Yucca Mountain News Clips
Monday, August 8, 2005
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Las Vegas SUN
August 08, 2005
Editorial: Another Yucca danger
Las Vegas Sun
In June 2002 the Energy Department received from its top contractor, Bechtel SAIC Co., a classified report titled, "Identification of Aircraft Hazards." The document was declassified a year later, after the Sun's Washington reporter, Benjamin Grove, heard about it and requested a copy. The report concerned Yucca Mountain's proximity to Nellis Air Force Range. At the time, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which will eventually rule on whether Yucca is safe for licensing, was studying the document's contents. "Clearly this is a relevant issue," a top NRC analyst told Grove.
Last week the NRC released its conclusions about armed Nellis warplanes training so close to the nation's proposed dump for high-level nuclear waste. It said the Energy Department, in planning for Yucca Mountain, failed to properly consider risk factors involving Nellis and its training flights. It did not accurately count the number of plane crashes in the vicinity of Yucca during the last decade, nor did it consider the possibilities associated with stray ordnance striking the waste facility, the NRC concluded.
The Energy Department put a positive spin on the report, saying that it will work with NRC officials and provide them "with enough information to fully allay their concerns." The bottom line, though, is that the department has been building a facility to contain the world's deadliest material for over a decade, and never concerned itself with hazards from Nellis' planes. That doesn't exactly allay our concerns.
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Los Alamos Monitor
August 08, 2005
North Wind opens office in Los Alamos
North Wind Inc., a company that focuses on environmental remediation, environmental engineering and the support functions required to provide services in its local areas, has opened a new office in Los Alamos.
The new office is the company's second in New Mexico and its 20th in the United States. Its other New Mexico office is in Las Cruces.
Pete Maggiore is the head of the new office in Los Alamos and he is currently the only full-time employee.
The office has an ongoing project with the Department of Energy in which North Wind designs and constructs a landfill cap at the airport, Maggiore said.
Maggiore said he is excited about the new job, and he said the establishment of North Wind in Los Alamos will provide new opportunities for the area and the company, as well as for Maggiore.
"My diverse background - technical work in hydrogeology and management work for the state - makes for a good combination for North Wind," Maggiore said.
He served as the Secretary of Environment for the state of New Mexico from 1998-2002, during which time chaired the New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission and served as vice chairman of the New Mexico Mining Commission.
During the past two-and-a-half years, Maggiore supplied technical, regulatory and environmental policy support to the U.S. Department of Energy assistant secretary for Environmental Management. While providing policy support, he performed regulatory assessments and analysis for DOE sites across the complex.
Maggiore also served as a technical consultant and reviewer of documents prepared for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
In addition, Maggiore served as a senior consultant to the DOE Office of Civilian and Radioactive Waste Management, where he was responsible for analyzing waste certification requirements associated with waste acceptance criteria for the Yucca Mountain Repository.
Maggiore has a master's degree in geology and he has more than 22 years of experience in environmental management, hydrogeology and geology.
The Los Alamos office has been open since Aug. 1 at 1460 Trinity Drive, Suite B. The office phone number is 661-4290.
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Las Vegas SUN
August 05, 2005
Yucca plan slowed by recent departure of key managers
By Suzanne Struglinski <suzanne@lasvegassun.com> and Benjamin Grove <grove@lasvegassun.com>
Sun Washington Bureau
Weekend Edition
August 6-7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The Yucca Mountain program has lost five key managers in the last six months, raising speculation that recent controversy and frustration have led to a damaging exodus of leadership talent.
The Energy Department says the departures will not cause additional grief to a project already plagued by delays.
But management experts are not so sure.
UNLV construction management professor Neil Opfer said that if management departures have not hurt the day-to-day operations of Yucca Mountain, "it would be the first time in history that has ever happened."
"You lose something," Opfer said. "This affects decision-making."
The Yucca Mountain Project is as a massive government program as there is, with a long history, a big budget and an ambitious goal of constructing a national repository for high-level nuclear waste.
While there is always some churn of leadership on the project, since the top managers are political appointees, the recent turnover has been noteworthy for the number and the timing of the resignations.
Key leaders listed on the organizational flow chart began leaving after the Feb. 25 resignation of Yucca's top manager, Margaret Chu.
Chu announced her exit four days after the Bush administration released a scaled-back Yucca budget request. Minutes after the budget was unveiled, Chu admitted to reporters that the department's long-held goal of opening Yucca by 2010 had slipped at least two years.
Chu lasted three years in the job. She said she had always planned to leave after Bush's first term ended. Department officials said there was no connection between Chu's exit and her candor with reporters.
That left deputy director Theodore Garrish as the top-ranking Yucca official. He retired two months later, about a month after the department stumbled into more controversy -- a document review had uncovered Yucca worker e-mails that suggested quality assurance documents may have been falsified. The discovery launched several investigations, including one led by Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., chairman of a subcommittee of the House Government Reform Committee.
Garrish testified before Porter's panel on April 5. The department announced his "long-planned retirement" on April 25, and his last day was May 13.
The suggestion that quality assurance documents might have been falsified is potentially damaging because the quality assurance program is designed to assure that scientific work was done properly and to assure the accuracy of Yucca research. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will rely on quality assurance documents to verify the completeness of the scientific work, and ultimately to determine whether Yucca can safely store 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste.
The QA program has been criticized by the commission, the GAO and the department's Inspector General in the past.
That makes the departure last month of Yucca quality assurance manager R. Dennis Brown significant. After the e-mails were disclosed, Brown was tasked with reviewing more recent quality assurance procedures, as the GAO is updating an investigation it completed on the quality assurance program last year.
Brown will not renew his contract, according to the department. The department did not formally announce that, but Brown in late July sent employees an e-mail signaling his exit.
News of Brown's resignation came one day after news surfaced that Yucca licensing manager Joseph Ziegler was leaving, citing personal reasons. He leaves at a time when obtaining a license application is the most pressing goal of the program. The department is struggling to complete the application. It missed a deadline last year, and its revised December goal likely will slip at least three months.
Yucca will undergo another loss when John Mitchell, president and general manager of top Yucca contractor Bechtel SAIC, leaves Aug. 12. Bechtel handles the day-to-day activities of the project, and worked on the project's draft license application.
Mitchell will be replaced by Ted Feigenbaum, president of Maine Yankee Atomic Power Co. Bechtel spokesman Jason Bohne said Feigenbaum has a lot of experience with nuclear energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Bohne said a transition plan is in place and Feigenbaum will spend time with Mitchell before his departure.
Energy Department spokesman Allen Benson said department employees continue to work on Yucca while the White House searches for a replacement for a permanent Yucca chief and other managers.
For now, President Bush has named Paul Golan acting director. He took over when Garrish left in May.
The departures of Chu, Garrish, Brown and Ziegler have had no practical affect at all on the $58 billion project, Benson said.
But experts are skeptical.
It's just "common sense" that complex projects suffer with managerial departures, said Thomas Allen, a professor of management at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"Who knows what was in those brains that walked out the door?" Allen asked. "Any time you lose people who have gained all that experience, it sets you back. You have to re-create that knowledge."
It is not uncommon for political appointees to leave after a certain amount of time, or for subordinates to leave after a director resigns, said Constance Horner, a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
"The new Dr. Chu may bring a new set of subordinates to replace those that have left," she said.
Horner said there are two possible outcomes once top officials leave: the civil service staff steps up and manages the program until the new political appointee comes along, or work slows down because politically driven decisions can get kicked up the ladder to higher and higher offices until they reach someone who can make the decision.
The career staff -- non-political appointees -- can sometimes do their jobs better without an added layer of scrutiny over them, she said.
"It can be stressful if there is uncertainty about the course of action," Horner said. "It can also be a period of considerable professional satisfaction."
Former Nuclear Regulatory Chairman Richard Meserve said the Bush administration will need to fill all the positions with people who have both nuclear and management experience.
"You have a challenge at DOE in that the whole bunch of people that were at the center of this are not there," said Meserve, now president of the Carnegie Institution. "I have no idea what (Energy) Secretary (Samuel) Bodman is thinking, but he does have some very important positions to fill."
Meserve said there are technical as well legal issues that have to be addressed.
"It's not going to be an easy job," Meserve said.
Replacing leaders is a time-consuming and costly endeavor, and once new managers are hired, companies and government agencies, like the department, have to bring them up to speed, UNLV's Opfer said.
