Institute for Nuclear Materials Management Mercyhurst Chapter

France Cuts Back Nuclear Arsenal

2008-03-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

CHERBOURG, France (AP) -- President Nicolas Sarkozy announced a modest cut Friday in France's nuclear arsenal, to fewer than 300 warheads, and urged China and the United States to commit to no more weapons tests

In his first major speech as president on France's nuclear "strike force," Sarkozy said atomic weapons would remain a vital component of its defenses to deter potential attackers.

"It is the nation's life insurance policy," he said.

Sarkozy said that while France faces no foreseeable danger of invasion, other threats exist. He singled out Iran's expansion and improvement of its long-range missile forces amid what he called "grave suspicions" about whether the Iranians are trying to develop atomic weapons.

"The security of Europe is at stake," he said.

Sarkozy did not say how many warheads France currently has, and the Defense Ministry said that information is a state secret. The Federation of American Scientists, which tracks nuclear arsenals around the globe, said in a status report for 2008 that France had 348 warheads.

More than half of France's nuclear weapons are believed to aboard submarines, with the rest on warplanes.

Sarkozy said France would cut reduce its airborne force of atomic weapons by a third. "After this reduction, our arsenal will include less than 300 nuclear warheads," he said.

Speaking to workers finishing a new nuclear submarine, The Terrible, Sarkozy followed his announcement of weapons cuts with appeals for other nations to scale back their nuclear facilities.

He appealed to China and the United States to ratify a nuclear test ban treaty that they signed in 1996. "It's time to ratify," he said.

Sarkozy also called for negotiations on treaties to ban short- and intermediate-range nuclear-armed missiles and bar the manufacture of fissile material for new atomic weapons.

Since Sarkozy is France's first leader born after World War II, his underlining of the need for nuclear weapons, despite budget difficulties, was significant in reaffirming the defense policy would continue despite the generational shift in political leadership.

Donning his commander-in-chief cap also was part of an effort by Sarkozy to appear more presidential. Following a divorce in office, a subsequent quick marriage to a former model and outbursts of temper, Sarkozy has faced criticism his behavior is unbecoming for a head of state.

The Terrible is the fourth vessel in France's new generation of nuclear-powered submarines that carry underwater-launched missiles with atomic warheads. Quieter than predecessors, The Terrible is scheduled to enter service in 2010 and be armed with the new M51 missile with multiple warheads and a longer range.

France's airborne nuclear weapons are carried by three air force squadrons using the Mirage 2000N and a navy flotilla of upgraded Super Etendard jets. All four forces are set to get new, high-tech Rafale jets.

Bruno Tertrais, an expert on nuclear deterrence, said Sarkozy's nuclear policy was largely a continuation of his predecessor in the presidency, Jacques Chirac, but Chirac was not so open about the number of warheads in the French arsenal.

"Chirac did not believe that transparency was worthwhile or interesting," said Tertrais, a senior research fellow at the Foundation for Strategic Research think tank. "There is more continuity than change, but the level of transparency now is something new."

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/03/21/france.nuclear.ap/index.html?eref=edition_europe

2008-03-15T06:17:00.000-07:00

Analysis: Russia Must Use Nuclear Deterrent

2008-03-14T06:17:00.000-07:00

12 March 2008

MOSCOW, March 12 (RIA Novosti) - Russia must reserve the right to use nuclear weapons to protect Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) members in case of an imminent threat, a Russian political analyst said on Wednesday.

The CSTO is a post-Soviet security group comprising Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

"It is necessary to extend part of Russia's nuclear doctrine, which covers the use of tactical nuclear weapons, to all members of the CSTO treaty as a deterrence guarantee," said Leonid Ivashov, the head of the Moscow-based Academy of Geopolitical Sciences.

He said the existing treaty was too vague about the assistance, including military, which each CSTO country must provide to an ally in case of a clear and imminent threat of military aggression.

"Article 4 of the treaty must be revised and contain a concrete definition of such assistance, clearly described in military-strategic terms," Ivashov said during a round-table meeting in Moscow.

The Treaty on Collective Security was signed in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on 15 May 1992. The CSTO was established on 18 September 2003 in accordance with a decision of the heads of member states on transforming the treaty into an international regional organization.

Article 4 of the current treaty stipulates that: "If an act of aggression is committed against any of the member states, all other member states will render it necessary assistance, including military, and provide support with the means at their disposal by exercising the right to collective defense in line with Article 51 of the UN Charter".

The Russian leadership has already reaffirmed its commitment to building and maintaining a strong nuclear deterrent, while strongly criticizing the proposed deployment of the U.S. missile shield in Central Europe, and further eastward expansion of NATO.

Source: http://www.opensourcesinfo.org/journal/2008/3/13/russia-must-use-nuclear-deterrent-to-protect-allies-analyst.html

Czech nuclear institute sends waste to Russia

2007-12-11T13:46:00.000-08:00

Prague, Dec 10 (CTK) - The Nuclear Research Institute in Rez near Prague has disposed of most of the nuclear material it has amassed over its 50-year existence, Czech State Authority for Nuclear Safety (SUJB) chairwoman Dana Drabova told CTK Monday.

A haul of spent nuclear fuel from the research reactors whose disposal was ordered by the SUJB and sponsored by the former Czech National Property Fund (FNM) has reached Russia, Drabova said.

The spent fuel is to be processed in Russia.

The haul left Rez on December 1 and reached Russia on Saturday, Drabova said, adding that this was part of the effort to lower the risk of misuse of nuclear materials for terrorist purposes and a part of the programme with a view to returning the fuel from Czech research reactors to Russia.

"This is a trilateral initiative of the USA, Russia and the International Agency for Atomic Energy (IAAE)," the SUJB said in its press release.

The U.S. embassy in Prague said Rez has returned 80 kilos of highly enriched uranium fuel. The embassy welcomed the transport.

U.S. ambassador Richard Graber said it was an example of international cooperation aimed to lower the risk of nuclear terrorism. The transport is in accordance with the Russian-U.S. joint statement from 1995 on cooperation in nuclear safety.

Apart from the Czech Republic, countries such as Bulgaria, Germany, Latvia, Libya, Poland and Vietnam have returned enriched uranium to Russia, too.

A week ago, the strictly watched radioactive material was loaded at the railway station in Mesice near Prague.

The haul was reloaded from lorries to a freight train.

The relevant authorities have declined to elaborate on the special event.

"It was a train transporting over 100 tonnes," SUJB deputy chairman Petr Krs told CTK Monday.

Thanks to special containers, the whole haul could be transported by a single train, he added.

"There was the aim of minimising the risk," Krs said.

Both the route and schedule of the strictly controlled haul were kept secret, he added.

The haul has reached a specialised organisation operated by the Russian government, Krs said.

"The organisation amasses this type of nuclear material. In fact, this is no waste, but tremendously valuable raw material," Krs said.

"It is most likely to be reused in the future," Krs said.

http://www.praguemonitor.com/en/231/czech_national_news/15833/

National Intelligence Team: Iran Stopped Nuclear Weapons Program in 2003

2007-12-10T18:57:00.000-08:00

Monday , December 03, 2007

Iran halted its nuclear weapons development program in the fall of 2003 under international pressure, but is continuing to enrich uranium and could be capable of developing a weapon as early as late 2009, the U.S. intelligence community has concluded.

The "high confidence" conclusion was revealed in a declassified portion of a national intelligence estimate released Monday.

The new intelligence estimate "confirms that we were right to be worried about Iran seeking to develop nuclear weapons. It tells us that we have made progress in trying to ensure that this does not happen. But the intelligence also tells us that the risk of Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon remains a very serious problem," National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said in a written statement.

The findings are a change from two years ago, when U.S. intelligence agencies believed Iran was determined to develop a nuclear capability and was continuing its weapons development program.

"Tehran's decision to halt its nuclear weapons program suggests it is less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005," states the unclassified summary of the secret report. "Our assessment that the program probably was halted primarily in response to international pressure suggests Iran may be more vulnerable to influence on the issue than we judged previously."

Officials said the findings show diplomacy is effective in containing Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"This is good news in that the U.S. policy coupled with the policies and actions of those who have been our partners appear to have had some success. Iran seems to have been pressured," one official said. "Given that good news we don't want to relax. We want to keep those pressures up."

Despite the new conclusions, the report makes clear that intelligence gaps mean a judgment can't be made on whether Tehran is willing to continue the halt of its nuclear weapons program indefinitely or has set specific deadlines or criteria to prompt the continuation of the program.

It also concludes that Iran's decision to halt the program is likely based on a cost-benefit approach, influenced by international pressure, "rather than a rush to a weapon irrespective of the political, economic, and military costs."

"In our judgment, only an Iranian political decision to abandon a nuclear weapons objective would plausibly keep Iran from eventually producing nuclear weapons — and such a decision is inherently reversible," the report states.

Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Donald M. Kerr said officials decided to release the unclassified conclusions because "the intelligence community is on the record publicly with numerous statements based on our 2005 assessment on Iran. Since our understanding of Iran's capabilities has changed, we felt it was important to release this information to ensure that an accurate presentation is available."

The unclassified portion of the NIE being made public is nine pages in length, five of which explain methodology. The key judgments conclude with "high confidence" that:

— Until fall 2003, Iranian military entities were working under government direction to develop nuclear weapons;

— In fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program;

— The halt lasted at least several years;

— Iran has the scientific, technical and industrial capacity eventually to produce nuclear weapons if it decides to do reverse course;

— The halt, and Tehran's announcement that it has suspended its declared uranium enrichment program and signed additional safeguards relating to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty are "primarily in response to increasing international scrutiny and pressure resulting from exposure of Iran's previously undeclared nuclear work"; and

— Iran will not be technically capable of producing and reprocessing enough plutonium for a weapon before about 2015.

The judgments find with "moderate-to-high confidence" that:

— Iran does not currently have a nuclear weapon;

— Tehran at a minimum is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons; and

— Iran has not obtained enough weapons-usable fissile material to develop nuclear weapons, though the NIE assesses with low confidence the importation at all of some material. The report does not rule out that Iran "has acquired from abroad — or will acquire in the future — a nuclear weapon or enough fissile material for a weapon."

The judgments also find with "moderate confidence" that:

— Tehran had not restarted its nuclear weapons program as of mid-2007, but the NIE notes that its intentions to develop weapons is unknown;

— The earliest possible date Iran would be technically capable of producing enough highly enriched uranium for a weapon is late 2009, but that is very unlikely;

— More likely is that it would be technically capable of producing enough highly enriched uranium for a weapon sometime between 2010 and 2015;

— Iran probably would use covert facilities rather than its declared nuclear sites in its effort to produce highly enriched uranium for a weapon.

