NucNews August 28, 2006 -------- NUCLEAR -------- business New nuclear sub is lifeline for Barrow By Toby Poston Business reporter, BBC News, in Barrow-in-Furness Monday, 28 August 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5270640.stm If British manufacturing really is dying, then the industry is making one of its last stands in Barrow. The shipbuilding town on the isolated Furness peninsula in south-west Cumbria is home to 3,200 steelworkers, designers, engineers, fitters, electricians and other skilled workers building some of the Royal Navy's most secretive and deadly weapons. HMS Astute, HMS Ambush and HMS Artful are a new class of nuclear attack submarines being built at BAE Systems Submarines' 169 acre site. Astute, the first in her class, is almost complete. She is being fitted out in the cavernous Devonshire dock hall, the largest construction complex of its type in Europe. "Fitting out" means packing Astute's 97 metre-long pressurised hull with a nuclear reactor, four giant turbines, 100km of cabling, 10km of pipe work - more than one million components in total. Once deployed, she will displace 7,800 tonnes of sea water and withstand pressure equivalent to 400 family saloon cars weighing down on every square metre of surface area. The pressurised water reactor is designed to create enough steam to keep her turbines powered throughout her lifespan of more than a quarter of a century. The reactor creates enough energy to power a city the size of Southampton, with the submarine's commander sleeping less than 10 metres away from its core. Oxygen from sea water Astute will create her own oxygen and fresh water from seawater and will be armed with Spearfish torpedoes and Tomahawk cruise missiles capable of hitting a target 2,000km inland. Unsurprisingly for an engineering project described as "more complex than the space shuttle", it has not run totally according to plan. Five years ago things were looking bleak. "The Astute business was in trouble," says BAE's Chris Nelson. "The submarine was £900m over budget and running four years late. "The relationship with the Ministry of Defence had deteriorated so badly that they were not going to give BAE another contract to build a surface ship." US help The recovery started in 2003 with the arrival of Murray Easton, BAE Systems Submarines' tenth managing director in as many years. The contract with the MoD was renegotiated and a new bonus scheme was introduced for all non-executive staff. This provided an extra £1,600 per employee in 2005, with a further bonus due on completion of the project. Easton called in business psychologists to lift morale and repair the poor relations between management and staff. He also realised that the yard would need help from farther afield. The last submarine completed before Astute was laid down in 1993, and a series of redundancies in the intervening years had stripped the company of many of its most skilled engineers and designers. So BAE brought in a team of experts from its US submarine counterpart Electric Boat. Their arrival saw a number of major innovations in the building process - not least "modular construction" and "vertical outfitting". Areas of the Astute submarines like the command deck and forward engine room are now divided into modules, which are assembled in the workshop. They are then taken to the Devonshire dock hall where they are carefully placed within the hull. Ahead of schedule This process was improved further with vertical outfitting, where modules can be dropped into place using overhead cranes and the improved 360 degree access makes it easier to install the complicated cable and pipe work. It is estimated that these new processes cut 500,000 man hours from the build time for each of the first two submarines. Electric Boat's techniques were also used to introduce visualisation software that gave workers a 3D image of the whole submarine - a virtual version of the wooden scale models that were used previously. When, as planned, HMS Astute is unveiled on 8 June next year she will be seven weeks ahead of her revised schedule. Although she will have cost an estimated £3.4bn, BAE hopes to be able to build the next two Astute class submarine's for less than £1bn each - although it has yet to agree the bill with the MoD. The company is currently negotiating with the MoD for a contract to build another four Astute class submarines. BAE has already been given the all clear to buy some of the special submarine steel that would be needed for the new boats. And the company is hopeful of winning a contract to build the central hull of two new Royal Navy aircraft carriers - the CVF "Future Carrier". But the big prize for BAE, and Barrow, is Trident. Boom town Barrow Jobs and money flooded into Barrow in the 1980s when the yard, then owned by Vickers, designed and built Britain's fleet of four Vanguard-class Trident nuclear missile carrying submarines. In June, Chancellor Gordon Brown pledged to replace the Trident nuclear missile system. The Vanguard class submarines are scheduled to be phased out in the 2020s - and most Barrovians are hoping that the new Trident platform will again be submarine based, and built in the town. Whether it would take the form of a new class of submarine, or an adapted version of the Astute class is a hotly debated topic within the press. A decision could be imminent, because design work for a new range of Trident submarines would have to start within the next couple of years in order to have a replacement ready in time. According to local community leaders, Barrow without submarine building just doesn't bear thinking about. It is estimated that in wages alone, BAE pumps over £70m per year into the local economy. "If submarine building finished in Barrow it would be a devastating economic blow as it would most certainly lead to the end of shipbuilding in the town," says Councillor Terry Waiting, leader of Barrow Borough Council and chairman of the Keep Our Future Afloat Campaign, which promotes the use of the North West's naval shipyards. "Submarines are our bread and butter, they are our "niche" market." -------- europe The third energy unit of Kola NPP is stopped 28.08.2006 Rosenergoatom Press-center http://www.rosenergoatom.com/en/press-center/news/2418_28.08.2006 The information department of Kola NPP // Press center of nuclear energy industry On the 27th of August 2006, at 23.41 (Moscow time) because of the false signal of automatic protection system the third energy unit of Kola NPP was disconnected from the energy network. The origin of the malfunction is to be found out. There are no infringements or any violations against the safe operation at Kola NPP. At present the first and the fourth energy units of the NPP are operating. Their total capacity is 880 MW. The second energy unit is undergoing a planned repairing. The radiation background on Kola NPP and its territory is at the level corresponding normal operation of energy units and does not exceed the level of natural radiation background. -------- iran Iran test-fires sub-to-surface missile Updated 8/28/2006 (AP) http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-08-27-iran-missile_x.htm TEHRAN, Iran — Iran tested a new anti-ship missile fired by a submarine during war games Sunday, raising worries it could disrupt vital oil tanker traffic in the Gulf amid its standoff with the West over its suspect nuclear activities. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took a tough tone over the nuclear issue, saying his country's decision to pursue nuclear technology was irreversible. His comments and the missile test came only days before a Thursday deadline imposed by the United Nations for Tehran to suspend the enrichment of uranium, a process the United States says the Iranians intend to use to build nuclear weapons. Enrichment can produce both reactor fuel and material for a warhead. The Thaqeb, Farsi for Saturn is Iran's first missile that is fired from underwater and flies above the surface to hit its target, distinguishing it from a torpedo. A brief video showed the missile exiting the water and hitting a target less than a mile away. While the missile showed some technological advances by Iran, its main importance seemed to be that it gives the country another means for targeting ships, along with the arsenal of torpedoes and other anti-ship missiles it already has. Iran, which says its nuclear program is only aimed at generating electricity, has refused any immediate suspension and called the deadline illegal, though it says it is open to negotiations. Ahmadinejad insisted Iran's nuclear program was peaceful and said he saw no reason to give it up. "The great decision of the Iranian nation for progress and acquiring technology is a definite decision. There is no way back from this path," he said in a speech on national television after giving awards to 14 nuclear officials and scientists. He said the United States should give up nuclear technology because it could not be trusted with it, having developed and used nuclear weapons. Israel recently purchased two German-made Dolphin submarines capable of carrying nuclear warheads — clearly aiming to send a message to Tehran that it could strike back. The purchase beefs up Israel's deterrent power, since the subs can remain submerged for longer periods of time than the three nuclear arms-capable submarines already in Israel's fleet. Israel is believed to have hundreds of warheads, the only nuclear arsenal in the Middle East, but it has kept the information secret and refuses to confirm or deny the reports. The test-firing of the new missile underlines a card Iran can play in the nuclear standoff with the West — the ability to disrupt oil tanker shipments in the Gulf, through which about two-fifths of the world's oil supplies pass. Iran has given mixed signals over how it would retaliate if the confrontation with the United States escalates. The oil minister and other government officials have said Iran would never attack Gulf tankers — but the interior minister warned in March that all options for retaliation are open and noted Iran's strategic position over Gulf traffic. The test took place during large-scale military exercises that Iran has been holding since Aug. 19. It was the latest in a series of new naval weapons Iran has unveiled this year to tout what it calls its new technological prowess in arms production. The Iranian naval commander, Gen. Sajjad Kouchaki, said the Thaqeb could be fired from any vessel, not just submarines. He called it a "long-range" missile but did not specify how far it could fly, and it did not appear capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. He also said the Thaqeb could escape enemy radar — a claim Iran made about a number of weapons it unveiled during military maneuvers in April. Some outside experts have questioned whether the weapons, tested against Iranian radar, would really be undetectable to more advanced U.S. radar. During the April maneuvers, Iran test-fired a new torpedo — the "Hoot," Farsi