada's elected officials, argue that the site cannot safely contain the highly radioactive waste. They fear the transport of 77,000 tons of waste by road and rail from 139 sites around the country cannot be accomplished without a nuclear accident. Currently, there is no date set for submission of the Yucca Mountain license application and no scheduled date for opening the repository. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Monday that the administration is committed to both Yucca Mountain and spent nuclear fuel recycling. In a speech at the Carnegie International Nonproliferation Conference in Washington, Bodman said, "Solving the problem of how to store spent fuel will reap tremendous benefits for America's future and will help set the stage for an expansion of nuclear power." "And permanent geological storage at Yucca Mountain offers the safest, most secure solution for dealing with this challenge," he said. In other matters, the conference report drops funding for a proposed bunker-buster nuclear warhead at the request of the Energy Department. Opponents had argued that development of the weapon that could destroy deeply buried targets, such as bunkers drilled into solid rock, could add to nuclear proliferation. Instead the administration plans to pursue a conventional weapon that can penetrate underground targets. For nuclear energy, the House-Senate conference report provides $557.57 million; $226 million is included for nuclear energy research and development of next generation nuclear power plants. The conference report provides $3.63 billion for scientific research, which is $170 million above the request sent to Congress by President George W. Bush and $32 million above last year's level. Almost 10 percent of these funds restores funding for domestic fusion research at $290 million to harness nuclear energy that fuses atoms to create energy as the Sun does instead of splitting atoms to create energy as we do today. Part of the $3.6 billion goes to fully fund the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Lab in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This accelerator based neutron source is being built at Oak Ridge by the Department of Energy to provide the most intense pulsed neutron beams in the world for scientific research and industrial development. At a total cost of $1.4 billion, construction began in 1999 and will be completed in 2006. The budget approves $15 million to initiate a Nanotechnology Technology Transfer fund for developing the techniques of creating materials molecule by molecule or atom by atom. The conference report provides $1.83 billion for energy conservation and conservation, which is $81.5 million above the President’s request and $24 million above the Fiscal Year 2005 level. Funding of $157 million for hydrogen technology development and $184 million for advanced vehicle technologies are included. The legislators agreed to spend $220 million to build the nation's first facility where weapons-grade plutonium would be processed into mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel for use in commercial power reactors. The $4 billion plant is to be built at the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina by the consortium Duke, Cogema, Stone & Webster. The purpose of the MOX program is to ensure that plutonium produced for nuclear weapons and declared excess to national security is converted to forms that are resistant to proliferation. The conference report supplies the $337 million budget President Bush requested for the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore nuclear weapons lab in California. Senator Domenici had attempted to cut construction funding for the giant laser being built to simulate the explosion of a hydrogen bomb. The lawmakers agreed to fund the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the $5.4 billion level, $1 billion above Bush's request. The $8 million requested by Senator Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, for the Corps to design a plan to bring south Louisiana up to Category Five hurricane protection. For nuclear nonproliferation activities, the House and Senate conferees allotted $1.63 billion, which is $6 million under the President’s request but $138 million above last year'sfunding level. The funds will be used to increase research and development of nuclear detection technology, address emerging threats, and to further the Global Threat Reduction Initiative. This initiative repatriates all Russian and U.S. origin fresh highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel and the replacement of it with low enriched uranium that cannot be used to make nuclear weapons. After the conference report is approved by the full House and Senate, it goes to the President's desk for his signature, which enacts the measure into law. -------- utah Senator Reid Drops Opposition to Utah Wilderness Could potentially prevent the opening of a nuclear waste storage facility on the reservation WASHINGTON, DC, November 9, 2005 (ENS) http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2005/2005-11-09-09.asp#anchor3 