NucNews - December 3, 2005 -------- NUCLEAR -------- europe Europe divided over expansion of nuclear facilities Germany, France offer contrast Disposal of waste a contentious issue Dec. 3, 2005. 01:00 AM Toronto Star SANDRO CONTENTA EUROPEAN BUREAU http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1133566816410&call_pageid=968332188774&col=968350116467 LONDON—A train carrying treated radioactive waste from France to Germany has become a symbol of Europe's divided approach to nuclear power. Thousands of German protestors repeatedly blocked its route and clashed with police before the train delivered 170 tonnes of radioactive cargo to a storage site southeast of Hamburg 10 days ago. The waste, produced by Germany's nuclear power reactors, had been sent to France to be diluted and encased in glass before being shipped back for temporary storage in a disused salt mine. The reprocessing shipments — there have been nine since 1996 — link two countries with sharply opposing views about the future of nuclear power. France is the world's largest nuclear power generator per capita, with 58 reactors producing almost 80 per cent of its electricity. The state-owned companies that control the industry recently began a massive program to upgrade existing reactors and build a new generation of them. Germany has turned its back on nuclear power, which currently generates 30 per cent of its electricity. It is implementing a 2000 deal with nuclear power companies to phase out all 19 reactors. Two have already shut down and the other 17 are expected to be closed by 2020. German's new chancellor, conservative Angela Merkel, campaigned on extending the phase-out period. But her minority government had to drop the proposal in order to strike a coalition deal with the defeated Social Democratic party. Since the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident in the former Soviet Ukraine, the Western European trend has largely been on Germany's side. Italy implemented a 1987 referendum decision by banning nuclear power and shutting down its four reactors. That was followed by Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Belgium all adopting laws to phase out reactors. Spain's prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, recently announced he would do the same. On average, about 30 per cent of Europe's electricity is generated by nuclear power, according to the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency. The Paris-based agency's director general, Louis Echavarri, expects the number to remain stable for the next 15 years. In countries like Belgium and Sweden, where nuclear power generates about half of the electricity, some experts doubt targets to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases can be met without keeping some of the reactors, which produce clean energy, turned on. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi recently suggested the country's reactors should be restarted, and Britain is debating whether to build a new generation of nuclear plants. Finland is currently building its fifth nuclear reactor — the only Western European country other than France to do so since the Chernobyl accident. Despite a strong safety record, the biggest hurdle to nuclear power remains public opinion, Echavarri says. "You can't do nuclear against the civil society. Civil society has to be convinced, in a big majority, that it's the right thing to do," he says. Most European countries are split between conservative political parties that generally back nuclear power and those on the left that oppose it, Echavarri says. That confrontation doesn't exist in France. The French left's embrace of nuclear power has its roots with Marie Curie, the scientist whose discoveries paved the way for nuclear physics and cancer therapy and earned her two Nobel Prizes in the early 1900s, Echavarri says. France's post-World-War-II drive to be fully independent, especially of U.S. influence, led partly to its development of nuclear weapons. When the oil crisis hit in the 1970s, France launched a huge expansion of its nuclear power plants to reduce its reliance on energy imports. Until recently, state-owned companies exercised a monopoly on the production and distribution of French energy. State-owned Areva is the world's largest nuclear group, doing everything from designing and building nuclear power stations to supplying and recycling the uranium that fuels them. France hasn't solved the most contentious problem with nuclear power — where and how to dispose of its 978,000 cubic metres of nuclear waste. After 15 years of research, the French government has set next year as the deadline for a decision. The most likely option is a clay shaft in the Champagne wine region. But 10,000 people turned out in protest last September when tests were done in the area. It was a much-noted event in the country that embraces nuclear energy. The troubling legacy of nuclear waste, some of which remains radioactive for tens of thousands of years, was the main reason Germany decided to phase out its nuclear plants. Former Social Democratic chancellor Gerhard Schroeder agreed to do so after striking a coalition deal with the Green party. For years, Germany's nuclear power industry was heavily subsidized by government. The policy shift resulted in a sharp growth in renewable energy sources, such as wind turbines, and energy efficiency programs. "These alternative forms of energy would not have developed if we still had a policy of favouring nuclear energy," says Eberhard Bohne, former adviser to the German federal ministry of environment, nature conservation and nuclear safety. Renewable energy sources have almost doubled in the past five years and now generate about 10 per cent of electricity. The government's goal is to hit 20 per cent by 2020. Energy efficiency regulations have been passed for new buildings, and homeowners have been given financial help to better insulate old ones. Industry has received incentives to build cleaner coal- and gas-powered