NucNews January 20, 2007 -------- NUCLEAR -------- accidents and safety Divers find risky work in nuclear reactor pools BY KATHRYN KRANHOLD THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Posted on Saturday, January 20, 2007 http://nwanews.com/adg/Business/179431/ David Harner pulled on a fitted Lycra outfit with thin tubes snaking around his body carrying cold water and attached pencil-thin monitoring devices to his thighs, biceps, chest and back. Co-workers helped him into a red rubber suit and a helmet attached to an oxygen line. Harner then lowered himself into a pool of warm water that had the faint, distant blue glow of fuel rods. “Not everyone would want to jump in a nuclear reactor,” Harner says. “It’s a definite breed.” Harner, 33, belongs to a small corps of men and women who make their living in the underwater world of nuclearpower plants. Many first took up diving as a hobby, then attended commercial diving school. John Paul Johnston, executive director of Divers Institute of Technology in Seattle, says “the high-tech guys” are drawn to nuclear diving, rather than to other sorts of work, like offshore oil rigs. Harner, whose father worked at a Michigan nuclear plant, started diving in muddy rivers where he could see little. Then, he was sent into the crystal-clear water of a reactor. There, he says, he was struck by how much he could see, including the numbers on the fuel rods about 8 feet beneath him. Mark White, 40, chose diving about 18 years ago rather than following his father into the Ohio coal mines. He thought mining was a dying industry — and too dangerous. “When you’re 22 years old, and you can try something new and daring, it catches your imagination,” said White, who dives and manages projects for Underwater Construction Corp., the largest nuclear diving company. Divers are in great demand these days. Power companies need them to maintain many of the world’s 442 nuclear reactors. They’re also called on to repair aging bridges and water tanks. And oil companies need them to fix offshore platforms damaged by Hurricane Katrina. That has done little to increase pay for nuclear divers, who start at salaries of about $ 30, 000 a year. Experienced divers certified for specialized work can make close to $ 100, 000. Offshore divers make still more but have to live on a ship for months at a time. Nuclear reactors range in size, from 35 feet to 70 feet tall, and 14 feet to 20 feet wide, depending on the type of technology. They are enclosed in steelreinforced concrete structures. During operation, boiling water reactors are partially filled with about 60, 000 gallons of water that circulates to cool the fuel and also turns into steam to power the turbine. Pressurized reactors hold 35, 000 gallons of water during operations. When the reactor is shut down for refueling and maintenance, the vessel and secondary pools, also called the cavity, are filled with more than 500, 000 gallons of water that further cools down the reactor and acts as a guard against radiation. The nuclear divers measure assignments not only by the minute, but by millirems, a measure of radiation exposure. Diver Michael Pickart received about 450 millirems during a project last fall refueling one of the two reactors at Arkansas Nuclear One in Russellville. That’s more than the average person’s annual exposure to natural radiation — 300 millirems according to the Nuclear Energy Institute. An X-ray delivers about 40 millirems. At the Russellville plant Pickart, 30, replaced underwater stainless-steel tubes. In an underwater chair, the former construction worker cut and threaded new cylinders. He says he tries not to think about the risks. “If you ever slipped out of the chair, it could ruin your day,” he said. He hastens to add that plant workers would swiftly pull him to the surface by the cords attached to his suit. Divers aim to keep exposure below 2, 000 millirems a year, the limit set by most power companies. (The government allows individual divers to be exposed to 5, 000 millirems a year. ) When they near the maximum, divers are barred from nuclear plants, which typically pay better than other jobs do. After his work in Russellville, Pickart got a mix of assignments. On a November job in Illinois, he worked primarily in a less-radioactive pool. A dive is aborted at the first sign of trouble. Last year, David Klassen was forced to surface after a few minutes when dosimeters showed he was receiving too much radiation. The 28-year-old former Southern California scuba instructor had been working on a reactor dryer in Morris, Ill., which removes excess water from the steam that powers turbines. Klassen said he later learned that his dosimeters had malfunctioned. The work “never lets you get too relaxed,” he said. The divers’ equipment is the product of improvisation and experimentation. Conventional wet suits, which keep divers warm in cold water, aren’t practical. The water in a nuclear plant is too warm, sometimes exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Instead, nuclear divers wear a suit made of vulcanized rubber, which keeps them dry. To stay cool, they wear so-called cold suits, like the one Harner donned, developed for space walks in the 1960 s. Including the special helmet, the gear can weigh about 100 pounds. That’s more than twice as heavy as the gear commonly worn by recreational divers. Before a project begins, plant technicians measure radiation in the pool. Divers wear as many as a dozen dosimeters — on their knees, arms, chest, back, feet and hands — to track exposure. On the refuel floor, generally five stories up, workers monitor the dives and follow the real-time radiation readings on computers. Pickart’s cold suit burst on a recent job, dousing the dosimeters with water and causing them to short out. His dive quickly ended. “There’s no way to monitor you,” he said, if the dosimeters fail. “They’re not going to leave you down there to get cooked.” --- Nuclear Divers, A Definite Breed Posted Jan 20th 2007 Divester, by Willy Volk http://www.divester.com/2007/01/20/nuclear-divers-a-definite-breed/ According to David Harner, "Not everyone would want to jump in a nuclear reactor. It's a definite breed." Harner should know whereof he understates, because Harner is a nuclear diver, one of those "definite breed" who dives inside the cooling reactors of nuclear power plants while wearing a specialized, 100-pound "cool suit." Claiming he enjoys diving in reactors because the vis is so good, I've got two words for him: Cayman Brac. Interestingly, a nuke diver's logbook doesn't just track depth and bottom time. It also includes data concerning millirems, a measure of radiation exposure. Nuclear divers try to keep their exposure below 2000 millirems a year, although the government allows divers to be exposed to 5000 millirems a year. (For comparison, an x-ray delivers about 40 millirems, and people sitting too close to the television can receive up to 890 millirems of radiation to the eyes annually.) Most nuclear power plants don't retain full-time divers. Rather, most work as subcontractors and travel as teams. If you want to learn more about nuclear diving, start with Kathryn Kranhold's profile of several nuclear divers, and after that, try these: * Underwater Construction Corporation is the largest nuclear diving company in the world. With over 200 employees (about 5 of which are women), they travel the world offering nuclear plants the services they need. Guess what? They've got job openings right now. * Both MescoDivers and The Ocean Corporation offer nuclear diver training programs. * Diving Heritage has an excellent history and overview of nuclear divers, including some tiny but illuminating images of nuclear divers at work (like the thumbnail in this post). * Valhalla, Texas is home to a missile silo that used to house a nuclear-tipped missile. While it may not be as, um, glamorous as diving in a real nuclear reactor, it's probably a lot safer and requires a lot less training. ---- Faulty welding cited in shutdown By Kirsti Marohn kmarohn@stcloudtimes.com Published: January 20. 