***************************************************************** 03/26/04 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 12.74 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 US: MIA WMDs--For Bush, It's a Joke 2 Toronto Star: Many believed WMD threat 3 Reuters: ANALYSIS-S.Korea to stick with nuclear as top power fuel 4 US: [du-list] Say NO to the U.S. Nuclear Bomb Factory 5 FISK: On pending release of Vanunu 6 Hi Pakistan: IAEA seeks permission for inspecting Pak N-sites -- 7 Hi Pakistan: Pakistan always faced US pressure on nuclear programme 8 AFP: Russia warns NATO with nuclear option NUCLEAR REACTORS 9 US: Brattleboro Reformer: Entergy wants info from safety hotline 10 US: PC News Herald: Davis-Besse restarted following valve repairs - 11 US: News Messenger: Davis-Besse restarts 12 US: WSJ News: Three Mile Island: A rally remembers 13 US: KRT Wire: Memories linger after Three Mile Island accident 14 US: KRT Wire: Pennsylvania Workers Reflect on Changes since Three Mi 15 US: NRC: Appointments to Performance Review Boards for Senior Execut 16 US: NRC: System Energy Resources, Inc.; Establishment of Atomic Safe 17 US: NRC: Dominion Nuclear North Anna, LLC; Establishment of Atomic S 18 US: NRC: Exelon Generation Company, LLC; Establishment of Atomic Saf 19 Interfax: Ukraine can complete reactors without EBRD assistance, say 20 US: The Advocate: Nuclear plan given favorable review 21 US: Capital News 9: Three Mile Island anniversary 22 US: YDR: Former Bears’ den housed TMI evacuees - 23 US: YDR: Part of the scenery - (TMI) 24 AFP: New Russian nuclear reactor a danger to 4.5 mln people - ecolog 25 US: YDR: TMI incident spurs changes - 26 US: YDR: Recalling TMI - 27 US: YDR: Echoes of disaster - 28 US: YDR: Trinkets show humor in time of crisis - TMI 29 US: MSNBC - Nuclear power, 25 years after Three Mile Island 30 US: YDR: Readers remember - TMI 31 US: YDR: Putting TMI in perspective - 32 US: YDR: A refuge in Connecticut - 33 US: YDR: News reaches the White House - TMI 34 US: YDR: His family opted to stay - TMI 35 US: YDR: After family left area, he worked on crisis plans - TMI 36 US: YDR: TV coverage kept ties to home alive - TMI 37 US: YDR: His letter backed nuclear power - TMI 38 US: Wiscasset Newspaper: Panel To Get Update On Maine Yankee Thursda 39 US: Oak Ridger: Paper's coverage far-reaching (TMI) 40 US: Oak Ridger: Behind the lens (TMI) 41 US: Oak Ridger: Communicating the situation (TMI) 42 US: Oak Ridger: 25 years later - Three Mile Island NUCLEAR SAFETY 43 [DU-WATCH] Gulf troops babies are 50pc more vulnerable 44 BBC: Attack clean-up service planned 45 AxisofLogic: Silent Genocide: Depleted Uranium: The US and its Nucle NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 46 US: The Age: Uranium leak 'more serious' - 47 Las Vegas RJ: YUCCA MOUNTAIN PROJECT: DOE seeks funding increase 48 Bellona: Spent Nuclear Waste from Hungary: Legal Issues 49 BBC: Bid to allay Sellafield 50 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada reps fight Yucca funds 51 RGJ: Bill would lessen Congress oversight on Yucca 52 US: heraldtribune.com: Phosphate cleanup could tap land fund 53 US: Carlsbad Current-Argus: WIPP detects particles 54 Japan Times: Kepco inks accord with COGEMA on MOX supply 55 US: AU ABC: Second leak examined at Ranger mine. 56 US: AU ABC: Mine operator reveals third contamination case. 57 US: AU ABC: Mine contamination sparks Indigenous concerns. 58 Belfast Telegraph: EU urged to press UK on Sellafield clean-up 59 Pahrump Valley Times: BY RAIL OR ROAD? THE TRANSPORTATION ISSUE 60 Pahrump Valley Times: YUCCA MOUNTAIN Boom or bust? 61 Pahrump Valley Times: ENVIRONMENTAL CRITICISM - Yucca 62 Pahrump Valley Times: DOE FUNDING PULLED NYE'S BACON FROM FIRE MORE 63 Pahrump Valley Times: NYE GETS INTO SISTER ACT WITH CARLSBAD N.M. NUCLEAR WEAPONS US DEPT. OF ENERGY 64 Tri-City Herald: States want ruling on DOE wastes upheld 65 Brattleboro Reformer: Coalition challenges VY uprate plan 66 Las Vegas SUN: Book Alleges Rocky Flats Misconduct 67 NMBW: NASA contracts could land at N.M. labs - 68 BJP: Engineer halts work at Hanford after incident - 69 NRC: Notice of Issuance of Materials License SNM-2511; Diablo Canyon 70 Corvallis Gazette-Times: CH2M Hill halts work at Hanford tank farms 71 DOE: Notice of Renewal of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board 72 Oak Ridger: Nuclear research at ORNL 73 DOE: Tribal Leaders Summit: Solicitation of Comments 74 Oak Ridger: Our View: Spallation Neutron Source on target; attend op 75 DOE: Application To Export Electric Energy; Brascan Energy Marketing 76 DOE: Innovative Energy Systems Pilot Project--Chemicals OTHER NUCLEAR 77 Google News Alert - nuclear 78 CSIRO: Ancient sands key to cleaning up industrial pollution ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 MIA WMDs--For Bush, It's a Joke Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 11:10:27 -0600 (CST) Hello friends, Seems like the "genius" of Karl Rove and Company is a tad overstated. Lately, these buffoons seem to have a tin ear politically. Check out the piece below. Perhaps the most surprising thing is that there were not more present who were aghast. Or maybe that shouldn't be surprising at all. Peace, Mark Haim Mid-Missouri Peaceworks 804-C E. Broadway Columbia, MO 65201 573-875-0539 E-mail: peacewks@coin.org Web site: http://peaceworks.missouri.org "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism" --Thomas Jefferson MIA WMDs--For Bush, It's a Joke by David Corn 03/25/2004 @ 11:57am http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=1336 Only in Washington. Last night I was at the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association Dinner. It's a formal-and-fun affair where thousands of media folks assemble at the Hilton for a fancy dinner and fab pre- and post-parties. I'm not going to denigrate such soirees. I enjoy them. While bookers and producers jiggled and jostled on the dance floor and media and political celebs dissected the news du jour (this time it was Richard Clarke's dramatic appearance before the 9/11 commission), I was able to chat with former weapons hunter David Kay and learn about some troubling developments in the intelligence community (more on that down the road). And there was free sushi. But an awful you're-all-alone moment came during George W. Bush's comments that followed the sit-down dinner. The current president is often the honored guest at this annual affair, and the audience toasts him in what is supposed to be a sign of communal and nonpartisan spirit. And, the tradition is, that the president has to be funny; he has to provide us with an amusing speech that pokes fun at himself and his political foes. After all, political journalists love to see politicians engage in self-deprecating humor. Bill Clinton was quite good at these performances. Bush seems to enjoy them less. Rather than do straight standup, he sometimes relies on a humorous slide show, and that was how he chose to entertain the media throng this time. It's standard fare humor. Bush says he is preparing for a tough election fight; then on the large video screens a picture flashes showing him wearing a boxing robe while sitting at his desk. Bush notes he spends "a lot of time on the phone listening to our European allies." Then we see a photo of him on the phone with a finger in his ear. There were funny bits about Skull and Bones, his mother, and Dick Cheney. But at one point, Bush showed a photo of himself looking for something out a window in the Oval Office, and he said, "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere." The audience laughed. I grimaced. But that wasn't the end of it. After a few more slides, there was a shot of Bush looking under furniture in the Oval Office. "Nope," he said. "No weapons over there." More laughter. Then another picture of Bush searching in his office: "Maybe under here." Laughter again. Disapproval must have registered upon my face, for one of my tablemates said, "Come on, David, this is funny." I wanted to reply, Over 500 Americans and literally countless Iraqis are dead because of a war that was supposedly fought to find weapons of mass destruction, and Bush is joking about it. Instead, I took a long drink of the lovely white wine that had come with our dinner. It's not as if I was in the middle of a talk-show debate and had to respond. This was certainly one of those occasions in which you either get it or don't. And I wasn't getting it. Or maybe my neighbor wasn't. At the end of the slide show, Bush displayed two pictures of himself with troops and noted these were his favorites. The final photograph was a shot of special forces soldiers--with their faces blurred to protect their identities--who were posing in Afghanistan where they had buried a piece of 9/11 debris in a spot that had once been an al Qaeda camp. Bush spoke about the prayer the commander had said during the burial ceremony and noted he had this photograph hanging in his private study. So what's wrong with this picture? Bush was somber about the sacrifice being made by U.S. troops overseas. But he obviously considered it fine to make fun of the reason he cited for sending Americans to war and to death. What an act of audacious spin. One poll recently showed that most Americans believe he either lied about Iraq's WMDs or deliberately exaggerated the case to justify the war. And it is undeniable that in seeking public support for the war he made many false assertions that went beyond quoting intelligence that turned out to be wrong. (I've written about this in many other places. If you still don't believe Bush mugged the truth, check out this short guide.) As the crowd was digesting the delicious surf-and-turf meal, Bush was transforming