[ RadSafe ] Indonesia Nuclear Plant to Cost $1.5 Billion - Antara

[Sandy Perle]

Index:

Indonesia Nuclear Plant to Cost $1.5 Billion - Antara
Is a new day dawning for TVA nuclear power?
Nuclear Power Plant Protest - Fresno, CA
NRC downgrades safety rating of Palo Verde nuclear plant
Ulster County lawmakers want closer scrutiny of nuke plant 
Sweden restarts nuclear reactors
Ex-nuclear worker denied benefits
Nuclear site chief announces retirement
Security scanner sees through clothes at US airport 
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Indonesia Nuclear Plant to Cost $1.5 Billion - Antara 

JAKARTA - Indonesia's first nuclear power plant, which it hopes to 
build by 2016, is likely to cost $1.5 billion, Antara news agency 
reported on Thursday. Asia-Pacific's only OPEC member has been trying 
to promote the use of alternative energy in an effort to reduce its 
reliance on oil and cut energy costs, and plans to build the nuclear 
power plant on Muria Peninsula in Central Java. 
The plant will have a capacity to produce 1,000 megawatts of 
electricity to help meet rising demand from the country's 220 million 
population. 

Antara quoted Adiwardojo, deputy chairman of the National Atomic 
Energy Agency (BATAN), as saying Indonesia will team up with Japan to 
develop the nuclear plant. The two countries have signed a memorandum 
of understanding on nuclear energy cooperation. 

"In line with a presidential decree on the national energy policy, 
the Indonesian government is intending to continue exploring 
alternative energy and other forms of energy, to ensure adequate 
energy supplies," Adiwardojo said. 

State electricity company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara plans to build 
power plants to generate 10,000 megawatts by 2010 to meet rising 
demand and avoid power shortages. 

The chief of the UN nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, said in 
December Indonesia should not face any problem in its plan to develop 
civilian nuclear energy because it had met its obligations under the 
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. 

Asia-Pacific's only OPEC member has been trying to promote the use of 
alternative energy in an effort to reduce its reliance on oil and cut 
energy costs, and plans to build the nuclear power plant on Muria 
Peninsula in Central Java. 
The plant will have a capacity to produce 1,000 megawatts of 
electricity to help meet rising demand from the country's 220 million 
population. 

Antara quoted Adiwardojo, deputy chairman of the National Atomic 
Energy Agency (BATAN), as saying Indonesia will team up with Japan to 
develop the nuclear plant. The two countries have signed a memorandum 
of understanding on nuclear energy cooperation. 

"In line with a presidential decree on the national energy policy, 
the Indonesian government is intending to continue exploring 
alternative energy and other forms of energy, to ensure adequate 
energy supplies," Adiwardojo said. 

State electricity company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara plans to build 
power plants to generate 10,000 megawatts by 2010 to meet rising 
demand and avoid power shortages. 

The chief of the UN nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, said in 
December Indonesia should not face any problem in its plan to develop 
civilian nuclear energy because it had met its obligations under the 
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
---------------

Is a new day dawning for TVA nuclear power? 

Feasibility of finishing Watts Bar reactor for use as power source to 
be studied 

In a first step toward bringing new nuclear power generation to 
Tennessee, workers are poring over Watts Bar Nuclear Plant to assess 
the feasibility of finishing the Unit 2 reactor. 
The detailed scoping, estimating and planning study will give TVA an 
idea of the costs and risks involved in completing the mothballed and 
partially cannibalized reactor at the plant near Spring City, Tenn. 

TVA hopes the study, conducted by contractors Bechtel Power Corp., 
Sargent & Lundy LLC and Washington Group, will be completed in time 
to present at the August TVA board meeting. 

"The decision has not been made on whether we will complete that 
project," said Jack Bailey, TVA's vice president of nuclear 
generation development. "This effort will provide the board with the 
information they need to make that decision." 