"When someone walks out mid-project, you lose your investment in the on-the-job education you put into that person," Opfer said.
Another problem that frequently occurs is that once the department hires a new manager, the manager may not mesh with the leadership team in place, creating more delays, Opfer said. Then sometimes those team members leave, he said.
Management turnover also makes it more difficult to assign accountability because new managers can blame problems on old regimes, Opfer said.
Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said the number of departures raises questions.
"I think it probably reflects the frustration and futility of constantly trying to fit a square peg in a round hole," Gibbons said.
"Continuity of leadership is always important in any government agency. When you start losing leaders, that continuity and efficiency is affected, I don't care what they say."
Nevada officials note that the departures come as Yucca continues to face a slew of budgetary, technical and legal obstacles. A federal court last year dealt Yucca a setback when it threw out a radiation release standard. The Energy Department has sought to prove Yucca can meet that scrapped standard.
The Environmental Protection Agency could issue a new radiation standard this year, which would force the Energy Department to make license application revisions.
Porter said the employees still working at the department may suffer through the changes.
"They deserve consistent management," Porter said. "I can only imagine what they are thinking."
Porter noted that Energy Secretary Bodman and other top department officials are just a few months on the job, too.
"Who's in charge?" Porter said. "No one is minding the ship."
Nevada lawmakers also have been frustrated by Energy Department officials who have dismissed the e-mail controversy as not likely to affect the repository's progress.
"Forget a moment that it is a federal agency," Porter said. "If this was the private sector ... it would be national headlines if all the corporation's officials resigned in the midst of an investigation."
The Yucca project is so big that the departure of several key managers may slow the project further, but it probably won't be "catastrophic," said John Garrick, chairman of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board. The board was created by Congress to act as an independent watchdog of Yucca science.
Garrick said that even though Yucca program employees are missing some bosses, they have a clear goal to keep them motivated: to submit the license application.
But there is no question the Yucca program has been reeling, especially since the court threw out the radiation release standard, Garrick said. The program lost steam when it missed its goal last year of submitting the license, he said.
Program officials are under a lot of pressure to move the program forward, so it's not surprising to see some departures, Garrick said. And those departures can naturally lead to day-to-day delays, said Garrick, whose long career included running an international engineering and management consultant firm.
Sometimes a fresh infusion of new leaders can spark new enthusiasm and energy on a project, Garrick said, adding that that may be just what Yucca needs.
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CanWest
August 7, 2005
Martin Sheen released after protest
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS -- Nearly 200 peace activists, including actor Martin Sheen, are being released after they were detained and cited during a nonviolent demonstration protesting nuclear weapons outside the Nevada Test Site to mark the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.
Nye County sheriff's deputies used plastic restraints to detain the activists late Saturday as they crossed a white line on Highway 95 marking the site, said test site spokesman Darwin Morgan.
About 180 activists, including Sheen, were issued citations for trespassing and were being released early Sunday. The county will not pursue the citations in court, Morgan said.
One protester was Louie Vitale, a Franciscan friar who co-founded the Nevada Desert Experience, a group that demonstrates against the test site.
"It's tragic to think back 60 years," Vitale said. "I personally have friends in Las Vegas from Hiroshima and Nagaski, survivors who were children at the time, and know that they are still suffering. To still be contemplating the possibility of doing it again is shocking."
Some 70,000 people died instantly and an estimated 70,000 more died later from the radioactive fallout from the nuclear attack on Hiroshima. Three days later, a plutonium bomb dropped on the city of Nagasaki, killing about 80,000 people. Japan surrendered Aug. 15, 1945, bringing World War II to a close.
Corbin Harney, spiritual leader of the Western Shoshone tribe, used the demonstration to speak out against plans for a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain.
"This is our land," he said.
Activists included members of Nevada Desert Experience and Pax Christi USA, organizations promoting peace and the end of nuclear testing.
Similar demonstrations were held at the nuclear weapons labs at Los Alamos in New Mexico and Lawrence Livermore in California and the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn. In Reno, about 40 people gathered outside the federal building for a vigil that consisted of speeches and prayers for Japanese victims.
Patrick Mahon, 63, a retired school administrator, traveled with his wife from their home in Young Harris, Ga., to participate in the demonstration and an anti-nuclear weapons conference at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
"We've got to find a way to end man's inhumanity to man," Mahon said, fighting back tears. "Enough is enough."
Mahon, a member of Pax Christi, said the test site perpetuates the cycle of violence.
"Our national laboratories, including the Test Site, are what's keeping the proliferation going," Mahon said. "I don't think we can tell other countries to give up their nuclear weapons as we continue to develop and improve our own."
But the bombing of Hiroshima, and that of Nagasaki three days later, has been credited with helping end World War II and saving the lives of U.S. troops and Japanese civilians during a likely invasion of Japan.
Ronald Lutton, who retired from the Army in 1989, heard a speech by Dr. James Yamazaki at the Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas. Yamazaki was a member of the U.S. Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission who has worked extensively with bomb survivors in Japan.
"It was the only thing available to us to end the war without any further loss of life," Lutton said, adding that he supports the nation's nuclear efforts but in a scaled-down version.
"It's a deterrent," Lutton, 69, said. "But I don't think we should stockpile weapons per se, but we have to keep a certain number on hand as a deterrent. Hopefully, we never have to use them again."
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Center for Research on Globalization
August 07, 2005
The Kiss of Death: Nuclear Weapons Stealth Takeover
5 Admirals, U.C. Regents, Carlyle Group and Rand
by Leuren Moret
Deep Black Lies
"I think some of these folks would put nuclear tips on ice cream cones if they could."
U.S. Representative Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) on efforts by Bush Administration officials to repeal a research ban on low-yield nuclear weapons. Global Security Newswire 'Quote of the Day' May 19, 2003
UC AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS: THE KISS OF DEATH
The top-secret Manhattan Project was laid out by Robert Oppenheimer the night Ernest Lawrence took him to the Bohemian Club during WW II. It was a part of California's brutal rise to economic and political power, described in IMPERIAL SAN FRANCISCO: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin.
In 1939, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Niels Bohr had argued that building an atomic bomb "can never be done unless you turn the United States into one huge factory." Years later, he told his colleague Edward Teller, "I told you it couldn't be done without turning the whole country into a factory. You have done just that." That was after Edward Teller had stuck the knife in Oppenheimer's back, and pulled his clearance. Teller (also known as 'Dr. Strangelove'), went on to promote a grandiose US nuclear weapons program for decades at the nuclear weapons labs: Berkeley, Livermore and Los Alamos. The program remained under a no-bid University of California management contract for 61 years. In a stealth takeover by the Carlyle Group, facilitated by 5 Admirals, the management contract will be transferred next year to the University of Texas where the military and the Carlyle Group will have control. A new 'ramping up' of the nuclear weapons program is underway, with program funding at the highest level ever - even higher than during the Cold War - extending nuclear weapons into outer space, into the very atmosphere that makes life on earth possible, and with no "real" enemy in site.
ESTIMATING THE COLD WAR MORTGAGE
In 1995 dollars, according to the Department of Energy (DOE) the US spent approximately 300 billion dollars on nuclear weapons research, production, and testing.
Today in the nuclear weapons complex there are 10,500 contaminated sites, 2.3 million acres under DOE ownership, and 120 million square feet of buildings. The 1995 high base cost, estimated by the DOE Environmental Management program, to clean up the environmental legacy is $350 billion. That excludes the Nevada Test Site, Hanford, the Savannah and Clinch rivers, and the Columbia river which are considered to be "national sacrifice zones" because the technology does not exist to clean them up.
That was the cost for cleaning up the environment. The damage to the human health not only of Americans, but also to the global population, was predicted by the European Committee on Radiation Risk (ECRR), in a 2003 independent report on low level radiation for the European Parliament, to be 61,600,000 deaths by cancer, 1,600,000 infant deaths, and 1,900,000 foetal deaths. "In addition the ECRR committee predicts a 10% loss of life quality integrated over all diseases and conditions in those who were exposed over the period of global weapons fallout."