The report concludes that Iran resumed its declared centrifuge enrichment activities in January 2006 despite the continued halt in the nuclear weapons program, and made significant progress in 2007 installing centrifuges at Natanz, its chief nuclear plant.

In those efforts, Iranian agencies are still working on creating the technology that could be used for producing nuclear weapons, if it turned toward that activity.

"Since fall 2003, Iran has been conducting research and development projects with commercial and conventional military applications — some of which would also be of limited use for nuclear weapons," the report states.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,314708,00.html

Comments:

National Intelligence Estimate: Iran: Nuclear Intentions and
Capabilities

Three Busted for Selling Weapon-Grade Uranium

2007-12-07T10:28:00.000-08:00

European authorities have seized about 1 pound of weapon-grade uranium that two Hungarians and one Ukrainian allegedly attempted to sell for $1 million, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Oct. 29).

Investigators are continuing to search for the intended recipient of the powdered uranium, which Slovakian First Police Vice President Michal Kopcik said could have been used in a radiological “dirty bomb.”
Authorities determined the uranium recovered in unlabeled containers to contain 98.6 percent uranium 235. Uranium containing a minimum of 85 percent uranium 235 is considered weapon grade.

“It was possible to use it in various ways for terrorist attacks,” Kopcik said.
“According to initial findings, the material originated in the former Soviet republics,” he added.
Investigators believe the suspects planned to complete the sale between Monday and Wednesday this week, but police detained the three when the transfer was not completed as expected, Kopcik said.

Three people were detained last month in the Czech Republic for allegedly attempting to sell fake radiological material, but it remains unclear whether they were involved in the botched uranium deal (Janicek/Kole, Associated Press I/Google News, Nov. 29).
Two of the suspects were arrested in eastern Slovakia and the third suspect was detained in Hungary, Slovak police spokesman Martin Korch said yesterday.

Korch said the arrests followed months of investigation by police from the two nations, but declined to discuss details of the case, such as the intended recipient of the radioactive material.
Slovakia’s border with Ukraine has been seen as a possible entryway into the European Union of WMD materials. Governments have spent millions of dollars on security upgrades in the area over the past several years

http://www.opensourcesinfo.org/journal/2007/11/30/three-busted-for-selling-weapon-grade-uranium.html

Jordan's Nuclear Program

2007-11-26T09:29:00.000-08:00

Yes, We Do Have a Nuclear Program'

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,518131,00.html

Jordanian King Abdullah II, 45, discusses this week's election in his desert state, war and peace in the Middle East and Amman's desire to establish a civilian atomic energy program.

AFP

King Abdullah II: "The price of oil is a major economic hurdle in Jordan."

SPIEGEL: Your Majesty, this week Jordan is going to the polls to vote for a new parliament. What executive powers is this new assembly going to have?

Abdullah: We're hoping that this parliament will create a new political landscape. We need fewer, more broad-ranging parties -- ideally two, three or four representing the left- and right-wings and the political center.

SPIEGEL: Will enough Jordanians actually go to the polls?

Abdullah: We've been talking a lot to the youth. I am concerned with getting young people more involved in the decision-making process of this country.

SPIEGEL: There are fears that the election results may be manipulated. The Islamists are even considering boycotting the elections.

FROM THE MAGAZINE

Abdullah: We experienced that in the municipal elections, when leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in foreign countries pressured Islamists in Jordan not to take part in the election to prevent them getting the necessary quorum. My instructions to the government were to make sure the elections were transparent. The Muslim Brotherhood have a good chance, and I hope they're going to be good sports about it. Ultimately, it is my responsibility to make sure that the elections are clean and everything works out well.

SPIEGEL: Democracy is always associated with a risk that those who are enemies of democracy can be elected. What is the lesson to be learned from Hamas' victory in the Palestinian territories? Is stability more important to you than democracy?

Abdullah: I think the success of democracy is not really police security; it's the presence of a broad middle class. The stronger the middle class of a people is, the less you have to worry about one group coming in and exploiting the democratic process for its own ends. Our economic and social reforms are trying to strengthen the development of the middle class.

SPIEGEL: And what is the situation of the middle class in Jordan?

Abdullah: The middle class today in Jordan is shaky -- that has to do with the situation in the Middle East and the current price of oil. That is something we have to work on, and parliament will have to address that over the next four years. Parliamentarians must be active in improving education, health and social security -- that's what's important. I think the future of the Middle East lies in the hands of a strong, responsible middle class. And we have to admit that this political class is not really there yet.

SPIEGEL: How far have you come with your economic reforms? Where do you hope to find the investors to bring your country forward?

DER SPIEGEL

Graphic: The Shiite Crescent

Abdullah: The economy has improved dramatically since 1999. We need to harness that growth to fight unemployment and poverty -- and do a lot more for education than has been the case until now. We put every extra dinar we have into the education system. Many Jordanians are working in the Gulf states. We'd like them to come back and find jobs in Jordan. That's why I went to Germany last week to solicit investment. We aim to realize major infrastructure projects: alternative energy sources, water supply. Jordan may be a small country, but we are also a gateway to the Arab world.

SPIEGEL: Jordan and Egypt are the only Arab states to have concluded a peace treaty with Israel. Has this treaty paid off for you economically?

Abdullah: Peace with Israel is a strategic imperative for Jordan. As far as the direct impact on the Jordanian economy, our initial expecations have not been fulfilled. However, I am nevertheless convinced that our trade relations will profit once there is true peace in the region.

SPIEGEL: In the past 30 years the population of Jordan has almost doubled. And it is still growing rapidly -- primarily because of the continuing influx of refugees.

Abdullah: This has always been our lot, and we just have to live with it. The critical problem is the issue of water. Our reserves will soon be exhausted and we must take concrete measures in the next couple of years to solve the problem. We are planning major projects. I think there is a role for German companies to help us with that. I'm talking about the groundwater reservoir on the Gulf of Aqaba, the Red and Dead Sea Canal (more...) and desalinization projects.

AFP

A car bomb attack in Baghdad: "I'm afraid these attacks will continue in the future."

SPIEGEL: About 750,000 Iraqi refugees are currently residing in Jordan (more...). What is going to happen to them?

Abdullah: The overwhelming majority want to return to Iraq. In Jordan we are a bit sensitive about this issue, simply due to our history...

SPIEGEL: ... because in the years following the Israeli-Arab war of 1948 you took in millions of Palestinians, whose descendants now make up the majority of the Jordanian population.

Abdullah: We do not want to be a dumping ground for refugees. At the same time, we have a humanitarian obligation; we can't really close the borders and turn back people who are in need. It's very difficult to strike the right balance.

SPIEGEL: What is your perspective on the Iraqi situation now? Is the worst over?

Abdullah: There are good and bad days. It's going to take a long time. Iraq will be dependent on the efforts of the international community for years to come. But if you look at the three most volatile issues in the Middle East -- the Palestinian, Lebanese and Iraqi issues -- I tend to put Iraq in third place. The Israeli-Palestinian situation creates many more problems, followed by what's going on in Lebanon.

SPIEGEL: At the moment the number of suicide attacks in Iraq seems to be declining.

Abdullah: I'm afraid these attacks will continue in the future. What has changed is the attitude of the Sunnis in Iraq towards al-Qaida. They are fed up with al-Qaida, so now al-Qaida is not just dealing with US forces, it has to deal with the local population -- at least in the province of Anbar. That is an improvement.

SPIEGEL: The Palestinian refugee drama is one of the main reasons behind the political crisis in the Middle East. Will the refugees coming from Iraq create similar crises?

Abdullah: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is different in that it affects two different peoples. Ultimately, in the case of Iraq all the people involved are Iraqis -- Shiites and Sunnis, Kurds and Arabs. Iraq is an established nation and most Iraqis want to keep their country together.

SPIEGEL: You sound more much optimistic than you did a year ago (more...).

Getty Images

Mideast negotiating partners -- Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem: "Do we really want to allow the Middle East to be engulfed by violance for another ten or 15 years?"

Abdullah: Again, I believe the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a more serious problem. If we don't make decisive progress in the next six or seven months, we won't be in a position to achieve anything for at least the next four or five years. We do need American involvement to solve this issue, and, whether we like it or not, it will be at least two years before the next American president is in a position to re-tackle this problem. We must, therefore, use the coming months as our last opportunity. Or do we really want to allow the Middle East to be engulfed by violence for another 10 or 15 years?

SPIEGEL: The next big conference on the Middle East will take place in the US city of Annapolis in two weeks. What do you expect?

Abdullah: We are concerned about how little we know about the details of this conference. All the information is very general. If it's still so vague at the start of the conference, I fear we'll be in for some surprises in Annapolis. It's high time we knew more about the concrete agenda.

SPIEGEL: Is Israel reluctant to agree to a concrete agenda?

Abdullah: What I hear from Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, is positive. I'm not so sure about those around him. Olmert and President Mahmud Abbas have a good relationship and they both see where this needs to go. I just hope the negotiating teams come up with strategies that enable us to make progress in Annapolis.

SPIEGEL: What surprises are you concerned about? A return to the so-called "Jordanian solution" -- a federation of Jordan and the West Bank?

DER SPIEGEL

Graphic: The Middle East's atomic ambitions

Abdullah: The Jordanian solution is not a solution, absolutely not. It will not be accepted by Arab world or by the Palestinians. It would be an outrage. Israel would embarrass itself with such a suggestion and be put in a very difficult position.

SPIEGEL: For some time now, many Arab countries have been talking about their desire to start a nuclear program. Why has that happened all of a sudden?

Abdullah: Take a look at the price of oil. This is not anything new. Countries such as Jordan have been talking to the West about the use of nuclear energy for two, three years. The price of oil is a major economic hurdle in Jordan, so I think we need to move quickly. Of course, all of this must be transparent and in agreement with the relevant international organizations. I hope that none of the countries in the Middle East are planning anything but the peaceful utilization of nuclear energy.

SPIEGEL: Iran, too?

Abdullah: Not the Arab countries, in any case. Iran, I believe, does have aspirations to develop nuclear weapons. The Iranians themselves are saying that. But we have to avoid any ambiguity. After all, Jordan already has one neighbor with nuclear capabilities.

SPIEGEL: Israel, which has not officially admitted that it has nuclear weapons.

Abdullah: I think we need to have transparency from all the countries in the region. For the safety of all of us.

SPIEGEL: Do you have a concrete schedule for your nuclear program?

Abdullah: We're fortunate to be sitting on 3 percent of the world's uranium reserves, and we have very high quality uranium here in Jordan. That makes nuclear energy all the more interesting for us. So, yes, we do have a nuclear program, and we'll probably do it through the private sector.

SPIEGEL: Even years ago, you warned about the strengthening Shiite nations and the emergence of a "Shiite Crescent." Has history proven you to be correct?

