NucNews September 8, 2006 -------- NUCLEAR -------- asia Central Asian states create nuclear-free zone SEMIPALATINSK, Kazakhstan (AFP) Sep 08, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/2006/060908184351.mposbgy8.html Amid criticism from certain western powers, the five former Soviet states of Central Asia on Friday pledged to make their collective territories a nuclear weapons-free zone. At a ceremony held in the city of Semipalatinsk -- just 120 kilometres (75 miles) from the former Soviet Union's main testing ground for atomic bombs -- foreign ministers and ambassadors from the five states signed a treaty in which they pledged not to produce, acquire or deploy nuclear weapons or their components. Kazakh Foreign Minister Kassymjomart Tokayev said the treaty, which took nine years to negotiate, was "particularly relevant in the context of the fight against terrorism". The agreement should help prevent weapons of mass destruction "falling into terrorists' hands", he added. But for the treaty to enter into force, the signatories -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan -- must sign a separate agreement with the five nuclear powers that are permanent members of the United Nations' Security Council. These are Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. And some western diplomats are already saying that the treaty is not worth the paper it is written on. They argue that article 12 of the text does not call into question the terms of a collective security agreement between the five central Asian states and Russia, which allows Moscow to transport atomic weapons across the newly-created nuclear free zone. "Britain first raised this problem... The idea of this kind of treaty in Central Asia is very good but it still allows Russia to transport nuclear arms, which is contradictory," said a western diplomat based in Almaty. Tokayev rejected these criticisms and insisted there was "no contradiction". The disagreement over the treaty meant that while the Russian and Chinese ambassadors were present at the ceremony, along with UN representaties and members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the US, France and Britain were not represented. In a letter sent to the signing ceremony, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged the Security Council and the Central Asian states to try to patch up their differences. "I note that some nuclear states continue to be concerned about some aspects of the Central Asia nuclear-free zone treaty... I would therefore urge the five Central Asian states to engage with the nuclear weapon states with the view to bridging the differences and insuring the treaty's effective implementation," he wrote. The Soviet Union tested nearly five hundred atomic bombs at its complex near Semipalatinsk, irradiating 1.5 million people and around 10 percent of Kazakh territory, an area equivalent to the size of Germany. Kazakhstan is often held up as a model of nuclear non-proliferation. When it won independence from the Soviet Union, it gave up its massive nuclear arsenal, which was the world's fourth largest. ---- 5 ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia sign nuclear free zone treaty The Associated Press Published: September 8, 2006 http://acdn.france.free.fr/spip/article.php3?id_article=224&lang=en SEMEY, Kazakhstan. The five ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia signed a treaty on Friday to create a nuclear-free zone in the strategic energy-rich region north of Iran and Afghanistan. By signing the treaty, the five nations with a combined population of about 60 million and a territory of more than 3.8 million square kilometers (1.5 million square miles), commit themselves not to produce, buy or allow the deployment of nuclear weapons on their soil. Such treaties provide weaker nations with some protection from a nuclear threat as they come with legally binding protocols attached, by which nuclear countries agree to view these zones as off-limits to their nuclear weapons. "The countries of our region declared a firm commitment to the principles of disarmament and nonproliferation. This is our contribution to ensuring global security," Kazakh Foreign Minister Kasymzhomart Tokayev said at the signing ceremony. "This is a region where the political interests of the biggest countries of the world clash," said his Uzbek counterpart Vladimir Norov. Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan also are included in the zone. The five official nuclear powers - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - are often reluctant to recognize such zones because they could limit their future nuclear deployments or the movement of their nuclear-armed forces through those areas. The Central Asian nuclear-free zone currently is backed only by Russia and China. The United States has expressed concern that the Central Asian treaty could ban transit by nuclear powered or nuclear-capable ships and aircraft. The region lies along key routes to Afghanistan and Iran, which the United States claims is developing nuclear weapons. The United States also has forces stationed in Kyrgyzstan. Britain, France and the United States last year called for further discussions on the Central Asian nuclear free zone, saying the language of the treaty was ambiguous and could give previous security agreements precedence over the treaty. One concern was a 1992 treaty that Russia signed with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan which Moscow claims could allow missiles to be deployed in the region. Tokayev said Friday that question remains open to interpretation. The British Embassy in Kazakhstan said Thursday that London was concerned about the content of the treaty and had conveyed its position to the Central Asian nations. It didn’t elaborate. The treaty was signed in the symbolically potent eastern Kazakh city of Semey, formerly Semipalatinsk, adjacent to the former largest Soviet nuclear test site. The Semipalatinsk site saw 458 air, ground and underground nuclear tests over its 40-year service. The explosions have affected 1.7 million people across an area of 300,000 square kilometers (12,000 square miles), according to Kazakh officials. A photo exhibition at the auditorium where the treaty was signed displayed grim reminders of the effects of nuclear blasts, including photos of children with birth defects. The Soviet military also deployed a considerable nuclear arsenal in Kazakhstan’s vast uninhabited steppes. President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s first order after Kazakhstan declared independence in 1991 was to shut down the Semipalatinsk site, and the entire nuclear arsenal - at the time the fourth largest in the world - was withdrawn from the country in the early 1990s. Under the treaty, the Central Asian nations also commit themselves to enhanced International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards regarding security of nuclear facilities and radioactive waste - something that could ease concerns about possible use of the region as a source or transit corridor for smuggling nuclear materials. The Central Asian nuclear free zone will be the first such a zone in the northern hemisphere. Three nuclear free zones are currently in force - covering Latin America and the Caribbean, the South Pacific, and Southeast Asia - and one more is pending in Africa. ---- New nuclear plants in Asia put strain on fuel supply and drive record prices CIBC World Markets expects uranium price to reach US$70/lb by end of 2007 Sept. 8, 2006 CNW Group http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/September2006/08/c1275.html TORONTO, / - CIBC (CM: TSX; NYSE) - The energy-hungry Asian economy has driven a nuclear power plant construction boom that has increased uranium prices seven-fold in the last five years and threatens to eat up current global supply, according to CIBC World Markets latest Monthly Indicators report. The report finds that surging electricity demand, rising fossil fuel prices and concerns over greenhouse gases has brought about a resurgence in nuclear energy with 80 new reactors either currently under construction or approved worldwide. More than half of these plants are located in Asia. "Just like we have seen with oil, the appetite for uranium to feed the rapidly growing energy needs of the burgeoning Chinese and Indian economies is straining supply and driving prices up," says Jeff Rubin, Chief Strategist for CIBC World Markets. The spot price for uranium oxide, the standard fuel for commercial nuclear reactors, hit an unprecedented US$52/lb earlier this month. Since 2001, the increase in uranium prices has been nearly four times greater than the increase in world oil prices. The report predicts prices will continue to climb and likely reach US$70/lb by the end of 2007. While at absolute record highs, the real cost of uranium remains below the prices set during the two main nuclear post-war booms of the 1950s and 1970s. The rapid building of new plants across Asia will likely see the region surpass the U.S. in terms of both installed capacity and uranium consumption in the next five to ten years. This new demand will outstrip supply within the next decade if new sources are not rapidly developed, according to the report. "Mine production supplies only 62 per cent of the uranium used today," adds Mr. Rubin. "The rest comes from a variety of other sources such as natural and enriched uranium inventories and the reprocessing of spent reactor fuels - and supplies from these secondary sources are steadily declining. Increased demand from Asia will continue to put pressure on prices and the need for more rapid mine development." Canada is the world's largest uranium producer at just under 12,000 tonnes per year. The CIBC World Markets September Monthly Indicators report is available at http://research.cibcwm.com/economic_public/download/misep06.pdf. CIBC World Markets is the wholesale banking arm of CIBC, providing a range of integrated credit and capital markets products, investment banking, and merchant banking to clients in key financial markets in North America and around the world. We deliver innovative full capital solutions to growth- oriented companies and are active in all capital markets. We offer advisory expertise across a wide range of industries and provide top-ranked research for our corporate, government and institutional investor clients. For further information: Jeff Rubin, Chief Economist and Chief Strategist, Managing Director, CIBC World Markets, (416) 594-7357, jeff.rubin@cibc.ca or Susan McDougall, CIBC Communications and Public Affairs at (416) 980-4047, susan.mcdougall@cibc.ca ---- US' Energy Solutions may launch rival bid for British Nuclear Group - report 09.08.2006 AFX News Limited LONDON (AFX) - EnergySolutions, a US private equity-backed company, is prepared to trump Fluor Corp's 400 mln stg offer for British Nuclear Group, the nuclear waste clean-up unit of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd, the Times newspaper reported, quoting Philip Strawbridge, vice president of EnergySolutions. Strawbridge said EnergySolutions can afford to table a better offer for BNG, though he believes that the business will attract more bidders if it will be broken up and sold piecemeal. 'We think that there would be more bidders and more interest, if the business were sold in parts. We would certainly bid for project services and for reactor sites,' he was quoted by the article as saying. There has been conflicting news on how BNFL plans to proceed with the BNG sale. BNFL, according to some reports, is now planning to break up the business because of delays in finalising a contract to clean up the Sellafield site, which was to have been given by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to BNG. EnergySolutions was formed over the past year by the merger of four environmental services companies, including BNG America, formerly BNFL Inc, the US arm of British Nuclear Fuels. BNG America was sold to EnergySolutions earlier this year for 50 mln stg. monicca.egoy@afxnews.com -------- australia Ferguson supports nuclear waste site September 08, 2006 Dennis Shanahan The Australian http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20373497-2702,00.html LABOR resources spokesman Martin Ferguson has warned his colleagues to stop "scaremongering" over radioactive waste and backed a low-level nuclear waste centre in Australia. Mr Ferguson told parliament there needed to be a debate about whether Australia was "mature enough to select a site where we should store our low-level and intermediate-level nuclear waste". The Labor frontbencher's comments come only weeks after the deputy Labor leader, Jenny Macklin, used an accident at the Lucas Heights reactor in Sydney to campaign against nuclear reactors. Ms Macklin told parliament that residents near Lucas Heights needed to be told of accidents within the plant and it showed "the community is right to be concerned about the safety of nuclear reactors". "This accident is a stark reminder that things can go wrong with nuclear reactors," Ms Macklin said. But yesterday, Mr Ferguson said in a debate about radioactive waste sites in the Northern Territory that the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, which runs Lucas Heights, played a vital role in nuclear medicine. "ANSTO is too often pilloried for their own political purposes by those who should know better," Mr Ferguson said. "It is one thing to run an anti-nuclear campaign underpinned by sound science, logic and belief. It is quite another to stoop to ludicrous fearmongering about ANSTO and the Lucas Heights nuclear facility." He said the amendments dealing with ANSTO dealt with "the unavoidable consequences of nuclear medicine and nuclear technology in industry". The federal, state and territory governments have long debated the site of a low- to medium-level nuclear waste facility for radioactive material from medicine and research. "It is time the games stopped at a state, territory and national level and at a political level," Mr Ferguson said. Mr Ferguson said those who stooped to fearmongering "in the suburbs of our capital cities and regional communities" ignored that low-level radioactive waste, such as gloves, plastic cups and glassware, were already stored in 100 locations in cities around Australia. -------- britain New nuclear security attacked by parliamentary committee Specifying nuclear power is not the route to energy security claimed the House of Commons Trade and Industry Committee this week in its conclusions on new nuclear power. 