for "whale" — which is capable of moving at some 223 mph, up to four times faster than a normal torpedo. It also unveiled a new land-to-sea missile, the Kowsar, and a high-speed missile boat that skims above the water and is undetectable by radar. Iran is known to have several submarines. It bought at least two diesel subs from Russia in the 1990s and has produced an unknown number of locally made ones. Last year, it announced it was building a new class of sub called the Ghadir, which it said was a stealth craft and could fire missiles and torpedoes. Nothing more is known about the craft. Iran says the weaponry is intended to defend itself against the possibility of a U.S. attack. It has also expressed worry about Israeli threats to destroy its nuclear facilities. Iran already is equipped with the Shahab-3 missile, which means "shooting star" in Farsi, and is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. An upgraded version of the ballistic missile has a range of more than 1,200 miles and can reach Israel and U.S. forces in the Middle East. ---- Nuclear program a source of pride for Iranians Posted 8/28/2006 By David J. Lynch, USA TODAY http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-08-28-iran-cover_x.htm TEHRAN, Iran — Four young salesmen met last week at a Tehran coffeehouse, only to find that city officials had inexplicably ordered the shop not to serve coffee that day. Things are seldom simple in Iran. The four settled for sodas. Their talk turned to Iran's tense standoff with the United Nations, which has given the country until Thursday to halt its nuclear program or face economic and political sanctions. "Of course, we are worried about it," said Morad Daneshvar, 26, a jewelry salesman. "Although in the end, I don't think our politicians are that stupid." Iran has repeatedly defied the United States and the West on uranium enrichment. Saturday, hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opened a heavy-water production plant that could be used to make nuclear weapons, a provocative gesture five days before the U.N. deadline. Fathoming Iran's worldview is critical to understanding the roots of the crisis. Conversations with policy experts and ordinary Iranians alike suggest an Islamic republic that is simultaneously insecure about its standing in the world and emboldened by the drift of recent events. Both impulses were evident in its response last week to a package of incentives by the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany: Iran expressed its desire for serious talks with the West but would not halt enrichment as a precondition. Iran's nuclear research program, underway in secret from 1988 until it was exposed by an opposition group in 2002, has become a source of national pride for many Iranians. "Having nuclear technology is our legal right," said Ali Maghsoodi, 36, a jobless architect looking for work at a day-laborer site in Tehran's Vanak Square. Ahmadinejad has cast the program as essential to national development. Inaugurating the new heavy-water plant, he insisted Iran is not pursuing weapons and is not "a threat to anybody, even the Zionist (Israeli) regime, which is a definite enemy for the people of the region." By continuing nuclear development, he said, Iran might have to face sanctions by the United States and the West. "But will they be able to prevent the thoughts of a nation? Will they be able to prevent the progress and technology to a nation? They have to accept the reality of a powerful, peace-loving and developed Iran." 'Iran is a player in this region' Despite U.S. attempts to isolate it, Iran possesses considerable leverage because it: • Trains and equips Shiite militias in neighboring Iraq, a senior Pentagon official said last week. Brig. Gen. Michael Barbero, deputy director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Iranian government is trying to destabilize Iraq. • Sits atop 10% of the world's petroleum reserves at a time when oil prices are over $70 a barrel. • Provides inspiration, arms and funds to Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group that rained rockets on Israel and clashed with Israeli troops for 34 days in July and August. "Iran is a player in this region and nobody can ignore it. ... They can't dismiss Iran," says Mahmood Vaezi of the Center for Strategic Research, a government agency that advises top Iranian policymakers. He and other Iranian officials argue that their country is the key to political stability in the Middle East. Like the coffeehouse without coffee, Iran poses a contradiction: Its leaders demand international — especially American — respect. At the same time, they pursue a policy of nuclear self-reliance that renders such recognition impossible — at least from a U.S. government that distrusts Iran and believes it capable of attacking its neighbors. "An Iran in possession of nuclear weapons is unthinkable for all who value security and peace," Nicholas Burns, undersecretary for political affairs at the State Department, said last fall. The Bush administration regards the cleric-led Iranian government as illegitimate and undemocratic. White House policy has been to isolate Tehran and use diplomacy and the threat of sanctions to end Iranian nuclear ambitions. The administration has condemned Iran's support of Hezbollah and called Tehran "the world's most active state sponsor of terrorism." Washington has encouraged pro-democracy groups — inside and outside Iran — to challenge the regime. The United States broke off diplomatic relations with Iran in 1980 after militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans hostage. U.S. policymakers have to decode Iran's conduct without the benefit of diplomatic exchanges and personal relationships. Iran "is the only country in the world today with which the United States has no sustained direct contact," Burns said last year, noting the presence of U.S. diplomats in Cuba, Syria and Libya, and ongoing talks with North Korea. "The main issue between the United States and Iran is a lack of trust. If this persists — even if we solve the nuclear issue — there'll be another issue. The only way to address the (nuclear) issue is to address the lack of trust between the two sides," says Mohammad Adeli, who was Iran's ambassador to London until last year. The 26-year estrangement between Tehran and Washington has only deepened since Ahmadinejad became president in August 2005. His government is populated by veterans of Iran's 1980-1988 war with Iraq. In that conflict, the United States — fearing the spread of Iran's Islamic revolution — provided satellite intelligence to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and ignored his use of chemical weapons against Iranian troops. Today, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a handful of other top Shiite clerics control most of the power in Iran. They set foreign policy, vet candidates for parliament, quash reformist laws and sanction state action against dissidents, according to the State Department. Ahmadinejad is subordinate to Khamenei and is supposed to take a back seat on foreign policy matters. Instead, he has staked out extreme positions — such as that Israel must be "wiped off the map" — that have boxed Iran in and given it little room to maneuver. Leader's hard line popular Many educated Iranians say they recognize their president is a controversial and polarizing figure in the West. But they say his statements questioning the Holocaust and threatening to destroy Israel are no more outrageous or fanciful than President Bush's talk of a "new Middle East" modeled in a democratic Iraq. "Ahmadinejad and Bush — they have the same personality. You have the American version, and we have the Persian version," said Mehrdad Salali, 26, as his coffeehouse friends nodded. Others say it's clear Ahmadinejad's explosive rhetoric has damaged Iran's image. "I follow the Internet a lot, and they judge the Iranian people by our government. ... Our government has made some mistakes and said some bad things," said Mohamed Reza Farzadi, 22, a network administrator interviewed outside the city of Shiraz. Still, the Iranian president has supporters who admire his tough approach to foreign powers, his simple lifestyle and his devotion to the poor. The anti-Israel rhetoric that sounds extreme and anti-Semitic to Western ears reflects Muslim frustration with Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, they say. Ahmadinejad "stands face to face with the Westerners and says, 'We are not going to step back.' ... He has good support in Iran, and people really respect him," says Behrooz Norouzi, 36, a theology instructor in the city of Isfahan. Ahmadinejad also has shown a deft political touch. He was elected on a platform of using Iranian oil wealth to benefit the poor. Since taking office, he has visited 154 cities, many in remote provinces long neglected by top officials. He has shelled out funds for new marriage allowances for young couples, debt relief for farmers and low-cost loans for small businessmen. "He's clearly tapped into a reservoir of support among the lower classes who at least feel that he's listening to them," says Kenneth Katzman, an expert on Iran at the Congressional Research Service in Washington. Until recently, Ahmadinejad's hard-line ideology had little impact upon Iranians' daily existence. The tight social strictures imposed in the early days of Iran's Islamic revolution, when morals police roamed the streets chastising women for insufficiently modest clothing, have long since eased. Iranians, especially in cities, take for granted the ability to hear Western music, read foreign news on the Internet and dress with a little flair. In recent weeks, though, officials began confiscating home satellite dishes, which Iranians use to watch the British Broadcasting Corp. and Western entertainment. The sudden enforcement of this long-ignored regulation has been coupled with a heavy hand on the media and intellectuals. Some hope for the best. Government officials "are clever enough to understand they can't go back and reverse the process because there is strong public opinion against this," says Saeed Kazemi, 25, another coffeehouse customer. With global oil prices near record highs, Iran has doubled public spending from four years ago. Generous subsidies have helped dull public discontent by keeping staples cheap. A tasty three-person lunch of lamb kabobs, grilled tomatoes, fresh herbs, yogurt and drinks can be had for less than $7; a 70-minute flight from Tehran to Shiraz is $26; gasoline costs less than 40 cents a gallon. Iran took in $45 billion in oil revenue last year, the Council on Foreign Relations in New York says. Subsidies are critical to the regime's ability to retain support at home: 90% of Iranians get income from the state, the council says. Some here oppose Iran's decision to use part of its oil windfall to support Hezbollah in Lebanon and Islamic militants in the Palestinian territories. "They are giving money to Lebanon and Palestine. They don't invest anything in factories in the countryside," said Araf Torkashvand, 22, who traveled to Tehran from his home province of Lorestan seeking work. The Bush administration has indicated it wants to move swiftly to bring the sanctions issue to the U.N. Security Council once Thursday's deadline has passed. Russia and China have signaled they might use their votes to veto sanctions. "I know of no instances in world practice and previous experience in which sanctions have achieved their aim and proved effective," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Friday. "Russia stands for further political and diplomatic efforts to settle the issue." Sanctions are likely to do little to hurt the regime and could cement the hard-liners' grip on power. Government opponents say U.S.