Abdullah: Our major concern was that one country was using Shiite Islam, in other words, religion, as a political tool. Today we have countries that we regard either as moderate or extreme. The moderate countries are Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and most of the Gulf states. On the other side you have Iran, Syria and, to a certain extent, Hamas in Gaza und Hezbollah in Lebanon. I hope that the peace process and the dividends it brings will help us to relieve such tensions.

SPIEGEL: Your Majesty, we thank you for this interview.

Interview conducted by Martin Doerry, Gerhard Spörl and Bernhard Zand.

Czech counter-intelligence accomplishments appear at Radio Praha

2007-11-23T11:36:00.000-08:00

BIS, the Czech counterintelligence service, seems to use state radio to brag about its accomplishments and help push foreign policy from time to time. For example, I came across a recent story: Czech intelligence: Half of Russia’s diplomats in the Czech Republic are spies, about how the Russians are abusing their privileges in the republic by stacking their diplomatic, journalistic, and commercial establishments with intelligence officers. That led me to last year's article (below) about how BIS had thwarted DPRK efforts to acquire nuclear technology from Czech sources.

Don't forget foreign sources when searching for information about your topic. The BBC and Reuters aren't the only informative foreign news services, for example. And the Russian and Chinese foreign ministries are particularly content rich, if biased.

[13 November 2006] By Linda Mastalir, Radio Praha

Over the weekend, BIS, the Czech intelligence agency, made a surprising announcement: North Korean agents have made three known attempts to purchase component parts for their nuclear program from Czech sources within the past year.

Such successes are not always reported, but BIS has revealed that during 2005 it detected and stopped three attempts by North Korean agents to purchase special equipment intended to enhance North Korea's nuclear arms program. In each case, employees of North Korean companies visiting the Czech Republic expressed interest in specialized dual-use machines and their spare parts.

Experts say that North Korea desires the special equipment for production of both conventional and nuclear weapons, as well as their launchers. The technology in question would enable North Korea to produce a much smaller nuclear weapon than its current technology allows. The compatible launchers could then send the smaller nuclear warheads much farther abroad.

BIS spokesman Jan Subrt says that in 2005 the Czech secret service managed to stop three export deals destined for North Korea. When the first attempt to buy and export the equipment failed, North Korea reportedly tried to make the purchase via a third, unnamed country. According to the counter-intelligence agency, North Korea has shown a consistent interest in the Czech Republic as a source country for the equipment.
Despite protests over a series of missile tests it conducted in July, North Korea conducted an underground test of a nuclear weapon on October 9. The move led to a United Nations Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on North Korea, and strict inspection of cargo headed into and out of the country. The technology at the centre of the latest revelations has been on the Czech Republic's export-ban list since 2003.

Pennsylvania Nuke News Notes

2007-11-16T11:07:00.000-08:00

Forbes.com has an interesting article on the "Nuclear Renaissance" and how to invest in the industry at the various points along the fuel cycle. It suggests that Americans have renewed interest in nuclear energy, after several scares thirty years ago -- the film China Syndrome, Three-Mile Island (near Harrisburg, PA), and Chernobyl in the Soviet Ukraine. All of the same talking points, interestingly enough, are covered in an article released at about the same time in The Mankato Free Press.

Speaking of Three Mile Island, one of its reactors showed a possible decrease in pressure during a maintenance outage, so the owner, Exelon Corp, had to file an unusual activity report with the NRC. A news report says that Exelon decided it was an erroneous reading of the gauges, not a problem with the reactor. Such events are often reported in the press.

Under the category Not In My Backyard, or maybe better, If You Don't Build It, They Won't Come, The Patriot News is happy with its 1998 suggestion that Pennsylvania hold out for other states to take our nuclear waste. They opposed a search for nuclear storage facilities within Pennsylvania and feel vindicated that their sit tight posture is paying off -- the high grade materials can stay temporarily onsite at nuclear power plants (that's not in Pennsylvania, really) and the low grade stuff is losing its home at Barnwell but can probably be sent to a facility in Utah or a new one being considered in Texas. The article suggests that nuclear waste is on the decline, but they've not read the advocacy articles above, evidently.

Curtiss-Wright Corp's Electro-mechanical Division has received a $440k grant from Penn Dept of Community and Economic Development towards building a USD 62 million plant in Cheswick, Pa. The plant will manufacture 16 nuclear reactor coolant pumps under a contract with Westinghouse. Cheswick is in Allegheny County.

Iran Hands IAEA Nuclear Blueprints

2007-11-13T13:44:00.000-08:00

By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer Tues. Nov 13, 4:21 PM ET

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Iran has met a key demand of the U.N. nuclear agency, handing over long-sought blueprints showing how to mold uranium metal into the shape of warheads, diplomats said Tuesday.

Iran's decision to release the documents, which were seen by U.N. inspectors two years ago, was seen as a concession designed to head off the threat of new U.N. sanctions.

But the diplomats said Tehran has failed to meet other requests made by the International Atomic Energy Agency in its attempts to end nearly two decades of nuclear secrecy on the part of Iran.

The diplomats spoke to The Associated Press as IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei put the finishing touches on his latest report to his agency's 35-nation board of governors for consideration next week. While ElBaradei is expected to say that Iran has improved its cooperation with his agency's probe, the findings are unlikely to deter the United States, France and Britain from pushing for a third set of U.N. sanctions.

The agency has been seeking possession of the blueprints since 2005, when it stumbled upon them among a batch of other documents during its examination of suspect Iranian nuclear activities. While agency inspectors had been allowed to examine them in the country, Tehran had up to now refused to let the IAEA have a copy for closer perusal.

Diplomats accredited to the agency, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were divulging confidential information, said the drawings were hand-carried by Mohammad Saeedi, deputy director of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization and handed over last week in Vienna to Oli Heinonen, an ElBaradei deputy in charge of the Iran investigations.

Iran maintains it was given the papers without asking for them during its black market purchases of nuclear equipment decades ago that now serve as the backbone of its program to enrich uranium - a process that can generate both power or create the fissile core of nuclear warheads. Iran's refusal to suspend enrichment has been the main trigger for both existing U.N. sanctions and the threat of new ones.

Both the IAEA and other experts have categorized the instructions outlined in the blueprints as having no value outside of a nuclear weapons program.

While ElBaradei's report is likely to mention the Iranian concession on the drawings and other progress made in clearing up ambiguities in Iran's nuclear activities, it was unclear whether it would also detail examples of what the diplomats said were continued Iranian stonewalling.

Senior IAEA officials were refused interviews with at least two top Iranian nuclear officials suspected of possible involvement in a weapons program, they said. One was the leader of a physics laboratory at Lavizan, outside Tehran, which was razed before the agency had a chance to investigate activities there. The other was in charge of developing Iran's centrifuges, used to enrich uranium.

Pelindaba Nuclear Facility Attacked... What Was Taken?

2007-11-12T05:30:00.000-08:00

To me there seems to be something not right about this situation. It may be something worth researching, especially since the previous general manager of the power plant was killed in Montana, South Africa and the IAEA is about to go there for a Conference.

From the Pretoria Newspaper

A brazen attack by four gunmen on the Pelindaba nuclear facility has left a senior emergency officer seriously injured.Anton Gerber, Necsa emergency services operational officer spoke to the Pretoria News from his hospital bed hours after the attack.He was shot in the chest when the gunmen stormed the facility's emergency response control room in the early hours of Thursday morning.The shooting comes four months after Necsa's newly appointed services general manager Eric Lerata, 43, was gunned down in front of his Montana home after returning from a business trip in France.

Pelindaba is regarded as one of the country's most secure national key points. It is surrounded by electric fencing, has 24-hour CCTV surveillance, security guards and security controls and checkpoints.The attack comes as the country prepares to preside over an International Atomic Energy Agency convention on nuclear safety.The convention is aimed at achieving a high level of global nuclear safety via safety related technical co-operation; establishing and maintaining effective defences in nuclear installations against potential radiological hazards and preventing accidents with radiological consequences.A visibly shaken Gerber, who was rushed to Eugene Marais hospital, on Thursday said that he was sitting in the control room with his fiancée Ria Meiring when he heard a loud bang.

'I could not let anything like that happen' Meiring, who was working nightshift, is the supervisor of the control room.Gerber said he kept Meiring company. "I do not like it when she is at work at night and I go with her to keep her company and ensure that she is safe," he said.Describing the attack Gerber said they were inside the electronically sealed control room when they heard a loud bang.They then spotted the gunmen coming into the facility's eastern block.

It is believed that the attackers gained access to the building by using a ladder from Pelindaba's fire brigade and scaling a wall. The men are thought to have forced open a window by pulling out several louvers.Pushing Meiring underneath a desk, Gerber attacked two of the gunmen as they forced their way into the control room and ran straight for the control panel."I did not know what they were going to do. I just kept on hitting them even when one of them attacked me with a screwdriver. "I knew that if I stopped they would attack Ria or do something to the panel."I could not let anything like that happen," he said.

Unbeknownst to Gerber one of the robbers had shot him in the chest as he fought them off.The bullet narrowly missed his heart breaking a rib before puncturing his lung. Doctors said the bullet missed his spine by 2cm.Gerber, who at one stage thought he was going to die, said he had been very scared."The facility is meant to be safe. There are security guards, electric fences and security control points. These things are not meant to happen," he said.

NESCA spokesperson Chantal Janneker confirmed the attack.She declined to say how the gunmen had gained access to the facility or whether they had stolen anything.Janneker said NESCA was conducting an internal investigation into the attack. Once the police investigation was complete NESCA would divulge what happened, she said.

Later in the afternoon, Pretoria News was phoned by a man identifying himself as a Necsa legal adviser, saying the newspaper will be breaching the National Keypoints Act by publishing the story. He said that Necsa may seek a court order preventing dissemination of the story.He claimed that the interview with Gerber was "unethical" as "he was under sedation and thus incoherent" when it was conducted.

Pretoria News sought and was granted permission to interview Gerber, by hospital management, and Gerber himself. While he was obviously in pain, he appeared coherent and made sense throughout the interview. His recall of the events was sequential and to the point. He also agreed to have his picture taken in his hospital bed.North West police spokesperson Superintendent Louis Jacobs said that no arrests had been made."A case of armed robbery and attempted murder are being investigated," he said.

Suitcase nukes said unlikely to exist

2007-11-11T09:23:00.000-08:00

By KATHERINE SHRADER, Associated Press Writer Sat Nov 10, 11:23 AM ET

WASHINGTON - Members of Congress have warned about the dangers of suitcase nuclear weapons. Hollywood has made television shows and movies about them. Even the Federal Emergency Management Agency has alerted Americans to a threat — information the White House includes on its Web site.

But government experts and intelligence officials say such a threat gets vastly more attention than it deserves. These officials said a true suitcase nuke would be highly complex to produce, require significant upkeep and cost a small fortune.

