NucNews November 2, 2006 -------- NUCLEAR -------- business U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Selects Nortel Government Solutions By Anuradha Shukla TMCnet Contributing Editor November 02, 2006 http://voipforenterprise.tmcnet.com/feature/service-solutions/articles/3370-us-nuclear-regulatory-commission-selects-nortel-government-solutions.htm Nortel Government Solutions will operate and maintain the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) digital courtroom systems in Rockville, Maryland and Las Vegas, Nevada. Under an agreement estimated at US $7.7 million, Nortel (News - Alert) Government Solutions will provide these services over four years. Nortel will also support NRC hearings, application development and testing. Nortel Government Solutions reportedly developed and delivered the system to the NRC in early 2006. The company provides electronic evidence presentation, digital audio and video transcripts, and electronic capture and display of evidence. The system enables immediate electronic access to documents, and live video and audio feeds to provide a wide public access to NRC proceedings. NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel can use the digital courtroom systems to simplify proceedings ranging from routine cases to complicated hearings involving nuclear reactor licenses. “These showcase systems integrate everything into one multimedia system with real-time access to information for all participants,” said Chuck Saffell, chief executive officer, Nortel Government Solutions in a press release. He continued: “Our operations and maintenance services will help the NRC to achieve and sustain the highest performance, efficiency, security and reliability from its electronic courtrooms.” Nortel was recently in news for being chosen by Edith Cowan University in Perth and The New York Times Company. Nortel will supply a next-generation data network to Edith Cowan University in Perth to support its academic program over the next five years. Nortel’s integrated communications solution will be used by The New York Times Company for its new headquarters that will begin operations in the spring of 2007. For more information, visit Nortel Government Solutions or U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Anuradha Shukla is a contributing writer for TMCnet covering call centers, CRM and information technology. ---- Nymex Gas Climbs, Erasing Losses, Amid Downed Nuclear Plants By Geoffrey Smith Nov. 2, 2006 (Bloomberg) http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=aURBlLOOSae0&refer=energy Natural gas rose for a third day, erasing losses, as nuclear plant maintenance forced power plants to burn more natural gas to meet electric needs. U.S. nuclear plants were running 24 percent below normal, a report today from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said. Winter- like cold in the Midwest boosted furnace demand for the fuel from households and businesses. ``We still have all those nukes down,'' said George Speicher, a broker with Dow Corp. in Houston. ``We have some cold weather'' in the northern U.S., he said. Gas for December delivery rose 17.8 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $7.89 per million British thermal units at 1:15 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It reached $7.40 before changing direction. Benchmark gas is 32 percent lower than a year ago. Chicago's low temperature will touch 20 Fahrenheit (25 Celsius) today and 27 tomorrow, National Weather Service forecasters said. The normal low is 37 this time of the year. Dominion Resources Inc., the second-largest U.S. utility owner, shut its Kewaunee nuclear reactor in Wisconsin on Oct. 31 for an electrical equipment problem. Entergy Corp., the second- largest operator of U.S. nuclear plants, closed its Arkansas Nuclear One Unit 2 reactor the same day after a fire in an auxiliary building. ``It's the equivalent of 5 billion cubic feet,'' Speicher said, referring to the amount of natural gas power plants need to burn to make up for the nuclear plants. ``When those nukes are down, they need 5 billion worth of generation that they wouldn't need if the nukes were up.'' Power Output Rises U.S. electricity output rose for a second week last week, according to data from the Edison Electric Institute yesterday. U.S. electricity output rose 4.4 percent from a year earlier. Cold weather and higher demand from power plants contributed to the first weekly decline in gas supplies this heating season and the earliest ever, according to Energy Department data dating to 1994. U.S. gas inventories fell 9 billion cubic feet last week, the Energy Department said today. The closest comparison is 1997, when stockpiles were reduced by 3 billion cubic feet in the week ended Oct. 31, government data showed. Gas companies typically put gas in underground storage caverns from April to November. They pull from the sites for the rest of the year as demand outpaces what's pumped from wells. ``The electricity and heating demand clearly point to it,'' said Jason Schenker, an economist at Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte, North Carolina, referring to the reasons for the supply drop. U.S. weather was 28 percent cooler than normal in the week ended Oct. 28, according to data weighted by gas home-heating customers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. To contact the reporter on this story: Geoffrey Smith in New York at gsmith15@bloomberg.net . -------- depleted uranium Washington and London Ignore Depleted Uranium Risk Nov 2, 2006 (RHC) El Periodico, Cuba http://www.periodico26.cu/english/news_world/risk110206.htm London - Both U.S. and British troops are reported to have used depleted uranium in Iraq, according to an investigation conducted by the BBC. And the report notes that U.S. and UK forces have continued to use depleted uranium weapons despite warnings that they pose a cancer risk. Scientists have pointed to health statistics in Iraq, where the weapons were used in the 1991 and 2003 wars of aggression. A report by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2001 said they posed only a small contamination risk, but a senior UN scientist said research showing how depleted uranium could cause cancer was withheld. Dr. Keith Baverstock, who worked on the project, said research conducted by the U.S. Department of Defense suggested that depleted uranium was dangerous and posed a serious health risk. He described a process known as genotoxicity, which begins when depleted uranium dust is inhaled. Dr. Baverstock said that "the particles that dissolve pose a risk -- part radioactive -- and part from the chemical toxicity in the lungs." Later, he said, the material enters the body and the blood stream, potentially affecting bone marrow, the lymphatic system and the kidneys. The research was not included in the WHO report, and Dr. Baverstock believes it was purposefully blocked. Other senior scientists have pointed to worrying health statistics in Iraq, which show a rise in cancer and birth defects. One scientist, Randy Parrish of the Isotope Geosciences Laboratory in the UK, said environmental and health assessments were needed in Iraq to establish the facts. Iraqi scientists trained by the UN are seeking to carry out such an assessment, but the United Nations Environmental Program said without clear information from the U.S. on what was used and where, it was "like looking for a needle in a haystack." -------- iran Iran Fires First Longer-Range Missiles In War Games by Staff Writers Tehran (AFP) Nov 2, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Iran_Fires_First_Longer_Range_Missiles_In_War_Games_999.html Iran fired its longer-range Shahab-3 ballistic missile for the first time Thursday as it began 10 days of war games amid a mounting standoff with the West over its nuclear program, official media said. The hardline Revolutionary Guards fired the missiles, which have a range of up to 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) -- sufficient to threaten US bases in the Gulf -- during the first phase of military maneuvers in the central desert, state television reported. "Shahab missiles, carrying cluster warheads, with a range of 2,000 kilometres, were fired from the desert near (Iran's clerical capital) Qom," it said. "Dozens of Shahab-2 and -3, Zolfaghar-73, Scud B, Fath-110 and Zelzal have been launched in the presence of (Guards chief) General Yahya Rahim Safavi, and other high-ranking commanders," the television said. "The cluster head of the Shahab-2 has the capability to disperse 1,400 bomblets with great destructive power." It was the first time that Iran had fired the longer-range Shahab-3 on exercise and commanders said they would also be employing other "new equipment" during the war games. Russia said it would monitor Iran's military moves after the reports of the missile-firing but ruled out the possibility that the Islamic republic had the technological means to create even longer-range missiles. "If we are talking about intercontinental ballistic missiles, according to our information, Iran does not possess the technological capability" to create missiles with a 5,000-kilometer (3,100-mile) range, the head of Russian military's general staff Yury Baluyevsky told ITAR-TASS news agency. Dubbed "Great Prophet 2," the air, land and sea maneuvers are to extend across 14 provinces "with the focus on the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman," Safavi said Wednesday. "The first and main goal of this exercise is to demonstrate power and national determination to defend the country against any possible threat," he said. "Heliport operations will be carried out in the Hormozgan region (on the Strait of Hormuz) and some of the Persian Gulf islands." The strategic Strait of Hormuz is the obligatory passage for tankers exiting the Gulf that carry much of the world's oil supply. The Iranian maneuvers come on the heels of naval exercises launched in the Gulf on Monday by a US-led flotilla including warships from Australia, Bahrain, France, Italy and Britain. "That is a propaganda and political maneuver without military value," Safavi said then. "If forces from out of the region want to jeopardize Iran's security and interests, the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij (volunteer militia) will use all their capabilities to strike their enemies and their interests," he warned. But the Guards commander insisted Iran's exercises were no threat to its neighbors. "This maneuver is no threat for the region or neighboring countries," he said, adding: "Our neighbors are our friends and we consider our neighbors' enemies our enemies." The aim of the exercises was the "defence of sensitive centres, strategic bottlenecks and confrontation of possible troubles," he said. It is Iran's third round of war games this year. In August, the armed forces held country-wide maneuvers dubbed Zolfaghar Blow. Iran also staged Great Prophet 1 exercises in April. The new war games come amid a mounting standoff between Iran and the West over its nuclear program after the European Union pronounced at an end talks on a negotiated solution to Western concerns that Tehran is seeking the bomb. Iran "not capable" of creating