The cost to the predominantly black community at Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco is much greater. Navy ships brought back to Hunter's Point shipyard for decontamination by the Navy, after the first atmospheric tests in the Pacific, led to the establishment of the secret Naval Radiological Defense Lab (NRDL) which operated at the shipyard into the 1970's. Secret experiments exposing animals, plants, soldiers, prisoners, and local residents to radiation were conducted at the NRDL, where 550 civilian scientists worked with 65 Naval officers to study the biological effects of ionizing radiation. The radioactive waste and dead animals from the lab were dumped at the shipyard, filled a back bay, and sunk off the Golden Gate bridge in a battleship and 55 gallon drums, contaminating one of the richest fisheries in the world. The community today has the highest rates of breast cancer in women under 40 in the US, as well as high rates of other radiation related diseases. A former City of San Francisco coroner found that every Hunters Point resident he had done an autopsy on, had cancer no matter what the cause of death.
Even worse, the Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP), while conducting studies on infant mortality and cancer around nuclear power plants, discovered that milk contaminated with radiation has been shipped into black inner city communities - a genocidal plan which explains why blacks have the highest cancer rates, infant mortality, and asmtha (Gotham Gaz.May 2003) in the US, which has been blamed on poverty. The studies using US govt. data on radiation in milk revealed that at the time of Chernobyl the Pennsylvania Milk Board had been selectively shipping radioactive contaminated milk from dairies around the Three Mile Island and Peachbottom reactors into eastern black inner city communities (see Jay Gould, Deadly Deceit: Low Level Radiation, High Level Coverup). In an RPHP study on health improvements by race in San Francisco County, after the shutdown of the Rancho Seco nuclear power plant in 1989, health improved for all ages, diseases and races except for blacks. Black infant mortality also increased after startups and accidents, but unlike improvements for whites and Asians which decreased after the 1989 shutdown, black infant mortality reflected startups and shutdowns at other nuclear power plants in California.
UC REGENTS MEETING - MAY 15, 2003: THE POINT MAN
One year ago Admiral Linton Brooks, Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) under DOE, informed Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante and the UC Regents that the management contract for the nuclear weapons labs would be put up for competitive bid for the first time, with the award made in 2005. When a Regent asked if it would be for all the labs or just Los Alamos, he replied that "it would be for Los Alamos". Later another Regent questioned him again, and this time he said "it would be inconceivable for just one lab". He requested a competitive bid from UC, but the Regents were now leery of the politics involved, and Brooks was challenged by a fiery Bustamante. The Lt. Governor demanded to know why UC should waste millions of dollars preparing a bid when the University of Texas was the most favored institution to get the award, and had a member of the University of Texas on the blue ribbon panel making the award decision.
Admiral Brooks also informed the Board of Regents that "we're back in the bomb business" because Los Alamos had just produced the first plutonium "pit" since Rocky Flats closed down. He indicated that they would be making "mini-nukes" only, and nuclear weapons testing would start at the Nevada Test Site in 2005. An hour later, and 45 miles away, he announced to Livermore employees that "we're back in the bomb business" and they would be making big ones, little ones, and more. By this time it seemed to me that Admiral Brooks was a slippery character and I began to wonder why an Admiral was involved.
UC REGENTS MEETING - AUGUST 17, 2004: TWO ADMIRALS STAGE "THE SETUP"
On August 4, 2004, UC President Dynes, a physicist and consultant to Los Alamos and former Chancellor of UC San Diego, and Gerald Parsky, Chair of the UC Regents, visited Los Alamos and met with employees over recent security and safety lapses repeated at the lab. Parsky told them:
"The regents will be left with no choice about the contract competition if we do not feel confident that you understand the importance of security, procedures and safety at the lab. If we feel that you understand this and that steps are being taken to address these issues, the regents will not only endorse competing for this contract - we will compete to win."
During three minutes of public comment before the Regents on August 17, I informed them that the lab contract was going to the University of Texas, it was a 'done deal'. I told them that the management contract change was a chess move the Carlyle Group was making to privatize the nuclear weapons program, and owned 70% of Lockheed Martin Marietta, and that Lockheed a year ago had bought Sandia Labs (they make the trigger for nuclear weapons). When "Carlyle" was mentioned I noticed that the Chair, Gerald Parsky and Vice Chair Richard Blum (married to Senator Diane Feinstein) started shifting around in their chairs. Body language can say a lot. They began a disruptive and loud conversation carried on through the rest of my comments. As a Livermore whistleblower, I commented that the loss of computer discs with classified information and missing keys had happened practically every day for 61 years under sloppy UC management, and that science fraud as well as health and safety violations had been just as bad. [During my week of security briefing at Livermore in 1989 we were told that a scientist taking classified material home in his briefcase did not notice it had fallen off the back of his bike. A merchant found the battered briefcase in an intersection, and several days later a horrified lab security employee found that every page of a lengthy report with "CLASSIFIED" stamped on each page had been taped in the window of the merchant's shop hoping the owner would claim his lost secret documents.] What was even more egregious I pointed out, was an article in the July 10, 2004, issue of the Daily Mirror about the murder by the Mossad of Robert Maxwell, a British publisher. It revealed that Maxwell, who was the former owner of the Daily Mirror, was a high level Mossad agent, and had sold PROMIS software to Los Alamos with a back door for the Mossad to spy on the lab. In closing, I told the Regents that no matter who got the contract award, "the University of California would forever be known as the University that poisoned the world…"
As Admiral George P. Nanos, Director of the Los Alamos lab (appointed Jan. 2003), and Admiral S. Robert Foley Jr., UC vice president for laboratory management (appointed Nov. 2003), sat down at the table where the Regents waited, I began to wonder how many more Admirals were involved and why. It did not take long to find out. Admiral Foley informed the Regents about the missing CREM, computer storage devices with classified data, and acknowledged that the security lapse damaged the university's chances of retaining its Los Alamos contract. "This erodes your position, without any question at all. It's about as bad as it could be when you're trying to prepare for a re-competition". He announced that Jack Killeen had been appointed to the UC Presidents Office as special assistant for Los Alamos security: "Jack's our guy, he was with Wackenhut and he's our guy…". Among lab employees Wackenhut was better known for 'wacking' lab whistleblowers like Karen Silkwood, attempting to run people like Dr. Rosalie Bertell off the road, and has a well-deserved reputation for being a nasty outfit. President Bush and his brother, Governor Jeb Bush, are known to spend time together hanging out with cronies at the Wackenhut "country club" in Florida. Admiral Nanos continued and complained that employees would not follow the security and safety rules. When Foley chimed in that there were going to be more security incidents and lapses at the lab in the future before they got it straightened out, it began to look like a setup. Regents Blum, Parsky, Connerly and a few more leaned forward and demanded to know how it was possible, and stated it was unacceptable, that there would be more security lapses. Foley should have been fired on the spot for falling down on the job. It was obvious that Nanos and Foley were there to blame the employees, justify the management change, and discourage the Regents from competing for the contract. And justification for "cleaning house" and removing the "old guard" who would stand in the way of a takeover and for what is planned for ramping up the program.
An Editorial in the Oakland Tribune the day before remarked that the NNSA was established in 1991 after the Wen Ho Lee scandal, but had failed to address real security lapses since. NNSA is in bed with the lab administrators which it supposedly is overseeing. This had been exactly my experience at Livermore in 1991 when I reported graft, fraud, corruption, contractor overcharges, and health and safety violations on the Yucca Mountain Project and Superfund Project to Richard Berta, the Western Regional Inspector in the DOE Inspector General's office for the nuclear weapons labs, Site 51, and the Nevada Test Site. After bringing two inspectors to my house and taking my testimony, he reported to Duane Sewell, the "secrets keeper" at the lab, and Bert Hefner, lab PR person. When I called a month later to talk to Berta about the outcome, he said "we found no basis to your allegations… and I got a new office with a view and new oak furniture from Sewell…". My allegations had been reported many times to the FBI by other more senior lab staff… and they were ignored as well. The Editorial concludes:
"NNSA failed miserably in its policing responsibilities. It should be reorganized or axed, and Brooks and other top officials should be replaced with more independent, less-compromised leadership."
The meeting ended before Dr. Walter Kohn, a physicist representing the UC Faculty opposed to UC management of nuclear weapons labs, was able to speak before the Regents. Regent Sherry Lansing, CEO of Paramount Pictures, stood up and announced in a loud voice "…oh Walter, I want to hear your presentation [at a future meeting]… but I have a plane to catch…", and crossed the room to give him a big kiss. By this time I had decided to investigate the UC Regents and their ties to the defense industry. Later that evening, a friend told me "…they ARE the Carlyle Group…".
