Poland, Estonia keen on new atomic plant in Lithuania

Art - The Baltic Times- NEWS FROM ESTONIA,LATVIA AND LITHUANIA: "30.11.2005
From wire reports


VILNIUS - Renewed signs of support from Poland and Estonia for a new nuclear plant in Lithuania have once again brought the subject to the headlines, though the European Union?s energy commissioner warned of government involvement in the project, which would cost more than 2 billion euros. "

India's nuclear power plants and research reactors Inspections revealed 271 ?procedural inadequacies? and 109 ?departures from good practices

: "Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Inadequacies found in atomic power plants

Press Trust of India

New Delhi, November 30: Inspections of nuclear power plants and research reactors during 2004-2005 in India revealed 271 ?procedural inadequacies? and 109 ?departures from good practices,? the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has said.

The nuclear watchdog agency said as many as 44 ?significant events? related to operational safety occurred in these facilities including one at the Narora plant that experienced 'uncontrolled power rise due to failure of reactor regulating system.' This event fell under category-2 in the international event scale of zero to seven, the Board said. In two of the four category-1 events at Madras and Rajasthan plants, some workers were over-exposed to radiation, AERB's annual report said.

Important observations during inspections listed by AERB included failure of fire detectors at Kakrapar station, failure of power supply for emergency cooling at Madras station and failure of check valve for emergency cooling at Kaiga station.

The AERB said it has decided to review the experience of the recent tsunami and 'factor the new insights appropriately into the design requirements of nuclear facilities at coastal site.'

While a decision on whether or not to operate the problem ridden unit-1 of Rajasthan station is still pending, the AERB has called for actions to restore the health of the primary coolant system of unit-2 and reduce radiation exposure to workers due to high tritium content in the system.



URL: http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=59200"

BBC NEWS | Politics | Head-to-head: Nuclear power

BBC NEWS | Politics | Head-to-head: Nuclear power: " Head-to-head: Nuclear power
Full transcript of the debate on nuclear power on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, featuring Andrew Simms of the New Economics Foundation and former Downing Street press secretary and nuclear power supporter Sir Bernard Ingham.

Andrew Simms

The nuclear resurrection is a gravity-defying trick worthy of the illusionist, David Blaine.

Promoted as the answer to climate change and energy security, it is neither.

As a response to global warming, it is too slow, too expensive and too limited. And, in an age of terrorist threats and creeping proliferation, think Iran, it is more of a risk than a solution.

The voodoo economics used to justify nuclear power underestimates its real costs by at least a factor of three. Consider this: pound for pound of investment, new nuclear would generate less energy, create fewer jobs and reduce fewer greenhouse gas emissions than a wide range of renewable energy technologies, combined heat and power generators and, effectively, energy-efficiency too.

Nuclear also has a dirty little secret: startlingly there's only a few decades left of the proven high-grade uranium ore it needs for fuel. It's also far less climate-friendly than claimed. Once low-grade ore is used, costs go up and all the energy used from mining to decommissioning means it can lead to more carbon emissions than fossil fuel-powered gas generators.

Perversely, nuclear could even hasten global warming. The government's own Performance and Innovation Unit warned that subsidising nuclear could set back better, smaller-scale alternatives which could turn every home and business into a climate-friendly power station.

Finland, the only western country with a new nuclear programme, was officially criticised last year by the International Energy Agency for failing its renewable energy plan. Their carbon emissions are also rising.

Nuclear's last great hope, the Thorp reprocessing facility, designed to help the industry pay, is already closed and costing millions.

If Tony Blair writes the blank cheque needed to resurrect nuclear power, it will be the biggest financial scam since Enron, but far more deadly.

Sir Bernard Ingham

Nuclear power is economically unattractive, the government has parroted up to now. It is of course nonsense.

According to the Royal Academy of Engineering, supported by other studies, nuclear was only marginally dearer than gas-generated electricity before the recent huge increases in gas prices. Now it is the cheapest option, especially when the environmental costs of other fuels are taken into account.

It is the cheapest, even though the climate change levy is irrationally imposed upon it, since it is the cleanest of all methods of electricity generation. And it is the cheapest, even though uniquely it reflects its estimated environmental costs in its current price.

About 4% of the price you pay for nuclear electricity is set aside for dealing with decommissioning of plants and waste disposal.

Ministers have had a monstrous cheek in dismissing nuclear on economic grounds when they are pouring billions of good money after bad in subsidies into unreliable, intermittent and therefore basically mucky wind power.

Nuclear doesn't want subsidies but it does need government help with such things as licensing reactors, identifying sites for new power stations, clarifying the market regime within which it must operate and of course identifying the site for the disposal of long-term waste.

If they have their way, anti-nukes will not merely bankrupt Britain through grossly expensive wind and gas-generated electricity, they will also wreck our economy and prosperity by closing half the generating capacity that uses coal and nuclear.

That will leave a huge gap in our supplies in 10 to 20 years' time and then we shall discover what is the dearest electricity in the world - power that is not there at the touch of a switch. We need nuclear for a secure, competitive, cleaner future.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk_politics/4481380.stm

Published: 2005/11/29 12:22:44 GMT

� BBC MMV"

KLASTV.com - Radioactive Toxins Contaminating Our Water

KLASTV.com - Radioactive Toxins Contaminating Our Water: "George Knapp, Investigative Reporter
Radioactive Toxins Contaminating Our Water
Nov 29, 2005, 12:48 AM EST

Some 28 million people get their drinking water from the Colorado River, including nearly everyone who lives in Southern Nevada. Anything dumped into the river goes into our water supply. So why has the federal government failed to clean up a 12-million-ton pile of radioactive waste that sits directly on the river? It's a story the I-Team first brought you five years ago, and George Knapp is here with news of dramatic new developments.

At long last, the federal government has decided to clean up the massive pile of uranium tailings that sits right on the river's edge at Moab, Utah, a picturesque tourist town that has been on the frontlines of this fight for decades. The problem for Moab residents is -- some worry that cleaning it up might be worse than leaving it be.

There is also another danger looming, one that deserves the attention of everyone downriver. Each year, 20 million visitors trek to the Canyonlands area of Eastern Utah to check out scenery that's like Red Rock Canyon on steroids. In this outdoor paradise, the town of Moab is almost totally dependent on tourists who rent bikes or boats and who shop in funky little stores. But as Las Vegas well knows, tourism and radiation do not go hand in hand.

Looming above Moab, literally, is a 12-million-ton pile of trouble: 140 acres of uranium tailings situated just a few hundred feet from the Colorado River. Although no one can see it happening, every day 120,000 gallons of contaminated groundwater flows from under the pile right into the river.

Bill Hedden, with the Grand Canyon Trust, said, "We've created a killing zone in the river. Anything that swims into that plume of ammonia and stuff is killed in very short order, so it's clearly not healthy for anybody."

Environmentalist Bill Hedden was one of the leaders in the effort to get the federal government to clean up the uranium pile. The government inherited the mess after a private owner went bankrupt. The Department of Energy surprised nearly everyone earlier this year when it decided to forego further studies and just get on with a cleanup. That's when a scary thought occurred to residents.

Joette Langanese said, "Everybody was wondering, oh my gosh, what does this mean? We're going to start opening up this pile with 13 million tons of contaminant? Is that gonna have bad effects on us?"

Grand County Commissioner Joette Langanese says that while most Moab residents agree the pile needs to be moved, it's far from unanimous. Uranium put Moab on the map. It once had more millionaires per capita than anyplace in America. The town museum is largely a tribute to the tools of the uranium trade, and to the elusive yellowcake itself. There's even a building named for uranium. Some of those who worked in the mines back in the day and who believe that fears about the pile are overblown have become allies with those who worry what might happen if the pile is stirred up.

Langanese said, "We don't really know what's in that pile. We really don't know when they open it up what kind of chemical reactions will take place when it hits the air."

Bob Pattison, a former uranium company engineer, told the I-Team, "The last thing you want to do is to get it into the atmosphere. The thing is now stable."

Some residents worry that stirring up all of that radioactive dust might endanger the town. In addition to radiation, there are other bad substances in the pile. In addition to radioactive uranium tailings, the pile is contaminated with mercury, arsenic, ammonia and lead, all of it slowly, inexorably leaking into the Colorado River. To leave it or to move it is the question. The DOE has already made up its mind, and for once, environmentalists agree.

Bill Hedden explained, "The stuff is like toothpaste inside there, as long as you pay attention with keeping it moist, you don't have a problem with dust blowing it around."

Dust can be managed, but what can't is a possible flood on the Colorado. Flooded rivers are not exactly unknown in Utah and a massive flood there could be a catastrophe. It's the one issue that really couldn't be disputed in the debate.

Joette Langanese commented, "What happens if there is a major flood? Thirteen million tons of tailings are going to go into that water and it's going to impact everything downstream, not only water users but the whole Colorado Canyon corridor. There would be tailings on all the beaches, on the vegetation. It would be catastrophic."

Unfortunately for all of us, the concern about a massive flood that pulls the whole pile into the river with will be with us for years. The cleanup won't begin until 2007 and it will take ten years to finish the job of moving the waste to a site 30 miles away from the Colorado River. Leaders like Joette Langanese say they will stay on top of the Department of Energy to make sure this gets done as soon as possible, which is good for us too.

Question: It must have taken quite a coalition to finally get the government to commit to the cleanup. Was Nevada involved?