intercontinental missiles: Russia Iran does not have the technological means to create intercontinental ballistic missiles, the head of Russian military's general staff Yury Baluyevsky told ITAR-TASS news agency Thursday. Baluyevsky's remarks came shortly after Iran reportedly fired its longer-range Shahab-3 ballistic missile on exercise for the first time. "If we are talking about intercontinental ballistic missiles, according to our information, Iran does not possess the technological capability" to create missiles with a 5,000-kilometer (3,100-mile) range, Baluyevsky said. "In any case, this will be monitored by our intelligence services," Baluyevsky added. Thursday's missile test marked the beginning of 10 days of war games in Iran amid a mounting standoff with the West over its nuclear program. The hardline Revolutionary Guards fired the Shahab-3 missiles, which have a range of up to 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) -- sufficient to threaten US bases in the Gulf -- during the first phase of maneuvers in the centeral desert, state television reported. The manuevers came hot on the heels of of naval exercises launched in the Gulf on Monday by a US-led flotilla including warships from Australia, Bahrain, France, Italy and Britain. When asked whether Iran's Shehab-3 missiles posed a threat to Russia, Baluyevsky responded: "That depends on which direction they are sent." ---- Iran to mimic US-led naval war games in Gulf Analysts perceive move as thinly veiled threat in case of sanctions Compiled by Lebanon Daily Star staff Thursday, November 02, 2006 http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=76566 Iran's Revolutionary Guards will start 10 days of war games Thursday that will include drills in the Gulf and the Sea of Oman, Iranian state television reported on Wednesday, days after US-led naval exercises in the area. The United States-led naval maneuvers involving 25 nations in the Gulf on Monday aimed at training forces to block the transport of weapons of mass destruction and related equipment, officials said. Yehya Rahim Safavi, commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guards, said ground, air and naval forces, including submarines, would stage exercises called "The Greatest Prophet" from Thursday until November 11, state television reported. He said the maneuvers would be "mainly in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman," adding that members of the volunteer Basij militia, who see themselves as the guardians of revolutionary values, would also take part in the war games. Safavi said the elite Guards units would show off a wide range of Iranian-made hardware, including missiles and rockets with various ranges. "Our air force [will participate] by firing dozens of missiles including Shahab-2 and Shahab-3 missiles with cluster warheads," Safavi added. Military experts say Iran's Shahab-3 missiles have a maximum range of some 2,000 kilometers, making them capable of hitting Israel as well as US military bases in the Gulf. The Revolutionary Guards, the ideologically driven wing of the armed forces which has a separate command structure from the regular military, held war games in the Gulf in April in which they tested new missiles, torpedoes and other equipment. Analysts viewed the war games as a thinly veiled threat that Iran could disrupt vital oil shipping lanes if pushed by an escalation in the nuclear dispute. Safavi stressed the drills were not a threat to neighboring countries, saying: "Our neighbors are our friends. The Guards just want to prove that they are ready to resist in any threatening situation.'' Iran regularly holds large maneuvers, often using them to test weapons developed by its domestic arms industry. On Monday, Italy, the US, Australia, Britain, France and Bahrain deployed ships and personnel to the drill, part of the US Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI). Other countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan and South Korea, sent observers. Named "Leading Edge," the drill was the first such exercise to take place in the Gulf, and Bahrain was the only Gulf Arab state to take an active role. The Bahraini, Qatari and UAE involvement in the US initiative flies against Iran's call on Sunday for regional security to be maintained by countries in the region. Several Middle Eastern countries have endorsed the US Proliferation Security Initiative principles this year after visits by US officials to the region were stepped up, a State Department official who declined to be identified said. Leading Edge was the 25th PSI exercise since US President George W. Bush launched the initiative in 2003. Eighty countries have endorsed PSI principles. Some countries took part in planning the operation, whereby various intelligence agencies worked on a scenario in which a vessel en-route to the UAE from Europe was suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction. Iran said the six-nation drills would not improve security in the Gulf waters, through which about 20 percent of the world's oil passes. - Reuters, AP ---- Russia, China won't back Iran sanctions By STEVE GUTTERMAN AND EDITH M. LEDERER ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITERS Thursday, November 2, 2006 http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107AP_Iran_Nuclear.html MOSCOW -- Russian and China indicated that they will not support a draft U.N. resolution imposing tough sanctions on Iran for its refusal to halt its nuclear enrichment program. The comments by Russia's foreign minister and China's U.N. ambassador were the strongest reactions yet to the draft by the two key U.N. Security Council members, and signaled difficult negotiations ahead on the resolution drawn up by Britain, France and Germany. "We cannot support measures that in essence are aimed at isolating Iran from the outside world, including isolating people who are called upon to conduct negotiations on the nuclear program," the Interfax news agency quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as saying Wednesday. China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya said "there are still different views on what kind of actions the council needs to do under the current circumstances." Wang said "the major concern" is that some members want tough sanctions like those in the resolution that the council approved on Oct. 14 to punish North Korea for conducting a nuclear test. The European draft on Iran orders all countries to prevent the sale and supply of material and technology that could contribute to Tehran's nuclear and missile programs. It imposes a travel ban and freezes the assets of people involved in these programs - and also orders countries to freeze the assets of companies and organizations involved in Iran's nuclear and missile programs. "I think the situation, the cases, are slightly different," Wang said. "Of course, the main concern is nuclear, but I think that North Korea had a test and the Iranians always claim that their programs are for peaceful use." Unlike North Korea, Iran has signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, he said. Both Russia and China, which have strong commercial ties to Tehran, agreed in principle to sanctions over Iran's defiance of the council's ultimatum to freeze uranium enrichment and dramatically improve cooperation with the U.N. probe of suspect Iranian atomic activities. But both nations have continued to publicly push for dialogue instead of U.N. punishment, despite the collapse last month of a European Union attempt to entice Iran into talks. The EU had proposed that Iran at least temporarily freeze enrichment as a condition for multilateral talks aimed at erasing suspicions it may be trying to build nuclear arms in violation of its treaty commitments. Wang said the question is "what is the best way out." "We want to have a solution of the Iranian nuclear issue, whether sanctions is the right way or whether further negotiation," he said. The five veto-wielding permanent council members - the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France - were expected to discuss the resolution this week at the United Nations. Lavrov said that Russia would seek to focus the document on aspects of Iran's program that the International Atomic Energy Agency has identified as possibly serious risks, including uranium enrichment and a heavy-water reactor, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. While Russia and China signaled the draft resolution is too strong, the United States indicated it considers the draft too weak. Russia's Security Council chief Igor Ivanov indicated in comment Tuesday that Russia could support sanctions as a way to push Tehran into talks, but also left plenty of room for wrangling in the council. Speaking Wednesday in Moscow, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, who will take over as U.N. secretary-general on Jan. 1, urged Iran to halt uranium enrichment and accept the incentives in return, Interfax reported. A Russian Defense Ministry official told The Associated Press on Wednesday that his government would fulfill a contract to supply air defense missiles to Iran unless Moscow decides to back the international sanctions that would make it illegal. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, denied an ITAR-Tass report that said Russia had already started delivering the missiles. Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov defended the $700 million contract signed last December to sell 29 Tor-M1 air defense missile systems to Iran, saying they were purely defensive weapons with a limited range. Associated Press writer Vladimir Isachenkov contributed to this report. Edith M. Lederer reported from the United Nations. -------- japan Japan makes first commercial reprocessed nuclear fuel Thursday November 2, 2006 (Reuters) http://asia.news.yahoo.com/061102/3/2s9am.html TOKYO - Japan has started operations to produce reprocessed nuclear fuel for commercial sale for the first time, Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. said on Thursday. It will make uranium-plutonium mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel as a finished product by mid-November at its reprocessing plant in the village of Rokkasho in northern Japan's Aomori prefecture, it said in a statement. "Our company is considering selling the finished MOX fuel and it will be the first time in Japan to make MOX fuel for commercial use," a spokesman for Japan Nuclear Fuel said. He said the company had not decided when it would ship the product or to whom it would be sold. MOX fuel is made by reprocessing spent nuclear fuel. It has been produced and used in Japan only for experimental purposes and no nuclear power plants use it on a commercial basis. Japan Nuclear Fuel was set up by the government in 1980. Its shareholders include nine major utilities, among them Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Kansai Electric Power Co. Two of the utilities, Kyushu Electric Power Co. and Shikoku Electric Power Co. , have already received approval from the central and local governments to use MOX fuel at their nuclear power plants. Japan Nuclear Fuel plans to start larger-scale commercial production of MOX fuel in Rokkasho next