-led efforts to punish Tehran would discredit pro-Western voices inside Iran and put them on the defensive in the face of an inevitable patriotic, popular response. Pressure from the United States and other countries feeds Iranian nationalism, bolstering Ahmadinejad and others in the hard-line Islamic government, says Davoud Bavand, an international law professor at Alameh University in Tehran. "They see that their power resides in the existence of crisis and the presence of the enemy lurking in our bush," Bavand says. "They're very much interested in the continuation of this crisis." IRAN FACTBOX Size 636,294 square miles, slightly larger than Alaska Climate Mostly arid or semi-arid; subtropical along Caspian Sea coast Population 68.7 million (2006 est.) Population growth rate 1.1% (2006 est.) Religions Shiite Muslim: 89% Sunni Muslim: 9% Jewish, Christian, Other: 2% Languages Persian: 58% Turkic: 26% Kurdish: 9% Workforce 23.7 million (2005) Unemployment rate 11.2% (2004) Below poverty line 40% (2002) Literacy rate 79.4% (2004) GDP $561.6 billion (2005) GDP per capita $8,300 (2005) Inflation rate 13.5% (2005) Top five export partners Japan: 17.3% China: 11.4% Italy: 6.2% South Africa: 5.5% South Korea: 5.2% (2005) Top five import partners Germany: 14.2% China: 8.3% Italy: 7.5% United Arab Emirates: 6.7% South Korea: 6.4% (2005) Proven oil reserves 132.5 billion barrels (2006), third in the world Oil production 4.3 million barrels per day (2005), fourth in the world Net oil exports 2.7 million barrels per day (2005) Telephones (main lines) 21.4 million (2005) Cellphones 5.1 million (2005) Internet users 7.5 million (2005) Television stations 28 (1997) Radio stations 92 (2005) Sources: CIA World Factbook; State Department; Energy Information Administration; Statistical Center of Iran; British Broadcasting Corp. News; World Bank ---- US seeks Egyptian support on Iran nuclear issue Mon Aug 28, 2006 (AFP) http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060828/pl_afp/irannuclearpoliticsus_060828155845 CAIRO - Washington's top nuclear negotiator held talks in Cairo as part of US efforts to harmonise positions on the response to give to Iran's fast-advancing nuclear program. "Working with Egypt is critical to our success," said Gregory Schulte, the chief US representative at the International Atomic Energy Agency, after a meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit. "Both of our countries share serious concerns about Iran's nuclear ambitions," Schulte told reporters as the clock ticked down to a crunch UN deadline for Tehran to suspend its sensitive atomic work. World powers have demanded Tehran freeze its uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities but Tehran has refused and the United Nations was expected to use an August 31 meeting to decide on sanctions. "If it's apparent that Iran is not serious about negotiating, if it becomes apparent that they're not serious about suspending their uranium enrichment capabilities then the Security Council will have to act to understake sanctions," Schulte said. Iran's deputy foreign minister, Mohammad Reza Baqiri, was also in Cairo Monday for talks with Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa. Baqiri had met on Sunday with Abul Gheit, who called for a dialogue in a bid to break the deadlock over Iran's nuclear program. Egypt, a key broker in the Middle East, has backed US calls for Iran to halt its nuclear program but has insisted all diplomatic channels should be explored to solve the crisis. "We should handle the Iranian nuclear issue with the utmost care over the coming period," Abul Gheit told reporters after meeting the US official. "The people in the region are not ready to experience more wars and armed conflicts. Therefore, we should deploy maximum efforts to solve this crisis pecaefully," he added. He also reiterated Egypt's position that the international community should treat Israel on a par with Iran and address the issue of the Jewish state's alleged nuclear weapons. "We share the vision of president (Hosni) Mubarak of a Middle East that's free of weapons of mass destruction, where you don't have nuclear weapons," Schulte replied. "The greatest threat to that vision right now is the pursuit by the Iranian leadership of nuclear weapons and also the opposition that they've shown to the peace process" in the region, he added. The United States accuses Iran of using its nuclear programme as cover for a weapons drive, a charge vehemently denied by Tehran which maintains it is solely to provide civilian energy. Uranium enrichment "is not necessary for a civil nuclear programme and it is, we believe, part of a military programme. We're worried that they're working to master the technology to build nuclear weapons," Schulte explained. ---- Iran Rejects US Warning As Nuclear Deadline Nears The UN Security Council has given Iran an August 31 deadline to suspend all uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities and an impasse looms with Iran insisting it has no intention of abandoning such work. by Staff Writers Tehran (AFP) Aug 28, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Iran_Rejects_US_Warning_As_Nuclear_Deadline_Nears_999.html Iran Monday angrily rejected a US threat to impose sanctions over its contested nuclear programme outside the United Nations as the clock ticked down to a crunch UN deadline for Tehran to suspend sensitive atomic work. With arch-enemy Israel warning that Iran's uranium enrichment must be stopped for the sake of "world peace", a Thursday deadline neared for Iran to suspend the controversial nuclear activity or face possible sanctions. US ambassador to the UN John Bolton has said that while Washington was confident of securing a UN consensus over Iran, it was prepared to act unilaterally if a resolution against Tehran was vetoed by Beijing and Moscow. "Such statements are a blatant insult to the United Nations and the Security Council. They stem from bullying and a lack of principles," government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters. Bolton told the Los Angeles Times newspaper late last week that "everybody's been on board" on the Security Council over Iran but in case Russia and China did not accept any resolution, the United States was working on a parallel diplomatic track. "You don't need Security Council authority to impose sanctions, just as we have," Bolton said, referring to the raft of economic sanctions the United States imposed on Tehran in the wake of the 1979 Islamic revolution. Elham scoffed that the comments showed "such people do not deserve to be a member to this council and the organization should reconsider to save its reputation and show it is not an instrument in their hands. "The ones who sacrifice international law for their greed, dominance and unilateralism better be worried," he said. The UN Security Council has given Iran an August 31 deadline to suspend all uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities and an impasse looms with Iran insisting it has no intention of abandoning such work. The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is to issue a report on that date after verifying whether Tehran has complied with the deadline. But Iran has also made clear it remains keen to hold talks with all the key players over its nuclear ambitions, including even its foe the United States. "Iran is ready to hold discussions with the foreign ministers of the five permanent Security Council members and Germany, wherever and whenever," chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said late Sunday. The United States accuses Iran of using its nuclear programme as cover for a weapons drive, a charge vehemently denied by Tehran which maintains it is solely to provide civilian energy. The LA Times quoted Bolton as saying the United States planned to put forward a draft resolution imposing penalties such as a travel ban and asset freeze for key Iranian leaders soon after the deadline. Israel meanwhile kept up its pressure on the international community to act against Iran with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni urging the world to stop the "threat" it posed. "The world must understand that it must act so that uranium enrichment is stopped in Iran. This is crucial for world peace," she said after talks in Berlin with her German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Iran is to hold a two day international conference on the Holocaust starting December 11 that will allow historians to present "hidden aspects" of the slaughter of Jews under Nazi Germany, newspapers reported on Monday. Meanwhile, French President Jacques Chirac urged Tehran to build the "conditions for trust" in the stand-off with Western powers over its nuclear programme. "I exhort Tehran once more to take the necessary steps in order to create the conditions for trust. There is always room for dialogue," Chirac told an annual gathering of French ambassadors in Paris. "Iran will not find security by developing clandestine programmes, but by becoming fully part of the international community." ---- Israel Says Iran Stalling To Buy Time To Build Nuclear Arsenal by Staff Writers Berlin (AFP) Aug 28, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Israel_Says_Iran_Stalling_To_Buy_Time_To_Build_Nuclear_Arsenal_999.html Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni urged world leaders Monday to confront the "threat" posed by Iran, saying the Islamic state was trying to buy time to build a nuclear weapon. "There is an additional threat, not just for the state of Israel but for the entire international community," she said after talks in Berlin with her German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier. "The world must understand that it must act so that uranium enrichment is stopped in Iran. This is crucial for world peace." She said the international community could not accept an equivocal Iranian response to an incentives package for stopping sensitive nuclear work, calling it an attempt to stall until Tehran can develop a nuclear weapon. And later in a speech before the German Council on Foreign Relations, she demanded UN sanctions against Iran. "This is a test for the international community," she said. "It's time