The decision on Watts Bar 2 may be up in the air, but as nuclear 
power comes into vogue thanks to an enthusiastic Bush administration 
and concerns about carbon emissions at coal plants, the pendulum 
seems to be swinging back in favor of splitting atoms for energy at 
the nation's largest public utility. 

"Some of the nuclear options look like they could be less risky" than 
new coal plants or other generation options, Bailey said. 

Based on current forecasts of demand growth, TVA anticipates needing 
new power generation capacity between 2012 and 2014. If approved, a 
refurbished 1,160-megawatt Unit 2 reactor at Watts Bar could come 
online as soon as 2012, although the current study will shed light on 
how long a restoration would take. 

TVA's board last year approved $20 million for the study. Susan 
Richardson Williams, a TVA director from Knoxville, said it's too 
early to gauge where the nine-member board, which has been together 
for less than a year, stands on nuclear power. 

"If we're good stewards, we're going to have to look at every 
option," Williams said. 

In May, TVA expects to complete its $1.8 billion restart of the 1,280-
megawatt Unit 1 reactor at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant near Athens, 
Ala. 

TVA also has said it will apply with a consortium of utilities called 
NuStart Energy Development LLC for a license to build and operate a 
new plant at the long-dormant Bellefonte Nuclear Plant site in 
Hollywood, Ala. 

TVA officials say the moves are being made with an eye toward having 
choices available to meet future power needs. 

By applying for the license at Bellefonte, TVA is getting a jump on 
the estimated three-year process for approval. The utility says a 
potential new plant could be operational by 2017 at the earliest. 

"We're trying to keep our options open and have the ability to build 
nuclear along with other options," Bailey said. "It takes a long time 
to develop nuclear or coal power projects." 

But critics question the wisdom of a nuclear renewal by TVA, whose 
ambitious nuclear program in the 1970s left it saddled with billions 
of dollars in debt and several mothballed nuclear projects. 

"It appears to me that they have a case of amnesia and they're 
heading down that road again," said Stephen Smith, executive director 
of the watchdog Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. 

Bailey said TVA's past experiences will influence its future moves, 
ensuring a more measured and conservative approach to new nuclear 
generation. 

"Nobody is more sensitive to its past than TVA itself," Bailey said. 
"In the long term, we intend to keep a balanced portfolio." 

TVA had originally planned to build 17 reactors, but slashed that 
plan nearly in half when electricity demand failed to meet TVA's 
predictions. TVA shut down its entire nuclear program from 1985 to 
1988 because of safety concerns. 

Today, TVA has five operating reactors - two at Browns Ferry, two at 
Sequoyah Nuclear Plant in Soddy-Daisy, Tenn., and one at Watts Bar. 

Watts Bar was one of TVA's most controversial projects, prompting 
public protests and complaints from whistleblowers about safety 
problems at the plant. 

It took 23 years and $6.9 billion to complete one of two planned 
reactors. In 2001, TVA wrote off $1.7 billion of Watts Bar 2 
construction costs. 

"Watts Bar Unit 2, we anticipate, will have a number of significant 
barriers because there was such a troubled construction history 
associated with Watts Bar Unit 1," Smith said. 

Bailey said that some of the equipment installed at Watts Bar 2 has 
since been cannibalized for use at Watts Bar 1 and Sequoyah. 

The current study, which began in January, will identify what 
equipment is missing, assess where the project was left off and 
determine how changes to Unit 1 would affect the completion of Unit 
2, Bailey said. 

About 100 contractors and 60 TVA employees are working on the study. 

TVA has an existing construction permit from the U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission but would need to apply for an operating 
license for Unit 2. 

NRC spokesman Roger Hannah said he was unsure how long such an 
application process would take. 

"This is a process that essentially nobody has gone through in quite 
some time," he said. 

TVA is currently working on a supplemental environmental impact 
statement for completing Watts Bar 2, which it expects will go out 
for public comment in April. If it applies for an operating license, 
TVA would also be subject to a public hearing as part of the NRC 
licensing process. 