August to reprocess 800 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel a year. The government supports the nuclear industry partly because resource-poor Japan relies for almost all its energy needs on imports. The nuclear power industry plans to introduce domestically produced MOX fuel at 16-18 nuclear power generation units by 2010. Currently, 55 nuclear power units generate about 30 percent of Japan's electricity supply. Despite government support for the reprocessed nuclear fuel, it faces stiff criticism and public concern about cost and security in the nuclear industry as a whole. Critics say the project is too costly, and that the plutonium in the MOX fuel could be used to make nuclear weapons. Public confidence in the nuclear industry has been eroded by a series of fatal accidents and cover-ups of safety blunders. Japan Nuclear Fuel said the MOX fuel at Rokkasho could not be used for nuclear weapons. "It will become one example of peaceful used of nuclear power," the company said. ---- Japanese Nuclear Reprocessing Plant Produces First Batch of Test Fuel Solution November 02, 2006 — By Carl Freire, Associated Press http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11569 TOKYO — A nuclear reprocessing plant seen as key to Japan's efforts to reduce its reliance on energy imports produced its first batch of the solution necessary for making fuel during a test-run, an official said Thursday. The Rokkasho fast-breeder reactor in northern Japan, operated by Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd., produced its first batch of MOX solution, a uranium-plutonium mixture, during operational tests, JNFL spokesman Shigehiro Ito said. The solution can eventually be turned into a powder that is the basic ingredient necessary for fuel production, Ito said. The 2.19 trillion yen (US$18.7 billion; euro14.66 billion) plant started test operations on March 31 after a delay caused by a leak of radioactive water in 2002 and strident public opposition. The tests are slated to run through August 2007, after which the plant is expected to begin regular operations, the spokesman said. Fast-breeder reactors are central to resource-poor Japan's plans to reduce its dependency on energy imports. The reactors produce more plutonium faster than traditional electricity-generating reactors, which is then turned into MOX fuel. Japan, which now relies on nuclear plants for a third of its energy needs, aims to raise that to nearly 40 percent by 2010. It plans to convert 18 electricity-generating plants to fast-breeder reactors. But the Japanese public has grown increasingly wary of the nuclear power industry following a spate of safety problems, shutdowns and cover-ups. Safety problems have also left Japan's nuclear fuel-cycle program in a shambles. The country's first experimental fast-breeder reactor, Monju, was ordered permanently shut down after more than a ton of volatile liquid sodium leaked from its cooling system in 1995. Japan's only other plant designed to run on MOX, the Fugen reactor, was also shut down in March 2003 due to high operating costs. -------- korea China Wields Power With North Korea, But Only A Little by Verna Yu Beijing (AFP) Nov 2, 2006 http://www.spacewar.com/reports/China_Wields_Power_With_North_Korea_But_Only_A_Little_999.html Threats and incentives from China helped entice North Korea back to international talks on its nuclear program but Pyongyang is no pawn of its powerful neighbor and long-time ally, analysts said Thursday. China, the major source of aid and trade for impoverished North Korea, has been praised by the United States and Russia for its role in convincing Pyongyang to return to the six-nation talks. Following a year-long boycott of the negotiations and after conducting its first atomic test on October 9, North Korea confirmed Wednesday that it would return to the six-nation forum. China brokered seven hours of secret talks in Beijing on Tuesday between the US and North Korean envoys that led to the breakthrough. China hosts the six-nation talks, which began in 2003 with the intention of convincing North Korea to abandon its nuclear goals. The forum brings together North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States. Analysts said China's influence this week over Kim Jong-Il's regime also extended to Beijing raising such issues as deliveries of vital oil, food and other supplies, as well as the flow of money across their borders. China decided to take its toughest line yet against North Korea because it had become increasingly exasperated at its ally destabilizing the region, first by a series of missile tests in July and then with the atomic test. An angry message from President Hu Jintao to Kim was likely personally delivered when Chinese envoy Tang Jiaxuan traveled to Pyongyang on October 19. "North Korea has really upset China this time and presumably Tang Jiaxuan's visit sent a strong message," said Yuan Jing-dong, political scientist at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. "I think probably a combination of (Chinese) threats and incentives" convinced North Korea to return to the six-party talks, he added. Yuan said North Korea was acting carefully to ensure it retained the allegiance of China, which has worked unusually closely with the United States in recent weeks in trying to ease the tensions on the Korean peninsula. "North Korea still needs China, so restoring some 'face' for Beijing is a price Pyongyang is willing to pay," he said. "Continuing to act in a defiant manner entails more costs -- returning to the talks at least would ease the situation a bit without actually giving up much." Alexandre Mansourov, a political scientist at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii, agreed that North Korea had not simply buckled under Chinese pressure to return to the negotiating table. "This move will buy the North Koreans some more time to continue their work on fixing and improving the design of their nuclear device, while allowing them to get the Chinese off their back for a few months," Mansourov said. "Kim Jong-Il... is a strategic player. He is not China's pawn. I do not believe he will ever give up his country's newly gained nuclear weapon state status." Others also believed Pyongyang was trying to improve its bargaining position. "North Korea is responding in part to Chinese pressure... and in part because it intended to return to the negotiations all along," said John Feffer at the International Relations Center in the United States. Marcus Noland of the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics said: "Having done a test, they can return to the table in a stronger negotiating position." North Korea is also aware that China is reluctant to slap harsh sanctions on it for fear of weakening its faltering economy and seeing a flood of refugees rushing across the border, analysts said. -------- mideast Mubarak meets Putin for talks on nuclear power, Middle East MOSCOW AFP 02/11/2006 http://www.bakutoday.net/view.php?d=28871 http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061102/wl_africa_afp/russiaegyptpoliticsdiplomacynucleararms_061102171022 Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for talks on the Middle East conflict and reviving Egypt's nuclear energy programme. "We confirmed our intention to strengthen further relations in the economic and trade spheres, in the fields of peaceful nuclear energy, space, computers and hi-tech," Mubarak said after meeting Putin in the Kremlin. Russian officials signalled that Mubarak's plans to resume Egypt's nuclear programme after a 20-year freeze was a key topic on the agenda for the Egyptian president's three-day visit. "Egypt has made a decision to transfer to nuclear energy and build four stations," Boris Alyoshin, head of Russia's federal industry agency, told reporters on the sidelines of the Kremlin meeting. "It is beyond doubt that we will take part in the tender and I think we have good chances of winning," Alyoshin said. Egyptian media said Mubarak was travelling to Russia and China to build nuclear energy links. In his remarks, Putin referred to Cairo as a key regional partner for Moscow and said Egypt could play "a vital role in establishing contacts between Palestine and Israel and in bringing much-needed accord to Palestinian ranks." Russia, part of the diplomatic "quartet" charged with settling the Middle East conflict along with the European Union, the United Nations and the United States, is strengthening its diplomatic and commercial role in the region. Egypt initiated a nuclear energy programme in the 1970s but abandoned it in 1986 after the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe. Mubarak has outlined plans to revive it. Mubarak was also set to meet the directors of energy giants Gazprom, Lukoil and UES, as well as of car maker Avtovaz, jetmaker MiG and arms exporter Rosoboronexport during his visit, the Vremya Novostei daily said. Analysts said the visit could rile the United States because of the nuclear energy talks and Egypt's apparent willingness to buy weapons from Russia rather than its traditional US suppliers. "The arms market is extremely politicised. It is very important who you buy from," said Ruslan Pukhov, an arms specialist at the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies in Moscow. Pukhov said Mubarak's visit might produce a deal on the purchase of MiG fighter jets. The Egyptian army already has large amounts of weaponry dating back to the Soviet era. Ahead of his visit, Mubarak, who undertook military studies in Moscow in the 1960s, praised Russia's anti-aircraft systems and fighter jets as "the best in the world" in an interview with Vremya Novostei. The trade turnover between Russia and Egypt amounted to 1.6 billion dollars (1.25 billion euros) in 2005 and grew by 52 percent in the first eight months of this year, the Kremlin official said. In another interview, with the official Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper, Mubarak said he and Putin, both presidents with strong leadership styles, would see eye-to-eye on politics. "There is no universal democratic model, since each people can implement the democracy that corresponds to the nature of that people, its culture, its characteristics and its customs," Mubarak said. "I was very pleased when President Putin talked about Russia's democracy a few months ago. I am sure that Putin wanted to say the same thing," Mubarak added. -------- pakistan Belgium wants Pakistan to put nuclear facilities under IAEA regime By Indo Asian News Service, Nov 2, 2006 http://www.dailyindia.com/show/77191.php/Belgium_wants_Pakistan_to_put_nuclear_facilities_under_IAEA_regime Islamabad (IANS) Visiting Belgian Foreign Minister Karel de Gucht has asked Pakistan to 'cooperate more' with the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) if it wants access to global civilian nuclear technology. Belgium is a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). The issue came up during a meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Kasuri here Wednesday. Both the ministers confirmed that during their talks the key question of civilian nuclear cooperation was discussed and they had stated their respective positions. Gucht was, however, non-committal on the question of whether Belgium acknowledged Pakistan's right to civilian nuclear technology and supported its call for the NSG to pursue a criteria-based approach for civilian nuclear trade, Dawn newspaper reported Thursday. Gucht stated that he had discussed 'Pakistan's nuclear profile' with Kasuri and in what was interpreted as a reference to the IAEA additional protocol with non-NPT states, he said: 'I expressed the opinion that it will be very important that Pakistan comes back to the International Atomic Energy Agency and come to a regime whereby their civil nuclear plants will be duly inspected by the agency. I think it is very important that you will have the situation regularised.' Pakistan has sought a position at par with India while seeking greater access to civilian nuclear technology from the West. However, Gucht said: 'I am not making any comparisons with the other countries but I think it is very important also to stop nuclear proliferation.' At this point Kauri intervened to say that he had explained at length to his Belgian counterpart Pakistan's position that the rationale behind denying civilian nuclear technology would be understandable for countries that did not possess nuclear weapons but Pakistan was already a declared nuclear power and had the capacity to deliver nuclear weapons. -------- security Port gets portable bomb detectors Devices can peer into imported cargo containers By Kristopher Hanson, Staff writer Long Beach Press Telegram 11/02/2006 http://www.presstelegram.