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS STUDENTS - The FIAT PAX Website
Right after the Regents meeting I contacted a group of students and a Texas State Representative Lon Burnam, opposed to the Univ. of Texas bid for the nuclear weapons management contract. A student told me about FIAT PAX, a website put together by UC Santa Cruz students listing the top 50 University recipients of defense funding for research (see below), and their ties to corporations (see below). The UC Regents with ties to the defense industry were listed with detailed bios. Parsky, the Chair, was the top fundraiser for Bush (after Ken Lay) in both Presidential election bids, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Vice Chair Blum was tied to the Carlyle Group, invested in URS Corporation (leading contractor with DOD), Korea First Bank [Carlyle is moving into Korea and taking over banks], and sits on the Board of Northwest Airlines. [A FOIA document revealed in 2001 that Northwest was the first airline to collaborate with NASA to install mind-reading technology in US airports to catch "terrorists".] Regent Lansing was a trustee of the RAND Graduate School, a branch of the RAND Corporation which had been involved in war-gaming nuclear wars between the US and the USSR, and acts as a bridge between US universities and the military. I also learned that the Carlyle Group managed large amounts of endowment funds for the University of Texas, and that CALPers, the State of California workers pension fund which is the largest in the nation owns 5.2% of Carlyle. FIAT PAX sums it up:
"The University of California's system wide finances are incredibly entangled with weapons manufacturers. The UC's retirement plan portfolio is invested in dozens of military-industrial contractors through stock purchases. At least five corporations within the UC retirement portfolio conduct virtually no business other than weapons manufacturing and military subcontracting, these are: General Dynamics with a UC investment of $21,471,120, Northrop Grumman for $16,125,200, Raytheon for $16,818,200, TRW for $8,327,650, and Lockheed Martin for a staggering $33,046,370."
"It is through these informal personal, formal institutional, and financial exchanges that universities serve the warfare state and its corporate allies. Personal relationships connect military, corporate, and university personnel while bridging the divide between these institutions. Formal institutional links establish cooperation and coordination across the military-industrial-academic complex. Be they research institutes, labs, and centers, or personal relationships spanning industry-university-military, the web of connections far exceeds any attempts to quantify."
And then I knew that the Admirals, and vested Regents, were the kiss of death to the UC bid.
ADMIRAL VISHNU BAGHWAT, FORMER CHIEF OF THE INDIAN NAVY
On July 17, 2004, Admiral Vishnu Baghwat replied to my question "Why are so many Admirals involved with the nuclear weapons contract bid?":
"The reason why the Navy and the Admirals are predominantly involved in the weapons is that until the Space military launch posts are ready and positioned with the minimum degree of reliability, the US Navy has more than 70 % of the first and second strike capability on its boats and hence an equivalent amount of the budget earmarked for strategic systems."
His comments made the link for me between the nuclear weapons program, the Navy, NASA, and other types of directed energy weapons developed in nuclear weapons labs intended for space. Marion Fulk, a former Manhattan Project scientist and retired Livermore nuclear physical chemist told me that nuclear weapons cannot be used in space without contaminating the atmosphere, and laser weapons will not work because there is too much space trash already up there which will impede the effectiveness of the lasers. Wars in space will create more space trash until it is impossible to leave the earth, which already according to Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, is very dangerous now since a paint chip nearly took out the windshield of the space shuttle. The US plans to weaponize space are a violation of the United Nations 1967 Outer Space Treaty: Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. The intent was "to promote international co-operation in the peaceful exploration and use of outer space" and specifically prohibited the weaponization of space with ANY weapons, including nuclear weapons.
The 2001 Space Preservation Act, HR 2977 which was introduced by Congressman Dennis Kucinich, let the cat out of the bag and revealed under the "Definitions" in the bill, that directed energy weapons which can target individuals and populations from space for the purposes of psychotronics, mind control, and mood control, are clearly the new space weapons intended to establish global dominance by the New World Order. Directed energy weapons developed in the nuclear weapons labs have been used on nuclear weapons lab whistleblowers, UC students, handed over to the EPA to use on environmentalists, and to the FBI to turn over to local law enforcement. These weapons are now land, air, and sea based. Space is the last frontier.
ADMIRAL BOBBY RAY INMAN - SPOOKS-R-US
Tipped off by a journalist in Washington DC, my investigation of Admiral Bobby Ray Inman revealed that he was THE Admiral at the center of the spider web. A look at his social network (see Namebase.org below) helped put the 'puzzle palace' together, and I discovered he was National Security Advisor to five Presidents, Director of the NSA, Deputy Director of the CIA under William Casey, Vice Director of the DIA, Director of Naval Intelligence, President of SAIC, Chair of the 1985 Congressional 'Inman Commission' on Terrorism, affiliated with the Carlyle Group, on the advisory boards of Tufts and the University of Texas, represents SBC Communications Corporation at Cal Tech, Chairman Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, and a member of both the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission. And, Admiral Bobby Ray Inman is a member of the University of Texas faculty. One could say he is a dangerous man.
One job he didn't get was Secretary of Defense under Clinton:
"1994: Former admiral Bobby Ray Inman, stung by press and Senate criticisms of his record, asked President Clinton to withdraw his nomination as secretary of Defense. A Clinton aide, George Stephanopoulos, later wrote that Inman had held back information during his White House background check."
A look at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) reveals just exactly what kind of activities are undertaken in a spook shop where there is no accountability, and what business Inman was conducting at SAIC under his leadership. SAIC is one of the largest private employee-owned corporations, and like the Carlyle Group, escapes scrutiny (because it is privately owned) despite annual revenues of more than $5.9 billion. In 1990 it was indicted and pled guilty to ten felony counts of fraud on a Superfund site, called "one of the largest [cases] of environmental fraud…" in Los Angeles history. DOE contracted SAIC to manage and operate the Yucca Mountain Program, which I worked on as a scientist at the Livermore Lab. I became a whistleblower at Livermore in 1991 because of my knowledge of the extent of science fraud on the most important public works project in US history. SAIC's control over internet domain names, gained when they purchased Network Solutions Inc., caused a furor and identified the ties in SAIC to "the shadow ruling-class within the Pentagon". Basically SAIC is a private spook corporation, involved in voting machines (SEQUOIA etc.), controlling the internet (Network Solutions), training foreign militaries, and the contractor that set up global communications for the US military. The internet is being changed from a public resource to a lucrative operation influenced by spooks and former Pentagon officials. The internet was a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project to begin with.
One of SAIC's prime clients is DARPA (DOD), which recently employed 5-time convicted felon Admiral Poindexter, an associate of Inman's going back to Iran-Contra. Poindexter was forced to resign over his involvement with PAM, a "terrorism futures market" DARPA project which predicted assassinations, terrorism and other events in the Middle East. His earlier controversial program TIPS - the Total Information Awareness Program - was set up to spy on Americans. He was also involved in creating large information databases on Americans which are now being used to track citizens. SAIC also had contracts to develop information systems for the Pentagon, FBI and IRS. Police can now legally stop a person on the street, ask their name, type it into a palm pilot and come up with detailed personal information in a few seconds. An Associated Press story on Sept. 9, 2004, "Conn. City Uses Scanners to Nab Criminals" revealed that police in New Haven, Connecticut, are now driving around in police cars with infrared scanners connected to databases which they are using on license plates to hunt for "criminals", tax delinquents, and parking ticket violators. Some of the $25,000 scanners were paid for in one month from collected revenues. A military project, the real purpose of the internet is revealing itself:
"The technotronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values. Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen. These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities." - Zbigniew Brzezinski.
The association of Admiral Inman, the Bush crime syndicate, Texas oil companies, and the Carlyle Group with the University of Texas explained why an advanced 4th generation nuclear weapons research program is there. And it explained why the University of Texas is so eager to take over the nuclear weapons labs. But this takeover resembles Inmans involvement with a stealth takeover of the Mars program transferring it from JPL management and control to NASA.
The NASA Deep Space Program was started at JPL to do space exploration more efficiently with lower costs. Criticism of NASA/JPL Mars mission failure problems in the Thomas Young Report released on March 28, 2000, revealed that the supposedly public space program had been hijacked into secrecy and that the military was calling the shots. NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin on March 29, 2000, revealed at JPL the day after release of the report, just who was in control and the existence of an oversight committee that nobody at JPL knew existed:
"I'd also like to acknowledge Admiral Inman, head of the JPL Oversight Committee at Cal Tech. He couldn't be here today, but I talked to him by phone. His commitment to the team here is also unwavering. And I thank him for that."