serious scandal into rim-shot comedy. Few seemed to mind. His WMD gags did not prompt a how-can-you silence from the gathering. At the after-parties, I heard no complaints. Was I being too sensitive? I wondered what the spouse, child or parent of a soldier killed in Iraq would have felt if they had been watching C-SPAN and saw the commander-in-chief mocking the supposed justification for the war that claimed their loved ones. Bush told the nation that lives had to be sacrificed because Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction that could be used (by terrorists) against the United States. That was not true. (And as Kay pointed out, the evidence so far shows these weapons were not there in the first place, not that they were hidden, destroyed or spirited away.) But rather than acknowledge he misinformed the public, Bush jokes about the absence of such weapons. Even if Bush does not believe he lied to or misled the public, how can he make fun of the rationale for a war that has killed and maimed thousands? Imagine if Lyndon Johnson had joked about the trumped-up Gulf of Tonkin incident that he deceitfully used as a rationale for U.S. military action in Vietnam: "Who knew that fish had torpedoes?" Or if Ronald Reagan appeared at a correspondents event following the truck-bombing at the Marines barracks in Beirut--which killed over 200 American servicemen--and said, "Guess we forgot to put in a stop light." Or if Clinton had come out after the bombing of Serbia--during which U.S. bombs errantly destroyed the Chinese embassy and killed several people there--and said, "The problem is, those embassies--they all look alike." Yet there was Bush--apparently having a laugh at his own expense, but actually doing so on the graves of thousands. This was a callous and arrogant display. For Bush, the misinformation--or disinformation--he peddled before the war was no more than material for yucks. As the audience laughed along, he smiled. The false statements (or lies) that had launched a war had become merely another punchline in the nation's capital. ********* DON'T FORGET ABOUT DAVID CORN'S BOOK, The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception (Crown Publishers). A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! The Library Journal says, "Corn chronicles to devastating effect the lies, falsehoods, and misrepresentations....Corn has painstakingly unearthed a bill of particulars against the president that is as damaging as it is thorough." For more information and a sample, check out the book's official website: www.bushlies.com. ********** ***************************************************************** 2 Toronto Star: Many believed WMD threat TheStar.com - Fri. Mar. 26, 2004. | Updated at 08:35 PM OAKLAND ROSS Well, at least he wasn't alone. During the build-up to last year's U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Thomas Homer-Dixon was one of many authorities around the world who endorsed the main weapons charge being levelled against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. An expert on international conflict, Homer-Dixon says he was convinced Saddam was amassing stockpiles of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons to be used against his enemies at home and abroad, just as the U.S. government said. Now, in the wake of the war, it is apparent this view was not merely flawed but completely mistaken. Homer-Dixon is the first to admit it. "Did we ever get it wrong on weapons of mass destruction," he said from his office at the Centre for the Study of Peace and Conflict at the University of Toronto, where he is director. "I thought there were stockpiles. There was sufficient reason to think that was plausible." Still, although he believed Saddam was a threat to the West — as well as to his fellow Iraqis — Homer-Dixon was nonetheless opposed to the war. He said so then. He says so now. "The war was astonishingly impudent. It had no legitimacy." In the first place, it was unnecessary. United Nations weapons inspections were being carried out at the time, and Homer-Dixon believes they provided a sufficient check on Saddam's military ambitions. In the second place, the invasion lacked broad international support. If the war was illegitimate, the aftermath has been worse. "They've got a disaster on their hands," Homer-Dixon said, referring to U.S. efforts to police, reform and rebuild a battered land, at what looks to be a staggering financial cost. They also face an almost uncontrollable situation on the often hostile Iraqi ground. A year after the Americans stormed into Baghdad, the blast of bombs and rifle-fire continues to haunt the increasingly mean streets of Iraq's larger cities. Homer-Dixon doesn't see the violence winding down any time soon. Washington originally billed the invasion as a pre-emptive strike against a war-mongering tyrant but now, he says, the operation is being sold instead as a chance to reform a deeply troubled part of the world. "The current U.S. administration has this messianic thing. `We know we're right. We're going to establish this beacon in the Middle East.'" Unfortunately, says Homer-Dixon, this beacon won't shine, not unless Iraqis themselves want it to, and he doesn't see much evidence of that. He expressed dismay at an Arab world he says is increasingly governed by "corrupt, anti-modernist, anti-intellectual, authoritarian regimes. ... These societies have gone awry." But Homer-Dixon doesn't think war is the way to change them — not in Iraq or anywhere else in the Middle East. Legal Notice: Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. ***************************************************************** 3 Reuters: ANALYSIS-S.Korea to stick with nuclear as top power fuel 26 Mar 2004 09:08:28 GMT By Park Sung-woo SEOUL, March 26 (Reuters) - South Korea will push on with plans to build 10 more nuclear power reactors by 2015, despite mounting public pressure against its use as a major fuel for electricity, energy officials and analysts said. The resource-poor nation has few cheaper alternatives because the use of clean fuels such as LNG could double the energy bill for the country and consumers, they said. Nuclear energy generates 40 percent of South Korea's power, slightly above Japan's 35 percent. A radioactive leak at a nuclear reactor in late 2003 rekindled safety fears, a politically explosive issue since protests last year by residents in Puan, southwest of Seoul, against a state plan to build facilities to dispose atomic waste. The protests sparked violent clashes between residents and police. The former energy minister quit late last year to take responsibility for the unrest and the slow progress of a national project to dispose the wastes over the past 18 years. "There are such demands (to halt the reactor projects), but for now, there is no change to the existing plans to build more nuclear power plants," said Seok Cho, director general at the energy ministry's nuclear power industry division told Reuters. "At the moment, there are no other energy sources which can generate as much power as nuclear energy at cheap costs." An energy ministry official said the expansion had been estimated to cost state-run Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co (KHNP) more than 12 trillion won ($10.37 billion). South Korea, which imports all its crude oil and natural gas needs, plans to increase the number of reactors to 28 and boost nuclear power capacity by 70 percent to 26,637 MW. This is in line with a projected 30 percent growth in total generating capacity to 77,023 MW up to 2015 to meet domestic power demand seen growing 3.3 percent on average, official data showed. South Korea imported $37.6 billion of oil, natural gas and coal last year, accounting for 21 percent of total imports and six percent of its gross domestic product, according to official data. PROTESTS Following the protests from Puan residents, Seoul said in December it would receive proposals from other regions to build the radioactive waste disposal facilities until September, aiming to pick a site by the end of this year. No other region has made a bid so far. Seoul has been conducting third-party safety checks since early March on two 1,000-MW nuclear reactors in Yonggwang, south of the country, due to pressure from residents. The protracted closures have driven up demand for natural gas and oil to meet lost supplies from the nuclear power plants. Environmental civic groups have urged the government to drop plans to expand nuclear power capacity and switch to natural gas or renewable energy to eventually halt the use of nuclear energy. They pointed to a global trend to cut the use of nuclear fuel as seen in Germany, which has stopped using nearly half its 37 reactors. "It's a nonsense for mankind to hand over the radioactive substance, which lasts for tens of thousands of years, to the next generation just to live comfortably now," Kim Jin-won, a Puan farmer who leads a movement against the waste-disposal project. Experts say such demands are unlikely to be met for a long while as natural gas is too expensive for an economy that has just emerged from last year's recession, and renewable energy has a long way to go to be affordable. "To reduce use of nuclear energy means more use of natural gas, doubling electricity fees. But, will the public be willing to tolerate it?" said Jinwoo Kim, an economist at Korea Energy Economics Institute (KEEI). Unlike in Europe where natural gas flows through pipelines, South Korea imports more expensive liquefied natural gas (LNG) under long-term contracts. South Korea spent $5 billion on LNG imports last year. The cost of generating one kilowatt hour of power using LNG is twice the 40 won ($0.346) paid for nuclear