plants. Bohne says some countries want nuclear power plants because it brings them close to developing nuclear weapons. But in Germany's case, he says, concerns about global warming will eventually give a new lease on life to reactors scheduled to close. "There will be a kind of biological solution," he says. "When today's protestors are too old to take to the streets, things will change. The problem then is we may no longer have nuclear experts to operate the plants." -------- india India successfully tests surface-to-air missile Sat Dec 3, 2005 3:50 AM ET (AFP) http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051203/wl_sthasia_afp/indiamilitarymissile_051203085033 BHUBANESHWAR, India - India has successfully tested a domestically developed surface-to-air missile at a coastal range in the eastern state of Orissa, a defence official said. The Akash missile was Saturday fired from the Chandipur-on-Sea testing site, 200 kilometres (125 miles) northeast of the Orissa state capital Bhubaneswar, the official said on condition of anonymity. The 700-kilogramme (1,540 pound) Akash, which can track 100 targets simultaneously with onboard radar, can move at a speed of 600 metres (yards) a second and deliver a 55-kilogram warhead across 27 kilometres in 50 seconds. It was the fourth test of the Akash missile this year. The missile is one of five being developed by India's state-run Defence Research and Development Organization, which launched a project in 1983 to build an array of missiles. It hopes to cap the programme with a ballistic missile with a range of 5,000 kilometres. Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan, who came close to war in 2002 but whose relations have warmed since, frequently test fire missiles. -------- japan Navy to deploy carrier USS George Washington in Japan WASHINGTON (AFP) Dec 03, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/051202231701.v7p8tzw9.html The USS George Washington will replace the USS Kitty Hawk in 2008 as the US Navy's first nuclear powered aircraft carrier based in Japan, the US Navy said Friday. The navy's announcement followed Japan's agreement last month to host a nuclear powered aircraft carrier on its territory for the first time. "This rotation is part of the Navy's long-range effort to routinely replace older ships assigned to the Navy's forward deployed naval forces with newer or more capable platforms," the Navy said. "It is part of an ongoing effort to consider the nature of all forward deployed forces when looking at the unpredictable security environment in the western Pacific," it said. The USS George Washington, which is currently stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, will arrive at its base in Yokosuka, Japan in 2006, the navy said. It is undergoing maintenance and upgrades at the Newport News shipyards. The Kitty Hawk, which will be retired from the fleet, is conventionally powered. Although spurring frequent protests, the US Navy has sent nuclear-powered warships temporarily into Japanese ports, including Yokosuka, more than 1,200 times since 1964. ---- Japanese governor to try and stop US nuclear ship deployment TOKYO (AFP) Dec 03, 2005 http://www.spacewar.com/2005/051203100732.2w3rxkpj.html The governor of a prefecture hosting the largest US Navy base in Japan said Saturday he would continue to seek to stop the deployment of a nuclear-powered ship there in 2008 as announced by Washington. "It doesn't mean that we have exhausted all possibilities" of stopping the deployment of a nuclear-powered ship at Yokosuka, Kanagawa governor Shigefumi Matsuzawa said in a statement. The US Navy announced Friday in Washington that the USS George Washington would replace the USS Kitty Hawk in 2008 as its first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier based in Japan. Japan, a close US ally, announced in October it had agreed to host a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier at the port from 2008 prompting protests in the only nation to have suffered nuclear attack. More than 210,000 people died when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed by US forces in 1945. "I'll continue urging the Japanese and US governments to solve the noise problem caused by carrier-based aircraft as soon as possible and to try my best to see that a conventional carrier is deployed here," Matsuzawa said. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso, currently visiting Washington, is scheduled to meet US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Saturday and to discuss the realignment of US forces in Japan. -------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE -------- drug war Wasps could replace bomb, drug dogs TIFTON, Ga. (AP) December 3, 2005 http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2005-12-03-sniffing-wasps_x.htm Trained wasps could someday replace dogs for sniffing out drugs, bombs and bodies. No kidding. Scientists say a species of non-stinging wasps can be trained in only five minutes and are just as sensitive to odors as man's best friend, which can require up to six months of training at a cost of about $15,000 per dog. With the use of a handheld device that contains the wasps but allows them to do their work, researchers have been able to use the insects to detect target odors such as a toxin that grows on corn and peanuts, and a chemical used in certain explosives. "There's a tremendous need for a very flexible and mobile chemical detector," said U.S. Department of Agriculture entomologist Joe Lewis, who has been studying wasps since the 1960s. "Our best devices that we have currently are very cumbersome, expensive and highly fragile." The "Wasp Hound" research by Lewis and University of Georgia agricultural engineer Glen Rains is part of a larger government project to determine if insects and even reptiles or crustaceans could be recruited for defense work. That project has already resulted in scientists refining the use of bees as land-mine detectors. Through the years, Lewis and a USDA colleague, J.H. Tumlinson, discovered