U.S. Senator Harry Reid, the Senate’s Democratic Leader, announced today that he will drop his opposition to a provision that would create a new wilderness area near the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation in Utah. The wilderness designation could potentially prevent the opening of a nuclear waste storage facility on the reservation, something Utah’s elected leaders have fiercely opposed. Reid has traditionally opposed the provision out of concerns it would set a bad precedent for future wilderness designation. But, after a recent conversation with Utah’s Senator Robert Bennett, Reid agreed to set aside his concerns in order to help the efforts of Bennett and other state officials to prevent the nuclear site from opening. “Land use designation is one of the biggest challenges we face in Nevada, where the federal government controls more than 80 percent of the state’s land,” Senator Reid said. “I have spent my public career working on public lands issues and have come to appreciate that Congress must be very careful in how we approach wilderness designation." “While I continue to have concerns about the Cedar Mountain wilderness proposal, of even greater concern is the threat posed by deadly nuclear waste. After speaking with Utah leaders, including Senator [Bob] Bennett and Governor [Jon] Huntsman, I have agreed to drop my opposition to this proposal. With the proposed Goshute nuclear waste site moving forward, timing has become critical and the state of Utah will need every available resource to fight this project.” The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the Goshute site as suitable for temporary storage of nuclear waste earlier this year, giving a boost to the Private Fuel Storage consortium’s plans to open a facility in the near future. Utah’s elected leaders have vowed to continue fighting the project. In Nevada, plans for a permanent nuclear waste site at Yucca Mountain continue to be delayed indefinitely, putting that project in jeopardy. Reid and Nevada’s other congressional members have fought the project for decades, resulting in successful challenges and continued delays. Reid has proposed a more realistic approach to solving the nation’s nuclear waste storage problems by leaving the waste at the sites where it is generated. Reid has been working on gaining support for his proposal. Bennett recently announced that he would support the idea and with bipartisan support growing, Reid hopes to introduce legislation soon. ---- Nuclear waste battle in D.C. court And Reid supports effort to block storage at Skull Valley site By Joe Bauman Deseret Morning News Wednesday, November 9, 2005 http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635159880,00.html Utah on Tuesday asked the nation's second-highest court to revoke federal approval of a proposal to store high-level nuclear waste in the state. Also on Tuesday, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced he is throwing his support behind a move in Congress to block the Private Fuel Storage facility proposed for Skull Valley, Tooele County. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, also took action Tuesday against PFS, telling company officials they should look for alternatives to Skull Valley. The triple attack comes a week after Hatch released letters of opposition to PFS by a Bureau of Land Management official, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Hatch himself. The last was sent to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Utah is petitioning the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C., "for review of all issues related to NRC's licensing proceeding for storage up to 4,000 casks of spent nuclear fuel" on land owned by the Skull Valley Band of the Goshute Indians, according to the state Attorney General's Office. Because this is a state appeal of an environmental issue and not an ordinary lawsuit, it skips the district court level and goes straight to the appeals court. The only court higher is the U.S. Supreme Court. Utah is asking the court to "declare that the NRC's decisions relating to the PFS license application are arbitrary and capricious and inconsistent with applicable law; (and) direct the NRC to revoke any license" granted to the facility. An accident, malfunction or negligence at the plant could cause significant harm to Utah, its citizens and the environment, the petition states. Citing several specific "defects" with the process, the petition asserts that NRC board members didn't act according to their own earlier rulings and didn't offer any explanation why. Also, it charges, the board and NRC failed to follow NRC regulations or federal statutes, failed to consider important evidence that would have changed the outcome of various decisions, violated Utah's due process rights and committed other errors. The petition also contends: • The board and commission held that "PFS was not required to consider the environmental effects of a terrorist attack" on the plant. • State fears about an accident "from a crashing aircraft or bomb" at the storage facility were