NucNews January 3, 2007 -------- NUCLEAR -------- business Reshaping nuclear fuel Doughnut-shaped fuel can cut nuclear energy's environmental impact Technology News - American Chemical Society January 3, 2007 http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2007/jan/tech/kb_nuclear.html When used as fuel for light-water nuclear reactors, the hollow 14-mm cylinders shown here can increase efficiency by 50%. By reconfiguring nuclear-fuel pellets into "doughnuts", scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have found a way to boost the amount of energy that nuclear reactors produce by 50%. The new design also helps diminish the chance of meltdown by slashing the temperature at which reactors must be operated, and it renders the spent fuel more proliferation-resistant. The advance comes at a time of renewed interest in nuclear power around the world. U.S. utilities are planning to construct more than a dozen plants in the next decade, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute. Although many environmental groups remain opposed to nuclear power, some, such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, are now rethinking its value, in part because it is an energy source free from greenhouse-gas emissions. Pavel Hejzlar of MIT's nuclear science and engineering department first came up with the idea of doughnut-shaped fuel in the spring of 2000. By that summer, he and his colleague Mujid Kazimi were receiving money from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to investigate the design. Hejzlar decided to forgo the opportunity to patent his design in favor of quickly obtaining DOE funding, so the design is in the public domain. The new fuel, which is known within the industry as an annular fuel because of its ring shape, can be used with existing light-water reactors, which account for two-thirds of the reactors in the U.S. The fuel is especially well suited for pressurized water reactors, which make up 60% of the world's 443 reactors. Hejzlar says that utilities in the U.S., Japan, and South Korea have expressed interest in his design. Reactors that use the new fuel can operate at 700 °C—less than half of the 1800 °C required for conventional fuel. This takes the reactor temperature much farther away from the 2840 ° C at which meltdowns can occur. The temperature is so much lower because the doughnut shape enables heat to flow in two directions and the surface-area-to-volume ratio is about 60% higher, Hejzlar explains. "A traditional fuel rod looks like a pencil, with the fuel pellets inside the tube and water flow on the outside of the tube. Annular fuel is like a thick-walled stra... or a very thin-walled doughnut," explains Edward Lahoda, a nuclear engineer at Westinghouse Corp., a major manufacturer of pressurized water reactors. The new fuel is much more complex to manufacture than conventional cylindrical pellets. But when Westinghouse made a test run of producing the annular pellets, they achieved a "very good yield" of greater than 95%, Lahoda says. "Manufacturing is not a trivial issue," he stresses. "If you can't make them in millions of pellets and load them into hundreds of thousands of rods, the concept is useless." Westinghouse is interested in commercializing the new design because the greater efficiencies achievable with the annular fuel would allow new light-water reactors to be significantly smaller, Lahoda says. "The biggest cost in a nuclear reactor is the building... If you can reduce the size of these things—especially the containment building—or keep them the same size and get more power out of them, then you've made money," he explains. Hejzlar says that the spent annular fuel would be less attractive to terrorists because it has a lower concentration of fissile isotopes, such as 239Pu, than traditional fuel. Because the design can generate more power from the fuel, it also decreases the volume of waste generated from nuclear power per megawatt-hour by 50%. "This technology is a promising example of a very important direction for [nuclear power] research: development of new fuel designs that can improve performance," says Edwin Lyman, senior staff scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists. However, he stresses that "many safety issues" must be resolved. At least 10 years of work would be required to commercialize the new technology in the U.S., Lahoda predicts. Light-water reactors that use the new fuel do not fit the definition of the "fourth-generation" nuclear power plants that the DOE is currently focusing on. Lahoda nonetheless predicts that, when coupled with the new fuel design, the tried-and-true light water reactor technology may prove more appealing for generating electricity than some of the newer, fourth-generation designs. —KELLYN S. BETTS -------- depleted uranium Edward James Olmos Accuses Puerto Rico, Washington of Delaying Vieques Bombing Range Cleanup January 03, 2007 — By Associated Press http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11958 SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Edward James Olmos criticized the United States and Puerto Rico on Tuesday for not moving faster to clean up the site of a former bombing range on Vieques Island. Olmos, an Oscar nominee for 1988's "Stand and Deliver," said officials "have done nothing" to restore an area that environmentalists say is tainted by dangerous pollutants nearly four years after the departure of the U.S. Navy. "We are not going to stop until we make them see that a (cleanup) is necessary," Olmos said at