Counterproliferation authorities do not completely rule out the possibility that these portable devices once existed. But they do not think the threat remains.

"The suitcase nuke is an exciting topic that really lends itself to movies," said Vahid Majidi, the assistant director of the FBI's Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate. "No one has been able to truly identify the existence of these devices."

Majidi and other government officials say the real threat is from a terrorist who does not care about the size of his nuclear detonation and is willing to improvise, using a less deadly and sophisticated device assembled from stolen or black-market nuclear material.

Yet Hollywood has seized on the threat. For example, the Fox thriller "24" devoted its entire last season to Jack Bauer's hunt for suitcase nukes in Los Angeles.

Government officials have played up the threat, too.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., once said at a hearing that he thought the least likely threat was from an intercontinental ballistic missile. "Perhaps the most likely threat is from a suitcase nuclear weapon in a rusty car on a dock in New York City," he said.

In a FEMA guide on terrorist disasters that is posted in part on the White House's Web site, the agency warns that terrorists' use of a nuclear weapon would "probably be limited to a single smaller 'suitcase' weapon."

"The strength of such a weapon would be in the range of the bombs used during World War II. The nature of the effects would be the same as a weapon delivered by an intercontinental missile, but the area and severity of the effects would be significantly more limited," the paper says.

___

THE GENIE THAT ESCAPED

During the 1960s, intelligence agencies received reports from defectors that Soviet military intelligence officers were carrying portable nuclear devices in suitcases.

The threat was too scary to stay secret, government officials said, and word leaked out. The genie was never put back in the bottle.

But current and former government officials who have not spoken out publicly on the subject acknowledge that no U.S. officials have seen a Soviet-made suitcase nuke.

The idea of portable nuclear devices was not a new one.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the U.S. made the first ones, known as the Special Atomic Demolition Munition. It was a "backpack nuke" that could be used to blow up dams, tunnels or bridges. While one person could lug it on his back, it had to be placed by a two-man team.

These devices never were used and now exist — minus their explosive components — only in a museum.

Following the U.S. lead, the Soviets are believed to have made similar nuclear devices.

Suitcase nukes have been a separate problem. They attracted considerable public attention in 1997, thanks to a "60 Minutes" interview and other public statements from retired Gen. Alexander Lebed, once Russia's national security chief.

Lebed said the separatist government in Chechnya had portable nuclear devices, which led him to create a commission to get to the bottom of the Chechen arsenal, according to a Center for Nonproliferation Studies report. He said that when he ran the security service, the commission could find only 48 of 132 devices.

The numbers varied as he changed his story several times — sometimes he stated that 100 or more were missing. The Russians denied he was ever accurate.

Even more details emerged in the summer of 1998, when former Russian military intelligence officer Stanislav Lunev — a defector in the U.S. witness protection program — wrote in his book that Russian agents were hiding suitcase nukes around the U.S. for use in a possible future conflict.

"I had very clear instructions: These dead-drop positions would need to be for all types of weapons, including nuclear weapons," Lunev testified during a congressional hearing in California in 2000, according to a Los Angeles Times account.

Naysayers noted that he was never able to pinpoint any specific location.

In a 2004 interview with the Kremlin's Federal News Service, Colonel-General Viktor Yesin, former head of the Russian strategic rocket troops, said he believes that Lebed's commission may have been misled by mock-ups of special mines used during training.

Yesin believed that a true suitcase nuke would be too expensive for most countries to produce and would not last more than several months because the nuclear core would decompose so quickly. "Nobody at the present stage seeks to develop such devices," he asserted.

Some members of Congress remained convinced that the suitcase nuke problem persists. Perhaps chief among these lawmakers was Curt Weldon, a GOP representative from Pennsylvania who lost his seat in 2006.

Weldon was known for carrying around a mock-up of a suitcase nuke made with a briefcase, foil and a pipe. But it was nowhere near the weight of an actual atomic device.

___

THE SCIENCE

Majidi joined the FBI after leading Los Alamos National Laboratory's prestigious chemistry division. He uses science to make the case that suitcase nukes are not a top concern.

First, he defines what a Hollywood-esque suitcase nuke would look like: a case about 24 inches by 10 inches by 12 inches, weighing less than 50 pounds, that one person could carry. It would contain a device that could cause a devastating blast.

Nuclear devices are either plutonium, which comes from reprocessing the nuclear material from reactors, or uranium, which comes from gradually enriching that naturally found element.

Majidi says it would take about 22 pounds of plutonium or 130 pounds of uranium to create a nuclear detonation. Both would require explosives to set off the blast, but significantly more for the uranium.

Although uranium is considered easier for terrorists to obtain, it would be too heavy for one person to lug around in a suitcase.

Plutonium, he notes, would require the cooperation of a state with a plutonium reprocessing program. It seems highly unlikely that a country would knowingly cooperate with terrorists because the device would bear the chemical fingerprints of that government. "I don't think any nation is willing to participate in this type of activity," Majidi said.

That means the fissile material probably would have to be stolen. "It is very difficult for that much material to walk away," he added.

There is one more wrinkle: Nuclear devices require a lot of maintenance because the material that makes them so deadly also can wreak havoc on their electrical systems.

"The more compact the devices are — guess what? — the more frequently they need to be maintained. Everything is compactly designed around that radiation source, which damages everything over a period of time," Majidi said.

___

PROVING A NEGATIVE

A former CIA director, George Tenet, is convinced that al-Qaida wants to change history with the mushroom cloud of a nuclear attack. In 1998, Osama bin Laden issued a statement called "The Nuclear Bomb of Islam."

"It is the duty of Muslims to prepare as much force as possible to terrorize the enemies of God," he said.

Among numerous of avenues of investigation after the Sept. 11 attacks, Tenet said in his memoir that President Bush asked Russian President Vladamir Putin whether he could account for all of Russia's nuclear material. Choosing his words carefully, Tenet said, Putin replied that he could only account for everything under his watch, leaving a void before 2000.

Intelligence officials continued digging deeper, hearing more reports about al-Qaida's efforts to get a weapon; that effort, it is believed, has been to no avail, so far.

But intelligence officials are loath to dismiss a threat until they are absolutely sure they have gotten to the bottom of it.

In the case of suitcase nukes, one official said, U.S. experts do not have 100 percent certainty that they have a handle on the Russian arsenal.

Laura Holgate, a vice president at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, says the U.S. has not appropriately prioritized its responses to the nuclear threat and, as a result, is poorly using its scarce resources.

Much to many people's surprise, she noted, highly enriched uranium — outside of a weapon — is so benign that a person can hold it in his hands and not face any ill effects until years later, if at all. It can also slip through U.S. safeguards, she says.

The Homeland Security Department is planning to spend more than $1 billion on radiation detectors at ports of entry. But government auditors found that the devices cannot distinguish between benign radiation sources, such as kitty litter, and potentially dangerous ones, including highly enriched uranium.

Holgate considers the substance the greatest threat because it exists not only at nuclear weapons sites worldwide, but also in more than 100 civilian research facilities in dozens of countries, often with inadequate security.

Her Washington-based nonproliferation organization wants to see the U.S. get a better handle on the material that can be used for bombs — much of it is in Russia — and secure it.

The big problem, she said, is not a fancy suitcase nuke, but rather a terrorist cell with nuclear material that has enough knowledge to make an improvised device.

How big would that be? "Like SUV-sized. Way bigger than a suitcase," she said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071110/ap_on_go_ot/tale_of_the_suitcase_nuke

North Korea Begins Shut Down of Yongbyon

2007-11-05T09:05:00.000-08:00

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea was expected to begin disabling its nuclear facilities Monday, marking the biggest step the communist country has ever taken to scale back its atomic program.

The North shut down its sole functioning nuclear reactor at Yongbyon in July, and promised to disable it by year's end in exchange for energy aid and political concessions from other members of talks on its nuclear program: the U.S., China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.

Disabling the reactor at Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, would mark a further breakthrough in efforts to convince the North to scale back its nuclear program. The country conducted its first-ever nuclear test in October of last year.

Hill said the U.S. intends to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula while President Bush is still in power, and that North Korea — one of the world's most isolated countries — appeared to be opening up. To disable the program, the facilities must be stripped sufficiently that it would take at least a year for North Korea to start them up again, Hill said.

Hill added the U.S. hoped to disable North's uranium enrichment program by Dec. 31, not just its plutonium-production facilities at Yongbyon.

The envoy said American lawyers were working with North Korea to prepare to remove it from a U.S. list of states sponsoring terrorism, but that Pyongyang ultimately needed to meet requirements stipulated under U.S. law. Taking Pyongyang off the terror list, long a key demand of the North, was one of a series of economic and political concessions offered for the country to disable its nuclear reactor that produces plutonium for bombs.

Palo Verde locked down as explosive device discovered in truck

2007-11-03T07:43:00.000-07:00

Friday, November 2, 2007 - 1:20 PM MST

The Business Journal of Phoenix - by Ty Young Phoenix Business Journal

Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station officials have locked down the facility after security guards stopped a pickup truck carrying a suspicious device, authorities said.

The driver of the truck was a contract worker. The device, according to reports from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, was a small capped pipe with suspicious residue. Department officials confirmed that the pipe was a credible explosive device.

The device was removed from the plant, and the contract worker was denied further access. The FBI is investigating the incident.

"Our security personnel acted cautiously and appropriately, demonstrating that our security process and procedures work as designed," Randy Edington, chief nuclear officer for plant operator Arizona Public Service Co., said in a statement.

APS is the majority owner of Palo Verde, the largest nuclear plant in the country.

The incident was considered the lowest of emergency grades, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. NRC officials said the plant is not at any further risk.

The station has been under increased security because workers are replacing the Unit 3 steam generator, an 800-ton, 75-foot-tall cylindrical device responsible for powering the unit.

The contract worker was stopped at the heavily secured entry gate approximately half a mile from the Unit 1 reactor. Dozens of armed security guards are stationed at the entry gate. They check the engines, undercarriages, and passenger and cargo areas of every vehicle entering the premises.

"It demonstrates the guards were attentive and alert," said NRC spokesman Victor Dricks.

The station is in Wintersburg, about 50 miles west of Phoenix.

Phoenix Business Journal

South Korean Generators for Detroit's Fermi Nuke Plant Shipped via Lake Erie

2007-11-01T11:17:00.000-07:00

Interesting to see how nuclear power plant equipment travels the world and right by Erie.