08 September 2006 New Civil Engineer (UK) http://www.nceplus.co.uk/news/news_article/?pid=3&aid=54319&sid=47&channelID=4&newscomingfrom=civil_engineering The committee “believe that, in determining its policy on the future of nuclear energy, there are a number of issues that the Government needs to address.” Its report added “most of the technical objections to nuclear power, such as the availability of fuel and the carbon profile of nuclear power stations, have answers. Political issues, such as security and proliferation, are matters of judgement.” Importantly the committee said that nuclear power is not the solution to energy security “we do not believe that the way to energy security is for the Government to fix the proportion of the energy mix that should come from particular technologies.” “Rather, it should ensure a fair competitive environment for existing technologies, while supporting innovation in new ones.” It said that it can accept new nuclear under four conditions: - A broad national consensus on the role of nuclear power, that has both cross-party political support and wider public backing; - A carbon-pricing framework that provides long-term incentives for investment in all low carbon technologies; - A long-term storage solution in place for the UK’s existing radioactive waste legacy; and - A review of the planning and licensing system to reduce the lead time for construction. -------- depleted uranium Justice for G.I.s? Say Iraq uranium caused ills September 8, 2006 NY Daily News http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/450409p-379084c.html Three years after returning from Iraq with persistent ailments they believe were caused by inhaling uranium dust from exploded U.S. shells, a group of former New York National Guardsmen finally got their first day in court this week against the federal government. In a two-hour hearing late Wednesday before Manhattan Federal Judge John Koeltl, lawyers for the eight veterans argued that the Army caused the soldiers' illnesses when it violated its own safety protocols and exposed them to radioactive depleted-uranium dust. Army doctors also covered up information about any exposures and failed to provide the soldiers proper medical treatment, the lawyers claimed. The case is the first to reach a courtroom from Iraq war soldiers claiming harm from depleted uranium - a low-level radioactive metal the Pentagon began using during the first Persian Gulf War to harden artillery shells so they could penetrate enemy tanks. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Cronan, representing the Army, urged Koeltl to dismiss the lawsuit immediately. Cronan repeatedly referred to a 1950 Supreme Court decision, commonly known as the Feres Doctrine, that prohibits soldiers from suing the government for injuries "incident to [military] service." "Any trial of this would be second-guessing sensitive military matters that civilian courts should not be discussing," Cronan said. As the government's lawyer spoke, Gerard Matthew, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, who was sitting with his wife Janise in a courtroom packed with supporters, quietly shook his head. A former Army specialist who transported destroyed tanks from Iraq back to Kuwait during the first months of the war, Matthew returned home in September 2003 with a variety of ailments for which Army doctors could not explain the cause. They included constant migraine headaches, blurred vision, blackouts and a burning sensation whenever he urinated. On June 29, 2004, his wife gave birth to a baby girl, Victoria, who was missing three fingers on one hand. Tests of Matthew's urine sponsored by the Daily News in early 2004 showed that he had been exposed to depleted uranium, according to Axel Gerdes, the scientist at Goethe University in Frankfurt, who performed the analysis. Gerdes also found that four of nine other returned soldiers from a different National Guard unit, the 442nd Military Police, had been exposed to the radioactive dust. Reports in The News created a firestorm that reached to Congress and received coverage around the world - especially when the New York soldiers, several of them cops and correction officers in civilian life - accused military doctors of refusing to test them for depleted uranium, or losing or delaying their test results. Since then, the Pentagon has tightened its testing procedures and some two dozen state legislatures have either passed or are considering bills to require depleted uranium testing for their own National Guard troops returning from Iraq. Tuesday's hearing was a chilling review of how the courts have dealt over more than half a century with massive injuries inflicted by our own military weapons against American troops. Both Cronan and the lawyers for the plaintiffs, George Zelma and Elise Hagouel Langsam, referred repeatedly to prior cases of soldiers exposed to atom bomb testing during World War II, to the massive illnesses that afflicted Vietnam War soldiers from Agent Orange, even to secret LSD testing among soldiers by the Army during the 1970s. "It can't be that Congress intended our government to betray its own troops," Zelma said at one point. By his dogged questioning of lawyers from both sides, it appeared that Koeltl was giving the claims from the soldiers serious attention. But he gave no hint of how he might rule. "We're here to speak for all our fellow soldiers who don't even know what they've been exposed to in Iraq," Matthew said afterward. "The Army didn't even follow its own procedures to protect us, and someone needs to answer for that." -------- japan American power in Japan September 8, 2006 By David V. Crisostomo Pacific Daily News dcrisostomo@guampdn.com http://www.guampdn.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060908/NEWS01/609080305/1002/rss YOKOSUKA, Japan -- A Japan-U.S. decision to home-port an American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in this port city may turn some Japanese friends into foes. Friends such as 61-year-old teacher Ayako Suzuki. "I support the U.S. people. They are our friends, but I don't want a nuclear aircraft carrier here," she said. She adds that the possibility is a subject of dinner-table conversation with her two grown children at her Yokosuka home. "They share my concerns," Suzuki said. The USS George Washington, a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is scheduled to replace the conventionally powered USS Kitty Hawk at the Yokosuka Naval Base in 2008. The warship has become a focal point for the mixed emotions that U.S. military forces based in Japan engender in Japanese. In Yokosuka, home to the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. Seventh Fleet, the pending arrival of the USS George Washington has fueled the call by some area residents for U.S. forces to leave Japan. It is about one-and-a-half hours south of Tokyo by train. "There are good relations between the U.S. military and the people of Yokosuka, but in the future, we would like to see less military presence," Suzuki said through an interpreter. Suzuki is an educator and said she knows that U.S. service members and their dependents are doing their part to contribute to the local community, "There are military people in the schools who teach English. There are good relations," she said. But those relations have been strained by incidents of crime involving U.S. service members. While statistics show crimes committed by U.S. service members are low, area residents said such crimes erode relations between them and the foreign military they share their port with. Opposition to basing the USS George Washington, which is currently home-ported in Norfolk, Va., began in earnest in 2005 when Japan approved the U.S. request to replace the aging USS Kitty Hawk. The Kitty Hawk is scheduled to be decommissioned. Suzuki said she does not support the home-porting of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in Yokosuka. "I am worried about the effect of nuclear energy on the environment and people's health," she said. Jobs a concern While Suzuki's worries are shared by others, the economic impact of the U.S. base at Yokosuka is the dominant concern for some Japanese. Japan is finally coming out of a more-than-decade-long recession, which left many families hurting. As student Michiko Kimura recently stood outside the entrance of the Yokosuka Naval Base, which she passes daily as she makes her way home from school, the 21-year-old said residents must be cautious about pushing for the removal of U.S. forces in Yokosuka. "I don't support a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier," Kimura said through an interpreter. However, she said the U.S. military provides thousands of jobs to local residents and contributes millions of dollars to the city's economy. The economics student said she has friends who help to repair ships at the Yokosuka Naval Base. "What do we do without those jobs?" she asked. A few blocks away from the entrance to the naval base, Johnny Baluyot recently was busy preparing the bar Tom and Jack, a popular watering hole for U.S. sailors and other Americans who live in the area. Baluyot is originally from Manila and moved to Yokosuka in 2003. He, too, said he worries about a pullout of U.S. forces in Yokosuka. Such thoughts, although unfounded, are common because of plans in the southern Japanese island of Okinawa to relocate thousands of U.S. Marines and their dependents to Guam. Baluyot said he wants to stay employed. "I know people here are worried about the trouble caused by the sailors," Baluyot said in Tagalog. "But we don't have trouble here at our bar. Most of the time, the sailors are well behaved. I hear at other bars it's really bad because they get too drunk and they fight, but not here." In January, the military began a 1 a.m. curfew for all service members. Unprepared For U.S. sailors Neil Newman and Leonard Ty, their time in Yokosuka has been an experience filled with firsts. Both were raised in small towns and grew up on farms. Newman, 22, is from Montana and Ty, 19, is from Iowa. It is their first time in a big city and their first time in a foreign country. "I've had a difficult time adjusting to the foreign culture and language of Japan," Ty said. Both said they were unprepared for Japan. "When I graduated from (high) school, I graduated with a class of 29 people," Ty said. Newman added that he graduated with a high school class of 17. However, both said they are trying to understand the local culture and people. "The people here are very respectful," Ty said. "They are very kind to the military." Both also have heard about the decision to relocate 8,000 U.S. Marines and 10,000 dependents from the southern Japanese island of Okinawa to Guam. Ty said he was almost stationed in Guam, but was sent to Yokosuka instead. They both welcome the relocation of U.S. forces to Guam because it is U.S. soil. When asked what they knew about Guam, Newman responded, "its location. That's all I know about it." Ty added, "I know there's a Kmart there. There isn't one here." Rieko Hayakawa, project coordinator with the Japan-based Sasakawa Pacific Island Nations Fund, contributed to this report. ---- Nuke recycling not trip's focus MISSION WILL BE TO STUDY TRANSPORT OF NUCLEAR MATERIALS Sep. 08, 2006 By MARK WAITE Pahrump Valley Times http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2006/Sep-08-Fri-2006/news/9518767.html TONOPAH -- Nye County Commissioner Roberta "Midge" Carver will be saying "sayonara" soon as she travels to Japan from Oct. 21 through Oct. 28 to inspect nuclear waste processing facilities. Nye County Commissioners approved her trip, with funds coming out of the nuclear waste repository program funds at an estimated cost of $8,500. The purpose of the trip, which is being coordinated by the U.S. Transportation Council, is to review key aspects of the programs for the safe transport of spent nuclear fuel. She will travel with Bob Gamble, the county's paid representative to the U.S. Department of Energy. The only question about the safari came from Commissioner Joni Eastley, who wanted to refute any misconception that Nye County wanted a facility to reprocess nuclear waste, one of the site visits on the tour. "It was not my understanding that Nye County was going to get involved in any way with fuel recycling facilities or lobbying to get them in Nye County, or negotiating with outside companies to get them located here," she said. Carver said that's not an issue she will be concerned with in Japan. But she said recycled nuclear fuel could eventually be transported through Nye County. Eastley said Nye County's role in the project needs to be limited to independent, scientific oversight. Pahrump resident Jim Petell urged commissioners to consider the seismic risks of the project. Nye County Commission Chairman Gary Hollis, the county commission's liaison on the Yucca Mountain project, said he was invited to go on the trip but may have to monitor a legislative bill on Yucca Mountain about that time. He endorsed the overseas trips. "They're mandatory. They're absolutely essential how we know their cask is working that transports the fuel from the reactor plant to the recycling facility or wherever they store (it). Our goal is to get the fuel to Yucca Mountain as safely as possible," Hollis said. Asked whether it was possible to monitor the process in the U.S., he said, "We ship fuel all the time, but it's not being made public all the time." Hollis will travel to Washington, D.C., at the end of this month for meetings with congressmen on the Yucca Mountain project. The memorandum from Interim County Manager Ron Williams on the travel request states Carver's visit to facilities for transferring nuclear waste casks, recycling fuel and waste storage facilities is of particular interest to Nye County. Carver traveled to France last year to visit shipping facilities in Cherbourg and a reprocessing