a news conference in the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan. The Navy, which withdrew from Vieques in May 2003 following three years of steady protests, has begun controlled detonations of unexploded bombs in sections of the 21-mile-long island and nearby waters. This has sparked renewed protests by residents who say the explosions are causing more environmental damage on Vieques, some 6 miles off the southeastern coast of mainland Puerto Rico. Olmos, 59, also urged Puerto Rican legislators to block the construction of large tourist resorts on undeveloped beaches in the U.S. Caribbean territory. The actor, who was born in East Los Angeles, was among the celebrities who were arrested for trespassing to thwart U.S. Navy bombing exercises on Vieques. "I believe it is wrong to practice near where people live, period," he said in a press conference in 2001. He trespassed onto the firing range in a fishing boat along with environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy and New York labor leader Dennis Rivera. Olmos' TV credits include "Battlestar Galactica" on the SciFi Channel, a network of NBC Universal, and the '80s series "Miami Vice." -------- europe EDF signs production deal with independent energy supplier 01-03-2007, 15h16 PARIS (AFP) http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=157779 French independent energy supplier Poweo has reached a 15-year agreement with Electricite de France on the exchange of 160 megawatts of available production capacity. EDF will grant Poweo access to base energy from 2007 to 2021, drawn from the electricity giant's nuclear production. EDF is the world's largest generator of nuclear power. In return, Poweo will make available to EDF an equivalent share of the capacity from a combined cycle gas plant in Pont-sur-Sambre, northern France, that is due to come on stream at the start of 2009. Poweo said it expected to sign similar deals "in line with its expected sharp growth in the French power supply market." Poweo shares surged as much as 12.8 percent to 44.90 euros after the announcement while those of EDF were down 1.54 percent at 54.35 euros at mid-day. "EDF is going to have to share some of its nuclear capacity with competitors in order to comply with the wishes of the European Commission (the European Union's executive arm) for greater competition," said Julien Quistrbert, an analyst with asset managers Richelieu Finance. The French domestic energy market is to be fully opened to competition on July 1. Poweo was created in 2002 and now has 78,000 electricity clients and provides gas to more than 5,000 customers. Charles Beigbeder, Poweo founder and chairman, said the deal announced Wednesday would enable his company to buy nuclear energy from EDF at market prices, "a level that will allow us to be competitive as soon as the market is opened on July 1." "We want to put an offering of gas supply, electricity supply and energy services in parallel into a global package," he told AFP. "With gas, there is capacity available on the market at attractive prices. We lacked a supply of electricity, which we had secured until end-2008 for commercial users but not for private customers. "This agreement offers us the prospect of private (customers) without waiting for our power stations," Beigbeder said. Poweo has posted operating and net losses over the past four years but has a market capitalization of around 250 million euros (331 million dollars), its share price having doubled in the past three months in anticipation of the opening of the French energy market. The company aims to have installed electricity capacity of 3,400 megawatts by 2012, including 600 from renewable resources. Stock market analysts have said that energy companies less dependent on oil, gas and coal, which are subject to price surges, should now fare better than competitors that rely heavily on such fuels. Production capacity tends to be greater at companies favoring alternative energy sources, they contend. EDF's renewable energy unit, EDF Energies, which made its stock market debut on November 29 at 28 euros a share, has since seen a 42 percent gain and now has a market capitalization of 2.45 billion euros, 40 times its operating profit. -------- security Russia will help build the world’s first thermonuclear reactor 03/ 01/ 2007 (Yury Zaitsev for RIA Novosti) http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20070103/58353557.html MOSCOW.- On November 21, 2006, Russia, South Korea, China, Japan, India, the European Union and the United States signed an agreement on building the world's first International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). The overall cost of the project is 13 billion Euros. The "small Sun" (as the reactor is referred to) will be sited in Cadarache near Marseilles. Russia will finance part of the project and contribute its technologies and know-how. Unlike conventional nuclear power plant reactors utilizing the nuclear radioactive decay principle, i.e. fission of heavy elements, the ITER unit generates power through thermonuclear fusion, that is, when two light atomic nuclei fuse together to form heavier ones. Scientists want to imitate physical processes inside the Sun and to use them for building commercial power units. Chemically inert helium is created through the fusion of hydrogen isotopes -deuterium and tritium - inside the Sun. This unique process generates hundreds of times more energy than uranium-powered nuclear reactors. The Earth has a virtually unlimited amount of fuel for future