Port of Toledo chosen to handle heavy cargo
2 South Korean transformers destined for Fermi plant

The first of two electrical transformers is unloaded from the M.V. Jumbo Spirit at the Port of Toledo for Newport, Mich.
( THE BLADE/HERRAL LONG )

Zoom | Photo Reprints

By DAVID PATCH
BLADE STAFF WRITER

When Don Johnson scouted western Lake Erie ports for places to unload two huge transformers destined for Detroit Edison's Fermi 2 nuclear generating plant north of Monroe, he checked Detroit and several smaller ports. But only the Port of Toledo had the wharf space and the on-dock rail access he sought for the heavy-lift cargo. So, Toledo was where the two transformers, built in South Korea and shipped around the world and through the St. Lawrence Seaway, were hoisted from the M.V. Jumbo Spirit's hold and deposited on solid ground yesterday. The larger of the two, weighing 513 tons, was rigged into a special heavy-duty railcar for movement, starting today, to the power plant in Frenchtown Township, while the second, coming in at a paltry 404 tons, is to finish its journey next week. "This is a very efficiently run, modern port," Mr. Johnson, the vice president of Gulf Logistics & Projects Co., Inc., based in Houston, said while watching a combination of longshoremen, contractor employees, and ship's crew unload the larger transformer yesterday morning. In particular, Mr. Johnson cited dock-space availability and reasonable labor costs as reasons for choosing Toledo over alternatives. The only problem with Toledo is that the Great Lakes don't have scheduled ships for "break-bulk" cargoes, like the big transformers, he said - but if the shipment is lucrative enough, a vessel can be chartered, as in the current case.

The 513-ton transformer is loaded onto a specialized railcar, known as a Schnabel car, that has 20 axles.

Zoom | Photo Reprints

Mr. Johnson has plenty of opportunities to see how ports handle cargoes like the big transformers - his firm manages several such shipments a month, including an upcoming delivery of nine transformers to Houston that will be distributed to six midwestern destinations. "The whole country built a wonderful electrical system 50 years ago, but transformers wear out and need to be replaced," said Mr. Johnson, who sees potential for more such shipments through Toledo. Thomas Kaercher, Jr., a sales representative for transformer manufacturer Hyundai Heavy Industries, said the firm has several on order by Consumers' Energy of Michigan, but he doesn't know how they'll be delivered. "We haven't figured out the logistics yet, but it's a possibility" they'll be shipped via Toledo, he said. "It demonstrates our capability, especially for the intermodal [ship-to-rail] transfer of heavy-lift cargo," said Todd Audet, the vice president of operations for Midwest Terminals of Toledo International, the stevedore at the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority's general cargo docks. "This particular cargo probably couldn't go over the highway," Mr. Audet said. "We have certainly laid the groundwork" for future "special project" cargoes, said Warren McCrimmon, seaport director for the port authority, "and not just for the energy industry." Such cargoes are generally good revenue generators for everyone involved in moving them because they require special handling, Mr. McCrimmon said. The specialized railcar upon which the transformers will be shipped is known as a Schnabel car. It is actually two sections that attach to either end of the transformer, has 20 axles, and itself weighs 250 tons. Its design allows it to distribute the transformers' weight so they can be transported without damaging track or collapsing bridges. Mr. Audet said the schedule calls for the first transformer to be delivered to Fermi and the special railcar to be returned to the Toledo dock within five days. He expressed eagerness to see that schedule kept because several ships are expected to arrive next week with holds full of natural-gas pipe, coal, and limestone to be unloaded. The coal, he said, is destined for Toledo Edison's Bay Shore power plant in Oregon, a facility that usually receives all its fuel by train. The coal will be trucked from the docks to the plant, and then the trucks will return with ash from Bay Shore that will be shipped to a cement plant in northern Michigan.

Toledo Blade

Video: Improving Nuclear Security

2007-10-30T07:36:00.000-07:00

An informative video clip from CNN showing improvements in nuclear security, one reactor at a time.

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/09/16/btsc.vietnam.nuclear/#cnnSTCVideo

A.Q. Khan Documentary

2007-10-29T18:10:00.000-07:00

I will be giving a pretty skimmed down presentation on the A.Q. Khan network. You have to understand that more and more is being unraveled as we speak about the proliferation activities the network engaged in. Listed here is a BBC documentary on Youtube that you can view for a more visual look at the A.Q. Khan network. The last video in the series has not been posted, so you can only see 5/6 of the documentary. I may choose to incorporate a video or two on Thursday if it suits my purpose. However, as of now, I do not plan to.

A.Q. Khan BBC Documentary

Part I- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW7JKm5F4QE

Part II- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVDTDTckAXQ

Part III- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98qRH7sbEFY

Part IV- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK3on5AwYQY

Part V- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ4-Fg03SA8

First Nuclear Reactor to Become Museum?

2007-10-27T03:14:00.000-07:00

A nuclear reactor’s next life: tourist attraction?

Stuart Eskenazi/The Seattle Times
Friday, October 26, 2007

RICHLAND, Wash. — Stuck in time and place, B Reactor at the Hanford nuclear reservation is a monument of world history few get to tour.

Built in secrecy during World War II but dormant since 1968, B Reactor ushered in the atomic age as the world’s first nuclear reactor, producing the plutonium for the first full-scale nuclear test explosion in New Mexico and the bomb the U.S. dropped on Nagasaki.

Some Tri-Cities residents want the Hanford nuclear reservation's B Reactor--the world's first nuclear reactor--to be preserved as a museum in Hanford, Wash.

For generations, Hanford has been the bread of life for the Tri-Cities, from when nine reactors produced plutonium to now, when billions of dollars are paying for the world’s largest environmental cleanup.

Proud of their nuclear heritage, Tri-Citians want the U.S. Department of Energy to give new life to B Reactor by turning it into a museum.

If that happens, several thousand more visitors a year will be able to stand face to face with the reactor core — and confront the issues of the soul that color the atomic age.

“Even if you disagree with the principle of this, even if you believe this reactor never should have been built, you have to admire the complexity of what they built here — the genius of it,” Hanford historian Michele Gerber said while leading a tour of B Reactor.

Without question, the reactor is a marvel of science, engineering and craft. B Reactor was constructed in a mere 11 months, a millionfold scale-up of an experimental reactor built on a Chicago sports court.

But the reactor’s place in the sociopolitical history of the U.S. and the world is more volatile and open to debate.

Dr. David Hall, of Seattle, a past national president of Physicians for Social Responsibility, said the story told at a B Reactor museum must include a fair accounting of the human and financial costs of developing nuclear capabilities. He isn’t sure that side of the story would get a full airing at a museum on the Hanford site.

“It depends on who’s writing the history,” Hall said. “I want to honor the good intent and patriotism of the people who worked at B Reactor. On the other hand, science needs to be honest about its consequences and understand the Pandora’s box that was opened.”

Historian Michele Gerber holds aluminum tubes the size of the uranium slugs that were used in the reactor's processing tubes. Some Tri-Cities residents want the Hanford nuclear reservation's B Reactor--the world's first nuclear reactor--to be preserved as a museum in Hanford, Wash.

Did the bomb on Nagasaki save tens of thousands of U.S. lives by forcing Japan’s surrender? Or did it needlessly sacrifice tens of thousands of civilian Japanese lives?

Are advances in nuclear energy and medicine outweighed by the environmental contamination from nuclear wastes?

“Those debates ought to start in this room,” Gerber said, while standing in front of the reactor core. “The mission of Hanford is never complete until the waste is managed and properly disposed of — and that requires the same amount of innovation that went into building this reactor.”

Lacking in aesthetic, B Reactor rises 120 feet from the Southeast Washington desert about a quarter-mile from the Columbia River, sharing the landscape with the sagebrush that grows on the 586-square-mile Hanford nuclear reservation.

In early 1943, more than 1,500 residents of two desert towns — Hanford and White Bluffs — were ordered to immediately vacate with no explanation. Native Americans who knew the land for generations no longer had access to it.

At the peak of construction, more than 50,000 workers converged upon Hanford to dutifully carry out their war effort. Told little about their mission, they completed a highly classified project under an extremely tight deadline.

Rumors spread as to what was being manufactured at Hanford. As legend has it, a child was sure he figured it out — toilet paper!

His father, who worked at the site, came home every night with a couple or three rolls, the boy unaware his dad was pilfering to provide his family more than its wartime ration.

Tri-Citians tell that tale and want to be the ones to tell B Reactor’s story for the museum, figuring who better than those who lived it.

“What happened at B Reactor is roughly equivalent to the discovery of fire and putting a man on the moon,” said Wally Greager, 80, who worked five decades at B Reactor and other Hanford facilities. He is among a group of Hanford retirees who 17 years ago launched an effort to preserve B Reactor. They see the museum as a tool to promote the nuclear industry.

“People need to recognize what they get out of it,” Greager said. “If you’re not afraid of it, good can come from it.”

U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, the Republican who represents the Tri-Cities, said B Reactor ought to be viewed in the context of when it was built — as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the first nuclear bomb.

“We were in an all-out struggle at the time and thought Nazi Germany had the technology to build an atomic bomb,” he said. “From a historic standpoint, we won the war in a large part because of efforts at Hanford.”

Times-Record News

New Book on A.Q. Khan

2007-10-26T08:48:00.000-07:00

The Deception: Pakistan, the United States, and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons

On December 15, 1975, A. Q. Khan—a young Pakistani scientist working in Holland—stole top-secret blueprints for a revolutionary new process to arm a nuclear bomb. His original intention, and that of his government, was purely patriotic—to provide Pakistan a counter to India’s recently unveiled nuclear device. However, as Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark chillingly relate in their masterful investigation of Khan’s career over the past thirty years, over time that limited ambition mushroomed into the world’s largest clandestine network engaged in selling nuclear secrets—a mercenary and illicit program managed by the Pakistani military and made possible, in large part, by aid money from the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Libya, and by indiscriminate assistance from China.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?r=1&ISBN=0802715540&pdf=y&z=y

Nuclear Power: Current Status and Outlook

2007-10-25T07:41:00.000-07:00

A recent Press Release by the IAEA explaining the growth of nuclear power by the year 2030 describes the low and high amount of nuclear power plants in the world. They predict and enormous growth over this period of time, and there will need to be many analysts with knowledge of key materials and security measures over this time period.

Here is some information :

Nuclear power´s share of worldwide electricity production rose from less than 1 percent in 1960 to 16 percent in 1986, and that percentage has held essentially constant in the 21 years since 1986. Nuclear electricity generation has grown steadily at the same pace as overall global electricity generation. At the close of 2006, nuclear provided about 15 percent of total electricity worldwide.

The IAEA´s other key findings as of the end of 2006 are elaborated below.There were 435 operating nuclear reactors around the world, and 29 more were under construction. The US had the most with 103 operating units. France was next with 59. Japan followed with 55, plus one more under construction, and Russia had 31 operating, and seven more under construction.

Of the 30 countries with nuclear power, the percentage of electricity supplied by nuclear ranged widely: from a high of 78 percent in France; to 54 percent in Belgium; 39 percent in Republic of Korea; 37 percent in Switzerland; 30 percent in Japan; 19 percent in the USA; 16 percent in Russia; 4 percent in South Africa; and 2 percent in China.