Senator Harry Reid helped, so did Governor Guinn. The one glaring omission was the Southern Nevada Water Authority. We heard it several times during our recent trip to Moab, that folks there couldn't understand why ours was the only water authority along the Colorado River to not take a hand in demanding a cleanup. "

scott ritter re us war on iraq & iran

Podcasts and Transcripts: "Thank you very much for the kind words of introduction. It?s certainly an honor and privilege to be here tonight to talk with you. Look, it?s an honor and a privilege to be here tonight. I wish it was under better circumstances. I wish we were here to talk about how good things are happening in the cause of peace, how congress has reversed course and they?re bringing our boys and girls home, how the Bush administration has woke up suddenly and said, ?you know, this concept of global domination through the unilateral application of military force is not sound policy,? and the Democrats woke up for the first time in a long time and said, ?you know, we facilitated this war in Iraq. We?re as much to blame as George W. Bush.? But that?s not the case. We live in a time where bad things are happening. .. . The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, we live in very sad times, and, if you reflect long and hard on the reality of the issue, as I?m sure everyone in this room does, not just sad times but depressing times. I?m not going to say much here tonight that?s going to give you hope because there?s not much to be hopeful about. We are in a war that shows no inclination of ever ending. Yes, there?s a lot of rhetoric in congress now about ?let?s create new benchmarks that need to be fulfilled in Iraq so that we can have a time table of bringing the troops home.? But, ladies and gentlemen, that?s just political rhetoric because the benchmarks they talk about putting in place are unrealistic. Therefore, there will never be a time line. And let?s keep in mind that this is a congress that voted for the war, Republican and Democrat alike, and they are trapped by that vote to the extent that they cannot meaningfully interfere with the Bush administration?s plans on Iraq, and the plans of the Bush administration regarding Iraq was most recently articulated by Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State, when she told the congress of the United States that we will be... read more at http://www.traprockpeace.org/podcasts_transcripts/
hear it all: http://www.mirror1.jagflyhosting.com/traprock/ritter_talk_17nov05.mp3"

RGJ.com: Plans to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain begin to crumble

RGJ.com: Plans to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain begin to crumble: "
Doug Abrahms
DABRAHMS@GNS.GANNETT.COM
Posted: 11/27/2005

WASHINGTON -- For more than 20 years, the federal government's sole plan to dispose of nuclear waste building up at atomic reactors around the nation has been to bury it in a rural mountainside in Nevada about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

But lately there have been hints that a new plan is in the works, especially as the deadline to open the Yucca Mountain repository as a long-term nuclear-waste dumping ground keeps slipping.

Since 1982, when Congress approved burying high-level radioactive waste in a national repository, the nation's energy scene has shifted dramatically -- with utility companies poised to build nuclear power plants for the first time in a generation, said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., a staunch supporter of nuclear power.

"I believe we must look anew on our policy on spent nuclear fuel," he said in a speech Tuesday, "and I think that re-evaluation is under way."

Nuclear power generates about 20 percent of the nation's electricity, and proponents say it offers the best hope to cut air pollution and lower natural gas prices. Disposal of the nuclear waste remains a problem.

The Energy Department's long-range disposal plan would move 77,000 tons of nuclear waste by trains and trucks across the country to Yucca Mountain, and the project will cost electric consumers at least $58 billion. The department remains committed to the project, spokesman Craig Stevens said.

The department's license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the Yucca project will proceed despite a federal appeals court decision in 2004 that federal radiation safety standards for Yucca are inadequate, he said. The last deadline to open Yucca Mountain was 2012, but the department no longer offers any timetable. This month, Congress agreed to spend $50 million to study reprocessing nuclear waste, which breaks down enriched uranium rods into components for more efficient use. Proponents say it could reduce nuclear waste volumes and eliminate the need for Yucca Mountain.

But many nuclear experts say that current reprocessing technology doesn't work. The practice was stopped in 1979 because expense, ineffectiveness in reducing nuclear waste and also because the process generates a certain kind of plutonium isotope that is a key element in nuclear bombs, said Steve Kraft, an official with the Nuclear Energy Institute.

"At the end of the day, you still have material to dispose of," Kraft said.

"It doesn't make (nuclear) waste go away. All it does is separate it into different fractions," agreed Ed Lyman, senior staff scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists, an environmental group that opposes reprocessing.

In theory, a new type of atomic reactor could be built that would consume most of the nuclear material and vastly reduce the amount of waste to be stored, said Joe Egan, a nuclear physicist and attorney working for Nevada to block the Yucca Mountain project. Scientific American magazine published an article this month describing such a reactor that uses liquid sodium rather than water as a coolant, he said.

"The only problem is that no one has ever built one of these reactors successfully," Egan said. "It's like the Mars project -- it's a nice thought, but it's not going to happen anytime soon."

Nevada U.S. Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign plan to introduce legislation next month to keep nuclear waste stored at reactor sites with the federal government assuming ownership, said Tessa Hafen, a spokeswoman for Reid. The spent fuel rods would be stored in protective casks and could remain there safely for many decades until a better solution can be developed, she said."

US War Criminals used nuclear weapons against innocent people -

Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English): "IIran's president calls for Bush administration to be tried on war crimes charges

26/11/2005

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's hard-line president called for the Bush administration to be tried on war crimes charges related to Iraq and denounced the West for its stance on Iran's controversial nuclear program, state-run television reported Saturday.

"You, who have used nuclear weapons against innocent people, who have used uranium ordnance in Iraq should be tried as war criminals in courts," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in an apparent reference to the United States.

Ahmadinejad didn't elaborate, but he was apparently referring to the U.S. military's use of artillery shells packed with depleted uranium, which is far less radioactive than natural uranium and is left over from the process of enriching uranium for use as nuclear fuel.

Since the 2003 start of the Iraq war, U.S. forces have reportedly fired at least 120 tons of shells packed with depleted uranium, which is an extremely dense material used by the U.S. and British militaries for tank armor and armor-piercing weapons. Once fired, the shells melt, vaporize and turn to dust.

"Who in the world are you to accuse Iran of suspicious nuclear armed activity?" asked the Iranian president during a nationally televised ceremony marking the 36th anniversary of the establishment of the volunteer Basij paramilitary force.

Iran has been under intense pressure to curb its nuclear program, which the United States claims is part of an effort to produce nuclear weapons. Iran denies such claims and says its nuclear program is peaceful and aimed at generating electricity. But it insists that it has the right to fully develop its nuclear program, including enrichment of nuclear fuel.

On Thursday, the 35-board members of the International Atomic Energy Agency met on Iran's nuclear file after the United States and Europe warned of U.N. Security Council action, accusing Iran of having documents that show how to produce parts of nuclear warheads.

Iran has temporarily stopped its enrichment program, but negotiations between it and Britain, France and Germany broke off in August after Tehran unfroze another part of its program, the conversion of raw uranium into the gas that is used as the feeder stock in enrichment.

Iran has also rejected European calls to halt work at its uranium conversion facility near city of Isfahan in central Iran.

State-run TV said more than nine million Basij members formed human chains in different parts of the country, including thousands who linked hands to make a 20 kilometer (12 miles) long chain along an urban expressway in northern Tehran.

Groups of people also formed chains around the enrichment plant in central Iranian city of Natanz and an under-construction nuclear plant in the southern city of Bushehr, symbolizing their readiness for defending Iran's nuclear program, Iranian TV reported.

It is estimated that the Basij comprises 15 percent of Iran's population, or about 10 million people.

Ahmadinejad rejected Western concerns over his country's nuclear program.

"They say Iran has to stop its peaceful nuclear activity since there is a probability of diversion while we are sure that they are developing and testing (nuclear weapons) every day," Ahmadinejad said. "They speak as if they are the lords of the world.""

An Arab-American Priest, Depleted Uranium, and Iraq

An Arab-American Priest, Depleted Uranium, and Iraq: "Washington Report, November 2005, pages 29, 67

Special Report
An Arab-American Priest, Depleted Uranium, and Iraq
By Robert Hirschfield

Father Simon Harak (Photo R. Hirschfield).


TRAVELING around southern Iraq in the late 1990s to investigate the effects of U.N. economic sanctions on ordinary Iraqis, Jesuit Father Simon Harak stopped at a hospital in Basra. Meeting with him and his colleagues from the anti-sanction group Voices in the Wilderness, Dr. Jenan Hassan briefed them about the medical horrors she and other doctors were confronting as a result of the use of depleted uranium (DU) weapons by the U.S. Army in southern Iraq during the 1991 Gulf war. There was a fivefold increase in cancer, especially leukemia, she said, and a five- to eightfold increase in children born with genetic defects.

Dr. Hassan showed the Voices group some of the newborns.

?We saw a baby with a head growing out of his head,? recalled Harak. ?We saw babies with intestines growing outside their bodies.?

Sitting in his spartan cubicle in Lower Manhattan, where he works as the anti-militarism coordinator for the War Resisters League, Harak, a 57-year-old Arab-American whose parents are from Lebanon, emphasized that, in comparison to the 300 tons of DU weaponry used against Iraq in the first Gulf war, U.S. forces deployed more than 1,000 tons during the 2003 invasion.

?Given the fact that there is an incubation period involved here,? he pointed out, ?we shall soon be seeing the second wave of cancer and birth defects as a result of that war.?

From his computer, a crucial weapon of 21st century dissent, the Jesuit dispatches the results of his DU research to hundreds of people throughout the country. He maintains close contact with the Manhattan Project, the only group that devotes itself exclusively to DU. Their collaboration is still mainly on the level of information gathering. Harak?s goal is for information to translate into social action.

?Depleted uranium,? he explained in his methodical, professorial way (having once taught ethics at Fairfield College), ?is 60 percent radioactive. It is also heavy metal toxic. It is a byproduct of the uranium enrichment process of nuclear weapons production from which uranium?s most radioactive isotope, U235, is recovered for re-use in new fuel rods.?

The DU weapons used in Iraq were far more deadly, he explained, far more enduring?Japanese scientist Katsuma Yagasaki estimates that DU?s radiation has a half-life of 4.5 billion years?and far less publicized than car bombs and roadside bombs. The DU was present in missiles, tank shells, and rocket-propelled grenades. Formidable at armor piercing, these weapons were known to aerosolize on impact into tiny particles that could be inhaled or ingested.

