WASHINGTON, U.S.A. – The following is being released by the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy:

Declassified files from long-running investigations of the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC) over alleged illegal diversions of US government-owned weapons-grade uranium to Israel are now available online at http://www.IRmep.org/ila/numec

The 733 pages of information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act for the new book Divert! NUMEC, Zalman Shapiro and the diversion of US weapons-grade uranium into the Israeli nuclear weapons program include:

A 1980 FBI interview of an eyewitness (PDF) of NUMEC executives stuffing U-235 canisters into sealed equipment shipped to Israel.

CIA Director of Operations Carl Duckett’s 1978 testimony about NUMEC (PDF) before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Atomic Energy Commissioner Glenn T. Seaborg’s reaction (PDF) to news that traces of Portsmouth U-235 of the type supplied to NUMEC had been picked up in Israel.

NUMEC corporate correspondence (PDF) with the AEC claiming that undercover Israeli intelligence agents Rafael Eitan and Ephraim Beigun visiting NUMEC in 1968 were merely energy scientists.

National Security Advisor Zbigniew Bresinski’s 1979 order (PDF) that Senator John Glenn not be given direct access to a top secret memorandum about “missing material from the NUMEC plant in Apollo, PA.”

Deputy Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti’s confidential letter (PDF) to President Jimmy Carter to “establish a plan for coordinated interagency action to detect and investigate the theft or diversion of nuclear material in the future.”

A 1978 congressional interview transcript (PDF) with NUMEC President Dr. Zalman Shapiro.

National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger’s 1969 strategy document (PDF) about how the US should respond to Israel’s clandestine nuclear weapons program.  “There is circumstantial evidence that some fissionable material available for Israel’s weapons development was illegally obtained from the United States by about 1965.”

FBI wiretap (PDF) of a 1969 toxic spill at NUMEC caused by improper storage.

According to a 2001 Department of Energy report, NUMEC lost 269 kilograms of highly enriched uranium between 1957 and 1968—the highest in the US and enough for dozens of atomic weapons.  The former NUMEC factory site is currently undergoing a toxic cleanup the US Army Corps of Engineers estimates could cost taxpayers between $250-$500 million.

The newly published book Divert! (available in paperback and Kindle) presents additional evidence that NUMEC—unable to complete US government contracts or protect workers and the environment—was originally established as a nuclear smuggling front.

Image Courtesy of  Wutthichai / Shutterstock.com

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The nation’s premier professional society for the nuclear community, the American Nuclear Society (ANS), is finalizing plans to unveil its “Special Report on Fukushima” in conjunction with the one year anniversary of the Japan earthquake and tsunami, ANS Special Committee Co-Chair and former Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Dale Klein, Ph.D., announced on March 2.

The report will be unveiled at a special press conference in Washington, DC on March 8 which will be broadcast live via a webcast at http://www.visualwebcaster.com/event.asp?id=85244.

In discussing the upcoming release of the report Klein said, “To prepare this report we gathered from our membership some of the world’s leading figures in the nuclear science and technology community. The report will look at all aspects of the events at the Fukushima plant after the earthquake and tsunami, and will include recommendations for the nuclear community, for citizens, and for policymakers as a result of the lessons we learned.”

The press conference will be held Thursday, March 8 at 10:00 a.m. EST at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Topics include Risk-Informed Regulation, Hazards from Extreme Natural Phenomena, Multiple-Unit Site Considerations, Hardware Design Modifications, Severe Accident Management Guidelines, Command and Control During a Reactor Accident, Emergency Planning, Health Physics, and Societal Risk Comparison.

For more information about the press conference call Jackie Clark at (301) 987-7113.  To participate in the webinar visit: http://www.visualwebcaster.com/event.asp?id=85244.

Committee Co-Chair Michael Corradini, Ph.D., Wisconsin Distinguished Professor Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics at the University of Wisconsin, concluded, “This report will also serve as an historical document for reference by those who wish to know what really happened, from a scientific and technically informed perspective, and we thank all of our Committee members for their dedication, time and service creating this report to help us understand these events and better plan for our future.”

For more information about the American Nuclear Society, please visit www.ans.org.

Established in 1954, ANS is a professional not-for-profit organization of engineers and scientists devoted to the peaceful applications of nuclear science and technology.  Its 11,600 members come from diverse technical backgrounds covering the full range of engineering disciplines as well as the physical and biological sciences.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/kordian/

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The small New England state of Vermont is battling the U.S. government over control of the state’s lone nuclear power plant. A federal court denied the state’s recent attempt to shut down the 40-year-old Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant for safety concerns. Vermont lawmakers must now decide if they want to appeal the decision and risk a high stakes legal fight that could affect how the nuclear energy industry is regulated.

In 2010 the Vermont Senate voted not to renew the plant’s operating license after 2012, claiming that the plant’s owner, Entergy, had falsified reports and ignored operational problems. Entergy sued the state claiming that they were attempting to override the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Agency’s decision that the plant was safe to continue operating. Entergy said only the federal government, not individual states, can evaluate plant safety.

U.S. District Judge Garvan Murtha sided with Entergy, saying that despite the state’s claim that it was troubled by operational mismanagement at the plant, their real motive was concern over safety. Murtha noted in his decision that transcripts of the Vermont Senate debates leading up to their vote to close the plant were filled with discussion of the plant’s safety, particularly with references to reports of radioactive tritium leaking into the nearby Connecticut River.

Environmental activists and a majority of state lawmakers had been pushing to shut down Vermont Yankee for many years, but their concerns took on a new urgency with the disaster at Japan’s Fukishima Daiichi plant in 2011. The Fukishima reactors were similar in design to Vermont Yankee’s, and the Connecticut River, which would absorb most of the radiation if a major leak occurred, flows through densely populated areas in western Massachusetts and Connecticut before emptying into Long Island Sound near New York City.

Supporters for keeping the plant open say the state and regional power grids need the electricity it produces to hold down energy costs. Others say that the overall safety record at the plant is good, and that nuclear power must be part of the alternative energy mix if the US is going to reduce its dependence on oil and coal burning plants. Critics argue that continuing to operate a leaky, 40-year-old nuclear reactor is not a smart way to fight global warming.

Vermont can appeal the court’s decision or it can attempt to have its public service board, which regulates energy prices, impose restrictions on the plant that would make it too expensive to operate. But either approach is likely to trigger a legal battle with Entergy, a national corporation with very deep pockets that operates nuclear plants throughout the country.

The state has already spent millions trying to shut the plant down without success, and after the court ruled in Entergy’s favor, the company has now demanded that the state reimburse its $4.6 million in legal costs. Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin, who just completed his first year in office, sided with environmental activists during his campaign, and has vowed to continue his efforts to close the plant despite the setback.

But Shumlin’s political opponents and Vermont business leaders say the state’s fragile economy cannot afford the jolt in energy prices that would occur if Vermont Yankee were to stop operating. With Vermont facing a $176 million deficit and still repairing the damage from Hurricane Irene last August, the state should cut its losses and give up the fight, they say.

So far, Shumlin and Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell have remained silent on their next move. Backing down might make financial sense, but it would also strike a significant blow against states trying to regulate nuclear power plants within their borders. With the Obama administration promoting nuclear power as a key component of its strategy to rebuild America’s energy infrastructure, their decision could have far reaching consequences.

Image Courtesy of  Nuclear Regulatory Commission (United States Nuclear Regulatory Comission) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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