Present nuclear power plant expansion is centred in Asia: 15 of the 29 units under construction at the end of 2006 were in Asia. And 26 of the last 36 reactors to have been connected to the grid were in Asia. India currently gets less than 3% of its electricity from nuclear, but at the end of 2006 it had one-quarter of the nuclear construction - 7 of the world´s 29 reactors that were under construction. India´s plans are even more impressive: an 8-fold increase by 2022 to 10 percent of the electricity supply and a 75-fold increase by 2052 to reach 26 percent of the electricity supply. A 75-fold increase works out to an average of 9.4 percent/yr, about the same as average global nuclear growth from 1970 through 2004. So it´s hardly unprecedented.

China is experiencing huge energy growth and is trying to expand every source it can, including nuclear power. It has four reactors under construction and plans a nearly five-fold expansion by just 2020. Because China is growing so fast this would still amount to only 4 percent of total electricity.

Russia had 31 operating reactors, five under construction and significant expansion plans. There´s a lot of discussion in Russia of becoming a full fuel-service provider, including services like leasing fuel, reprocessing spent fuel for countries that are interested, and even leasing reactors.

Japan had 55 reactors in operation, one under construction, and plans to increase nuclear power´s share of electricity from 30 percent in 2006 to more than 40 percent within the next decade.

South Korea connected its 20th reactor just last year, has another under construction and has broken ground to start building two more. Nuclear power already supplies 39 percent of its electricity.Europe is a good example of "one size does not fit all."

Altogether it had 166 reactors in operation and six under construction. But there are several nuclear prohibition countries like Austria, Italy, Denmark and Ireland. And there are nuclear phase-out countries like Germany and Belgium.There are also nuclear expansion programmes in Finland, France, Bulgaria and Ukraine. Finland started construction in 2005 on Olkiluoto-3, which is the first new Western European construction since 1991. France plans to start its next plant in 2007.

Several countries with nuclear power are still pondering future plans. The UK, with 19 operating plants, many of which are relatively old, had been the most uncertain until recently. Although a final policy decision on nuclear power will await the results of a public consultation now underway, a White Paper on energy published in May 20071/ concluded that "...having reviewed the evidence and information available we believe that the advantages [of new nuclear power] outweigh the disadvantages and that the disadvantages can be effectively managed. On this basis, the Government´s preliminary view is that it is in the public´s interest to give the private sector the option of investing in new nuclear power stations.

"The US had 103 reactors providing 19 percent of the country´s electricity. For the last few decades the main developments have been improved capacity factors, power increases at existing plants and license renewals. Currently 48 reactors have already received 20-year renewals, so their licensed lifetimes are 60 years. Altogether three-quarters of the US reactors either already have license renewals, have applied for them, or have stated their intention to apply. There have been a lot of announced intentions (about 30 new reactors´ worth) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is now reviewing four Early Site Permit applications.

URS Corporation - Major Player in Countering WMD - Seeks Analysts

2007-10-23T18:38:00.000-07:00

Posting for defense analyst job in Fort Belvoir, Virginia
with URS Corp of San Francisco

Interest Category: Security/ Homeland Security

Job Description: Responsibilities:

Provide the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) with process support and independent assessments of Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System (JCIDS) analyses

Position will focus on the preparation of JCIDS documentation and coordination with various stakeholders in the combating WMD community

Applicant will support DTRA's role of assisting the USSTRATCOM Center for Combating weapons of mass destruction (CWMD) and other organizations in identifying future warfighting and CWMD capabilities and technologies needed to defeat or mitigate WMD threats

Job Requirements

Minimum Requirements: - BA/BS with a minimum of 10 years experience in conducting research, analysis and preparing independent assessments of DoD programs

A thorough knowledge of DoD's Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System (JCIDS)

Experience in defense planning, analysis and research operations

Chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) technical experience

Joint Staff, Service Staff or Office of Secretary of Defense acquisition, planning or programming experience

Successfully work with a team and be capable of presenting recommendations/proposals in a diplomatic manner

Excellent written and oral presentation skills. Proficient in the Microsoft Office applications (MS Word, MS Power Point, MS Excel and MS Access)

Active DoD Secret and be eligible for a Top Secret clearance

http://www.jobs.net/Job.asp?jid=J3G48B78K6Z3HKCBKCZ

Recent press release discussing URS Corp's business goals

URS TO ACQUIRE WASHINGTON GROUP INTERNATIONAL
Combines Leaders in Engineering, Construction and Management
Services to Create Diversified “Single Source” E&C Company

SAN FRANCISCO, CA; BOISE, ID — May 31, 2007 — SAN FRANCISCO, CA and BOISE, ID – May 31, 2007 – URS Corporation (NYSE: URS) and Washington Group International, Inc. (NYSE: WNG) have signed a definitive agreement for the acquisition of Washington Group by URS in a cash and stock transaction valued at approximately $2.6 billion.

The transaction will combine two world-class engineering and construction companies, expand the capabilities of both firms and capitalize on their positions in important high growth sectors, including power, infrastructure and environmental management. The combined company would have projects in over 50 countries and more than 54,000 employees.

The combined company will offer a full range of engineering, construction, and operations and maintenance services for both fossil fuel and nuclear power plants globally. The combined company also will have one of the largest teams of nuclear scientists and engineers in the industry, as well as a leading nuclear decommissioning and remediation business, enabling it to meet the anticipated resurgence in the nuclear energy market. In the infrastructure market, the combined entity will be positioned to meet growing demand for comprehensive services on large, complex transportation and water/wastewater projects around the world. In addition, the combined company is expected to be a major contractor to the federal government, including a top five provider of technical services to the U.S. Department of Defense and a top provider of engineering, management and environmental services to the U.S. Department of Energy.

The combined company will be called URS Corporation. Martin M. Koffel, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of URS, said, “URS has a history of anticipating change in the industry, and this transaction is the next logical step in building for future growth. Through this combination, both companies will be better positioned to capture growth from favorable trends across the engineering and construction sectors, including the increased investment in infrastructure projects, the focus on emissions reduction and energy independence in the power market, and the increased use of outsourcing by federal agencies, such as the U.S. Departments of Defense and Energy. Together, we will have the resources to meet increasing client demand for a single firm that can provide the full range of engineering and construction services required for large, complex projects in these high growth markets, both in the United States and abroad. In addition, our clients will benefit from the combined firm’s expanded capabilities in the oil and gas, industrial process, facilities design and management, mining and homeland security sectors.”

Stephen G. Hanks, Chief Executive Officer of Washington Group, said, “This transaction will create a new leader in the engineering and construction industry that will deliver superior value to our stockholders, customers and employees over the long term. The increased scale and resources of the combined company, including URS’ significant design resources, will further support our ability to compete for new opportunities in high growth markets. The combined company also will have a significant presence in the anticipated resurgence of the nuclear industry, including fuel sourcing, enrichment, power generation and spent fuel reprocessing and disposition.”

The transaction is subject to the approval of the merger agreement by Washington Group stockholders, the approval of URS’ issuance of shares in the transaction by URS stockholders, regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. Martin M. Koffel will remain CEO of the combined company. Upon completion of the transaction, one current member of the Washington Group Board of Directors will join an expanded URS Board of Directors.

About URS
URS Corporation offers a comprehensive range of professional planning and design, systems engineering and technical assistance, program and construction management, and operations and maintenance services for transportation, facilities, environmental, water/wastewater, industrial infrastructure and process, homeland security, installations and logistics, and defense systems. Headquartered in San Francisco, the Company operates in more than 20 countries with approximately 29,500 employees providing engineering and technical services to federal, state and local governmental agencies as well as private clients in the chemical, pharmaceutical, oil and gas, power, manufacturing, mining and forest products industries.

About Washington Group International
Washington Group International provides the talent, innovation, and proven performance to deliver integrated engineering, construction, and management solutions for businesses and governments worldwide. Headquartered in Boise, Idaho, with more than $3 billion in annual revenue, the Company has approximately 25,000 people at work around the world providing solutions in power, environmental management, defense, oil and gas processing, mining, industrial facilities, transportation, and water resources. For more information, visit (www.wgint.com).

http://www.urscorp.com/Press_Releases/pressRelsTradeDet.php?recordID=435&listYear=2007

DDBC Barstow

DESCRIPTION OF PRODUCT/SERVICE PROVIDED:
EG&G provides a wide range of logistical and support services for the Defense Distribution Depot, Barstow, California (DDBC). These services include:

Receipt of materials: EG&G personnel are solely responsible for the accurate and timely processing of materials received at both the Nebo and Yermo DDBC sites. These services include (but are not restricted to):

Storage: EG&G's warehousing personnel are primarily responsible for the care and maintenance of over 49,000 NSNs and major commodities housed at DDBC including electronic parts and components, radioactive material, electrostatic discharge items, industrial/general supplies, clothing and textiles, replacement parts for military equipment, engines and transmissions, shafts, reduction gears, wire cable furniture, boats, anchors, radar units, and propellers.

Issue: EG&G's commitment is to "issue the correct materiel in the correct quantity and condition code at the correct time, every time". Depot personnel make themselves available on a 24/7/365 basis to serve the needs of the war fighter, guaranteeing response to non-duty hours emergency requests within two hours of receipt. EG&G provided services include:

Nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) testing: Licensed, highly trained EG&G personnel are responsible for the periodic and item manager driven inspection and testing of NBC gear.

Mobile crane and rigging support includes the loading and offloading of large equipment and military vehicles at both the Yermo and Nebo sites by fully certified and licensed EG&G employees. The company also provides blocking and bracing services as well as container handler (RTCH) support on an on-call basis at the National Training Center, Ft. Irwin.

Packaging and marking: In accordance with customer requirements, military standards, and the special requirements of shipping goods to sometimes less than ideal locales for off-loading, EG&G's staff of experienced packers provide upgraded protection for more than 5,000 mission critical items shipped annually from DDBC.

Container manufacturing: In its 29 months of operations through 1/31/03, EG&G's container manufacturing operations have designed, planned, and constructed over 2,500 shipping and storage containers in accordance with customer requirements and/or ASTM standards. Adept in designing containers capable of handling special load bearing requirements and material configurations, EG&G's experienced box shop staff has met and exceeded all contractually specified standards for timeliness and production of containers to customer specifications and applicable regulations.

Kit assembly/disassembly: Having acquired ex-Government employees with strong knowledge of specialized kitting processes as part of its initial hiring phase, the depot has become a preferred source for the assembly, modification, and disassembly of a variety of specialized kits. Periscopes, repair kits, and many other item sets have been broken apart or reconfigured by EG&G's versatile workforce. The depot has developed a specific competency in the modification of GP-Medium and GP-Large tents, renovating over 2,000 of these units during the course of the contract for active use by the war fighter worldwide.