Goldin was there "to address beleaguered personnel, scientists and engineers of the Nation's premier unmanned center for planetary exploration, and to somehow advise them of the new political and engineering realities, while simultaneously exhorting them to continue to new heights but now under more stringent NASA management". The real question is what was Admiral Inman doing as chair of a committee in a private university overseeing all civilian unmanned exploration of the planet Mars without the knowledge of anyone at JPL?
In two years Admiral Bobby Ray Inman took over the space program, and in another year from now he will have succeeded in taking over the nuclear weapons program. When Newsweek called him "a superstar in the intelligence community", it was for good reason.
A Naval officer I interviewed later replied when I asked him if he knew Inman "…oh yeah… he's one of the players…".
DEPOPULATION: 4th GENERATION NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND DEPLETED URANIUM
The development of 4th generation nuclear weapons is now underway in the US (in first place), Germany and Japan (tied for second place), followed by Russia and other nuclear and non-nuclear States. As an expert witness on the environmental and health effects of depleted uranium (DU) weaponry for the International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan held in Japan in 2003, I discovered that there was a connection between the use of depleted uranium by the US since 1991- in the Middle East, Yugoslavia, and Central Asia - and 4th generation nuclear weapons. [Carlucci, former Chairman of the Carlyle Group (1989-2003), sat on the Board of Directors of General Dynamics (1991-97) which is one of the main manufacturers of DU weaponry in the US.] International scientists, Drs. Andre Gsponer, J.-P. Hurni, and B. Vitali, watch-dogging nuclear weapons developments globally, pointed out that DU weaponry is being used to study the radiobiological effects of the new nuclear weapons now under development:
"It is shown that the radiological burden due to the battlefield use of circa 400 tons of depleted-uranium munitions in Iraq (and of about 40 tons in Yugoslavia) is comparable to that arising from the hypothetical use of more than 600 kt (respectively 60 kt) of high-explosive equivalent pure-fusion fourth-generation nuclear weapons."
The use of weapons in war are most effective when the weapons do not kill, but create long-term health and environmental consequences such as lingering illnesses which slowly destroy the health of the environment and productivity of a nation and the economy. The use of Agent Orange in Vietnam is a good example of an environmental disaster with lingering and long-term health effects on a population, as well as causing trans-boundary contamination. DU is a permanent terrain contaminant with a half-life of 4.5 billion years, forms immense volumes of nano-sized particles (smaller than bacteria or viruses) which are lofted permanently as components of atmospheric dust traveling around the world until they are rained or snowed out of the air. There is no possible protective clothing, air filters, or treatment for internal exposure to this form of a poison radioactive gas. It was proposed as a military poison gas weapon in 1943 under the Manhattan Project. Even worse, uranium targets the DNA, and the Master Code (histone) which controls the expression of the DNA, and slowly destroys the genetic future of exposed populations. The US CODE, TITLE 50 > CHAPTER 40 > Sec. 2302, defines a Weapon of Mass Destruction as:
The term ''weapon of mass destruction'' means any weapon or device that is intended, or has the capability, to cause death or serious bodily injury to a significant number of people through the release, dissemination, or impact of - (A) toxic or poisonous chemicals or their precursors; (B) a disease organism; or (C) radiation or radioactivity
The US has staged four nuclear wars since 1991 using illegal DU dirty bombs, dirty missiles and dirty bullets as radiological weapons and released an amount of radiation into the atmosphere which is at least ten times more radiation than the equivalent of 40,000 Hiroshima bombs, released during atmospheric testing. In June 2003, the WHO predicted in a press release that cancer will increase 50% globally by the year 2020, which can only be from an environmental cause. Already medical and scientific journals are reporting mysterious increases of infant mortality in 20 regions of Europe (Lancet Jan. 2004), the UK (Guardian Aug. 2004), and the US (New Scientist Feb.2004). Infant mortality should be decreasing now as a continuing trend for more than a century because of improved education and prenatal care, instead it is increasing in the US for the first time in 45 years with no identified cause. For radiation specialists, infant mortality is the most sensitive indicator of radioactive pollution, a response researchers have identified as a result of exposure to low level radiation from atmospheric testing and nuclear power plant accidents, releases, and startups. The global pollution from thousands of tons of DU in nano-size particles traveling around the earth and being deposited in the global environment will have a devastating long-term effect. Not only will it cause illnesses and genetic mutations in the future generations of those internally exposed, but it will have a depopulating effect long proposed by the US military. DU is the perfect weapon delivering nanoparticles of poison, radiation, and nano-pollution - the real killer - directly into living cells where they cause the cells to go haywire and disfunctional:
"Should humans be so stupid as to continue both technological escalation and wars between nation-states, radiological warfare might well be a far more safe and humane way to conduct extermination of large numbers of people, or the emptying out of troublesome political centres, than any of the various biological alternatives."
MORE-4-US
Research on population control is now being carried out secretly by biotech companies. Dr. Ignacio Chapela, a University of California microbiologist discovered that wild corn in remote parts of Mexico is contaminated with lab altered DNA. He was denied tenure at UC Berkeley when he reported this to the scientific community, despite the embarrassing discovery that the Chancellor denying him tenure was getting large cash payments from a biotech company each year. Chapela revealed that a spermicidal corn developed by a US company is now being tested in Mexico. Males who unknowingly eat the corn produce non-viable sperm.
Depopulation is quite another thing. It is killing off large segments of living populations. Even Prince Philip of Britain, a member of the Bilderberg Group, is in favor of depopulation:
"If I were reincarnated I would wish to be returned to earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels." - Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, leader of the World Wildlife Fund - quoted in 'Are You Ready For Our New Age Future?', Insiders Report, American Policy Center, December '95)
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been proposing, funding, and building BioWeapons Level 3 and Level 4 labs at many places around the US - even on university campuses and in densely populated urban locations. In a BioWeapons Level 4 facility a single bacteria or virus is lethal.
For what purpose are these labs being developed, and who will make the decisions on where BioWeapons created in these facilities will be used and on whom? More than 20 world-class microbiologists have been murdered since 2001, mostly in the US and the UK - nearly all were working on developing ethnic specific BioWeapons. Citizens around the US are frantically filing lawsuits to stop these labs on campuses and in communities where they live. Despite the opposition of residents living near UC Davis, where a BioWeapons Level 4 lab was planned with the support of the town Mayor, she suddenly reversed her position after a monkey escaped from a high security primate facility. When residents claimed that if UC Davis could not keep monkeys from escaping from their cages, they certainly could not guarantee that a single virus or bacteria would not escape from a test tube. The escaped monkey killed the project.
The extreme secrecy surrounding the takeover of nuclear weapons, NASA and the space program, and BioWeapons labs is a threat to civil society, especially in the hands of the military and corporations.
THE COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS AND THE TRILATERAL COMMISSION
The New World Order can be described as a network of members of the Bilderberger Group, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), and the Trilateral Commission. The membership in both the CFR and the Trilateral Commission by Admiral Bobby Ray Inman is of particular interest in light of the developments surrounding control by the military of the US nuclear weapons program and the NASA space program.
"The Council on Foreign Relations is the American Branch of a society which originated in England… (and)…believes national boundaries should be obliterated and one-world rule established…. "The Trilateral Commission is international…(and)…is intended to be the vehicle for multinational consolidation of the commercial and banking interests by seizing control of the political government of the United States." With No Apologies (1979) by former Senator Barry Goldwater
"The interests behind the Bush Administration, such as the Council on Foreign Relations, The Trilateral Commission - founded by Brzezinski for David Rockefeller - and the Bilderberger Group, have prepared for and are now moving to implement open world dictatorship within the next five years. They are not fighting against terrorists. They are fighting against citizens." - Dr. Johannes B. Koeppl, Ph.D., former German defense ministry official and advisor to former NATO Secretary General Manfred Werner.