not given enough credence. Thousands of Air Force F-16s, some carrying live ordnance, fly over the site every year en route to the Utah Test and Training Range where "pilots engage in war maneuvers and weapons testing," the petition notes. • The possibility that the DOE will not collect and transport waste for the proposed permanent repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., "unless it is first unsealed and repackaged elsewhere," implying that "elsewhere" is Skull Valley. The petition was submitted by Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff; several staffers in his office: Denise Chancellor, Fred G. Nelson, James R. Soper and Connie Nakahara; and Washington, D.C., lawyers working for the state: Roy T. Englert Jr. and Noah Messing. Meanwhile, Reid landed a stinging political blow against the storage plant, declaring in a news release that he is casting his lot with Utah against PFS and is dropping his opposition to a proposal to create a new wilderness area near the Skull Valley site. Wilderness designation could prevent the storage plant from opening. "Reid has traditionally opposed the provision (to create a wilderness area) out of concerns it would set a bad precedent for future wilderness designation," the release states. "But, after a recent conversation with Utah's Sen. Robert Bennett, Reid agreed to set aside his concerns." In a state where the federal government controls 80 percent of the land, Reid believes Congress "must be very careful in how we approach wilderness designation," according to the release. "While I continue to have concerns about the Cedar Mountain wilderness proposal," Reid states, "of even greater concern is the threat posed by deadly nuclear waste. With the proposed Goshute nuclear waste site moving forward, timing has become critical, and the state of Utah will need every available resource to fight this project." Hatch said he and DOE deputy secretary Clay Sell are pointing out to the majority owners of PFS — Xcel Energy, according to a Hatch statement — that they should look elsewhere for alternative sites. Hatch said in a press release that Xcel Energy CEO Dick Kelly and company president Paul Bonavia attended a meeting where he told them "I will pull out every stop" to block the PFS plan. He noted that he thinks progress is being made and that "we're very close to the point where we can move past the private Skull Valley plan and focus instead on a national policy for the interim storage of our spent nuclear fuel." Hatch said he believes Xcel Energy "understands that the (Bush) administration and I have laid out an impassible minefield that PFS should not want to or even try to run through." E-mail: bau@desnews.com -------- MILITARY -------- africa U.S. to Sudan: We Can't 'Clean It Up' Diplomat Says Global Community Can't Rescue Sudan From Crisis Nov. 9, 2005 Reporter's Notebook By JONATHAN KARL http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=1296635&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312 KHARTOUM, Sudan, Nov. 9, 2005 — For the fourth time in six months, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick is in Sudan, trying to pressure the government and tribal militias to stop the killing in the Darfur region, but he warned the United States can't "clean it up." Zoellick has been to Sudan more than he's been to any other country this year and, he points out, even more than he's been to New York. And he's brought along some White House firepower: top presidential policy adviser Michael Gerson is here with him. But in a blunt speech at Khartoum University, Zoellick warned that neither the U.S. nor the international community can come to the rescue. "It's a tribal war," Zoellick said. "And frankly I don't think foreign forces want to get in the middle of a tribal war of Sudanese." "I don't think we can clean it up because it's not just a question of ending violence, it's a question of creating the context for peace," Zoellick said. Despite U.S. efforts, the situation has only deteriorated since Zoellick's first visit back in late April. A fragile cease-fire has given way to increased violence over the past two months. Even peacekeeping forces from the African Union have been attacked twice in recent weeks. Peace talks have unraveled because of infighting among Darfur's anti-government rebels. Zoellick warned that the violence in Darfur threatens to undermine the peace agreement that ended Sudan's 20-year civil war earlier this year. "In Sudan, when one piece of the mosaic cracks, there is a danger that everything else could fall apart," he said. "And when that happens those who suffer the most are the poor, the displaced and the dispossessed. They are the soul of Sudan, and they have already suffered far, far too much." Zoellick is making his fourth trip to Sudan in an effort to find a solution to the humanitarian crisis in Darfur that has killed more than 200,000 people and forced another 2 million from their homes and into refugee camps. ABC News is the only television network traveling with Zoellick. -------- chemical weapons US criticised for use