Special Awards/Citations
EG&G and its employees have received numerous citations and letters of commendation for their efforts to provide a high level of service to the war fighter. These commendations include:

A letter of recognition from the Marine Corps' Multi-Commodity Maintenance Center which notes that "time and time again, you [EG&G's Environmental Support staff] have been asked to go the extra-step for us to meet a date or urgent situation, and you have never wavered in meeting those needs"
A certificate of achievement awarded to EG&G's Mobile Crane & Rigging Crew for "outstanding logistical support" by the 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized), Ft. Hood TX. According to the award, "the men of the Mobile Crane and Rigging crew reflect great credit upon themselves, EG&G Logistics, and the Yermo Annex"
A letter of appreciation from the Naval Inventory Control Point, Mechanicsburg, PA, commending the "expeditious and professional manner" of EG&G's Document Control personnel. The staff "has helped me out of numerous problem CASREP and high priority requirements at a moment's notice."

Finally, EG&G was awarded one of four coveted Shippers Performance Awards by the Military Traffic Management Command for 2002. Chosen from a field of 1,100 shippers, the award symbolizes EG&G's commitment to the timely and cost-efficient delivery of requisitioned mission stock to its end customer base.

http://www.urscorp.com/EGG_Division/ddbcBarstow.php

PSU Reactor Leak Continues at 16 GPM

2007-10-21T17:27:00.000-07:00

19 October 2007

Search on for radioactive leak

by Adam Smeltz, The Centre Daily Times

- asmeltz@centredaily.com

The radioactive water leak may still be flowing.

Or the hole — wherever it is — could be as dry as the Sahara.

On Thursday, workers at Penn State’s Breazeale Nuclear Reactor had yet to find out.

“We’re still stressing that there is no risk to the public,” said Neil Weaver, a spokesman with the state Department of Environmental Protection in Harrisburg.

Just about 11 days have passed since university workers determined that a leak had sprung in the 71,000- gallon pool that holds the small reactor near University Drive and Hastings Road.

They quickly shut down the research device. This week, they set about draining half the pool into an on-site holding tank.

That process was finished Wednesday, said William Dreibelbis, a manager of health and environmental programs on campus.

He said Thursday that the drawdown had not been in place long enough for workers to determine if the leak is in the empty half — the south end — or in north end.

“One of our greatest risks right now is the safety of the people working in an over-20-foot pit,” Dreibelbis said Thursday, referring to workers in the pool basin.

He said about a dozen Penn State employees are contributing to the work. The drawdown is intended to help them locate the source of the leak, he said.

Meanwhile, it also provides an opportunity for an outside contractor to re-line and resurface the pool basin.

Dreibelbis said it’s too soon to tell how much money the ordeal will cost Penn State or when the reactor may resume operation.

The university, in official statements, has described the water leak as slightly radioactive and said the situation poses no public health threat. Representatives from the DEP and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which licenses the small research reactor, have supported those statements.

A’ndrea Messer, a Penn State public information officer, said the leak rate is estimated at fewer than 16 gallons an hour.

Water is thought to be draining into the ground beneath the reactor facility.

The fluid itself carries about 28,000 picocuries of tritium, a radioactive isotope, in each liter, Dreibelbis said.

That’s about 8,000 picocuries per liter more than the safe drinking-water limit established by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

But because the reactor water is probably mixing with less-radioactive water already in the ground, Dreibelbis said, “I think it would be really hard even to find this elevated tritium in any water table.”

“It doesn’t represent exposure to the populace,” he said. No water wells are within the immediate vicinity of the reactor, though some public water supplies for College Township and the University Park campus do sit some miles downstream.

Calls to representatives of those public water systems were not immediately returned Thursday.

Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has said Penn State will want to check groundwater around the reactor facility and monitor for any seepage. If radiation levels creep above EPA-accepted limits, the university could face the specter of government enforcement action.

Sheehan said Thursday that it’s too soon to tell whether the university may be in violation of any rules. Dreibelbis said the university already has taken samples from four monitoring wells that were established earlier near the reactor.

Results from those samples were not ready on Thursday, he said.

About 50 research and test reactors are in the U.S., according to the NRC. Leaks like the one at University Park are relatively rare at the facilities, said Scott Burnell, an NRC spokesman just outside Washington, D.C.

The most recent similar leak he could recall was logged about two years ago in Denver, he said.

“It is reasonable — and it is required — that licensees for reactors maintain their facilities and procedures and policies for spotting any sort of instance such the one they see right now” at Penn State, Burnell said.

The NRC has no information to suggest that the leak at Penn State has anything to do with poor maintenance, he said.

The Centre Daily Times

And Now To the Videotape

2007-10-19T19:10:00.000-07:00

U.N. Eyes Pics Of Possible Syria Nuke Site

Analyzing Satellite Images Of Facility Struck Last Month By Israeli Warplanes

VIENNA, Austria, Oct. 19, 2007

(AP) U.N. experts have begun analyzing satellite imagery of the Syrian site struck last month by Israeli warplanes, diplomats said Friday, disclosing what amounts to the first independent look at reports that Damascus was hiding a nuclear facility.

It was unclear where the material was obtained or what exactly it showed. One of the diplomats who is linked to the International Atomic Energy Agency - the U.N. nuclear watchdog examining the photos - said IAEA experts were looking at commercial images, discounting suggestions from other quarters that they had come from U.S. intelligence.

Separately, a senior diplomat familiar with the issue indicated that agency experts were looking at several possible locations for the Israeli strike. Two other diplomats said initial perusal of the material had found no evidence that the target hit Sept. 6 was a nuclear installation. They emphasized, however, that it was too early to draw definite conclusions.

All of those speaking to The Associated Press were briefed on the agency's receipt of the images but demanded anonymity because their information was confidential.

Since the bombing, news media have quoted unidentified U.S. officials as saying that the airstrike hit some sort of nuclear facility linked to North Korea, which is now in the process of dismantling its nuclear weapons program. On Friday, The Washington Post cited American officials as saying the site in Syria's eastern desert near the Euphrates River had characteristics of a small but substantial nuclear reactor similar to North Korea's facility.

Officials of the Vienna-based nuclear watchdog and the U.S. diplomatic mission to the IAEA had no comment Friday. But IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming indirectly rebuked Washington earlier this week, saying the agency “expects any country having information about nuclear-related activities in another country to provide that information to the IAEA.”

The investigation by the IAEA is important because it is the first instance of an independent and respected organization looking at the evidence and trying to reach a conclusion as to what was hit.

Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, cautioned that - without full U.S. cooperation - the IAEA's probe might be hampered because commercial satellite imagery “may not be of sufficient quality to figure out difficult questions.” Still, he welcomed IAEA involvement, saying it gave the chance for a neutral organization to “provide an assessment and give the international community some guidance about what has or has not happened.”

Syria denies that it has an undeclared nuclear program and North Korea has said it was not involved in any nuclear program in the Mideast nation. Damascus has said the Israelis targeted an empty building, and the agency has said it has no evidence to the contrary.

The diplomats said that Vienna-based Syrian diplomats have met with senior IAEA representatives since the bombing, but have provided no substantive information that would indicate their country had nuclear secrets.

Syria has signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and has allowed agency experts to inspect its only known nuclear facility - a small, 27-kilowatt reactor, according to diplomats linked to the IAEA.

CBS News

Reactor in Nearby Erie County, Ohio to be Decommissioned

2007-10-18T15:47:00.000-07:00

Nuclear reactor to be discarded

By RICHARD PAYERCHIN, Sandusky Bureau Chief

10/18/2007

PERKINS TOWNSHIP -- The end is nearing for NASA Plum Brook Station's nuclear reactor.

For years NASA and subcontractors have worked to take apart, clean and dispose of the nuclear reactor that was built to test potential spacecraft parts by exposing them to radiation. Although the reactor has not operated since 1973, the site is considered contaminated for purposes of cleanup.

The decommissioning has passed several milestones in recent months, according to a report by Project Manager Keith Peecook.

On Aug. 20, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission published its intention to approve NASA's Final Status Survey Plan, which explains how the space agency will meet the project goals and terminate NASA's license to operate the reactor, Peecook said.

The NRC approval was ''the keystone in our efforts to complete a safe and successful decommissioning,'' Peecook said.

At the end of August, NASA also issued a draft request for proposals for the decontamination and waste disposal contract.

That request seeks a contractor to handle ''all the major, remaining project tasks,'' Peecook said. A contract will be awarded this winter and work will begin in the spring.

Part of the final cleanup is completing decontamination throughout the entire facility, shipping and disposing of all packaged low-level radioactive waste on the site and excavating, testing and disposing of soil around the facility.

That contract also will include cleanup of the Pentolite Ditch, the drainage ditch that empties into Plum Brook and that carried trace amounts of Cesium-137 and Cobalt-60. Those elements in 2005 were discovered in Plum Brook, the first instance of finding detectable levels of radiation outside Plum Brook Station's 6,400-acre site.

NASA officials have repeatedly reported that the elements are not harmful to humans and this winter the space agency also will publish a fact sheet on additional sampling to find the radioactive elements in Plum Brook. As of June, consultant Bob Haag recommended leaving in place the cesium that had drifted into the East Sandusky Bay because they are away from frequent human access.

More information is available at www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/pbrf.

Cleveland Morning Journal

Meeting Video Posts

2007-10-16T14:20:00.000-07:00

Here is the video links from the previous meeting. Overall, I thought it was a good lesson. If you have any other video links or ideas about future classes or anything in particular you would like to discuss, the please feel free to ask them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnY_Ug0DabM&mode=related&search=Plutonium%20Uranium%20Bomb%20Nuclear%20Iraq%20Calutron%20Teflon – Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln_qr75jwdU&mode=related&search=Plutonium%20Uranium%20Bomb%20Nuclear%20Iraq%20Calutron%20Teflon - Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxFFGbL4rKk&mode=related&search=Plutonium%20Uranium%20Bomb%20Nuclear%20Iraq%20Calutron%20Teflon – Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQQ-rtoR_nI&mode=related&search=Plutonium%20Uranium%20Bomb%20Nuclear%20Iraq%20Calutron%20Teflon – Part 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0vKnjFrDOs&mode=related&search=Plutonium%20Uranium%20Bomb%20Nuclear%20Iraq%20Calutron%20Teflon – Part 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myIHJu_5d74&mode=related&search=Plutonium%20Uranium%20Bomb%20Nuclear%20Iraq%20Calutron%20Teflon – Part 6

Research Reactor News - Penn State Reactor Issue Getting Handled in the Press

2007-10-15T20:56:00.000-07:00

Penn State University still searching for minor leak at nuclear reactor

(AP)

Penn State workers searching for what the university called a minor leak of "slightly radioactive water" from a pool at the school's nuclear research reactor plan to drain part of the pool to try to find the problem.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan said Friday that the university has 15 people working on the leak discovered Tuesday and is looking to bring in outside help.