for real sanctions." Germany is part of the "5 plus one" team along with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China -- that drew up the package. Few details have emerged of Iran's response but the United States has warned it would lead moves to impose sanctions if the reply fell short of UN Security Council demands. Israel is widely believed to be the only country in the Middle East to have nuclear weapons, with at least 200 warheads, although it has never confirmed or denied it holds such an arsenal. Livni, who also met Chancellor Angela Merkel and members of parliament, will fly Tuesday to Denmark, a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. Israel said Saturday it was not convinced by assurances from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Tehran's nuclear program was no threat to the Jewish state. "Israel is not fooled by such declarations, the sole aim of which are to avoid sanctions being imposed on Iran," government spokesman Avi Pazner told AFP. Ahmadinejad "has often stated his true intentions concerning Israel", he said, a reference to repeated calls by the Iranian president for the country's destruction. The Iranian president insisted Saturday that Tehran is "no threat to any nation, even the Zionist regime". He spoke in Khondab, in central Iran, after opening a heavy water production plant ahead of a UN deadline on August 31 to suspend sensitive nuclear fuel cycle work. But the outspoken Ahmadinejad sought to provoke Israel again by writing in a letter to Merkel that the Holocaust may have been invented by the victorious Allied powers in World War II to embarrass Germany. The remarks by the president, who has repeatedly disputed the Nazis' slaughter of six million Jews during World War II, came in a letter sent to Merkel in July whose contents were not disclosed until Monday. Iran is also to hold an international conference in December that will allow historians to present "hidden aspects" of the Holocaust, newspapers reported Monday. The plant at Arak will supply heavy water to be used as cooling fluid for a 40 MW research reactor due for completion by 2009. The International Atomic Energy Agency has voiced concern over the risk of diversion of nuclear materials, as the research reactor could produce 8-10 kilograms (about 20 pounds) of plutonium a year -- enough to make at least two nuclear bombs. Iran is under pressure from the international community to suspend its program of uranium enrichment, and the UN Security Council has given Tehran until August 31 to comply or face the threat of sanctions. Western countries, led by the US, believe Iran wants to build nuclear weapons, but the Islamic republic insists it only wants to develop civilian nuclear power and has the right to master the required technology. -------- japan Wave of ‘dangerous’ nationalism sweeps Japan By David Pilling August 28 2006 Financial Times http://www.ft.com/cms/s/ca47d918-3625-11db-b249-0000779e2340.html Koichi Kato is understandably upset. Earlier this month, a man armed with a knife and copious supplies of kerosene burnt down Mr Kato’s family home in Yamagata prefecture and then tried to commit seppuku, or ritual suicide, on the premises. Only by chance was Mr Kato’s 97-year-old mother out for a stroll. The attack on Mr Kato’s home by a suspected right-wing fanatic followed repeated warnings by the veteran Liberal Democratic party politician against the wisdom of prime ministerial visits to the Yasukuni shrine. Yasukuni is the Shinto shrine that honours 2.5m war dead, as well as a handful of leaders including Hideki Tojo, the wartime prime minister convicted of war crimes by the Tokyo tribunal. Visits by Junichiro Koizumi, prime minister, have angered China and South Korea, which say Japan is refusing to face up to its wartime past. Although the assailant, still recovering from burns and slashes to his stomach and wrists, has not yet spoken, police are working on the assumption that he was outraged by the suggestion of boycotting Japan’s most treasured nationalist symbol. In spite of the advice from Mr Kato, once Mr Koizumi’s righthand man, the prime minister visited the shrine on August 15, the anniversary of Japan’s wartime surrender and the most offensive date for the country’s former adversaries. For Mr Kato, this series of events is a sign that Japan is lurching towards unhealthy nationalism. “What I am concerned about is the very strong anti-Chinese, anti-Korean and sometimes anti-American nationalism that is prevailing in Japan.” He blames politicians, including Shinzo Abe, for reopening the debate about whether Japan fought a just war in the 1930s and 1940s and whether it was forced into conflict by American trickery. “This kind of nationalism is very hard to calm down once leaders ignite it. This is a dangerous nationalism. Politicians should not try to use it.” Things could get worse, Mr Kato says, if, as is almost universally expected, Mr Abe succeeds Mr Koizumi as prime minister next month. “Koizumi-san admitted that Tojo and others were war criminals,” he says. “But Abe does not accept that notion.” Mr Abe, he argues, is very influenced by the thinking of his grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, who became a postwar prime minister after being arrested, but never convicted, on suspicion of being a war criminal. Mr Abe’s advisers say the would-be prime minister is merely trying to draw a line under six decades of “self-flagellation” under which, they say, schools have taught successive generations that Japan was uniquely wicked in the war. Mr Abe, they say, wants to restore a “healthy nationalism” in which people are proud of their country’s culture and achievements. He also wants to clarify Japan’s right to defend itself, by changing the pacifist constitution banning a Japanese military and by spelling out Japan’s right – abandoned for half a century – to participate in collective self-defence. As things stand, the US is pledged to defend Japan if it comes under attack but if the US is attacked in the region, Japan cannot come to its aid. Hisahiko Okazaki, an adviser to Mr Abe, says: “There’s good nationalism and bad nationalism. If you raise the flag and sing the national anthem, that’s good nationalism. But if you tear down the flag of another nation, that’s bad nationalism.” Mr Abe is promoting the good kind, he says. However, Mr Kato says politicians are leading the nation into unhealthy territory, actively promoting a historical amnesia. He also blames books and films for encouraging such sentiments, adding that the man who burnt down his home was believed to have been reading a rightwing comic before the attack. Masahiko Fujiwara, author of the recent blockbuster A Nation’s Dignity, and a poster boy for Japanese conservatives, says: “The concept of an A-class criminal doesn’t mean anything, because winners don’t have the right to judge the losers, not just in Tokyo but also in Nuremburg. “If Tojo was an A-class criminal, then so was Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, Mao and Truman, who bombed us with atomic bombs.” Mr Kato regards such views as dangerous, saying that Japan should face up to what he considers its prewar arrogance and colonialist ambitions. “Some people want to erase all these past mistakes.” ---- Japan interested in nuclear cooperation with Kazakhstan - Koizumi Aug 28, 2006 Interfax http://www.interfax.com/3/187680/news.aspx ASTANA. Aug 28 (Interfax-Kazakhstan) - Cooperation with Kazakhstan in the nuclear power sector is promising, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said at a joint briefing with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev after bilateral negotiations in Astana on Monday. "I believe that cooperation in the sphere of atomic energy, including efforts to explore uranium deposits, is promising," he said. "In accordance with a memorandum signed today, we are launching work to conclude agreements on nuclear power," Koizumi said. The Kazakh authorities are interested in Japanese investment in Kazakh enterprises that produce high added value goods, Nazarbayev said. "Taking into account the present state of the economy of Kazakhstan, we are interested in securing direct investment from Japan in enterprises producing high added value goods and [Japan's] participation in programs to develop industry in Kazakhstan. We are ready to provide all the necessary preferences for it," the Kazakh president said. "Our opinion is that the negotiations that took place today will play an important, one can even say historic, role because it is the first visit to our country by an incumbent prime minister of Japan. It represents a new turn in our bilateral relations," Nazarbayev said. "A more vigorous relationship meets the interests of the Japanese government and the [Japanese] people and the interests of Kazakhstan and Central Asia as a whole," the president said. On Monday, the Kazakh and Japanese leaders signed a joint statement pledging to continue to develop the two countries' friendship, partnership and cooperation. In addition, Kazakh Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Baktykozha Izmukhambetov and Japanese Ambassador to Kazakhstan Tetsuo Ito signed a memorandum confirming the two countries' intention to promote cooperation in peaceful nuclear technology. ---- Name faked for nuclear-related export Mitutoyo sold gear to Iranian company with possible WMD aims Monday, Aug. 28, 2006 Japan Times http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060828a1.html Mitutoyo Corp. falsified the name of the Iranian recipient of a high-tech measuring machine in 1997 when it applied for an export permit from the Japanese government, according to investigative sources. A van carrying confiscated documents leaves Mitutoyo Corp.'s head office in Kawasaki on Friday following a raid by Tokyo police. KYODO PHOTO Mitutoyo, which makes precision measuring devices, entered a fictitious corporate name and not that of Pars Switch Co., the real recipient, in seeking the permit from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, the predecessor of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the sources said. The equipment was exported that year via Seian, a trading house based in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, to Pars Switch, which was on a MITI watch list of foreign corporations suspected of developing weapons of mass destruction. The sources at the Metropolitan Police Department said the company could be involved in Iran's nuclear development program. They alleged that Mitutoyo fabricated the corporate name of the recipient to prevent MITI from rejecting the permit application. Mitutoyo entered Pars Switch's real address on the application document, even though it used a bogus name for the company, according to the sources, who are knowledgeable about investigations by the Public Safety Division of the Tokyo police. It apparently fabricated the name of the recipient at the instruction of Seian and Pars Switch, which appear to have held consultations