Platts - Thursday, April 17, 2003 
http://www.platts.com

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Washington (Nuclear News Flashes) 16Apr2003

NRC conference told threat levels need work

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security lowered the
threat level to yellow today, from orange, where it has
been for nearly a month. The department's Marianne
Burtnett told an NRC conference in Washington, D.C. that
the national alert system still needs some work.
"Homeland Security's advisory system is the butt of a
lot of late night [TV] jokes," Burtnett said, adding
that it "needs more meat on its bones." One industry
official told Platts that the system is not functioning
as originally intended because the orange level,
indicating a "high" risk of a terrorist attack, was
supposed to be used as a targeted tool. The orange
threat level designation had been in place--for the
second time since the warning system's inception--since
March 17. But there had not been a specific credible
threat against a nuclear facility, the industry official
said.

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Washington (Nuclear News Flashes) 16Apr2003

China breaks US-North Korea nuclear impasse

North Korea and the US will talk about their nuclear
differences in Beijing next week, according to reports
from East Asia. Pyongyang had been insisting on one-to-
one talks with the U.S., which the Bush administration
had refused. There have been reports that China was
intervening with Pyongyang, and China will host the
talks. North Korea's withdrawal from the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty became effective April 10, but
the Bush administration has held off taking a stance on
the fate of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development
Organization (KEDO) project to build two Western LWRs in
North Korea in exchange for its now-ended weapons
freeze. The energy bill passed by the U.S. House of
Representatives last week bars the U.S. from approving
nuclear exports to a state deemed by the State
Department to be a sponsor of terrorism, and revokes any
current export permits. North Korea is on that list. The
bill also bars the government from indemnifying any U.S.
companies working on the KEDO project, which would
effectively end their participation.

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