Harak used the case of Basra to illustrate how the damage was done.

?Basra is on a river,? he noted. ?A DU shell poisons the water in a river. It poisons the grasses and the grains. It sinks into the ground and poisons the water table. When it gets into the body, it does incredible damage. The combination of radioactivity and heavy metal toxicity is such that it affects the DNA in such a way that you get genetic alterations.?

Harak recalled being told by doctors in Basra that the deformed children they were delivering reminded them of the pictures they had seen of Chernobyl babies. When a baby is born in Basra, the doctors said, the first question the mother asks her obstetrician is: ?Is it all right??

Lacking in the late ?90s, when he was in Iraq, and needed now, he said, were scientific studies, longitudinal and cause-and-effect studies, that would prove conclusively that there was uranium in the blood of deformed children and cancer victims.

?The tests cost $1,000 each,? Harak bemoaned. ?And when the sanctions were in effect, the equipment doctors would have had to bring in to run the tests were banned. The sanctions forbade pencils, for the love of God!?

As an Arab-American, Harak was powerfully moved by the suffering of Iraqis, and said he would like to go back. But he doesn?t want his Iraqi friends to run the risk of being seen with an American, even an Arab-American?in his case, an Arab-American who speaks no Arabic. Lamented the Christian Arab: ?Catholics always took so seriously the words of Jesus when he said, ?This is my body.? But Jesus also said, ?Love your enemies.? That, unfortunately, was never taken so seriously.?

Harak reflected on the underpublicized issue of the exposure of U.S. veterans to DU.

?How much of what was called Gulf War Syndrome was due to exposure to DU?? he asked. ?It?s hard to say. But some of the symptoms are similar to those Iraqis suffered from: fatigue, blood disorders, heart conditions, the damaging of the genetic code. You see parallel defects in children of American veterans and Iraqi children: the little flipper hands growing out of the children?s shoulders without any arms attached.?

Soldiers worried about exposure to uranium and wanting to be tested found that their veteran?s medical insurance refused to cover the cost. Harak recalled one case in which The New York Daily News agreed to pay to have nine Gulf war veterans tested. Four of them were found to have uranium in their bloodstream.

Last year, Harak helped organize a small rally in New York?s Washington Square Park at which speakers and singers alerted people to the dangers of DU. On the question of why this issue has failed to make more of an impact, Harak speculated, ?Maybe it?s because a lot of the damage is not immediate. There is an incubation period involved. You don?t see hands being blown off, or people being cluster-bombed,? he noted. ?It?s much more insidious.?

Robert Hirschfield is a New York-based free-lance journalist."

Iran Focus-Exclusive: Iran speeds up work on Natanz nuclear site

Iran Focus-News - Special Wire - Exclusive: Iran speeds up work on Natanz nuclear site: "Exclusive: Iran speeds up work on Natanz nuclear site Tue. 22 Nov 2005

Iran Focus

London, Nov. 22 ? Secret construction work is going on in Iran?s massive nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz, central Iran, with more than a dozen new buildings being built, Iran Focus has learnt.

Iran Focus received the information from an Iranian engineer whose identity is being withheld as he lives in Iran. He provided Iran Focus with an account of 17 silos and bunkers being built in continuous shifts. The silos are all 24 metres high and have various-shaped entrances.

Thirty construction contractors are carrying out the project. Workers are working 24 hours a day in several shifts.

The source said that security at the site had been boosted to an unprecedented level following the recent visit by hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Mobile telephone contacts are banned for those working on the site. Workers are living in complete isolation from the outside world for the duration of the contract. They are only permitted to contact their families once in a while to let them know that they are well. Every worker has been asked to sign a pledge to remain on site until work has been completed.

The source claimed that the buildings were being constructed to house new components and sensitive technology required for carrying out uranium enrichment at the site.

Tehran has currently suspended uranium enrichment as negotiations with Europe?s Britain, France, and Germany continue over what the West suspects is a nuclear weapons program.

The massive underground uranium enrichment facility at Natanz was first revealed to the world by the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran in August 2002.
"

The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Khan?s nuclear escapades: CIA helped

The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Main News: "


A.Q. Khan?s nuclear escapades: CIA helped
him get visa
by K. Subrahmanyam

THE latest report from Vienna talks of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) informing its Board of Governors that Iran had turned over to the IAEA fresh documents that give details, for the first time, about technology that Iran was offered in 1987 by Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, the proliferator from Pakistan. According to this report, included in the engineering drawings and other technology offered to the Iranians were diagrams about how to form uranium metal into ?hemispherical spheres?, a description that would suggest the basic steps toward creating bomb cores. Such spheres are needed for the Hiroshima type of atomic bombs.

It is to be noted that this cooperation from Iran has come about after the September 24 IAEA resolution. In the previous 30 months of investigation and inspection by the IAEA, Iran did not produce similar evidence. The new documentation will reveal that Dr Khan?s proliferation started as far back as 1987.

The US and British authorities, including President George W Bush, Prime Minister Tony Blair and former CIA chief George Tenet, claimed that Dr Khan?s activities came to their notice only around 1998 and they busted the Khan proliferation ring in 2003. There is, however, new evidence to indicate that Dr Khan had been protected by the CIA since 1975. This disclosure comes from an unimpeachable source, Dr Ruud Lubbers, a former Dutch Prime Minister.

In an interview to VPRO Argos Radio on August 9, 2005, Dr Lubbers revealed that Dr Khan was arrested in 1975 for espionage and in 1988 for illegal entry into Holland. On both occasions he was allowed to go scot-free because of the CIA?s intervention.

In 1992, according to Dr Lubbers, Dr Khan wanted to visit Holland to see his ailing father-in-law (his wife is a Dutch). While he was for refusing visa to Dr Khan, the case for visa was sponsored by no less a person than the head of the Dutch secret service, BVD, Arthur Dokters Van Leeuwen. A BVD person received Dr Khan on his arrival at Schipol airport. The BVD was presumably acting under instructions from American intelligence agencies.

Dr Lubbers said: ?If you were to study the archives, you would find that the American intelligence agencies ? I am absolutely certain of it ? kept a record of how closely they watched the man and what he was upto, etc. They thought as such they were doing a terrific job.?

When it was pointed out by the presenter of the programme that still Dr A Q Khan continued, Dr Lubbers replied, ?Yes, but that is the shortcoming of the management. And yes, that?s when we saw it was the leader of the free world. And we do take quite seriously the fact that they did a lot of good things. But they were not able to subdue the monster of proliferation, to put it that way.?

Complimenting the Dutch secret service, on doing a good job, Dr Lubbers concluded, ?The BVD reported it to its counterpart in Washington. The counterpart in Washington then follows a course that amounts to let him go and we will gain more information. And that is where things start to go wrong.?

He added as a final thought: ?It also indicates the peculiar situation that important problems are handled by the intelligence agencies. There is something unhealthy about it.?

Contrary to what Mr Bush, Mr Blair and Mr Tenet said, Dr Khan was not only under close watch of the CIA during the period he was proliferating to Iran but was also helped by the CIA and the Dutch secret service to get entry visa to Holland in 1992. That would indicate that there has been considerable economising of truth in regard to the CIA?s relationship with Dr Khan by both US and British leaderships going back to 1975.

One can understand why Pakistan and China do not want Iranian proliferation to come up before the Security Council since their conduct will be scrutinised. Presumably, the Americans thought by pressing the IAEA for a vote on the resolution they would increase pressure on Iran and compel it to accept a compromise which will make Iran give up uranium enrichment. Now that there is a risk of Dr Khan?s story coming out with the likely disclosures of his connections with the CIA, the US enthusiasm for a resolution to refer the Iranian issue to the Security Council appears to have cooled somewhat. Latest reports indicate that the US is in favour of a compromise and allowing more time to Iran.

It is expected of some of our leftists to show interest in preventing a resolution for the referral of Iran to the Security Council from being adopted because of their ideological loyalty to China, the arch nuclear proliferator. In the process, they are also helping the CIA to bury its connections with Dr Khan and its responsibility for nuclear proliferation. No doubt, the CIA would be very grateful to our left for the services they are rendering to it. In the US establishment there are many pro-China and pro-Pakistan nuclear ayatollahs. Some of them looked the other way when they were told by Gen Aslam Beg that Pakistan would share its nuclear technology with Iran. The North Korea-Pakistan deal of exchange of nuclear centrifuge technology for missiles was hushed up by some of the nuclear ayatollahs during the Clinton Administration. Dr Khan was the central figure in that deal.

China, over the years, has developed significant influence over sections of the US establishment. It would be a legitimate question to ask why our left should help the CIA. In international politics, stranger things have happened like the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact or the Nixon-Mao deal.

So, students of international politics should continue to keep this issue under close study. In this connection, it may be recalled that the Chinese Communist Party paper, Renmin Ribao, recently condemned the Indo-US civil nuclear energy cooperation agreement and supported the stand taken by the American ayatollahs, who are attempting to blackmail the Bush Administration that if such a deal goes through China would intensify its nuclear cooperation with Pakistan (as if it is not already doing it!)

What is in our national interest? Surely, bringing out and exposing Dr A Q Khan?s simultaneous links with the CIA and China and Pakistan?s role as a state proliferator. This is what our vote of September 24 indicated. India should continue to persist with its principled policy on this issue.

Veteran recounts dumping of radioactive waste off U.S. shore

Veteran recounts dumping of radioactive waste off U.S. shore: " Posted on Sun, Nov. 20, 2005


Veteran recounts dumping of radioactive waste off U.S. shore

BY JOHN M.R. BULL
Newport News (Va.) Daily Press

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - The Army might not know what kind of radioactive waste it dumped with chemical weapons off Virginia in 1960, but Ellis R. Cole is sure it wasn't harmless.