beforehand concerning the falsification, the sources said. Police raided Seian's Tokyo office Friday on suspicion of illegally selling the precision measuring instruments to Pars Switch in 1997. They also arrested Mitutoyo's current and a former president as well as three other executives on suspicion of exporting two high-tech measuring devices convertible for use in the manufacture of nuclear weapons to Malaysia in 2001 without government permission. One of the two measuring machines was found in a nuclear facility in Libya by International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors during their 2003-2004 checks. The machines, known as three-dimensional machines, can be used to manufacture centrifuge machines to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. Their export is subject to restrictions under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law and the Export Trade Control Ordinance. Investigators also found that Mitutoyo used two different names for the same three-dimensional measuring machine that eventually ended up in Libya's hands. The machine allegedly traveled via the nuclear black market run by Pakistani nuclear physicist Abdul Qadeer Khan. The investigators believe Mitutoyo used the different names for the same machine in addition to fabricating figures to make the machine appear less capable than it actually was, in order to bypass Japanese export regulations on dual-use high-tech products, the sources said. In January 2000, the Public Safety Division searched Seian over alleged links with another trading firm, Sun Beam K.K., whose former directors were arrested on suspicion of exporting components for a sighting device for rocket launchers to Iran. The documents the police seized in the 2000 case as well as the Mitutoyo dossiers it confiscated in connection with its high-tech machine exports supported suspicions that Mitutoyo's three-dimensional measuring machines and several other precision measuring instruments had ended up in the hands of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard and Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics between 1984 and 1992. -------- korea South Korean: North capable of nuke test By JAE-SOON CHANG ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER Monday, August 28, 2006 http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1104AP_Koreas_Nuclear.html SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea has facilities on standby to test a nuclear explosion and could do so at any time, the chief of South Korea's main spy agency said Monday, according to a lawmaker and a government official. "Facilities for a nuclear test are always on standby and considering the North's capability, the possibility (of a test) is always open," spy agency chief Kim Seung-kyu was quoted as telling a closed meeting of the parliamentary intelligence committee. However, Kim said there is no sign that a test is imminent, according to two people at the meeting, Rep. Shin Ki-nam, head of the committee, and a government official who requested anonymity, citing policy. "Currently, however, there is no direct sign or movement that North Korea is preparing a nuclear test," Kim was quoted as saying. Kim also was quoted as saying his agency detected signs in the late 1990s that the communist nation was digging a tunnel in the northeast and has since kept a close watch on it. Recently, what were believed to be cables were seen in the region, but it's difficult to determine whether they are directly related to a nuclear test, Kim was quoted as saying. Cables could be used to provide electricity to a tunnel or to link an underground testing site to outside measuring equipment, Shin said. Concerns of a nuclear test by the North flared anew earlier this month after ABC News quoted U.S. officials as saying that suspicious activity was detected at a suspected underground nuclear testing site. North Korea claims to have nuclear weapons, but has not performed any known test. Many experts believe the North has enough radioactive material to build at least half a dozen nuclear weapons. On Saturday, the North's Foreign Ministry said it would take "all necessary countermeasures" unless the U.S. accepts its demand for an end to financial restrictions on the country. The North didn't elaborate what those countermeasures would be, but some local media said the North's statement may mean a nuclear test. The communist state test-fired seven missiles July 5, including a long-range Taepodong-2 missile, believed potentially capable of reaching the United States. There have been concerns the North may conduct more tests. But Kim, the South's spy agency chief, said the possibility is low because the North removed all Taepodong-2 related equipment from a launch site on its east coast mid-July, "ending missile activity in the region," according to Shin and the government official. The United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea have tried to persuade the North to abandon its nuclear program at six-party negotiations. The talks have been on hold since November as North Korea refuses to attend until Washington lifts financial restrictions on it. The nuclear talks have taken on new urgency after the North's missile launches. The U.S. has urged the North to come to the talks without conditions, saying the financial issue is unrelated to the six-party talks. ---- No Sign Of Imminent North Korean Nuclear Test by Staff Writers Seoul (AFP) Aug 28, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/reports/No_Sign_Of_Imminent_North_Korean_Nuclear_Test_999.html South Korea's intelligence chief said Monday that North Korea was capable of testing a nuclear bomb at any time, but that there were no signs a test was imminent. Amid speculation in Japan and the United States over a possible test, National Intelligence Service (NIS) director Kim Seung-Kyu said the next move depended on North Korea's unpredictable leader Kim Jong-Il. "Facilities for a nuclear test are on standby, and the possibility of a nuclear test is always open if Kim Jong-Il makes a decision," the spy chief told a parliamentary committee, according to committee chairman Shin Ki-Nam. "There are no convincing signs or movement that suggest North Korea is now preparing to conduct a nuclear test," he said. South Korea has in recent days stepped up monitoring of North Korean nuclear activities, while the United States has publicly warned Pyongyang against proceeding with a test. On Saturday, a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman warned the country would take "all necessary counter-measures" in its first response to intensifying US hunts for Pyongyang-owned bank accounts overseas. The warning came after the Choson Sinbo, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper in Japan, said North Korea could carry out a nuclear test to bolster its self-defence capability. "They are only waiting to decide when would be the best timing," Kim Young-Soo, a political science professor at Sogang University in Seoul, told Yonhap news agency. "People would think it would not make any sense for the North to conduct a nuclear test, but it is perfectly rational for the North because it believes it is the only way to guarantee its sovereignty and regime," Kim said. North Korea has claimed that it already possesses nuclear weapons, while the CIA has said it believes North Korea has made several crude nuclear bombs. Diplomatic efforts to jumpstart stalled nuclear disarmament talks have intensified since North Korea test-fired seven missiles last month, including a longe-range Taepodong-2 reportedly capable of hitting US soil. The NIS chief said North Korea had removed all long-range missile equipment from its launch site, lowering the possibility of any new missile test. Intelligence reports here said earlier that North Korea may have moved two long-range Taepodong-2 missiles to its Musudan-ri launch site and test-fired one of them on July 5. "North Korea removed all of its Taepodong 2-related equipment from the test site in mid-July, so missile activities in the area have been terminated," Kim Seung-Kyu was quoted as saying. -------- russia Russian nuclear agency could set up venture fund in late 2006 28/ 08/ 2006 (RIA Novosti) http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060828/53238010.html MOSCOW, August 28 - Russia's state nuclear power agency said Monday it could establish a venture fund with up to $400 million to finance innovative projects in electricity and other areas by the end of 2006. A spokesman for the Federal Agency for Nuclear Power said, "The fund would finance innovative projects in civilian electric power, electronics, clean materials, and water supplies developed by research institutes." The fund, which could be launched in late 2006 or early 2007, would initially receive $30-$40 million in government funds, and its total volume is expected to reach $300-$400 million, the source said. The agency is currently in talks with private Russian firms on joint investment projects. The spokesman said state funds would be allocated on the condition the projects were 50% co-financed by private investors. The idea is still at the discussion stage, and the agency's fund could emerge as a sub-fund of a venture fund to be opened by the Economic Development and Trade Ministry, he said. The ministry is currently forming a venture company which would consist of at least 10 sectoral venture funds, as part of an effort to revitalize the country's industrial base and diversify the economy away from commodity exports. The ministry said earlier the government would invest between 600 million rubles ($23 mln) and 1.5 billion rubles ($56 mln) in the venture funds' charter capital, but that its control would be limited to 49% of stock. The ministry said it would announce tenders on management companies for venture funds by the end of the year or early 2007. However some experts fear the idea of venture funds, extensively used in developed countries, might not work in Russia, where businesses are heavily focused on raw materials production and exports. -------- u.s. nuc weapons U.S. mulls replacing few nuke warheads August 28, 2006 Washington Times From combined dispatches http://washtimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20060827-114122-1897r FAIRBANKS, Alaska -- The Pentagon is considering a plan to replace the nuclear warheads on some intercontinental ballistic missiles with conventional weapons for pre-emptive strikes on terrorists, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday. "The United States is looking into the possibility of taking a relatively small number of our ballistic missiles and taking a nuclear weapon off and putting a conventional weapon on," Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters after a meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov at a lodge here on the banks of the Chena River. "If either of our countries or friends and allies were threatened at some number of years into the future with a weapon of