fuel, while the cost of generating one kilowatt hour of power by solar energy amounts to 700 won, analysts say. Relatively cheaper nuclear fuel helped Korea save on energy bills during its rapid industrialisation since the 1970s, cushioning the impact from rising oil prices, analysts say. Due to environmental concerns, Seoul expects the capacity of oil-fired plants to be halved by 2015 and it plans to lift the share of renewable energy, including wind and solar power, in its energy mix from two percent to five percent by 2011. "Even if we were to blanket the whole country with windmills, that cannot replace nuclear power plants," said Song Kwang-eui, another economist at KEEI. ($1=1156.8 Won) ***************************************************************** 4 [du-list] FW: Say NO to the U.S. Nuclear Bomb Factory Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 19:54:56 -0800 -----Original Message----- From: info Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2004 7:31 PM To: Charles Sheehan-Miles Subject: Say NO to the U.S. Nuclear Bomb Factory Say NO to the U.S. Bomb Factory Dear Friends:76c56.jpg I am writing to you about the new United States nuclear bomb factory, and to ask you to sign a pledge opposing the launch of a new nuclear arms race. Despite the end of the Cold War, the Secretary of Energy has this year asked Congress to approve $30 million dollars to fund the construction of a new nuclear bomb factory, which will produce up to 500 new nuclear bombs each year -- a request that Rep. David Hobson (R-OH) called "completely out of touch" at a Congressional hearing last week in Washington, D.C. The U.S. still has more than 10,000 nuclear warheads in storage, 3,000 in submarines patrolling the world's oceans and 2,500 on hair trigger alert that can be launched within three minutes by the President. U.S. policymakers are funding increased spending levels for new weapons research -- more than during the height of the Cold War. The U.S. has enough nuclear bombs to destroy life on earth many times over. What possible rationale do we have to build more? These policymakers represent you. During an election year, we should be telling our representatives that new nuclear weapons make us all more vulnerable -- not more safe to nuclear accidents or terrorist attacks. The Nuclear Policy Research Institute is working with a broad coalition of people to stop this nuclear bomb factory in its tracks. But we must act quickly. What You Can Do Today. Sign on to the Pledge Opposing the New Nuclear Arms Race, and ask your family and friends to sign too. Your message will be delivered to the White House. During the next few months, we will e-mail you periodically with updates about how you can take action to prevent the development and use of nuclear weapons. Together, we can build consensus and visibility for a nuclear-free future. Visit our website to learn more about how to fight the U.S. bomb factory and stop the new nuclear arms race. Click here or visit http://www.nuclearpolicy.org/bombfactory.cfm. With warm regards, Helen Caldicott, MD Please visit NPRI's website at: http://www.nuclearpolicy.org ---------- You are subscribed to this list as charles@nuclearpolicy.org. Click here to unsubscribe, or send email to unsubscribe.395.1208892.4454526702869781344-charles_nuclearpolicy.org@en.groundspring.org. 76d13.jpg To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. ---------- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: * http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-list/ * * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: * du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com * * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. Attachment Converted: 76c56.jpg: 00000001,47cf8c0e,00000000,00000000 Attachment Converted: 76d13.jpg: 00000001,47cf8c0f,00000000,00000000 ***************************************************************** 5 FISK: On pending release of Vanunu Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 17:34:47 -0600 (CST) http://www.counterpunch.org/fisk03262004.html March 26, 2004 The Man Who Knew Too Much The Ordeal of Mordechai Vanunu The Independent(London) By ROBERT FISK Any Israeli who bought the 16 February edition of the daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth would have believed that a truly wicked man was about to be released from Ashkelon prison. Each time a suicide bomber blew himself up, the prisoner would celebrate. Worse still, said the paper, the inmate--once a keeper of Israel's nuclear secrets--wants to endanger his country further after his release. "He told me," a former prisoner was quoted as saying, "that he has additional material and that he will reveal secrets..." Should it be a surprise, then, that the very same prisoner, supposedly celebrating the slaughter of innocents while preparing to betray his country yet again, holds a clutch of awards from European peace groups, the Sean McBride Peace prize and an honorary doctorate from the University of Tromso? In 2000, the Church of Humanism told him: "You are honest, courageous and morally highly motivated, and may the great sacrifice you have made serve to protect not only those living in Israel but all the peoples of the Middle East and perhaps the world." The same man has also been put forward as a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. Mordechai Vanunu, it seems, can only be loved or loathed. Indifference to the former Israeli nuclear technician is impossible. For he is the man who, in 1986, took evidence to The Sunday Times of the full story behind Israel's secret nuclear weapons plant at Dimona in the Negev desert, complete with the total number of advanced fission bombs there--200 at the time--and, even more disturbingly, complete with pictures. He said that Israel had mastered a thermonuclear design and appeared to have a number of thermonuclear bombs ready for use. He was subsequently lured by a girl from London to Rome and then kidnapped, drugged and freighted back to Israel by Israeli secret policemen. But in just six weeks' time, after 18 years of imprisonment--12 of them in solitary confinement--the world's most famous whistleblower is scheduled for release. Israel--not to mention the world--is holding its breath. Will he divulge further secrets of Dimona--always supposing he has any after 18 years of incarceration--or curse the country of which he is a citizen, albeit a citizen who converted to Christianity before his arrest and who wants to emigrate to the United States? Will he emerge a cowed man, anxious only to apologise for the terrible betrayal he inflicted upon his country? Or will he, as his friends and supporters and his adopted American parents hope, become an apostle of peace, one of the greatest of this generation's prisoners of conscience, the man who tried to rid the world of the threat of nuclear annihilation? The Israeli government is still uncertain how to confront Vanunu's release on 21 April. They are known to be considering -- perhaps have already decided upon -- "certain supervisory means" and "appropriate measures" to shut Vanunu up. In the second half of January, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met with Menachem Mazuz, Israel's attorney general, and the defence minister, Shaul Mofaz, and discussed whether Vanunu should be refused a passport. Vanunu would be free to sunbathe on the beaches of Tel Aviv but could not tour the world advertising Israel's nuclear power. It's a sign of how fearful the Israeli administration has become at the prospect of this one man's release that Sharon also summoned to this conference Yehiel Horev's so-called "Defence Ministry Security Unit", the country's internal and external intelligence services--Shin Beth and the equally overestimated Mossad--and a representative of the Israeli Atomic Energy Committee. Horev, it is now known, wanted to go much further than Sharon. He proposed clapping an administrative detention order on Vanunu -- Israel's usual way of dealing with Palestinians whom they regard as "terrorists"--although the meeting apparently came to the conclusion that this would only enhance Vanunu's reputation as a martyr for world peace. There's another way of shutting Vanunu up, of course. He can be publicly freed and then--the moment he starts talking about his work as a nuclear technician--he can be tried again and thrown back into Ashkelon jail--or Shikma prison, as the Israelis call it now. But the real problem that Vanunu represents is that he will remind the world at a critically important moment in the history of the Middle East that Israel is a nuclear power and that its warheads stand ready to be fired from the Negev desert. He will also remind the world that the Americans, despite battering their way into Iraq to destroy Saddam Hussein's nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, continue to give their political, moral and economic support to a country that has secretly amassed a treasure trove of weapons of mass destruction. How can President Bush remain silent on Israel's nuclear power when he has not only illegally invaded an Arab state for allegedly harbouring nuclear weapons and condemned Iran for the same ambitions, but also praised--along with Tony Blair's government--Colonel Gaddafi of Libya for abandoning his nuclear pretensions? If the Arab states are being "defanged"--always supposing they had any real fangs in the first place--why should Israel not be "de-nuclearised"? Why can't the United States apply the same standards to Israel as it does to the Arabs? Or why, for that matter, can't Israel apply the same standards to itself that it demands of its Arab enemies? This is the debate that the Israeli and the American governments wish to stifle. In