thermonuclear reactors. Both deuterium and tritium can be obtained from water; this process is much simpler, safer and cheaper than the conventional nuclear fuel cycle. Moreover, "clean" thermonuclear reactors will not damage the environment even in case of major accidents and can therefore be built in densely populated areas. The principles of thermonuclear fusion were formulated over 50 years ago. However, scientists faced enormous problems as they tried to ignite and control thermonuclear plasma. Lev Artsimovich, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said thermonuclear fusion had become the most formidable science and engineering challenge of the 20th century. But at that time scientists failed to build a thermonuclear reactor, and interest in this problem gradually began to wane after a period of unsuccessful attempts. In the last decades works on this problem have resumed all over the world and international cooperation in this sphere has grown stronger because it is very important to harness controlled thermonuclear fusion. Work on the first experimental TOKAMAK (Toroidal Chamber in Magnetic Coils) reactor began in 1988 on the Soviet Union's initiative. The reactor's basic principle of operation is as follows. A powerful electric current flows through toroidal-chamber plasma, and its magnetic field merges with that of the toroidal solenoid to create the required magnetic field needed to maintain a well-balanced and insulated plasma configuration. The Soviet Union and later Russia, the United States, the EU and Japan established an agency that promptly designed the TOKAMAK reactor. This project largely owed its success to Russian research involving pre-nuclear TOKAMAK reactors, which studied related problems and were used to test different engineering solutions, namely, large-scale superconducting magnetic systems and powerful high-frequency units for creating and maintaining stable reactor plasma. Russia's Federal Nuclear Power Agency (Rosatom) is proud to say that Russian scientists were the first to develop TOKAMAK systems for the ITER project. The Cadarache reactor is expected to prove that thermonuclear power plants are feasible. If successful, it will serve as a basis for more powerful and advanced units for completely solving mankind's energy problems. However, this goal cannot be achieved overnight. Vladimir Fortov, Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said thermonuclear power will be harnessed completely only by 2040. Yevgeny Velikhov, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and President of the Kurchatov Institute Russian Research Center, said Japan, which faces huge energy shortages and which has no hydrocarbon deposits, would build the first commercial thermonuclear power plant in 2030. "We hope that thermonuclear fusion will account for a considerable share of global energy output by the middle of the 21st century," Velikhov said. Russia's involvement in the ITER project is the only chance to preserve its potential in the most advanced science-and-engineering spheres. Moscow has completely fulfilled its R&D commitments. Although the project's technical aspects have been implemented, scientists will continue to study the physics of thermonuclear plasma for a long time to come. An ad hoc commission comprising EU government advisers and many authoritative international experts said the controlled thermonuclear fusion project is proceeding too slowly against the backdrop of major energy shortages facing humankind, and all the countries involved must step up joint efforts in this sphere. Yury Zaitsev is an expert at the Russian Academy of Engineering Sciences. ---- U.S. Study Finds More Nuclear Trafficking Than IAEA Wednesday, January 03, 2007 http://intelligence-summit.blogspot.com/2007/01/us-study-finds-more-nuclear.html A U.S. review of nuclear trafficking incidents in 2005 has shown that there were twice as many reports of smuggling and mishandling as reported by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Reuters reported last week (see GSN, Aug. 22, 2006). The Homeland Security Department found 215 reports of illicit nuclear trafficking and related activity around the world in 2005, up from 100 incidents in 2000, said department spokesman Jarrod Agen. The number of reports was more than double the 103 incidents reported by IAEA officials in August. The increase since 2000 was mostly due to improved awareness and reporting, and does not necessarily mean that trafficking has increased, Agen said. “What has doubled is the number of reported events,” he said. “This is due mainly to an increase in awareness, more comprehensive reporting and an increase in the number of detection devices.” “Only a handful of the known illicit nuclear/radiological trafficking incidents involved weapons-usable nuclear materials,” Agen added. “Of the known smuggling incidents to date, the vast majority were profit-motivated scams involving bogus materials” (Reuters, Dec. 26, 2006). As part of its efforts to combat nuclear smuggling, the United States announced plans last week to install radiation detectors at multiple border crossings in Slovakia. U.S. experts have been working with the Slovakian customs officials to survey potential sites, according to a release from the National Nuclear Security Administration. “We are continuing to address terrorist threats around the globe,” said Assistant Deputy Administrator Dave Huizenga in the release. “Through this program in Slovakia, and through other NNSA nonproliferation programs, we are helping to