of phosphorous in Fallujah raids By Andrew Buncombe in Washington Published: 09 November 2005 UK Independent http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article325757.ece A leading campaign group has demanded an urgent inquiry into a report that US troops indiscriminately used a controversial incendiary weapon during the battle for Fallujah. Photographic evidence gathered from the aftermath of the battle suggests that women and children were killed by horrific burns caused by the white phosphorus shells dropped by US forces. The Pentagon has always admitted it used phosphorus during last year's assault on the city, which US commanders said was an insurgent stronghold. But they claimed they used the brightly burning shells "very sparingly" and only to illuminate combat areas. But the documentary Fallujah: the Hidden Massacre, broadcast yesterday by the Italian state broadcaster, RAI, suggested the shells were commonly used and killed an unspecified number of civilians. Photographs obtained by RAI from the Studies Centre of Human Rights in Fallujah, show the bodies of dozens of Fallujah residents whose skin has been dissolved or caramelised by the effects of the phosphorus shells. The use of incendiary weapons against civilian targets is banned by treaty. Last night Robert Musil, director of the group Physicians for Social Responsibility, called for an investigation. He told The Independent: "When there is clear testimony that use of such weapons has done this, it demands a full investigation. From Vietnam onwards there has been a general condemnation of [the use of white phosphorus] and concern about the injuries and consequences." The 1980 UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons bans the use of weapons such as napalm and white phosphorus against civilian - but not military - targets. The US did not sign the treaty and has continued to use white phosphorus and an updated version of napalm, called Mark 77 firebombs, which use kerosene rather than petrol. A senior US commander previously has confirmed that 510lb napalm bombs had been used in Iraq and said that "the generals love napalm. It has a big psychological effect." John Pike, director of the Washington-based military studies group GlobalSecurity.Org, said the smoke caused by the bombs could confuse or blind the enemy or mark a target. "If it hits your clothes it will burn your clothes and if it hits your skin it will just keep on burning," he said. Experts said that, if not removed, white phosphorus - known as Willy Pete - can burn to the bone. The fumes from phosphorus cause severe eye irritation. -------- drug war IDF choppers in service of drug cartel 11.09.05 ynetnews http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3166377,00.html Another diplomatic incident threatens to taint U.S.-Israeli relations: The American government has recently demanded Israel clarify how five U.S.-made helicopters sold to Israel in the mid-70s found their way into the hands of a Columbian drug cartel. An U.S. embassy official met with an Israeli foreign ministry official in Jerusalem several days ago, where he informed him that the American Foreign Ministry has requested the embassy to launch an investigation into the matter. According to American sources, the military copters currently serve the drug mafia in the South American country. Top diplomatic sources fear that this incident will once again heat-up tensions between Israel and the U.S. and cloud the strategic dialogue between the two countries, which is scheduled to renew in November, after talks were suspended for more than a year-and-a-half. Kosher deal went sour The dubious affair, which was already investigated by the Israeli Defense Ministry, and later turned over to the hands of the police, was uncovered about two years ago. Investigators revealed that the Defense Ministry signed a deal with an Israeli company three years ago, contracting it to negotiate the sale of five IAF helicopters for a sum of USD 100,000 per aircraft. The ministry permitted the choppers, of a MD 500 Defender model, be sold either to the Mexican federal police, or to the Spain firefighters department. However, contrary to the terms of the license, the copters ended up in Columbia, by way of Canadian mediators. A Defense Ministry spokeswoman said in response that "after suspicions were raised that an illicit exchange took place, the ministry launched an initial investigation into the matter last year." "According to instructions of the chief prosecutor, the case was handed over to the police in 2004," she added. Sources at the Defense Ministry refused to comment on the matter. Itamar Eichner writes for Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel's leading newspaper -------- iraq UN Extends U.S.-led Foreign Troop Presence Wednesday, November 9th, 2005 Headlines Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/09/1538200 In other Iraq news, the UN Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to extend the mandate of U.S.