NucNews January 6, 2007 -------- NUCLEAR Nuclear energy is resurgent From South America to Asia, governments turn to once-shunned source By Doug Struck Jan 6, 2007 Washington Post http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16497285/ Sixty miles outside Buenos Aires, construction crews soon will be swarming over a partially built concrete dome abandoned 12 years ago, resuming work on Argentina's long-delayed Atucha II nuclear power plant. They will be in the vanguard of surging interest in nuclear power worldwide. Faced with evidence that coal- and oil-fired electric plants are overheating the planet, and alarmed by soaring demand for electricity, governments from South America to Asia are turning once again to a power source mostly shunned for two decades as too dangerous and too costly. Globally, 29 nuclear power plants are being built. Well over 100 more have been written into the development plans of governments for the next three decades. India and China each are rushing to build dozens of reactors. The United States and the countries of Western Europe, led by new nuclear champions, are reconsidering their cooled romance with atomic power. International agencies have come on board; even the Persian Gulf oil states have announced plans for nuclear generators. "Energy and climate changes can't remain tied to carbon or hydrocarbon," the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said in October. "They are polluting, and we'll have to find substitute energies, including nuclear energy." It creates heat through nuclear reactions rather than combustion, giving off no carbon dioxide, the most important of the so-called greenhouse gases that trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere. Utilities are dusting off plans for nuclear plants even though most of the problems that shelved those projects remain. Critics say governments have forgotten the crises of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. The costs and time to build the concrete-encased plants far exceed those of conventional plants. There still is no safe permanent storage for the used fuel that will remain radioactive for a million years. Added to these problems are the newly realistic worry of a terrorist attack on a nuclear plant. "It can be very controversial," Mexican Congressman David Maldonado said of his country's plans to build a $4 billion nuclear plant in Veracruz. "The things that have happened in years past, going back to Chernobyl, have created a lot of fear here." Push from Bush administration In the United States, the Bush administration has strongly pushed nuclear power and backed a 2005 energy bill offering subsidies to utilities to go ahead with projects in a shortened, streamlined regulatory process. The industry talks enthusiastically of 10 to 30 new nuclear plants being started in the next two decades. Critics say those predictions will stall without long-term subsidies, and they scoff at the administration's explanations that nuclear plants will help battle global warming and reduce dependence on foreign oil. "The Bush administration doesn't believe climate change is a threat unless it is arguing for nuclear power," said Edwin Lyman, a senior staff scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington. Skeptics contend that the nuclear resurgence is still just talk. In the United States, they note, not a single reactor has been ordered. The high costs and long delays that vexed nuclear construction -- Argentina's Atucha II was 14 years in construction before it was halted -- soon will diminish the atomic ardor in other countries, they say. "Even with all the respective subsidies, nuclear power plants are still too expensive," Lyman said. "We need to move faster to really take a bite out of greenhouse emissions, and there aren't any scenarios in which nuclear power can do that." At present, 442 nuclear plants are operating in more than 31 countries, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. The United States has the most -- 103, which provide about 19.3 percent of the country's electric power. Next is France, with 59, and Japan, with 55. Worldwide, atomic energy accounts for 16 percent of electrical production; the vast majority of electricity is generated by burning coal, oil and natural gas. But carbon emissions from conventional plants bring "higher global temperatures, rising sea levels that would threaten to submerge coastal regions, prolonged droughts and more frequent violent storms," IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei warned in Jakarta, Indonesia, in December. The world's energy needs will rise 51 percent by 2030 because of industrialization and population growth, the International Energy Agency in Paris predicts. Add up the carbon-dioxide emissions from all the oil and coal plants that would be built to meet that need, and scientists see an environmental nightmare in the making. Natural gas is a cleaner fuel for making electricity, but the price has soared. Hydropower from dams has largely topped out at less than 20 percent of the world's electric supply. Alternatives such as solar, thermal and wind power remain a tiny contributor in most countries and would require dramatic economic changes to become substantial sources. To many policymakers, that leaves nuclear. In Britain, such calculations led to a striking reversal in policy. In 2003, a government white paper called nuclear power an unattractive option; in May, Prime Minister Tony Blair declared that nuclear power is "back on the agenda with a vengeance." Blair argued that the technology is a way to ensure British energy security in an unstable world and to combat global climate change -- a top priority of his government. Twenty-three nuclear plants now provide almost 20 percent of the United Kingdom's power, and Blair has called for a new mix of non-polluting sources, including nuclear plants and renewable alternatives. "In the future, energy security will be almost as important as defense," Blair said in October. Similar jitters about the reliability -- and price -- of traditional fuels are adding to the rush to nuclear. Japan, as host to the 1997 Kyoto conference that mandated a global reduction in greenhouse gases, is building three and planning 10 more nuclear plants in the next decade. Its plans are spurred by Japan's wariness over neighboring China's campaign to