The Geiger counter readings were proof of that.

Cole said he helped winch hundreds of 55-gallon barrels labeled "radioactive" out of a ship and into the ocean.

He was, he said, aboard a small Fort Eustis, Va.-based ship sent that summer to pick up a load of radioactive waste from an Army chemical-weapon development and test base in Maryland and dump it into the Atlantic Ocean.

"It was common knowledge on the ship that we were dealing with something that was very dangerous," said Cole, now 64 and living in Lakeport, Fla. "I've been uneasy about it for a number of years. No one seemed to care at the time, but I felt in my heart we did something absolutely wrong."

Army records show that a shipment of 317 tons of radioactive waste and 3 tons of Lewisite - a blister agent related to mustard gas - was dumped June 14 and 15, 1960, about 90 miles off the Virginia-Maryland line. Cole said it might have been dumped much closer to shore than Army records showed.

Cole came forward after reading a Daily Press investigation revealing that the Army secretly dumped at least 64 million pounds of chemical weapons and 500 tons of unidentified radioactive waste off 11 states from 1945 to 1970, when the practice was halted.

He provided a detailed, credible description of one of many Army dumping operations and offered the Daily Press access to his military record for verification. He also agreed to speak to Army chemical-weapons experts.

Cole said two holds of the ship were filled with barrels of radioactive waste. He said the ends of the barrels were encased in concrete, which had gaps to hook chains connected to a winch that hoisted the barrels out of the hold and over the side.

He said he was 18 at the time and was chosen to be one of the men who went into the holds to hook the barrels onto the winch. The captain issued a "very unusual" order that prohibited anyone from being in the holds for more than two hours at a time, thus limiting radiation exposure, Cole said.

On leaving the holds, the workers were examined with a Geiger counter to determine the degree of radiation on them. "It would beep incessantly," Cole said.

He was then ordered to shower, a common practice for decades to reduce the effects of radiation exposure. The Geiger counter still went wild.

He took eight to 10 showers each time that he left the ship's holds before the Geiger counter didn't detect a dangerous level of radiation, he said. "The more showers I took, the less it beeped until it eventually stopped beeping," Cole said.

He said he didn't remember whether he was required to wear a protective suit when in the holds. And he wonders whether the colon cancer diagnosed last year was caused by radiation exposure decades ago.

Cole described a method of dumping not previously disclosed. Army records don't indicate that the ends of dumped barrels filled with chemical-warfare agents or radioactive waste were encased in concrete. But it's a plausible method to remove barrels from a ship's hold.

Army photographs from the 1940s to the 1960s show forklifts pushing the steel containers and chemical-filled ordnance over the sides of ships. In later years, the Army's preferred disposal method was to scuttle ships packed with chemical weapons.

Records also show that radioactive material in those years frequently was mixed with concrete before being dumped into the ocean.

Army dumping records don't reveal the origin of the radioactive waste jettisoned. But National Archives records show that large quantities of unidentified radioactive material were transported in the 1950s by the Army's chemical-weapons escort service from a nuclear lab at Oak Ridge, Tenn., to Army bases with chemical weapons slated for ocean disposal.

At the time, the thermonuclear, or hydrogen, bomb was being developed at that lab. Army transportation of potentially highly radioactive waste from the lab is known to have continued until 1960.

The Army wasn't the only entity to dump radioactive waste off the Virginia-Maryland line in 1960.

A 1961 report in the defunct Armed Forces Chemical Journal shows that private industry also dumped at least 8 tons of radioactive waste - some of it highly dangerous nuclear material - in the same location as the Army operation that Cole said he was on. The journal said what was then the Atomic Energy Commission approved the location. (The AEC was superseded in 1975 by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.)

Cole told the Daily Press that he was aboard a ship named the Pvt. Carl V. Sheridan, which he described as a 176-foot-long freighter. The Fort Eustis-based ship was ordered to the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland to pick up its load of radioactive material.

The name of the ship couldn't be verified. But an archivist at the Army Transportation Museum said ships of that description, designated freight supply vessels, were based at Eustis in the 1960s.

Cole said his ship headed into the Atlantic and north to the Virginia-Maryland line. But the seas were too rough to set up the booms used to lift the heavy barrels from the ship's holds, so the vessel spent the night at Wilmington, Del.

The ship headed south the next day, found the seas still too choppy to dump its cargo, and tied up at a dock at Fort Monroe in Hampton, Va. The captain hung a placard - "radioactive" - on the side of the ship, which Cole said he understood to be standard operating procedure at the time.

The post commander apparently considered the ship too dangerous to have around and ordered it away from the dock.

"They threw us out of port," Cole said. "They made us go out into the (Chesapeake) bay for the night. It was too dangerous for the Army brass at Fort Monroe."

The next morning, the ship headed into the Atlantic and steamed north for what the crew estimated to be 60 to 70 miles before dumping its load, Cole said.

Army records show that the radioactive waste was dumped about 110 miles north of the fort and 90 miles from shore. If so, either Cole's memory is inaccurate or the Army's records are mistaken and the dumping was much closer to shore than recorded.

One thing Cole is clear on: The material that his ship was carrying was dangerously radioactive.

"That's something that's bothered me for the last 45 years," he said. "They told me to do it, and I did it. I always felt we were doing something wrong."



� 2005 KRT Wire and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.charlotte.com "

WKYT 27 NEWSFIRST & WYMT Mountain News - Containers of depleted uranium may be corroding

WKYT 27 NEWSFIRST & WYMT Mountain News - Containers of depleted uranium may be corroding: "Containers of depleted uranium may be corroding

PADUCAH, Ky. A report this morning says cylinders in which depleted uranium is stored at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant may be corroding.
The Courier-Journal has obtained a federal memo that says toxic gas was mistakenly left in the cylinders.

The memo says about 18-hundred cylinders at the plant had been used in the past to store phosgene, a chemical warfare gas.

The newspaper report says the memo was from the Department of Energy Inspector General's Office to nuclear facilities in Paducah, Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Portsmouth, Ohio.

Experts have said a cylinder breached by corrosion could release hydrogen fluoride, a ground- hugging toxic gas. But the Energy Department says existing safeguards would protect Paducah's 12-hundred workers and people who live near the plant.

The plant is about ten miles west of Paducah.

Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved."

NRC reconsiders dangers of depleted uranium

Print Article: "

Article Last Updated: 11/08/2005 03:24 PM
NRC reconsiders dangers of depleted uranium
The agency is told that the material is too dangerous for its classification
By Judy Fahys
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune
Is it safe to dispose of depleted uranium in places like Envirocare of Utah, where only low-level radioactive waste is allowed?
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's answer used to be an automatic "yes." But the federal agency this week appeared to stop taking it for granted that all depleted uranium deserves to be treated as Class A, the lowest category of low-level radioactive waste and the most hazardous type Envirocare is allowed to dispose of at its Tooele County landfill.
In a case involving a uranium enrichment plant proposed for New Mexico that has talked to Envirocare about taking its waste called depleted uranium, the federal panel opened the door Wednesday for two anti-nuclear groups to make the case that federal oversight of depleted uranium disposal is alarmingly lenient.
The Nuclear Information and Resource Service and Public Citizen say depleted uranium is 40 times more radioactive than typical Class A waste, four times more hazardous to people than certain types of plutonium and can only be disposed of safely deep underground. The groups say federal regulators should reject the notion that landfills like Envirocare are constructed well enough to secure the highly radioactive waste for thousands of years.
The case has long-term implications for Utah and Envirocare, which has accepted depleted uranium for more than a decade under its state license.
One of three U.S. disposal sites licensed for Class A waste, Envirocare has a good chance of landing the disposal contract for waste from the New Mexico plant, which is proposed by a U.S. and European consortium of nuclear companies called Louisiana Energy Services. The plant would generate 1 million 55-gallon drums of depleted uranium over 30 years.
The U.S. Energy Department also appears to favor Envirocare as the site for disposal of waste from three old enrichment plants (in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee) where depleted uranium has been piling up for decades.
Utah is affected because the state would have to reexamine its regulations. State regulations parallel the federal ones, and a change in how the federal government treats depleted uranium from enrichment plants might mean the state would not be able to allow any depleted uranium from enrichment plants.
Last winter, lawmakers banned waste hotter than Class A from coming into the state. Momentum grew for the ban after the U.S. Congress two years ago changed the labeling of highly contaminated radioactive waste to render it suitable for Envirocare, or one of two other commercial sites like it.
If the science has changed, or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is rethinking its depleted uranium regulations, then they need to inform the state, said John Hultquist, who has oversight responsibility for Envirocare at the Utah Division of Radiation Control.
"Based on what we've done, that's how we interpret the rules, that it [depleted uranium] is Class A waste" and Envirocare can safely take it, he said.
Envirocare spokesman Mark Walker noted that the company had to perform an in-depth safety review during its licensing more than a decade ago.
"We had to demonstrate that we could contain it safely," he said.
The environmental groups adamantly disagree. They accuse the commission staff and Louisiana Energy Services of ignoring clear evidence that shows the dangers of the leftovers from uranium enrichment.
"The NRC staff is trying to pull a fast one on the public by saying, 'Don't worry, that's low-level Class A waste,' " said Arjun Makhijani, a nuclear waste expert for the environmental groups. "Envirocare has been saying 'We're OK with this.' The [state] regulators are saying, 'We're OK with this,' "
High radioactivity is one sign of how dangerous depleted uranium is, says Makhijani. Class A waste generally allows each gram of waste to have 10 nanocuries of radioactivity, a standard measure of radiation concentration. But depleted uranium from enrichment plants generally has around 350 nanocuries per gram - 35 times more than typical Class A.
Another measure is dose consequences, or what it would mean if workers, intruders and nearby residents were exposed to the waste. Louisiana Energy Services and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff have based their dose estimates on calculations made by the U.S. Energy Department, which says that depleted uranium is well under the 25 millirem considered safe.
Makhijani says none of them has done the homework and the dose would be many times higher.
And he noted that depleted uranium gets even more radioactive over time, because the metals produced when it decays have a more destructive radioactive energy than uranium.
He applauded the commission's acknowledgement in its Wednesday ruling that, for "the uranium enrichment waste stream . . . no analysis was done."
Makhijani said his group alone has done the hazard-based analysis that is necessary to understand how bad the enrichment plant waste would be. He said Louisiana Energy Services should expect to spend at least $2.4 billion for deep burial, rather than a shallow landfill like Envirocare.
"It's a very good thing, what the NRC is doing, and they should be applauded for that," he said.
The commission did not return a call Friday seeking comment on the ruling.
Meanwhile, Louisiana Energy Services downplayed the hazard associated from the waste. Rod Kirch, the vice president of licensing, said the environmental groups have exaggerated the risks.
"This material is pretty benign," he said. "It has been handled for 50 years without trouble . . . it is Class A waste."
For Louisiana Energy Services the least expensive solution for the depleted uranium waste - at a cost of about $700 million - would be a proposed landfill just across the border from its Eunice, N.M., plant in Texas. But the state of Texas has yet to license that site.
Louisiana Energy Services abandoned plans to locate its plant in Louisiana after an outcry that it would put a too-heavy burden on the surrounding community, which has a large population of minorities.
A hearing is set for Monday in Washington, D.C., for the environmental groups, the company and the Louisiana Energy Services staff to make oral arguments on the environmental safety and the costs of the waste plan.
Envirocare opponents Jason Groenewold and Claire Geddes criticized a proposal, approved already by state regulators, to double the size of Envirocare's waste site - especially in light of the large quantity of LES's waste.
"The last thing Utah should do," they said, "is double the size of Envirocare's nuclear waste landfill when the nation is looking for a place to dump hundreds of thousands of tons of unwanted depleted uranium."
fahys@sltrib.com