-led military forces by one year. There are nearly 180,000 foreign troops currently in Iraq. -------- latin america UN General Assembly Votes To End U.S. Embargo of Cuba Wednesday, November 9th, 2005 Headlines Democracy Now! And for the fourteenth consecutive year, the U.N. General Assembly has cast a near unanimous vote calling on the United States to end its four-decade old embargo against Cuba. The vote passed with a record 184 countries in favor. Only the United States, Israel, Palau and the Marshall Islands voted against. United States envoy to the U.N. Ronald Godard said: "If the people of Cuba are jobless, hungry, or lack medical care, as Castro admits, it's because of his economic mismanagement." -------- mideast 2nd Lawyer in Hussein Trial Assassinated Wednesday, November 9th, 2005 Headlines Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/09/1538200 For the second time in three weeks, a defense lawyer in the trial of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and other former regime officials has been assassinated. Adel Muhammad al-Zubaidi was killed instantly when gunmen shot his car in the Baghdad suburb of Adel. Another lawyer suffered serious injuries and was taken to a U.S. military hospital. Members of Hussein’s defense team renewed calls to move the trial out of Iraq. The Iraqi Bar Association said it would maintain a boycott of the trial it announced after Hussein lawyer Sadoun al-Janabi was killed October 20th, just 36 hours after he had appeared at opening proceedings. ---- Report: Bush Administration Cutting Off Syrian Contact Wednesday, November 9th, 2005 Headlines Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/09/1538200 The Boston Globe is reporting the Bush administration has cut off nearly all contact with the Syrian government in an attempt to weaken and isolate President Bashar Assad's government. The U.S. has halted high-level diplomatic meetings, limited military coordination on the Iraq border and ended discussion to reform Syrian banking laws to block terrorist financing. The Globe reports the United States also declined a Syrian proposal to revive intelligence cooperation. The Bush administration has repeatedly accused Syria of lending support to foreign insurgents allegedly entering Iraq from Syrian territory and supporting Palestinian militant groups in the Occupied Territories and Lebanon. U.S. officials told the Globe the Bush administration continues to debate whether to pursue “regime change” in the country. -------- spies Republicans Call For Joint Investigation into Possible Prison Leak Wednesday, November 9th, 2005 Headlines Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/09/1538200 A week after the Washington Post reported the existence of a secret, CIA-run prison in Eastern Europe, Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert have called on the Senate and House intelligence committees to convene a “a joint investigation” into who leaked the information. The CIA has notified the Justice Department classified information was leaked in the disclosure of the prisons. This could set the stage for a possible criminal inquiry similar to the one launched following the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Lott Suspects Fellow Republicans in Prison Disclosure Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reports Republican Senator Trent Lott said senators from his own party might be responsible for the leak. Lott said the secret prison facilities were discussed at a Republican luncheon on Capitol Hill -- one day before the Post published its report November 2nd. Vice President Cheney was among those in attendance. Lott said : "Information that was said in there, given out in there, did get into the newspaper. I don't know where else it came from…. It looked to me that at least one of those reports came right out of that room." CIA Warned On Interrogation Procedures The CIA’s inspector general has warned the agency its interrogation procedures could violate the international Convention Against Torture. This according to the New York Times. In a report, the inspector general said "cruel, inhuman or degrading" techniques used in secret locations around the world could expose agents to legal liability. These techniques include waterboarding, in which the detainee undergoes the experience of drowning. The White House is currently pushing a Congressional amendment that would exempt CIA agents from a Senate ban on torture for interrogations conducted overseas. CIA Official Discloses Agency’s Budget In other intelligence news, a CIA official appears to have disclosed the agency’s budget -- long a national secret. At an intelligence conference in San Antonio last week, Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Collection Mary Margaret Graham, said the annual intelligence budget was $44 billion. ---- Intelligence Center Is Created for Unclassified Information November 9, 2005 New York Times Company By SCOTT SHANE http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news5/nyt29.htm WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 - Top intelligence officials announced on Tuesday the creation of a new agency, the Open Source Center, to gather and analyze