That's not enough public scrutiny for Smith, who says TVA should be 
subject to the rigors of an integrated resource planning process, 
which utilities use to assess both supply- and demand-side options 
for future energy needs. 

Smith served on the review board for the last TVA integrated resource 
plan, called Energy Vision 2020, which was released in 1995. A new 
study is needed before committing to new nuclear projects, Smith 
said. 

"In no way should the board or Congress allow TVA to make multi-
billion-dollar decisions without an open, public process," he said. 

TVA spokesman John Moulton said the environmental review would allow 
"ample time for public comments" and that the board will review all 
options before making a decision on whether to add new nuclear 
generation. 
---------------

Nuclear Power Plant Protest - Fresno, CA

A proposal to bring nuclear power to Fresno got a hostile reception 
Thursday night. The Fresno Nuclear Energy Group is hoping to build 
support for a power plant, by showing how environmentally safe, they 
say, it would be.

The purpose of the session at the Warnors Theatre was to open the 
discussion about building a nuclear power plant in Fresno. Improbable 
as it sounds, the meeting brought supporters of the idea...and plenty 
of vocal opponents. 
Police and security hustled a few protestors out of the 90 minute 
presentation by nuclear power advocate Patrick Moore. Hecklers 
continually scoffed at Moore's claims about the safety of nuclear 
power. Moore, who bills himself as a co-founder of the environmental 
group Greenpeace believes Fresno could use a nuclear power plant. 

Patrick Moore says, "The proposal being put forth by the Fresno 
Nuclear Energy Group is an extremely viable proposal. This is a great 
place to put a nuclear power plant in California because it's central 
in the power grid." 

While Moore touts the safety of new nuclear reactors, anti nuclear 
protestors say he's misleading the public. 

Michael Becker, opponent says, "The idea of putting in a technology 
that could rain radiation down on people's heads is just 
unacceptable." 

The Fresno Nuclear Energy Group thinks the 3 to 4 billion dollar 
plant could be located at the citys wastewater treatment plant. City 
council member Jerry Duncan thinks its viable. 

Jerry Duncan says, "We need power in the Central Valley as we grow, 
and try to develop our economy." 

The Fresno Nucelar Energy Group is trying to attract investors, and 
sell the concept to the people 

John Hudson says, "We think the public is going to benefit by having 
a nuclear power plant here, we think we're going to reduce energy 
prices for the public." 

But it faces long odds. 

A nuclear power plant hasn't been built in this country since 1973, 
because of economic, and environmental concerns. And the protestors 
claim the featured speaker here, Patrick Moore is simply masquerading 
as an environmentalist. 

Michael Becker says, "Patrick Aoore is not an environmentalist. He 
hasnt worked for Greenpeace in 20 years, as a matter of fact over the 
last 20 years hes been paid by some of the most polluting industries 
in the United States to make it appear if they're green, safe and 
environmental." 

Other obstacles include a California law prohibiting the construction 
of nuclear power plants until the federal government figures out how 
to deal with nuclear waste.
--------------

NRC downgrades safety rating of Palo Verde nuclear plant
 
PHOENIX (AP) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday 
downgraded the safety rating of the nation's largest nuclear plant, 
subjecting it to more inspectors and a level of scrutiny shared by 
just one other plant in the nation.

The NRC made the announcement following three years of problems in 
various safety systems at the Palo Verde nuclear plant west of 
Phoenix.

Inspectors in September found that one of its emergency diesel 
generators had been broken for 18 days. Emergency generators are 
critically important at nuclear reactors, providing electricity to 
pumps, valves and control rooms if the main electrical supply fails.

Only FirstEnergy Corp.'s Perry nuclear plant in Ohio has a safety 
rating as bad as Palo Verde's, NRC spokesman Victor Dricks said.

 
APS, a subsidiary of Phoenix-based Pinnacle West Capital Corp., said 
it will not appeal the ruling.

