NucNews - December 7, 2005 -------- NUCLEAR -------- australia Australian Medical professionals join anti-nuclear push By Michelle Grattan, Canberra December 7, 2005 The Age http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/medical-professionals-join-antinuclear-push/2005/12/06/1133829596101.html PROMINENT medical professionals have bought into the growing Australian nuclear debate, strongly opposing the development of a local industry and the expansion of local uranium production. Eighteen leading academic and hospital doctors will today issue a statement declaring they are increasingly alarmed at proposals for expansion of the nuclear industry in Australia. "Calls for Australians to consider nuclear power for domestic use are unnecessary and counterproductive," they say. Their statement follows mounting pressure for Australia to consider nuclear energy. Among those advocating that Australia consider it is Education Minister Brendan Nelson, a former head of the Australian Medical Association. The medicos' intervention also comes as Parliament is passing legislation for a controversial nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory. The medicos say increasing uranium exports is "dangerous and irresponsible". The Government and all Australians should "secure a healthy future for our children, grandchildren and generations to come by rejecting any role for nuclear power in Australia (and) opposing any expansion of uranium exports". "A clever, farsighted Australia, with effective leadership, could lead internationally in developing, implementing and marketing energy-efficient and sustainable energy technology and processes". Signatories concede the problems posed by global warming. "However, the solution to this crisis cannot be found in a technology which not only carries the inevitable risk of proliferation of the most terrible of all weapons, fuelling the ongoing threat of nuclear annihilation, but which cannot provide a sustainable solution to climate change," they say. Associate Professor Lou Irving, director of respiratory medicine at Royal Melbourne Hospital, told The Age last night few Western countries were going nuclear. Those with nuclear power were not building new stations and some were decommissioning stations. He said nuclear power carried the risk of accidents and of material getting into the hands of terrorists. It was not particularly efficient or economical and it distracted from finding long-term solutions to environmental problems. Other Victorian signatories include: Professor Frederick Mendelsohn, director, Howard Florey Institute, Melbourne University; Associate Professor Harry Minas, director, Centre for International Mental Heath, Melbourne University; Professor Susan Sawyer, director, Centre for Adolescent Health Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne; Associate Professor Anthony LaMontagne, School of Population Health, Melbourne University; Associate Professor Dorota Gertig, School of Population Health, Melbourne University; Associate Professor Steve Trumble, director, Education Department of General Practice, Melbourne University; Dr Hadia Mukhtar from Melbourne and Monash Universities Departments of General Practice; Dr Andrea Bendrups, head, General Medical Unit 4, Royal Melbourne Hospital; Associate Professor Tilman Ruff, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and and Health Services, Melbourne University. -------- business Areva sells minority stake in Australia's ERA Wednesday December 7, 1:08 AM (Reuters) http://asia.news.yahoo.com/051206/3/2bye9.html PARIS, Dec 6 - French state-owned nuclear power firm Areva said on Tuesday it has sold its 7.76 percent stake in Energy Resources of Australia Ltd (ERA), which runs the Ranger uranium mine. Areva sold its 14.8 million shares at A$9.5 per share, or a gross amount of A$140.6 million, the statement said. The stake was "strictly financial" and "not strategic", Areva said. -------- europe Storage of spent nuclear fuel from Australia illegal - French court 12.07.2005, 11:55 PM (AFX) http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2005/12/07/afx2377136.html PARIS - Storage of spent nuclear fuel from Australia at the French Channel town of La Hague by the Cogema company is illegal, France's top appeals court said. The Cour de Cassation upheld a ruling last April by the Caen court of appeal that Cogema's treatment plant was illegally storing Australian nuclear waste that had not been given the necessary authorization for treatment. The Caen court recognized that the stored substances were indeed radioactive nuclear waste, which Cogema denied, and that they had been stored for four years 'in conditions unjustified in regard to the applicable legislation.' Cogema and environmental group Greenpeace confirmed the ruling by the Cour de Cassation, according to Agence France-Presse. Cogema said the decision did not jeopardize the treatment of spent Australian nuclear fuel which had started on June 9, and the treated material would be sent back to Australia. Australian Greenpeace nuclear campaigner James Courtney said in a media release: 'If our government breaks laws and cuts corners with the nuclear waste from one (Lucas Heights) research reactor, how can the public trust their grand ambitions for a full blown nuclear power industry for Australia?' He went on: 'This ruling demonstrates that the Australian Government's reckless plans for nuclear expansion include no credible solution to deal with the insolvable problem of nuclear waste.' ---- Further official confirmation of presence NATO nuclear weapons in Netherlands at Volkel k.koster@inter.nl.net From: "K.Koster" Date: Wed Dec 7, 2005 5:28pm Utrecht 7 Dec 2005 Dear friends, colleagues please note the two excerpts below, which are essentially replies by the Netherlands Minister of Defence Kamp to NATO nuclear weapons related questions by member Krista van Velzen (Socialist Party - left-wing opposition party). This formed part of the annual defence budget debate. Karel Koster PENN-Netherlands +31 (0)6 1322 3359 +++++++++++++ ((UNOFFICIAL TRANSLATION KAREL KOSTER) Minister Kamp of Defence stated the following during a meeting of the Permanent Defence Committee of the Lower House of Parliament on 7 Nov 2005 (p 52 of the official transcript 2005-2006 30 300 X).He did so in response to questions concerning planning for nuclear weapons accidents by opposition member of parliament Krista Van Velzen (Socialist Party). "It is conceivable that nuclear weapons are transported through the air space above the Netherlands. They could also be transported across our territory. It is also conceivable that nuclear weapons are temporarily stored in the Netherlands. There are regulations for this and both the ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and the ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment are involved. The regulations are strictly followed." ++++++++++++++++++++ (UNOFFICIAL TRANSLATION KAREL KOSTER) Letter from the Minister and deputy Minister of Defence 30 300 X nr. 30 The Hague 15 November 2005 Translation excerpt of letter, in response to questions by member Krista van Velzen (Socialist Party) regarding accident response involving "nuclear defence material": "Beside the procedures and agreements within the framework of the regular and nuclear accident response already noted , a number of NATO allies, including the Netherlands, have reached agreement about the nuclear accident response procedures for accidents involving nuclear weapons. Because the F-16 (dual-capable) aircraft deployed at Volkel air base also have a nuclear weapons task, the surrounding communities will, in their planning procedures also have to take into account nuclear accidents. The local council has sufficient information for this." The Minister of Defence H.G.J.C.Kamp Deputy minister of Defence C.van der Knaap Lower House, parliamentary year 2005-2006, 30 300X, nr 30 -------- india Safe nuclear energy: India showed the way December 7, 2005 Peak Oil http://peakoil.