the United States, where any discussion of the Israeli-American relationship that deviates from the benign is routinely condemned as subversive or "anti-Semitic", discussion of Israel's nuclear power is not something that Washington will want to hear on the Sunday talk shows. Vanunu, it should be said at once, is well aware of all this, of his own importance--infinitely greater than it was when he was a mere junior technician at Dimona--and of the role that tens of thousands of anti- nuclear campaigners expect him to play in the world. Many times, through friends and through his own brothers, Vanunu has said that he has no new nuclear secrets but has the right to oppose nuclear weapons in Israel or anywhere else. "All I want to do is to go to America, get married and start a new life," he says. No one can doubt Vanunu's conviction. Born in 1954 to a religious Jewish family in Morocco, he immigrated to Israel at the age of nine, performed his military service in the mid-Seventies and began work at Dimona in November 1976 while completing a graduate course in philosophy and geography. Perhaps it was during his travels in Thailand, Burma, Nepal and Australia in early 1986 that he decided he had a moral duty to talk about Israel's nuclear weaponst an Anglican church i n Sydney. Vanunu had clearly become deeply distressed at Israel's growing nuclear power when he walked into British newspaper offices in September of 1986 in the hope of telling the world the truth about Dimona. He had dropped by Robert Maxwell's Daily Mirror at first, handed over his photographs of the nuclear plant and waited for a reply. Unknown to Vanu cell, but he is restricted within the prison. I myself, as a working prisoner, painted a red line that he is forbidden to cross. I was ordered to do that, and afterwards our relationship cooled off." Vanunu has been regularly visited by an Anglican clergyman, Dean Michael Sellors. It was Sellors who pointed out to him that his release date coincided with the Queen's birthday. "He said that in that case, he'd better get a ticket and greet her himself." Vanunu has also taken heart in the actions of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, a normally conservative organisation, which has stated that, "any sanctions against Mordechai after release would be illegal and immoral." A chatline on the Hebrew website of the Israeli daily Maariv shows that a number of young Israelis regard Vanunu as a hero rather than a threat. Mary Eoloff, a retired American school teacher who, with her husband, adopted Vanunu in the hope that he could be given US citizenship and released, was the first to reveal that when Israeli security men offered to release him a year before the expiry of his 18 years in jail, Vanunu turned them down. "He believes in freedom of speech," she said. It remains to be seen if Israel will allow Vanunu the free speech he loves. Horev, the defence ministry security official who attended Sharon's meeting, has spoken of the threat that he believes the nuclear technician represents, which seems to be about ambiguity rather than state secrets. Horev compares this ambiguity to water in a glass. "My job is to ensure that the water doesn't spill over the glass," he said recently. "Up until the Vanunu affair, the water was at a very low level. The affair caused the water level to rise significantly and caused Israel great damage, but the water still didn't overflow. If we let certain people act in the matter, the water will spill." The Israeli journalist Raanan Shaked was a good deal more cynical when he spoke on the subject on Israel's Channel 10 TV. "Who is the main threat to Israel?" he asked. "Of course, Mordechai Vanunu! He is the big danger. Israeli democracy simply cannot withstand the impact of this one man saying what every child knows: we have nuclear weapons." On 21 April, when Vanunu is released, we shall find out if the water is going to overflow--and whether Vanunu will cross the red line painted so ominously on the floor at the instruction of the authorities. ***************************************************************** 6 Hi Pakistan: IAEA seeks permission for inspecting Pak N-sites --> March 27 2004 BRUSSELS: The UN nuclear watchdog has officially conveyed to Pakistan a formal request, seeking permission for inspection of some of the Pakistani nuclear installations by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s designated inspectors. Talking to The News from Vienna, IAEA spokesperson and senior information officer Melissa Fleming said the IAEA expects from Pakistan cooperation in two areas of crucial importance in the ongoing investigations on nuclear proliferation and illegal nuclear exports. Fleming said IAEA chief Dr Mohamed ElBaradei is of the view that "Pakistan is cooperating with the IAEA, but the agency wants more cooperation from Pakistan". Asked to identify the two areas where IAEA expects more cooperation from Pakistan, she said, "Firstly, the IAEA has requested Pakistan to provide all possible information on nuclear black market network, most urgently". She said the IAEA wants to know from Pakistan whether some other countries or non-state actors had been buying nuclear technology as customers of the A Q Khan’s network". Underlining the second expected area of cooperation, the IAEA spokesperson said, "We want Pakistan to allow the IAEA inspectors’ visits to the relevant Pakistani nuclear facilities enabling them to take environmental samples which could help in verifying the Iranian claim that highly enriched uranium (HEU) contamination found in Iran originated from Pakistan". Asked to identify the channel used to convey the request, Fleming said, "Both the requests were conveyed to the government of Pakistan officially and I would not like to go into further details". In response to a question on the justification of asking such cooperation from a country, which is not a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the spokesperson said, "We know that Pakistan has not signed the NPT, but Pakistan is a member of the IAEA and we have requested Pakistan to cooperate with the IAEA voluntarily". Fleming declined to reveal the details of Pakistani response to the IAEA request. "I do not want to go into further details," was her terse answer. She said the IAEA director general’s visit to the US was very productive as he discussed the issues related to IAEA’s efforts to promote non-proliferation agenda across the globe. Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 7 Hi Pakistan: Pakistan always faced US pressure on nuclear programme - Leghari March 27 2004 ISLAMABAD: Former President and Millat Party Chief Sardar Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari Thursday said despite its peaceful nature, Pakistan always faced US pressure on its nuclear programme. "United States forced Pakistan to economic hardships and imposed sanctions on it through different bills by their Senators," he said in his speech on Presidential address to the joint sitting of the parliament. The period of eighties and nineties had been worse in this regard, he said and paid rich tributes to successive government in the country for not bowing down to any pressure since start of the nuclear programme back in seventies. "Right from Z A Bhutto down to President Musharraf, the role of all rulers had been appreciable for taking forward this programme," he added. He said, none of the leaders ever surrendered to pressure to carry forward this programme as it was the matter of country's defence, sovereignty and solidarity. Even during recent crisis, there was immense pressure on the government to roll back the nuclear programme, but the government wisely saved it. "No body showed any weakness. Rolling back proved to be a far cry and the government reiterated commitment to continue with its nuclear and missile programme," Leghari said. He however criticized those leaders who tried to involve military in proliferation. "It is regrettable that certain leaders sitting abroad tried to drag military into this issue by saying that Dr. A Q Khan alone could not be able for proliferate," Leghari said. He asked both the government and the opposition to act with sanity whenever the country faces such a situation. Leghari said from day one Pakistan's nuclear programme was aimed at peaceful purposes. Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 8 AFP: Russia warns NATO with nuclear option MOSCOW (AFP) Mar 25, 2004 Russia's defense minister Thursday repeated an earlier warning to NATO that he may order a build-up of the country's nuclear defenses should the US-led alliance continue to expand and take an unfriendly view of Moscow. Sergei Ivanov said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was following an aggressive strategy and treating Russia as a threat rather than a partner. "If NATO continues to keep to its offensive military doctrine, then Russia's military planning and the principles of Russia's military procurement -- including in the nuclear sphere -- will be adequately reevaluated," the Interfax new agency quoted Ivanov as saying. "Russia is carefully observing the process of NATO's transformation," said Ivanov, who is seen as one of President Vladimir Putin's closest political allies in government. He said that some new NATO members both "directly and indirectly" display anti-Russian policies. Russia and NATO have recently come to blows over the alliance's plans to station warplanes in the three Baltic states and former Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. All are due to formally join NATO on April 2. Russia had spent years fruitlessly trying to avert the expansion up to its borders and is growing increasingly concerned that the warplanes stationed in the Baltic region will spy on its defenses. The State Duma lower house of parliament spent the day Thursday drafting a tough new resolution to be issued on the day of the expansion while senior diplomats said they mostly feared that NATO would only continue to grow. "The majority of the population of our country sees NATO expansion as a threat to Russia," the Duma's security committee chief Vladimir Vasilyev told Interfax. Meanwhile Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Chizhov said Russia was concerned because "this is not the first and obviously not the last wave." The Russian defense minister's tough comments on potential nuclear weapons expansion Thursday are almost exactly the same that he made on October 2 in remarks that startled Western nations. Russia and the United States signed a nuclear disarmament treaty in May 2002 aimed at slashing the size of the two country's "operationally deployed" arsenals by two-thirds over 10 years -- a deal aimed at sealing a new friendship between the two Cold War era foes. But a senior US administration official said in Washington this week that the United States may use a loophole in the treaty to keep an unlimited number of warheads in storage. And Ivanov has made repeated comments in recent months suggesting that Russia could be ready to reevaluate its own stance on that deal. "Should NATO remain a military alliance with its current offensive military strategy, this will prompt a fundamental reassessment of Russia's military planning and arms procurement," said an internal document released by Russia's defense ministry in October. Ivanov also reaffirmed his vow from that day that Russia reserved the right to preemptive strikes against other nations if it felt its security was under threat. "We cannot absolutely rule out the use of preemptive force, if this serves either Russia's interests or is required by its obligations to allies." WAR.WIRE ***************************************************************** 9 Brattleboro Reformer: Entergy wants info from safety hotline [http://www.reformer.com/] March 26, 2004 Brattleboro, VT By CAROLYN LORIÉ Reformer Staff BRATTLEBORO -- Nuclear industry whistleblower Paul Blanch accused Entergy Nuclear Corp. of having a "chilling effect" on employees who may have safety concerns. "I allege inappropriate conduct on behalf of Entergy and the way they're conducting business," said Blanch at a New England Coalition press conference on Thursday. The charge came in response to claims made by Entergy that the coalition had an obligation to hand over information gathered through its whistleblower hotline. The hotline, set up exclusively for Vermont Yankee workers, was established in early March and according to executive director of the coalition, Peter Alexander, has been utilized. Alexander and Blanch refused to say how many calls had been made or the exact nature of the calls. Entergy's first request for the information was made on March 4. Alexander and Brian Cosgrove, Vermont Yankee spokesman, appeared on the Vermont Public Radio call-in show "Switchboard." During the program, Cosgrove told Alexander that he had a "moral responsibility to bring [the hotline information] forward to the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission)." This was followed on March 9 by a letter from Entergy's director of Nuclear Safety assurance, Robert Wanczyk, urging Alexander to hand over the information, either to the company or the NRC. "Nuclear safety is very important at Vermont Yankee," said Cosgrove, adding that, "We cannot address a problem that we don't know about." According to Alexander, none of the information obtained through the hotline is pressing. "These are not urgent safety issues. They are long-term issues that need to be resolved," said Alexander. The coalition said it will find a way to use the information without compromising the anonymity of the callers. Blanch, who became a whistleblower in the late 1980s while working for Millstone Nuclear Power Plant in Connecticut, said that turning over the information would make it easy for the NRC and Entergy to identify who made the call. Blanch said that whistleblowers are routinely retaliated against by management. "I don't know what proof they have that that is what is going on at Vermont Yankee," said Cosgrove. According to Blanch, Entergy's attempts to get the hotline information and the company's attempts to discredit him send a clear message to workers to not come forward. "(Entergy) publicly flogged me and tried to trashed my reputation," said Blanch, making reference to a March 11 press conference where Entergy officials countered Blanch's safety concerns and accused him of being unfamiliar with NRC regulations. The event was not open to the public and only a handful of reporters were invited. Although the coaltion is sharing the hotline information with its technical advisors, Cosgrove considers this grossly insufficient, saying that they may not recognize the significance of the information. "That's playing God with safety issues," said Cosgrove. Alexander countered that he made it clear to Cosgrove during the radio program that the concerns raised were not about immediate risks; other wise, he said, the coaltion would have come forward. "This doesn't need to be a war of words. This needs to be a war of facts," said Alexander. ***************************************************************** 10 PC News Herald: Davis-Besse restarted following valve repairs - portclintonnewsherald.com Friday, March 26, 2004 By RICK NEALE Staff writer CARROLL TOWNSHIP -- Workers at Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station restarted the reactor at about 5 this morning, and the facility might reconnect to the regional power grid over the weekend. Davis-Besse stopped producing electricity March 17 after problems were discovered with three valves. The valve malfunctions were found during a turbine generator test, FirstEnergy spokesman Richard Wilkins said, and repairs are now completed. As of 8 a.m., the nuclear plant was running at 2 percent power, Wilkins said. Operators plan to continue to increase power while monitoring equipment and personnel performance. "We don't see any emerging issues. This weekend looks good," he said. Earlier this month, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted Davis-Besse permission to restart for the first time since February 2002. The plant was shut down after a six-inch-deep, acid-eaten crater was discovered in the reactor vessel head. Over the next two years, FirstEnergy spent about $600 million repairing Davis-Besse and buying replacement electricity. Originally published Friday, March 26, 2004 Copyright ©2004 News Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 11 News Messenger: Davis-Besse restarts - thenews-messenger.com Friday, March 26, 2004 News-Messenger reports OAK HARBOR-- Workers at Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station restarted the reactor at about 5 a.m. today, and the facility might reconnect to the regional power grid over the weekend. Davis-Besse stopped producing electricity March 17 after problems were discovered with three valves. The valve malfunctions were found during a turbine generator test, FirstEnergy spokesman Richard Wilkins said, and repairs are now completed. As of 8 a.m., the nuclear plant was running at 2 percent power, Wilkins said. Operators plan to continue to increase power while monitoring equipment and personnel performance. "We don't see any emerging issues. This weekend looks good," he said. Earlier this month, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted Davis-Besse permission to restart for the first time since February 2002. The plant was shut down after a six-inch-deep, acid-eaten crater was discovered in the reactor vessel head. Originally published Friday, March 26, 2004 Copyright ©2004 The News-Messenger. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 12 WSJ News: Three Mile Island: A rally remembers 11:24 PM 3/25/04 Judy Newman Wisconsin State Journal Twenty-five years after a radiation leak at Three Mile Island became the worst nuclear power plant accident in the nation's history, barely 100 people turned out on UW-Madison's State Street Mall for a noon-hour rally against nuclear power, marking the event. Protesters carried signs that read, "No Nukes are Good Nukes" and "Sustain the Earth Not nuclear corporations." But members of a pro-nuclear student group handed their own fliers to passers-by. Uranium, used to fuel nuclear plants, is "one of the most abundant sources of energy . + . more abundant than gold and silver," said Peter McCabe, 21, a member of Collegians For A Constructive Tomorrow, a pro-nuclear organization. Supporters tout nuclear power as a clean, less expensive form of energy than coal or natural gas. But anti-nuclear speakers at the rally disputed those contentions. "There is no safe dose of radiation," said Dr. Jeffrey Patterson of Physicians for Social Responsibility. "You can't smell it, you can't feel it, you can't hear it . + . + . and it goes on and on and on. Is that what we want to give our grandchildren?" David Blecher of the Midwest Renewable Energy Association said when nuclear power was first introduced, its rates were described as "too cheap to meter. Is anybody here getting electricity for free?" he asked. Several people also expressed concerns about a bill introduced in the Legislature (AB 555) during the last session that would have lifted a moratorium on building new nuclear plants in Wisconsin. It's consumer demand for more and more electricity that brings about such proposals, said Charmaine Springelmeyer Podein. "We must challenge ourselves to conserve, to use only what we need," she said. The