stop terrorists and criminals from smuggling nuclear and radiological material” (National Nuclear Security Administration release, Dec. 29, 2006). -------- u.s. nuc facilities -------- minnesota Nuke-plant neighbors get vouchers for radiation drug By TOM MEERSMAN Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune 03-JAN-07 http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=NUKENEIGHBORS-01-03-07 MINNEAPOLIS -- People who live within 10 miles of Minnesota's two nuclear power plants should receive vouchers in the mail this week for free doses of potassium iodide, a medicine that would offer some protection in the event of a release of radiation, state officials said. Potassium iodide prevents or reduces absorption of radioactive iodine by the thyroid gland, which is particularly vulnerable to cancer-causing radiation. Doug Neville, a spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, said the vouchers can be redeemed for two doses per person after Feb. 1 at six Target store pharmacies. Four of the stores are near the Monticello nuclear power plant about 50 miles northwest of the Twin Cities; two are close to the Prairie Island nuclear plant in Red Wing. Neville said that about 130,000 people live or work near the plants. Residents are receiving the vouchers as part of the annual emergency planning guides mailed each year to those within the emergency planning zones near nuclear plants. Hospitals, casinos and other businesses and institutions within the 10-mile zones will get vouchers next month after their managers attend special information meetings, he said. The state has been discussing the distribution plan with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for two years, Neville said. The agency offered the doses to all states with nuclear plants; Minnesota is the 22nd to accept them. Neville said taking potassium iodide would be recommended as a safeguard, in addition to evacuation, if an accident released radiation from a nuclear plant. -------- tennessee Rebar problem costs BWXT millions By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com Knoxville News Sentinel January 3, 2007 http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_5254086,00.html OAK RIDGE — The government paid BWXT $33.6 million for managing the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in 2006, even after the contractor was penalized for problems with a new uranium storage center. BWXT, a partnership of BWX Technologies and Bechtel National, operates the plant for the National Nuclear Security Administration under a performance-based contract. Ted Sherry, the Oak Ridge manager for the NNSA, said there was a $1.9 million "fee adjustment" for problems that caused a two-month suspension of work on the new uranium storage facility. BWXT, however, indicated as much as $5 million was lost due to those problems and, "to a much lesser degree," issues with several other projects. The contractor’s overall performance rating for fiscal 2006 was "good," according to Sherry’s Dec. 27 letter sent to George Dials, the president and general manager of BWXT Y-12 LLC. The highlights included a "dramatic increase" in Y-12’s disassembly of old warheads, improvements in the plant’s safety and security, and production of replacement parts for B-61 bombs. Sherry praised BWXT meeting the initial production milestone on the B-61 bomb in 2006. He also said that increasing the delivery rates for the B-61 parts would be a "significant focus area" in 2007. The federal official said the Y-12 had a 40 percent decline in recordable injuries and lost workdays compared to 2005, and he said there were no reportable personnel contamination issues in 2006. He also cited security upgrades, including the deployment of technologies and other things to enhance the physical protection of the plant’s nuclear assets. BWXT was penalized for "significant problems" involving the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, a $500 million center that will house Y-12’s stockpile of bomb-grade uranium. Work was shut down in early 2006 after it was determined that the rebar or reinforcing steel in certain parts of the building did not meet design specifications for the high-security facility. Caddell-Blaine is building the storage complex under a subcontract to BWXT. Sherry said the construction problems created "an overall delay" in the project’s completion date. "It is noteworthy that BWXT Y-12 has taken aggressive action to address problems with this project," Sherry added. "Construction work resumed in April 2006 with improvements achieved in project management, integration, oversight, project processes, quality assurance, and quality control." The new storehouse is about 40 percent complete. BWXT said it was pleased with the performance evaluation, noting the fee was $4.3 million more than the contractor earned for 2005. "This the fifth consecutive year that Y-12 has improved its performance and fee earnings," the company said in a prepared response to questions. "Although on balance we’re extremely pleased with fee performance this year, the penalties assessed to the HEUMF project, in our view, were severe in light of the fact that the project is back on track and progressing smoothly," Dials said in a prepared statement. If that penalty were omitted, the Y-12 performance would have been rated as "outstanding," he said. Senior Writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329. -------- virginia Dominion gets NRC approval for North Anna reactors From NBC12 News Jan 3, 2007 Associated Press http://www.nbc12.com/news/state/5073566.html Dominion Virginia Power has cleared another environmental review in its goal to possibly build two more nuclear reactors at its North Anna Power Station. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a final environmental impact statement that adding reactors at the plant would not pose significant environmental concerns. The report also said that the N-R-C's staff recommends that the agency issue early site permits for proposed North Anna Units Three and Four. Dominion Virginia Power would use lake water to cool the proposed Unit Three. The impact statement also said that the construction would have minimal adverse affects on land use, air quality and ecology, and that no important land species would be permanently affected. The report did say that during ``critical low-water years,'' use of the water could hamper recreational use and access to the 13-thousand-acre lake. It was created in 1971 to cool the plant's reactors. Dominion officials say they haven't decided whether to build any new reactors at North Anna, but they want the option to do so for future power generation. -------- us nuc waste Oak Ridge incinerator to burn another 10 million pounds of waste January 3, 2007 By ADAM LONGO (WATE) 6 News Reporter http://www.wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=5888826 OAK RIDGE-- The Department of Energy in Oak Ridge will incinerate more than 10 million pounds of toxic waste over the next three years. Truck loads of toxic chemicals drive into east Tennessee each week. The Department of Energy disposes of these chemicals in a one of its kind incinerator at the former K-25 site. While it may look like harmful smoke spewing dangerous chemicals into the air, emissions from the incinerator stack are 99.9999% water vapor. "It's a safe operation. If it wasen't safe we would not operate the incinerator," says DOE's Walter Perry. A 2200°F degree blaze destroys coolants, lubricants and other things exposed to radiation. That includes, "Personal protective equipment, gloves, booties, smocks that people wear when cleaning up waste sites," adds Perry. "What's come in to be burned here is relatively minor compared to what we've sent away," says Susan Gawarecki of the Local Oversight Committee. Hers is a nonprofit, independent group that makes sure permits and emissions are up to par. "It's emissions of mercury are much less than any TVA steam plant," she adds. In the ebb and flow of toxic waste, Tennessee isn't its permanent home. "We've sent thousands of cylinders of depleted uranium hexafluoride to Ohio to be processed," says Gawarecki. "Once the waste is received here and destroyed in the incinerator, any residual ash that remains is disposed of at a permanent facility in Utah," says Perry. The only waste being burned in the incinerator belongs to the Department of Energy. It is scheduled to close in 2009, though if the government has a need for it they will keep it open longer. -------- ACTIVISTS Pacifist's 50-Year Fight against War Carries on As her 103rd birthday approaches, Irene Mensalvas steadfastly refuses to yield in the struggle for peace by Rona Marech Wednesday, January 3, 2007 Baltimore Sun http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0103-51.htm Irene Mensalvas walked a little unsteadily to her door and thumped on a small sign hanging below two American flags. She carefully read the message aloud -- "War is not the answer." "It is not the answer," she repeated. "This is my theme." Mensalvas' voice is just one amid what has become a loud chorus of anti-war sentiment, but she has a claim that distinguishes her scratchy, unwavering tones from the others: She is one of the oldest active anti-war protesters in the country. Mensalvas, whose four children served in the military during or immediately after World War II, is robust enough to take her message to the street -- albeit with a walker to help her balance as she holds a sign aloft. On Jan. 17, a birthdate she proudly shares with her hero, Benjamin Franklin, she will turn 103. "I'm a pacifist, strictly," she said in her home at the Friends House Retirement Community in Montgomery County. "I just go back to the same idea: There has to be negotiation. Why wait until we've killed so many people to negotiate?" "My feeling about this whole thing [the war in Iraq] is, it was all for profit." She paused. "I don't want to get too political." Another pause. "But I'm not afraid to go to jail." She pulled out a framed photograph from a protest she and other members of the pro-peace group Raging Grannies staged at an armed services recruitment office in Silver Spring last year. "We were trying to enlist to free up the young men," she said. One of her gray-haired comrades held a sign that read, "Don't die for lies. Take Granny." "We were letting them know we don't like war," she said. "She's always been determined, and if she thinks something is worthwhile, she'll get involved with it. She's persistent," said her daughter Patricia Burgoon, who's 83. "Seniors are an important part of the movement," said Gael Murphy, co-founder of the women's peace group Code Pink. "We need our elders to remind us that there have been successes in the past, and we have to keep at it and we all have a responsibility, no matter how old we are." Raging Grannies has a network of "granny gaggles" around the country and internationally. Closer to home, a nonagenarian is a regular at a weekly anti-war demonstration at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Murphy said. Yet it's