2007 St. Cloud Times, MN http://www.sctimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070120/NEWS01/101190045 MONTICELLO — The manager of Monticello’s nuclear plant says it appears the 35,000-pound control box that fell on a pipe carrying radioactive steam wasn’t properly welded to a beam when the plant was built in the 1970s. Brad Sawatzke said Friday that workers are fixing the structure and investigating what caused the box to fall Jan. 10. The failure triggered a plant shutdown. “We’re working hard to understand what the root cause of that failure was. ... We’re basically asking ourselves, ‘Could this situation exist anywhere else in the plant?’ ” he said. So far, workers have found no similar structures with the same welding problem, he said. A sample of the welding was sent off-site for testing. The results should be available in the next day or two, which will help investigators make a final determination of the cause. “Right now, it is pointing toward an initial design issue ... specifically, to this one brace,” Sawatzke said. The plant is at full staff, with workers doing regular maintenance and preparing for an upcoming scheduled outage, Sawatzke said. He said the plant should resume operation in days or weeks, not months. The box fell on some pipes, including a main steam line that supplies the turbine. The pipe did not rupture, and even if it had, it’s unlikely that any significant amount of radiation could have escaped, Sawatzke said. Sensors immediately shut off the steam supply to the nuclear reactor when they detected a problem, he said. Nuclear Management Co., which operates the plant, notified the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission but did not alert the public. Plant officials follow procedures that determine when the public must be notified, Sawatzke said. “In this case, there was no steam leak, so there was no need for any notification,” he said. George Crocker of the North American Water Office, a longtime critic of the nuclear industry, said the incident should serve as a “dire warning” of the potential safety problems of aging nuclear plants. “Toward the end of life, components age and deteriorate,” Crocker said. “There’s simply no way that everything that needs to be inspected gets inspected in time to prevent its malfunction.” The Monticello plant’s license was recently renewed for another 20 years. -------- canada Dion shifts nuclear stand KAREN HOWLETT 20/01/07 Toronto Globe & Mail http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070120.DION20/TPStory/TPNational/?page=rss&id=GAM.20070120.DION20 TORONTO -- Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion appears to have changed his tune about nuclear power and the question of how to tackle the waste that remains radioactive for thousands of years. Mr. Dion told a business audience in Toronto this week that he cannot support an expansion of nuclear power in Canada unless Ottawa comes up with a plan for dealing with waste from reactors. However, the discomfort he expressed during his first major speech in Toronto since winning the Liberal leadership is at odds with his own energy and climate change plan released in September. In that document, Mr. Dion endorsed a nuclear industry proposal to spend $24-billion to permanently bury the waste 1,000 metres underground. The industry-run Nuclear Waste Management Organization submitted its recommendations to the previous Liberal government in November, 2005. "As Prime Minister, I would work to ensure that Canada's existing nuclear infrastructure is as safe and efficient as possible by supporting the implementation of the NWMO recommendations," Mr. Dion said in the policy document entitled Building a Sustainable Future for Canada, the centrepiece of his leadership campaign. Mr. Dion now appears to be outright rejecting the recommendations of the NWMO. "As long as I have not received a convincing strategy for the waste, I am not able to look Canadians in the eye and say, 'I'm comfortable with the waste,' I will not recommend it," he said this week at the Economic Club of Toronto, in response to a question from the audience. His comments left executives in the nuclear industry mystified. "I think a lot of people were saying, 'Is he completely discounting a report he basically accepts on Page 25 of his platform documents?' " said one industry executive who asked not to be identified. "The last thing we expected was criticism of the plans to safely store high-level nuclear waste," added another executive, who also asked not to be identified. Elizabeth Whiting, a spokeswoman for Mr. Dion, sought to clarify his position on nuclear waste in an e-mail yesterday. "As noted at the Economic Club in Toronto, Mr. Dion has concerns regarding the disposal of nuclear waste," she wrote. "In his policy document he states that as PM he would work to relieve those concerns by ensuring Canada's existing nuclear infrastructure is as safe and efficient as possible." Ms. Whiting said Mr. Dion made a commitment in his policy platform to support the implementation of the NWMO recommendations. Mr. Dion says in the policy document that nuclear energy will form an important part of Canada's electricity mix down the road. He says the former Liberal government created the NWMO in recognition of this reality and the public's concerns about nuclear energy. The document also says he would support investments in alternative and renewable energy sources, such as wind power. -------- depleted uranium Arab Meeting to Follow up Israeli Nuclear Activity Saturday, January 20, 2007 (SANA) http://www.sana.org/eng/22/2007/01/20/97772.htm CAIRO - The 21rst meeting of the Arab Committee to Follow up the Israeli Nuclear Activity started today at the Arab League headquarters. The committee discussed a number of issues related to pursuing the Israeli nuclear activity and the Arab coordination in the normal session of the general conference of the IAEA as well as actions of the member states at NPT to review it in 2010 and work of its committees scheduled to start next May. The committee also conferred the wok paper over risks of the Israeli nuclear weapon and other Israeli weapons of mass destruction on the Arab national security and international peace. Official of the disarmament file at the Arab League Wael al-Assad said the league has prepared work papers over all Arab issues concerned with disarmament to be presented to the upcoming meeting of the Arab foreign ministers. Meanwhile, Italian experts and researchers