mass destruction ... I think any president ... would like to have available a conventional weapon that could attack that target swiftly and accurately and precisely, and not feel that the only thing they had might be a nuclear weapon, which they would not want to use." Mr. Rumsfeld said he hoped Russia would consider the idea too, but Mr. Ivanov was not enthused. "I would like to stress this point: These are preliminary [U.S.] plans, and for sure these plans raise Russian concern," Mr. Ivanov said. "There can be different solutions" to the problem, such as using cruise missiles in that role, he added. Earlier yesterday, Mr. Rumsfeld had his first look inside the nerve center of the U.S. missile defense system at Alaska's Fort Greely, and climbed down a steel ladder into one of 10 silos, each of which houses a 54-foot-long missile interceptor. An 11th interceptor is to be installed at Fort Greely today, officials said. The Pentagon chief was cautious when asked afterward whether he thought the shield was ready for use against North Korean missiles such as those test-fired unsuccessfully July 4. He said he would not be fully convinced until the multibillion-dollar defense system has undergone more complete and realistic testing. "I want to see it happen," he said. "A full end-to-end" demonstration is needed "where we actually put all the pieces" of the highly complex and far-flung missile defense system together and see whether it would succeed in destroying a warhead in flight, he said. "That just hasn't happened," he said, adding that some elements of the missile defense system are yet to come on-line, including some of the radars and other sensors used to track the target missile. But "I have a lot of confidence in these folks, and I have a lot of confidence in the work that has been done," he said. Mr. Rumsfeld also said that North Korea's missile launches proved that Pyongyang also is a threat in the spread of missile technology to terrorists. "I think the real threat that North Korea poses in the immediate future is more one of proliferation than a danger to South Korea," he said. Asked to elaborate, Mr. Rumsfeld said the overall condition of the North Korean military has deteriorated. He mentioned that North Korean air force pilots are able to fly less than 50 hours a year -- less than one-quarter the training done by U.S. pilots. "I don't see them, frankly, as an immediate military threat to South Korea," he said. -------- u.s. nuc facilities New growth for nuclear power Interview with Ed Baker, director of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Information Services Office By Wilson P. Dizard III, GCN Staff 08/28/06 http://www.gcn.com/print/25_26/41752-1.html The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been out of the spotlight for a while, as the industry and the 103 nuclear power plants it oversees have remained static. But with some 27 new plants now in the planning stages, NRC is gearing up for expansion of its systems resources and IT staff. The industry had languished in the wake of cost overruns, the largest municipal-bond default in history (at the Washington Public Power Supply System) and the near-catastrophe at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. But concern over greenhouse gases has revived the prospects of nuclear power. GCN met with Information Services Office director Ed Baker, who oversees the agency’s central IT operations, planning and policies at NRC’s Bethesda, Md., headquarters. GCN: What experiences led you to your position overseeing the agency’s IT? Did you come in from industry? Baker: I have been with the NRC now 26 years. I started out as an engineer—mechanical engineering is my background. I have been an inspector in the area where we did inspections of vendor facilities—everything from people who make nuts and bolts to people who make reactor pressure vessels. It was a four-year stint in my career, and it was not on site. My next step was as a licensing project manager for River Bend [nuclear station in Francisville, La., now owned by Entergy Corp.] for two years. I spent seven years running our allegation program, where we take concerns from the public and the industry and get those resolved. That’s where I picked up system development. We built a new system for tracking that, and also records management. I did a short stint of two years in international programs and then went from there to here. GCN: How will NRC adjust its systems operations to maintain connectivity while its staff is located in several buildings, as part of the agency’s expansion? Baker: Basically, we are expanding our seat management. All of our IT is contracted out in terms of desktops. ... GCN: Who is the contractor? Baker: LMIT. [Lockheed Martin Information Technologies of Bethesda, Md.] We are growing, as you know. We have hired 400 people this year, as an agency. We will probably lose 150 or so to retirement, so it’s a net gain. It’s a significant growth for the agency. GCN: Of this new cadre of employees, how many will be heavy-duty power users of computing resources? Baker: Most of them are going to be engineers. That’s the primary focus. The other group would be the folks who are supporting them. We have folks in IT, folks in HR, folks in administration, and so forth. But the majority of those [new hires] are hard-core technical types, engineers and scientists. GCN: What impact will the expansion of NRC’s capabilities for licensing plants have on system resources, and plans for increasing federal and contractor staff? Baker: Our ultimate goal is to serve the customers we have. So we are increasing the staff ... from about 161 staff members in this office in [fiscal] ’05 to about 180 in ’07. There are a number of things we are doing that will require that [workforce expansion]. We’re automating processes that weren’t automated in the past. A good example is the comments we are receiving on the early site permits. In the North Anna [permit action for the power station near Richmond, Va.,] we received 4,000 comments. The agency was not prepared for that. They still had a manual process in place where the comment was read by a staff member and read by a technical reviewer. We’ve now automated that, so it comes in, gets automatically entered in our records system, automatically transmitted to the reviewer. GCN: Did you take lessons from the Environmental Protection Agency’s comparable system for managing comments? I understand that even other agencies go to them for help. Baker: We actually didn’t go out and contact another agency. The NRC has been dealing with public comments as long as it has been doing licensing. This was an extraordinary volume, though. The Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, which does that licensing, asked us to develop a new way to process the comments. We had the talent in-house to do that. So we set forth to do that with our own electronic-records system. GCN: What types of project management tools did you use on that project? Baker: This was a fairly simple project, but we did use Microsoft Project to manage it in terms of building out a work breakdown and a schedule, and applying resources to that. For bigger projects, we apply earned-value management, which is a requirement from [the Office of Management and Budget]. One of the tools that we use is the Rational suite [from IBM Corp.]. We use that for maintaining our configuration management, for our IT security documents. We also use [Rational] for assistance in preparing the documents we submit for our investments to OMB, which is the Exhibit 300. GCN: I have heard there is a potential for using BlackBerrys or other wireless devices to maintain connectivity among your field, regional and headquarters staff. How are you approaching wireless security? Baker: Very slowly. The commission, prior to chairman Dale Klein coming in, did not feel that it needed to move to something like BlackBerrys. He came from the Defense Department, and one of the first things he asked about was BlackBerrys. And we have implemented BlackBerrys in an initial phase for him and senior managers in the agency. We limited extremely the set of functions that you have on a BlackBerry. Right now, we are not allowing Bluetooth, we are not allowing the Web enablement. We have a combination device, which is wireless phone and text. GCN: What are you using for an e-mail system? Baker: We currently are using [Novell] GroupWise as our e-mail system. The chairman has asked us to come up with a plan to migrate to Microsoft Outlook and Exchange. GCN: Has he asked for evaluations of any other potential IT initiatives? Baker: Yes. We are, in fact, moving to Microsoft Office. We have been using the Corel WordPerfect suite. The agency [had been considering] Microsoft Office for a number of years, but it never became a priority because we felt we could survive with WordPerfect, even though most of our licensees use Office. -------- kentucky Nuclear cleanup company criticized over safety issues at Paducah plant Associated Press Monday, August 28, 2006 http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060828/NEWS0104/608280357 PADUCAH, Ky. — The U.S. Department of Energy has criticized the lead nuclear cleanup contractor for the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant for a series of safety problems. An Aug. 16 letter from the department indicated Paducah Remediation Services may be penalized financially if it doesn't correct the problems immediately. "There have been a number of minor accidents, but the Department of Energy does see them as a potential trend, and we do as well," Paducah Remediation Services President Mike Spry said. "We're trying to nip it in the bud before we have major incidents." The company took over as the plant's cleanup contractor April 24 under a $192 million contract. The company has since had "a significant number of industrial and radiological safety incidents," Loretta Parsons, contracting officer for the Energy Department's Lexington project office, wrote in the letter. "These safety incidents include multiple forklift accidents, near-miss events, radiological control violations and first aids," the letter said. Paducah Remediation Services is evaluating its management team and conducting safety training, Spry said. He wouldn't say how much the company expects to earn in performance fees, except to say the amount was "a few million." "The best way for DOE to track our performance and get it where we want it to be is the fee mechanism," he said. "Obviously we're responding to that because we don't want to see our fees reduced." The safety problems have forced employees to stop work at least three times, Parsons wrote. The Energy Department also questioned how well workers respond to safety problems. Spry said there have been no serious injuries and only a few in which workers needed treatment. He said one violation of radiation-control requirements was fairly serious and remains under investigation. -------- new mexico Nuke plant nears construction The Associated Press August 30, 2006 http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/48535.html EUNICE -- The first major nuclear facility to be licensed in the United States in three decades moved a step closer to construction Tuesday as officials broke ground for a $1.5 billion uranium enrichment plant in Eastern New Mexico. Nearly 800 people -- including members of the state's congressional delegation and Gov. Bill Richardson -- attended the ceremony under a towering white tent some five miles east of Eunice. Officials said the National Enrichment Facility, which will make fuel for commercial nuclear power plants, also was making history. "I have been talking over the last several years about the coming of the nuclear renaissance in commercial nuclear energy in America," said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., long a supporter of nuclear power. "I am delighted and proud that the renaissance is in New Mexico." Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., whose congressional district includes Eunice, noted the plant is expected to bring in up to 1,000 construction jobs and 300 permanent ones and said it will generate millions of dollars for the economy of Lea County and southeastern New Mexico. Local officials lauded the plant for diversifying the region's bedrock economy of oil and gas. Richardson, a former U.S. energy secretary, said nuclear energy will play an important role in the nation's energy mix, and the uranium enrichment plant is a step into the future. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in June granted a license allowing Louisiana Energy Services to build and operate the plant, the first U.S. installation to use centrifuge technology rather than a process known as gaseous diffusion that has been around since World War II. David Garman, undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, said the NRC expects about 25 applications for nuclear power plants, partially due to the quick application process -- some 21/2 years -- for LES. Officials have said the plant's first production facilities could be completed in late 2008. The first private enrichment plant in the nation could be ready to sell enriched uranium in the first quarter of 2009. Domenici said the plant has global significance. "The plant could provide, one day, the fuel to run schools in Asia, hospitals in Brazil. This plant will make the world a better place to live in a very real sense of the word," he said. Pearce said the enrichment facility could produce 25 percent of U.S. demand for fuel rods for nuclear power plants -- rods that currently are imported. Thus, Pearce said, the plant is bringing jobs to New Mexico that otherwise could have gone to Europe. Two nuclear watchdog groups have appealed the NRC's license decision for LES, which is made up of European-based Urenco, British Nuclear Fuels Unlimited and minor U.S. partners. Public Citizen and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service argued in their filing this month in federal court in Washington, D.C., that LES has not shown a plausible strategy to dispose of depleted uranium waste. Marshall Cohen, vice president for communications and government relations for LES, has said the government carefully vetted the project. Currently, there is no place in the United States to dispose of waste from such a plant, although a French company, Areva Inc., has agreed to build a private deconversion facility to handle it. The NRC also must license Areva's facility. LES believes the waste can be buried once it has gone through deconversion. The state, which complained it was largely excluded from the licensing process, developed its own agreement with LES over waste storage at the plant. The agreement requires LES to limit storage of depleted uranium hexafluoride in New Mexico to an amount equal to what the plant could produce over eight to 10 years at full capacity. The agreement also states all waste must be converted or disposed of outside New Mexico. Nuclear energy watchdog groups criticized the agreement, saying it doesn't go far enough in removing the waste from New Mexico and fails to solve the disposal problem. Richardson said Tuesday that Urenco has a track record to ensure adequate health and safety measures, but the state will play an oversight role. "We want to be sure the state is a partner, and I can assure you that's going to happen," he said. ---- Fall Guide 2006: Bombs Away Two fun ways to blow up this October. By Patricia Sauthoff Published: August 30, 2006 Santa Fe Reporter http://sfreporter.com/articles/publish/fg-083006-trinity.php?ref=rss In the early morning hours of July 16, 1945, at a remote site on the White Sands Missile Range, an atomic bomb was detonated for the first time, forever changing the way the world would look at war. The Making of the Atomic Bomb author Richard Rhodes tells SFR that as he was writing his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “I thought of the story I was going to be telling as the great tragic epic of the 20th century, trying to think as an historian but also trying to cast it in a literary mold as a tragic epic. There’s something about the whole business about harnessing nuclear energy in the form of a weapon that merges in somewhere deep in the human psyche with the whole business of apocalypse and Armageddon. All of those really old, basically religious concerns and ideas get attached to this highly technological story, romantic story, frightening story.” In order to tell and preserve that story, the non-profit Atomic Heritage Foundation will take over Los Alamos for an October symposium, “The Manhattan Project Legacy of Los Alamos: Creativity is Science and the Arts,” at which Rhodes will be one of the many speakers. The symposium commemorates nuclear history through a series of educational lectures and tours of the Bradbury Science Museum and Oppenheimer home. The symposium also will include the dedication of sites that are currently located behind the tight security of Los Alamos National Laboratory, but which the foundation hopes will someday be accessible to the public. Preservation of inaccessible sites is beginning now because so few have been preserved up to this point and there aren’t many left to save for the future. The dedication of the Los Alamos “V site,” a small building that was used in the assembly of the bomb tested at Trinity, is just one of the many projects the foundation is working on with the National Park Service to preserve Manhattan Project locations within New Mexico and around the country. In order to dedicate the site, the Heritage Foundation has invited guests to give a bit of background on the history of the Manhattan Project. In addition to Rhodes, speakers include The Day After Trinity’s producer and director Jon Else and composer John Adams, whose opera, Dr. Atomic, had its world premiere at the San Francisco Opera in October 2005. Rhodes tells SFR he is excited to be involved with the preservation effort because “as things move backwards in history there is a tendency to mythologize and simplify. I’ve noticed that poor Nagasaki barely gets mentioned anymore. One hundred years from now it’s going to be one city, Hiroshima; one place [involved in the building of the bomb], Los Alamos; one person, Oppenheimer; and one bomb.” For Rhodes, anything that can be done to preserve the story now and keep it from being “stripped away of its detail” must be done. One Manhattan Project site that already has been preserved, and will be open to the public the same day as the symposium, is the Trinity Site in White Sands Missile Range. Twice a year, the first Saturdays in April and October, the Trinity Site opens from 8 am to 2 pm. Visiting Trinity is a powerful experience, even though there is very little there, the main event having dissipated into the atmosphere more than 50 years ago. What is left at Ground Zero is a large circle, surrounded by wire fencing, the casing of the larger of the two types of atomic bombs (Fat Man) and an obelisk of Trinitite (the result of sand melting in the radioactive heat of the blast) that is marked with a plaque commemorating the date of the test. According to the official White Sands Web site (www.wsmr.army.mil/pao/TrinitySite/trinst.htm), the radiation levels at Trinity are extremely low and there is no danger in visiting, though the physical and emotional effects of the blast can still be seen and felt in grass that doesn’t grow quite the same as it does on the other side of the fence. A short bus ride from Ground Zero is the McDonald House Ranch, a small home constructed in 1913, which was used to assemble the bomb before detonation. Its windows were blown out during the blast but, at two miles away, the structure remained relatively unscathed. Visiting the house provides an educational experience in both the history of atomic testing and American life in the early 20th century. Besides being an opportunity to learn something, this fall is a rare chance to see some super-secret government stuff without sneaking in and risking disappearing forever. -------- MILITARY -------- africa Ballot battle threatens Congo's future By ANJAN SUNDARAM, Associated Press Writer Mon Aug 28, 2006 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060828/ap_on_re_af/congo_ballot_battle_2 KINSHASA, Congo - Walls plastered with campaign posters from Congo's historic elections are peppered with bullet holes. Tank fire has smashed buildings just down bloodstained streets from voting centers in the war-battered capital. Balloting was meant to bring closure to the Central African nation's 1996-2002 conflict, but fighting between men loyal to the two candidates is aggravating old wounds. In the wake of the capital's worst violence in years, some Congolese wonder if the country's leaders are capable of resolving a democratic power struggle without resorting to violence. "I am worried about the future of our country," said Jose Munoki, 53, a government worker. "The fighting shows our politicians only want democracy as long as they retain power." President Joseph Kabila will face ex-rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba, a vice president in Kabila's national unity government, in an Oct. 29 run-off vote. While the July 30 election went peacefully, the Aug. 20 announcement that Kabila fell short of the 50 percent needed to avoid the runoff provoked fighting between army soldiers loyal to Kabila and those aligned with Bemba. Kabila won about 45 percent of ballots cast, while Bemba had 20 percent. While the two camps traded accusations over who started the fighting, the battle raged for three days in Kinshasa, sending citizens behind closed doors and emptying streets of cars and shoppers. The day after the results were announced, Kabila's fighters attacked Bemba's home as the candidate met inside with top international diplomats. U.N. and EU troops evacuated the diplomats, including the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission, William Swing. Kabila's loyalists — members of his red beret-wearing special presidential guard — used tanks and heavy machine guns against Bemba's army fighters, who battled back with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns. The fighters only returned to barracks after the U.N. brokered a cease-fire and Kabila and Bemba ordered the battles to stop. In the end, 31 people were killed, including many civilians — the worst violence to hit Kinshasa since the end of the war was negotiated in 2002. Bemba, 44, is under protection by the United Nations. Kabila, 35, had gained much popular support for negotiating the peace deals four years ago and bringing his foes into a power-sharing government that arranged the elections with help from the U.N. and other international partners. But many Congolese say the roots of the latest battle lay in the peace deals themselves. Under the accords, Kabila, Bemba and others were allowed to keep hundreds of loyalists as their personal guards. While the soldiers are officially part of the military, they remain loyal to their wartime leaders and are ardent enemies, even as their bosses campaign for electoral support. Some observers fear the rival units will fight again — and the next battle may enflame a civilian population unaccustomed to channeling anger through a democratic process. Congo's last multiparty election was in 1961, a year after independence from Belgium. "There is certainly the possibility of a flare-up during the second round, and those who want to avoid that have a lot of work ahead of them," said Herbert Brown, head of Congo's branch of the National Democratic Institute, a U.S.