lock up oil and gas supply contracts with foreign countries. "The timing of Kyoto Protocol coming into effect and the timing of China endeavoring in its mission to secure natural resources in the world coincide," said Tadao Yanase, director of nuclear energy policy at Japan's Agency for Natural Resources and Energy. China's plans call for 15 to 30 new nuclear plants by 2020 and even more conventional plants, most of them coal-fired. Its researchers are working on creating smaller, less-expensive nuclear plants. India, with 16 nuclear plants, is building seven more plants and has been promised U.S. help to triple its collection by 2020. Some nuclear construction will merely keep the status quo. The first big wave of nuclear plants, built in the 1970s and 1980s, are near their planned obsolescence; six have been shut down. Regulators in the United States have extended licenses to 60 years, but other countries are replacing aging plants to make sure the nuclear component of their base supply does not disappear. Proliferation of nuclear material remains a worry. And another disaster like the Soviet Union's at Chernobyl in 1986 or a near-disaster like that at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island in 1979 would likely freeze the plans for nuclear construction. "The industry is sticking its head in the sand," said Jim Riccio, a policy analyst at anti-nuclear Greenpeace in Washington. "They haven't gotten close to addressing safety or security." Because nuclear fission emits no greenhouse gases, some environmental groups have grudgingly concluded that nuclear power is preferable to global warming. Others still argue that aggressive conservation and a dramatic increase in solar, wind, thermal and biofueled production can meet future electric needs. "The voices of opposition have drastically decreased," Yanase said in his office in Tokyo. "They obviously won't say they totally support" nuclear power, "but they are giving a tacit consent." Industry advocates say the old complaints about nuclear technology have been addressed with simpler and cheaper designs, faster regulatory review, improved security and more operating experience. "Things have changed," said Adrian Heymer, director of new plant deployment for the Nuclear Energy Institute in Washington. The industry expects U.S. companies to apply for 11 construction permits by the end of the decade. "When you put it all together, nuclear becomes an attractive package," he said. Companies and countries that build nuclear plants are riding that pitch. Westinghouse Electric Co., which has made about half the world's reactors, signed a deal with China in December to help in construction of four nuclear plants there. "There is a lot of opportunity now -- in Southeast Asia, in the Near East and Europe," Valery Arabkin, an official at Rosenergoatom, the Russian entity that competes with Westinghouse, said in an interview in Moscow. "These are good markets for Russia." Russia is building two reactors in China, two in India and one in Iran. It just signed a $5.1 billion deal to build two reactors in Bulgaria and is sniffing out business in Finland, Indonesia and Egypt. Russia's own nuclear industry is rebounding after years of neglect. President Vladimir Putin wants to sell the country's natural gas abroad and offset the exported energy by increasing nuclear power production, now provided by 31 reactors. That involves an ambitious program to build 42 more reactors in Russia by 2030, Sergey Kiriyenko, director of the Federal Nuclear Agency, or Rosatom, said in testimony before parliament last month. "I don't think it can be done," said Vladimir Slivyak, co-chairman of Ecodefense, which has been urging the government to use more of the country's natural gas at home and develop wind and hydropower. Critics say that when the emissions from uranium mining and plant construction are counted, nuclear power is not "carbon-free," as advocates assert. Such environmental concerns have put Germany on an opposite course from most European countries. Six years ago, Germany committed to shutting down all of its 17 nuclear power plants by 2021, prodded by the Greens party, then part of the government. The most populous country in Western Europe, Germany will be hard-pressed to compensate for loss of its nuclear power while also meeting promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and cut back on gas and oil deliveries from its chief supplier, Russia. Some people are calling for an extension of the nuclear deadline. But nuclear power remains unpopular among Germans, who often express strong pride over the giant windmills that are an increasingly common sight on the country's plains. "There really is no support in Germany to rely on nuclear energy as a means to help get rid of fossil fuels," Reinhard Buetikofer, co-chairman of the Greens, said in an interview. "We would have to build another 50 to 60 nuclear power plants in Germany. This is unthinkable." -------- australia Nuclear plant target for stolen rocket launchers, police allege Les Kennedy and Craig Skehan January 6, 2007 Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/nuclear-plant-target-for-stolen-rocket-launchers-police-allege/2007/01/05/1167777281891.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1 STOLEN Australian Army rocket launchers are in the hands of a home-grown terrorist group which planned to use them to attack Sydney's Lucas Heights nuclear reactor, police allege. The Federal Police Commissioner, Mick Keelty, said a man arrested in Leumeah yesterday and charged with possessing stolen weapons was linked to a group that had planned to attack buildings in Sydney, including the reactor. Mr Keelty would not publicly link the man, Taha Abdul-Rahman, directly to a plan to target the reactor, referring only to "evidence of a proposed target", and saying: "Clearly, there was a plan for the use of the weapon." But the NSW Assistant Commissioner, Nick Kaldas, said: "There were a couple of sites that were probably being considered and that's one of them." A source said an informant had specifically suggested there was a plan to attack the reactor with a rocket launcher. Abdul-Rahman, 28, was arrested yesterday after the third raid on his home since September 30. Police allege he sold seven rocket launchers for $5000 each to Adnan "Eddie" Darwiche, a Sydney drug dealer who is now