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=9822 Several reactors operating with thorium fuel were built in the 1970s. These reactors used a mixture of thorium and highly enriched uranium. By the end of the 1980s, they were closed down with plentiful availability of uranium. India is now perhaps the only country to have an operating reactor -- Kamini, the mini reactor at Kalpakkam -- using a form of uranium derived from thorium along with plutonium. India is also the only country now with an ongoing programme to build a power-generating reactor -- Advanced Heavy Water Reactor, AHWR -- that will be fuelled with thorium and plutonium. The AHWR is designed to have many advanced safety features. ---- Chain reaction December 7, 2005 Hindustan Times http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1567720,0012.htm The outcome of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Russia is the best proof that the India-US nuclear agreement of July 18 is the key that will unlock the many bolts clamped on India’s civil and military nuclear programmes. You don’t even have to read between the lines to see that the Russian position on nuclear cooperation, or for that matter that of the French or the British, is identical to that of the US. Russian President Vladimir Putin made this clear on Tuesday when he premised nuclear cooperation with India on its dialogue with the Nuclear Suppliers Group and on “separating its military and peaceful nuclear programmes”. In 2001, the Russians supplied 50 tonnes of enriched uranium to keep the Tarapur nuclear power plant going. But during Mr Putin’s visit to Delhi, in December 2004, Moscow categorically ruled out providing more, citing NSG rules. They also refused India’s request for an additional two 1,000 MW reactors for the Koodankulam nuclear power project. Now there is complete agreement between New Delhi, Moscow and Washington, and Paris and London, on the next steps. The bargain clearly, favours India, no matter what nitpicking domestic critics say. Parallel to this is the decision in Jeju, South Korea, to include India as a member of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project. There should be no doubt in any mind that the decision by the seven-member group — US, EU, Russia, South Korea, China and Japan — is the result of a little nudge from Washington. The July 18 agreement clearly stated that the US would do all it can to push for India’s membership. The ITER, a truly international enterprise, is aimed at building a reactor that can use nuclear fusion as a source of energy. And in all this, heed also the sound of another bolt unfastening — the Russian decision to move on the lease of two Akula-class nuclear-propelled submarines which was blocked, again, because of Russia’s unwillingness to annoy its NSG partners. Those who launched an artillery barrage on the government for signing the agreement with the US in July need to do a little bit of introspection, and, perhaps some expiation. ---- US Congress threatens to throw out any 'opaque' nuclear deal with India Wed Dec 7, 2005 11:08 AM ET (AFP) http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051207/pl_afp/uspoliticsindianucleartalks_051207160846 WASHINGTON - The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has warned that Congress would throw out any "opaque" plan by the Bush administration to forge unprecedented civilian nuclear cooperation with India. President George W. Bush agreed to give India, which is not a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), access to civil nuclear energy technology under a deal he signed with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in July. But India has to first separate its civilian and military nuclear programs and place its nuclear reactors under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections. Under US law, the deal also has to be approved by the US Congress. "While the Bush Administration has, I think, been very clear in discussions with the Indian government about its expectations, let me emphasize that any Indian plan will have to pass muster with the United States Congress," Republican Senator Dick Lugar said on Tuesday. "That should not be viewed as a threat, but rather as a political challenge that must be met," he told senior Indian policy makers and business leaders gathered in Washington for a US-India Strategic Dialogue. Under the July deal, the United States also agreed to lobby allies in the Nuclear Suppliers Group for full civil nuclear energy cooperation and trade with India. India is seen by Washington at present to be not in compliance with key non-proliferation practices and conventions. New Delhi is at present working on a plan to separate civil and military facilities and programs. Lugar said an "opaque or incomprehensible" Indian separation plan would only raise more questions, particularly in the Congress, about India's intentions. "More generally, as a politician in the United States Senate charged with guiding this agreement through the legislative branch, I would urge the Indian side to think in maximalist terms and include as many facilities as possible within the scope of the civilian declaration," he said. "Conversely, a minimalist approach will likely only delay consideration of this initiative in the US Congress and in the Nuclear Suppliers Group. Or, at worst, it could result in unfavorable action by one or both bodies," he said. Lugar wanted the plan to be "credible, transparent and defensible from a non-proliferation standpoint." In addition, he said, it should be based on safeguards focusing on tracking nuclear material exported to and used in India subject to IAEA safeguards. "The separation plan must ensure, and the safeguards must confirm, that US-India civil nuclear cooperation does not in any way assist India in manufacturing nuclear weapons," he said. "This is consistent with US obligations under the NPT and with US law." The United States had placed sanctions on India after its second round of nuclear tests in May 1998, but agreed after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks to waive those and other sanctions in return for support in the war on terrorism. -------- iran Wash. Times editorial ignored key facts to exaggerate Iranian ability to produce nuclear weapons Wed, Dec 7, 2005 Washington Times http://mediamatters.org/items/200512070004 A December 5 Washington Times editorial ("Iran, Israel and nukes") omitted key facts about the process of nuclear weapons production, giving readers a distorted impression about the time it would take Iran to construct nuclear weapons. The editorial stated that "Israeli intelligence estimates that Iran has produced 45 tons of uranium hexafluoride gas since June, enough for at least three or four nuclear devices, and Tehran's capability to develop this material continues to grow every day that it continues its illicit nuclear activities." But the editorial did not mention that, regardless of how much uranium hexafluoride gas Iran has, the gas alone cannot be used directly to make nuclear weapons. Instead, the uranium must first be enriched to a weapons-grade level. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and news reports on U.S. intelligence, Iran is at least two years away from being able to enrich uranium on its own. Nuclear weapons rely on "enriched" uranium, which has a higher concentration of the easily split uranium type of atomic weight 235 (known as U-235) than occurs naturally. While natural uranium contains, on average, 0.71 percent of nuclear-fissile U-235, nuclear reactors require uranium that has been enriched to roughly 5 percent U-235, while nuclear weapons-grade uranium contains 90 percent or more U-235. Prior to enrichment, raw uranium is converted into uranium hexafluoride gas, which Iran has done. Efforts to defuse international tensions surrounding Iran's nuclear program have recently focused on a Russian offer to enrich Iran's uranium to reactor-grade levels, so that Iran would not possess its own operational uranium enrichment facility, which it could use to create weapons-grade uranium [The Washington Post, 11/17/05]. Iran publicly resumed converting uranium yellowcake to uranium hexafluoride on August 8. But, as The Washington Post noted in a November 17 article reporting on Iran's subsequent conversion of "a new batch of uranium," "[t]he work [of conversion] at the facility in the town of Isfahan does not bring Iran significantly closer to nuclear capability." The article later quoted David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, who told the Post that "Iran's move at Isfahan was 'mostly symbolic' but the Iranians will 'end up with a larger stock' of converted uranium that they can store away for the day when their own enrichment facility is completed." When Iran will have the capability to produce enriched uranium is unknown, but news reports have indicated that the IAEA and U.S. intelligence believe that the Iranians could not produce enough weapons-grade uranium for at least two years. The Independent, a British newspaper, interviewed IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei and reported on December 5 that "[a]lthough IAEA officials have said it would take at least two years for [the underground enrichment plant at] Natanz to become fully operational, Mr. El-Baradei believes that once the facility is up and running, the Iranians could be 'a few months' away from a nuclear weapon." The article noted that Iran so far has not begun the process of re-opening the plant at Natanz. U.S. intelligence reportedly believes it will take longer. An August 2 Washington Post article reported that "[a] major U.S. intelligence review has projected that Iran is about a decade away from manufacturing the key ingredient for a nuclear weapon, roughly doubling the previous estimate of five years, according to government sources with firsthand knowledge of the new analysis." The article also reported that the intelligence review, known as a National Intelligence Estimate, "extended the timeline [for Iran's achievement of the ability to produce a nuclear weapon], judging that Iran will be unlikely to produce a sufficient quantity of highly enriched uranium, the key ingredient for an atomic weapon, before 'early to mid-next decade,' according to four sources familiar with that finding. The sources said the shift, based on a better understanding of Iran's technical limitations, puts the timeline closer to 2015 and in line with recently revised British and Israeli figures." The Washington Times editorial ran the same day as a post on the Drudge Report website that blared, "Iran 'months away' from nuke." Both the Drudge Report headline and the Jerusalem Post article it linked to misrepresented a comment from ElBaradei regarding the status of Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program by taking it out of context. As previously documented above (and first noted by the weblog Raw Story), ElBaradei told The Independent that Iran would be " 'a few months' away from a nuclear weapon" after the Natanz enrichment facility became "fully operational," which the article, citing "IAEA officials," said would take at least two years. From the December 5 Washington Times editorial, titled "Iran, Israel and Nukes": In a Dec. 14, 2001, speech, former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (long depicted by the Europeans as an Iranian "moderate"), declared that, if the Muslim world had an atomic bomb, it would be in good shape after a nuclear exchange with Israel, because a nuclear bomb would destroy the Jewish state, while Muslim countries (with their much larger populations) would survive. The man who defeated him in this year's presidential election, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaking in October at a conference in Iran titled "The World Without Zionism," vowed that a wave of Palestinian attacks would destroy Israel. "There is no doubt that the new wave in Palestine will soon wipe this disgraceful blot from the face of the Islamic world," he declared. "Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation's fury," while any Islamic leader "who recognizes the Zionist regime means he is acknowledging the surrender and defeat of the Islamic world." Israeli intelligence estimates that Iran has produced 45 tons of uranium hexafluoride gas since June, enough for at least three or four nuclear devices, and Tehran's capability to develop this material continues to grow every day that it continues its illicit nuclear activities. With Tehran making its genocidal intentions clear, Israel is not waiting around to see if European Union or American diplomacy will change Iran's behavior. Ironically, Germany, which has played a leading role in Western kowtowing to Tehran, may hold part of the key to ensuring that Israel retains its deterrent against attack. -------- iraq / inspections Wolfowitz suggests knowing Iraq had no WMD might have put off invasion Wed Dec 7, 4:17 PM ET (AFP) http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051207/pl_afp/usiraqmilitary_051207211717 WASHINGTON - World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz suggested that US forces might not have invaded Iraq if Washington had known then that the regime of Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction. "And I'm not sure based on the evidence we know now that we could have been absolutely convinced that there was no danger, absolutely no danger," Wolfowitz said at National Press Club. "If somebody could have given you a Lloyds of London guarantee that weapons of mass destruction would not possibly be used, one would have contemplated much more support for internal Iraqi opposition and not having the United States take the job on the way we did," he said. Wolfowitz, a former deputy defense secretary and one of the architects of the war, said the fear that Iraq would use weapons of mass destruction was a major preoccupation of General Tommy Franks, who planned and led the invasion. "It was a sense that the greatest danger in taking this man on would be that he would use them," Wolfowitz said, referring to Saddam Hussein, who is now on trial in Baghdad. "If you could have given us a guarantee that they wouldn't have been used, there would have been policy options available probably," he said. Iraq's supposed possession of weapons of mass destruction was the primary US rationale for the 2003 invasion. Wolfowitz cited Saddam's support for terrorism and his "genocidal" treatment of the Iraqi people as other reasons. No banned weapons were ever found, however, and US experts concluded last year that Iraq had abandoned its chemical and nuclear programs in 1991 and its biological weapons program by 1995. Asked how he accounted for the intelligence failure, Wolfowitz replied: "Well, I don't have to, and it's not just because I don't work for the US government anymore. "In my old job, I didn't have to. I was like everyone else outside the intelligence community," he said. "We relied on the intelligence