nuclear.com info nuggets - December 6, 2003

info nuggets - December 6, 2003

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Today's info nuggets

[see yesterday's items]

* List of 320 new documents today from NRC PDR

Today's source articles

* Japanese attack museum over atomic bomber
Julian Ryall, Scotland on Sunday
The U.S. Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. is opening an Annex on December 15 in the Virginia suburbs. One of the exhibits at the new museum is the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The Japan Confederation of A-Bomb and H-Bomb Sufferers claims that the display is a glorification of the nuclear age, and has called on the US government to include details of the terrible aftermath of the bombing. "As victims of the atomic bombs, we can't bear to have the Enola Gay, which killed thousands of Hiroshima residents, on public display without details of the destruction it wrought," said Terumi Tanaka, the organisation's director. Your humble nuclear.com editor notes that Japan had its own scientists working on an atomic bomb during the war, and I'm quite thankful that it's the Hiroshima victims who are voicing a gripe today rather than folks from some hometown USA. Museum spokesperson Peter Golkin said the exhibit "does not glorify or vilify the role this aircraft played in history", and will feature similarly labelled warplanes. He said a sign beside the aircraft would "tell visitors what it is and the basic facts concerning its history", including its size, technological advances and missions.

* Report: Brits won't spin off Westinghouse from parent
Thomas Olson, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
The British government has performed a strategic review of BNFL operations. The report is expected within about a week or ten days. The London Sunday Telegraph is reporting that one recommendation in the report will be to keep Westinghouse Electric Co. as part of BNFL. Westinghouse accounted for about $1.8-billion in revenue during the last fiscal year which ended March 31. That represents about half of BNFL's revenue for the same period. BNFL employs about 23,000 worldwide, including about 8,000 Westinghouse employees.

* EPA adds 9 Tennessee counties to bad-air list; Knoxville, Memphis face toughest pollution hurdle, state official says
Richard Powelson, Knoxville News-Sentinel
One of the options suggested by Sen. Lamar Alexander to help Tennessee meet air quality standards is construction of more nuclear plants.

* Indo-Pak. war risks "fairly high"
PTI/The Hindu
A US National Intelligence Council projection for 2015 claims that the risk of war between India and Pakistan will remain fairly high over the next 15 years and both countries will continue to build up their nuclear and missile forces. The threat of major conflict between India and Pakistan will overshadow all other regional issues during the next 15 years, it said. Continued turmoil in Afghanistan and Pakistan will spill over into Kashmir and other areas of the subcontinent, prompting India to take more aggressive preemptive and retaliatory actions, it said.

* Threat to nation's nuke facilities will be assessed
Steve Tetreault, Pahrump Valley Times (Nevada)
More on the new Congressionally-requested NAS radwaste security project: The panel also will evaluate various cask designs, including dual use canisters that could avoid having to repackage fuel assemblies for shipment to the Nevada repository. Robert Budnitz, a nuclear consultant, questioned whether Congress allowed enough time to tackle an ambitious study. "You can't do this job in six months with 10 volunteers," he told the board.

* Nevada attorney general files complaint over Yucca meetings
Las Vegas Sun

* EPA to scale back role in Rocketdyne cleanup
Roberta Freeman, Ventura County Star

* Water board gives facilities permits
Roberta Freeman, Ventura County Star

* Convicted businessman takes nuclear waste from BNFL
Jason NissŽ, The Independent

* A messy cleanup
Kay Thode, Seattle Times

* Another spent nuclear fuel shipment arrives at INEEL
Steven Friederich, Idaho State Journal

* Material container falls, opens at INEEL
Idaho State Journal

* British nuclear weapons went to Falklands in 1982: British ministry
SpaceDaily

* Argentina worries British nukes sunk in Falklands war
ABC

* AP too will be considered for new atomic power plant: official
Newindpress

* EU Energy Negotiation Chapter Reopening "No Problem"
Novinite

* U.S. threatening nuke treaty?
James Gordon Prather, WorldNetDaily