``It is important to know that despite the operational difficulties 
over the last few years, at no time was the safety of the public or 
our employees at risk,'' APS chief executive Jack Davis said on the 
company Web site.

Palo Verde can provide enough electricity for nearly 4 million homes 
and is owned by a consortium of utilities in Arizona, Texas, 
California and New Mexico.
--------------

Ulster County lawmakers want closer scrutiny of nuke plant 
 
ULSTER County lawmakers have added their voices to those concerned 
about the Indian Point nuclear power plant.

Legislators voted 20-3 on Thursday to ask the Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission to conduct an independent safety assessment of the 
Westchester County plant, which plans to apply for a 20-year renewal 
of its licenses at the end of March.

The power plant and NRC have said such an assessment is unnecessary 
because of current routine checks and the two-year intensive 
assessment required for relicensing.

U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Hurley, is among those supporting bills 
that would require the independent assessment.

Also Thursday, county lawmakers voted 17-6 in favor of broadening the 
relicensing criteria to include factors outside of the plant, like 
location, the size of the surrounding population and terror threats. 

Legislator Michael Berardi, D-Ulster, questioned whether the move was 
a veiled attempt to close the plant down. But Legislator Susan Zimet, 
D-New Paltz, the original sponsor of the resolution, said Westchester 
County's changing demographics must be considered before the plant is 
relicensed.

"Maybe Indian Point doesn't belong there anymore, but this isn't 
trying to shut down nuclear power plants all over the country," Zimet 
said.

Legislators Glenn Noonan, R-Gardiner, Richard Gerentine, R-Marlboro, 
and Peter Liepmann, D-New Paltz, voted against requiring an 
independent assessment. Those three also voted against changing the 
criteria for relicensing, along with Berardi, Susan Cummings, R-
Ellenville, and Legislature Chairman David Donaldson, D-Kingston.
---------------

Sweden restarts nuclear reactors
 
STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Two of three Swedish nuclear reactors shut down 
this month following minor incidents were restarted this week, the 
Nuclear Power Inspectorate (SKI) said on Friday. 
 
"Ringhals 2 and Forsmark 2 were restarted this week," SKI spokesman 
Anders Joerle told AFP.

The Ringhals 2 reactor, on the west coast south of Gothenburg, was 
stopped on February 16 due to a "small leak" in its primary cooling 
system.

The Forsmark 1 and 2 reactors, north of Stockholm on the east coast, 
were halted on February 3 after a fault was found in rubber panels in 
the Forsmark 1 reactor's housing.

On Friday, Forsmark 1 was the only one of Sweden's 10 reactors that 
was out of service.

Sweden said earlier this month that it would ask the        
International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect the Forsmark plant, 
after a slew of incidents there.

Nuclear power accounts for nearly half of Sweden's electricity 
production.

The country has shut two of its 12 nuclear reactors since 1999 as 
part of a plan to phase out nuclear power over the next 30 or so 
years, or when the reactors' lifespan expires
--------------

Ex-nuclear worker denied benefits

Enrico Lisi, who worked for Bridgeport Brass Company's Haven lab for 
over 40 years, now has both...«1234»Enrico Lisi always followed 
directions. He didn't ask his Bridgeport Brass bosses about the hush-
hush government projects that trundled through the mammoth plant. 
They displaced some of the regular commercial factory work. But he 
didn't mind.
"The boss say, 'Hey, we got a government job. You want to work?' So, 
I no ask no questions cause I wanna work. Why I ask anything?" Lisi 
says, his callused hands cutting through air for emphasis. "It make 
no sense me bother them. I make 72 cents an hour." It's the early 
1950s. The Cold War. For an Italian immigrant, a former World War II 
prisoner-of-war with scant command of English, 72 cents an hour 
represented what he craved most: security. He had friends who worked 
construction, who earned better livings. But those friends also found 
themselves out of work for long stretches in the winter or whenever 
the weather got bad. He didn't want to take that risk. Back then, 
cancer was far from his mind.