community for those judgments. So the question is, how do they account for it or how do the commissions that have attempted to understand and account for it?" he said. On the insurgency that followed the US invasion, Wolfowitz defended the use of a smaller US force. Before the invasion, Wolfowitz famously dismissed a warning by the army's chief of staff that several hundred thousand troops would be needed to occupy the country. "I personally don't think more troops would have answered the problem. I think more troops would have tended to create a problem," Wolfowitz said Wednesday. "The big part of the problem is the appearance that the United States was and perhaps remaining an occupying power. And I think the best thing we could have had from the beginning is not more American troops but more Iraqi troops." -------- korea N Korea boosts nuke-making potential By Martin Sieff Dec 7, 2005, 21:52 GMT (UPI) http://news.monstersandcritics.com/intelandterror/article_1067335.php/N_Korea_boosts_nuke-making_potential North Korea is increasing its industrial capabilities to make nuclear weapons. The continued operation of the Yongbyon nuclear reactor without international inspectors` supervision and successful tests of a new solid-fuel rocket engine have enabled the so-called Hermit Kingdom to make further progress toward being able to produce and deliver such weapons, Arms Control Today reported in its December issue. Siegfried Hecker, a former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, provided new details about North Korea`s nuclear program during a Nov. 8 presentation in Washington, D.C., the journal said. Hecker visited North Korea in August of this year as well as in January 2004. He said North Korea has been able to produce enough plutonium for six to eight nuclear weapons since resuming operations at Yongbyon in early 2003. The U.S. intelligence community has assessed that Pyongyang acquired enough plutonium for one or two nuclear weapons before freezing operations of its nuclear facilities under the 1994 Agreed Framework. Under that bilateral agreement with the United States, North Korea agreed to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor the freeze, which included its five-megawatt graphite-moderated nuclear reactor and related facilities, as well as approximately 8,000 spent fuel rods. But after the most recent North Korean nuclear crisis started in October 2002, Pyongyang ejected the inspectors, announced its withdrawal from the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, restarted the reactor, and claimed to have reprocessed the spent fuel to obtain plutonium for nuclear weapons. In the ongoing six-party talks, which are designed to persuade North Korea to abandon its current nuclear programs, the United States has refused to negotiate an interim agreement with North Korea that would freeze Yongbyon`s facilities. It is unclear whether Pyongyang`s reprocessing claim is true, ACT noted. Hecker`s North Korean interlocutors claimed during his first visit, which included a trip to the reprocessing facility at Yongbyon, that reprocessing was completed in June 2003. Hecker was not able to verify this claim but noted in his presentation that it would be technically feasible. Copyright 2005 by United Press International ---- Pyongyang's New Threat Financial Sanctions Can't Be Issue in Six-Party Talks Korea Times > Opinion 12-07-2005 17:12 http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/opinion/200512/kt2005120717102154040.htm The resumption of the six-party nuclear negotiations is further confounded because of North Korea’s threat to boycott the dialogue over the United States’ financial sanctions against it and President George W. Bush’s denunciation of Kim Jong-il. The North warned on Tuesday that it would not join the six-party talks unless the Bush administration lifts financial sanctions against it. Pyongyang’s angry reaction came after the cancellation of a meeting between U.S. and North Korean officials over the issue, which was scheduled to take place in Washington this week. In the meantime, it was belatedly revealed that Bush called North Korean leader Kim Jong-il a tyrant in his meeting with Japan’s Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Pusan on Nov. 16 in connection with the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit held on Nov. 18-19. The Japanese daily Ashai Shimbun reported on Tuesday that Bush denounced Kim as a tyrant, citing the severe human rights suppression in the communist country, but Koizumi didn’t publicly mention it because it will certainly provoke the North Korean leader and his supporters. The North had reacted vehemently when Bush and other senior U.S. officials labeled Kim as a tyrant and described the Pyongyang regime as an outpost of tyranny. The Bush administration imposed financial sanctions against the North in its belief that Pyongyang distributed counterfeit U.S. dollars and dealt in weapons of mass destruction. The issue emerged as a new stumbling block to the progress of the six-party negotiations during the fifth round of the dialogue held in Beijing early last month. The main purpose of the fifth round was to substantiate the six-point agreement reached at the previous meeting in September. The agreement makes it obligatory for the North to abandon all nuclear activities, return to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and abide by the United Nations’ nuclear safeguard regime, prior to receiving light water reactors (LWRs) from the five other participants in the dialogue. It was generally expected that the proceedings of the fifth round would be difficult due to the North’s insistence that it will fulfill its nuclear obligations step by step in accordance with reciprocal actions from the five other dialogue partners. With the North taking issue with the U.S. financial strictures against it, the fifth round was closed promptly without fixing a date for the continuation of the dialogue. As Seoul made it clear, the financial sanctions can’t be an issue for the North to boycott the nuclear negotiations. The North ought to return to the negotiating table as early as possible to implement the agreement and peacefully resolve the three-year nuclear stalemate. On the other hand, Bush and other U.S. officials need to stop provoking the North so that the six-party nuclear talks can finish successfully. ---- U.S. diplomat calls North Korea 'criminal' Big News Network Wednesday 7th December, 2005 (UPI) http://story.northkoreatimes.com/p.x/ct/9/cid/3f5c98640a497b43/id/5f3e72c4327e8468/ The new U.S. ambassador to South Korea Wednesday in Seoul called North Korea a criminal regime guilty of arms sales, drug trafficking and counterfeiting. Alexander Vershbow was explaining to reporters why the United States had imposed economic sanctions against North Korea, the BBC reported. The comments are certain to infuriate Pyongyang. North Korea said Tuesday it would boycott six-nation talks on its nuclear program unless the sanctions were lifted. Vershbow said that would not happen. We can't somehow remove our sanctions as a political gesture when this regime is engaging in dangerous activities such as weapons exports to rogue states, narcotics trafficking as a state activity and counterfeiting of our money on a large scale, he said. North Korea agreed in September to dismantle its nuclear weapons programs in return for security guarantees and energy aid, but progress halted over issues of timing and sequencing of aid. U.S. institutions in September suspended dealings with a Macau bank for allegedly assisting North Korea with money laundering and counterfeiting activities. Washington also froze the assets