on dangerous radiating materials unveiled today the great presence of depleted uranium in the Lebanese city of Khiyam and the southern suburb of Beirut due to the Israeli aggression on Lebanon last July. Rai News 24 quoted experts as saying a documentary film aired by the stallelite station today proved presence of depleted uranium radiation risks that are still in air and water of these regions on the from of very risky poisonous atoms. ---- Letter: Fulk overstates facts Tracy Press, California / Saturday, 20 January 2007 By Steve Hall http://tracypress.com/content/view/7228/2/ EDITOR, When formulating a dose risk assessment, how much damage a radionuclide can do is only part of the equation. Equally important aspects are how much contamination would pose a significant risk, and the likelihood of that level of contamination being reached. Marion Fulk either knows, or should know, this. The fact that he did not include this in his Jan. 9 commentary, “Uranium a big threat to Tracy” leads the reader to wonder just what his agenda is. Clearly, it is not public education. Fulk states that depleted uranium “poses a serious health threat, especially if inhaled in finely divided particles like those created by open-air explosives testing.” No mention is made of the likelihood of these particles remaining suspended long enough inhaled by Tracy residents, or anyone else for that matter. He correctly labels uranium-238 an alpha emitter and describes the damage it can do “if lodged in the body.” However, Fulk fails to mention that since alpha radiation can’t penetrate the body’s outer layer of dead corneous cells, it can only cause damage from inside the body. Fulk cites the “nearly fourfold” increase, from 2.5 person-rem per year to 9.8 person-rem per year, but neglects to inform the reader as to whether either of these levels is significant relative to normal background exposure. By comparison, the population dose from cosmic radiation alone is 213,000 person-rem, and the total dose from all natural background sources (i.e. cosmic, terrestrial, food consumption and radon) is more than 2 million person-rem. If it “pains” Fulk “when lab employees seek to understate the very real health risks that stem from inhalation of radioactive and toxic materials,” why does he not find it equally disturbing when a former lab employee overstates the risk of inhalation of those materials Steve Hall, Tracy -------- israel Arab Meeting to Follow up Israeli Nuclear Activity Saturday, January 20, 2007, (SANA) http://www.sana.org/eng/22/2007/01/20/97772.htm CAIRO - The 21rst meeting of the Arab Committee to Follow up the Israeli Nuclear Activity started today at the Arab League headquarters. The committee discussed a number of issues related to pursuing the Israeli nuclear activity and the Arab coordination in the normal session of the general conference of the IAEA as well as actions of the member states at NPT to review it in 2010 and work of its committees scheduled to start next May. The committee also conferred the wok paper over risks of the Israeli nuclear weapon and other Israeli weapons of mass destruction on the Arab national security and international peace. Official of the disarmament file at the Arab League Wael al-Assad said the league has prepared work papers over all Arab issues concerned with disarmament to be presented to the upcoming meeting of the Arab foreign ministers. Meanwhile, Italian experts and researchers on dangerous radiating materials unveiled today the great presence of depleted uranium in the Lebanese city of Khiyam and the southern suburb of Beirut due to the Israeli aggression on Lebanon last July. Rai News 24 quoted experts as saying a documentary film aired by the stallelite station today proved presence of depleted uranium radiation risks that are still in air and water of these regions on the from of very risky poisonous atoms. -------- mideast Arab Meeting to Follow up Israeli Nuclear Activity Saturday, January 20, 2007 http://www.sana.org/eng/22/2007/01/20/97772.htm CAIRO, (SANA)- The 21rst meeting of the Arab Committee to Follow up the Israeli Nuclear Activity started today at the Arab League headquarters. The committee discussed a number of issues related to pursuing the Israeli nuclear activity and the Arab coordination in the normal session of the general conference of the IAEA as well as actions of the member states at NPT to review it in 2010 and work of its committees scheduled to start next May. The committee also conferred the wok paper over risks of the Israeli nuclear weapon and other Israeli weapons of mass destruction on the Arab national security and international peace. Official of the disarmament file at the Arab League Wael al-Assad said the league has prepared work papers over all Arab issues concerned with disarmament to be presented to the upcoming meeting of the Arab foreign ministers. Meanwhile, Italian experts and researchers on dangerous radiating materials unveiled today the great presence of depleted uranium in the Lebanese city of Khiyam and the southern suburb of Beirut due to the Israeli aggression on Lebanon last July. Rai News 24 quoted experts as saying a documentary film aired by the stallelite station today proved presence of depleted uranium radiation risks that are still in air and water of these regions on the from of very risky poisonous atoms. -------- missile defense Russia warns U.S. over Czech missile defence base Updated Sat. Jan. 20 2007 Associated Press http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070120/missile_defence_070120/20070120?hub=World&s_name= PRAGUE -- The United States has asked the Czech Republic to host a radar base that would be part of a global missile defence system, the prime minister announced Saturday, drawing a warning from Russia of retaliatory actions. U.S. officials contend the system could defend Europe against intercontinental missiles fired by states such as Iran and North Korea. But the Kremlin warned that the military balance in Europe could be at stake and said the development risked a new arms race. Independent defence experts have said the ground-based missile defence system is still years from being able to protect against long-range missile attacks. Washington declined comment on Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek's statement. But the United States has been negotiating with Poland and the Czech Republic, both former communist states now in NATO, as it explores setting up missile defence sites in Eastern Europe. The United States has missile interceptor bases in Alaska and California. It activated a powerful X-band radar site in northern Japan as part of the system last September, but so far has no anti-missile weapons based outside U.S. territory. The U.S. request that the Czech Republic host only an X-band radar facility could indicate Washington is considering putting launchers for anti-missile missiles in Poland. Czech authorities refused to comment on Poland's possible role. Topolanek said only that he would discuss the issue with his Polish counterpart, Jaroslaw Kaczynski. Topolanek said his government would name a committee in the next week to consider the U.S. request and a decision could take several months. Czech opposition parties have spoken against the defence system, and