THE MEDIA
At this time in history, it is incomprehensible how a nation can enjoy the benefit of the most sophisticated communications technology in world history and remain so uninformed… or dumbed down. The policies being carried out by the US government that are destructive, both domestically and around the world, are being conducted under a veil of secrecy. The only possible way this dumbing down or control of information could occur is that it has been socially constructed. It is a conspiracy of lies, manipulation and disinformation which increasing numbers of Americans are aware of and should be calling it treason:
"The Rockefeller family has always taken a lead role in the CFR. In the 1960s, while American men and women were dying in the jungles of Vietnam and while the military/industrial complex was sucking trillions of dollars out of American taxpayers' wallets, the Rockefeller dynasty was financing Vietnamese oil refineries and aluminum plants. If there had ever been a formal declaration of war, the Rockefellers could be tried for treason. Instead, they reaped dividends. These are just a few of the abuses of power which demonstrate the results of the power elite's manipulations of our destiny as a society. If you've ever wondered why you don't hear about this network of power, just take a look at the CFR's membership roster. Many of the chief executives and newspeople at CBS, NBC/RCA, ABC, the Public Broadcast Service, the Associated Press, the New York Times, Time Magazine, Newsweek, the Washington Post, and many other key media outlets are CFR members. International power orgs depend on the masses remaining ignorant for their plans to come to fruition."
David Rockefeller, a member of the Bilderberger's, thanked the media facilitators:
"We are grateful to the Washington Post, the NY Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost 40 years....It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supernational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national autodetermination practiced in past centuries." - David Rockefeller speaking at the Bilderberger meeting in June 1991 in Baden Baden, Germany
MEDIA MEMBERSHIP: Council On Foreign Relations (CFR) Trilateral Commission (TC)
WHO SHOULD CONTROL THE US NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM?
"Some people say Domenici is a sucker for big science. And they may be right." -Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM), when asked at a press conference last week if his vigorous support for his state's Los Alamos National Laboratory had helped create a culture of complacency that contributed to last month's security and safety lapses.
In 1991, Richard Berta, the Western Regional Inspector for the Department of Energy at the nuclear weapons labs and the Nevada Test Site, told me:
"The nuclear weapons labs exist for the Pentagon… and the Pentagon exists for the oil companies…"
It is inappropriate for a university to be in control of nuclear weapons research and management. University of California faculty have long opposed UC management of the labs, supported by a majority of the students. UC is now in the position of managing, developing, proliferating, investing in, and profiting from Weapons of Mass Destruction. The fact that UC investments of $33,046,370 in Lockheed Martin Marietta (70% owned by Carlyle), and $21,471,120 in General Dynamics - one of the two biggest US manufacturers of DU weaponry which has been sold to 29 countries, make UC complicit in war crimes. Students and faculty should be informed of this. The State of California employee pension fund owns 5.2% of the Carlyle Group.
The military, should NEVER be in control of ANY nuclear weapons program, it should ALWAYS be in civilian hands. And the Carlyle Group, a private corporation with vested interests and ties to oil companies, has NEVER been investigated or subjected to ANY oversight whatsoever, and for that reason should not have any control or influence over US nuclear weapons policy and development. Admiral Bobby Ray Inman and his associates in the intelligence business have demonstrated their systematic abuse of the internet, voting machines, and American civil liberties. Should we give them the trigger, the nukes, the budget they want, and the cover of secrecy? I don't think so.
Management and oversight of the nuclear weapons labs belongs at the National Science Foundation, a US government agency, with the resources to make rational decisions and reign in the planned unlimited proliferation of nuclear weapons on earth and in space.
"There is a toxic quality to war that affects the inner life of individuals and, as a collective consequence, the society itself. In the degradation and dehumanization of the individual lies the destruction of all mankind." - Butler Shaffer
ALL governments are terrorist organizations…and for that reason Humanity is on the brink of extinction.
References:
IMPERIAL SAN FRANCISCO - Urban Power, Earthly Ruin by Gray Brechin, UC Press January 1999.
"Estimating the Cold War Mortgage: The 1995 Baseline Environmental Management Report" US DOE Office of Environmental Management Executive Summary, March 1995.
"Closing the Circle on the Splitting of the Atom: The Environmental Legacy of Nuclear Weapons Production in the US and What the DOE is Doing About It" US DOE Office of Environmental Management, January 1996.
"ECRR: 2003 Recommendations of the European Committee on Radiation Risk - Health Effects of Ionizing Radiation Exposure at Low Doses for Radiation Protection Purposes, Regulator's Edition: Brussels, 2003". http://www.euradcom.org
"Asthma; Infant Mortality; Recruiting Foster Parents" by Lynda Crawford Gotham Gazette May 05, 2003. http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/children/20030506/2/379
Deadly Deceit: Low Level Radiation, High Level Coverup by Jay Gould and B. Goldman (1990). Letter to Employees of University of California-managed National Labs
Today at Berkeley Lab August 6, 2004 http://www.lbl.gov/today/2004/Aug/06-Fri/letter-jump.html
"A Career in Microbiology Can Be Harmful to Your Health: Death Toll Mounting as Connections to Dyncorp, Hadron, PROMIS Software and Disease Research Emerge", Michael Davidson and Michael C. Ruppert, February 14, 2002. http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/02_14_02_microbio.html
Media coverage of Los Alamos security lapse, July 2004. http://www.4law.co.il/lanl1.htm
"NASA plans to read terrorist's minds at airports" by Frank J. Murray 8/17/02, Washington Times. http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020817-704732.htm
Air Travel Privacy FOIA Documents: "NASA Ames Research Center Northwest Airlines Briefing December 10-11, 2001", Electronic Privacy Information Center. http://www.epic.org/privacy/airtravel/foia/foia1.html
Stop Carlyle! website http://isuisse.ifrance.com/stopcarlyle/enindex.htm
"Our Opinion: NNSA must share blame for Los Alamos mistakes" August 16, 2004, Oakland Tribune. http://ucnuclearfree.org/articles/2004/08/16_oped_nnsa-must-share-blame.htm
FIAT PAX - Let There Be Peace A Resource on Science, Technology, Militarism and Universities http://www.fiatpax.net "Defense Funding at 50 Universities" http://www.fiatpax.net/profiles.html "The University Web of Corporate Power" http://www.fiatpax.net/dohe/universitynetwork.htm "UC's retirement fund investments" http://www.fiatpax.net/iilinks2.html
United Nations 1967 Outer Space Treaty http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/treat/ost/outersptxt.htm
HR 2977 Space Preservation Act of 2001 http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2001/hr2977.html
Social Network Diagram for Admiral Bobby Ray Inman http://www.namebase.org/cgi-bin/nb06?_INMAN_BOBBY_RAY
"1994: Former admiral Bobby Ray Inman" http://www.appointee.brookings.org/sg/a2.htm
"Pentagon scheme for a futures market in terror" by Berry Grey, July 31, 2003, World Socialist Web Site http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jul2003/fut-j31_prn.shtml
"BEST GUESS: Economists explore betting markets as prediction tools" by Erica Klarreich, Science News Oct. 18, 2003, V. 164 p.251-253. http://www.sciencenews.org
"Conn. City Uses Scanners to Nab Criminals" by Diane Scarponi, Sept. 9, 2004. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040909/ap_on_re_us/scanning_for_scofflaws Summary of Thomas Young Report released on March 28, 2000 http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/news/news71.html
"When The Best Must Do Even Better" remarks by NASA Admin. Dan Goldin at JPL on March 29, 2000. http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/ftp/Goldin/00text/jpl_remarks.txt
International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2004/Afghanistan-Criminal-Tribunal10mar04.htm http://afghan-tribunal.3005.net/english/
Fourth Generation Nuclear Weapons: The Physical Principles of Thermonuclear Explosives, Inertial Confinement Fusion, and the Quest for Fourth Generation Nuclear Weapons, by Andre Gsponer and J.-P. Hurni (1999). http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/News/INESAPTR1.html
A comparison of delayed radiobiological effects of depleted-uranium munitions versus fourth-generation nuclear weapons by A. Gsponer, J.-P. Hurni, and B. Vitale, 4th International Conference of the Yugoslav Nuclear Society, Belgrade, September 30-October 4, 2002. http://arXiv.org/abs/physics/0210071
"Letter to Congressman McDermott from Leuren Moret - February 21, 2003." http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2003/Leuren-Moret-Gen-Groves21feb03.htm
"Preferential Staining of Nucleic Acid-Containing Structures For Electron Microscopy" by Huxley and Zubay, J. Biophysical and Biochemical Cytology (J. Cell Biol.) 11 (2): 273. (Nov 1961) http://www.jcb.org/cgi/reprint/11/2/273.pdf
"Depleted Uranium: The Trojan Horse of Nuclear War" by Leuren Moret, World Affairs Journal August 2004. http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/DU-Trojan-Horse1jul04.htm
"Depleted uranium: Dirty bombs, dirty missiles, dirty bullets - A death sentence here and abroad" by Leuren Moret, Aug. 18, 2004, San Francisco Bay View.. http://www.sfbayview.com/081804/Depleteduranium081804.shtml
WHO press release 03/09/08: "Global cancer rates could increase by 50% to 15 million by 2020" http://www.who.int/mediacentre/releases/2003/pr27/en/print.html
"Sudden unexplained infant death in 20 regions in Europe: case control study" R.G. Carpenter et al, Lancet January 17, 2004, V.363, p.185-191.