of eight North Korean companies it accused of arms sales. -------- security Unpreparedness puts nation in peril By Robert Housman Originally published December 7, 2005 Baltimore Sun http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.security07dec07,1,4815514.story?coll=bal-oped-headlines&ctrack=1&cset=true WASHINGTON // Harsh criticism of the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war by the former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, retired Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, has drawn considerable attention. But his more important and chilling statement has been lost in the political fray: He has concluded that, in the event of a pandemic or nuclear attack, "the ineptitude of this government" would "take you back to the Declaration of Independence." His concerns are well justified. The nation's plans for responding to the 15 most dangerous catastrophes are spelled out in the Department of Homeland Security's 2004 National Planning Scenarios, or NPS. There is an old military adage that says no plan survives first contact with the enemy; many of these plans don't survive first contact with reality. Hurricane Katrina provided the most tangible example of how our disaster plans and response capabilities are fundamentally inadequate. Even with 48 hours of warning, and years of planning, our response failed miserably. More important, the problems exposed by Katrina are nothing compared with those we will witness in the event of a terrorist attack. Mr. Wilkerson is accurate in his conclusion that we are so profoundly unprepared that a major attack or catastrophe could shake us to the very foundation of our democracy. His criticisms of the administration's handling of the war and foreign policy in an Oct. 19 speech at the New America Foundation may have presented a political threat to the White House, but his concerns about our nation's preparedness to handle terrorist attacks and natural disasters raise equal, if not greater, national security issues. While less politically charged, Mr. Wilkerson's preparedness remarks deserve serious attention. For example, in the event of a nuclear attack, the NPS calls for the immediate evacuation of 450,000 people. We could not achieve this with 48 hours advance notice of a hurricane; to think we could do so after a nuclear attack is nonsensical. The NPS notes that a 10-kiloton nuclear bomb would destroy all infrastructure within a half-mile and severely damage infrastructure within 3 miles. Safe escape routes would be limited to those outside the radiation plume. People who didn't swiftly escape would suffer escalating levels of radiation exposure, increasing the number of casualties. Radioactive contamination would force first responders and military units to pull back. In the areas extending out from the blast zone, where help would be most needed, people would be on their own. Surviving medical facilities would be overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of radiation victims. We currently have no way to treat radiation sickness; victims who reached help would be offered prayers and compassion as they died slow deaths. Imagine how the Baltimore-Washington corridor would handle such a catastrophe. A nuclear attack would make the response to Katrina look like a well-oiled machine. "We have courted disaster in Iraq, in North Korea, in Iran," Mr. Wilkerson said at the New America Foundation. "Generally, with regard to domestic crises like Katrina, Rita ... we haven't done very well on anything like that in a long time. And if something comes along that is truly serious, something like a nuclear weapon going off in a major American city, or something like a major pandemic, you are going to see the ineptitude of this government in a way that will take you back to the Declaration of Independence. "Read in [the Declaration] what they say about the necessity of the people to throw off tyranny or to throw off ineptitude or to throw off that which is not doing what the people want it to do. And you're talking about the potential for, I think, real dangerous times if we don't get our act together." Another serious threat we face in these dangerous times is bioterrorism. The NPS provides response plans for a number of different bioterrorism scenarios. In the event of bioterrorism, the NPS focuses first on isolating and containing the outbreak. Then the NPS relies on the use of drugs to prevent the spread of the disease and treat victims. But we lack safe and effective drugs for many of even the most likely bioterror threats, such as smallpox. And if terrorists used a bioengineered pathogen, we would be even less prepared. There is no multi-bug drug to stave off such an attack. There is no public-private bioterror Manhattan Project at the ready to rapidly develop a treatment. Our nation's hospitals don't have the surge capacity to treat tens of thousands of victims. In 2003, 64 hospitals in Illinois participated in a drill testing the ability to respond to a terrorist attack using a known and treatable biological agent. According to the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, by Day Two, "medical care in the city was beginning to shut down, with insufficient hospital staff, beds, ventilators and drugs." Even if we happen to find a vaccine for the pathogen, America's vaccine production capacity is so diminished that we might not be able to produce enough in time. We had 26 flu vaccine makers in the 1960s; we now have four. Of the five remaining major vaccine manufacturers worldwide, only one is based in the United States. Here again, our plan does not confront reality. Our disaster plans must be based on hard realities, not false hopes. Where these plans identify gaps, we have to act now, ahead of any crisis, to fix these problems. If the levees aren't strong enough, strengthen them. If our health care infrastructure is insufficient, build it up. If our first responders lack the equipment they require, equip them. If we don't have the medical countermeasures we need to protect people, develop them. If we have confidence in our plans, let's put them to realistic tests. Our democracy was won on the ability of patriots to respond to any threat at a minute's notice. The future of our democracy requires our nation to be similarly prepared to respond to the new threats we now face. Robert Housman, an assistant director for strategic planning in the White House drug czar's office from 1997 to 2001, is a homeland security consultant. His e-mail is roberthousman@msn.com. -------- ukraine Rosatom, Ukraine and Thermal Columns (+ uranium) Wednesday, December 07, 2005 Nuclear Energy Industry (NEI) Notes http://neinuclearnotes.blogspot.com/2005/12/rosatom-ukraine-and-thermal-columns.html Russia and the Ukraine are haggling over the rising cost of Russian natural gas, but this further item from RIA Novosti in the same story caught my eye as well: The Russian Agency for Nuclear Energy (Rosatom) plans to call for leveling off prices of uranium fuel delivered by the Russian TVEL company to the nuclear power plants in many countries, including Ukraine. TVEL buys uranium in Ukraine at world prices but provides thermal columns for its nuclear plants at a privileged price, resulting in a loss of $150 million a year. Rosatom suggests that prices of Ukrainian raw material and Russian fuel should be leveled off in 2007. This can have negative consequences for Ukraine, because TVEL is currently supplying nearly 100% of fuel requirements of Ukrainian nuclear power plants. -------- u.s. nuc facilities -------- massachusetts Power play - relicensing Pilgrim nuclear power plant By Charles Mathewson MPG Newspapers, December 