in prison serving a sentence for double murder. In September, police from the NSW Middle Eastern Crime Squad bought one rocket launcher from Darwiche for $50,000 during an investigation into a bloody drug war in Sydney's south-west. They say another five launchers are in the possession of the terrorist group, and that Darwiche has the seventh one hidden. The Darwiche link came about as he tried to cut a deal to get a reduction in his life sentence for the murders of a woman and a rival member of the Razzak drug syndicate. When he sold the first launcher to police, through a go-between, he also passed on to them 20 kilograms of Power Gel explosive. On December 15, the Herald first reported the theft of up to nine launchers from the Army, and also revealed details of the extraordinary deal with Darwiche, in which police considered giving him a certificate of indemnity from prosecution. On that same day, Abdul-Rahman's home was raided again. Mr Keelty yesterday said police had established a link between Abdul-Rahman and others arrested under the high-profile Operation Pendennis between November 2005 and March last year. After the Pendennis raids, investigators said they had foiled imminent terrorist attacks in Sydney and Melbourne. The group of alleged Islamic terrorists was said to have been penetrated by an undercover police agent. Mr Keelty said that as those arrested as part of Operation Pendennis were still before the courts, there was a limit to how much he could say about alleged ties to yesterday's arrest over the stolen launchers. "We are continuing our investigations not only in relation to Operation Pendennis, but in respect of this aspect of the operation," Mr Keelty said. Asked if the man arrested yesterday was linked to the group that allegedly made threats to attack facilities including Lucas Heights, he said: "Yes, he is." The investigation into the stolen launchers is understood to focus on private security patrols of military facilities. After his arrest yesterday, Abdul-Rahman was charged with offences relating to the theft and procurement of the rocket launchers. According to court documents, police allege he is a second or third link in a chain that passed the weapons on to others after he acquired them from an unknown source, who got them from within the military. Abdul-Rahman is then alleged to have sold all seven to Darwiche for his alleged use in the drug war. It is alleged Darwiche, now serving a double life sentence in the supermax high-security prison at Goulburn, sold five of them to the terrorist group with cells in Sydney's south-west and Melbourne. Abdul-Rahman was taken to Sydney's Central Local Court late yesterday charged with 17 terrorism related offences. They include two counts of dishonestly receiving stolen property, and seven counts of unauthorised possession of a prohibited weapon. He was also charged with possession of ammunition under section 65 of the Ammunition and Firearms Act 1996. His solicitor, Sam Abbas, told the magistrate, Robyn Denes, he did not want his client to be taken from underground cells and brought before the court. With Abdul-Rahman's partner watching quietly from the public gallery, Mr Abbas said his client was not seeking bail, nor entering a plea but would make a bail application next Wednesday via video link. Mr Kaldas said there was a wider investigation into links between the criminal world and terrorism in Australia. "The line between criminality and politically motivated acts of terrorism is blurring worldwide," Mr Kaldas said. "We are open minded on whether other rockets have fallen into the hands of terror groups." -------- business Company caught in fallout of feds’ nuclear laws; New regulations too expensive for Plymouth business By TAMARA RACE and SUE REINERT The Patriot Ledger, January 6, 2007 http://ledger.southofboston.com/articles/2007/01/06/news/news03.txt PLYMOUTH - New federal rules designed to track low-level nuclear materials proved too burdensome for one small company. After 35 years in business, owner Carl Borsari has decided to close Nuclear Instrument Co. rather than comply with expensive new regulations. Borsari used cesium, a radioactive element, to calibrate specialized electronic instruments. Borsari said the new regulations would have forced him to dispose of his existing supply of cesium and buy a new, smaller supply at a cost of more than $80,000. At 71, he decided to close up shop. He spent this past week cleaning up his quarters in the Camelot Industrial Park. Borsari asked federal officials to take the radioactive material away two years ago, after receiving notice of the new rules. They didn’t get around to it until Dec. 18, when it was announced that cesium had been removed from an unidentified Plymouth company to keep it out of the hands of potential terrorists intent on making a dirty bomb. They didn’t mention that the U.S. Department of Energy had originally planned to wait another year to pick it up. ---- Company caught in fallout of feds’ nuclear laws; New regulations too expensive for Plymouth business Carl Borsari, owner of Nuclear Instrument Co., clears out his business in Plymouth after 35 years. New regulations on radiation forced him to shut his doors. (LISA BUL/The Patriot Ledger) By TAMARA RACE and SUE REINERT The Patriot Ledger Saturday, January 06, 2007 http://ledger.southofboston.com/articles/2007/01/06/news/news03.txt PLYMOUTH - New federal rules designed to track low-level nuclear materials proved too burdensome for one small company. After 35 years in business, owner Carl Borsari has decided to close Nuclear Instrument Co. rather than comply with expensive new regulations. Borsari used cesium, a radioactive element, to calibrate specialized electronic instruments. Borsari said the new regulations would have forced him to dispose of his existing supply of cesium and buy a new, smaller supply at a cost of more than $80,000. At 71, he decided to close up shop. He spent this past week cleaning up his quarters in the Camelot Industrial Park. Borsari asked federal officials to take the radioactive material away two years ago, after receiving notice of the new rules. They didn’t get around to it until Dec. 18, when it was announced that cesium had been removed from an unidentified Plymouth company to keep it out of the hands of potential terrorists intent on making a dirty bomb. They didn’t