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?articleId=4595375&siteId=204 TERMINAL ISLAND - New mega-size X-ray machines and portable monitors for detecting radiation bombs and nuclear devices were introduced here Thursday at the nation's largest seaport. The $250,000 devices are the latest effort by federal authorities to screen the more than 11 million enclosed cargo containers moving through ports nationwide annually. "We are safer, but we're not yet safe," said W. Ralph Basham, U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner, during a tour of the APL Terminal in the Port of Los Angeles. A recent RAND report stated that a 10-kiloton nuclear bomb smuggled by terrorists inside a container and detonated at the Port of Long Beach could kill 60,000 people, sicken 150,000 more and cause a near collapse of the U.S. economy. The 18 new portable machines complement the 85 fixed radiation monitors already at all 14 shipping terminals in both ports. The monitors, stationed at terminal exits, detect enriched uranium and plutonium as trucks leave. The new monitors and X-ray machines allow officers to screen suspicious containers parked in or around the port or coming into the complex. Using high levels of radiation, the X-ray machines allow officers to peer into the steel containers, much like the devices used to screen baggage at airports. Customs plans to place 60 portable machines at ports nationwide. During his first visit to the port complex since taking over Customs in June, Basham brushed aside criticism that authorities are failing to physically inspect all cargo containers arriving on U.S. soil. "If we were to stop and inspect every container that crosses through this port or comes into the United States, we would stop world trade," Basham said. "We have to do it on a risk-based approach and we have to do it using advance information so we can identify those high-risk containers." Currently, Customs and other federal and local agencies use a layered approach to screen cargo. It begins overseas, where Customs officers are stationed at 50 foreign ports and includes requirements that all incoming cargo be accounted for in manifests. Officers also use dogs, hand-held radiation detectors, gamma-ray machines and physical inspections to screen cargo. Basham was joined by U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, whose district includes the ports, Customs Los Angeles Field Director Kevin Weeks and Customs Long Beach/Los Angeles Port Director Todd Hoffman. "The equipment today will ensure that no radioactivity can come through this port without being detected and stopped before it can get into the country and harm the people of the United States," Rohrabacher said. Some port workers and others have expressed concern that while containers leaving the port are screened, containers within the complex remain mostly unchecked, putting tens of thousands of workers at risk. "Are we totally safe with everything else? No, but what we're saying today is this is a great step forward and it should be recognized for what it is," Rohrabacher said. To learn more, visit www.cbp.gov. -------- u.s. nuc facilities -------- michigan Water leak leads to Palisades reactor shutdown November 2, 2006 Associated Press http://www.wlns.com/Global/story.asp?S=5627881&nav=0RbQ COVERT TOWNSHIP, Mich. A report filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission says a water leak at the Palisades Nuclear Plant in southwestern Michigan has led to the reactor being shut down. Workers detected the leak yesterday afternoon in the cooling coil of a containment air cooler that doesn't have a safety function. The report says the reactor had to be shut down because the leak couldn't be repaired within the required one hour. There's no indication when the leak might be stopped or when the reactor might be restarted and back online. The plant is in Van Buren County's Covert Township about 55 miles southwest of Grand Rapids. It's owned by Jackson-based C-M-S Energy and operated by a Wisconsin company called Nuclear Management. On the Net: Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov/ CMS Energy Corp.: http://www.cmsenergy.com/ Nuclear Management Co.: http://www.nmcco.com/ -------- new mexico Domenici promotes uranium By Jim Maniaci Gallup Independent Cibola County Bureau Thursday November 2, 2006 http://www.gallupindependent.com/2006/nov/110206jm_dmnciurnm.html GRANTS — Although he wants to go down in New Mexico history as the senator who brought America energy independence, Republican Pete Domenici's quick trip to Grants on Tuesday could be called the uranium senator coming to the uranium capital of North America. He told an audience of about 60 people, who were at La Ventana Steak House for a joint Grants-Milan Rotary Club and Grants-Cibola County Chamber of Commerce lunch, that a nuclear energy renaissance is occurring across the U.S., and it brings positive implications to New Mexico, America and the world. Domenici indicated, however, that America must regain its previous global supremacy in science and technology. And it will cost about $7 billion a year "to educate teachers to teach our kids who are hungry for this kind of learning." The $350 million in federal aid to the states each year would be from the lowest grades of elementary school to the senior year of high school. He also said, "The last few years have marked a real turning point for those of use who believe that nuclear energy should play a larger role in our nation's energy future. The fact is that nuclear energy is also clean energy, totally free of emissions. That makes it not only essential to providing affordable and reliable energy, but also critical in the fight to reduce carbon emissions." Domenici chairs the Senate's Energy-Natural Resources Committee. With a streamlined licensing approval process, nuclear power plants no longer take a generation before they can start producing electricity. He said he expects about 25 new plants to be licensed in the next 20 years in America. But that pales in comparison to the exploding billion-plus populations of China and India with their matching explosive demand for electricity, oil and gasoline. China alone is building nuclear-powered generating stations at almost double the expected U.S. rate, he indicated. Not wanting to leave all his eggs in one basket, the senator said he will continue to push for oil production in the Gulf of Mexico with his plan to explore all of the continental shelf in an environmentally safe way. His bill, adopted by the Senate with strong support in both parties, would add 1.26 billion barrels of oil and 5.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. This would heat and cool nearly six million homes for 15 years. Domenici opposes America being dependent upon any one segment of the power industry, especially if it is outside the country and subject to influences which could be detrimental to U.S. interests. In introducing him, Rotarian and chamber-Cibola Communities Economic Development Foundation manager Star Gonzales said atomic power plants produce one-fifth of the country's electricity. In a brief interview later, he said, "It's way too early to tell" if uranium mining on Mount Taylor would be what he would consider desecration of what the Navajo people consider one of their four traditional boundary mountains. The senator also said, after a staff member reminded him that it still is in draft form, that the San Juan River Settlement Act important to the Farmington area as well as the Navajo Nation has had its costs refined by the Senate's lawyers. "Legislative finance counsel is redrawing it to change it to save some money, and we're seeing if those are acceptable," he explained. Domenici continued, "Nothing would please me more than to get it done so we can have a water project to Gallup across the Indian reservation. It's one of my dreams, but it may fall apart if we can't find the money ... and I'm not sure we can." The senator said he didn't have knowledge about an expanded western energy corridor forcing more Navajos to relocate as happened with the Navajo-Hopi Relocation Act. He has served as one of the state's senators in Washington, D.C., for 34 years and said he will run for re-election in November 2008 for another six years. First elected in 1972, he won a re-election for the fifth time in a row in November 2002. He said only poor health would change his mind and right now he's in good health. To contact reporter Jim Maniaci in Grants, telephone 285-6184 or (505) 870-7775 (cellular). ---- Z machine melts diamond to puddle November 2, 2006 PhysOrg Source: Sandia National Laboratories http://www.physorg.com/news81711381.html Sandia’s Z machine, by creating pressures more than 10 million times that of the atmosphere at sea level, has turned a diamond sheet into a pool of liquid. The object of the experiment was to better understand the characteristics of diamond under the extreme pressure it would face when used as a capsule for a BB- sized pellet intended to fuel a nuclear fusion reaction. The experiment is another step in the drive to release enough energy from fused atoms to create unlimited electrical power for humanity. Control of this process has been sought for 50 years. Half a bathtub full of seawater in a fusion reaction could produce as much energy as 40 train cars of coal. Results of the fusion reaction also will be used to validate physics models in computer simulations used to certify the safety and reliability of the US nuclear weapons stockpile. The problem for two giant machines that would use this method — the National Ignition Facility in Lawrence Livermore National Lab, which asked for the experiment, and Sandia’s Z machine — is that the outer shell of the pellet must transmit pressure evenly into its interior. Diamond as a solid will do that. Diamond as a liquid will do that. But diamond that is partially both and exists between 6.9 million atmospheres and 10.4 million atmospheres provides uneven pressures. This in-between phase would create instabilities that would ruin the implosion, like a hand squeezing a water balloon that allows portions of the balloon to exit through spaces between the fingers. So, if diamond is used as a capsule, the energies involved must be tailored to avoid landing in this zone. Why use diamond at all? It was hoped that diamond would help smooth out the applied pressure loads and keep the capsule implosion symmetric. Wouldn’t a more flexible material like vinyl be better? “At the pressures we’re interested in, everything is compressible,” said capsule designer Mark Herrmann, a Sandia researcher. Because of limited time to run the experiments, due to the shutdown of Z for renovations that should increase its power by 30 percent, Sandia lead experimenter Marcus Knudson found a predictive use of a quantum-molecular simulation program developed at Sandia by Mike Desjarlais very helpful in pinpointing the pressures at which diamond would begin and finish liquefying. In the experiments, the applied pressure came from shock waves passing through the diamond. The waves were created by impacting the diamond with tiny plates hurled using Z’s huge magnetic fields at about 20 times the speed of a rifle bullet. The results were the subject of an invited talk given this week at the American Physical Society’s Division of Plasma Physics in Philadelphia. -------- new york Nuclear Risks at Indian Point 11.2.06 Herschel Specter, President, RBR Consultants, Inc. http://www.energypulse.net/centers/article/article_display.cfm?a_id=1363 During the next six months, a new study will be made public about ways to improve emergency planning at Indian Point, the nation's most populated nuclear site. Two nuclear power plants, Indian Point units 2 & 3, produce over 1000 MWe each and are a vital part of the energy supply of the Metropolitan New York City area. These plants, about 24 miles north of New York City, are the lowest cost electricity producers in this area. However, over 305, 000 people live within the Emergency Planning Zone (EPZ), roughly a circle ten miles in radius, and roads are often quite congested. American Airlines flight 11 flew near these plants as it went down the Hudson Valley on its way to crashing into the World Trade Center and the memory of the Katrina tragedy is fresh in our minds. Therefore an effective emergency plan is an important consideration for the people in this area. This new study will show that the health consequences of a major release of radioactive material can be made to be very limited, even at this most challenging of sites. Unlike other risk analyses, which are based on unintended accidents, a willful act of terrorism was assumed as the cause of a large release of radioactive material. It was assumed that terrorists successfully breached one of the massive containment buildings and then caused reactor meltdown. A successful terrorist attack is highly unlikely. Nonetheless, this was the starting point for these advanced emergency planning analyses. This study examined a wide range of potential health effects from exposure to radiation including early fatalities, early injuries, and long-term latent cancer fatalities. An important result of these analyses was the determination of the range of the early fatality risk. Similar to many previous analyses, it was shown that this risk decreases rapidly with distance, with most of this risk within one mile of the point of release and virtually all within two miles. The terrorist scenario that was most likely to cause offsite early fatality consequences had the shortest time between reactor scram and a release entering the environment, about two hours. However, even this short time would still allow an effective evacuation on foot. At normal walking speeds of about 2.5 to 3 mph, pedestrians would soon be outside of the two-mile early fatality zone. Anybody who leaves before the onset of the release of radioactive material to the environment and travels away from the site at normal walking speeds, is not expected to become an early fatality. Most people are expected to evacuate in vehicles. Street -by- street traffic analyses show that vehicular evacuation today would be very slow. However, these same traffic analyses have been used to identify simple traffic control actions that would speed the evacuation up. Because of these traffic control improvements, the delay between reactor scram and release to the environment during which time people would begin their evacuation, and the short range of the early fatality risk, the calculated early fatality risk with a vehicular evacuation is also expected to be quite small. The range of the early injury risk is approximately four miles. In this middle zone, two to four miles, people should first take shelter and some may be evacuated later if local radiation levels warranted this. The National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements has identified a simple ad hoc protective action that people can take: Breath through a wet handkerchief and reduce your inhalation doses by a factor of 10. Our examination shows that a ten-fold reduction in inhalation doses virtually eliminates all radiation induced respiratory injuries in the early injury zone. Another ad hoc protective measure is to cover one's skin with a towel, etc., which would essentially eliminate skin doses. These ad hoc measures can be implemented by the public itself without relying on emergency responders. The combination of sheltering, ad hoc protective measures, and localized evacuations is expected to limit the early injury risk to very small numbers. The combination of sheltering and ad hoc protective measures is also a very effective response in the inner two-mile early fatality zone if poor road conditions cause close-in people to delay their evacuation. Beyond four miles there would be no appreciable early fatality or early injury risks and long term health effects would be the remaining health concern. In this outer area taking shelter would be the preferred response. The great majority of the people in the EPZ would be advised to take shelter while those in the early fatality zone promptly evacuated. At worst, latent health effects would be a very small fraction of the normal background cancer rate, perhaps too small to measure. Very small health effects from large releases of radioactive material may be in conflict with some people's perceptions of nuclear power's health risks. However two other events support this conclusion. The Chernobyl accident did not produce early fatalities among the general public, even though they did not evacuate. Fires at Chernobyl lofted the radioactive plume to great heights so that the concentration of radioactive material outside of the site was rather low. Similarly, low concentrations of radioactive material would occur within a short distance from a damaged US plant, whereas it takes high concentrations to cause an early fatality. Such high concentrations were experienced by the fire fighters who came on the Chernobyl site and by people who flew over this site in a helicopter. Many of these highly exposed people later became early fatalities. There have been early injuries from Chernobyl, particularly thyroid injuries. However, about 90% of the thyroid injuries in the Ukraine came from drinking contaminated milk where the grim choice was drink the milk or starve. Food interdiction plans at all U.S. nuclear power plants would prevent such injuries. A recent UN study of the long term health effects of Chernobyl, a 20 year retrospective, shows that earlier projected long term health effects were overly conservative. In any case, previous and present calculated long term health effects are a small fraction of background cancer fatality rates. The largest effects of the Chernobyl accident are the land contamination that it caused and health effects, not from actual irradiation, but from the fear of being irradiated. There have also been recent analyses by Lawrence Livermore Laboratory on the potential effects of dirty bombs. The conclusion here was that health effects from exposure to radiation would be very small, but the economic losses could be huge. It appears that both Chernobyl experience and the analyses of dirty bombs support the notion that offsite health effects from large releases of radioactive material is very limited. Large releases of radioactive material would not be a major off site health risk. Such events would be dominated by economic consequences. For information on purchasing reprints of this article, contact arowe@reprintbuyer.com. -------- ohio TMI shut down poses no threat, authorities say Associated Press Thu, Nov. 02, 2006 http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/15914104.htm HARRISBURG, Pa. - The reactor at Three Mile Island, site of the nation's worst nuclear accident, shut down on Thursday after a faulty instrument reading triggered the automatic safety precaution, company and federal officials said. The plant operator, AmerGen Energy Co. LLC, issued a statement saying there was no release of radiation as a result of the shutdown. The reading came from a condenser on the non-nuclear side of the operation, and the problem posed no public threat, said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "Now the company will need to take a careful and deliberate look at what went wrong," Sheehan said. "It appears this was an uncomplicated, smooth shutdown." An AmerGen spokesman, Ralph DeSantis, said it was the first shutdown of Unit 1 since 1997. The unit, which shut off at 1:35 p.m., remained down Thursday evening. DeSantis said other power plants in the regional electricity grid would ensure that customers experienced no power outage. Workers were examining what went wrong and it was unclear when the reactor would resume operation, he said. Sheehan said the reactor's condenser signaled a low vacuum condition, which triggered the unit's shut-off. Adequate vacuum conditions increase the efficiency of the process of cooling steam back into water. Unit 1 opened in 1974. TMI, located in Middletown, about 10 miles southeast of Harrisburg, was the site of the nation's worst nuclear accident when a partial meltdown occurred in the Unit 2 reactor in March 1979. -------- south carolina Agency to split nuclear site cleanup The Associated Press Thu, Nov. 02, 2006 http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/local/15908101.htm AIKEN - For the first time since the Savannah River Site opened in the early 1950s, work will be divided between two main contractors. The Department of Energy will hire one company to handle environmental cleanup and the Savannah River National Laboratory - a contract worth $722 million - and another firm to manage liquid nuclear waste left over from the Cold War weapons production. The federal agency made the announcement Tuesday as it opened the formal process for bids on the environmental management contract. A separate contract