"This mean extra hours; mean more money. I got a family. This is good 
for me, you know. I never ask them what it is," Lisi says. "And they 
no tell me nothing either. So, I don't worry."

These days, Lisi, 86, of Orange, is case number 3888-2006 to the U.S. 
Department of Labor's Final Adjudication Branch.

That means that the retired factory worker who helped build America's 
nuclear stockpile and now has bladder cancer that may be connected to 
his exposure to uranium at Bridgeport Brass has reached the end of 
the line. Absent congressional intervention, the Final Adjudication 
Branch is the last stop on the administrative law ladder for nuclear 
workers to make a pitch for lost wages and benefits under the Energy 
Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program. Successful 
claimants, who can include covered employees' next-of-kin, can 
recover $150,000, plus certain medical expenses for their nuclear-
related health problems.

Lisi's daughter, Linda Cella, is asking U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, 
to intervene on behalf of her father. A spokeswoman for DeLauro says 
it is not the congresswoman's policy to comment on specific 
constituent matters.

Terrie Barrie, an advocate with the Colorado-based Alliance of 
Nuclear Workers Advocacy Groups, says Lisi's situation points out 
that the federal agencies are "doing a shoddy job of carrying out 
Congress' legislative intent."

"From our point of view, it seems arbitrary how the few people they 
compensate get approved," Barrie says. "It's so complicated. The 
delays are incredible. And the whole concept of dosage reconstruction 
that they use to estimate a worker's potential exposure is seriously 
flawed."

"If they don't have data from a plant, how can they possibly apply 
conditions at a different plant to you if you were never there?" 
Barrie says. "If they don't have the data from your plant, they don't 
have the data. Period. But the Department of Labor and NIOSH [the 
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health] won't allow 
you to question their methodology." Presidents do not issue executive 
orders with lengthy statements with every bill that gets signed into 
law. When they do, however, it is to send a message. A month after 
the 2000 election, before leaving office, President Clinton penned 
Executive Order 13179.

For years, the U.S. Department of Energy had undermined workers' 
claims by "encouraging and assisting DOE contractors in opposing 
claims of workers who sought those benefits," Clinton stated. "While 
the nation can never fully repay these workers or their families, 
they deserve recognition and compensation for their sacrifices."

"The federal government should & provide workers and their survivors 
with all pertinent and available information necessary for evaluation 
and processing claims," Clinton's executive order states, "and it 
should ensure that this program minimizes the administrative burden 
on workers and survivors, and respects their dignity." From October 
1946 to November 1980, Lisi worked for Bridgeport Brass at its Havens 
Lab, a hulking, four-story, million-square-foot plant on 35 acres in 
Bridgeport overlooking the Pequonnock River.

Bridgeport Brass already had a long history in Connecticut when Lisi 
joined his father at the plant. The business started in 1865, 
building brass clock movements, kerosene light fixtures and metal 
hoop rings for women's skirts. In his 34-year career in this country, 
from his arrival to his retirement, Lisi had only one employer: 
Bridgeport Brass.

Lisi ran cranes and operated electronic equipment that tumbled 
uranium. He cut the radioactive material, as well as other metals, 
hollowed it into tubing and dipped it in acid baths to remove debris.

"Safety stuff, protection?" Lisi asks, rhetorically. "They give us 
gloves. Cotton ones. Always wet. Same thing with the aprons we got."

Lisi recalls he rotated through a variety of assignments. The long 
metal rods he worked with would get heated over and over until they 
were smooth. Then cranes lifted the metal out of the hot, soapy acid 
baths. They dripped an oily muck that settled on the factory floor 
and stuck to his steel-tipped work boots.

"My brother worked there for 43 years in the roller mill. He died of 
colon cancer a few years ago," says Paul Vincent Macionus of 
Bridgeport, a co-worker of Lisi's who drove trucks for the company.