mention that the U.S. Department of Energy had originally planned to wait another year to pick it up. The cesium was in a pellet 20 millimeters long - a little less than an inch - and contained in an 1,100-pound capsule. Fifty nuclear calibration firms like Borsari’s were affected by rules issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission adopted in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. ‘‘Among the orders was one that called for them to contact local law enforcement to determine the best way to restrict unauthorized access (to radioactive material),’’ said Suzanne Condon, assistant state commissioner of public health. The companies had until last June to comply with security requirements and other rules, or lose their nuclear calibration licenses, Condon said. The other 49 companies all met the new standards, she said. State inspectors found out that Borsari was no longer doing calibration work when they visited his shop last month. When they discovered that the federal government didn’t intend to pick up the company’s radioactive material until 2008, they asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to act faster, she said. ‘‘We said we would like to see this material removed before there was any concern about risk to public health,’’ Condon said. Bryan Wilkes, spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, the energy department unit that carried out the recovery, said he wasn’t aware of the 2008 date. ‘‘We were asked by the NRC to remove it, and it was a high priority for them,’’ Wilkes said. Condon and Wilkes praised Borsari, saying he had ‘‘a near-perfect record’’ of compliance. His radioactive material was in sealed, leak-proof capsules, she said. Wilkes said Borsari ‘‘did the responsible thing (by not) just throwing (the material) away in some dump’’ after shutting down his calibration business. Borsari takes offense at the suggestion he was unable to handle the nuclear material. ‘‘I’m perfectly capable to manage it. That wasn’t the issue,’’ he said. ‘‘It was the cost of continuing. It wasn’t worth it.’’ Condon said the company still holds a license to handle a small amount of radioactive material, and she expects it to be transferred soon. Borsari said his firm has already been acquired by another company, but he declined to name it. More than 27,000 companies in the state work with radioactive material, Condon said. Of those, 512 hold radioactive materials licenses, including hospitals, universities, industrial and agricultural users. Cesium is used in cancer treatment and in gauges that measure rock formations in well-drilling, moisture in construction projects, the thickness of paper, metal and other materials, and flow in oil pipes. It takes about 30 years for cesium to lose half its radioactive energy. Fallout from nuclear weapons and accidents has spread cesium around the world. The metal emits radioactivity that can penetrate the body and would endanger health if it were released in an explosion, experts say. The National Nuclear Security Administration initially focused on retrieving abandoned radioactive material in the former Soviet Union and other countries. After Sept. 11, 2001, Wilkes said, ‘‘it became obvious to us that there was a lot of unused and unwanted radiologic material in the U.S.’’ The agency has recovered 13,000 domestic radioactive sources, Wilkes said. He did not know whether any others were in Massachusetts. Sue Reinert can be reached at sreinert@ledger.com; Tamara Race can be reached at trace@ledger.com -------- canada Pressure rising in Ontario's nuclear-reactor debate MURRAY CAMPBELL 06/01/07 Toronto Globe and Mail http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v5/content/subscribe?user_URL=http://www.theglobeandmail.com%2Fservlet%2Fstory%2FLAC.20070106.CAMPBELL06%2FTPStory%2FTPComment%2F%3Fpage%3Drss%26id%3DGAM.20070106.CAMPBELL06&ord=1168072366799&brand=theglobeandmail&force_login=true Gary Lunn tossed a considerable-sized cat among the pigeons recently with his boosterish comments about the Candu nuclear technology. It may have been the Christmas week, but executives in the energy industry were swapping e-mail messages after the federal Natural Resources Minister told The Globe and Mail that it was "imperative" that Ontario choose Candu for its first new nuclear reactor in two decades. -------- depleted uranium Your Tax Dollars In Action DU Birth Deformities Forever For Afghan Babies Mohammed Daud Miraki, MA, MA, PhD http://www.afghanistanafterdemocracy.com mdmiraki@ameritech.net 1-6-7 Rense.com http://www.rense.com/general74/afgg.htm In my lengthy series of reports and essays on Bush's inhuman use of depleted uranium/non-depleted uranium, this will probably be the last one I will write on the catastrophic DU/NDU effects on the unborn children in Afghanistan. My efforts to penetrate the mindset of the so-called silent majority have been met with stunning indifference by the American public to date. Most seem to want to avert their eyes when confronted with the results of the sub-human behavior of the Bush Neocon regime. It seems logical that the majority of Americans who opposed the invasion and Bush's genocide in Afghanistan would result in at least a token amount of support for humanitarian efforts there. Logic further suggests that when an audience is sympathetic to a topic, it is not unreasonable to hope for at least a modest showing of support...especially because all involved hold generally similar views about DU death and birth tragedies. Unfortunately, for the people of Afghanistan, the 'silent' majority of Americans are truly 'silent' in every way. Many good people have contacted me but could only offer moral support since that is all they have. And those honest people are decent examples of humanity. However, it is still hoped that those who can afford to make a contribution to the people and the nation the US government has been slaughtering, will step forward and purchase my book ... even it they immediately donate it to their public, school, or university library. As to the rest of the good American people, I could not say anything that would change your mind if you have already made up your mind. However, it is vital to realize that whether you have control over your tax dollars or not, your tax dollars have created the perpetual genocide in Afghanistan and in Iraq. To that end, and with