"

KAVKAZ CENTER - Depleted Uranium Is WMD

KAVKAZ CENTER: "Depleted Uranium Is WMD

My grandfather, U.S. Army Col. Edwin Joseph McAllister, was born in Battle Creek in 1895. He does not know that his first grandchild is an international expert on depleted uranium. I have worked in two U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories, and in 1991 I became a whistleblower at the Livermore lab. Depleted uranium is very, very, very nasty stuff:



Depleted uranium (DU) weaponry meets the definition of weapon of mass destruction in two out of three categories under U.S. Federal Code Title 50 Chapter 40 Section 2302.



DU weaponry violates all international treaties and agreements, Hague and Geneva war conventions, the 1925 Geneva gas protocol, U.S. laws and U.S. military law.



Since 1991, the U.S. has released the radioactive atomicity equivalent of at least 400,000 Nagasaki bombs into the global atmosphere. That is 10 times the amount released during atmospheric testing which was the equivalent of 40,000 Hiroshima bombs. The U.S. has permanently contaminated the global atmosphere with radioactive pollution having a half-life of 4.5 billion years.



The U.S. has illegally conducted four nuclear wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and twice in Iraq since 1991, calling DU "conventional" weapons when in fact they are nuclear weapons.



DU on the battlefield has three effects on living systems: it is a heavy metal "chemical" poison, a "radioactive" poison and has a "particulate" effect due to the very tiny size of the particles that are 0.1 micron and smaller.



The blueprint for DU weaponry is a 1943 Manhattan Project memo to Gen. L. Groves that recommended development of radioactive materials as poison gas weapons - dirty bombs, dirty missiles and dirty bullets.



DU weapons are very effective kinetic energy penetrators, but even more effective bioweapons since uranium has a strong chemical affinity for phosphate structures concentrated in DNA.



DU is the Trojan Horse of nuclear war - it keeps giving and keeps killing. There is no way to clean it up, and no way to turn it off because it continues to decay into other radioactive isotopes in over 20 steps.



Terry Jemison at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs stated in August 2004 that over 518,000 Gulf-era veterans (14-year period) are now on medical disability, and that 7,039 were wounded on the battlefield in that same period. Over 500,000 U.S. veterans are homeless.



In some studies of soldiers who had normal babies before the war, 67 percent of the post-war babies are born with severe birth defects - missing brains, eyes, organs, legs and arms, and blood diseases.



In southern Iraq, scientists are reporting five times higher levels of gamma radiation in the air, which increases the radioactive body burden daily of inhabitants. In fact, Iraq, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan are uninhabitable.



Cancer starts with one alpha particle under the right conditions. One gram of DU is 1/20th of a cubic centimeter and releases 12,000 alpha particles per second.



Before my grandfather died, he told me that his generation had made a mess of this planet. I wonder what he would say to me now I would tell him to see "Beyond Treason" (www.beyondtreason.com), a new documentary about the history of treason by the U.S. government against our own troops: Atomic veterans, MK-Ultra, Agent Orange and DU. After Vietnam, Henry Kissinger said, "Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy. . ." (from Chapter 5 in the "Final Days" by Woodward and Bernstein).



By Leuren Moret



*************
Leuren Moret is an international radiation specialist, with a B.S. degree in geology from University of California at Davis, a M.A. degree in Near Eastern studies from University of California at Berkeley and has done post-graduate work in the geosciences at UC-Davis. She is environmental commissioner for the City of Berkeley, Calif."

Hudson Valley News - State legislation proposes to help veterans exposed to depleted uranium

Hudson Valley News story: "State legislation proposes to help veterans exposed to depleted uranium

Ulster County Legislator Susan Zimet has been pressing for action on helping veterans exposed to depleted uranium (DU) to get the best screening and treatment available.

Zimet has found an ally in the state legislature ? Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz. ?Basically he has chosen to pick up the battle on behalf of the veterans who are coming home incredibly sick and not getting the proper treatment that they need and deserve,' she said. 'He is going to be introducing legislation at the state level.?

The legislation would direct the New York State Division of Veterans? Affairs to aid any soldier or veteran in obtaining federal treatment services, including the best medical practices used to screen for DU. A task force would be established to study the health effects of exposure to depleted uranium.

Zimet joined Dinowitz in Manhattan for a news conference to announce the legislation.



"

Japan Times: DU vet: 'My days are numbered

Japan Times: DU vet: 'My days are numbered: "
BATTLEFIELD RADIATION
DU vet: 'My days are numbered'

By ERIC PRIDEAUX
Staff writer

Gerard Matthew has broad shoulders and beefy hands. He's built like a bear. Yet as sturdy as this 31-year-old may look, he is a very sick man.

News photo
Iraqi armor in a Baghdad dump in June 2003. Some of the vehicles may have been hit by the depleted-uranium munitions Gerard Matthew blames for his and his daughter's affliction.

Matthew suffers, for example, from facial swelling, double and triple vision, muscle weakness, bouts of extreme anger that sometimes cause him to lash out at his wife, erectile dysfunction and, most serious of all, a tumor in the pituitary gland at the base of his brain.

"And these are just the big ones," he told the audience at the Foreign Correspondents' Club Japan in Tokyo earlier this month.

At home in New York, he said, he's got "a pharmacy" of medication -- and he worries both for himself and his family that his "days are numbered."

News photo
Gerard Matthew hugs his daughter, Victoria.

All the more reason to speak at this media venue now, before things get worse.

Matthew was a specialist in the U.S. Army National Guard's 719th Transport Unit, and his job, from April-September 2003, was to drive trucks collecting war debris from around southern Iraq. He thinks that Samawah, the city where Japan has some 550 SDF members participating in the U.S.-led "coalition of the willing," was among the many locations he passed through.

Matthew believes the dust from spent depleted-uranium (DU) ammunition in his cargo accumulated in his lungs, irradiating his body and causing most of the ailments that trouble him today. Urine tests taken as part of a New York Daily News story investigation in 2004 showed that DU levels in his sample were up to eight times higher than in control samples from Daily News journalists. Matthew showed reporters a letter from the Department of the Army that rejected this claim.

Most pertinent to his audience at the FCCJ: Matthew worries that radiological contamination may be afflicting Japanese troops posted to Iraq -- not to mention local Iraqis.

"I came all the way to Japan to convey the message," said Matthew, who, with his wife Janise was the guest of Tokyo-based activist group Campaign for Abolition of Depleted Uranium Japan. In other words, he believes that Japanese troops should be warned: "They may be susceptible to it."

With Janise, also 31, seated beside him on the dais, the couple together held up glossy photographs of their 1-year-old daughter Victoria, who was born without a right hand. It is a birth defect they both blame on DU.

"Yes, the military has paid for my education," said Matthew. "But I would give all of that up to have my daughter with five fingers on her hand."

The Matthew family is caught up in a raging worldwide debate over DU that extends into areas both scientific and geo-political.

Depleted uranium, an enormously dense and hard biproduct of converting naturally occurring uranium into fuel for nuclear reactors, is used by the U.S. military both in supertough armor plating for fighting vehicles and in "penetrators" -- ammunition fired against armored vehicles and concrete emplacements that, instead of mushrooming on impact as regular bullets do, grows sharper as it bores forward and through.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense, 290.3 metric tons of DU projectiles were fired by U.S. forces during the 1990-91 Gulf War. By press time, the department had not responded to repeated requests for comment on Matthew's case and current use of DU by the U.S. military.

Whatever the strategic benefits of DU ammunition, critics -- including many in the scientific community -- claim that particles of it released upon impact are easily inhaled by humans, either then or much later, and remain in the body for years, possibly causing cancers and many other health problems. With local Iraqis in mind in particular, Matthew said: "We're hurting innocent civilians, and we don't need to do that."