the premier's governing coalition does not have enough parliament votes to pass measures on its own. In Moscow, Andrei Kokoshin, the former Russian Security Council chief who now heads parliament's committee for ties with former Soviet bloc countries, warned that Czech approval of the plan would "not pass without consequences.'' Russian legislators dealing with security issues "will recommend taking retaliatory measures'' that would "help maintain strategic stability and ensure the national security of Russia and our friends and allies,'' Kokoshin was quoted as telling the Interfax news agency. A State Department spokesman, Edgar Vasquez, told The Associated Press he could not confirm that the Czechs had been asked to host the radar site and Poles the missile interceptors. He only repeated that negotiations were underway. "Depending on the result of the discussions, the U.S. will seek to field a limited number of ground-based missile defence silo launchers, with their associated interceptors, similar to those currently fielded at Fort Greely, Alaska, and to deploy an X-band radar for midcourse tracking and discrimination of ballistic missile threats out of the Middle East,'' he said. Vasquez would not specify which countries in the Middle East are considered a threat, but U.S. officials and others worry about Iran's development of long-range missiles that can reach Europe. The missile defence system is intended to begin tracking missiles early during their boost phase and then guide intercepter missiles that would destroy the threatening missiles in flight. So far, the U.S. military has deployed only a small number of interceptor missiles, at least 11 at Fort Greely and two at Vandenberg Air Force Base on the central California coast. Topolanek said that if the Czech Republic approves the U.S. request, some 200 American specialists would be deployed here and the base would become operational in 2011. "We are convinced that a possible deployment of the radar station on our territory is in our interest,'' he said. "It will increase security of the Czech Republic and Europe.'' ---- A New Player at Star Wars By JOSEPH KAHN New York Times January 20, 2007 http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fairenough/nyt818.html BEIJING, Jan. 19 — China’s apparent success in destroying one of its own orbiting satellites with a ballistic missile signals that its rising military intends to contest American supremacy in space, a realm many here consider increasingly crucial to national security. The test of an antisatellite weapon last week, which Beijing declined to confirm or deny Friday despite widespread news coverage and diplomatic inquiries, was perceived by East Asia experts as China’s most provocative military action since it testfired missiles off the coast of Taiwan more than a decade ago. Unlike the Taiwan exercise, the main target this time was the United States, the sole superpower in space. With lengthy white papers, energetic diplomacy and generous aid policies, Chinese officials have taken pains in recent years to present their country as a new kind of global power that, unlike the United States, had only good will toward other nations. But some analysts say the test shows that the reality is more complex. China has surging national wealth, legitimate security concerns and an opaque military bureaucracy that may belie the government’s promise of a “peaceful rise.” “This is the other face of China, the hard power side that they usually keep well hidden,” said Chong-Pin Lin, an expert on China’s military in Taiwan. “They talk more about peace and diplomacy, but the push to develop lethal, high-tech capabilities has not slowed down at all.” Japan, South Korea and Australia are among the countries in the region that pressed China to explain the test, which if confirmed would make it the third power, after the United States and the Soviet Union, to shoot down an object in space. China’s Foreign and Defense Ministries declined to comment on reports of the test, which were based on United States intelligence data. Liu Jianchao, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, would say only that China opposed using weapons in space. “China will not participate in any kind of arms race in outer space,” he told Reuters. The silence on the test underscores how much China’s rapidly modernizing military — perhaps especially the Second Artillery forces, in charge of its ballistic missile program — remains isolated and secretive, answering only to President Hu Jintao, who heads the military as well as the ruling Communist Party. Having a weapon that can disable or destroy satellites is considered a component of China’s unofficial doctrine of asymmetrical warfare. China’s army strategists have written that the military intends to use relatively inexpensive but highly disruptive technologies to impede the better-equipped and better-trained American forces in the event of an armed conflict — over Taiwan, for example. The Pentagon makes extensive use of satellites for military communications, intelligence and missile guidance, and some Chinese experts have argued that damaging its space-based satellite infrastructure could hobble American forces. Yet while China’s research and development of such weapons has been well known, the apparent decision to test-fire an antisatellite weapon came as a surprise to many analysts. “If this is fully corroborated, it is a very significant event that is likely to recast relations between the United States and China,” said Allan Behm, a former official in Australia’s Defense Ministry. “This was a very sophisticated thing to do, and the willingness to do it means that we’re seeing a different level of threat.” China’s military expenditures have been growing at nearly a double-digit pace, even after adjusting for inflation, for 15 years. China has begun to deploy sophisticated submarines, aircraft and antiship missiles that the Pentagon says could have offensive uses. Yet with a few notable exceptions, Beijing has avoided sharp provocations that could prompt the United States or Japan to focus more on what some officials in both countries regard as a potential China threat. Chinese leaders emphasize that they are preoccupied with domestic challenges and intend to focus their energy and resources on economic development, a policy they say depends heavily on cross-border investment, open trade and friendly foreign relations. Beijing has denied that it intends to develop space weapons and sharply criticized the United States for experimenting with a space-based missile defense system. It forged a coalition of Asian countries to jointly develop peaceful space-based technologies. Last month it published and heavily promoted a white paper on military strategy that emphasized its view that space must remain weapon-free. “China is unflinching in taking the road of peaceful development and always maintains that outer space is the common wealth of mankind,” the paper said. Some of such talk amounts to little more than propaganda. But Jonathan Pollack, a China specialist at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., says the Chinese military does in fact act cautiously when it comes to improving its strategic capabilities, like long-range missiles and nuclear weapons, to avoid