rally - far smaller than those that dotted the country following the Three Mile Island accident on March 28, 1979 - came as Wisconsin and many other states are grappling with increasing electric demand and aging power plants. Applications were filed recently to renew the licenses of the two reactors at the Point Beach nuclear power plant for 20 years; operators of the Kewaunee nuclear plant are also expected to seek renewal. Meanwhile, proposals to build coal-fired plants have drawn fire for adding to air pollution, while natural gas is a concern because of sharply fluctuating prices. And plans to add a major transmission line to bring in power from other states have been delayed for several years because of opposition from residents. UW-Madison professor Gerald Kulcinski said studies have shown that the Three Mile Island accident did not injure anyone, although it did have a psychological effect on the Harrisburg, Pa. area. "I would say the community got unduly frightened," he said. "They weren't as knowledgeable about what levels of radiation were harmful and what were just normal. "Potassium 40 (a radioactive isotope) in bananas is enough to be measurable," Kulcinski said. "In most cases, we get more radiation from flying (in airplanes) than the people around the plant." The nuclear industry has learned a lot since 1979, he said. Maintenance and training procedures have improved and control rooms have been redesigned. "In general there's been a bootstrap effort across the whole nuclear industry to improve performance of the power plants," said Kulcinski, who is Grainger Professor of Nuclear Engineering, associate dean for research in the College of Engineering and director of the Fusion Technology Institute. "And I think you can trace that back to the re-examination that the nuclear community did after Three Mile Island." Nuclear power opponents in Wisconsin will focus their efforts on getting Point Beach shut down when its reactors' licenses expire in 2010 and 2013, said Alfred Meyer, executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility in Madison. "If we operate the plants, we will have more (nuclear) waste in Wisconsin," he said, and there's still no federal plan for disposing of the used nuclear fuel that's already accumulated for nearly three decades. Meyer said even though attendance at Thursday's rally was not large, he thinks public resistance to nuclear power remains strong. That's been evident, he said, in the reaction to the bill that would end the moratorium on nuclear power plant construction in Wisconsin. "When I travel around the state what I hear is that people are absolutely shocked and outraged (by the bill). They say, 'I thought we finished that in the 1980s,' " Meyer said. While the Three Mile Island rally may have been "symbolic - commemorating an event in the distant past," that doesn't mean views have changed, he said. "Is there more acceptance (of nuclear power)? Absolutely not," said Meyer. Copyright © 2003 Wisconsin State Journal ***************************************************************** 13 KRT Wire: Memories linger after Three Mile Island accident | 03/25/2004 | Dormant cooling towers of Three Mile Island Unit Two loom over the town of Goldsboro, Pa., across the Susquehanna river from the plant in Middletown, Pa. The 25th anniversary of the Three Mile Island disaster is Sunday. LAURENCE KESTERSON/Philadelphia Inquirer By DAWN FALLIK Philadelphia Inquirer Tom Richards retired from his job at Three Mile Island 10 years ago, but the nuclear power plant remains ever-present, shadowing his moves on the Sunset Golf Course, where he works as a groundskeeper. Some day when the still-operating Unit 1 is closed and the complex razed, maybe people will stop asking about what happened in Middletown, Pa., during the early morning of March 28, 1979. "It'll be just like Pearl Harbor - they won't know what happened at Three Mile Island and where it happened," he said. Yet those memories still linger. Twenty-five years after the accident, America's closest brush with nuclear disaster looms large for the plant's neighbors and former workers, even as they focus on the future, not the past. There is plenty to remember for people such as Richards and three other men - a former Middletown resident, the mayor, and a retired radiation inspector. Richards, who worked at Unit 1 for more than 25 years, believes nuclear fuel is the energy of the future. "I was surprised at how bad it was, but I was younger then and thought nothing could happen to me," he said. Robert Reid, who was mayor of Middletown during the crisis and took the office again in 2002, said he feels safe again beneath the steam of Unit 1. Yet a Geiger counter remains in his office, sputtering sporadically. John Garnish, whose home directly across from the plant became ground zero for reporters, left for Florida, more toward the sun than away from TMI. He harbors bitterness toward the reporters he feels abused his hospitality. And he worries about friends and family lost to cancer - fallout, he believes, from a still-contentious nuclear disaster. "No one wrote about all the dead birds that I found, or how people would get a metallic taste in their mouths," he said. "The press were just a bunch of liars who wanted to use the telephone." And Thomas Gerusky, former head of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Radiation Protection, who went on to help clean up some of the nation's most contaminated nuclear sites, wonders if there should be a future for nuclear fuel. "I've got mixed emotions. Even working for the Department of Energy, it's hard to figure out whether we need nuclear plants or not," he said. DISASTER REMINDERS Nestled among small islands, which once held fishing shacks, Three Mile Island appears small and weary today, dressed in faded '70s blue and beige. For 25 years, only two of the hourglass cooling towers have waved the signature white steam flags. The other two stand empty, gray skeletal reminders of the nation's most dangerous nuclear disaster. It began at 4 a.m. on March 28, 1979, with a simple malfunction in a valve that drained water from the Unit 2 reactor. That led to a release of radiation - how much remains a matter of contention - a potentially explosive hydrogen bubble and the meltdown of five feet of the radioactive core. Five days later, the nightmare ended with a visit from President Jimmy Carter, touring the plant in white plastic booties. Since then, the plant, which is about 10 miles from Harrisburg, Pa., has been emptied of radioactive material, at a cost of a billion dollars and 10 years. A spokesman for TMI's new owner, First Energy Corp., refused requests to tour the plant, saying "there is nothing there to look at." THE WAY THINGS WERE Richards worked at Crawford Station, a coal plant, before going to TMI. He would return home with "a nose full of coal dust." When he started at the nuclear plant, he was relieved to get away from the dirt and the dust. He was working the 11-p.m.-to-7-a.m. shift at Unit 1 when he heard there were problems across the way. He went home and went to bed, and two hours later his wife woke him up, wondering what had happened. After the accident, Richards remained at TMI, working as a mechanical supervisor. Although Unit 1 was shut down for a year, there was plenty of work to be done upgrading safety measures and cleaning Unit 2. Several years after the accident, he went in to check the bolts on the Unit 2 reactor head and received a quarter-year's worth of radiation in less than an hour - he says he does not remember how much. "I didn't worry about the radiation. I couldn't see it or feel it or smell it," he said. "But then again, I'm still a smoker, too." John Garnish never believed that what he could not see could not hurt him. He used to live on Meadow Lane, and his window view was one of plumes and reactors. During the accident, reporters camped out on his lawn in droves, offering $25 to make a phone call, offering to send copies of stories that never appeared. Although he thought the accident was "overblown," Garnish said the plant had been bad news since it opened. "They had contaminated the area long before the accident," he said. "They would do releases of gas _everyone would get a metallic taste in their mouths." Garnish left for Florida in 1983, returned in 1988, and then left for good two years later. "It was more the small-town feel that we couldn't get used to again. You could predict what everybody was going to do," he said. When he left, he took a dosimeter, which registers radiation, that had been put on the tree in his front yard. He said he did not remember what it registered anymore. "Our next-door neighbor died of liver cancer. The man down the street died of brain cancer. My sister, she had breast cancer," Garnish said. "It's just a farce that they're not reporting it." When Garnish left Middletown, Reid was the mayor of the Dauphin County town. He is the mayor once again, having served from 1978 to 1994, and returning in 2002. The elementary school here bears Reid's name, and he substitute-teaches there from time to time. Reid said that it took 10 years after TMI for Middletown to feel "close to normal" again and that it is always on his citizens' minds. Every year at the high school, the football coach shows a documentary about the accident, and Reid talks afterward. There have been changes, and they have been for the better. "They know to be truthful to the people they're neighbors with," Reid says of the current TMI management. "If a siren goes off, I get a call. If a fish jumps out of the water onto the island, I get a call." He occasionally brings a Geiger counter home with him _"Sometimes I just want one around" - and Reid refuses to go