hope, I'll let the following photographs speak to your conscience... SEE IF YOU CAN EXPLAIN TO THE PARENTS WHAT THIS IS http://www.rense.com/1.imagesH/afg1.jpg http://www.rense.com/1.imagesH/afg2.jpg http://www.rense.com/1.imagesH/afg3.jpg Oh yes, please do not send me any emails with empty words and claim to support my efforts in Afghanistan because empty words can not help any humanitarian efforts. Instead, you good people go to my website: www.afghanistanafterdemocracy.com and purchase my book. That way, you would be pitching in and helping pay for the land that would be housing the future hospital. Well, it is up to you which side you like to be on, the humane or the inhumane? Sudden increase in known and unknown deformities surprised people all over Afghanistan http://www.rense.com/1.imagesH/afg4.jpg http://www.rense.com/1.imagesH/afg5.jpg I came across this lady in Kabul begging for money. When I approached her to help her with some money, I looked at the baby and realized that his skull was unusually large. I asked her as to whether the infant was born this way, she said, yes. http://www.rense.com/1.imagesH/afg6.jpg http://www.rense.com/1.imagesH/afg7.jpg http://www.rense.com/1.imagesH/afg8.jpg http://www.rense.com/1.imagesH/afg9.jpg http://www.rense.com/1.imagesH/afg10.jpg http://www.rense.com/1.imagesH/afg11.jpg So there you have it, the amount of money needed for the land is $45,000; I guess the future lives of Afghan children are not worth that much to most Americans. My book: "Afghanistan After Democracy: the untold story through photographic images" is available at: http://www.afghanistanafterdemocracy.com -------- europe Czech Republic's Temelin nuclear unit shut down for test PRAGUE (AFP) Jan 06, 2007 http://www.spacewar.com/2006/070106111425.sjld3h4r.html The first unit of the controversial Czech nuclear reactor at Temelin was closed down overnight while tests were carried out on the operating equipment, the Czech news agency CTK said Saturday. The unit was expected to be reconnected to the network on Sunday, the agency said. The equipment has been tested once a month since an order in mid-2006 from the Czech Republic's nuclear authority, according to the same source. The Temelin plant, which started service in 2000, has created fierce controversy in neighbouring Austria, which opted to close down its commercial nuclear power plants in 1978. Austrian protests centre on the safety of the plant, built according to an original Soviet design with Western security systems added on. Temelin is sited 60 kilometres (40 miles) from the Czech-Austrian border. Original plans for the plant counted on four reactors but this was scaled back to two. related story: Czech Republic's Temelin nuclear reactor back on stream Sun Jan 7, 2007 (AFP) http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070107/sc_afp/czechaustriaenergy_070107110646 ---- Reactor could be cleaner alternative Posted by the Ocean County Observer on 01/6/07 BY DON BENNETT STAFF WRITER Ocean County Observer on 01/6/07 http://www.ocobserver.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070106/NEWS01/701060340/1002 A multinational investment in a fusion power reactor to be built in France is the next generation of a test reactor that operated at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory from 1982 to 1997, according to a spokesman for the lab. The earlier Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor studied the confinement of hot ionized gases, plasma, which is the fuel for the production of fusion energy. It never produced enough fusion to run Princeton University and 30,000 homes, explained Anthony R. DeMeo, spokesman for the lab. Louis B. Wary Jr. of Brick Township claimed the reactor was providing that much power when he was an engineering subcontractor on the project. Wary questioned the need for the new French reactor, saying it appeared to duplicate what had already been done at Princeton. He said plasma fusion, if perfected, can provide an endless source of energy from water and materials found on the earth's crust in every nation. It produces no greenhouse gases and no radioactive waste, Wary said. DeMeo said the reactor at Princeton produced 10.7 million watts of fusion power for a fraction of a second, "a world record at that time." It did not have the ability of convert fusion power to electricity, DeMeo said. Wary turned to the press after his efforts to get lawmakers interested in what happened at Princeton, and was going to happen in France, were ignored. He complained that he never got a response from members of Congress about his offer to provide them information on the work at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and the importance of the alternative energy source. The United States and six other countries will build a magnetic fusion project in France to advance the technology. The Bush administration since 2003 has been pushing the technology as an alterative to fossil fuels because its energy sources are hydrogen from water and tritium from the earth's crust, which are combined at 100 million degrees to become plasma. The plasma needs to be held together long enough for fusion to occur to produce energy. In France it will be held together by magnetic fields. DeMeo said the Iter reactor is "a substantially more advanced fusion experiment similar in design," to the one at Princeton. It will produce 500 million watts of fusion power for at least 400 seconds, he said. It will provide a bridge from earlier fusion experiments, like the one at Princeton, to a demonstration fusion plant capable of producing 1,000 million watts of electricity. That plan will be the first fusion device to actually produce electricity, DeMeo said. The deal to build Iter, Latin for "the way," was signed Nov. 21, when France, China, the Russian Federation, Japan, India, South Korea, and the United States met in Paris to lay the groundwork for the facility in Cadarache, France. The United States will pay 9.09 percent of its construction cost or $1.122 billion. It is expected to be completed in 2015. Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory are responsible for managing the U.S. activities supporting the research facility in France. -------- israel Israel's Bad Influence by Charley Reese, January 6, 2007 Antiwar.com http://www.antiwar.com/reese/?articleid=10276 Scott Ritter, a former U.N. arms inspector in Iraq, has written a book, Target Iran, in which he accuses the Israeli government and its American lobby of pushing the U.S. into attacking Iran. Ritter writes, "Let there be no doubt: If there is an American war with Iran, it is a war that was made in Israel." He accuses some members of the lobby of dual loyalty and urges that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee be required to register as a foreign agent. He also blasts the Israeli lobby for its use of the Holocaust and for crying anti-Semite every time Israel is criticized. "This is a sickening trend that must be ended," he writes. By coincidence, an Israeli general has verified everything Ritter says. According to an article published in Today.az on Jan. 2, Israeli Brig. Gen. Oded Tira published a statement urging an all-out effort by Israel and its lobby to push a U.S. attack on Iran. "President Bush lacks the political power to attack Iran," the general is quoted as saying. "As an American strike in Iran is essential for our existence, we must help him pave the way by lobbying the Democratic Party (which is conducting itself foolishly) and U.S. newspaper editors. We need to do this in order to turn the Iran issue to a bipartisan one and unrelated to the Iraq failure." The general urges the Israeli lobby to turn to Hillary Clinton and other potential presidential candidates in the Democratic Party so that they support immediate action by Bush against Iran. The lobby must also approach the Europeans, he adds, so Bush won't find himself isolated, and he calls for Israel to "clandestinely cooperate with Saudi Arabia so that it also persuades the U.S. to strike Iran." As Ritter says, a U.S. war in Iran will be a war made in Israel. Of course, Israel's American supporters, most of whom are ignorant of nuclear energy, ignorant of the history of Israel and ignorant of the people in the Middle East, will trot out their usual specious arguments. But let's lay out the undeniable facts. Israel considers Iran its main threat. Israel wants a U.S. attack against Iran. The Israeli lobby does what the Israeli government tells it to do. Anybody who claims the Israeli lobby is just another lobby is either ignorant or lying. The Israeli lobby is the second most, if not the most, powerful lobby in America. So, sit back and watch the Israeli amen corner start the propaganda to push America to war with Iran just as it did in the case of Iraq. It will try to have you believe that Iran can make nuclear weapons as easily as baking cakes. The truth is that even if Iran decided to seek nuclear weapons, the Iranians are a good 10 years away from having any. The truth is that Iran, even if it had nuclear weapons, is no threat to the U.S. All of which reminds me of my favorite undiplomatic comment by a diplomat. Some time ago at a private party in London, the French ambassador said of Israel, "Why does the world put up with such a sh*tty little country causing so much trouble?" Outraged British Zionists demanded his recall, but the French government ignored them. Sooner or later, Americans are going to wake up to the fact that Israel's influence on the American government is detrimental. If Israel wants a war with Iran, let the Israelis fight it. Of course, seeing how poorly they did against Hezbollah, I suspect that the Israelis, despite their public threats, would not choose to fight the Iranians. In my opinion, Americans who want American youth to die and bleed for the benefit of a foreign country are guilty of more than dual loyalty. -------- japan US downplays US-Japan emergency plan WASHINGTON (AFP) Jan 06, 2007 http://www.spacewar.com/2006/070105230522.2kizg0le.html The White House confirmed Friday that the United States and Japan were working on an emergency plan for a possible crisis on the Korean peninsula but said it was a routine contingency effort. "People make plans all the time," spokesman Tony Snow said after Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso, in Tokyo, revealed that the aim was "to protect some 20,000 Japanese residents and tens of thousands of tourists" in South Korea. "It is a standard part of any government's preparation to try to take a look at all alternatives, domestically and internationally, and try to prepare for them," Snow told reporters. "And in this case, obviously, the United States and Japan, as parties to the six-party talks, have interests in trying to address," he said. "What we're hoping is for the six-party talks to resume soon." Those negotiations group China, Japan, Russia, North and South Korea and the United States. Aso, who did not elaborate on the various scenarios being considered, said officials needed to consider "ways to evacuate Japanese nationals using US military vessels and civilian ships." He added that the plan would also consider how to deal with refugees from the Communist North. The Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported earlier that Tokyo fears as many as 100,000 to 150,000 North Korean refugees could flood into Japan in the event of an unspecified contingency in the Korean peninsula. The estimate comes from a committee linked to Japan's national security council, the report said, citing unnamed sources related to the matter. It said the council concluded that such a large number of refugees would overwhelm existing facilities in Japan and some of them might need to be transferred to a third country. North Korea shocked Japan and the rest of the world when it announced on October 9 that it had conducted its first nuclear test, sparking international condemnation and UN sanctions on the already impoverished nation. -------- u.s. nuc facilities Bush Picks New Head of Nuclear Agency By H. JOSEF HEBERT The Associated Press Saturday, January 6, 2007 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/05/AR2007010500775_pf.html WASHINGTON -- The White House said Friday that President Bush has chosen a replacement for the man ousted as head of the government's nuclear weapons program in the wake of reports of embarrassing security breakdowns. Bush selected Thomas P. D'Agostino, who currently serves as deputy administrator of defense programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration, to succeed Linton Brooks in the top job there on an acting basis. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman had said Thursday that Brooks would resign within the month. The agency maintains the nuclear weapons stockpile and oversees the nation's weapons research laboratories. "I have decided it is time for new leadership at the NNSA," Bodman said. Brooks, a former ambassador and arms control negotiator, said he accepted the decision, one he understood was "based on the principle of accountability that should govern all public service. This is not a decision that I would have preferred." Brooks was reprimanded in June for failing to report to Bodman the theft of computer files at an NNSA facility in Albuquerque, N.M., that contained Social Security numbers and other data for 1,500 workers. Then in October hundreds of pages of classified weapons-related documents from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico were found during a drug raid in the home of a woman who had worked at the lab. That security breakdown was especially troubling, a department inspector general's report said, because it came after tens of millions of dollars had been spent to upgrade cyber-security at Los Alamos. A new management group also had been put in charge only a few months earlier _ also a fallout over the repeated security problems. The New Mexico laboratory is one of three major research labs that are part of the nuclear weapons complex under the NNSA. The agency was created after the security flap involving Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee in the late 1990s in hopes that a single agency within DOE might provide more control over security. Meanwhile, lab spokesman Steve Sandoval said Friday the installation in New Mexico plans to implement an expanded substance abuse policy that includes random drug tests of employees and pre-employment drug screening for lab workers and contractors. All lab policies, including current substance abuse guidelines, have been under review since last year, before Los Alamos National Security LLC took over the lab's management in June from the University of California, which ran the lab for the DOE for decades, he said. Michael Anastasio, the lab's director, notified employees about the new policy last month "to let people know this was coming and take it seriously," Sandoval said. In announcing Brooks' resignation, Bodman said the NNSA had "done its best" to address the problems, but that progress had not been adequate. "Therefore, and after careful consideration, I have decided that it is time for new leadership at the NNSA," Bodman said. Some members of Congress questioned whether Brooks' departure is enough to make the changes that are needed. "It will take more than a new boss to fix the problems, which are far more systemic and pervasive in nature," said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is considering hearings on DOE security. Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., said she also plans a hearing by her House Armed Services subcommittee on "the important policy and structural changes" planned to improve the nuclear agency. Her aides said she believes the issue is one that goes beyond Brooks, whom she praised. Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, the ranking Republican on both the Senate Energy Committee and the Appropriations subcommittee on NNSA spending, said Bodman "has sent a clear message" that improvements are needed at the agency. A number of lawmakers as well as private watchdog groups have maintained that Brooks had not responded forcefully enough to the Los Alamos security breakdowns. "His departure is long overdue," Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, said Thursday. He had called for Brooks' immediate firing last summer when the theft involving information on the 1,500 employees came to light. In November, the Project on Government Oversight, a private watchdog group, urged that Brooks be fired, saying he had been slow in implementing a two-year-old policy to do away with removable storage devices in weapons-related computers. In his message to employees, Brooks, who came to NNSA in July 2002, bemoaned the lack of progress in solving security problems at Los Alamos. "We have not yet done so in over five years," he said. But the rash of security problems date back to the late 1990s, frustrating senior DOE officials. They include the disappearance of two hard drives containing classified material that later were found behind a copying machine and the disappearance of two computer disks that forced a virtual shutdown of Los Alamos. It later was learned the two disks never existed. Among other incidents were lost keys to classified areas containing highly enriched uranium, use of less secure e-mail systems to transmit classified material, scientists losing track of vials of plutonium and the alleged improper use of government credit cards. On the Net: Energy Department: http://www.doe.gov National Nuclear Security Administration: http://www.nnsa.doe.gov -------- tennessee Nuclear weapons plant manager fees hurt by construction delay By DUNCAN MANSFIELD Associated Press Writer January 6, 2007 http://www.wkrn.com/nashville/news/ap-nuclear-weapons-plant-manager-fees-hurt-by-construction-delay/69569.htm KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The contractor managing the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge took a nearly $2 million hit in its 2006 performance fees because of construction problems with a new storehouse for the nation's largest inventory of bomb-grade uranium. "They have resumed work and are making terrific progress," but the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility remains behind schedule, government spokesman Steve Wyatt said. Still, contractor BWXT Y-12 received $33.6 million under its incentive-based contract for the way it ran the 4,700-employee plant in fiscal 2006, up $4.3......million from the year before. The Y-12 plant, which provided the fuel for the first atomic bomb dropped on Japan in World War II, today makes parts for every warhead in the U.S. nuclear arsenal and is the nation's primary repository for highly enriched uranium. The 110,000-square-foot storehouse project, which will consolidate several uranium caches at the nuclear weapons plant some 20 miles west of Knoxville, is now about 45 percent done. The facility's completion date has been pushed back another year to 2009 because of security design changes and a two-month work