causing alarm in the United States. “They have talked about antisatellite weapons,” he said. “But we have always thought that the threat was ambiguous and that China probably wanted it that way. So what was the calculation to go ahead with an actual test?” Some analysts suggested that one possible motivation was to prod the Bush administration to negotiate a treaty to ban space weapons. Russia and China have advocated such a treaty, but President Bush rejected those calls when he authorized a policy that seeks to preserve “freedom of action” in space. Chinese officials have warned that an arms race could ensue if Washington did not change course. At a United Nations conference in Vienna last June on uses of space, a Chinese Foreign Ministry official, Tang Guoqiang, called the policies of “certain nations” disconcerting. “Outer space is the common heritage of mankind, and weaponization of outer space is bound to trigger off an arms race, thus rendering outer space a new arena for military confrontation,” he said, according to an official transcript of his remarks. Even so, Mr. Pollack of the Naval War College said that if China hoped that demonstrating a new weapon of this kind would prompt a positive response in Washington, they most likely miscalculated. “Very frankly, many people in Washington will find that this validates the view of a China threat,” Mr. Pollack said. “It could well end up backfiring and forcing the U.S. to take new steps to counter China.” Other analysts said the test might have more to do with proving a technology under development for many years than a cold-war-style negotiating tactic. China maintains a minimal nuclear arsenal that could inflict enough damage on an enemy to guard against any pre-emptive strike, these analysts said. But the increasing sophistication of American missile interceptors, which are linked to satellite surveillance, threatens the viability of China’s limited nuclear arsenal, some here have argued. That may have prompted the Second Artillery to show that it had the means to protect fixed missile sites and ensure China’s retaliatory capacity by showing that it could take out American satellites. At the annual military fair in Zhuhai, held last November, the Guangdong-based newspaper Information Times and several other state-run media outlets carried a short interview with an unidentified military official boasting that China had “already completely ensured that it has second-strike capability.” The analyst said China could protect its retaliatory forces because it could destroy satellites in space. American officials have also noted the development. Earlier this month, Lt. Gen. Michael Mapes of the Army testified before Congress that China and Russia were working on systems to hit American satellites with lasers or missiles. And over the summer, the director of the National Reconnaissance Office, Donald M. Kerr, told reporters that the Chinese had used a ground-based laser to “paint,” or illuminate, an American satellite, a possible first step to using lasers to destroy satellites. “China is becoming more assertive in just about every military field,” said Mr. Behm, the Australian expert. “It is not going to concede that the U.S. can be the hegemon in space forever.” -------- treaties China's Anti-Satellite Test Widely Criticized, U.S. Says No New Treaties Needed Jeremy Singer and Colin Clark Space News Staff Writers SPACE.com Sat Jan 20, 2007 http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20070120/sc_space/chinasantisatellitetestwidelycriticizedussaysnonewtreatiesneeded Standing by the new space policy the White House issued last year, a U.S. State Department official said China's Jan. 11 test of an anti-satellite weapon in space is not cause to open negotiations on a new treaty that would place limits on what countries can do in space. "We do not think there is an arms race in space. The United States believes that the existing body of existing international agreements -- including the Outer Space Treaty, as well as the liability and respective compensation conventions -- provide the appropriate legal regime for space," the State Department official said in a Jan. 19 telephone interview. The official said the space policy clearly states that the United States will oppose the development of new legal regimes or other restrictions that seek to prohibit or limit U.S. access to, or use of, space and that no change in that policy is warranted. "Arms control is not a viable solution for space. For example, there is no agreement on how to define space weapon. Without a definition you are left with loopholes and meaningless limitations that endanger national security. No arms control is better than bad arms control," the State Department official said. Gordon Johndroe, the National Security Council's (NSC) chief spokesman, said in a statement provided by an NSC press official Jan. 18 that the Chinese used a ground-based, medium-range ballistic missile to knock out an aging Chinese weather satellite orbiting the Earth at an altitude of about 537 miles (865 kilometers). Johndroe described the incident as a kinetic strike, adding: "The United States believes China's development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of cooperation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area. We and other countries have expressed our concern regarding this action to the Chinese." The State Department official said U.S. Defense Support Program missile warning satellites and "other assets" detected the launch of a ballistic missile and an event that generated debris. "Our space-tracking sensors subsequently observed that an old Chinese weather satellite is no longer on orbit. ... We will continue to track these pieces of debris. We are especially concerned about any increased risk to satellites, but most importantly to human spaceflight, including the U.S. space shuttle and the International Space Station." The State Department official also said the United States received no advance notice from the Chinese. "We have expressed our concern to the Chinese and asked them to clarify their intentions in seeking to develop a ballistic-missile-based anti-satellite capability. ... The Chinese have not responded to our expressions of concern." A U.S. intelligence official told Space News Jan. 19 the Chinese had conducted two previous tests that were unsuccessful, but declined to provide any additional details. A Senate aide said the Jan. 11 test was the first one that was successful. The aide also said weather satellite was under control but dying. "It made a lot of debris potentially affecting other satellites in [low Earth orbit]. We have to track each piece to see where it goes to see which satellites specifically are potentially at risk," the aide said, adding: "I hope the U.S. does now spend more and take space situational awareness more seriously." Bretton Alexander, a former White House Office of Science and Technology Policy senior analyst who worked on space issues for both the Clinton and Bush administrations, said the Chinese anti-satellite test is a reminder of why the United States believes it needs to protect its space-based capabilities. "The Bush administration has been on the defensive about its policy language on the need to defend U.S. space