The United Nations would seem to agree.

A 2002 working paper by the UN Commission on Human Rights itemized a long list of diseases and birth defects among Gulf War veterans, Iraqis and the offspring of both -- linking them strongly to the use of DU.

The same UN working paper concluded that use of DU in warfare contravenes the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the Charter of the United Nations itself; and, "in certain situations of armed conflict," the Genocide Convention. The working paper, if read closely, also suggests violation of the Hague and Geneva Conventions.

The Pentagon, for its part, says on its Web site that radiation is not a "primary hazard" with DU "under most battlefield exposure scenarios." Citing its own and several high-profile international studies, it concludes that DU is "40 percent less radioactive than natural uranium," and is "not considered a serious external radiation hazard."

That stance is, in large part, supported by the World Health Organization which, in its 2003 fact sheet No. 257, title "Depleted Uranium," said that "for the general population, neither civilian nor military use of DU is likely to produce exposures to DU significantly above normal background levels of uranium."

Consequently, some tough questions were to be expected at the Matthews' news conference.

"How can you scientifically establish that the syndrome you claim has been caused by depleted uranium was caused by depleted uranium?" asked Naoaki Usui, a freelance reporter who described himself as a proponent of nuclear energy.

Matthew fixed his eyes squarely on his questioner. "Look at my daughter, and that should answer your question about the exposure," he said. "My daughter is the evidence."

Matthew said that his and Janise's other children from earlier relationships were born without deformity, while genetic screening at a New York hospital turned up no predisposition to birth defects on either side of the family.

That being the case, Matthew said that he and eight other soldiers with similar symptoms -- all of whom, except Matthew, were stationed at Samawah -- have each sued the Department of Defense for $5 million. His daughter Victoria, who to date has been denied disability benefits by the Social Security Administration, is also a coplaintiff with her father -- claiming an additional $5 million. The cases are pending.

The plaintiffs are not alone in their battle. For years, U.S. and British veterans of the first Gulf War have demanded that their governments grapple more aggressively with the mysterious illnesses collectively known as Gulf War Syndrome -- symptoms of which Matthew says match his own.

Movement on this front is afoot: BBC News reported earlier this month that the Pensions Appeal Tribunal in Britain had ruled that Daniel Martin, an ex-soldier and Gulf War veteran, could use Gulf War Syndrome as an umbrella term to cover the diverse health problems afflicting him. As a result, other British veterans hope this will improve their access to disablement pensions.

At his FCCJ talk, Matthew said he expected news from his lawyer upon his return home to the Bronx.

While he was still here, though, there was something else Matthew wanted to tell the Japanese. Describing his visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial some days earlier, he said: "I felt like I made a connection . . . because I was exposed to radiation just like they were. My own government did it to them.

"My government probably would not say sorry," he added. "But I say sorry."

The Japan Times: Nov. 20, 2005
(C) All rights reserved "

White Phosphorous, Daisy cutters, Depleted Uranium, Thermobaric bombs, Clusterbombs, Napalm...The US uses WMD against civilians. :: from www.uruknet.i

White Phosphorous, Daisy cutters, Depleted Uranium, Thermobaric bombs, Clusterbombs, Napalm...The US uses WMD against civilians. :: from www.uruknet.info :: news from occupied Iraq - ch: "White Phosphorous, Daisy cutters, Depleted Uranium, Thermobaric bombs, Clusterbombs, Napalm...The US uses WMD against civilians.
Dirk Adriaensens, coordinator SOS Iraq, Executive committee BRussells Tri

firebombing.jpg

White Phosphorous, Daisy cutters, Depleted Uranium, Thermobaric bombs, Clusterbombs, Napalm... The US uses WMD against civilians.

Dirk Adriaensens, coordinator SOS Iraq, Executive committee BRussell>


(12 Nov 2005)


"Injuries to everyone involved in war - civilians and troops of all sides - shown supreme contempt for international humanitarian law ever since WW2.
If this war shows one thing it is the need for the World to start to get control over the barbarity of the US military industrial complex. Criticisms of Saddam Hussein's record of atrocities fade into history as they are eclipsed by the industrialised killing that US Forces have spent billions of dollars perfecting."

(Dai Williams, April 06 2003)



The war on Iraq is an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe. Many health workers, professionals and students the world over added their voices to the massive protest movement. They were of the opinion that, apart from providing health services, their task also includes the prevention of diseases, injuries, and death because of this unjust war.

Despite the global protests, war was unleashed on Iraq. The Belgian NGOs Medical Aid for the Third World (MATW) www.m3m.be in cooperation with S.O.S. Iraq ( www.irak.be ) had a Medical Team of two doctors in Baghdad, Dr. Geert Van Moorter and Dr. Colette Moulaert. They remained in Iraq during the bombings and the invasion to witness the American and British aggression. They coordinated with the Ministry of Health, the Iraqi Red Crescent and international institutions including the World Health Organization and Unicef.

Their report from April 3 2003, that I copied underneath, described the use of some terrible weapons used by the US forces. I sent this report at the time to Dai Williams, weapons expert, to analyze the descriptions given by Dr. Geert Van Moorter.

Dai Williams' answer, also copied underneath, includes a report from BBC reporter Adam Mynot (5 April 2003), who described civilian casualties with severe burns near Nasiriyah. "The Phosphorus turned the inside of his house white hot". Even Dai Williams couldn�??'t believe then that White Phosphorus was used against civilians. But now we know the US aggressors DID use it.

The use of Napalm was reported by Martin Savidge from CNN as early as March 22 2003, so there's no need to be surprised. ( http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/03/21/otsc.irq.savid
ge/ ): "There is a lookout there, a hill referred to as Safwan Hill, on the Iraqi side of the border. It was filled with Iraqi intelligence gathering. From that vantage point, they could look out over all of northern Kuwait.

It is now estimated the hill was hit so badly by missiles, artillery and by the Air Force, that they shaved a couple of feet off it. And anything that was up there that was left after all the explosions was then hit with napalm. And that pretty much put an end to any Iraqi operations up on that hill."

The United Nations banned the use of napalm against civilians in 1980 after pictures of a naked wounded girl in Vietnam shocked the world. The United States, which didn't endorse the convention, is the only nation in the world still using napalm.

Here�??s the story.




Diary from Baghdad, April 3, 20 O'clock: Dr. Geert Van Moorter through satellite telephone

About the horrors of war, 100 km south of Baghdad

Dr. Bert de Belder (coordinator of Medical Aid For The Third World)



"I have two awful stories to tell", Geert immediately starts when I get him on the line. "Today we drove to Hilla, a small town near Babylon that was heavily bombed yesterday. One poor district was hit by 20 to 25 bombs. The hospital of Hilla received in the next half an hour 150 seriously injured patients. Dr. Mahmoud Al-Mukhtar said that the wounds were caused by clusterbombs. These are bombs that explode into many small bombs that again explode individually and cause enormous damage. Clusterbombs are banned by the International Laws on War, but Bush completely disregards these! In the hospital I have seen very many abrading situations. A family of eleven persons, of whom six are dead�?� A father who is left with one child; his wife and two sons are dead�?� Small children with amputated limbs�?�"



"My second story is even more horrible", warns Geert. "About a bus with civilians that was fired upon. Not the one in Najaf, which reached the news everywhere, but a case that according to me has not yet been covered by western media. Three days ago, In Al Sqifal, near Hilla, a passenger bus was fired upon from an American checkpoint, with ghastly results. According to witnesses the bus stopped on time and had, on orders of the American Military, turned back. Dr. Saad El-Fadoui, a 52 years old surgeon who still has studied in Scotland, was immediately on the place of incident from the hospital in Hilla. When he told me what he had seen there, he again became very emotional, three days after it had happened. 'The bodies were al carbonized, terribly mutilated, torn into pieces, he sighs. 'In and around the bus I saw dismembered heads, brains and intestines....' One wonders what a criminal weapon of mass destruction could have caused these horrors. Nobody had heard the sound of an explosion; on the bodies no traces of shrapnel were found. A journalist spoke of a heat-weapon with liquid cupper or something like that... Can the Americans be really that cruel? Dr. Saad El-Fadoui asked us repeatedly to do everything to help stop this horrible war of aggression.


Geert understands me poorly when I say something, the line is not always clear. "We are momentarily without electricity", he explains. "Large blocks in Baghdad are without electricity, last night the bombardment was very severe". Colette (Geert�??s college-doctor Dr. Collete Moulaert) saw from her hotel room, just behind the mosque in this neighborhood, two enormous fireballs coming down. I think that these are containerbombs of about 7-8 tons each that cause enormous vibrations. "I am shivering of the cold", Collete said, but this was the vibration caused by the bomb explosion.

"You should not believe verything what CNN and BBC are showing", Geert informs us. "That we were able to travel today up to Hilla (near Babylon, south of Kerbala) with a large group 'human shields', 100 km south-west of Baghdad, proves convincingly that the Iraqi capital is not being completely surrounded and besieged. Along the way we hardly saw Iraqi troop movements. On the 100 km route we didn�??t pass any Iraqi checkpoint, and hardly saw signs of war. There were groups of scattered houses, trees, even children playing with paper kites... One time we were told to take a side road because a colon of 20 to 30 Iraqi tanks had to pass. This again disproves the charges that the Iraqi army is using civilians as shield for military operations: our civilian vehicle was first sent safely to another road before the Iraqi army passed. On our way back the Americans and British were bombing the area. For our safety we had to take a new another road, but this was also nearly hit by a bomb, followed by a tick plume of smoke. This was frightening for a while, because we were not safely in our hotel, but in the open air.

http://www.irak.be/ned/missies/medicalMissionColetteGeert/re
port_04_04_2003.htm


=======


And here is Dai Williams' evaluation (06 April 2003) of the weaponry used. His recommendations for the international community still stand today.