that a tiny, predatory wasp known as microplitis croceipes had relied on odors to locate nectar for food and hosts for its eggs — caterpillars that damage crops. While they don't sting humans, the female wasps use their stingers to deposit eggs inside caterpillars, producing larvae that eventually kill the caterpillars. The scientists also discovered that plants being attacked by the caterpillars give off SOS scents to attract the all-black wasps and that the quarter-inch-long insects could be trained to associate other odors with food and prey. "They have to be good detectors because their whole survival depends on it," Lewis said. Rains said the wasps can be trained to detect a specific odor very quickly. The researchers expose hungry wasps to the target odor, then let them feed on sugar water for 10 seconds and then give them a one-minute break. After three repetitions of sniffing and feeding, the wasps associate the odor with feeding. Since the scientists couldn't put leashes on their trained wasps, they needed a way to contain them while monitoring their reactions to odors. Enter the Wasp Hound — a 10-inch-long plastic cylinder made of PVC pipe with a hole in one end and a small fan on the other. Inside is a webcamera that connects to a laptop computer for monitoring the behavior of five wasps housed in a transparent, ventilated capsule. When the wasps detect a target odor, they converge around the vent, creating a mass of dark pixels on the computer screen. Otherwise, they just hang out inside the capsule. They can work for as long as 48 hours, then they're released to live out their remainder of their two-to three-week life span. "What we have ... is a technology-free organism that you can quickly program and use in a highly mobile way," said Lewis, who believes the Wasp Hound could be used to search for explosives at airports, locate bodies, monitor crops for toxins and detect diseases such as cancer from the odors in a person's breath. "They're very cheap to produce and very sensitive," Rains said of the wasps. "Dogs take months to train and they need a specific handler. Wasps can be trained on the spot." Rains believes the Wasp Hound could be available for sale in three to five years. He and Lewis are still exploring ways to breed more wasps and to train hundreds simultaneously. "We've done enough on it to know it's technically feasible to do that," Lewis said. "It's just a matter of completing and refining the methodology." Lewis believes many other types of invertebrates — bees, other types of parasitic insects, even water bugs — can be trained to sniff out trouble. "It's opened a whole new resource for invertebrates as biological sensors," he said. Other scientists also are working to harness the sniffing power of insects. In 2002, the Pentagon considered fitting sniffer bees with transmitters the size of a grain of salt to locate explosives and relay that information wirelessly to laptop computers. A British firm, Inscentinel Ltd., sells trained bees and mini-hives where the insects' response to scents from natural and man-made chemicals can be monitored. The company says the system can be used to screen for explosives, drugs, chemical weapons, land mines and for food quality control. Jerry Bromenshenk, a research professor at Montana State University, is using bees for mine detection. The bees congregate over mines or other explosives and their locations are mapped using laser-sensing technology. "Insects and their antennae have an olfactory system that is pretty much on a par with a dog," Bromenshenk said. "They're a whole lot more plentiful and a lot less expensive to come by." Bromenshenk said bees may be more appropriate for open areas, while the Wasp Hound may be better in buildings. "The difference is that we let our bees free fly," he said. "That's not good in confined areas like an airport." -------- POLITICS -------- investigations Powell acknowledges mistakes By Brad Cain The Associated Press Published: Saturday, December 3, 2005 http://www.registerguard.com/news/2005/12/03/d3.or.powell.1203.p1.php?section=nation_world SALEM - Despite protests from some students and faculty members, former Secretary of State Colin Powell received a mostly warm reception from about 1,000 Willamette University students Friday who heard him defend the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq. ``It is important to stay the course'' in Iraq, Powell said during a 50-minute campus forum during which he was quizzed by students about prospects for ending the war in Iraq anytime soon. Earlier this week, Powell's former chief of staff, Lawrence Wilkerson, said President Bush was ``too aloof, too distant from the details'' of postwar planning, allowing underlings to exploit Bush's detachment and make bad decisions. Wilkerson also suggested that Powell may agree with him that Bush was too hands off about Iraq. However, Powell made no similar comment during his stop at Willamette University. He did say, though, that some ``big mistakes'' were made in the conduct of the war in the first year but that ``we are correcting them now'' in the effort to build a new Iraq. ``We cannot walk away and let murderers impose their will on 25 million people,'' Powell said of the stubborn insurgency that he said is mainly made up of ``dissaffected people left over from the previous regime'' of Saddam Hussein. After the student forum on the Willamette campus, Powell attended a private fundraising event for the school that officials said was expected to raise nearly $275,000 for the private university, which has 1,600 undergraduate students. Some faculty members objected to Powell's visit, saying the school shouldn't associate itself with Powell because of his role in the Bush administration's drive to invade Iraq. History professor William Smaldone said Friday he had no problem with Powell speaking on campus with students, but he helped push a nonbinding faculty resolution ``strongly objecting'' to the school's use of Powell at the fundraiser. ``Mr. Powell is one of the persons who's responsible for unleashing this war for bogus reasons,'' Smaldone said. ``He is not the kind of person we should hold up as a model for our students.'' But Matt Buehler, a 22-year-old senior from Lake Oswego, said most Willamette students were glad to have Powell on campus, and that 700 students signed petitions to show their support for him. ``The faculty is way out of touch with the student body on this,'' Buehler said. ``Colin Powell is a model of what it means to be in public service.'' Powell, in his remarks to the students, said he realizes that the American public is becoming increasingly worried about the Iraq war, which has claimed 2,127 American lives since the U.S.