This sounds just too reassuring.
Wed 9 Jun 2004
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5:52pm (UK)
'Low-Level' Leak at Nuclear Power Station
By Tom Wilkinson, PA News
Around 850 staff at a nuclear power plant were assembled at muster points following a low-level radioactive leak, a British Energy spokesman said today.
Around three times the normal number of workers were at Hartlepool Power Station, close to the River Tees, as routine maintenance work was being carried out on one of the two reactors.
Around 12.15pm a leak of tritiated water – a by-product of the electricity generation process – was spotted coming from a pipe.
A British Energy spokesman stressed the water had not come from either reactor.
He said there was no danger to the public and no-one had been harmed.
A clean-up operation at the plant has begun.
“It was a minor incident that we took seriously,” he said.
“Our staff are trained to deal with situations like this.”
A Cleveland Police spokeswoman said: “An incident has occurred at the Hartlepool Power Station involving a leak of contaminated water.
“This leak has been confined to a building on the site and there are no off-site implications.
“There have been no casualties and the leak has been sealed and the affected area is currently being cleaned up.”
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3041724Good Read. I am shocked that a US newspaper would bash the clintoons.
Wednesday, June 09, 2004 - 11:59:41 AM EST
War in shadows
Victory in the 40-year Cold War came as we entered the last decade of the 20th century. Its end was confirmed with the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact nations of eastern Europe.
We will hear much this week about the late Ronald Reagan's key role in the final victory in the decades-long, tense struggle. Margaret Thatcher, Reagan's contemporary in the post of Britain's prime ministry, credited Reagan most highly with pressuring reform-minded Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev into the revolutionary changes that occurred.
In the wake of victory came the necessity to reformulate years upon years of government strategy, from military planning to intelligence gathering. The old enemy was gone; and the thought of a growing threat from terrorists was far from catching hold.
The CIA, caught between old-school methods and the new world order, found itself the target of substantial cutbacks during the Clinton administration. Conservative ideologues have taken to bashing the Democratic administration for the deep cuts and substantial alterations of methods in intelligence gathering for leading to the failures that allowed the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to occur.
This is partisanship, as is trying to blame the Bush administration because it sat in power at the time of the attacks. It does not shed light on the problem or suggest solutions -- it merely attempts to affix blame.
America's intelligence-gathering forces were not what they should have been at the time of the 9/11 attacks. They were still redefining themselves in the post-Soviet world. The terrorist attacks focused all of America on how this very dangerous business must be operated in the future.
In a world of increasing technology -- high-definition spy satellites, listening devices, computer hackers and corporate espionage, intelligence watchers did not take into account the underlying need for information from friendly, human watchers in dangerous places. Technology was the way the game was supposed to be played. Then the terrorists, in their small cells and with nothing more advanced than boxcutters and a will to die, showed us what a terrible price could be paid for not having the information gatherers and analysts in place when they really needed to be.
This concept came to a head at the end of last week, when CIA Director George Tenet announced his resignation for "personal reasons."
Tenet, a Clinton apointee and one of Bush's closest advisers, has been held in high regard by members of both parties for his personal character and his professionalism.
But he couldn't be right in a position that, despite a vast potential for error, has no tolerance for such error. Tenet has told lawmakers that it will take at least five years for America's intelligence agencies to spin up to full speed, depending on funding and other considerations.
That is a long, long time when threats are coming on a daily basis -- even though no attacks have occurred in this country since that one terrible day.
Effective intelligence is a necessity for a government to protect its people. It requires a combination of the best technology can offer with the lowest-common-denominator concept of having eyes and ears in the right places at the right times.
Safety and security are not political issues, regardless of how partisan the debate gets. We are living in a new world. Many facets of our government, many leaders in both parties, did not recognize how the world was changing and who the new enemies would be once the Red Bear died.
We now know our enemy. We know what must be done to combat him. And we must succeed in the shadow war, or we will see the effects of defeat in our own nation.
http://www.ldnews.com/Stories/0,1413,139~10141~2202420,00.html