"My brother watched what they did with the rods he worked on. They 
put them in special long boxes and they took them out to the freight 
yard. At night they got loaded on these flatbed trains and chained 
down tight."

There was a lot of security, Macionus says. "Nobody told my brother 
was this stuff was. All he knew was that it was for the government. 
And that it was dangerous."

Under the federal nuclear worker compensation law, to be eligible for 
benefits claimants must prove that they worked at a facility where 
nuclear-related work was conducted.

Bridgeport Brass is one of hundreds of such facilities that processed 
uranium. In addition, the worker must have contracted one of about 
two dozen types of cancer to get benefits, or as a special cohort. If 
an individual qualifies as a "special cohort," the government will 
assume he or she got the cancer at the plant, rather than force them 
to prove it is more likely than not that's where they got it.The 
federal government acknowledges that Lisi worked at Bridgeport Brass 
for 34 years, including the period between 1952 and 1962 when it 
concedes Bridgeport Brass processed uranium. But there are few 
documents relating to any radiation monitoring at Bridgeport Brass - 
and huge gaps between the records that the Department of Labor claim 
exist.

To estimate whether Lisi's bladder cancer and his recently diagnosed 
skin cancer are a result of his workplace exposure, the National 
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's Office of Compensation 
Analysis interviewed Lisi. Then the National Institute for 
Occupational Safety and Health applied research findings from another 
uranium-processing plant in Michigan, which the federal agency says 
ran a similar program.

Based on the conditions at the Michigan plant, the federal safety 
agency believes that there's a 24.7 percent likelihood that Lisi's 
cancers stem from his work at Bridgeport Brass. To qualify for the 
federal compensation program a claimant has to prove there is greater 
than a 50 percent chance the cancer is workplace-related.

"I've gone through these documents over and over," Cella, Lisi's 
daughter, says. "I've looked at all of their numbers, and the one 
term that keeps popping up is the word 'assume.' It's all over the 
place. "We assume this. We assume that. Assumptions. Assumptions. And 
the more you dig into it the less sense it makes how they came up 
with the percentage risk they assign to my father."
----------------

Nuclear site chief announces retirement
 
The man who oversees cleanup at half the Hanford nuclear reservation 
announced his retirement to The Associated Press on Friday, creating 
a second vacancy among the top two jobs charged with steering cleanup 
of the nation's most contaminated nuclear site.

Keith Klein, who has managed the Department of Energy's Richland 
Operations office since 1999, said he has accomplished many of his 
goals at the site in eastern Washington state and is ready to move on 
to new challenges after a 34-year career with the department. He 
expects to leave by the end of May.

Already last fall, the Energy Department announced it was 
transferring the manager of its Office of River Protection, Roy 
Schepens, to Washington D.C. amid escalating costs and construction 
delays of a new waste treatment plant. In a news release Friday, the 
Energy Department announced that Schepens was instead retiring, 
effective Feb. 28.

Together, Klein and Schepens have managed 10,000 employees 
responsible for cleaning up waste and contamination left from decades 
of plutonium production at the 586-square-mile site. Their 
retirements open up two of the more high-profile positions in the 
Energy Department's program to clean up former weapons complexes.

"This is an awesome responsibility. It's an awesome trust," Klein 
said in a telephone interview from Richland, Wash. "I've learned a 
lot, and I've benefited a lot, but it's healthy for the site and it's 
healthy for me to have some change."

The federal government established Hanford in the 1940s as part of 
the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. The site 
produced the plutonium for the Fat Man bomb that was dropped on 
Nagasaki, Japan, and continued to produce plutonium for the nation's 
nuclear weapons arsenal through the Cold War.

Cleanup is expected to top $50 billion.

Two of three cleanup tasks identified as urgent risks to public 
safety and the environment fell under Klein's purview. Both were 
completed during his tenure.

In 2004, workers completed the removal of 2,100 tons of spent nuclear 
fuel from leak-prone basins just yards from the Columbia River. A 
lack of progress on that project had been the subject of 
congressional hearings before Klein's arrival at Hanford.