plant in the Hague on a jaunt coordinated by the U.S. Transport Council. The Nye County Community Protection Plan, adopted in August 2002, states that "all shipments of spent nuclear fuel or high-level waste to interim or permanent storage facilities in the site county (Nye County) should be by rail, using routes which avoid site county communities and public mainline highways and which are selected in consultation with the Nye County Commission. No shipment of highly radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain should use the two-lane, rural, public highways of the site county." The plan states shipments of nuclear waste on two-lane rural highways pose special risks for radiological exposure, accident and a stigma for communities along the 371 miles of highway routes. The community protection plan explains Nye County's perspectives on the project to ship nuclear waste from 35 states to Yucca Mountain, describes potential effects of the project and suggests steps to protect Nye County. Recently, the scientific community has expressed a renewed interest in studying the recycling of nuclear waste to reduce storage space and other benefits. Carver's hotel bill in Japan will be $150 per night, or $1,050 for seven nights. In-country air and train travel and meals are estimated to cost another $2,000. The U.S. Transport Council is making the travel arrangements; it said the round-trip airfare to Japan is available for as little as $970 on Expedia.com. The agenda includes a welcome dinner; meeting with a federation of Japanese nuclear energy organizations; travel to the Rokkosho nuclear complex in northern Japan; a tour of the Tokai nuclear waste interim storage facility; touring the Hitachi-Zosen facility where nuclear transport casks are manufactured; and on the last day, a cultural, sightseeing tour of Kyoto. Commissioners, however, turned thumbs-down an amended contract with the Nevada Environmental Research and Monitoring Institute through March 31, 2007, to help negotiate a partnership agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy. Nye County had a similar agreement in 1991 and 1992. The maximum total compensation would've been $250,000. Commissioner Eastley said Nye County officials can themselves negotiate with DOE. -------- pacific Energy minister says no to nuclear power 08 September 2006 New Zealand Stuff http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3790802a10,00.html The Government today shot down an electricity company's call for New Zealand to seriously consider nuclear power. Energy Minister David Parker said the electricity it produced would be far more expensive than available alternatives. "And quite apart from that, the Labour government is committed to a nuclear-free policy," he said. Murray Jackson, chief executive of Genesis, told a climate change conference yesterday that if New Zealand did not "get on board" with nuclear technology, it would not be ready when fusion reactors were available. He said nuclear power was environmentally superior and was the only new sustainable energy resource so far available. By the time a new plant would have to be built in 20 years' time, technology would have improved. Mr Parker, who is also responsible for the Government's climate change policy, disagreed on all counts. "The advice I have is unambiguous – nuclear energy, quite apart from its environmental problems, is far more expensive for New Zealand than our alternatives," he said. "Even if he is right, and I don't think he is, the implication of that would be a very substantial rise in electricity prices." Mr Parker said nuclear fusion to produce energy was still a dream. "It's not there. Billions of dollars have been spent internationally on fusion research and it's still a nut that hasn't been cracked," he said. "We have lots of choices which are technically feasible and cheaper." In fusion, atomic nuclei are fused together to release energy, as opposed to fission – the technique used in existing nuclear power plants and atomic bombs – where nuclei are split. Mr Jackson outlined to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce forum the ways 3000MW of increased generation could be acquired over the next 20 years. His suggestions included 1000MW from a nuclear power plant. Other options included increased output from wind turbines, hydro, geothermal generation and high-efficiency coal. Mr Jackson said solar and wind power needed high subsidies to be competitive – and the wind blew only 35 per cent of the time. New Zealand at least needed to maintain a skill base in terms of nuclear technology. "Nearly every developed country is now doing nuclear," he said. ---- NZ may need to go nuclear: power boss Friday, 8th September 2006 Otago Daily Times http://www.odt.co.nz/article.php?refid=2006,09,08,2,00200,9ac651910546576118264ad7b9c180e5§=4 Wellington: New Zealand needs to look at using a nuclear power plant to generate electricity with low greenhouse gas emissions, one of the nation’s leading electricity companies says. “If the country at large does not get on board with nuclear technology, then when fusion reactors are available we will be so far behind the pace we won’t have the research department ready to understand it,” Genesis chief executive Murray Jackson said. Man-made nuclear fusion has been touted overseas as the cheap, safe, clean and almost limitless energy source of the future. In fusion, atomic nuclei are fused together to release energy, as opposed to fission the technique used in existing nuclear power plants and atomic bombs where nuclei are split. Mr Jackson told a climate change forum in Wellington yesterday nuclear energy was the only new sustainable energy resource so far available for after 2025, and the technology was likely to improve by the time a plant would have to be built, in 20 years time. “Don’t give up on nuclear,” Mr Jackson told the Wellington Chamber of Commerce forum. He said 2025 was the first year in which it would be economic to close the Huntly coal-fired station which generates about 4400 gigawatt hours (GWh) in a normal year, and 7000GWh in a dry year and that would be about the time that extraction of Waikato coal became less economic. Mr Jackson outlined 3000MW of increased generation which could be acquired over the next 20 years. This included 1000MW from a nuclear power plant. He said making Huntly’s generators a reserve plant in 2025 would take away 1000MW of capacity. Other options included 600MW from wind turbine capacity of 1500MW, another 250MW of hydroelectricity, 150MW of geothermal generation, and 1000MW from each of gas turbine and high-efficiency coal. But solar and wind energy really required a subsidy of 3c/ Wh effectively a price increase of 20% to be competitive. He said solar energy would be more attractive when photovoltaic cells were sold as roof tiles or windows that looked normal but generated electricity. Mr Jackson said wind blew only 35% of the time and it was necessary for New Zealand to have the right mix of technologies in its generation sector to have both minimum greenhouse gas emissions and security of electricity supplies. And the nation at least needed to be maintaining a skill base in nuclear technology. Mr Jackson said the safety and reliability of nuclear technology were now greatly improved: “Nearly every developed country is now doing nuclear”. The solution to disposal of nuclear waste lay in requiring countries supplying uranium to take back the spent fuel rods and safely store them. Australia could store waste, but New Zealand’s geology was too unstable, he said. NZPA ---- Go nuclear, says electricity chief Friday September 8, 2006 New Zealand Herald http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10400278 New Zealand needs to seriously look at using a nuclear power plant to generate electricity with low greenhouse gas emissions, says a leading electricity company. "If the country at large does not get on board with nuclear technology, then when fusion reactors are available we will be so far behind the pace we won't have the research department ready to understand it," said Genesis chief executive Murray Jackson. Man-made nuclear fusion has been touted overseas as the cheap, safe, clean and almost limitless energy source of the future. In fusion, atomic nuclei are fused together to release energy, as opposed to fission - the technique used in existing nuclear power plants and atomic bombs - where nuclei are split. Mr Jackson told a climate change forum in Wellington yesterday that nuclear energy was the only new sustainable energy resource so far available for after 2025, and the technology was likely to improve by the time a plant would have to be built in 20 years. "Don't give up on nuclear," Mr Jackson told the Wellington Chamber of Commerce forum. He said 2025 was the first year in which it would be economic to close the Huntly coal-fired station - which generates about 4400 gigawatt hours (GWh) in a normal year, and 7000 GWh in a dry year - and that would be about the time that extraction of Waikato coal became less economic. Mr Jackson outlined 3000MW of increased generation which could be acquired over the next 20 years. This included 1000MW from a nuclear power plant. He said that making Huntly's generators a reserve plant in 2025 would take away 1000MW of capacity. Other options included 600MW from wind turbine capacity of 1500MW, another 250MW of hydroelectricity, 150MW of geothermal generation and 1000MW from each of gas turbine and high-efficiency coal. But solar and wind energy really required a subsidy of 3c/kWh - effectively a price increase of 20 per cent - to be competitive. He said solar energy would be more attractive when photovoltaic cells were sold as roof tiles or windows that looked normal but generated electricity. Mr Jackson said wind blew only 35 per cent of the time and it was necessary for New Zealand to have the right mix of technologies in its generation sector to have minimum greenhouse gas emissions and security of electricity supplies. And the nation at least needed to be maintaining a skill base in terms of nuclear technology. He said nuclear technology was now greatly improved in terms of safety and reliability and "nearly every developed country is now doing nuclear". The solution to disposal of nuclear waste lay in requiring countries supplying uranium to take back the spent fuel rods and safely store them. Solid Energy chief executive Don Elder said the nuclear option was potentially good for any country with far lower risks than benefits, but there were some specific issues that would need to be addressed in New Zealand. Nuclear dreams In the mid-to-late 1960s, a National Government considered introducing nuclear power in New Zealand and looked seriously at two sites on either side of the Kaipara Harbour for 1000MW power stations. The plans - shelved with the discovery of the Kapuni and Maui natural gas fields - proposed nuclear fission plants in which the splitting of an atom, such as uranium, creates a burst of energy. ---- New Zealand energy minister rejects nuclear power as energy option Friday, September 08, 2006 International Herald Tribune http://peakoil.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=18757 Public Policy; Political and Legal News New Zealand's energy minister on Friday rejected an electricity company's call to consider introducing nuclear power, saying it is not yet feasible for the country and goes against the government's anti-nuclear policy. Murray Jackson, the chief executive of Genesis Energy, urged New Zealand to "get on board" with nuclear technology so that it can take advantage of nuclear fusion reactors when they become available. "Nearly every developed country is now doing nuclear," he said. -------- treaties Five Former Soviet Republics Swear Off Nuclear Weapons Arms Control Association Applauds Central Asian States for Forswearing Nuclear Arms For Immediate Release: September 8, 2006 Press Contacts: Daryl G. Kimball, (202) 463-8270 x107 and Wade Boese, (202) 463-8270 x104 http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/139136/1/ (Washington, D.C.) Today, five former Soviet republics committed themselves to never acquiring, manufacturing, possessing, or testing nuclear weapons by signing a treaty to create a Central Asian nuclear-weapon-free zone. The nonpartisan, independent Arms Control Association (ACA) welcomed the move as a positive step forward in reinforcing a beleaguered nuclear nonproliferation regime and advancing the goal of nuclear disarmament. Central Asia used to house part of the sprawling Soviet nuclear weapons complex. But now Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan have broken with this nuclear past by signing the free zone pact at a former Soviet nuclear testing site, Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan. Negotiations on the agreement started in 1997. “Despite being surrounded by nuclear-armed neighbors, these five states have courageously and correctly concluded that nuclear weapons are not necessary for their future security,” declared ACA Executive Director Daryl Kimball. “All states clinging or aspiring to nuclear weapons should heed this principled example and take their own steps to revive the lackluster nuclear disarmament process, which is the only sure way of protecting all countries against nuclear terror,” he urged. France, the United Kingdom, and the United States declined to attend the signing ceremony today because of some reservations they have with the treaty text. “While the agreement may not be perfect, governments with legitimate concerns should find constructive ways to address them rather than acting in ways that cast aspersions on a laudable accomplishment,” ACA Research Director Wade Boese stated. The Central Asian zone will be the fifth such arrangement. Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (Treaty of Tlatelolco), the South Pacific (Treaty of Rarotonga), Southeast Asia (Treaty of Bangkok), and Africa (Treaty of Pelindaba) have also banded together to create nuclear-weapon-free zones. Mongolia has also outlawed nuclear weapons on its territory and all countries are prohibited from stationing nuclear weapons in Antarctica, on the seabed, and in outer space. For more information on nuclear-weapon-free zones and nonproliferation, please visit the Association’s nuclear proliferation resource page at http://www.armscontrol.org/subject/nup/, which includes an Arms Control Today article by Leonard Spector and Aubrie Ohlde of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) on the value of nuclear-weapon-free zones. Their colleagues at CNS have also published a September 5 paper on the history and current status of the Central Asian zone, which is available at http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/week/pdf/060905.pdf. # # # The Arms Control Association (ACA) is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to promoting effective arms control policies. ACA publishes the monthly journal Arms Control Today. -------- u.s. nuc facilities -------- louisiana Louisiana PSC Wants to Boost Nuclear Construction From the September 8, 2006 edition of the Baton Rogue Advocate http://neinuclearnotes.blogspot.com/2006/09/louisiana-psc-wants-to-boost-nuclear.html The Louisiana Public Service Commission wants to go nuclear to fight rising electric bills. Four of the five commissioners who regulate electric rates in Louisiana said they want some utility to build a new nuclear plant in Louisiana in the near future. Commissioner Jay Blossman of Mandeville is going further and wants the commission to show privately owned utilities -- in advance --? how they can recoup their investments. In the past, such repayment blueprints came upon completion of construction, when the bills were paid. "?If we'?re not proactive in trying to get a new nuclear plant, we'?ll not get one,"? Blossman said. "?It'?s the cheapest power we'?ve got available to us."? Now we hear the news today through Platts that the PSC hired a consultant yesterday to develop guidelines to help the Commission evaluate proposals to build new nuclear power plants. The consultant is Dr. David Dismukes (more here), assistant director of the Center for Energy Studies at LSU. For a selection of quotes from Dr. Dismukes, click here. -------- nevada Domenici Seeks 'Constructive Dialogue' on Yucca Mountain Repository September 8, 2006 FYI No. 110, The AIP Bulletin of Science Policy News http://www.aip.org/fyi/2006/110.html "Let me be clear. We need Yucca Mountain. I want to fix this program and make it work." So declared Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) at last month's Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on legislation to expedite the handling of spent nuclear fuel at the Yucca Mountain repository. Domenici followed up on his intention, announcing yesterday that he will introduce his own bill this month to fix what he calls "several problems" with the repository. Senator Domenici is a strong supporter of nuclear energy. As the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the chairman of the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, he commands central positions in the Senate for both authorizing and funding legislation as it relates to nuclear energy. He now hopes to win passage of legislation that both he and the Bush Administration contend is needed to clear the way for the eventual opening of Yucca Mountain. In his opening remarks, Domenici explained his support for nuclear energy as follows: "The Energy Information Administration estimates that in 2030 our nation will need an additional 347 gigawatts of electricity brought on line to just to keep up with demand. What are we going to build? Natural gas is expensive and stocks are hard to come by, though we are looking. The U.S. is the Saudi Arabia of coal, but until proven coal technologies come on-line that demonstrate the successful sequestration of carbon emissions, nuclear is the clean air solution. We must - and we shall - build new nuclear power plants." The senator introduced a "first draft"of this legislation in early April. S. 2589 was proposed by the Bush Administration and is a 3,600 word bill that would go a long way toward opening Yucca Mountain in March 2017, an objective DOE recently announced. Edward Sproat, Director of DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, testified at last month's hearing "that the probability of making that schedule without this legislation is zero." The bill would provide "critical authorities" regarding land withdrawal and transfer, Waste Confidence, the Nuclear Waste Fund, environmental and regulatory requirements, the repository's tonnage cap, and taking the Nuclear Waste Fund off budget. While there would still be many hurdles to cross, S. 2589 would remove, by legislative action, many of the problems that have long beset the repository. Hearing witnesses testified both for and against the legislation. The first witness, Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) minced no words in describing his opposition to S. 2589, stating, "Everyone knows that the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump is a dying beast. And it should die – it is a scientifically unsound project that would needlessly threaten the public health and safety of Americans everywhere. Even the administration knows this is a flawed, dangerous project. We can see this in the bill. It tells you everything that the administration knows is wrong with Yucca. They have sent us this legislation to change the rules, break the law and prevent states from protecting their citizens. If Yucca were scientifically sound - if it genuinely was a safe place to store nuclear waste - the administration would not need to gut the laws that regulate hazardous waste handling and transportation, clean air, water rights, public land laws, and environmental policy. If Yucca were scientifically sound, the administration would not need to preempt states' rights." Reid, other Members of Congress, and Nevada state and local officials have been successful in calling attention to what they contend are scientific, engineering, and management deficiencies in Yucca Mountain's construction and evaluation, which was originally scheduled to open in 1998. The Department of Energy intends to submit a license application for the repository's opening to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission by June 30, 2008. H.R. 2589 would give NRC one year to act on that application. At the hearing, Martin Virgilio of the NRC said the commission "is not taking a position on most of the provisions of the legislation," but said the one-year deadline (with a possible six-month extension) "does not appear achievable to us." Virgilio advocated a two-year limit with a six-month extension option. Reid's sentiments were repeated by another witness, Bob Loux of the Office of the Governor of Nevada, who declared, "And now you have before you a bill that attempts, like a cowcatcher on a locomotive, to anticipate and sweep aside every potential health and safety obstacle that could upset the relentless drive to begin receiving waste at Yucca Mountain 11 years from now." Geoff Fettus of the Natural Resources Defense Council, which supports deep geologic disposal, called the legislation a "misguided effort" and said, "Congress should not be deciding issues of ultimate certainty in health and safety judgements, nor should it be resolving technical disagreements with the stroke of a pen." Other industry and association witnesses expressed general support for the legislation, but had concerns about interim storage provisions in the legislation. Domenici acknowledges that the bill he will introduce this month is unlikely to pass Congress this year. His strategy is "to get useful input from my Senate colleagues, the House and other interested parties. Yucca Mountain is a complicated issue that evokes strong, diverse opinions. That's why I'm introducing a bill in [this] the 109th Congress that I will seek to pass in the 110th Congress. I intended to create ample opportunity for constructive dialogue." Richard M. Jones Media and Government Relations Division American Institute of Physics fyi@aip.org 301-209-3095 -------- new york Entergy calls latest Hinchey, Engel criticism “publicity stunt” Friday, September 8, 2006 Mid-Hudson News Network http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/IP_Steets_reax-08Sep06.htm (Buchanan) – Indian Point spokesman James Steets Friday called the latest criticism of the nuclear power plant by Congressmen Maurice Hinchey, Eliot Engel and others, a “publicity stunt.” The lawmakers Thursday said the spent fuel rods at Indian Point and the other 102 nuclear plants around the nation are unsafe because they are in pools. Instead, they called for construction of hard encased structures to house the material. Steets said protection of the 2,500 spent fuel assemblies at the Buchanan site was upgraded after the Sept. 11 attacks. "This is just a rehash of issues dealt with years ago, raised by people whose only interest is closing the plant, not securing it," Steets said. "The spent fuel pools are well-protected. They're largely underground, covered by 6-foot-thick concrete walls. We've increased the size of our security force and given them special training in weapons, as well as installed concrete vehicle barriers and greater monitoring." Steets said the company has begun plans to move spent fuel from storage pools to dry casks, which will be designed to withstand terrorist attacks. Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for NRC, said it was "highly inaccurate" to portray any spent fuel pools as unprotected. "We have carefully assessed the security of spent fuel pools and dry cask storage facilities and found them to be safe.” ---- Critics want nuclear fuel better protected September 8, 2006 By GREG CLARY THE JOURNAL NEWS http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006609080383 A group of Congressional representatives and environmentalists is calling for stronger regulation of spent nuclear fuel, saying the nation's 103 working nuclear plants remain vulnerable to attack. "Nearly five years after Sept. 11, we know that terrorists are still plotting to attack this country," said Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Middletown. "Just as we must take steps abroad to ensure that terrorists don't acquire nuclear weapons from rogue states," he said, "we must pay equal, if not more attention, to ensuring that our own nuclear material is not vulnerable to attack." The group, including Rep. Eliot Engel, D-Bronx, and officials from Riverkeeper, called on President Bush and the Republican majority in Congress to heed warnings from the National Academy of Sciences that spent fuel at the nation's 103 working nuclear reactors is vulnerable. The group wants the government to mandate that fuel be moved from water to dry storage casks that have been "hardened against terrorist attack." "The federal government must better secure the spent fuel pools at Indian Point and all other nuclear power plants," said Rep. Sue Kelly, R-Katonah, who wasn't part of the group. She added that a greater Coast Guard presence is needed to protect facilities along navigable waterways. Indian Point spokesman Jim Steets called the press conference at the U.S. Capitol a "publicity stunt," saying protection of the 2,500 spent fuel assemblies at the Buchanan site was upgraded after the Sept. 11 attacks. "This is just a rehash of issues dealt with years ago, raised by people whose only interest is closing the plant, not securing it," Steets said. "The spent fuel pools are well-protected. They're largely underground, covered by 6-foot-thick concrete walls. We've increased the size of our security force and given them special training in weapons, as well as installed concrete vehicle barriers and greater monitoring." He added that the company has begun plans to move spent fuel from storage pools to dry casks, which will be designed to withstand terrorist attacks. Riverkeeper's president Alex Matthiessen said not enough has been done. "The spent fuel at Indian Point is scarcely more secure than it was before 9/11 despite the fact that the New York metro area, with 20 million inhabitants, continues to be at the top of the terrorist target list," he said. "It is astonishing that five years after the worst terrorist attack in history, the federal government has not even taken the most obvious steps to secure our country's nuclear power plant infrastructure." Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for NRC, said it was "highly inaccurate" to portray any spent fuel pools as unprotected. "We have carefully assessed the security of spent fuel pools and dry cask storage facilities and found them to be safe," he said. -------- utah Feds Reject Plan to Create Utah Nuclear Waste Stockpile September 08, 2006 — By Paul Foy, Associated Press http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11215 SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — The U.S. Interior Department on Thursday rejected a bitterly contested plan to create a nuclear waste stockpile at an American Indian reservation in Utah's west desert. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said the decision kills a proposal to store 44,000 tons of spent fuel rods on the Goshute Indians' Skull Valley reservation, about 50 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. Private Fuel Storage, a group of nuclear-power utilities known as PFS, won a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in February. Lawsuits, regulatory opposition and other hurdles have delayed the plan for years. "PFS is dead," Hatch said. "To me, it's a great day for Utah." The Interior Department used its power to veto a lease tribal leaders approved for the stockpile. The agency also refused to yield federal land for a transfer station where fuel rods would be moved from rail cars to tractor-trailers. A spokeswoman for the utility consortium that won a license for the storage site suggested it was premature to call it dead. "We have not seen the decisions or figured out what our options may be," PFS spokeswoman Sue Martin said. A public-health group also was cautious. "We're a little hesitant to declare full victory on this because PFS has a license. It's like having a license but no car, and they've been told to stay off the road," said Vanessa Pierce, executive director of Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah. Private Fuel Storage billed the Goshute stockpile as temporary until the federal government can open a national repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain. But some worried Utah could have become a "de facto" home for nuclear waste if the Yucca facility, which is behind schedule, doesn't open -------- washington Vit plant to cost $12 billion Friday, September 8th, 2006 By Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/story/8169228p-8061713c.html The estimated cost of Hanford's vitrification plant has increased to $12.2 billion, excluding the contractor's fee, according to an Army Corps of Engineers report released Thursday. While the Department of Energy still must review the number, it gives the federal government the "credible and defensible" number top DOE officials repeatedly have said is needed for planning and budgeting the project. "We expect very little change" after DOE completes its review, said Charlie Anderson, principal deputy assistant energy secretary. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman called for a validated plant cost and schedule as it became clear that the estimated $5.5 billion cost from March 2003 -- also without contractor's fee -- was far too low and that the plant would not be operating by a legal deadline of 2011. The new estimate replaces a preliminary $11.55 billion estimate Bechtel National reached in May after completing a comprehensive review more than 44,000 pages long. It also pushes Bechtel's estimated start of plant operations from August 2019 to November 2019. After the Corps looked at Bechtel's figures, it recommended adding $650 million to the estimate and three months to the schedule. About $320 million of that is for more pay for construction workers, including electricians and pipefitters, after the Corps concluded Bechtel might have underestimated labor rates. The remaining $330 million was added for contingency, including the costs of three more months of work. The contingency also includes potentially $250 million more for startup and training costs, with the Corps warning that Bechtel may be required to use specialists under an organized labor agreement rather than nontechnical employees for the work. The estimate includes $3.1 billion in contingency in addition to a $9.1 billion base cost. With about $3.2 billion already spent, that means Congress must agree to spend about $9 billion more to finish the plant. The new estimate is based on steady funding of $690 million a year, after the budget for Bechtel's work this year was dropped to $490 million. "If there is significant deviation, there will be cost impacts," Anderson said. The Corps report also warned "cost curtailment, cost avoidance and continuous cost improvement" must be part of standard operating procedures to meet the $12.2 billion estimate. The plant, which is central to Hanford cleanup, is planned to turn much of 53 million gallons of radioactive waste now held in underground tanks into a stable glass form for permanent disposal. The waste is left from the production of plutonium at Hanford for the nation's nuclear weapons program. The new estimate gives DOE the foundation to enter new contract negotiations with Bechtel National, Anderson said. A revised contract could be in place in early 2007. Among problems that have driven up project costs was the discovery that earthquake design standards might have been inadequate. Checking thousands of calculations changed the scope of Bechtel's contract with DOE, so it has to be revised. The validated estimate also should advance DOE's discussions with the state of Washington on setting new legal deadlines for operation of the plant. The state Department of Ecology has neither agreed nor declined to negotiate a new deadline, but the Corps information should help it make that decision, said Jane Hedges, Ecology's nuclear waste program manager. "We're still not comfortable with the 2019 date, give or take a few months," she said. The longer the delay, the longer radioactive waste will remain in aging tanks above ground water that moves toward the Columbia River. The state will be looking at whether technical limitations on the project truly are limitations or if DOE should be able to work around them, she said. The plant's budget for fiscal year 2007, which begins Oct. 1, has yet to be set by Congress. The House has approved $600 million and the Senate Appropriations Committee has approved $690 million, but that has yet go before the full Senate. "Congress definitely needs solid information as we move forward with funding," said Alex Glass, spokeswoman for Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. "The independent review is a step in that direction." The Corps report is the final piece of information DOE needed before setting its official cost and schedule for the vitrification plant, said Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash. "The timing and contents of DOE's plan will play a large role in determining congressional action and funding decisions this year," he said in a statement. The new estimate is based on better information, Anderson said. Some issues that have driven costs up have been dealt with, he said. The increase has been blamed on a large number of factors, including rising steel costs, the need to revise earthquake design standards, technical problems, the lack of suppliers certified to perform nuclear-quality work, underestimating costs of a one-of-a-kind plant and management problems. Two reviews by teams of independent experts have looked for technical problems and evaluated the cost, and their findings were incorporated into the Corps' cost validation, Anderson said. Many of the technical problems have been resolved, much of the steel has been ordered for the project and construction is about 30 percent complete. In addition, the contingency budget for the plant has increased substantially since the 2003 estimate. The Corps report found that Department of Energy and Bechtel have been making changes to better manage the project, but it is too soon to see the benefits. ---- DOE Has New, Credible Vit Plant Estimate Friday, September 8, 2006 Northwest Public Radio http://www.nwpr.org/HomepageArticles/Article.aspx?n=2180 What would you do if the cost to build your new home tripled? If you’re the Department of Energy, you ask Congress for more money. In this case, to build the plant at the Hanford site that will turn radioactive waste into glass. Correspondent Cathy Duchamp reports. Back when the vitrification plant was just a blue print, Hanford engineers thought construction would cost 4-billion dollars. The new estimate from the Army Corp of Engineers is 12-point-2 billion. It’s a good quality number and the issues are on the table.. That’s Charles Anderson, second in charge at the Department of Energy on environmental management projects. . Some of the issues that caused the increases here had to do with labor rates that weren’t anticipated, the difficulty to stand up a nuclear engineering organization again when this country hasn’t built a large scale nuclear project in 20 years. So we have real data that we didn’t’ have before. That gives us a lot of credibility. D-O-E needs that credibility to stand up to critics in Congress. It decides how much to spend on the vit plant. Barring further delays the plant is supposed to be up and running 13 years from now. -------- us nuc waste Groups Apply for Nuclear Waste Recycling Money Friday, September 8, 2006 Northwest Public Radio http://www.nwpr.org/HomepageArticles/Article.aspx?n=2179 Three separate groups are vying for a 5 million dollar federal grant to study whether the Hanford site in south-central Washington State could be part of a new federal program to recycle nuclear waste into power for nuclear energy plants. Correspondent Cathy Duchamp reports. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman last winter unveiled the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. It calls for more nuclear energy plants and a global exchange of recycled nuclear fuel, generated in a way that keeps the plutonium out of the hands of people who want it to build bombs. Benton County Commissioner Claude Oliver sees the Partnership as an opportunity to restart Hanford’s Fast Flux Test Facility. It could test the viability of using recycled nuclear fuel to produce electricity. Oliver is applying for a federal grant to get in on the Partnership. So is the Tri-City Industrial Development Council. The third group applying for a grant is someone you might not expect -- Hanford Watchdog Heart of America Northwest. In its proposal the group says the earliest Hanford would be able to add more waste for recycling is 20-60--- after all the waste now at the site is removed. ---- Safeguards for nuclear waste called insufficient Berkley, other Democrats criticize NRC Sep. 08, 2006 Las Vegas Review-Journal By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Sep-08-Fri-2006/news/9527351.html WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has not done enough to make nuclear waste "terrorist-proof" at power plants where the highly radioactive material is stored indoors in deepwater pools and outdoors in heavy casks, several lawmakers and safety advocates said Thursday. "I have a (security) clearance and with all the briefings I have had with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and they have been numerous and in my office, I have yet to get a clear idea of what exactly the government is doing to secure these sites," said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. Berkley and three other Democrats said the Bush administration has not heeded recommendations in reports from the National Academy of Sciences and scientists who advocate further "hardening" of nuclear power plants. A coalition of public interest groups including Public Citizen and the Union of Concerned Scientists called for utilities to remove some of the used fuel assemblies now being kept in deepwater vaults at power plants and move them instead into reinforced concrete and steel "dry cask" containers. The groups say the containers should be further shielded by earth or gravel berms and steel or concrete caps. Berkley added there has been little apparent progress in studies of the security threats that might be posed in transporting nuclear waste from reactors to the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain. "We have an administration that talks a good game when it comes to national security and has done very little in the ensuing five years to provide our citizens with true national security," Berkley said. An NRC official said contrary to the criticism, the agency took steps to tighten security at nuclear waste sites after the 2001 attacks. Based on security assessments, the agency believes that nuclear waste is secure in pools and in the dry containers as they are presently configured, spokesman Dave McIntyre said. "The pools are hardened structures," McIntyre said. As for shifting more used fuel from pools into concrete containers, "We have looked at it from a security standpoint and we don't believe there is that need," McIntyre said. "We feel the fuel is equally safe in pools and in casks." -------- MILITARY -------- arms Leak cost U.S. spy links to Chinese arms sales September 8, 2006 By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060908-120420-6227r.htm A former analyst for the Pentagon's intelligence service provided China with highly classified information prior to the loss of a major electronic spying operation against Beijing, The Washington Times has learned. The loss of the National Security Agency's eavesdropping operation hampered U.S. efforts to track China's covert arms sales to nations such as Iran, Syria and Pakistan, Bush administration officials said. The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said they are concerned that the analyst, Ronald Montaperto, who pleaded guilty in June to relatively minor charges related to classified document mishandling, is not being punished properly. They say both prosecutors and the judge, Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, are not aware of the damage done by Montaperto's disclosures. Montaperto, a Pentagon employee from 1981 until his 2003 dismissal, is being sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. Court papers show that Montaperto admitted he disclosed classified information to Chinese military intelligence officers from 1989 to 2001 but said he could not recall specifics. A law-enforcement official close to the case said the prosecution of Montaperto was hampered by the FBI's inability to identify the specific classified information Montaperto admitted passing to China. Tougher charges were sought, but prosecutors and the FBI could not document the highly classified data. The officials say Montaperto in late 1988 provided a Chinese military intelligence officer with details about Chinese missile sales to Iran and Saudi Arabia in 1986 and 1987, and within weeks the NSA program was compromised. "The Chinese learned from the leaks where the information was coming from and within weeks or months the [communications] links were lost," one official said. The officials say the compromise has allowed China to counter U.S. protests about Chinese missile transfers that violated Beijing's numerous pledges not to sell weapons to rogue states and unstable regions. Montaperto could receive 40 to 57 months in prison under sentencing guidelines, but attorneys and friends of Montaperto are seeking leniency and no jail time. Montaperto has associates among senior intelligence and policy officials at the Pentagon and White House, which is why officials say he likely will receive a light sentence. Stephen P. Anthony, Montaperto's attorney, declined to comment, as did the Pentagon and officials from the Defense Intelligence Agency, where Montaperto had worked. Administration and congressional officials say the case was mishandled and that it contrasts with the more aggressive treatment of former State Department official Donald Kaiser. Kaiser made a plea deal but is now under renewed investigation by federal authorities over his mishandling of classified documents and his affair with a Taiwanese government agent. Several members of Congress and congressional staff said the Pentagon has not provided the House or Senate with any information about Montaperto's disclosures or the potential damage. Senate and House members are conducting preliminary inquiries into the case. The administration officials said no Pentagon officials, including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, have written to the judge characterizing the damage from the case. In 1987, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger wrote a classified memo to the judge that described severe damage caused by the case of convicted spy Jonathan Jay Pollard, a civilian Navy intelligence analyst who passed secrets to Israel. Montaperto was arrested in a sting operation. He was told that he was to lead a new U.S.