(...) Please can you ask the Pentagon to explain why and how many Daisy cutters, fragmentation bombs and suspected uranium weapons it has used in the last week in the region around now in the outskirts of Baghdad? And please can you ask the UK Government whether it condones the use of Daisy cutters in populated areas with large numbers of civilians?

I have been investigating US guided weapons as an independent researcher for 2 years. My primary concern are the 23 suspected uranium weapon systems. But my investigations include similar weapons like thermobaric bombs, daisy cutters etc.

Full weapons identification requires inspection on site by trained and independent weapons analysts. This must be a high priority for the UN. Ex-military personnel, HALO or similar demining organisations may help. Serving military personnel will simply lie about more advanced, prototype or illegal weapons.

Less trained observers can partly narrow down suspected weapon systems from descriptions of their explosions and from injuries on victims.

The following reports were received yesterday from two Belgian Doctors in Baghdad.

Partial answers to their questions are as follows:


[INCIDENT 1 ] "I have two awful stories to tell", Geert immediately starts when I get him on the line. "Today we drove to Hilla, a small town near Babylon that was heavily bombed yesterday. One poor district was hit by 20 to 25 bombs. The hospital of Hilla received in the next half an hour 150 seriously injured patients. Dr. Mahmoud Al-Mukhtar said that the wounds were caused by clusterbombs. These are bombs that explode into many small bombs that again explode individually and cause enormous damage.
Clusterbombs are banned by the International Laws on War, but Bush completely disregards these! In the hospital I have seen very many abrading situations. A family of eleven persons, of whom six are dead. A father who is left with one child; his wife and two sons are dead. Small children with amputated limbs."

Incident 1:
is a clusterbomb description. These are already recognised as weapons of indiscriminate effect by the media.


[INCIDENT 2 ] "My second story is even more horrible", warns Geert. "About a bus with civilians that was fired upon. Not the one in Najaf, which reached the news everywhere, but a case that according to me has not yet been covered by western media. Three days ago, In Al Sqifal, near Hilla, a passenger bus was fired upon from an American checkpoint, with ghastly results. According to witnesses the bus stopped on time and had, on orders of the American Military, turned back. Dr. Saad El-Fadoui, a 52 years old surgeon who still has studied in Scotland, was immediately on the place of incident from the hospital in Hilla. When he told me what he had seen there, he again became very emotional, three days after it had happened. 'The bodies were al carbonized, terribly mutilated, torn into pieces, he sighs. 'In and around the bus I saw dismembered heads, brains and intestines...' One wonders what a criminal weapon of massdestruction could have caused these horrors. Nobody had heard the sound of an explosion; on the bodies no traces of shrapnel were found. A journalist spoke of a heat-weapon with liquid cupper or something like that.. Can the Americans be really that cruel? Dr. Saad El-Fadoui asked us repeatedly to do everything to help stop this horrible war of aggression.

Incident 2:
3 April, Al Sqifal, near Hilla 'The bodies were al carbonized, terribly mutilated, torn into pieces... One wonders what a criminal weapon of massdestruction could have caused these horrors. Nobody had heard the sound of an explosion; on the bodies no traces of shrapnel were found. A journalist spoke of a heat-weapon with liquid cupper or something like that...


The reference to a heat weapon with liquid copper sounds like a misquote of someone describing an anti tank weapon with a shaped charge warhead. (HEAT also stands for High Explosive AntiTank weapons).
Shaped charge warheads use a focussed explosive blast with a copper (or uranium) core that is melted by the blast and travels at very high velocity to cut through armour plating. "Heat" in the context may also be describing the obvious effects of an incendiary weapon.

If the weapon was fired from the check point (ground to ground) it must have been an anti-tank missile e.g. JAVELIN which uses a tandem shaped charge warhead. Recently purchased by UK forces I question whether JAVELIN warheads use a depleted uranium core like the prototype that DERA and the MOD made and tested in 1999 (refer MOD website). This would produce a far higher temperature (5000 degrees) blast than copper and may account for the characteristic severe burns on victims. "Carbonisation" was typical of uranium weapon victims on the highway of death in 1991.
Shaped charge weapons do not create shrapnel - they work by projecting a lance of burning molten metal, almost a plasma, into the target.

Similar effects would have been caused by the larger Hellfire or Maverick missiles though these are fired by planes or helicopters, not referred to in this report.

QUESTION: What weapon was used by US forces in this incident? Did it contain a Uranium warhead?


[INCIDENT 3] Geert understands me poorly when I say something, the line is not always clear. "We are momentarily without electricity", he explains. "Large blocks in Baghdad are without electricity, last night the bombardment was very severe. Colette
(Geert's collegue-doctor Dr. Collette Moulaert) saw from her hotel room, just behind the mosque in this neighbourhood, two enormous fireballs coming down. I think that these are containerbombs of about 7-8 tons each that cause enormous vibrations. "I am shivering of the cold", Collette said, but this was the vibration caused by the bomb explosion.

Incident 3:
"Colette saw from her hotel room, just behind the mosque in this neighbourhood, two enormous fireballs coming down."
The only weapons that match this description are the BLU-82 Daisy Cutter bombs. Developed in Vietnam for clearing jungle into runways they created immense pressure (1000 lbs / sq inch) over a large area - lethal from 300 to 900 metres.
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/dumb/blu-82.htm

They literally mash and burn any human beings under the blast area causing extensive internal injuries, severe burns but no shrapnel wounds from the high pressure blast. Rather like high-blast napalm in effect but the bombs are 10-20 times larger.

The two doctors providing these reports are in Baghdad. Dirk Adriaensens, coordinator of SOS Iraq, their contact in Belgium, is on sos.irak@skynet.be .

Dr Bert De Belder, coordinator of Medical Aid for the Third World, can be reached at bert.debelder@intal.be


===


Incident 4
- is from a separate report from BBC reporter Adam Mynot yesterday (5 April) described civilian casualties with severe burns near Nasiriyah. "The Phosphorus turned the inside of his house white hot". This is the first reference I have heard to Phosphorus weapons in the current war.

A more likely alternative may have been a guided bomb with a uranium warhead e.g. GBU 31 or 32 (for increased penetration and incendiary effects). UK researchers located US patents for upgrading the 2000 lb BLU-109/B hard target warhead (used in the GBU-15, 24, 27 and 31 guided bombs) with a choice of tungsten or depleted uranium. See Appendix 2 of my summary "Hazards of Uranium weapons in Afghanistan and Iraq", October 2002 at http://www.eoslifework.co.uk/u23.htm

and extracts at http://www.eoslifework.co.uk/pdfs/USpats.pdf

These mini (just under 1 ton) bunker busters were used extensively in the earlier Baghdad bombing. The explosions with intense fireballs at ground level and incandescent metal in their explosion plumes are highly suspected of using uranium warheads.

The existence and use of guided bombs and missiles with uranium warheads is vigorously denied by the UK MOD saying that the Pentagon have assured them that such weapons don't exist. I don't trust either statement. In addition to causing horrific burns on casualties near the fireball such weapons are likely to be causing hundreds, possibly up to 1500, tons of uranium oxide contamination in target regions of Iraq, especially in and around Baghdad.

===

It is really important that media reports question what kinds of weapons are being used by US (and UK) forces - especially when large numbers of casualties or fatalities are seen with unusual injuries e.g. the fire and blast effects described in the incidents above.

The civilian casualties cause most obvious outrage. But there are very few questions about, or reports of, the forms of mutilation and death inflicted on Iraqi troops. It is customary in times of war to demonise the enemy. But much of the Iraqi army are conscripts..

Injuries to everyone involved in war - civilians and troops of all sides - are very serious issues. After World War 2 there was sufficient horror for consensus about the Geneva Conventions. The US Military and arms industry have shown supreme contempt for international humanitarian law ever since WW2.

If this war shows one thing it is the need for the World to start to get control over the barbarity of the US military industrial context. Criticisms of Saddam Hussein's record of atrocities fade into history as they are eclipsed by the industrialised killing that US Forces have spent billions of dollars perfecting.

A new War Crimes Tribunal will be needed in Iraq as soon as hostilities cease - to inspect the targets and casualties of US weapon systems throughout Iraq. This will of course require a dramatic awakening of the UK Government and Conservative Opposition from the "war-trance" spell cast on them by Pentagon propaganda.

There will be one mighty reckoning to follow soon for the US and UK Governments (if and) when independent international observers are allowed into Iraq.

Dai Williams
Woking, Surrey
Dr Bert De Belder, coordinator of Medical Aid for the Third World, can be reached at bert.debelder@btinternet.com
01483-222017 07808-502785

http://www.irak.be/ned/missies/medicalMissionColetteGeert/we
aponsUS.htm


It's time for the World community to wake up and charge the US with war crimes.

Dirk Adriaensens.

Courtesy and Copyright Dirk Adriaensens.


:: Article nr. 17770 sent on 13-nov-2005 16:56 ECT

:: The address of the original page is : www.uruknet.info?p=17770 "

KLTV 7 Tyler-Longview-Jacksonville, TX: Radioactive Material On Its Way To Kilgore Is Missing

KLTV 7 Tyler-Longview-Jacksonville, TX: Radioactive Material On Its Way To Kilgore Is Missing: "11/19/05-Longview
Radioactive Material On Its Way To Kilgore Is Missing

It made stops in Abilene, Austin, Dallas and Tyler and somewhere along the way radioactive material came up missing before it got to East Texas. A New Mexico agency is hoping that someone in Texas can help them solve a mystery of some missing radio active material, that did not reach its destination in Kilgore.

Workers at ProTechnics in Kilgore were immediately alarmed when earlier this month a military style ammo box that contained radio-active material, turned up missing on a shipment from New Mexico.