"Rise in stillbirths prompts inquiry" by John Carvel, August 20, 2004, The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1287041,00.html
"US infant deaths rise for first time in 45 years" by Shaoni Bhattacharya, Feb 12, 2003, New Scientist. http://www.newscientist.com/news/print.jsp?id=ns99994675
"Three Mile Island: Health study meltdown" by Joseph Mangano, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist, September/October 2004, Volume 60, No. 5, pp. 30-35. http://www.thebulletin.org/issues/2004/so04/so04mangano.html
"Smart dust, roboflies, microbugs: UC is spying on you" by Leuren Moret February 26, 2003, San Francisco Bay View. http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2003/Berkeley-Library-Classified22feb03.htm
Statement by Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh http://homepage.mac.com/kaaawa/iblog/C337802379/E1557478132/
Statement by Dr. Johannes B. Koeppl, Ph.D. http://homepage.mac.com/kaaawa/iblog/C337802379/E1557478132/
Statement on role of Rockefellers on Council of Foreign Relations http://isuisse.ifrance.com/emmaf/base/cfrnwo.html
Statement by David Rockefeller at Bilderberger meeting June 1991 http://homepage.mac.com/kaaawa/iblog/C337802379/E1557478132/
Media Membership: Council On Foreign Relations (CFR) Trilateral Commission (TC) http://www.freedomdomain.com/neworder/connections.html
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 06, 2005
Energy bill ignored repository
Reid deterred inclusion of Yucca Mountain
By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration and allies in Congress took pains to avoid mentioning Yucca Mountain as they pursued passage of a major energy policy bill, an Energy Department leader said Friday.
The strategy was to avoid stirring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, a leading critic of the proposed nuclear waste repository who could have caused problems for the bill, one of President Bush's top priorities, DOE Deputy Secretary Clay Sell said.
"Energy politics are tough. Yucca Mountain politics are really tough," said Sell, the department's second-in-command after Secretary Samuel Bodman.
Reid "is a tough character to deal with," Sell said. "There was a conscious decision not to roll (Yucca Mountain) into the energy bill, and I can't disagree."
The strategy worked for Bush. The House and Senate last week passed energy legislation that Bush had sought since 2001. He is scheduled to sign the bill Monday in New Mexico.
The broad new law will emphasize increased production of energy from oil and gas, coal and nuclear sources, while overhauling electricity marketing and encouraging the use of alternative fuels and energy-efficient appliances.
But the law is silent on one of the major concerns of the nuclear power industry and states' energy regulators promoting completion of the Yucca repository, about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Yucca Mountain supporters have pushed Congress to reclassify the fund that pays for the repository so the Department of Energy can gain access to billions of dollars that would be required for construction. Lawmakers have refused to go along.
Sell said the Bush administration continued to support reclassification of the nuclear waste fund, just not as part of the energy bill.
"We have to deal with spent fuel in order to have a future for nuclear power," he said.
Energy bill proponents made the right decision in keeping Yucca Mountain out of the legislation, Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said.
"President Bush now knows a little bit more about Senator Reid and how and what he will fight for, especially something like Yucca Mountain," Hafen said. "Plus, he has the added leverage of being a (Senate) leader."
With the energy legislation completed, Rep. Joe Barton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has said he plans to introduce a bill this fall to address the Yucca Mountain budget matter.
Barton, R-Texas, said he is weighing other elements that could speed the repository that has fallen years behind schedule.
Speaking earlier this summer, Barton also indicated that energy bill sponsors sought to steer clear of Reid. Barton said he did not want to "play games" with Yucca Mountain because Reid to that point had been cooperative in allowing the bill to proceed.
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Weekly Standard
The Nuclear Option
From the August 15 / August 22, 2004 issue: Time for policymakers to get over the China Syndrome.
by Spencer Abraham
Now that congress has passed an energy bill with incentives for the development of more nuclear power, it remains to be seen whether this will lead to robust investment in nuclear energy and a new generation of nuclear plants. Results will depend on the response of some key players, specifically Congress, the investment markets, the environmental community, and the nuclear energy industry itself.
Congress included liability limitations, tax incentives, loan guarantees, and risk insurance in the recent energy bill, and these should help reduce or remove some of the biggest obstacles to new nuclear plants. Congress deserves credit, but its job isn't finished, because no new plants will be built unless there is a clear procedure for disposing of their waste.
When Congress established Nevada's Yucca Mountain as the site for a permanent repository to store America's nuclear waste, it also created a complicated statutory and regulatory framework that has enabled opponents to delay the project through litigation and regulatory manipulation. Hence, a project that was supposed to be completed by the new century is still, at best, years from being finished.
In 2002, the Bush administration and Congress acted decisively and appeared to have the project back on course. But the courts have again derailed the program with a decision that is the least sensible yet. The EPA had established a set of radiation requirements for Yucca Mountain with a time frame of 10,000 years. And the Department of Energy spent billions to determine how to construct such a repository. Then the D.C. ...
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Palm Beach Post
August 06, 2005
Officials urge delaying radioactive sludge, concrete, Savannah River plan
By Jeff Nesmith
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — A committee of the National Academy of Sciences urged the Energy Department on Friday to postpone its controversial plans to mix millions of gallons of radioactive sludge with concrete for permanent burial in South Carolina near the Savannah River.
But the department brushed aside the recommendation, declaring that it intends to go ahead with its plans.
At the plant, most waste is being removed from 51 huge steel tanks where it has accumulated in decades of nuclear weapons production. That waste is being sealed in glass "logs" for eventual shipment to Nevada's Yucca Mountain and permanent disposal.
But a peanut butter-thick residue of highly radioactive material will remain in the bottom of each tank, and the department estimates it could cost as much as $500 million to get this material out and "glassify" it.
Therefore, it proposed in the 1990s to simply reclassify the material as low-level radioactive waste, a move that would make it legal to leave it where it is, covered with a layer of concrete or "grout."
Environmentalists and Georgia officials have complained that this plan threatens to expose the Savannah River to radioactive contamination, should the waste escape and leach through the soil at any time in the next several centuries.
Ruling in a suit filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council, a federal judge said the government did not have authority to redefine high-level waste as low-level waste. Congress last year passed a law giving the Energy Department the authority, in effect overturning the judge's ruling.
It also attached a requirement that the department seek the National Academy of Science's advice on the plan.
In an unusual "interim report" released Friday, the committee set up by the academy to review the plan said the Energy Department has not provided it with documents it needs to make the evaluation.
There should be no rush to pour in the concrete, the committee said, adding that in five or 10 years technologies might be developed that will make it possible to remove the sludge.
By postponing this step, the government would keep its options open, states the interim report.
But Energy Department spokesman Mike Waldron said the government will go ahead with its plans.
"We believe that the near-term risk reduction associated with tank closure outweighs the benefit of any incremental improvements in waste removal technology," he said. "We will continue to work in the most environmentally responsible manner possible."
Geoffrey Fettus, a lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council, noted that the interim report also "clearly states that the committee is not getting from the Department of Energy the information it needs" to evaluate waste disposal work at the Savannah River Site.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 05, 2005
Memo faults Yucca planning
Nuclear regulatory staff says risk factors of air crash omitted
By Erica Werner
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department left out risk factors related to potential airplane crashes and hazards at the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in planning for the project, nuclear regulatory staff told the agency in a memo released Thursday.