7, 2005 http://oldcolony.southofboston.com/articles/2005/12/07/news/news01.txt PLYMOUTH (Dec 7) The nuclear matters committee held its first public hearing on relicensing Pilgrim nuclear power plant Tuesday night. Committee members heard from people who support the plant, mainly employees of plant owner Entergy. They heard from people opposed to relicensing. They heard from a few resigned to relicensing who want the town to negotiate a better deal. "For 30 years, the plant's provided cheap, reliable energy for the area," Debbie Leavitt of Plymouth, a radio chemist at the plant, said. "I know the emphasis on safety there. I know the competence of the people who work there." Bill Cody of South Plymouth said he has worked at the plant in the area of radioactive protection since 1983. He said in many ways, the plant is newer now than in 1972 because of upgrades. "Pilgrim has come a long way since the troubled times of the ‘80s," he said. "I know. I've witnessed it. Several Pilgrim employees emphasized the positive environmental effects of the plant because it replaces electricity generated by oil and coal. "The plant displaces approximately 10 million barrels of imported oil annually," plant manager Matthew Briggs of Plymouth said. John McDonough, director of Plimoth Plantation, said Entergy has contributed significantly to the museum. So did representatives of the robotics program at Plymouth North High School and Jordan Hospital. That spurred an unusual response from Chiltonville resident Wedge Bramhall. "I've always opposed the power plant," Bramhall said. "But listening tonight has changed my mind. The donations Entergy makes clearly outweigh 900 tons of nuclear waste it stores at the plant. Keep the robotics team and Jordan Hospital going and you'll keep them in your pocket." Toward the end of the evening, people living out of town spoke against the power plant. But, Plymouth residents provided some perspective going back to 1972 when the plant went online. Mikki Chaffee used to live a half mile from the plant and remembers when it opened in 1972. She reminded the committee the original owner, Boston Edison, planned two additional plants on the site. She said the population growth of the town played a large role in abandoning the expansion plans. "The problem is, in those years you wear out," Chaffee said. "I have. So has the plant. We have storage space there for the most dangerous, most insidious pollution in the world." Karen Sankey of West Plymouth echoed the concern for spent fuel storage. All the spent fuel generated since 1972 remains on the site. "The idea of creating 20 more years worth of spent fuel rods makes no sense to me," Sankey said. "No one wants them stored anywhere." "I know this place is stacked with Entergy employees," Heidi Mayo, of North Plymouth, said. "How many people in this room know someone with thyroid disease? I have thyroid cancer and I really believe its from the iodine from the plant in the ‘70s." Planning board member Loring Tripp said he first heard of the plant as a Plymouth-Carver High School student in David Tarantino's class. He said Tarantino, later a selectman and now the local spokesman for Entergy, told his students about the bright future of nuclear energy. "I'm here tonight to talk about broken promises," Tripp said. "When we look at land use, they have costs associated to them. Before Pilgrim power plant came to Plymouth we had a fairly stable population. It's taken more than 30 years to keep up with the population explosion that Pilgrim brought to us." He said the 1,500 acres on the land side of the plant were bought and reserved as open space to provide a buffer from the plant. Now, it could add 1,500 houses to The Pinehills, worsening the population explosion. "They're paying you nothing and making millions," Tripp said. Some others agreed with Tripp the town should accept relicensing as a given and concentrate on increasing tax payments and security. One man said Entergy should buy insurance policies for everyone living or working within 10 miles of the plant. Kevin Joyce, a relatively new resident of The Pinehills, called Entergy a good corporate citizen. "My wife and I moved to Plymouth knowing there was a power plant around the corner," Joyce said. However, he said, the warning and evacuation system needs improvement and Entergy should increase its reimbursement to the town. Committee chairman Jeff Berger kept track of who spoke. His ledger had 16 employees of Entergy and three people who's organizations received donations from Entergy speaking in favor of relicensing. "Is there anyone here not an Entergy employee or getting money from Entergy who wants to speak in favor of relicensing?" Berger asked. The husband of a woman who works at the plant said he supported relicensing. Dexter Olson of Chiltonville said he worked for several years for Bethlehem Steel in the nuclear power division. He said he favored relicensing, but only if the federal government solves the problem of spent fuel rods. Berger also kept track of what people said. He listed spent fuel, security, cancer and the warning/evacuation system among several concerns. "A number of issues have been raised here tonight," Berger said. "We will take all the information gathered tonight to heart." He ended the hearing addressing criticisms of the nuclear matters committee. "Some people out there believes this committee is a rubber stamp for the nuclear industry," Berger said. "I assure you, we're not." -------- wisconsin Doyle 'about-face' on nuclear sale followed donations (Published Wednesday, December 7, 2005 09:29:09 AM CST) By Ryan Nakashima Associated Press http://www.gazetteextra.com/doyle_powerplant120705.asp MILWAUKEE - A campaign finance watchdog group is questioning whether donations from utility executives to Gov. Jim Doyle's re-election campaign helped reverse the state's rejection of the sale of a nuclear power plant to an out-of-state bidder. The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign says Doyle's campaign accepted $41,550 from executives of Wisconsin Public Service Corp. and Alliant Energy Corp. in the six months after the state Public Service Commission on Nov. 19, 2004, rejected their sale of the Kewaunee nuclear plant to Dominion Resources Inc. of Richmond, Va. The three-member commission, which included two Doyle appointees, reversed its decision on March 17 and allowed the sale to go through. "A state commission controlled by the governor made one decision and then they did an about-face and reversed that decision," said Mike McCabe, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign's executive director. "That change of heart corresponded with some very large campaign donations flowing into the Doyle campaign. That alone raises major new questions." McCabe said former commission chairwoman Burnie Bridge and commissioner Mark Meyer were Doyle appointees who could have been influenced by the governor to change their minds. "If Jim Doyle wanted this plant sale, he had a friend on the PSC that he could obviously talk to," he said. The governor's spokeswoman, Melanie Fonder, called the allegation "ridiculous." "The Public Service Commission is an independent regulatory agency and it has no connection to this report," she said. Commission members are appointed by the governor and then confirmed by the state Senate. Meyer said in a statement the accusation was "baseless and absurd." "We base our decisions solely on the information in the record that is developed during a contested case proceeding," he said. "It includes information from the utilities, advocacy groups and the public. No one else, not even the governor, can influence that process." A