assets," Alexander said. "But this highlights that the threat is real and why we need to protect our assets." Early details of the event were first reported Jan. 17 in a blog written by Jeffrey Lewis, executive director of Harvard's Managing the Atom Project, on the Web site armscontrolwonk.com and in a story posted Jan. 18 on the Web site aviationnow.com. "This is an enormous mess they [the Chinese] have created. There is no excuse for what is a reckless, stupid and self-defeating decision on their part," Lewis said in a telephone interview Jan. 17. Lewis said a U.S. Air Force database of objects in orbit showed the Chinese FY-11 weather satellite intact on Jan. 11, but that the data a day later "showed about 40 pieces of debris, which is probably just the tip of the iceberg." Lewis said. Space-Track.org is the Air Force Web site that provides public satellite tracking data. Lewis said one positive result of the Chinese action could be a call for improved debris field modeling. "Our models of debris spread are quite speculative, so this event should help improve our models," Lewis said. Reaction was almost universally critical of the Chinese actions. "Space technologies are critical to the U.S. military and to the U.S. economy, so any action that puts our space assets at risk is a matter of great concern," House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (news, bio, voting record) (D-Mo.) said in a statement issued by his office. Skelton said the committee "will carefully monitor activity that may impact the way the U.S. military utilizes space technology." A U.S.-based China watcher, who asked not to be identified, said the Chinese "shot themselves in the foot with this one. They couldn't resist this demonstration of their capabilities after we came out with our space policy saying, we are going to defend the heavens. The new [U.S] space policy says we can defend the heavens with technology. But we can't and the Chinese just proved it." Arthur Ding, a research fellow at the National Chengchi University's Institute of International Relations in Taiwan, said China's motivation is likely rooted in their perception of the new U.S. space policy. "The perception is that the U.S. is attempting to dominate space and the U.S. refuses any space-related arms control," Ding said. "Further, China suspects that the U.S. is attempting to militarize space in the future." A possible consequence is that space-related arms control is likely to be added to U.S.-China dialogue in the future," he said. Joan Johnson-Freese, chair of the Naval War College's department of national security decision making and one of the United States' top experts on Chinese space issues, said the long-term impact of the incident will probably not be that severe. "I think there will be a lot of very vocal rhetoric, but I don't think it will have a substantive impact. There are just too many reasons for both of us to work together on so many issues," she said. Correspondent Wendell Minnick contributed to this article from Taipei. Staff writer Brian Berger contributed from Washington. -------- u.s. nuc facilities -------- ohio Fernald cleanup celebrated Ceremony marks project's completion, honors workers BY PEGGY O'FARRELL | POFARRELL@ENQUIRER.COM Saturday, January 20, 2007 Cincinnati Enquirer http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007701200434 CROSBY TWP. - Lisa Crawford had trouble talking. This event was 20-plus years in the making. "I'm speechless," the Crosby Township woman said, looking around at the hundreds of neighbors, former workers and environmental regulators gathered Friday to celebrate the formal closure of a 10-year, $4.4 billion project to clean up the Fernald site. "It's been a long road." Crawford and her husband, Ken, joined the others Friday to swap stories and hugs and listen to speeches from U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman, U.S. Sen. George Voinovich and U.S. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson commemorating the end of cleanup work at the uranium-enrichment facility. The celebration also marked the completion of cleanup work at the Department of Energy's Ashtabula and Columbus nuclear sites. For the Fernald project, workers buried, burned or shipped off-site millions of tons of radioactive waste and other toxins. The Crawfords were key players in getting the site cleaned up. Their well was one of three contaminated by uranium runoff. The Crawfords led a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Energy, which owned the site, and National Lead of Ohio, the company that ran it. The 1,030-acre property is being converted into an undeveloped nature park; and deer, geese and wild birds are already making themselves at home there. Retirees and former workers got a chance to mingle and look at photos and other artifacts from production days. Retirees Clydene Spangler and Lillian Mays barely recognized the site at Friday's celebration. "It's kind of a shock," Spangler said. "I didn't realize everything would be gone." Spangler, who lives in Ross Township, was the first woman hired at Fernald. She went to work at Fernald shortly after it opened in 1951, and retired in 1998. Her job was doing background checks on prospective employees. Job applicants were thoroughly screened because work there was top secret. "I was the person nobody liked 'cause I knew everything about them," she said. Signs all over the place reminded workers not to talk about their jobs. Some of those were on display Friday. Lillian Mays of Seven Mile did clerical work at Fernald from 1955 until 1990. Her husband, James, worked as a security guard there for 15 years. They didn't talk about work, Mays said. "The kids never asked very much about it. They knew we weren't supposed to talk about it." Friday's celebration was bittersweet for Wanda Vinson of Harrison. Her husband, William, called "Vinnie" by co-workers, was a chemical operator at the site. "He started here about a month after it opened, and he always said he'd be here when it closed," she said. "But he didn't make it." -------- MILITARY -------- latin america Nations hope to make Nicaragua an ally TRACI CARL Associated Press Sat, Jan. 20, 2007 http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/world/16506181.htm SAN JOSE, Nicaragua - The U.S. is again battling leftists in Daniel Ortega's Nicaragua. This time, the fight is being waged not with guns and guerrilla warfare, but with free tractors, health clinics and donated electrical plants. The U.S. government is up against Venezuela and Iran as it tries to make an ally out of the poor, energy-starved Central American nation. While the U.S. has a head start as one of Nicaragua's main investment partners, Iran and Venezuela are rapidly winning over the country's poor with promises of low-interest loans and energy aid. Sandwiched between Costa Rica and Honduras, Nicaragua has been left behind in the global scramble for power. It has no key oil reserves, and the country is the second-poorest in the Western Hemisphere, behind only Haiti. But the nation - a stunning collection of jagged mountains, active volcanos, virgin jungle, breathtaking beaches and one of the world's largest freshwater lakes - has become immensely popular as a second home for U.S. retirees. Additionally, as a new member of the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the U.S., it is on the verge of receiving substantial international investment, mostly in the form of textile factories. Ortega's return to power has given Iran and Venezuela, always seeking allies in their fight against U.S. domination, a chance to add Nicaragua to a list that already includes Bolivia, Cuba and Ecuador. Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez has called President Bush "the devil," while Bush accuses Iran of backing insurgents in Iraq and using its nuclear program to try to build a bomb. Enter Ortega, a former Marxist who spent the 1980s fighting off the U.S.-backed Contra rebel insurgency. Ortega led Nicaragua throughout the 1980s after his Sandinista rebel movement pushed out dictator Anastasio Somoza. Following his 1990 electoral loss, he ran for president three consecutive times, losing twice before finally triumphing in November. Now he's promising to eradicate poverty and solve rolling blackouts that sometimes force airplanes to circle over the capital until light is restored to the darkened airport. With few resources of his own, he has to walk a fine line as he seeks help from both Washington and its foes. The U.S. government so despised Ortega during the 1980s that Oliver North and other aides to then-President Reagan secretly sold arms to Iran's radical Islamic government to finance clandestine aid for the Contra rebels in a bid to overthrow him. North showed up again during Ortega's latest presidential campaign, predicting dire consequences if he returned to power. The U.S. has expressed guarded support since Ortega's election, and Ortega has promised to maintain ties to Washington. If those ties are severed, some fear the superpower could pull investment and $48 million in annual aid that includes promises to build a regional training center for health workers. Ortega has avoided openly criticizing Washington, but his focus so far has been strengthening ties with Chavez and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, both of whom have agreed to spend billions of dollars around the globe on projects to counterbalance U.S. influence, especially in Latin America and Africa. Chavez shipped cheap oil to Nicaragua last year, boosting his friend's campaign. On Ortega's first day in office, Chavez showed up with promises of 100,000 barrels of oil under preferential terms, the building of a refinery, low interest loans and health aid. On Sunday, Iran's president toured Managua and told Ortega he would construct dams and homes, establish factories for everything from buses to bicycles, and improve Nicaragua's drinking water, ports and fishing industry. The promises impressed many Nicaraguans, even though Venezuela and Iran have yet to deliver much of it. In the steep, cloud-covered mountains where more than 200 farmers have formed a coffee-growing cooperative, Olga Miriam Almendarez, a 44-year-old single mother of five, already has the keys to a new tractor. Chavez gave her the keys himself at a Managua rally in which he also promised poor farmers low-interest loans. Up until now, the San Jose cooperative has relied on machetes and two dilapidated trucks to plant and harvest its coffee beans. Almendarez, who weighs neighborhood children every 15 days to identify the most severely malnourished, says they have to survive on scant amounts of rice, beans and banana. "Many have swollen bellies," she said, pointing at children playing in raw sewage and mud. "We are going to keep asking God to have President Chavez help us." She's not worried that Ortega's close ties with Venezuela and Iran could jeopardize U.S. relations. "The U.S. doesn't give us anything," she said. "And I don't think they are going to oppose someone who is helping people like me who are so poor." -------- us NEWSWEEK Poll: Bush Unpopular, Congress Does Better In the latest NEWSWEEK poll, Bush’s approval rating remains at its all-time low as his plan to increase the number of U.S. troops in Iraq is met with widespread disapproval. Looking to ’08, declared candidate Hillary Clinton is in a statistical dead heat with other potential nominees. WEB EXCLUSIVE By Brian Braiker Newsweek, Jan 20, 2007 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16720627/site/newsweek/ When President George W. Bush declared earlier this month that the only way to quell sectarian violence in Iraq was to send more than 20,000 additional American troops, he probably knew the move would be unpopular. Indeed, the latest NEWSWEEK poll finds that Bush’s call for a “surge” in troops is opposed by two-thirds (68 percent) of Americans and supported by only a quarter (26 percent). Almost half of all respondents (46 percent) want to see American troops pulled out “as soon as possible.” Bush’s Iraq plan isn’t doing anything for his personal approval rating either; it’s again stuck at its lowest point in the history of the poll (31 percent). Meanwhile, the new Democratic-controlled Congress is getting relatively high marks. And 55 percent actually trust Congressional Dems on U.S. policy in Iraq, far more than the 32 percent who trust their commander in chief. While Democrats and Republicans have roundly criticized Bush’s proposal, the president—who received his lowest ratings so far for his handling of the war (24 percent) and terrorism (41 percent)—told a group of U.S. television stations this week that "I believe it will work.” He is in the minority. Nearly half of all respondents to the NEWSWEEK poll (45 percent) say they “strongly oppose” the plan. Nine in 10 Democrats (92 percent), 70 percent of independents and close to a third (31 percent) of Republicans disapprove. Specifically, majorities of respondents expressed doubt that the proposal will reduce violence in Baghdad (53 percent) or buy enough time for sectarian groups to hammer out a settlement (59 percent). In fact, more than two-thirds (67 percent) think it is either “very” or “somewhat” likely to lead to more U.S. casualties in Iraq without getting the U.S. closer to its goals there. Still, almost half (45 percent) don’t want to see the United States beat too hasty a retreat. They prefer to maintain troop levels in Iraq for “at least another year or two” to give the Iraqis more time to settle their differences and reach a political settlement, even though only 27 percent of those polled are “very or somewhat” confident that Iraqis would be able to control the violence and provide their own security. Two-thirds (67 percent) of those interviewed think that the United States is losing ground in its efforts to establish security and democracy in Iraq and only 23 percent favor additional troops at this time. There is still more bad news for the president in the poll: Sixty-two percent of Americans are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country. For the first time, more than half of the respondents (53 percent) disapprove of his approach to deterring terrorism. More than half of the public thinks he is not “honest and ethical” (54 percent) and lacks “strong leadership qualities” (57 percent). Just before the last election, 55 percent said Bush was honest and 63 percent saw him as a strong leader. As Bush’s public image continues to tarnish, the new Democratic congress appears to have made a