to manage the liquid nuclear waste will be bid on later. The current contract, held by Washington Savannah River Co., expires Dec. 31 but will be extended as long as 18 months and be worth as much as $1.5 billion, the DOE said. Dividing the primary missions marks a shift at SRS. The responsibility previously has been handled by one private company. DuPont held the contract from about 1950 until 1989, then Washington Savannah River took over. The DOE has not determined exactly when it will make its decision on the environmental management and operations contract and hasn't said when it will open the liquid waste contract for bids. "We want to evaluate and award a contract as soon as possible," DOE spokeswoman Megan Barnett said. "We also want to be sure that we're doing a thorough review and get the right contractor." Companies have until Dec. 8 to submit questions and comments about the new contract. The draft contract states that the company selected "shall offer employment to all incumbent employees" who are not considered "discretionary" managers. There are fewer than 10,000 employees at SRS, and those who might be let go will be offered a "retirement and medical benefit" package, according to the document. This is the first time since it took over that Washington Savannah River faces competition to run the site. "We've done a lot of planning for most of the contingencies you would encounter, if not all of them," said Jack Herrmann, the vice president of communications for parent company Washington Group International. "We're glad to finally get things under way." -------- texas Candidates duke it out: Alternative energy plan By Stefanie Ackerman, Staff Writer Plano, Texas Star (Created: Thursday, November 02, 2006) http://www.lewisvilleleader.com/articles/2006/11/02/allen_american/news/news%201.txt The League of Woman Voters invited the candidates from specific races pertinent to Collin County, to a question answer forum Thursday evening at Haggard Library. The democratic candidates and a loan libertarian were the only to show up. The forum was designed for the candidates running for the U.S. House of Representatives, State Representative for Districts 70 and 89, and County Commissioner, to answer questions from the audience on topics ranging from border security, nuclear energy and Iraq. Each candidate was given three minutes before the start of the forum to introduce him or herself. Kathy Ward, chairperson of the Collin County Republicans, spoke on behalf of Jerry Hoagland’s absence. She explained he had another event scheduled that evening with another absent candidate, Congressman Sam Johnson. Deborah Smith of the Collin County Democrats spoke on behalf of Bill Baumbach’s absence because of an opportunity for an endorsement. At the forum, each candidate was asked a question from the audience and was given one minute to respond. The following is a synopsis of each candidate’s answer to a specific topic. ... Alternative energy plan Dan Dodd: “An energy plan starts with conservation. We need to invest in alternative renewable resources.” Chris Claytor: “Free market. There’s too much regulation in the industry. I think one of the things that can solve our dependence on oil is for the government to sell off a lot of the federal land. If we sold off that land to private corporations they’re going to take care better care of it and not pollute it.” Rick Koster: “Nuclear power is dirty. We can’t live off fossil fuels anymore and nuclear is going to have to come into it.” Lehman Harris: These plants [nuclear] are going to have to be upgraded and I think one of the things that is going to happen is we are going to bring on nuclear storage facilities.” Contact staff writer Stefanie Ackerman at 972-398-4265 or sackerman@acnpapers.com -------- washington Incident at Areva being probed Published Thursday, November 2nd, 2006 By Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald staff writer http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/story/8368233p-8263681c.html The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is investigating the exposure of a worker to a release of hydrogen fluoride vapor within the Areva NP plant in Richland. Equipment related to the dry conversion plant has been shut down since the incident Oct. 23 at the plant that produced fuel for nuclear power reactors, said Bob Link, manager of environmental health, safety and licensing for the plant. It will not return to service until Areva is confident any problems have been detected, studied and corrected. Two workers entered a process area inside the plant's dry conversion building at noon Oct. 23, the NRC reported. In the building, uranium hexafluoride that's delivered to the plant in large pressurized cylinders is heated in an autoclave to produce a gas. The gas then is taken to a pressurized vessel. Steam and nitrogen are added to convert it to uranium oxide. A byproduct of the process is hydrogen fluoride, which is collected and sold to the electronics industry for etching computer chips. The workers who entered the dry conversion building detected an unusual odor and immediately left the process area, according to the NRC. They reported to the first-aid station, and that evening one of the workers went to the hospital and was admitted, the NRC said. One of the workers had no symptoms, Link said. The other has returned to work. Although hydrogen fluoride is caustic, workers were exposed to it only briefly, according to Areva. At the levels believed to be in the process area, the workers would have had to be exposed for at least 30 minutes for there to be long-term health concerns, Link said. Air samples found elevated levels of hydrogen fluoride vapor near a line for the off-gas system. While Areva NP continues to investigate the cause, it appears that the gas leaked from a deteriorated weld. There was no indication of airborne radioactivity and no indication of the release spreading beyond the immediate process area or to the environment, according to the NRC. The NRC will release its inspection report on the incident, including whether any NRC regulations were violated, at a public meeting today at 4 p.m. It will be held at Areva NP on Horn Rapids Road. -------- MILITARY -------- arms Russia Defends Supply Of Missiles To Iran 11/2/2006 (RTTNews) http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20061101%5cACQRTT200611011103RTTRADERUSEQUITY_1003.htm& Russia on Wednesday defended its agreement to supply air defense missiles to Iran. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said in an interview with Russia Today television on Wednesday that the air defense missiles Russia had agreed to supply to Iran last December are purely defensive weapons with a limited range. He stressed that the missiles were purely defensive and added that they cannot be used in offensive operations. He said that the missiles that are to be supplied by Russia have a very limited range and could be used to defend only "a small part of the Iranian territory." Earlier, Russia had rejected the Western demand to cancel its $700 million contract to sell 29 Tor-M1 air defense missile systems to Iran as per an agreement signed last December. -------- britain Britain 'now a surveillance state' UK surveillance is expected to increase in the next 10 years Thursday 02 November 2006, Aljazeera http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/875A5A10-E19D-47DD-8B3E-B1532BD33F20.htm Britain has been labelled an "endemic surveillance" society by a new report that ranks the country along aside Russia and China in terms of state and commercial intrusion into people's lives. Richard Thomas, the UK's independent information commissioner, said on Thursday that clear lines had to be drawn about how much information on people, such as their everyday movements or spending habits, government agencies and businesses are allowed to possess. "Two years ago I warned that we were in danger of sleepwalking into a surveillance society. Today I fear that we are in fact waking up to a surveillance society that is already all around us," Thomas said. A survey of 37 countries released by Privacy International, a civil liberties group, ranked Britain alongside Russia, China, Malaysia and Singapore as countries practising "endemic" surveillance against the individual. Britain has up to 4.2 million CCTV cameras, or about one for every 14 people and the average Briton is captured about 300 times a day on film. Terror excuse The government is pushing ahead with controversial plans to introduce biometric identity cards while Tony Blair, the British prime minister, has said he wants an expansion of the police's DNA database to cover even people released without charge. Rights groups say governments around the world have used the so-called "war on terrorism" as a justification for increased snooping into the lives of citizens. "Today I fear that we are in fact waking up to a surveillance society that is already all around us" Richard Thomas, UK independent information commissioner Thomas said that while some forms of surveillance could help combat crime and terrorism, others risked undermining trust and fostering a climate of suspicion. He voiced concern about commercial, as well as government, intrusion. "Every time we use a mobile phone, use our credit cards, go online to search on the Internet, go electronic shopping, drive our cars, more and more information is being collected," he told the BBC. "Humans must dictate our future, not machines." A report that was compiled for a conference in London of international data protection and privacy commissioners hosted by Thomas predicted surveillance would be ramped up even more in the next 10 years. Canada top Among its forecasts are satellite navigation devices in cars that would help police to monitor speed and track selected vehicles. Further predictions were screening employees for future health problems and their impact on productivity and that monitoring of people's movements would intensify, with the use of unmanned aircraft and street-level security cameras with facial recognition technology. The Privacy International survey, conducted jointly with the US-based Electronic Privacy Information Centre, was conducted using 13 criteria ranging from constitutional protections to visual surveillance and phone-tapping. Germany and Canada scored the best marks for civil liberties safeguards. -------- iran Iranian companies pay the price for Tehran's defiance By Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran Published: November 2 2006 Financial Times http://www.ft.com/cms/s/47fd3554-6a17-11db-952e-0000779e2340.html Iran's business community is growing increasingly anxious over the prospect of UN sanctions as Tehran shows no sign of a willingness to halt central parts of its nuclear programme. Following Tehran's failure to suspend uranium enrichment as demanded by the United Nations Security Council the US and its European allies are leading efforts to draft a sanctions resolution. The measures sought are relatively mild and confined to the nuclear and ballistic missiles programme. But the US and European governments' intention is to escalate the sanctions gradually, depending on Iranian behaviour. The proposed sanctions