University officials have said that the leak in the 71,000-gallon pool that shields the core's radiation and cools the reactor poses no risk to students, employees, the community or the environment.

Someone drinking the contaminated water for a year would be exposed to only half the amount of radiation deemed safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and less than half the amount received from a conventional X-ray, the university said in a statement.

The reactor is used for research by nuclear engineering undergraduate and graduate students and by 20 to 30 other departments on campus but does not produce electricity, according to the reactor facility's Web site.

Research reactors use fuel that is less radioactive than that used in commercial power reactors, and also less fuel overall than power reactors.

For instance, Penn State's fuel can generate about 1 megawatt of heat, while the amount of heat generated by a typical commercial power reactor would be about 3,000 megawatts, according to the NRC.

While oversight is required at research facilities, the guidelines aren't as stringent as for power reactors, Sheehan said.

___

On the Net:

Breazeale Nuclear Reactor: http://www.rsec.psu.edu/index.html

Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader

Research Reactor News - IAEA Asks Syria About Rumored Nuke Site

2007-10-15T20:45:00.000-07:00

UN watchdog asks Syria about "undeclared" atom plant

Mon Oct 15, 2007 11:41am EDT
By Mark Heinrich

VIENNA, Oct 15 (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog did not know about any undeclared atomic plant in Syria and has asked Damascus about information that such a site was targeted by an Israeli air strike, a spokeswoman said on Monday.

Citing unidentified U.S. and foreign officials with access to intelligence reports, the New York Times said on Sunday the nuclear reactor was partially built and apparently modelled on one in North Korea used for stockpiling atomic bomb fuel.

Israel confirmed earlier this month that it had carried out a Sept. 6 air strike on Syria, a major foe, but has not described the target. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said the target was an unused military building.

"The International Atomic Energy Agency has no information about any undeclared nuclear facility in Syria and no information about recent reports," spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said in a statement issued from the IAEA's Vienna headquarters.

"The IAEA is in contact with the Syrian authorities to verify the authenticity of these reports," she said.

"We would obviously investigate any relevant information coming our way. The IAEA Secretariat expects any country having information about nuclear-related activities in another country to provide that information to the IAEA."

A Vienna diplomat close to the IAEA said it had initiated contacts with Damascus shortly after the air raid but the Syrians had provided no clarification yet.

U.S. officials have linked the raid to apparent Israeli suspicions of covert nuclear cooperation between North Korea and Syria. They said the site in question was identified earlier this year in satellite photographs.

SYRIAN DENIES ILLICIT PROGRAMME

Syria has belonged to the 144-nation IAEA since 1963 and has one declared, small research reactor subject to U.N. inspections, which aim to prevent illicit diversions of civilian nuclear energy technology into atomic bombmaking.

Syria has denied hiding any nuclear activity from the IAEA or having anything other than energy goals with nuclear work.

The Vienna diplomat said that if Syria was indeed building a new reactor, it would have been required to inform the agency, and provide design data, as soon as it decided to construct one.

No country had provided satellite or other intelligence about the alleged plant to the IAEA although such help would be crucial to detecting such a site, added the diplomat, who asked not to be named due to the topic's political sensitivity.

"With the (low) level of IAEA funding, inspectors can't go around a country checking every building. The IAEA is not a go-it-alone investigative agency," said the diplomat.

The IAEA has been investigating past nuclear secrecy in Iran, a member state and ally of Syria, since 2003.

Iran has pledged to clarify the scope of its programme by the end of 2007 in an effort to avoid being hit with harsh U.N. sanctions over its refusal to stop enriching uranium, a process Western powers suspect Iran is channelling into bombmaking. Iran says it only wants an alternative source of electricity.

The New York Times said the targeted Syrian facility appeared to have been much further from completion than an Iraqi reactor the Israeli air force flattened in 1981.

"A very real question is whether Syria is technically and financially able to build such a reactor. It would be hard to justify an air strike on a facility so early on in construction and, if supplied by North Korea, unlikely ever to be finished," U.S. analyst David Albright, alluding to North Korea's nuclear disarmament agreement earlier this year, told Reuters.

"Israel may have wanted to send a signal to Iran. The U.S. wants to scare Iran (off nuclear work) and this air strike might have been a way to do it, and explain some of Israel's secrecy."

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL15457955

China Syndrome

2007-10-15T19:42:00.000-07:00

The China Syndrome

By Roger Ebert / January 1, 1979

"The China Syndrome" is a terrific thriller that incidentally raises the most unsettling questions about how safe nuclear power plants really are. It was received in some quarters as a political film, and the people connected with it make no secret of their doubts about nuclear power. But the movie is, above all, entertainment: well-acted, well-crafted, scary as hell.

The events leading up to the "accident" in "The China Syndrome" are indeed based on actual occurrences at nuclear plants. Even the most unlikely mishap (a stuck needle on a graph causing engineers to misread a crucial water level) really happened at the Dresden plant outside Chicago. And yet the movie works so well not because of its factual basis, but because of its human content. The performances are so good, so consistently, that "The China Syndrome" becomes a thriller dealing in personal values. The suspense is generated not only by our fears about what might happen, but by our curiosity about how, in the final showdown, the characters will react.

The key character is Godell (Jack Lemmon), a shift supervisor at a big nuclear power plant in Southern California. He lives alone, quietly, and can say without any self-consciousness that the plant is his life. He believes in nuclear power. But when an earthquake shakes his plant, he becomes convinced that he felt an aftershock --caused not by an earthquake but by rumblings deep within the plant.

The quake itself leads to the first "accident." Because a two-bit needle gets stuck on a roll of graph paper, the engineers think they need to lower the level of the water shield over the nuclear pile. Actually, the level is already dangerously low. And if the pile were ever uncovered, the result could be the "China syndrome," so named because the superheated nuclear materials would melt directly through the floor of the plant and, theoretically, keep on going until they hit China. In practice, there'd be an explosion and a release of radioactive materials sufficient to poison an enormous area.

The accident takes place while a TV news team is filming a routine feature about the plant. The cameraman (Michael Douglas) secretly films events in the panicked control room. And the reporter (Jane Fonda) tries to get the story on the air. Her superiors refuse, influenced by the power industry's smoothly efficient public relations people. But the more Fonda and Douglas dig into the accident, the less they like it.

Meanwhile, obsessed by that second tremor, Lemmon has been conducting his own investigation. He discovers that the X-rays used to check key welds at the plant have been falsified. And then the movie takes off in classic thriller style: The director, James Bridges, uses an exquisite sense of timing and character development to bring us to the cliffhanger conclusion.

The performances are crucial to the movie's success, and they're all the more interesting because the characters aren't painted as anti-nuclear crusaders, but as people who get trapped in a situation while just trying to do their jobs. Fonda is simply superb as the TV reporter; the range and excellence of her performance are a wonder. Douglas is exactly right as the bearded, casually anti-establishment cameraman. And Jack Lemmon, reluctant to rock the boat, compelled to follow his conscience, creates a character as complex as his Oscar-winning businessman in "Save the Tiger."

rogerebert.com

Research Reactor News - Penn State Reactor

2007-10-14T16:54:00.000-07:00

Penn State Reports Minor Reactor Leak

By GENARO C. ARMAS – 12 October 2007

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — Penn State University reported a minor leak of "slightly radioactive water" at its nuclear research reactor but said Thursday that the leak poses no risk to workers, the community or the environment.

Workers discovered water leaking Tuesday from the pool in which the reactor sits into the ground beneath the Penn State campus. State and federal officials were notified, and the reactor was shut down and will remain out of service until the source of the leak is found, the university said.

"There's no impact on the community. It's just something that, now that we know what's going on, we are telling the community and continuing to look for the leak," A'ndrea Elyse Messer, the university's senior science and research spokeswoman, said Thursday night.

The state Department of Environmental Protection and federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission were notified after the problem arose Tuesday. Public safety was not threatened, but the situation is being monitored, officials said.

"They've clearly erred on the side of caution," said Eliot Brenner, an NRC spokesman who said the commission sent workers to the site Tuesday night. "It is not a danger. There is no safety issue here."

Staff at the Breazeale nuclear research reactor noticed "a small reduction of several hundred gallons over the past several days" from the 71,000-gallon pool, which shields the core's radiation and cools the reactor, the university said. The level had not dropped enough to trigger an alarm from monitoring devices, Messer said.

Classes, meetings and other research not connected to the reactor were still taking place at the facility, Messer said. There was no threat to the water supply and the public "should not be worried" by the leak, she said.

Someone drinking the contaminated water for a year would be exposed to only half the amount of radiation deemed safe by the Environmental Protection Agency and less than half the amount received from a conventional X-ray, the university said in a news release.

"Residents of central Pennsylvania routinely receive much larger exposure from natural sources in their environment," Penn State said.

The reactor is used for research by nuclear engineering students and by 20 to 30 other departments on campus but does not produce electricity, according to the reactor center's Web site. Since it was built in 1955, there have been "no accidents or evacuations involving a degradation or problem with the reactor," the site said.
On the Net:

* Breazeale Nuclear Reactor: http://www.rsec.psu.edu/index.html

Meeting Monday October 15 @ 4:30 in Wayne 114

2007-10-13T20:25:00.001-07:00

Just a Reminder for everyone. We will go over the basics equipment and science involved in nuclear power and weapons. Anyone is welcome to come.

North Korea To Denuclearize

2007-10-05T07:17:00.000-07:00

Diplomatic success... we hope. If you read "The Challenge of a Nuclear North Korea" I sent to you via email, then read this story, it is very interesting makes the situation easier to understand. It is a great opportunity for us to see how the intelligence gathered through the years helped to resolve the North Korean issue.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/world/stories/100407dnintnkorea.3560bb6.html

Air Force Investigates Mistaken Transport of Nuclear Warheads

2007-10-02T17:16:00.000-07:00

Six nuclear warheads on cruise missiles were mistakenly carried on a flight from North Dakota to Louisiana last week which prompted a major investigation. Military officials told CNN that the incident was a major breach of security rules and could not recall anything similar happening. Does this mean there may be incidents that have been forgotten? At least the consequences of this incident seem to have some benefit. When was the last time a review of procedures was done? Anyway, still puzzling.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/05/loose.nukes/index.html

Welcome!!!

2007-09-30T14:21:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Mercyhurst Student Chapter of INMM's Blog. I will try to update the blog with relevant job information, meeting times, and interesting stories/videos/pictures in the nuclear world.

Feel free to add any information or comment on a story. Hopefully we can have some good discussions on topics outside of the classroom.