rare to find a protester -- let alone a vibrant individual -- who is quite as deep into her winter years as Mensalvas. "As a Quaker community, [many residents] are politically active and stand up for what they believe. But a lot of them, once they reach a certain age, find it more difficult," said Mary Cozad, the resident director at Friends House. "Irene is unique." Mensalvas, the oldest resident in Friends House's independent living quarters, has wavy white-gray hair, a no-nonsense air and a tinkling laugh that sometimes starts with pursed lips and a long "oooh!" She was one of five children born to a barber-turned-banker and a farm girl in Fort Wayne, Ind., in 1904 -- the year New York City's first official subway system opened and the Great Baltimore Fire destroyed 1,500 buildings. She was married with four children when, during World War II, she went to work replacing gears on machines at International Harvester, a farm equipment manufacturer that began making tanks during the war. It was there, she said, that she learned about war and profit -- that it was more lucrative to build a tank that would be destroyed than to make tractors that lasted 20 years. One of her sons enlisted when he was a sophomore at Yale University and became a navigator in the Army Air Forces. Another son joined the Naval Construction Brigade. Her daughter was in the Cadet Nurse Corps, though she was never posted overseas. Her youngest son, who joined the military shortly after the war ended, became a paratrooper and a deep-sea diver. They all survived their stints in the military. Three of her children are still alive; the youngest is 78. Mensalvas eventually left Indiana and lived in Washington state, Hawaii and California, where for many years she worked as a supervisor of insurance benefits at Stockton State Hospital. After a change that lowered the mandatory retirement age for state employees -- for which she blames then-Gov. Ronald Reagan -- she unwillingly retired at 68. "Don't get me started on Reagan!" she said. Separated from her second husband by then, Mensalvas moved to Ecuador, where a son had a palm oil production company. She worked for her son and later retired to a house in a beach town near Guayaquil. A driftwood path led from her house straight to the ocean. She wore bathing suits all day, took long walks and collected shells that now occupy an entire bookcase in her apartment. "That was about the zenith," she said. "The easiest way out of the whole business of life is just to learn to live by yourself." Later, she followed her son and his family to Costa Rica, where she volunteered for years at the Quaker Peace Center, a social justice organization based in San Jose. At age 82, she became a Quaker -- a Lutheran-Quaker, she said, noting firmly that she never gave up her ties to the Lutheran Church. Hoping to settle, finally, in a Quaker community and to be close to her two children living in Maryland, Mensalvas moved to Friends House briefly in 1989. She couldn't resist one last stint in Costa Rica, but returned for the third (fourth? fifth?) and final stage of retirement in 1999. Don't ask Mensalvas about regrets -- "In the first place, that would be impossible" -- and don't ask her about the future, which she says, for all her years, she can't predict. But with a little pressing, she will tell you about the great changes she has seen -- such as the ever-growing access people have to information: "When enough information is disseminated among enough people, people may be able to get on the right track." And she'll tell you about her fears that in the future, people will have chips implanted in their brains at birth. And she'll talk about her reluctance to remarry -- "I might have thought about it, but I didn't think it was a very good idea." She can also say a little something about how, in 103 years of life, events start to repeat themselves. Mensalvas has 13 grandchildren and more great-grandchildren than she can easily count. Family pictures line her shelves. She pointed to a photograph of her 18-year-old great-grandson. He received a football scholarship to college, but instead of accepting he enlisted in the Marines. "I'm going through the same thing now" as she did all those years ago when her children fought in World War II, she said. Protest is well and good, but sometimes causes need a different kind of help. Mensalvas prayed for her young great-grandson, and she recently learned that he is to be stationed in Hawaii for the next year and a half -- not Iraq. Maybe, she said with a smile, her prayers made a difference. ---- Actor: US Navy Clean Puerto Rico San Juan, Jan 3, 2007 (Prensa Latina) http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B01B0E157-67AC-4AF4-91A5-D4CBEDF38CE7%7D)&language=EN Hollywood actor Edward James Olmos criticized the Puerto Rican government and the mess left on Vieques Island by the US military more than three years after its withdrawal. Olmos, of Miami Vice, Battlestar Galactica and also Hollywood director, blamed US President George W. Bush for not having met his promise to clean up the island. The US navy held exercises there for over 60 years and left serious damage to the population and ecosystem from chemical weapons and depleted uranium. "The US made a huge commitment, and we will not stop until we make them realize it is necessary to clean up the island," the actor stated. Olmos arrived in Puerto Rico on Monday to announce his participation, along with environmentalist lawyer Robert Kennedy, at a fund-raising gala for Claridad local daily.