-led invasion began in March 2003. Powell said he believes that there might be a reduction in U.S. troop levels next year, but that military involvement will be needed there for some time to come. ``We have an obligation to stay there until the Iraqi military is capable of doing the job,'' he said. -------- ACTIVISTS Thousands protest global warming amid UN climate conference Dec 03, 2005 MONTREAL (AFP) http://www.terradaily.com/2005/051203220009.rtvneew8.html Tens of thousands of people demonstrated Saturday in Montreal, host of the UN Climate Change Conference, to demand that governments worldwide take concrete measures against global warming. Similar protests were expected in about 30 cities across the world, but organizers said the biggest crowd would be in Montreal, where the UN conference started Monday. "We are 40,000 today, and we are really proud of you," march leader Florent Vollant told the crowds. "You braved the cold to come, and it's important because the world is watching us." Demonstrators want countries to negotiate a long-term plan to boost the battle against climate change. They are also pressing Canada to lead actions against global warming and urging it to exceed its commitments in the Kyoto Protocol. Some 10,000 delegates and members of environmental groups are meeting here for the UN Climate Change Conference ending December 9. The controversial Kyoto protocol, aiming to cut greenhouse gas emissions, became fully operational on Wednesday after the conference adopted the final rules. The 34 signatory countries -- which do not include the United States or Australia -- passed the final regulatory measures by consensus. So-called greenhouse gases, notably carbon dioxide, which is generated by burning of fossil fuels like gas, oil and coal, enlarge an atmospheric layer that blocks radiant heat from escaping Earth into space. Scientists worry that the resulting increased temperatures are melting polar ice caps and heating tropical seas, with unknown and possibly disastrous consequences for Earth's weather, flora and fauna. US environmental groups on Saturday presented the US consulate here with 600,000 signatures on a petition seeking US action on global warming, organizers said. "We are here representing the people of the United States who want action to be taken," said Ted Glick, of the Climate Crisis Coalition. "Sixty percent of the American people want action taken on global warming," he said. He said the 600,000 came from 190 cities in the United States. "It is clear that there's a distinction between what the people of United States want to do on this issue and where the Bush administration is," said Chris Miller, of Greenpeace USA. "And it's also really important that the countries and the delegates that are here to move forward are not be waiting for the Bush administration to engage on this issue." Harlan Watson, head of the US delegation, was blunt in rejecting US inclusion in Kyoto-style agreements. "The United States is opposed to any such discussions," he told reporters last week. Washington has since 2002 embarked on a voluntary policy to reduce its emissions by 18 percent without harming the US economy, he said. The United States refused to ratify the Kyoto agreement, which called for reduction by six percent of emissions from their 1990 levels, saying it applied more stringently to developed countries than to developing ones. The United States, with five percent of the world's population, emits 25 percent of the world's greenhouse gases. ---- British protesters demand climate change action LONDON (AFP) Dec 03, 2005 http://www.terradaily.com/2005/051203195729.udb87onx.html Thousands of people took to the streets of London Saturday to call for renewed international action against climate change. According to organisers, some 10,000 people turned out to call on the British government to tackle the threat of global warming, although police put the crowd at slightly over 4,000. The protest coincided with others in 32 countries worldwide ahead of a critical United Nations conference of about 190 nations on climate change in Montreal, Canada. Britain's Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett and her junior, Elliott Morley, will represent Britain at the talks, which start on December 9. "Climate change is probably the greatest threat humanity faces. It has consequences of catastrophic proportions," said Phil Thornhill, national co-ordinator for protest organisers the Campaign Against Climate Change. "We are demanding urgent action at a global level to deal with it. We need an international treaty to deal with that and we need to have a target to bring emissions down and keep to that. That's the only way it will work." The demonstration, which ended outside the US Embassy, saw many bang drums and blow whistles as well as chant anti-political slogans. Some carried banners saying "Bush, Blair, Beckett: climate criminals". The Montreal talks follow on from the Kyoto Protocol, which was signed in 1997 and called for a 30 percent cut in carbon emissions by 2020. A letter handed in to British Prime Minister Tony Blair at Downing Street demanded his government reaffirm its commitment with legally binding targets on emission reductions. Blair has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent of 1990 levels by 2010.