resolution will be reinforced by additional punitive measures organised by the US that are expected to focus mainly on the financial sector. For instance private banks are under increasing pressure from the US to cut ties with Iran. The anticipation of heavier sanctions is already hampering business prospects. "The private sector doesn't feel ready for new investments for fear of sanctions," said Heydar Pourian, editor of Iran Economics monthly. Businessmen complain that de-facto sanctions are causing problems with opening letters of credits, in particular after a US decision to block dollar transactions by Iran's state-owned Bank Saderat on allegations it was funding terrorism. Also leading credit companies have refused to insure some Iran deals for the past two months, they claim. "Today we are in a floating atmosphere not only because of the sanctions that might be imposed but because of the unspoken sanctions we have faced during the past months," says Mohammad-Reza Behzadian, an importer of basic commodities and former head of Tehran Chamber of Commerce. "Buying any kind of goods from foreign sources faces banking disruptions." "Purchases should be mainly in cash now instead of opening l/cs," complains a businessman who imports printing machinery from Canada. "My company has deleted my name from its website to hide Iran business and the Middle East manager in Dubai is facing more financing problems every day." Richard Fox, head of Mid-east and Africa Sovereign Ratings at Fitch, an international rating agency, said Iran's rating - downgraded to B+ earlier this year due to the prospect of sanctions - is not likely to fall further if nuclear-related sanctions are agreed at the UN. Mr Fox, however, said "external financing has become more expensive". The Tehran stock exchange has shown signs of nervousness, which analysts say is due more to the fear of sanctions than the protectionist policies of President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad. The market closed yesterday at 9160.7 compared with 9530.58 on October 2. There have been few examples of major foreign investments in Iran during the past year. Japan's Inpex announced in early October it had lost the leading role in the $2bn development of Iran's Azadegan oil field. Talks had failed to overcome fears that an agreement first signed in 2004 would fall foul of international sanctions, Meanwhile exports from Germany, one of Iran's leading trade partners, dropped 12 per cent in the first half of 2006, according to the German-Iranian Industry and Trade Commission. The fall came after the big four German banks - Deutsche bank, Dresdner bank, Commerzbank and Hypo-Vereinsbank - scaled down their dealings with Iran following US action last year against ABN Amro, the Dutch bank, for dealings with Iran. Analysts say sanctions are unlikely to force Tehran to bow to international demands to halt to uranium enrichment. Gholam-Hossein Elham, the government spokesman, said punitive measures would cause problems for Iran, but would also harm those imposing them. In contrast to the sense of malaise in Iran, international markets are taking events in their stride. A report by the Eurasia consultancy group says oil prices are falling, attributing this in part to "Iran fatigue" on the part of markets. "Investors believe a long period of diplomacy lies ahead and are no longer reacting to every news item. Unless harsh sanctions are imposed on Iran, bellicose rhetoric emerges from the Bush administration or Iran takes major retaliatory action, Iran fatigue is likely to continue," the group said. Supporters of Tehran argue that sanctions will have a limited impact because Asian countries and neighbours sympathetic to Iran's nuclear programme would rally to its support and the extensive smuggling networks, which already exist along Iran's porous borders, would flourish. For the moment Tehran's coffers are overflowing with oil money to spend on subsidies. But if oil prices fall further or the UN process moves forward, Iran's troubles could accumulate. Additional reporting Guy Dinmore in Washington -------- israel Bush 'would understand' attack on Iran By JTA, Nov. 2, 2006 Jerusalem Post http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1162378311136&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull President Bush reportedly said he would "understand" a preemptive Israeli strike against Iran s nuclear sites. Maariv, citing diplomatic sources, reported Thursday that French President Jacques Chirac discussed Iran s nuclear program with Bush on the sidelines of the recent UN summit. # Iran test-fires long-range Shihab-3 Asked by Chirac if Israel could attack Iran to prevent it getting the bomb, Bush reportedly said: "We cannot rule this out. And if it were to happen, I would understand it." The report could not be independently confirmed. Israel endorses US-led efforts to curb Iran s atomic ambitions through the threat of UN Security Council sanctions but, like Washington, has hinted that military action could be a last resort. -------- latin america Nicaraguan vote links past, present U.S. foes Updated 11/2/2006 By Sara Miller Llana, USA TODAY http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-11-02-nicaragua_x.htm MANAGUA, Nicaragua — Daniel Ortega, the former Marxist leader of Nicaragua, could join a wave of leftists coming to power in Latin America if he wins his country's presidential election Sunday. A victory by Ortega would be the second this year for a leftist in Latin America. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won a second term last month. Other leftist leaders: Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Evo Morales of Bolivia. Ortega's history of confrontation with the United States and support from Chávez have turned a national election into an international confrontation. Chávez is a fierce critic of President Bush who says the USA is interfering in the region. Though Ortega, 61, leads in pre-election polls, he might not get enough votes Sunday to win outright. To win, a candidate must get 35% the vote and have a 5-percentage-point advantage over the closest runner-up. Otherwise, the top two candidates advance to a runoff election in mid-December. A poll by M&R Consultores published Oct. 27 showed Ortega and his Sandinista National Liberation Front with 33% support. The U.S.-favored candidate, Harvard-educated banker Eduardo Montealegre of the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance, had 25%. The poll of 4,501 potential voters had a margin of error of +/- 1.5 percentage points. Ortega is positioning himself as a reformed revolutionary. Wednesday, he pledged to promote the private sector and build on free-trade agreements. To support his theme of unity, he has enlisted a former archrival as his running mate. Montealegre and fellow conservative Jose Rizo of the Constitutionalist Liberal Party, who is in third place in polls, have made the need to defeat Ortega a key message of their campaigns. The candidates are trying to win over voters still waiting for market reforms to improve conditions for Nicaragua's 5.14 million people. According to the CIA, Nicaragua is one of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere and has one of the world's most unequal distributions of income. Ortega's candidacy has not only raised the hackles of the United States, but it also elicited memories of Nicaragua's civil war of the 1980s, which pitted Ortega's Soviet-backed Sandinista government against U.S.-backed contra rebels. The Reagan administration's effort to topple the Sandinistas became part of the Iran-contra scandal: The administration secretly sold arms to Iran and used the proceeds to fund and arm the contras. The civil war killed about 50,000 people. It ended in 1990, when a U.S.-backed candidate, Violeta Chamorro, was elected president. The United States has been outspoken in its desire to see Ortega lose. U.S. Ambassador Paul Trivelli has questioned Ortega's commitment to democracy. On a visit here last month, Oliver North, the former White House aide at the heart of the Iran-contra controversy, warned that a vote for the Sandinista leader would mean a return to conflict. "If (someone else) were running for president of Nicaragua and said, 'I am a friend of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez, and I oppose U.S. policy,' that would be enough to create some friction, to put it mildly," says Otto Reich, a senior official in the Reagan administration. "The fact of history compounds the problem." Sitting in his office next to Ortega's home, Bayardo Arce, a top Sandinista party member, says the United States will continue to be the country's principal market if his party wins. But he adds that Nicaragua also will reach out to the rest of Latin America. That interest in inter-Latin American relations has been highlighted by a deal struck by the Sandinistas with Venezuela to provide discounted oil to alleviate Nicaragua's energy crisis. For the past year, Nicaraguans have suffered regular blackouts, in part because of the high cost of oil. The Venezuelan deal has been criticized by opponent Montealegre and outgoing President Enrique Bolaños as a vote-getting ploy. Dionisio Marenco, mayor of the capital, Managua, an Ortega ally and a leader of the fuel program, denies a political motive. "If the same offer were given on these terms by Bush, or by (Mexican President Vicente) Fox, or anyone in Saudi Arabia or the Sultan of Brunei, I'd take it," he says. Nicaraguan voters, meanwhile, are divided. Some former contras are siding with Ortega. His running mate is his former contra archrival, Jaime Morales. Mario Romero, 38, a taxi driver, has Montealegre bumper stickers all over his car. He fought in the Sandinista army, and his brother was killed in the war. "Ortega?" Romero says. "Never again." ORTEGA TIMELINE 1963: Joins Sandinista National Liberation Front and later organizes urban resistance to the Somoza family dictatorship. 1982: U.S.-sponsored attacks by Honduras-based contra rebels begin; state of emergency declared. 1984: Ortega elected president. 1990: U.S.-backed National Opposition Union defeats Ortega and Sandinistas in elections. 1996: Ortega again loses presidential election. 2001: Liberal party presidential candidate Enrique Bolaos defeats Ortega. 