nuclear.com info nuggets - December 8, 2003

info nuggets - December 8, 2003

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Today's info nuggets

[see yesterday's items]

* Hope Creek - during planned shutdown, transient low reactor level (+2") occurred

* List of 320 newest documents from NRC PDR Saturday

Today's source articles

* Deception, collusion, trickery define Pak: Report
Press Trust of India/The Indian Express (Bombay)
An article in yesterday's New York Times Magazine ( "Pakistan Is ..." by Barry Bearak ) expresses concern that Pakistan's government could lose control over its nuclear weapons. It also notes that the US response was very tepid even after it was disclosed that Islamabad had been swapping vital nuclear secrets with North Korea in exchange for ballistic missiles in late 1990s. The Bush administration imposed sanctions against just one laboratory because Musharraf had joined its fight against al-Qaeda. And, referring to the Kargil incident, which was resolved after the then Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had made a "desperate" trip to Washington seeking President Bill Clinton's intervention, the article quotes then special assistant to the White House Bruce Riedel as saying that there had been "disturbing evidence that the Pakistanis were preparing their nuclear arsenals for possible deployment." Ê

* Nuclear plant's reactor to be taken to South Carolina this week
Associated Press/The State (Columbia SC)
Connecticut Yankee's reactor vessel will be transported by barge this week to Barnwell. A security detail will not accompany the transport barge, because Connecticut Yankee does not consider the vessel a target for terrorism, CY spokesperson Kelley Smith said. She said it is not in a form that would be useful to terrorists.

* Legal challenge to Australian nuclear waste dump proposal dismissed
ABC Radio Australia
The South Australian Government had argued the Commonwealth's acquisition of the site, on a sheep station near Woomera, was invalid. But federal Justice Selway found the Commonwealth acted with legitimate urgency to secure the land, because the state government was about to proclaim the site a public park.

* What's Next in the Yucca Nuclear Waste Controversy? Reporters- Only Briefing with Experts on the Yucca Issue
U.S. Newswire

* Closed NRC-DOE meetings questioned
Suzanne Struglinski, Las Vegas SUN

* AG Sandoval: Yucca Secret Meetings a Disservice to State of Nevada, Concerned Public
State of Nevada (pdf-76k)

* Letter to NRC Chairman Diaz; re: staff conducting secret meetings with DOE officials on key Yucca Mountain issues
Brian Sandoval, Attorney General, State of Nevada (pdf-34K)

* Former Y-12 worker reflects on how he survived a chemical explosion
Paul Parson, Oak Ridger

* GAO: TVA isn't setting aside enough to clean up nuclear plants
Oak Ridger

* NRC to discuss Perry incident
Port Clinton News Herald

* Vt. pushes anti-radiation pill on locals
Times Picayune

* Fuel-Cell Car Demonstration Gives Pittsburgh Students Glimpse of Future Hydrogen Economy
U.S. Newswire

* Union of Concerned Scientists Statement on the 50th Anniversary of Eisenhower's 'Atoms for Peace' Speech
U.S. Newswire

* Denial in the New Millennium -- Nuclear Terror and Psychic Numbing
Carol Wolman, MD, CounterPunch

* Testimonies: Energy Employees Compensation: Case-Processing Bottlenecks Delay Payment of Claims, by Robert E. Robertson, director, education, workforce, and income security issues, before the Subcommittee on Energy, Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, in Paducah, Kentucky. GAO-04-298T, December 6
GAO (pdf-282K)