-Chinese intelligence-sharing program, but that first he had to reveal his ties to Chinese intelligence and take a polygraph test. His admissions led to the plea agreement. -------- business Movie sheds light on corporate ties to war By BRUCE WESTBROOK Sept. 8, 2006 Houston Chronicle http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/movies/reviews/4146248.html For those who expect balance from a documentary, perhaps the term should be junked in favor of "real-life film." That would get Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers off the hook for its persuasive rant that American corporations are reaping fortunes providing overpriced goods and services in Iraq. Iraq for Sale isn't balanced or objective. It carries the torch for the families of civilians who died while driving unprotected trucks on unsafe routes. It cries out for Congress to take action against private companies — some Houston-based — that have contracts to supply what it says are faulty services at inflated prices. Director Robert Greenwald did try to get the other side of the story from companies such as Halliburton, Blackwater and CACI. During the latter half of the end credits, we see Greenwald and his staff calling or e-mailing the companies to request interviews, none of which, apparently, were granted. That leaves tearful survivors and bitter former employees to tell the tale, and they do so with anguish over their losses and shame about their country's actions. Former Halliburton truck drivers Ed Sanchez and Bill Peterson describe the living hell of narrowly surviving a fierce insurgent assault that left four of their colleagues dead. Now they feel betrayed. "They wanted to continue doing business with the Army, whatever the risks were," Sanchez says of his former employer. "There's nothing but the money," Peterson says. "There's no duty, honor or country among anyone at Halliburton/KBR." Greenwald also provides cold graphics and statistics to back up his arguments. According to a survey of one privately contracted service for water supplies, 63 of 67 treatment plants in Iraq weren't producing water safe for American soldiers to bathe in, much less drink. We're also told an American company charged the government $45 for a six-pack of Coca-Cola — which was produced in Iraq, thus not even imported. In the realm of "services," we learn that privately contracted personnel are among those guilty of atrocities against Iraqi prisoners. While an American soldier can face court-martial and possibly years in prison for such atrocities, a privately contracted employee has no accountability. We're also told that Halliburton's stock value has quadrupled since the war's start. In short, we're told that this is the most "privatized" war in history and that the corporations that got cushy deals are cleaning up while U.S. taxpayers are bled dry. How much of this big picture has the sharp focus of truth is a big question. Greenwald is nothing if not a filmmaker bent on advocacy, as he's shown during an award-winning career that includes directing Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price and Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism. That's not to mention the many films he's produced to shed light on eroding civil liberties (Unconstitutional), Tom DeLay's politics (The Big Buy: Tom DeLay's Stolen Congress) and the Enron scandal (The Crooked E: The Unshredded Truth About Enron). But just because Iraq for Sale isn't evenhanded doesn't mean it lacks truth. It only means Greenwald tackled a tough subject that Congress won't face and that he's more a populist hero of "real-life films" than less prolific leftist poster boy Michael Moore. Even if his films aren't balanced, at least you know, going in, where he stands. bruce.westbrook@chron.com -------- prisoners of war U.S. officials urge nations' discretion on CIA prisons September 8, 2006 By Nicholas Kralev THE WASHINGTON TIMES http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20060908-120410-5912r.htm The Bush administration yesterday cautioned countries with secret CIA prisons in their territory against disclosing the sites' existence, even as the European Parliament renewed its demand that its members come clean if they host such detention centers. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), meanwhile, said it planned to visit some of the prisoners who were recently transferred from the overseas locations to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, "very soon." President Bush's speech on Wednesday, in which he acknowledged the CIA detention program for the first time, drew reaction from around the world, with numerous calls for ending the practice or revealing where the prisons are. "The location of these prison camps must be made public," said German Socialist Wolfgang Kreissl-Doerfler, a member of a special European Parliament committee investigating the matter. "We need to know if there has been any complicity in illegal acts by governments of EU countries or states seeking EU membership." The head of the committee, Swiss Sen. Dick Marty, said Mr. Bush's speech was "just one piece of the truth." Graham Watson, leader of the assembly's Liberal Democrats, said Mr. Bush's acknowledgment will "bring a new interest and momentum to the work" of the committee investigating reports of possible secret prisons in Eastern Europe. The State Department urged the countries that host CIA prisons to keep quiet, because the administration wants the practice to continue and "certain aspects" of it should not be discussed. "There are just certain lines we have decided we are not going to cross," said department spokesman Sean McCormack. In his speech, Mr. Bush said Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh, purported architects of the September 11 attacks, and 12 other suspected terrorist leaders had been moved to Guantanamo Bay and will be tried by military commissions pending Congress' approval of new legislation drafted by the White House. The ICRC said in Geneva that it was not aware of the transfers until Wednesday but welcomed them. "We will very soon, in the coming days, carry out a visit and verify ourselves who was there, how many were there and who they are," said spokeswoman Antonella Notari. "We do remain concerned and attentive about any persons still detained at the present time in secret locations or who might be detained incommunicado in the future." Manfred Nowak, the U.N. special investigator on torture, said the transfer of the 14 detainees was "an improvement," but added that "of course, there are many others." Mr. Nowak has said the use of secret prisons violates anti-torture commitments under international law because keeping detainees in such places is a form of enforced disappearance. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer defended the CIA program, saying that information from one secret prison detainee had led to the arrest of Riduan Isamuddin, a key leader of southeast Asian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah. Isamuddin is better known by his nom de guerre, Hanbali. "A great deal has been achieved through these kinds of programs," Mr. Downer told Parliament in Canberra. • This article is based in part on wire service reports. -------- spies Calls Grow For Scrutiny of CIA Activities in Europe Friday, September 8th, 2006 Democracy Now! Headlines http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/08/1349238 In Europe, President Bush’s acknowledgement of his administration’s secret prison program is prompting calls for increased scrutiny of CIA activities. * Sarah Ludford, a British member of European Parliament: "What the Supreme Court said is that people in US custody, even when they are outside the United States can be protected by the Geneva conventions and the Bush adminstration is very worried that its officials could be responsible for war crimes if it's found that they committed torture or other illegal acts against these prisoners." Meanwhile Thursday, Europe’s top human rights official called for the monitoring of CIA agents operating throughout the continent. The official, Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis, said he would support a review of granting diplomatic immunity. He said: "Immunity should not mean impunity.” Davis also called for a ban on the transport of suspects in military planes. -------- war crimes Chile court strips Pinochet immunity in rights case Fri Sep 8, 2006 By Pav Jordan SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldnews&storyID=2006-09-08T231700Z_01_N08398510_RTRUKOC_0_US-CHILE-PINOCHET.xml Chile's Supreme Court cleared the way on Friday for former dictator Augusto Pinochet to face charges of murder, torture and other rights abuses at Villa Grimaldi, one of the most infamous prisons run by his secret police. "He's been stripped of immunity," a court source told Reuters after the decision by a Supreme Court panel in Santiago. The ruling meant Pinochet, now 90, can be charged with human rights abuses related to the Villa Grimaldi prison, where thousands -- including current Chilean President Michelle Bachelet -- were tortured between 1974 and 1977. Bachelet and her mother were tortured there in 1975 before going into exile. "Now people who were actually held in Villa Grimaldi can testify," Sebastian Brett, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, said of the ruling. "I think that Villa Grimaldi is emblematic of the brutality of Pinochet's rule. It's where people were taken, kept in detention, tortured and then executed," said Brett. Chile's government has documented close to 30,000 cases of torture under Pinochet, and officers have been convicted of the crime, but he so has not been formally charged with torture. Pinochet has lost his immunity from prosecution -- a privilege of former presidents -- in several other human rights cases. Chile's courts must decide the immunity issue on a case-by-case basis. Pinochet took power in a 1973 military coup and ruled for 17 years. He is under indictment for tax fraud and kidnapping -- a charge that refers to people who disappeared in police custody and are presumed dead. Under his regime, an estimated 3,000 people died or disappeared, while nearly 30,000 were tortured and dozens of military officers and former agents of the secret police have been convicted of human rights crimes. (Additional reporting by Erik Lopez and Antonio de la Jara) -------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE -------- homeland security / national intelligence Surveillance Bill Stalls in Committee Friday, September 8, 2006 By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/09/08/national/w075216D21.DTL President Bush's support proved insufficient to push a bill authorizing his warrantless wiretapping program through the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday. Sen. Arlen Specter, the committee's chairman, said the bill stalled because of election-year obstructionism. "We have seen the incipient stage of filibuster by amendment," the Pennsylvania Republican testily declared as he called off a vote to move his bill to the Senate floor. "Filibuster by speech, filibuster by amendment. Obstructionism." The target of his ire was Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., who spoke against the bill for about a quarter of the panel's two-hour meeting and offered four amendments. Feingold, a possible presidential candidate, said Specter's bill would give the White House too much power to eavesdrop without a warrant in some circumstances. "The president has basically said: I'll agree to let a court decide if I'm breaking the law if you pass a law first that says I'm not breaking the law," Feingold said. "That won't help re-establish a healthy respect for separation of powers. It will only make matters worse." The super-secret National Security Agency's surveillance program, created after the Sept. 11 attacks, monitors phone calls and e-mails between terrorism suspects overseas and people on American soil. News reports in December disclosed the program. The need for Congress to give legal status to the program gained a sense of urgency last month when a federal judge in Detroit ruled that it violated rights to free speech and privacy as well as constitutional separation of powers. The administration has appealed that ruling, contending that the president, as commander in chief, is justified in taking action to protect the nation during times of war. Democrats contend the White House is using the war on terror to expand the power of the executive branch beyond limits imposed by the Constitution. Specter's bill was negotiated with the administration. It would submit the program to a special court for a one-time constitutional review, expand the time for emergency warrants from three to seven days and require the attorney general to inform Congress's intelligence committees on the program's activities every six months. Opposition to the bill was no surprise. Feingold and five other senators, three of them Republicans, wrote Specter a day earlier complaining that a new version of his bill should be studied further before the panel votes. Forced to delay his committee's vote, Specter grumbled that without his legislation the White House would continue its domestic wiretapping program virtually unchecked by the courts. One such measure, backed by a group of moderate Senate Republicans, poses the biggest threat to Specter's bill because it would impose tighter restrictions on the administration's power to wiretap. The House, too, was considering a measure that would impose tougher checks on the president's power. ___ Relevant bills are S 2453, S 2468, S2455, S3001, S2831, HR 4976, HR 5371, HR 5825 ---- Bush Asks Congress To Authorize Spy Program Friday, September 8th, 2006 Democracy Now! Headlines http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/08/1349238 President Bush continued his series of speeches around the anniversary of the September 11 attacks Thursday with a new call for Congress to approve his warrantless spy program. In a theme Republicans say they’ll pursue in the lead-up to the November elections, the President said his policies have made the country safer from future attacks. * President Bush: "We are safer because we've taken action to protect the homeland. We are safer because we are on offense against our enemies overseas. We're safer because of the skill and sacrifice of the brave Americans who defend our people.” As the President spoke, a bill to authorize the spy program hit a major roadblock in the Senate after Democratic Senator Russ Feingold introduced several amendments. Feingold said: "The president has basically said I'll agree to let a court decide if I'm breaking the law if you pass a law first that says I'm not breaking [it]. That won't help re-establish a healthy respect for separation of powers. It will only make matters worse." -------- POLITICS -------- propaganda wars ABC tinkers with 9/11 drama Fri Sep 8, 2006 By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=newsOne&storyID=2006-09-09T021930Z_01_N08449906_RTRUKOC_0_US-SEPT11-ABC.xml&WTmodLoc=Home-C1-TopStories-newsOne-2 Under pressure from former President Bill Clinton and the Democratic Party, ABC scrambled on Friday to make 11th-hour changes to a miniseries suggesting he was inattentive to the Islamic militant threat that led to the September 11 attacks. Officials at the Walt Disney Co.