message left with an assistant to Bridge by The Associated Press was not immediately returned. The commission rejected the first sale request 2-1 with Bridge and Meyer voting against the deal, saying the terms "exempted it (the plant) from state regulation." The commission reversed its decision March 17, approving the sale unanimously after Dominion promised to give the panel a say in a future sale of the plant, agreed to return unused fees to dismantle it at the end of its life and to increase its payments to WPS and Alliant if it failed to supply them power. A group of utility watchdogs challenged the sale approval in Dane County Circuit Court on May 20, but Judge William Foust dismissed the case Monday, court records showed. The utilities denied accusations of decision-buying. "We're not going to dignify this with a comment," said spokesman Richard Zuercher of Dominion, which bought the plant for $191.5 million in July. Dominion gave $2,000 to the Doyle campaign on Jan. 31, 2004, while WPS and Alliant executives gave $25,650 to his campaign on Nov. 29, 2004, shortly after the initial rejection. Employees, executives and directors of WPS and Alliant gave another $15,900 from March 9 to April 8, 2005. Wisconsin Public Service spokesman Tom Meinz said company employees and executives donated to Doyle because he is "pro-business." "We want to support people that are pro-business, doesn't make any difference what side of the aisle they're on," Meinz said. Spokesmen for the Republican gubernatorial campaigns of U.S. Rep. Mark Green and Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker said the allegation was the latest in a string of campaign finance questions surrounding Doyle. "You'd think that as Wisconsin's former top cop (attorney general) and now governor, that he'd do more to protect the reputation of Wisconsin's clean government," said Walker campaign manager Bruce Pfaff. Local, state and federal authorities are reviewing $20,000 in donations made by an Adelman Travel executive and board member to Doyle's campaign before and after the company was awarded a state contract worth up to $750,000 to provide airline tickets for state employees. The attorney general's office and the U.S. attorney's office would not say whether an investigation into the donations surrounding the Kewaunee decision was under way. -------- us nuc waste New Nuclear Technique Promises More Energy, Less Waste Posted by VnutZ79 on 7 December 2005 at 11:11 PM (CST) http://www.omninerd.com/news/news.php?nid=432 PowerPointSamurai writes, "The December 2005 issue of Scientific American hides a great article away entitled Smarter Use of Nuclear Waste. Unfortunately, only a preview is available on their website without purchasing the article. To summarize, today’s thermal reactors in the US basically only burn 5% of the fuel put into them, using water as a moderator to slow neutrons down to cause a reaction in the Uranium 235, but not the more abundant Uranium 238. Many reactors outside the US use another technique that use 6% of the fuel, but cause more concerns about illicit production of weapons grade Plutonium. Both techniques generate problematic long term radioactive waste, which must be stored and secured for thousands of years and draws the ire of many environmental groups. This technique uses fast, un-moderated neutrons in a method which also reacts with the Uranium 238 and uses pyrometallurgical processing to recycle the material until it uses more than 95% of the original material, the remainder of which would only need to be stored for less than 500 years. With other sources of energy dwindling and concerns about global warming, can we finally overcome the nuclear stigma and solve our energy problems?" -------- MILITARY -------- arms Why this brain flies on rat cunning By Philip Sherwell The Age (Australia) December 7, 2004 http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/12/06/1102182227308.html Washington - It sounds like science fiction: a brain nurtured in a Petri dish learns to pilot a fighter plane as scientists develop a new breed of "living" computer. But in groundbreaking experiments in a Florida laboratory that is exactly what is happening. The "brain", grown from 25,000 neural cells extracted from a single rat embryo, has been taught to fly an F-22 jet simulator by scientists at the University of Florida. They hope their research into neural computation will help them develop sophisticated hybrid computers, with a thinking biological component. One target is to install living computers in unmanned aircraft so they can be deployed on missions too dangerous for humans. It is also hoped that the research will provide the basis for developing new drugs to treat brain diseases such as epilepsy. The brain-in-a-dish is the idea of Thomas DeMarse, 37, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Florida. His work has been praised as a significant insight into the brain by leading US academics and scientific journals. The 25,000 neurons were suspended in a specialised liquid to keep them alive and then laid across a grid of 60 electrodes in a small glass dish. Under the microscope they looked at first like grains of sand, but soon the cells begin to connect to form what scientists are calling a "live computation device" (a brain). The electrodes measure and stimulate neural activity in the network, allowing researchers to study how the brain processes, transforms and stores information. In the most striking experiment, the brain was linked to the jet simulator. Manipulated by the electrodes and a desktop computer, it was taught to control the flight path, even in mock hurricane-strength winds. "When we first hooked them up, the plane 'crashed' all the time," Dr DeMarse said. "But over time, the neural network slowly adapts as the brain learns to control the pitch and roll of the aircraft. After a while, it produces a nice straight and level trajectory." Previously, scientists have been able to monitor the activity of only a few neurons at a time, but Dr DeMarse and his team can study how thousands of cells conduct calculations together. But it is still a long way from a human brain. "The goal is to study how cortical networks perform their neural computations. The implications are extremely important," Dr DeMarse said. The first result could be to enable scientists to build living elements into traditional computers, enabling more flexible and varied means of solving problems. Although computers today are extremely powerful, they still lack the flexibility in working things out that humans take for granted. Computers, for example, find it difficult to spot the difference between a table and a lamp if they are unfamiliar with them. "The algorithms that living computers use are also extremely fault-tolerant," Dr DeMarse said. "A few neurons die off every day in humans without any noticeable drop in performance, and yet if the same were to happen in a traditional silicon-based computer the results would be catastrophic." The work by Dr DeMarse and his team is attracting interest from scientists around the world. The US National Science Foundation has awarded them a $US500,000 ($A640,000) grant to produce a mathematical model of how the neurons compute, and the US National Institute of Health is financing research into epilepsy. -------- OTHER -------- poverty L.A. defends law to curb homeless blight 12/7/2005 PASADENA, Calif. (AP) http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-12-07-homeless_x.htm A Los Angeles law banning sleeping, lying or sitting on public sidewalks is needed to deal with the homeless problem in downtown's Skid Row, a city attorney told a federal appeals court panel. Deputy