The department undercounted the number of Air Force plane crashes at the site in Nevada during the 1990s and discounted the possibility of impacts from jettisoned ordnance, birds hitting planes and cruise missile testing at the Nevada Test Site, said the memo by Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff.
The Energy Department also made an unsupported assumption that airplanes malfunctioning outside the no-fly zone never would enter the no-fly zone and crash into the repository, the memo said.
The memo relates to aircraft failures and problems, as opposed to potential terrorist attacks, at the proposed repository site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. It was written as part of the consultation between the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as the department prepares to submit a license application to the NRC to operate the facility.
An accompanying cover letter says that the NRC has concluded its review of aircraft hazard issues at Yucca Mountain, but that the issues outlined in the memo remain unresolved.
"DOE should note that it may need to address some or all of these items in a potential (license application), depending on the final aircraft hazard analysis approach used," says the letter signed by Lawrence Kokajko, deputy director of the division of high-level waste repository safety at the NRC's Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
An Energy Department spokesman, Craig Stevens, emphasized that the NRC had closed its review of the issue.
"This letter shows that we are one step closer to meeting the needs and concerns of the NRC," Stevens said. "After fully reviewing this letter, the department will work with the NRC and provide them with enough information to fully allay their concerns."
Yucca Mountain is planned as an underground repository for 77,000 tons of the nation's nuclear waste. Delays have pushed back the planned license application date to next spring at the earliest.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 05, 2005
YUCCA MOUNTAIN OVERSIGHT: Audit finds state, county misspending
$1.2 million in expenses at issue
By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Government auditors Thursday challenged $1.2 million that the state of Nevada and three counties spent from federal funds to oversee Department of Energy activities at Yucca Mountain.
An inspector general's investigation concluded that Clark, Lincoln and Nye County officials misspent almost $1.1 million among them on unpermitted consultant tasks, salaries, travel and office expenses.
In their report Thursday, auditors also said the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects misapplied $81,000 in payments to its nuclear waste law firm. The audit report said more than $74,000 was paid back during the investigation.
Officials in Clark County and Nye County disputed the audit and said they planned to appeal. The nuclear waste coordinator for Lincoln County was not available for comment.
Local officials said they were frustrated. Many of the expenses flagged by auditors had been approved by Yucca Mountain managers, they maintained.
"Basically, with no disrespect to the auditors, but they know nothing of what DOE has asked the counties to do or what we are allowed to do," Nye County Commissioner Candice Trummell said.
"Some of the responsibility ought to be on DOE for having approved our work plans."
If the audit findings are upheld, counties could lose Yucca Mountain grants to make up the shortcomings.
An inspector general's audit two years ago challenged $3.3 million in county spending, although some of that was allowed after appeals. Nye County still is challenging more than $1 million in questioned spending from that audit, Trummell said.
The audit released Thursday challenged more than $163,000 in Clark County spending, about $720,000 spent by Nye County and more than $200,000 for Lincoln County.
"We don't believe any of our costs were questionable," said Irene Navis, Clark County director of nuclear waste planning.
"We believe we are completely within the law and the intent of Congress. We welcome the scrutiny, but it should be fair."
The Energy Department will ask the counties to submit monthly expense reports to avoid problems in the future, DOE spokesman Allen Benson said.
"It's in nobody's interest for the counties to have to get these constant audit findings," Benson said.
"We want to work with them."
Navis said the counties probably would reject that idea. With the DOE and Nevada heading toward conflicts over repository licensing, county officials are looking to loosen ties with the department instead of strengthening them, she said.
Auditors reviewed invoices and work plans from May 2002 to July 2004, a period during which the state and three counties spent $11.7 million appropriated by Congress to monitor the Yucca project.
DOE inspector general Gregory Friedman said the audit "suggests that this program is still not fully achieving its intended results" to help counties weigh the potential local impacts of the proposed nuclear waste repository.
Federal law allows the county governments to use federal grants to hire consultants to judge the repository's local impacts, to review Yucca science and to communicate with residents and with the DOE.
Counties cannot spend federal money on lobbying or lawsuits.
Auditors said Nye County improperly allocated $224,000 in oversight funds for salaries that should have been charged to a separate Yucca Mountain grant.
Trummell said the DOE had approved the accounting.
Auditors also questioned $12,000 in travel costs for Nye County officials, including a trip to a National Association of Counties meeting in New Orleans and reimbursements for trips to the Nevada Test Site.
A $70,000 payment for an Indian Springs report commissioned by Clark County was challenged, as well as $87,000 given to a consultant to analyze federal legislation. Navis responded that the audit figures were inflated and that the costs were allowable in both cases.
In Lincoln County, auditors questioned $86,000 in consultant fees to track legislation and review lawsuits related to the project.
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Las Vegas SUN
August 04, 2005
Audit: Nevada, counties misspent nuclear dump oversight funds
By Ken Ritter
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) - About one of every 10 dollars in federal funds sent to Nevada to oversee plans for a national nuclear waste repository was misspent, according to an Energy Department inspector general office report released Thursday.
The audit challenges almost $1.2 million of the $11.7 million spent by the state and Clark, Nye and Lincoln counties during fiscal 2003 and 2004. It cites expenditures "unrelated to the Yucca Mountain project or specifically prohibited" by federal law.
Officials with the state and counties said they intend to appeal.
"We're going to put our heads together and see how we can respond to this," said David Swanson, chief of the Nye County Nuclear Waste Repository Project Office in Pahrump.
The Energy Department allocated $14.5 million in fiscal 2003 and 2004 for the state and 10 local governments under a provision of the federal Nuclear Waste Policy Act allowing local governments to monitor plans for the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository.
Auditors focused on records for the four entities that get and spend the bulk of that money. The report said Nye County misspent $720,000; Lincoln County, $200,000; Clark County, $163,000; and the state misdirected $81,000 of oversight funds to pay attorney costs. The state already has paid back $74,000, the report said.
Swanson noted the audit made no allegations of fraud or abuse. He said auditors raised questions in Nye County mostly about economic development spending, and he expressed frustration that auditors challenged expenses for which the county changed reporting practices to suit auditors after previous audits.
Joe Strolin, planning administrator for the state Nuclear Projects Office in Carson City, said counties get mixed signals about allowable uses for oversight funds from auditors and from the Energy Department's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management.
The office oversees government plans to entomb 77,000 tons of the nation's most radioactive waste beneath Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
"On the one hand, they're getting approval from the Yucca Mountain program to do things, and on the other hand they are being penalized for it," he said.
Harry Kelman, an analyst with the Clark County nuclear waste division, said the county can justify its expenditures, including $87,000 paid to an Albuquerque, N.M.-based contractor to monitor legislation affecting the project.
Kelman also defended a program to chart the economic and environmental effects the project might have in Indian Springs, about 45 miles from Yucca Mountain. The audit said the county spent $70,000 on the program. Kelman said it was $15,000.
"We're extremely disappointed in the report," he said. "There will be an appeal."
Lea Alfano, Lincoln County nuclear waste program coordinator, did not immediately respond to two requests for comment.
The Yucca Mountain project has faced several setbacks, including an appeals court rejection of a proposed radiation safety standard and revelations that government workers on the project might have falsified data.
On the Net:
Energy Department Office of Inspector General: http://www.ig.doe.gov
Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects: http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste
Yucca Mountain project: http://www.ymp.gov
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Platts
August 05, 2005
IG audit questions use of DOE oversight funds at Yucca Mountain
New York (Platts)--4Aug2005
Nuclear utility customers helped pay for work ranging from development of a planned community in Nevada to legal fees after three Nevada counties and the state itself incorrectly used DOE oversight funds for work unrelated to the repository project at Yucca Mountain, Nev., said a DOE Inspector General (IG) report released today.
An IG audit questioned the appropriateness of $1.2-mil of the $11.7-mil spent by the state and three counties during fiscal 2003 and 2004, the report said. Oversight funds are to be used for monitoring, testing, or evaluation of activities associated with work at Yucca Mountain.
Congress has said the funds cannot be used for lobbying, litigation expenses, or coalition-building activities. But the IG said it found some of the money was used for such things as economic development expenses, official travel unrelated to nuclear waste, and monitoring of the Nevada Test Site, a former nuclear weapons test site that borders Yucca Mountain. The report is at http://www.ig.doe.gov.
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State of Nevada
Agency for Nuclear Projects
www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/
nwpo@nuc.state.nv.us
775-687-3744
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