-owned network said they were still tinkering with the five-hour production, titled "The Path to 9/11," which is scheduled to air without commercial interruption in two parts on Sunday and Monday. But ABC declined to say how the movie was being reshaped or whether any changes would address specific complaints lodged by Clinton, his former aides and congressional Democrats that the film contained numerous inaccuracies and distortions. The Hollywood trade paper Daily Variety, citing sources close to the project, reported the network was considering canceling the miniseries altogether. The docu-drama, which ABC says is based largely on the official 9/11 Commission Report, opens with the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York and traces subsequent events leading up to the coordinated suicide hijackings five years ago that killed nearly 3,000 people. Much of the controversy focuses on a scene depicting CIA agents and Afghan fighters coming close to capturing al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in the 1990s, only to have then-White House national security advisor Samuel Berger refuse to authorize completion of their mission. An unfinished version of the film circulated by ABC to TV critics for review portrays Berger as abruptly hanging up the phone while the CIA is pressing him to approve the raid. In letters of protest to Disney President Robert Iger, Berger and former White House aide Bruce Lindsey said no such episode ever occurred. The executive producer of the film, Marc Platt, acknowledged to Reuters on Thursday the Berger scene was a "conflation of events." The film also drew denunciations from Clinton supporters for strongly suggesting his administration was too distracted by the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal to deal effectively with the gathering threat of Islamic militancy. Lindsey said the 9/11 Commission Report disputed that notion. POLITICS AND SHOWBIZ The show has added fuel to the election-year debate over which party, the Republicans or Democrats, is tougher on terrorism. The Democratic Party, in a message posted on its Web site, called the miniseries "a despicable, irresponsible fraud" and urged an e-mail campaign demanding Iger keep "this propaganda off the air." Joining the clamor for changes in the miniseries was the star of the film, Harvey Keitel, who said he accepted the role as an FBI counter-terrorism expert under the premise the story was to be told as "history." "It turned out not all the facts were correct," he said on the Headline News network's "Showbiz Tonight." "You can't put things together, compress them, and then distort the reality. ... You cannot cross the line from conflation of events to a distortion of the event." Former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, who chaired the 9/11 Commission and served as a consultant for the miniseries, has defended the production as balanced. But he told The Washington Post he asked for changes that would address complaints raised by the former Clinton officials. The newspaper quoted one unidentified ABC executive as saying changes were "intended to make clearer that it was general indecisiveness" by federal officials that left America vulnerable to attacks, "not any one individual." Trade publication the Hollywood Reporter, citing unnamed sources, said the scene involving Berger and an aborted mission to capture bin Laden would be toned down so that no particular individual was made to appear culpable. The controversy was reminiscent of the furor stirred by a CBS miniseries about Ronald and Nancy Reagan, which the network canceled after Republicans complained it unfairly and inaccurately portrayed the former president. "The Reagans" ended up airing on sibling cable channel Showtime. Further complicating the situation for ABC was a prime-time address to the nation President George W. Bush has planned for 9 p.m. EDT on Monday to mark the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, right in the middle of part two of ABC's miniseries. The network said it would air the first hour of the film, break for 20 minutes to carry Bush's speech live, then broadcast the rest of the movie. (Additional reporting by Mark Egan, Ellen Wulfhorst, Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss) -------- OTHER -------- environment Africa Said Most at Risk to Ill-Regulated Toxics NORWAY: September 8, 2006 Story by Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent REUTERS NEWS SERVICE http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/38019/story.htm OSLO - Africa is especially vulnerable to a growing and ill-regulated trade in hazardous waste, experts said on Thursday after a toxic dumping scandal in Ivory Coast killed three people and forced the government to quit. Poor political oversight, lack of domestic laws to restrict dumping and companies seeking to avoid clean-up costs all make Africa at risk from dumping of wastes ranging from pesticides to industrial chemicals, environmentalists say. "Africa is generally considered the most vulnerable of the continents," said Michael Williams, spokesman for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). "There are any number of cases in Africa where ships dump their cargoes or leave their entire ship and let it rot," he said. He said the United Nations lacked statistics on the numbers of people killed or made sick by waste. In Ivory Coast, waste from a Panamanian-registered ship, the Probo Koala, that was dumped around the lagoon-side city of Abidjan last month has killed three and made hundreds ill. Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny offered the resignation of his cabinet to President Laurent Gbagbo late on Wednesday. Gbagbo asked Banny to form a new cabinet on Thursday. Countries that report to the Basel Convention, which monitors hazardous waste, produced around 108 million tonnes of the wastes in 2001, according to UN statistics. Uzbekistan was top with 26 percent of the total. RISING SHIPMENTS "The amount of waste on the move is increasing rapidly," a UN report said, estimating that "between 1993 and 2001 the amount of waste criss-crossing the globe increased from 2 million tonnes to more than 8.5 million tonnes." But it said that not all countries reported shipments. Dutch-based Trafigura Beheer BV, one of the world's leading commodity traders, said it had chartered the Probo Koala and that the material was a "mixture of gasoline, water and caustic washings" after the unloading of a cargo of gasoline in Nigeria. It said the slops were handed over to a certified local waste disposal company, Tommy, along with a written request for safe disposal. Ivory Coast has contacted the Secretariat of the UN's Basel Convention asking for help in finding out what went wrong. By contrast with Africa, some nations in Asia are seeking to capitalise on trade in hazardous wastes, for instance by breaking up ageing ships. This also brings huge health risks. The Indian Express newspaper said this week that a Supreme Court-appointed panel has found that the health of around one in six workers in India's biggest shipbreaking yard was suffering due to exposure to asbestos. The panel was set up after France halted a plan to scrap the aircraft carrier Clemenceau in India. Environmentalists said the 27,000-tonne carrier was carrying hundreds of tonnes of asbestos. "Anywhere where a country is suffering from political or economic instability there is always room for it to be treated as a dumping ground," said Helen Perivier, an anti-toxics campaigner at the Greenpeace environmental group. "Unfortunately Africa, the poorest continent in the world, has many regions affected by instability," she said. -------- ACTIVISTS Satyagraha 100 Years Later: Gandhi Launches Modern Non-Violent Resistance Movement on Sept. 11, 1906 Friday, September 8th, 2006 Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/08/1349257 September 11th 2006 has a special significance. It not only marks the fifth anniversary of the attacks on New York and Washington, it also marks 100 years to the day that Mahatma Gandhi launched the modern nonviolent resistance movement. Gandhi called it "Satyagraha." The date was September 11th, 1906. Speaking before 3,000 Indians gathered at a theater in Johannesburg, Gandhi organized a strategy of nonviolent resistance to oppose racist policies in South Africa. Satyagraha was born and since then, it has been adopted by many around the world to resist social injustice and oppression. Gandhi used it in India to win independence from the British. The Reverend Martin Luther King used it in the United States to oppose segregation and Nelson Mandela used it in South Africa to end apartheid. Today, we mark 9/11 by looking at Satyagraha. We speak with Arun Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and co-founder of the MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in Memphis Tennessee, which promotes nonviolence in conflict zones around the world. - Arun Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. Born in South Africa under apartheid, Arun moved to India in 1946 to live with his grandfather. He remained in India until the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. Arun Gandhi spent the next thirty years as a journalist in India. In 1991 he co-founded the MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in Memphis Tennessee, which promotes nonviolence in conflict zones around the world. RUSH TRANSCRIPT AMY GOODMAN: Arun Gandhi joins us from Rochester, New York, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and co-founder of the MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in Memphis, Tennessee, which promotes nonviolence in conflict zones around the world. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Arun Gandhi. ARUN GANDHI: Thank you very much. Thank you very much for having me on your show. AMY GOODMAN: Can you define Satyagraha for us? ARUN GANDHI: Satyagraha is the pursuit of truth. My grandfather believed that truth should be the cornerstone of everybody's life and that we must dedicate our lives to pursuing truth, to finding out the truth in our lives. And so his entire philosophy was the philosophy of life. It was not just a philosophy for conflict resolution, but something that we have to imbibe in our life and live it all the time so that we can improve and become better human beings. JUAN GONZALEZ: And the spread of the concept and the movement around the world, looking back now at its impact, could you talk about how it spread and the impact it's had on social change around the world? ARUN GANDHI: I think it has had a tremendous impact, as you just said in the introduction. So many people around the world have used nonviolence as a way to resolve a conflict that they faced in their lives. And they continue to use it everywhere all over the world there. And I think, in a way, nonviolence is our nature. Violence is not really our nature. If violence was our nature, we wouldn't need military academies and martial arts institutes to teach us how to kill and destroy people. We ought to have been born with those instincts. But the fact that we have to learn the art of killing means that it's a learned experience. And we can always unlearn it. And I’m always reminded of a very pertinent statement that my grandfather made. He said, “Violence will prevail over violence, only when someone can prove to me that darkness can be dispelled by darkness.” And I think that's what we have to remember and try to imbibe in our lives there, that we can never overcome violence with more violence. We can only overcome violence with respect and understanding and love for each other. AMY GOODMAN: Arun Gandhi, can you tell us what your grandfather, Mahatma Gandhi, did 100 years ago today? ARUN GANDHI: Well, as you said, he met in the theater with more than 3,000 Indian people, because they were victims of prejudices in South Africa and all kinds of unjust laws were enacted to oppress them and suppress them. And he realized that this was not right and that we should not submit to these things and should not live with this. And so he got the people together and explained to them that we have to resist this kind of injustice, and we have to do something about it. We should not just submit to it and live with it. And people were wondering, how can we resist with the state so