-based organization aiding the Central African country's transition to democracy. "I think the people are ready for democracy, but some individuals are not. We were very surprised — we thought the two sides were preparing to campaign for a second round, not engage each other with arms," he said. Both camps are still talking tough, despite overseas pressure to keep the peace and not undermine the vote, which is costing the international community nearly a half-billion dollars. "We will not allow ourselves to be killed, that's for sure. If they attack us again, we will retaliate," said Mbonzi Wa Mbonzi, a Bemba spokesman. "Our troops deployed to protect the security of our president, and they will do so again if necessary," said Kudura Kasongo, a spokesman for Kabila. To many among the Congo's 58 million people, that sounds ominous. The country's civilian population is still suffering from violent postwar ripples. The eastern borderlands remain outside government control, with marauding bands of militia fighters raping, killing and looting. The United Nations says the humanitarian crisis there is among the world's worst. After years of wars and corrupt, dictatorial rule, many Congolese wonder if a vote is worth the risk of a return to all-out fighting. "I voted for Bemba in the first round, but now I think neither of them is fit to rule our country," said George Mushi, 46, a security guard in Kinshasa. "Our country is not ready for democracy. Even our leaders don't seem to understand democracy." -------- ENERGY -------- alternative energy Bumper Crop of US Wind Farms Boosts Turbine Makers Story by Scott Malone REUTERS US: August 28, 2006 http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/37862/story.htm LOWVILLE, N.Y. - - A team of eight workers scrambled to assemble the 185th windmill in the largest wind farm in the northeastern United States. They had 10 more to build and wanted to wrap up the job by Labor Day. Scott Alexander, operations manager for the Maple Ridge Wind Farm, stood below, watching a towering crane holding a 20-ton, three-bladed propeller 260 feet above him. He didn't appear worried about the gravity-defying operation. Alexander was bothered by another electricity-generating wind turbine that couldn't be built yet because a section of its base had been damaged in transit. "Trying to get a replacement piece has become a big issue," Alexander said. "We're putting these up one a day, but we're going to be delayed by that piece." Maple Ridge, 300 miles northwest of New York City, between Lake Ontario and the Adirondack Mountains, isn't alone in its hunt for parts. Wind farms are going up across the country at a rapid pace. This month, the United States passed the 10,000-megawatt mark in installed wind turbine capacity, according to the American Wind Energy Association, which projects that by the end of next year, that number will reach 15,000 megawatts -- enough to power 3.8 million typical American homes. That's left major wind turbine manufacturers, including Vestas Wind Systems AS, the Danish company that made the turbines being installed at Maple Ridge, General Electric Co. and Siemens AG, scrambling to meet demand. "This is a global industry and there is a global shortage of wind turbines," said Randall Swisher, executive director of the Washington-based Wind Energy trade group. KEEPING UP WITH DEMAND To help meet demand, German conglomerate Siemens this month said it plans to open a factory in Fort Madison, Iowa, to make wind-turbine blades, its first such U.S. facility. In this country, Siemens in 2006 has booked orders for turbines capable of producing 600 megawatts of electricity, and expects to double its U.S. volume over the next three years. GE, the world's second-largest company by market capitalization, has a similarly aggressive growth forecast, and says it has booked as many orders as it can fill for 2006 and 2007, and is already taking orders for 2008 deliveries. "We're seeing tremendous demand growth, in particular in the United States," said Victor Abate, vice president of renewable energy at GE. Abate said GE is on track to record US$3.4 billion in wind turbine sales this year, shipping 2,000 turbines. That's up from US$2.3 billion in sales last year. Abate said he expects 30 percent revenue growth at the wind unit in 2007. RENEWABLE YES, RELIABLE MAYBE To advocates of renewable energy, wind farms are a golden goose. They burn no fuel, and thus release no carbon dioxide when they operate. Their main byproducts are the hissing noise the blades make cutting through the air, unusual shadow patterns on the ground and occasional TV interference. Not everyone agrees with that rosy assessment. Opponents of wind farms in the United States object to the noise and disruption of view, and also question their productivity. One major farm proposed off Cape Cod in Massachusetts has run into just such criticism. But with rising prices for oil and natural gas -- a key fuel for many U.S. electricity plants -- advocates argue their price stability makes them a good choice. "What's the probability that natural gas will change in price?" Abate asked. "Wind won't change in price." But wind turbines have one obvious weakness -- they need wind, preferably blowing at about 10 miles to 25 miles per hour, to generate electricity. On the still day Alexander's crew hoisted the giant propeller, other nearby turbines were turning lazily but not generating any power. Wind farms currently generate about 0.5 percent of the United States' electricity supply, the AWEA estimates. It's aiming to raise that to 20 percent. But industry experts called that an unrealistic target. "It can't be counted on for reliable supply," said Paul Flemming, director of power and gas at Energy Security Analysis Inc., a research firm. "When ... it's hot and humid and no breeze, that's just when we need the power the most. And those windmills will just be sitting there." Analysts and wind industry executives said that a more realistic goal might be to have wind generate 6 percent to 10 percent of the nation's energy. Peter Bates, an equity analyst with mutual fund company T. Rowe Price Associates, said wind holds great potential for GE. "It is a very viable alternative energy solution and GE has the technology and the domain knowledge to make it happen," Bates said. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Scottish Power own Maple Ridge through investment vehicles. The largest U.S. wind farm, on the Oregon-Washington border, is owned by a unit of FPL Group Inc. -------- OTHER -------- environment Acid Rain Affects Large Swathes of China August 28, 2006 — By Reuters http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11146 BEIJING — Acid rain caused by sulphur dioxide spewed from factories and power plants affected a third of China's vast land mass last year, posing a threat to food safety, Xinhua news agency said citing a parliamentary report. More than half of the 696 cities and counties monitored had suffered acid rain, in some cases on a daily basis, according to a pollution inspection report submitted to the standing committee of parliament, the official agency said. "Increased sulphur dioxide emissions meant that one third of China's territory was affected by acid rain, posing a major threat to soil and food safety," Xinhua cited NPC standing committee vice chairman Sheng Huaren as saying. Discharge of sulphur dioxide in booming China rose by 27 percent between 2000 and 2005 to 25 million tonnes, making the country the world's top emitter of the pollutant. Sheng told lawmakers that China's sulphur dioxide emissions, caused largely by coal-burning power stations and coking plants, were double the acceptable environmental limit. According to the report's findings, nearly 650 out of 680 coking plants in Shanxi, the country's main coal-mining province, discharged excessive sulphur dioxide, Xinhua said. Air pollution, caused mainly by sulphur dioxide and particulate matter, was affecting some 40 percent of Chinese cities, Sheng said. China has pledged to install desulphurisation facilities in coal-burning power plants and is planning pilot emissions trading schemes to help improve air quality. The capital, Beijing, has promised to replace its notorious smog with clear skies in time for the 2008 Olympics. In the same parliamentary report, Sheng also lifted the lid on false reporting of solid waste discharge levels by local governments and companies. Actual levels of toxic chromium waste in China could be as high as five million tons instead of the 4.1 million reflected in official figures, Xinhua cited the report as saying. "Many firms report a lower figure for chromium waste for fear of being punished," Sheng said. One locality had originally reported that it had 3,000 tons of chromium waste but raised the figure to 100,000 tons after learning the government would build reprocessing facilities for them instead of fining them, he said. -------- ACTIVISTS Anti-War Protesters Target Bush Family Wedding Monday, August 28th, 2006 Democracy Now! Headlines http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/28/1341257 In Maine, a wedding in President Bush’s family received an unexpected presence this weekend -- anti-war protesters. On Saturday, about 700 people marched past the seaside church where President Bush was attending his second cousin’s wedding. The marchers denounced the war on Iraq and called for the withdrawal of US troops.