2002: Sandinista Party re-elects Ortega as its leader. Source: Wire reports -------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE -------- prisons / prisoners Retired judges call detainee law unconstitutional 11/2/2006 Associated Press http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-11-02-guantanamo-detainees_x.htm WASHINGTON (AP) — Seven retired federal judges from both political parties have joined dozens of Guantanamo Bay detainees in urging an appeals court to declare key parts of President Bush's new anti-terrorism law unconstitutional. The judges, in a rare court filing Wednesday, said stripping courts of the right to question how the military handles terrorism suspects "challenges the integrity of our judicial system" and effectively sanctions the use of torture. Bush signed a law this month allowing the military to arrest people overseas and detain them indefinitely without allowing them to use the U.S. courts to contest their detention. Bush hailed the law, which established a system of military trials, as a crucial tool in the war on terrorism and said it would allow prosecution of several high-level terror suspects. For detainees challenging their imprisonment, the law locks them out of the civilian court system. Dozens of detainees argued Wednesday that the law is unconstitutional, and the retired judges echoed that in their own papers filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. "We believe that compelling this court to sanction executive detentions based on evidence that has been condemned in the American legal system since our nation's founding erodes the vital role of the judiciary in safeguarding the rule of law," the judges wrote. The brief was filed by retired Judges Shirley M. Hufstedler, Nathaniel R. Jones, George N. Leighton, Timothy K. Lewis, Frank J. McGarr, Abner J. Mikva and Patricia M. Wald. Three of the judges — Leighton, Lewis and McGarr — were appointed by Republican presidents. Though Congress banned the use of torture in the military commission law, the judges said military documents revealed evidence of torture that officials didn't properly address. In one instance cited in court documents, a man who denied receiving artillery training said an interrogator beat him until he bled from his head. "I was in a lot of pain, so I said I had the training," the man said, according to a transcript cited in court documents. "At that point, if he had asked me if I was Usama Bin Ladin, I would have said yes." Without the court system, the judges said, there is no check on such behavior. In their own court filings, lawyers for the detainees argued that the law is unconstitutional because it prevents people from challenging their detention in U.S. courts — a right that attorneys said the framers of the Constitution never would have allowed to be stripped. "Persons imprisoned without charge must retain the right to obtain a court inquiry into the factual and legal bases for their imprisonment," attorneys wrote. This argument echoes a Supreme Court ruling in June in which the justices ruled that the Bush administration's system for trying enemy combatants violated U.S. and international law. Within weeks, the president persuaded Congress to pass a law setting up military commissions and barring detainees from using the civilian court system. Shortly after the law was signed, the Justice Department told hundreds of detainees that their cases in the U.S. courts had been rendered moot. Supporters of the law compare military detainees to prisoners of war, who don't normally have access to civilian courts. They say wartime decisions should be left up to the president, who acts as commander in chief, not the courts. The Justice Department had no comment on the briefs Wednesday and has until Nov. 13 to respond in court. A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey D. Gordon, defended the new law and said that terror suspects were being given their day in court. "As a responsible democracy, we have an obligation to protect our citizens and those of our allies," Gordon said. "Holding unlawful enemy combatants captured during the war on terror is essential to preventing their return to the battlefield while collecting valuable intelligence in order to avert terror attacks like those seen on 9/11 and in cities around the world." -------- ENERGY Nuclear power is 'essential tool': IEA 11-02-2006 (AFP) http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=149385 LONDON - The International Energy Agency will urge countries around the world to accelerate construction of nuclear power plants next week, the IEA's chief economist told the Financial Times in an interview. Fatih Birol, speaking ahead of the publication of the agency's World Energy Outlook, said that countries must convince their voters that nuclear power was both safe and an "essential tool" to meet domestic energy security, and global climate change, goals. "We need a decision almost tomorrow if we are going to act before we reach a point of no return in climate and security of supply," Birol told the newspaper. "We are on an energy path that is vulnerable, dirty and expensive," the report, due to be released November 7 in London, will say, according to the FT. The goal, however, was to "prepare an alternative path ... to a cleaner, safer, less costly system," Birol said. The IEA will say that nuclear power costs about as much as coal and gas, and concluded that there were sufficient uranium deposits to meet increased demand for places to dump nuclear waste. Birol also said that the IEA's previous calculation of 17 trillion dollars (13.3 trillion euros) of investment required around the world in energy until 2030 would be revised upwards because of cost inflation. Several countries around the world are planning to construct new power plants and others, such as Britain, are considering installing new ones. -------- OTHER -------- environment Investigations Begin Into Whether Bush Administration Muzzled Climate Research November 02, 2006 By John Heilprin, Associated Press http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11576 WASHINGTON — Two federal agencies are investigating whether the Bush administration tried to block government scientists from speaking freely about global warming and censor their research, a senator said Wednesday. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said he was informed that the inspectors general for the Commerce Department and NASA had begun "coordinated, sweeping investigations of the Bush administration's censorship and suppression" of federal research into global warming. "These investigations are critical because the Republicans in Congress have ignored this serious problem," Lautenberg said. He said the investigations "will uncover internal documents and agency correspondence that may expose widespread misconduct." He added, "Taxpayers do not fund scientific research so the Bush White House can alter it." Messages left Wednesday at the offices of the inspectors general, which serve as the agencies' internal watchdogs, were not immediately returned. Kristen Hellmer, a spokeswoman for the White House Council for Environmental Quality, said Wednesday night that the administration has supported the scientific process in its approach to studying climate change. "We have in place the most transparent system of science reporting, and claims that the administration interfered with scientists are false," Hellmer said. "Our focus is on taking action and making real progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The nearly $2 billion worth of climate science we publish annually leads the world and speaks for itself." Carbon dioxide and other gases primarily from fossil fuel-burning that scientists say trap heat in the atmosphere have warmed the Earth's surface an average 1 degree over the past century. The White House has committed to reducing the "intensity" of U.S. carbon pollution, a measure of the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per unit of economic growth. But the total U.S. emissions, now more than 7 billion tons a year, are projected to rise 14 percent from 2002 to 2012. In February, House Science Chairman Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., and other congressional leaders asked NASA to guarantee scientific openness. They complained that a public affairs officer changed or filtered information on global warming and the Big Bang. The officer, George Deutsch, a political appointee, had resigned after being accused of trying to limit reporters' access to James Hansen, a prominent NASA climate scientist, and insisting that a Web designer insert the word "theory" with any mention of the Big Bang. A report last month in the scientific journal Nature claimed administrators at the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration blocked the release of a report that linked hurricane strength and frequency to global warming. Hansen had said in February that NOAA has tried to prevent researchers working on global climate change from speaking freely about their work. NOAA has denied the allegations, saying its work is not politically motivated. -------- poverty Democrats accuse White House of stalling hunger report 11/2/2006 Associated Press http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-11-02-hunger-elections_x.htm WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are blaming politics for the Bush administration's decision to wait until after the election to issue a report on hunger in the United States. The Agriculture Department report has generally been released in October, a month after annual poverty figures are released by the Census Bureau. The report has shown steady increases in the number of people struggling with hunger, from 31 million in 1999 to 38 million in 2004. Democrats on Wednesday accused the White House of a politically motivated delay. Competitive elections across the country will decide next week whether President Bush's party keeps control of Congress. USDA officials said the report has long been set for a mid-November release and that the delay is not political. Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., compared the delay to a recent IRS decision to hold off collections of back taxes from last year's hurricane victims. "It seems like a pattern is emerging where the administration simply tries to bury bad information the closer they get to the election," Weiner said. "The professionals in these agencies who want to do their work in this administration are being thwarted, because it's all politics, all the time." Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said the administration "continues to put politics ahead of hunger in America." She is the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee's farm spending subcommittee. Weiner sent a letter about the delay Wednesday to Karl Rove, the president's chief political strategist. A department spokeswoman, Terri Teuber, said officials decided some time ago to issue the report in mid-November because analysts haven't always been able to finish it by October. "There has been absolutely no political pressure to hold this report," Teuber said. Done by the department's Economic Research Service, the report details the number of people with food insecurity, meaning they don't have enough money or resources to get food. It is possible the report will show the number of hungry people has stopped climbing. That is what the Census Bureau reported on this year's poverty figures. Last year there were 37 million people still living below the poverty line, about the same as 2004. Regardless of the reason for the delay, anti-hunger advocates just want to see the numbers. "Our real concern is that so few people are talking about the problem and proposing ways to address that struggle with hunger that 38 million people constantly face," said Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center. That goes for the administration, for both parties in Congress and for the private sector, Weill said. "If we ought to be able to do anything as a country, it's that we ought to be able to get enough adequate, decent food to everybody," Weill said.