The FBI is investigating the theft of the shipment. Investigators believe two vials of antimony-124, a radioactive material used in the oil and gas industry, were stolen before the truck got to Kilgore.

The vials were transported in a military style ammo box, but it was not marked and that's a problem according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. According to TxDOT, any vehicle transporting radio-active material must be marked accordingly, and any container holding the material. The material is also sometimes used for chemo-therapy in humans. The material is not considered a terrorist threat because of the small amount involved.

However, antimony-124 is toxic and can cause skin ulcers and even be lethal if ingested.

Authorities say if you see the box, do not touch it. Stay at least 15 feet away and call authorities. Anyone with information can call local authorities or the New Mexico Environmental Department's Emergency number at 505-827-9329. You can also leave a voice mail at 1-866-428-6535. "

RSNA 2004 - Uranium Isotopes Bioassay in the Civilians of Baghdad and Al Basra after Operation Iraqi Freedom

RSNA 2004 - RSNA Event: "ODE: SSA20-07
SESSION: Radiation Oncology and Radiobiology (Radiation and Cancer Biology)
Uranium Isotopes Bioassay in the Civilians of Baghdad and Al Basra after Operation Iraqi Freedom

PARTICIPANTS
Presenter
Isaac Zimmerman BS
Abstract Co-Author
Asaf Durakovic
Axel Gerdes

DATE: Sunday, November 28 2004

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to determine the concentration and precise isotopic ratios of four uranium isotopes in the urine specimens of civilians of Baghdad and Basra following Operation Iraqi Freedom.

METHOD AND MATERIALS

The study included fifteen symptomatic civilians, ten from the Baghdad area and five from the Al Basra, Abu Khasib area, exposed to aerial bombings and/or tank battles. The subjects? most common symptoms included fatigue, intermittent fever, respiratory impairment, nocturnal diaphoresis, headaches, musculoskeletal pains, urinary tract impairment, and affect disorders. Urine samples were collected by the Uranium Medical Research Centre field team. The urine specimens were analyzed at the Institute for Mineralogy, JW Goethe University using double-focusing Thermo Finnigan Neptune multi-collector ICP-MS. The analytical methodology included preconcentration of urine samples using co-precipitation, oxidation of organic matter, uranium purification by ion-exchange chromatography, and mass spectrometry analysis. Data errors were calculated with the consideration of uncertainty of all applied corrections and reproducibility of the reference solution.

RESULTS

The mean concentration of total uranium in all samples was found to be 24.3 � 4.6 ng/L. This is within normal limits for the international standard uranium concentration in urine. Eight samples from Baghdad and two from Basra had natural 238U:235U isotopic ratio of 138.2 � 0.2. In contrast, two Baghdad and three Basra samples were compatible with depleted uranium (143.0 � 1.8). The 234U:238U ratio was 7.00 x 10-5 � 1.16 x 10-6. The 236U:238U ratio (7.3 x 10-7) indicates a significant presence of 236U in 8/15 samples, which are higher concentrations than recently reported first-time findings of 236U in natural uranium (10-10 to 10-14).

CONCLUSIONS

Our results demonstrate the presence of depleted uranium in the civilians of Baghdad and Basra after Operation Iraqi Freedom. The cause of the urinary presence of depleted uranium may be consistent with our previously reported findings of DU contamination of the Allied Forces veterans in Gulf War I, by inhalation of DU containing aerosols. "

Waking up to DEPLETED URANIUM

Politics, the art of bickering: "dangers that can dramatically alter the life style of our troops. True, our troops absolutely deserve to know that their government stands behind them while they put their life on the line. Evidently, the elitist leaders and their immediate families stand far enough behind the troops to miss all the bullets. In addition to 'insurgents,' our troops confront a very subtle indiscriminate adversary that may change one's life forever. The weapons our troops use, authorized by the U.S. government, contain high amounts of radioactive uranium. It is in the missiles, smart bombs, dumb bombs, bullets, tank shells and cruise missiles. When used, these munitions release a radioactive dust which, when inhaled, remains in the body ? everyone's bodies: the troops, the insurgents, civilians, old men, young men, women, children, any warm body. When this dust is ingested subatomic particles permanently alter the DNA.

Before the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003 there was some lengthy planning and propaganda by the nefarious group known as the Project for a New American Century, [6] whose war hawk members served in the first Bush regime and now serve in key positions in the current Bush monarchy. In an effort to continue the initial Iraqi onslaught (1991) the birds of prey sharpened their beaks, honed their talons and then gathered the most deadly toxic munitions that our taxpayer dollars could buy. Just in the year 2003, we dropped four million pounds of radioactive uranium on Iraq. Both radioactive depleted and non-depleted uranium have contaminated the civilian populations of Afghanistan and Iraq and the American troops, present and future. If our elected elite are going to castigate irresponsible behavior ? shouldn't they begin with the weapons contractors/manufacturers and the pentagon department in charge of ordering those radioactive weapons?

Is there no consideration for American troops who are squandered in foreign warfare under extreme toxic conditi"

Group to appeal ruling on nuclear waste dump

Group to appeal ruling on nuclear waste dump: "




Posted on Fri, Nov. 18, 2005


Group to appeal ruling on nuclear waste dump
Sierra Club says Barnwell County landfill isn?t using latest technology to prevent leaks
By SAMMY FRETWELL
Staff Writer

A decision to let one of the nation?s few atomic waste dumps continue operating has been upheld by a judge in Columbia.

The Sierra Club says it will appeal the ruling to the Department of Health and Environmental Control board. The club argues the 34-year-old Barnwell County landfill isn?t using the latest technology to prevent nuclear waste leaks.

Whatever decision the DHEC board reaches, further appeals are expected that could delay final resolution of the dispute for months or even years. The agency?s staff signed off on a new license for the landfill in 2004.

The 235-acre landfill, which accepts the nation?s low-level atomic waste, has for decades been a source of intense debate in the legislature and at the state?s environmental agency. It generates millions of dollars for the state?s treasury, but critics say it poses environmental threats to groundwater.

It is scheduled to close to the nation in 2008 but will continue operating for low-level waste from South Carolina, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Low-level nuclear waste ranges from lightly contaminated medical equipment to more radioactive pieces of atomic power plants. The Barnwell County dump opened in 1971. It is operated by Chem-Nuclear Systems LLC, a subsidiary of Duratek Inc.

In his ruling last month, Administrative Law Judge John Geathers agreed with environmentalists that tighter pollution controls are available, but he didn?t receive ?competent evidence? that existing burial practices are inadequate.

Geathers said Chem-Nuclear has taken action in the past decade to improve technology at the landfill following a tritium leak. Tritium, a potentially deadly radioactive material, was found in groundwater beneath the site in 1978. It since has been found off the site, but at lower levels.

?It is not enough to merely show that DHEC has not required, and Chem-Nuclear has not employed, the most protective or most isolating methods of radioactive waste disposal currently available,?? Geathers wrote in his October ruling.

The dispute centers on how tightly sealed nuclear waste is for burial. It currently is buried in concrete casks, but those casks have holes in them to let water drain out. Environmentalists want sealed vaults for the waste and better methods to keep rainwater from getting into burial trenches.

Jimmy Chandler, an attorney for the Sierra Club in South Carolina, said his group?s appeal makes sense. It is the first appeal of a DHEC permit for the Barnwell landfill in state history.

?Most people, when they hear about this place burying it in concrete vaults, think it?s pretty safe ... but all the vaults have holes in the bottom, and the sides are not grouted to keep them waterproof,?? Chandler said.

Chem-Nuclear spokeswoman Deborah Ogilvie said her company was pleased with Geathers? ruling. Company officials say the burial practices are safe.

The Associated Press contributed to this story. Reach Fretwell at (803) 771-8537 or sfretwell@thestate.com.
"

The Australian: Nuclear site left exposed at the back door [November 19, 2005]

The Australian: Nuclear site left exposed at the back door [November 19, 2005]: "Nuclear site left exposed at the back door
Jonathan Porter
November 19, 2005

THE back door to one of the nation's prime terrorist targets is protected by a cheap padlock and a stern warning against trespassing or blocking the driveway.

When The Weekend Australian visited the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor site this week, a reporter and a photographer were able to park a one-tonne white van outside the back gate for more than half an hour, much more time than would be required to use a pair of bolt-cutters to snap the padlock and drive the 800m or so to the reactor or the more vulnerable cooling towers.

However, Lucas Heights security managed a quicker response when the van was left close to the facility's gate on the New Illawarra Road.

Within two minutes, two heavily armed Australian Protective Services officers approached the van in a marked four-wheel-drive utility, and the reporting team were quickly reminded of the gravity of the current terror situation.

'We are currently on a heightened state of alert. I would not advise you to try this at night,' one APS officer said.

There was a new initiative in the war against terrorism yesterday when the Australian Federal Police announced it would join a new, regional anti-terrorism group to share intelligence and track cross-border movements.

AFP commissioner Mick Keelty said the AFP would also establish a Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Data Centre to overcome gaps and vulnerabilities.

"

Iran confirms processing new batch of uranium

: "Iran confirms processing new batch of uranium
Fri Nov 18, 2005 10:47 AM GMT

TEHRAN (Reuters) - One step from U.N. Security Council referral, Iran confirmed that it had started processing a new batch of uranium at its Isfahan nuclear plant, chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani was quoted on Friday as saying.

'We had informed the U.N. watchdog that Iran wanted to process a new batch of uranium and we have started it,' the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted Larijani as saying.

Accused by Western nations of running a covert atomic weapons programme, Iran had informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) late October that it planned to process a new batch of uranium without giving a specific date.

� Reuters 2005."

CBS 11 - Dallas / Authorities Search For Stolen Radioactive Material