suspension ordered last spring after reinforcing steel in concrete was foundmissing or improperly installed. Those factors have contributed to a ballooning price tag _ from an original $120 million to a current estimate "in the range of $550 million," Wyatt said. The project "experienced significant problems" in 2006 that "led to an overall delay" in completing the facility, National Nuclear Security Administration manager Ted Sherry wrote in his annual fee letter to BWXT Y-12 president and general manager George Dials on Dec. 27. However, Sherry said, "It is noteworthy that BWXT Y-12 has taken aggressive action to address problems with this project," especially in project management, oversight, quality assurance andquality control. Sherry said NNSA, the Department of Energy unit that oversees the nuclear weapons program, docked $1.9 million from BWXT Y-12's annual fee because of the uranium storehouse problems. Dials said BWXT, a partnership of BWX Technologies and Bechtel National, lost a total of $5 million because of the problems with the storehouse and "to a much lesser degree on several other projects." "Although on balance we're extremely pleased with fee performance this year," Dials said, the penalties assessed for the uranium facility seemed "severe in light of the fact that the project is back on track and progressing smoothly." Sherryrated BWXT Y-12's overall performance as good. He noted in particular a "dramatic increase" in the rate of dismantling old warheads, the resumption of enriched uranium metal production for the first time in 14 years, the demolition of 108,000 square feet of obsolete buildings and a 40 percent decline in worker injuries. Y-12: http://www.y12.doe.gov -------- MILITARY -------- arms Russia says US sanctions on arms dealers 'illegal' Sat Jan 6, 2006 (AFP) http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070106/wl_afp/russiausiransyria_070106202640 MOSCOW - Russia hit back at the United States after Washington had imposed sanctions on three Russian firms for exporting weapons to Libya and Iran, branding the US action "illegal." "The United States are not for the first time trying to extend their national laws illegally to foreign countries, forcing them to work according to American rules," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. Washington announced sanctions Friday against 24 foreign entities, including Russian, Chinese and North Korean firms, for allegedly selling banned weapons to Iran and Syria. Russian Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov said Saturday that as head of the commission controlling military exports he confirmed that "the three (Russian) companies did not violate any international norms on the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and missile technologies," according to the Interfax news agency. "It seems the American government is unhappy about the growing volume of arms and military equipment sold by Russia," the agency cited Ivanov as saying. Russia's state-run arms exporter Rosoboroneksport was among the highest profile firms hit by the measures, imposed under the US 2005 Iran and Syria Nonproliferation Act. The United States had already imposed similar sanctions on Rosoboroneksport and Russian plane maker Sukhoi in August 2006 for providing Iran with material that Washington said could be used to make weapons of mass destruction. "Ultimately, all these decisions constitute an internal problem for the American authorities," the Russian foreign ministry said on Saturday. "The American state is forbidding itself and American companies from cooperating with our leading businesses. In business terms, that means wasted opportunities," the ministry said. Russian businesses had already strongly contested the measures on Friday, saying they were respecting international law. Russia is one of the world's leading arms exporters. In 2005, it sold weapons to 61 countries for a record total of more than six billion dollars. -------- ACTIVISTS Ex-Guantanamo inmate to join protest outside prison camp By Agence France Presse (AFP) Saturday, January 06, 2007 http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=78285 HAVANA: A former Guantanamo inmate and relatives of other detainees plan to demonstrate next week outside the US "war on terror" prison in Cuba to call on Washington to shut down the facility. Asif Iqbal, who for "years" was held at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay and finally released without being charged, will be the first ex-prisoner to protest at the site, organizers of the demonstration told AFP. The protesters, including human-rights activists and lawyers for detainees, will arrive in Cuba and head for Guantanamo Wednesday, a day ahead of the "International Day to Close Down Guantanamo," said officials of Global Exchange and Code Pink, a peace-activist group. January 11, when the demonstration outside Guantanamo will be held, will mark the fifth anniversary of the arrival of the first war-on-terror prisoner in Guantanamo, the organizers said, adding that similar protests would also take place around the world. "I am travelling [to Cuba] all the way from Dubai because my heart is overflowing with grief over the abuse and ongoing detention of my son," Zohra Zewawi, mother of a Guantanamo prisoner held since September 2002, said in a statement. She said that during his detention, her son has been tortured, lost an eye and never been charged or prosecuted. "US federal courts, not military commissions, should hear the cases against those charged with terrorist acts, and the infamous prison in Guantanamo should be immediately shut down ," said former US Army Colonel Ann Wright, who retired from the military to protest the Iraq war. The US Congress in September enacted a new law proposed by President George W. Bush authorizing trials by special military commissions and removing the jurisdiction of any "court, judge or justice" over habeas corpus petitions by foreigners held as enemy combatants. US peace activist Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, and the mother of a firefighter killed in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States will also travel to Cuba for the protest. The Pentagon last month said "about 395" terror suspects were still held at Guantanamo, and around 85 could be transferred or released after their cases were examined.