City Attorney Amy Jo Field told the three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday that if the courts blocked the ordinance, it would create an "enforcement nightmare" on Skid Row and hamper its merchants. "The people down there running their businesses are having difficulty," Field said. But Mark Rosenbaum, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, told the justices the ordinance criminalizes being homeless, adding there are not enough shelter beds for those without homes. "There is no way an individual who is homeless can't sit, sleep or lie in public," he said. The judges will issue a decision later. The ACLU sued Los Angeles and Police Chief William Bratton in February 2003 for enforcing the law in Skid Row, which has the highest concentration of homeless people in the country. A federal judge later dismissed the case after finding the ordinance penalized conduct, not a person's homeless status. The ACLU appealed. Shelters and low-price hotels on Skid Row house about 10,000 people a night. But as many as 3,000 sleep on sidewalks, often in cardboard boxes. The ACLU filed its lawsuit on behalf of six homeless people who accused the city of violating their 8th Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment for citing them when they had no place to go. Field told the judges that any homeless person cited under the ordinance could avoid punishment by raising a "necessity defense" in court — if there were no shelter beds available. -------- ACTIVISTS A plea for peacemakers in Iraq *Commentary by MICHELE NAAR-OBED* Posted on Wed, Dec. 07, 2005 From: Scott Mathern-Jacobson By now the world has learned of the four members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams who are missing in Iraq. I know two of them personally. Jim Loney, who is from the Toronto Catholic Worker community, and I were in Iraq together twice. The first time, in January 2003, Jim and I were among occupants in an SUV when its tire blew, flipping the vehicle. One of our colleagues, George Weber, was killed. Two of us were sent to the hospital. I regained consciousness while upside down in the vehicle, and Jim's voice was the first that I heard. I remember him asking if everyone was OK. Tom Fox is a very reflective person. He is a Quaker from Clearbrook, Va., the father of two grown children who is an accomplished musician and a great cook. I met him in August 2004 at Clam Lake, Wis., as he was undergoing training to become a full-time CPT worker. I saw him again in Chicago this summer while I was doing my training. He had already spent much of the year in Iraq and went back in early September. I don't know Norman Kember, who is 74, a lifelong pacifist and a retired teacher of medical students at St. Bartholemew's Hospital in London, or Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, who is studying for a master's degree in English literature in New Zealand. I don't have to know them personally to know that they are motivated by the same desire as all of us in CPT, which is to be an organized nonviolent alternative to war in places where there is lethal conflict. Christian Peacemaker Teams began in 1984 as a call for Christians to devote the same discipline and self-sacrifice to nonviolent peacemaking that armies devote to war. The CPT-Iraq team has maintained a consistent presence in Baghdad, living unarmed outside the Green Zone since October 2002. We have been invited into the country by many Iraqi-based organizations. Together, our work has been to reduce violence, ensure human rights for all Iraqis, document and report violations of those rights, and to bring the voice and face of the ordinary Iraqi into the Western eye as we build bridges and call for an end to the occupation of Iraq. We have no political agenda and no economic or religious motivations. It is perhaps a bitter irony that the demands of those holding our friends is the immediate release of all Iraqi prisoners held in U.S. detention centers throughout Iraq. That has been a large part of CPT's work since the occupation began. Since August 2003, the team has tried to locate detainees lost in the maze of detention centers, often at the request of frenzied family members. The team developed the "Adopt-a-Detainee" program asking folks in the U.S. to pressure their representatives to locate specific lost prisoners, to investigate reasons for their detainment and to begin a speedy release process when warranted. When I was there in 2004, forces from the military base in Balad, just outside of Baghdad, would make sweeps of "insurgents," picking up every male in the house at raids at 2 or 3 a.m. They would be taken off and family members would have no idea where they were sent. We took human rights lawyers to the base with us and would try to serve as a bridge between the lawyers and the base commanders. We would try to facilitate some system so that people could at least be tracked. CPT was one of the first groups to compile and report cases of abuse and torture in U.S.-controlled prisons in Iraq. The exposure of that scandal and the massacre in Fallujah resulted in virtually total loss of U.S. credibility around the world and certainly in Iraq. Given the years of warfare, violence, bloodshed and trauma, it is not a big surprise that desperate acts such as the taking of our friends Norman, Tom, Jim and Harmeet could happen. We do not and will not condone the use of violence in any form, whether it be the violence of aggression or the violence of retaliation. We recognize violence as a vicious cycle that must be stopped by appealing to the innate goodness that exists in the hearts of all human beings, including the members of the Swords of Righteousness Brigade. There's much work left to do in Iraq, and we long to be a positive force working to counter all the fear, resentment and intimidation felt by the Iraqi people. We appeal for the safe release of our friends. We thank all of the Muslim leaders from every sect in Iraq and from across the Arab region for their strong support and appeals for our friends release. We continue to support all nonviolent forms of resolution to this crisis and we pray for healing, forgiveness, the return of compassion and reconciliation among all peoples. *MICHELE NAAR-OBED of Duluth has served on three delegations of Christian Peacemaker Teams in Iraq since 2002. She is planning to return to Iraq this month.* "Love is the measure." - Dorothy Day http://www.catholicworker.org ---- Greenpeace activists attempt to stop Russian uranium-loaded ship 20:04 | 07/ 12/ 2005 (RIA Novosti) http://en.rian.ru/russia/20051207/42365331.html ST. PETERSBURG, December 7 - Greenpeace activists attempted to stop a Russian ship carrying depleted uranium on its approach to St. Petersburg, the press service of Greenpeace's office in the city said Wednesday. The attempt to block the Kapitan Kuroptev, loaded with 450 metric tons of depleted uranium from France, was made at 3.15 p.m. GMT near Kronstadt. "Three boats with 11 activists on board tried to stand in the ship's way, burning signal lights and putting buoys warning of a floating radiation hazard. However, the ship picked up speed and used water cannons, and is now on its way to the port," a spokesman for the press service said. Greenpeace's office in St. Petersburg is not planning any action after the ship arrives at the port. "Nevertheless, we intend to continue to attract the public's attention to the problem in the future," the source said. On Thursday, French police detained some 20 Greenpeace activists from France, Austria and Russia attempting to prevent the loading of the French cargo onto the Kapitan Kuroptev, a French radio station reported.