good first impression. Respondents give House Speaker Nancy Pelosi largely favorable (36 percent to 23 percent) ratings and also agree by a nearly two-to-one margin (43 percent to 24 percent) that the Democrats are keeping promises they made during their campaigns. Still, the Dems remain an unknown quantity to many voters. Nearly a third (32 percent) said they “didn’t know” if they have a favorable or unfavorable opinion about Pelosi. And while the public trusts Democrats more than Bush on Iraq policy, the NEWSWEEK poll found a 46-46 split on whether or not the Congress should try to block the additional funding Bush needs to pay for more troops in Iraq. With Democrats in apparent ascendance in Washington, it is perhaps worth noting that many respondents would actually be willing to accept something other than a pro-Western, democratic government in Iraq—as long as the chaos there were stabilized. Nearly half (45 percent) would even accept an Islamic government ruling Iraq. Slightly more (48 percent) would accept a division of the country into independent Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish regions to put an end to civil war. Only a very small minority (10 percent) would find it acceptable to leave the country in the hands of another despotic leader in the mold of Saddam Hussein. Looking forward to 2008, a generic Democratic presidential candidate has a 21-point lead over an unnamed GOP challenger. The race becomes much closer, however, when voters are asked to choose among actual names. The new poll finds statistical dead heats in different scenarios involving John McCain or Rudy Giuliani vs. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama or John Edwards. In a hypothetical match-up, Clinton gets 48 percent while McCain gets 47. A Giuliani-Clinton race finds the same numbers but with the former New York City mayor as the hypothetical victor. The NEWSWEEK poll, conducted Wednesday, Jan. 17, through Thursday, Jan. 18, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. In conducting the poll, Princeton Survey Research Associates International interviewed 1,003 adults aged 18 and older. -------- POLICE / PRISONERS / COURTS / JUSTICE -------- justice Feinstein claims White House using Patriot Act to oust prosecutors January 20, 2007 KESQ http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?s=5961037 WASHINGTON Senator Dianne Feinstein is claiming that the White House has taken advantage of the Patriot Act to oust the top prosecutor in coastal Northern California and other federal prosecutors. The California Democrat complained on the Senate floor that the Bush administration has used a provision of the Patriot Act to remove U-S Attorney Kevin Ryan and other prosecutors and replace them with White House allies. Feinstein made her assertion at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing while questioning Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Gonzales denied Feinstein's claim. Ryan announced earlier this week that he was resigning as the chief federal prosecutor for the Northern District of California. During his four-and-a-half years on the job, Ryan was involved in a number of high-profile cases, including the investigation into the use of steroids in sports. -------- POLITICS -------- us politics Conservatives slam Bush policies By Eric Pfeiffer THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published January 20, 2007 http://washtimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20070119-110926-3240r President Bush's policies, including the Iraq war, have left the country in a "disastrous" state, according to several prominent conservatives. The leaders, including current and former presidential candidates, outlined their objectives for a revival of conservatism during a panel discussion yesterday hosted by the Free Congress Foundation, a conservative Washington-based advocacy group. The leaders' recommendations, covering economic, military and social policy, would be largely different from those implemented by the Bush administration. "We disagree on a lot of things," Rep. Duncan Hunter, California Republican, said of Mr. Bush. Mr. Hunter is seeking his party's 2008 presidential nomination on a platform of military expertise and a desire to confront China on economic and trade issues. "We have a competition which is not free trade, it's not fair trade, it's rigged trade," he said of the China's trade tariffs, which many critics argue have hurt American businesses. "The state of the union is disastrous," said William Lind, president of the foundation's Center for Cultural Conservatism. "We are fighting and losing two wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan." Using language that at times mirrored that of liberal critics of Mr. Bush's foreign policy, Mr. Lind said an interventionist U.S. foreign policy is creating, "a hostile relationship with the growing world." Former presidential candidate Gary Bauer was critical of Mr. Bush for what he described as the president's failure to more deeply inspire Americans after September 11. "The president made a colossal mistake after 9/11 by simply asking people to shop," said Mr. Bauer, president of the conservative group American Values. Some panelists did have kind words for the current administration. Ambassador Henry F. Cooper, director of the Strategic Defense Initiative during the first Bush administration, praised Mr. Bush for backing out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which he said stood in the way of an American missile-defense program. However, Mr. Cooper said he thinks "relatively limited progress has been made," on other issues. Mr. Hunter also praised what he called Mr. Bush's record on fighting the war on terrorism. "He was willing and he was aggressive," he said of the White House's response to the September 11 attacks. "He's kept them off balance." -------- ACTIVISTS Bush has done 'tremendous damage', says Nobel peace prize winner Sat Jan 20, 2007 (AFP) http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070120/wl_afp/nobelpeaceusbush_070120120222 MADRID - US President George W. Bush is a terrible leader who has done tremendous damage worldwide, Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus has said in an interview. "Bush is a terrible leader, not only for the United States but for the entire world," Yunus, a 66-year-old micro-credit pioneer and "banker to the poor", told El Mundo newspaper Saturday. "He has led the world on a dangerous path and it will take a lot of time to take it back on the right one," he was quoted as saying. "Bush has caused tremendous damage. The cold war was over and with it all this wasted energy and mistrust of so many years. We were speaking about the dividends of peace," he added. "And then the war on terror started and the vengeance and again all this money was invested in war technology." Asked by El Mundo about the responsibilities of the September 11, 2001 hijackers who flew passenger jets into targets in New York and Washington, Yunus said they were "no saints, they are evil". "What I'm saying is that the military response to terrorism is not a solution." Yunus and the Grameen Bank which he created have helped millions in Bangladesh extricate themselves from poverty through tiny, collateral-free loans.