information from the Web, broadcasts, newspapers and other unclassified sources around the world. The premise of the center, announced as part of the restructuring of the nation's intelligence agencies by the director of national intelligence, John D. Negroponte, is that some critical information to understand threats to national security requires neither spies nor satellites to collect. This "open source" information can include anything from sermons broadcast from radical mosques in the Middle East to reports in the provincial Chinese press of possible avian flu outbreaks. Such material has often been undervalued by government policymakers, in part because it lacks the cachet of information gathered by more sensitive methods, intelligence officials said. "Just because information is stolen, that doesn't make it more useful," Gen. Michael V. Hayden, Mr. Negroponte's principal deputy, said at a news briefing. The new center will absorb the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, a branch of the Central Intelligence Agency that has already expanded beyond its historical duty of translating foreign broadcasts and periodicals to study Web sites and more obscure sources like T-shirt slogans in countries of interest. The director of the old service, known as FBIS, Douglas J. Naquin, is director of the Open Source Center. The center is situated at C.I.A. headquarters in Langley, Va., and will be operated by the C.I.A. director, Porter J. Goss. But it will be overseen by a subordinate of Mr. Negroponte called the assistant deputy director of national intelligence for open source. That position has not been filled, but one former intelligence official said the leading candidate was Eliot A. Jardines, 35, a former intelligence officer who ran and recently sold a software company, Open Source Publishing. By putting the new center under Mr. Negroponte's control, officials said, they hope to ensure that its reports will go to all 15 intelligence agencies and the major military commands rather than just to the C.I.A. But the divided management structure also shows the delicacy of shifting control of the nation's $44 billion spy effort to Mr. Negroponte from Mr. Goss, who gave up the title of director of central intelligence with the restructuring this year. Mark M. Lowenthal, an assistant director of the C.I.A. from 2002 until earlier this year, said that open source information had long been undervalued and that the center's creation gave the government a chance to change that. "We're playing a lot of catch-up," he said. Dr. Lowenthal, now president of the Intelligence and Security Academy, a training firm in Virginia, said a classic case of the failure to use open-source information came when India's nuclear test surprised American intelligence in 1998. Analysts who failed to predict the test based on agents, eavesdropping and satellite photos had simply to read and take seriously the platform of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, he said. "It said, 'If we come to power, we'll test a nuclear weapon,' " Dr. Lowenthal said. -------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE -------- torture Robert Fisk on Torture: "We Have Become the Criminals...We Have No Further Moral Cause to Fight For" Wednesday, November 9th, 2005 Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/09/1538226 We speak with veteran war correspondent Robert Fisk of the London Independent about the U.S. abuse of prisoners in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and rendition to other countries as well as the role of journalists in a time of war. [includes rush transcript] - Robert Fisk, chief Middle East correspondent for the London Independent. He is author of several books. His latest is "The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East." RUSH TRANSCRIPT AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to Robert Fisk, author of The Great War for Civilization, long-time veteran war correspondent. Your response, from Algeria to the White House? ROBERT FISK: Well, a colonel in the U.S. Special Forces said to a good friend of mine a few months ago in a telephone conversation, “You know, torture works.” I quoted him in my book just before it went to press without giving his name, though I know who he is and I know what his job is. Torture is used routinely by U.S. forces in Iraq and in Afghanistan. It is a fact. One of the amazing things was that when I went back to research my book, I found that by the summer of 2003, I was doing interviews with Iraqis who clearly had been tortured, but the only evidence was their own word for it. We were printing my reports in the paper, but they didn't get on the front page, because, of course, there was no substantial confirmation from any other source except their own words. But, quite clearly, different people who had no contact with each other were reporting the same treatment. One of the initial torture implements was bottled water, plastic bottles filled with water with which they would beat a prisoner, particularly American troops based just outside Ramadi and Fallujah in