Workers also stabilized and packaged 12 tons of plutonium in 
preparation for long-term storage off the Hanford site.

Klein also cited as a proud accomplishment the start of a project to 
begin cleaning up the Columbia River corridor, where workers have 
been tearing down buildings, remediating groundwater and digging up 
burial grounds of everything from animal carcasses and unexploded 
munitions to rail cars and boxes of "unknown-isms."

The third urgent cleanup task, managed by Schepens, involves 
construction of a waste treatment plant to treat 53 million gallons 
of waste stored in 177 underground tanks, some have which have leaked 
into the groundwater.

Escalating costs, delays and construction problems for the one-of-a-
kind plant have overshadowed the department's successes in recent 
months. A recent review pushed the operating date to November 2019, 
far beyond the original 1999 deadline.

However, during Schepens' five-year tenure, Hanford workers emptied 
the first four tanks of waste. They also finally broke ground on the 
long-stalled plant and ramped up design and construction.

Tribes have long complained that the federal government has failed to 
fully catalog all of the contamination at the site, a step they argue 
must be completed for long-term cleanup to be successful. 
Environmental groups have long complained about the slow pace of 
work, and various groups have raised concerns about worker safety 
over the years.

The general public seems to have the perception that no work ever 
gets done at Hanford, Klein said, but that ongoing criticism is 
unfair given workers' successes.

"It can be dangerous work. We want to do things right. There's a risk 
of doing nothing, and there's a risk of doing something wrong," he 
said. "It can paralyze, but I think we're achieving the right 
balance."

The Energy Department already is evaluating candidates for Schepens' 
position and plans to announce a new manager in the coming months, 
the news release said. The department plans to initiate a nationwide 
search for Klein's successor.
---------------

Security scanner sees through clothes at US airport 

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - A scanner capable of seeing through clothing 
went into use at a US airport on Friday in the first test of whether 
the revealing technology should become a routine part of passenger 
screening. 
 
The Transportation Security Administration installed a "backscatter 
imaging" X-ray machine the size of a huge armoire at a security 
checkpoint at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Arizona.

The first volunteer for scanning was a Vietnam War veteran traveling 
with his wife for a 40th wedding anniversary trip.

"He didn't have any problem with it whatsoever," said Department of   
 Homeland Security spokesman Nico Melendez.  

During the imaging process, light gray silhouettes produced by scans 
appear on computer screens in a secure room a short distance away, 
according to Melendez. Male TSA agents check scans of male passengers 
and female agents review images of women.

"We are absolutely not able to see you naked," Melendez said. "It is 
more of a chalk outline. ... The amount of radiation with this 
technology is designed to look through the clothing and bounce off 
the skin."

Those being scanned had the option of using a rectangular piece of 
lead to block imaging of their crotch.

"It is designed to look for anything someone might be hiding on their 
person," Melendez said. "It is completely voluntary, and we are able 
to see what we need to see."

If TSA agents notice anything hidden in clothing, they signal 
counterparts to "pat down" the passenger.

The dose of radiation from the low-level X-ray was said to equal the 
amount airplane passengers are exposed to during two minutes of 
flight at cruising altitude.

The system is not designed to store or transmit images, which are 
deleted after being viewed, Melendez said.

The three-month test of the scanners is the first at a US airport, 
and if it shows promise, it will be replicated at airports in major 
cities such as New York and Los Angeles, according to the TSA.

Privacy advocates have complained that peering under passengers' 
clothing is invasive, but no formal opposition to the pilot program 
has been lodged.

----------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle 
Senior Vice President, Technical Operations 
Global Dosimetry Solutions, Inc. 
2652 McGaw Avenue
Irvine, CA 92614

Tel: (949) 296-2306 / (888) 437-1714 Extension 2306 
Fax:(949) 296-1144

Global Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com/ 
Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com/