powerful, and we don't have any weapons, you know, because every time, even today, when somebody talks about resistance, everybody thinks in terms of weapons and war and fighting. And that's when grandfather explained to them that we don't need any weapons of mass destruction. We have the ability to respond to this nonviolently and with self-suffering. And that's what he encouraged the people to do. And they came out into the streets with love for the enemy. You know, grandfather didn't tolerate any hate for the enemy or any anger for the enemy. He said nonviolence has to be complete nonviolence. We have to have love and respect for the enemy, and that is the only way we can overcome them. And that's what he showed in his work. And I am amazed that the prime minister of South Africa, General J.C. Smuts, later on he admitted that grandfather was the greatest. He called him a saint, and he said, “It was my misfortune that I had to be against him,” you know. And it was that kind of feeling of reverence and awe that he inspired even in his opponents. And I think that's what we have to remember and try to make it a part of our lives, because violence is destroying us. You know, we're seeing violence growing every day in our streets, in our homes, in our towns, in our cities, in the world itself. Everywhere we turn, we see violence and hate and prejudice and anger and all of these negative emotions that are destroying humanity. And we have to wake up and take note of this and try to change our course, so that we can create a world of peace and harmony where future generations can live happily together. JUAN GONZALEZ: For some of our younger listeners, especially, who may not be aware of the specific ways in which your grandfather carried out his movement, especially in India, could you talk about some of the tactics used or the key moments in the fight for Indian independence? And also I’d be interested in your perspective on how you see how India today is either carrying out -- whether people are either carrying out or have forgotten much of the lessons of Gandhi. ARUN GANDHI: Well, nonviolence is something very powerful, and the power behind it is not weapons, but the support of the people. And grandfather had this knack of picking on issues which really affected a lot of people everywhere. And therefore, he was able to get people to come out and join his movement. Now, to give you an example, the salt march that took place in 1930, when he announced to the nation that he was going to defy the salt laws enacted by the British and defy the British government, even the Congress Party members who were his supporters began to doubt and wonder: “How can you destroy the British empire by defying the salt laws?” And, you know, everybody ridiculed the whole idea, and even the British ridiculed the whole idea, and grandfather remained steadfast there. But the reason why he picked on the salt law was that that was one law that affected everybody, Hindus and Muslims, rich and poor. Everybody across the board were affected by that law. And when he decided that he was going to march 247 miles to the sea -- JUAN GONZALEZ: And if you could explain why that law was so oppressive to the Indian people. ARUN GANDHI: Because the British had decided that they were going to take the Indian salt back to Britain and refine it and repackage it and sell it back to the Indian people at about 20 times the price, and, you know, enormous taxes were imposed on salt. And India had been impoverished by the British colonialism and imperialism. And people were very poor. And this kind of tax on salt, something that everybody needs every day, was totally unjust, and therefore, grandfather decided to defy this. And when he marched that day, began the march, 247 miles to the sea, you know, it just caught the imagination of the people. And millions of people poured out into the street. And even if they couldn't participate in his march, they did things in their own cities to defy the British. And the response was so tremendous that the Congress doubters also began to see the wisdom of it, and the British government were taken completely by surprise. And I think that was the turning point in the freedom struggle in India. From that point onwards, the British lost their hold over the country. And it just went down to ultimately giving independence to the country there. AMY GOODMAN: And in your work in the Middle East, Arun Gandhi, how have you applied Satyagraha? ARUN GANDHI: Well, I had the opportunity to go there in 2004. And as it turned out, I was the last foreigner to have meet Yasser Arafat and to have spoken to him. And the message that I took to the people in the Middle East is that this kind of violence that you are committing is not beneficial to you or beneficial to anybody. You are only destroying a whole generation of young people and not achieving anything. And lately, after 2001, after the terrorist attacks here, everybody in the West has been looking at suicide bombers as terrorists. And so, instead of gaining sympathy for the cause of the Palestinian people, you are only, you know, gaining more anger and frustration, and people are branding you as terrorists, and you are losing the battle there. So I tried to suggest to them that they should take, you know -- reexamine their whole procedure and see what they can do nonviolently to achieve their goals. I suggested to them that Napoleon, the greatest military general that the world has seen, has written in his book that the general who holds the initiative has better chances of winning the war. And I said in this case, you are not holding the initiative at all. It is the Israelis who are holding the initiative, and they are making you do things that they want you to do, and that can justify more violence and separation of your people. JUAN GONZALEZ: What was the response of President Arafat, who had spent his whole life in armed resistance, basically, to free his people? ARUN GANDHI: Well, one of the questions that he asked me was, well, suppose you were given the leadership, what would you plan to do? And I said, look, I can't give you an offhand answer to this question, because it needs to be studied properly. I need to be here. I need to understand the problems here. But one thing that really comes to my mind here, I said I had just been to Amman, Jordan, where I had met with more than half a million refugees, Palestinian refugees, who were living for more than a decade in awful conditions. And they were frustrated and angry, and they wanted to come back to Palestine and live a peaceful, normal life there. And I told -- AMY GOODMAN: You have ten seconds. ARUN GANDHI: I told Mr. Arafat, I said, suppose you were to go there and lead this half a million people, men, women and children, in a march to Palestine, and no armaments or anything, just say that we are coming back to live in peace and harmony in our homeland, can the Israelis kill so many people and live with their conscience? I said the whole world would wake up and stop this action. AMY GOODMAN: Arun Gandhi. I want to thank you very much for being with us. I hope to see you in Memphis on January 11th, on our Breaking the Sound Barrier tour. And I want to let our listeners and viewers know, on Monday, the movie Gandhi will play all over the country, on the 100th anniversary of Satyagraha. ---- 5,000 Rally in Washington, DC for Immigrant Rights Friday, September 8th, 2006 Democracy Now! Headlines http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/08/1349238 More than 5,000 people gathered on the National Mall Thursday in support of the rights of undocumented immigrants. The We Are America Alliance rally comes as House Republicans announced they would launch a new effort to pass several border crackdown measures before their recess next month. ---- World Peace Forum Calls on the United States to Lead the World in Nuclear Disarmament Publication date : 8 September 2006 ACDN http://acdn.france.free.fr/spip/article.php3?id_article=222&lang=en - Clearly understanding that nuclear weapons are illegal, immoral and environmentally destructive and that the only way to ensure that they will never be used is to eliminate all nuclear weapons, - Privileged to have heard the powerful warnings from individuals who have experienced terrible pain and loss due to the effects of nuclear radiation from nuclear bombs, tests, uranium mining and other stages of the nuclear cycle, - Warned further of the risks posed by the 27,000 nuclear weapons (especially those thousands on high alert); The Forum calls on all states - especially the nuclear weapons states - to fulfill their obligations under international law to work rapidly toward the goal of nuclear abolition. We call upon all nuclear weapons states to: a) permanently take all nuclear weapons off hair trigger alert; b) reject all policies by all states for nuclear use; c) begin negotiations on treaties covering various aspects of the arms race, including a legally-binding ban on weapons grade fissile material; d) compensate all victims of nuclear weapons’ use, production and testing; e) re-affirm their adherence to the "13 practical steps" to eliminate nuclear weapons agreed to by all state parties to the NPT at the 2000 Review Conference; f) Study and use as guidance the 60 recommendations to free the world of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons contained in the report "Weapons of Mass Terror" released during the Forum by Dr. Hans Blix on behalf of the WMD Commission. We call upon all states to urgently comply with their legal obligation and revive negotiations in good faith on an agreement for verifiable and irreversible nuclear disarmament and to end reliance on nuclear weapons within all defence policies. We encourage all global citizens to: a) invite their mayors to join Mayors for Peace; b) invite their parliamentarians to join the Parliamentary Network for Nuclear Disarmament; c) engage in public education on the need to eliminate the threat posed by nuclear weapons and on the role of international law, using the unanimously endorsed UN Disarmament Education Study (see http://disarmament.un.org/education/) ; d) promote the signature campaign for the swift abolition of nuclear weapons to be submitted to the UN General Assembly in October 2006. e) work persistently to have their community declared a Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone, backed with effective legislation, and join in efforts to bring more of the world into Nuclear Weapon-Free Zones; f) encourage professional associations to develop codes of conduct to prohibit their members from participation in development of nuclear weapons, g) work to establish effective national whistle-blower protection legislation. h) engage the next generation in all of the above efforts, knowing that the nuclear legacy lasts tens of thousands of years. We encourage all states to live up to their obligations as reaffirmed by the International Court of Justice that international law requires negotiations leading to the elimination of nuclear weapons and welcome the consideration by some governments and non-governmental experts to seek a new opinion from the ICJ on the fulfillment of states’ responsibilities. There is an inextricable link between nuclear power and nuclear weapons. We reject the notion that nuclear power is the solution to any problem; we call for the phasing out of nuclear power and for the establishment of an International Sustainable Energy Agency. States must work to redress the harm suffered by indigenous and colonized people because of the nuclear fuel cycle. As the world’s leading military and nuclear power, the United States bears a special responsibility to lead the other nuclear weapon states in fulfilling their obligations to reduce reliance on nuclear weapons in security doctrines and eliminate their weapons stockpiles. Even as the United States condemns North Korea for preparing to test a new missile, the Pentagon is poised to develop its own new generation of nuclear-capable long-range delivery systems. And while President Bush declares a nuclear-armed Iran would pose "a grave threat to the security of the world," the United States is modernizing every weapon type in its vast nuclear arsenal. Largely through the actions of the United States, a new arms race has begun. The rejection of international law (including arms control treaties), the drive to deploy ballistic missile defenses and weapons in space, the refusal to rule out the development of new warheads, the threats of first use of nuclear weapons have caused the other nuclear weapon states to work to modernize and expand their forces and have caused non-nuclear states to seek to develop their own nuclear weapons. While recognizing the special responsibility of the administration of President Bush in forcing the world into this impasse, we acknowledge that the current administration is simply exacerbating policies that predate this administration and will - if not resisted by civil society - continue beyond its term in office. One way to break the stranglehold of nuclear weapons is to work on one of the weakest links in the nuclear chain: oppose plans in the United Kingdom to replace its Trident nuclear fleet. The UK Trident submarine fleet, based in Scotland, is opposed by a broad cross-section of the Scottish public. The replacement system would waste at least 25 billion pounds. We endorse the call of Scottish and other UK activists to convince the government not to replace Trident, thus beginning a domino effect of nuclear disarmament around the world. This statement was based on discussions and recommendations coming out of workshops and plenaries on nuclear weapons at the World Peace Forum. It was prepared by: Jackie Cabasso Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation Member of Global Council for Abolition 2000 Bev Delong Chairperson, Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons President Lawyers for Social Responsibility Debbie Grisdale Executive Director, Physicians for Global Survival Pamela S. Meidell Director, Atomic Mirror Michael Wallace Professor of Political Science, University of British Columbia Member, Canadian Pugwash Group Jim Wurst Program Director, Middle Powers Initiative June 28, 2006