to the Susquehanna River island that houses his worst fears. "I don't go into the plant," he said. "It's become a joke after all these years: `When will we get him into the plant?' They know better than to ask." For Gerusky, who headed the Pennsylvania Bureau of Radiation Protection, the accident at TMI was a wake-up call that reverberates still. After spending years working with the state and communities to upgrade safety regulations, such as putting active radiation monitors in place around nuclear facilities, Gerusky left to join the U.S. Department of Energy in 1991. He helped clean up some of the country's most radioactive sites, working in Nevada and Alaska. "I don't know how to solve the problem of having private industry, with their profit motive, operating these plants," Gerusky said. When he retired in 1996, he moved back to Camp Hill, around 10 miles from Three Mile Island. He plays golf, he plays with his grandchildren and every five years or so he thinks about the nuclear plant not far away. "The NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) hasn't forgotten about it, and the politicians haven't forgotten about it, and the people in the vicinity of the plant sure haven't forgotten about it," Gerusky said. "There will always be reminders," said Reid, leaning back in his chair as the Geiger counter next to him clicked softly in the background. "But would my life be easier without a nuclear plant? Probably not. We just need to come up with a way to make sure they're safe." ***************************************************************** 14 KRT Wire: Pennsylvania Workers Reflect on Changes since Three Mile Island Accident | 03/26/2004 | By Michelle Starr, York Daily Record, Pa. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Mar. 26 - Tom Gerusky was in his Cumberland County home, drinking a cup of coffee before work at the Bureau of Radiation Protection when a 7 a.m. call altered his routine. Something had gone wrong at the Three Mile Island power plant in Dauphin County that Wednesday, March 28, 1979. "He said 'This is a biggie'," said Gerusky, then director of the bureau, "and he told me what little bit he knew." Within 20 minutes, Gerusky was at his downtown Harrisburg office, part of the Department of Environmental Resources at the time, to establish communications for his staff. Emergency plans were limited. They had run mainly phone drills and had few field cars to transport samples. Kits were stocked with rolls of dimes, the cost of a pay phone call, to transmit information from the field, Gerusky said. "You couldn't get anyone interested in doing any more," he said. Someone had to talk into the receiver to prevent the line with the power plant's control room from disconnecting after a period of silence. At least, Gerusky said, having someone in the corner humming into a receiver or repeating "hello" provided a light moment. And Saturday night, when group members gathered at the capital to discuss the accident, they began talking about the movie "The China Syndrome," and speculated who would be cast in a TV movie about TMI. The humor balanced the gravity of those the first five days when reports on radiation levels and what might happen were unclear. Gerusky was most concerned on Friday with news of a possible explosion, and on Sunday when President Jimmy Carter and Gov. Dick Thornburgh toured the plant despite the uncertainty. "The problem was, no one seemed to know what was going on," Gerusky said. Gerusky said he remembered being frustrated with the utility, Met-Ed. "They weren't being honest with themselves or the public," he said. Before the accident, people were apathetic about the threat of nuclear power, Gerusky said. That has changed, said Ron Ruman, information specialist at the Department of Environmental Protection. The bureau established a line with TMI and employed a nuclear safety inspector in each plant to allow for an independent assessment. Teams from the bureau check different sites daily to monitor the effects of power plants like Three Mile Island. Air samples are captured in a fiberglass filter and collected each week to be analyzed for iodine, said Tonda Lewis, radiation protection program supervisor. Environmental dosimeters around TMI measure the amount of radiation in one location and are processed at an external lab four times a year. Each DEP radiation section worker wears a personal dosimeter. Environmental readings can fluctuate with sunspots, changes of natural radon and lingering fallout from nuclear testing. "We don't want to measure what's here to begin with," Lewis said, "we want to measure what we're worried about." At their Harrisburg lab, they test milk samples from area farmers to see what happens when an animal processes air and food. Tom Matukaitis, a chemist at DEP's bureau of laboratories radiation measurement section, tests 3 1/2 liters of milk at a time for gamma radiation. After placing the samples inside a 3,000-pound lead drum, liquid nitrogen flows into the upright drum to bring the temperature down to minus 300 degrees. A computer counts the components within the milk for 1,000 minutes, or about 16 hours and 40 minutes. "Anything positive, I wouldn't be happy about," Lewis said. "Our air sampling program should tell us long before the milk." The samples go through 200 more minutes of inspection to look for yttrium 90, which is born from Strontium 90, a radioactive cancer-causing component that masks itself as calcium. Pete Feil, chemist at DEP's bureau of laboratory radiation measurement section, isolates specific ions through a screening process. Then he lines up four milk samples with positive and negative controls. Samples are placed on a disk and analyzed by a computer. The department also tests water samples up- and down-stream of the plant. While the idea of radiation is scary for some, scientists say their work isn't dangerous. Gerusky said his friends watched to see if he would evacuate his family 25 years ago, and if so, they would follow. He stayed. In 1991, he retired from the bureau to work at the U.S. Department of Energy. After five years, he moved back to New Cumberland. Gerusky had planned on medical school during general science studies at Union College in Schenectady, but he accepted a fellowship with the Atomic Energy Commission at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Some days, he regrets the decision. Today, Gerusky said, "I really don't know" what to think of nuclear power. ----- To see more of the York Daily Record, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to [http://www.ydr.com] © 2004, York Daily Record, Pa. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. ***************************************************************** 15 NRC: Appointments to Performance Review Boards for Senior Executive FR Doc E4-684 [Federal Register: March 26, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 59)] [Notices] [Page 15911-15912] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr26mr04-125] Service AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Appointment to Performance Review Boards for Senior Executive Service. SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has announced the following appointments to the NRC Performance Review Boards. The following individuals are appointed as members of the NRC Performance Review Board (PRB) responsible for making recommendations to the appointing and awarding authorities on performance appraisal ratings and performance awards for Senior Executives and Senior Level employees: Patricia G. Norry, Deputy Executive Director for Management Services, Office of the Executive Director for Operations; Edward T. Baker, Deputy Director, Office of International Programs; Stephen G. Burns, Deputy General Counsel, Office of the General Counsel; James E. Dyer, Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation; Jesse L. Funches, Chief Financial Officer; William F. Kane, Deputy Executive Director for Homeland Protection and Preparedness, Office of the Executive Director for Operations; Luis A. Reyes, Regional Administrator, Region II; Jacqueline E. Silber, Deputy Chief Information Officer; Jack R. Strosnider, Deputy Director, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research; Martin J. Virgilio, Director, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards; Michael F. Weber, Deputy Director, Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response. The following individuals will serve as members of the NRC PRB Panel that was established to review appraisals and make recommendations to the appointing and awarding authorities for NRC PRB members: Karen D. Cyr, General Counsel, Office of the General Counsel; Samuel J. Collins, Deputy Executive Director for Reactor Programs, Office of the Executive Director for Operations; Carl J. Paperiello, Deputy Executive Director for Materials, Research, and State Programs, Office of the Executive Director for Operations. All appointments are made pursuant to section 4314 of chapter 43 of title 5 of the United States Code. EFFECTIVE DATE: March 26, 2004. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Secretary, Executive Resources Board, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555; (301) 415- 7530. Dated in Rockville, Maryland, this 5th day of March, 2004. [[Page 15912]] For the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Carolyn J. Swanson, Secretary, Executive Resources Board. [FR Doc. E4-684 Filed 3-25-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 16 NRC: System Energy Resources, Inc.; Establishment of Atomic Safety FR Doc E4-685 [Federal Register: March 26, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 59)] [Notices] [Page 15911] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr26mr04-124] and Licensing Board Pursuant to delegation by the Commission dated December 29, 1972, published in the Federal Register, 37 FR 28710, the Commission's March 2, 2004, memorandum and order (CLI-04-08, 59 NRC-- (Mar. 2, 2004)), and sections 2.104, 2.300, 2.303, 2.309, 2.311, 2.318, and 2.321 of the Commission's regulations, all as amended, an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board is being established to preside over the following proceeding: System Energy Resources, Inc. (Early Site Permit for Grand Gulf ESP Site) This Board is being established pursuant to a January 7, 2004 notice of hearing published in the Federal Register (69 FR 2636 (Jan. 16, 2004)). The hearing will consider the October 16, 2003, application of System Energy Resources, Inc., (SERI) pursuant to 10 CFR part 52 for an early site permit (ESP) for the Grand Gulf ESP site, as well as the February 12, 2004, hearing request and petition to intervene submitted by the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Public Citizen, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Clairborne County, Mississippi Branch, and the Mississippi Chapter of the Sierra Club regarding the SERI ESP application. The Board is comprised of the following administrative judges: G. Paul Bollwerk, III, Chair, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; Dr. Paul B. Abramson, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; Dr. Anthony J. Baratta, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. All correspondence, documents, and other materials shall be filed with the administrative judges in accordance with 10 CFR 2.302, and the March 8, 2004, initial prehearing order issued in the proceeding. Issued in Rockville, Maryland, this 22nd day of March, 2004. G. Paul Bollwerk, III, Chief Administrative Judge, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel. [FR Doc. E4-685 Filed 3-25-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 17 NRC: Dominion Nuclear North Anna, LLC; Establishment of Atomic Safety FR Doc E4-686 [Federal Register: March 26, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 59)] [Notices] [Page 15910] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr26mr04-121] and Licensing Board Pursuant to delegation by the Commission dated December 29, 1972, published in the Federal Register, 37 FR 28710, the Commission's March 2, 2004, memorandum and order (CLI-04-08, 59 NRC--(Mar. 2, 2004)), and sections 2.104, 2.300, 2.303, 2.309, 2.311, 2.318, and 2.321 of the Commission's regulations, all as amended, an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board is being established to preside over the following proceeding: Dominion Nuclear North Anna, LLC (Early Site Permit for North Anna ESP Site) This Board is being established pursuant to a November 25, 2003 notice of hearing published in the Federal Register (68 FR 67489 (Dec. 2, 2003)). The hearing will consider the September 25, 2003, application of Dominican Nuclear North Anna, LLC, (DNNA) pursuant to 10 CFR part 52 for an early site permit (ESP) for the North Anna ESP site, as well as the January 2, 2004, hearing request and petition to intervene submitted by the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, and Public Citizen regarding the DNNA ESP application. The Board is comprised of the following administrative judges: G. Paul Bollwerk, III, Chair, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; Dr. Paul B. Abramson, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; Dr. Anthony J. Baratta, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. All correspondence, documents, and other materials shall be filed with the administrative judges in accordance with 10 CFR 2.302, and the March 8, 2004, initial prehearing order issued in the proceeding. Issued in Rockville, Maryland, this 22nd day of March, 2004. G. Paul Bollwerk, III, Chief Administrative Judge, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel. [FR Doc. E4-686 Filed 3-25-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 18 NRC: Exelon Generation Company, LLC; Establishment of Atomic Safety FR Doc E4-687 [Federal Register: March 26, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 59)] [Notices] [Page 15910] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr26mr04-122] and Licensing Board Pursuant to delegation by the Commission dated December 29, 1972, published in the Federal Register, 37 FR 28710, the Commission's March 2, 2004, memorandum and order (CLI-04-08, 59 NRC -- (Mar. 2, 2004)), and sections 2.104, 2.300, 2.303, 2.309, 2.311, 2.318, and 2.321 of the Commission's regulations, all as amended, an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board is being established to preside over the following proceeding: Exelon Generation Company, LLC (Early Site Permit for Clinton ESP Site) This Board is being established pursuant to a December 8, 2003, notice of hearing published in the Federal Register (68 FR 69426 (Dec. 12, 2003)). The hearing will consider the September 25, 2003, application of Exelon Generation Company, LLC, (Exelon) pursuant to 10 CFR part 52 for an early site permit (ESP) for the Clinton ESP site, as well as the January 12, 2004, hearing request and petition to intervene submitted by the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Public Citizen, the Environmental Law and Policy Center, and the Nuclear Energy Information Service regarding the Exelon ESP application. The Board is comprised of the following administrative judges: G. Paul Bollwerk, III, Chair, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; Dr. Paul B. Abramson, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; Dr. Anthony J. Baratta, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. All correspondence, documents, and other materials shall be filed with the administrative judges in accordance with 10 CFR 2.302, and the March 8, 2004, initial prehearing order issued in the proceeding. Issued in Rockville, Maryland, this 22nd day of March, 2004. G. Paul Bollwerk, III, Chief Administrative Judge, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel. [FR Doc. E4-687 Filed 3-25-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 19 Interfax: Ukraine can complete reactors without EBRD assistance, says Kuchma Ukraine News Agency Kuznetsovsk, March 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Ukraine can complete the construction of two nuclear reactors without assistance from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the country's president said on Friday. "They're promising to give us the money in summer or autumn... [but] we'll manage without them, I've no doubt," President Leonid Kuchma said at a meeting on the construction project. Ukraine hopes to complete the construction of two reactors, one at the Rive plant, and one at a plant in Khmelnytsky region, by autumn this year. 15:23:28 EET-2 [http://www.interfax.kiev.ua © 1992-2004, Interfax-Ukraine. All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 20 The Advocate: Nuclear plan given favorable review Associated Press March 26, 2004 WATERFORD, Conn. -- Federal regulators have given the owners of the Millstone nuclear power complex a favorable annual safety review. However, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it will conduct an extra review because of equipment failures in the first quarter of 2004. "This is a good assessment," Randy Blough, NRC director of reactor property for Region 1, told executives of Dominion Thursday. "You're doing well with these plants. Even the best plants have problems to identify. It's important to stay self-critical." At its annual assessment meeting at town hall, the NRC publicly delivered its evaluation to Dominion Vice President J. Alan Price and his colleagues and then met with the Nuclear Energy Advisory Council, a regional oversight group. The NRC's review covers three critical areas of operations: stability; the reliability of cooling, charging and other systems that help lessen damage to the core of the reactor during emergencies; and the integrity of barriers that prevent radiation leaks. The NRC uncovered six inadequacies in the way Millstone 2 functioned and two at Millstone 3. Most of the problems involved internal systems issues. The NRC supplementary review is because of this year's March 6 and 13 failures of a water pump at Millstone 2, which prompted temporary shutdowns. Dominion bought the nuclear plant complex from Northeast Utilities in 2001. A third plant, Millstone 1, is no longer operating and is in the process of being decommissioned. Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press © 2004, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc. ***************************************************************** 21 Capital News 9: Three Mile Island anniversary capitalnews9.com Online video available 3/26/2004 2:11 PM By: Capital News 9 web staff This Sunday marks the 25th anniversary of the worst nuclear plant scare in U.S. history. On March 28, 1979, the Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant in Pennsylvania malfunctioned. Pumps feeding cooling water to the plant's reactor failed and 32,000 gallons of radioactive superheated water spewed into the reactor housing. Regulators of the nation's 103 reactors still face questions about their ability to prevent mishaps like that in 2004. However, the Bush administration said it doesn't want that to stop new plants from being built. Copyright 2003 Associated Press, All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 22 YDR: Former Bears’ den housed TMI evacuees - York Daily Record [ydr.com] VIDEO CLIPS The following five video clips are from historical tapes housed at the National Archives in College Park, Md. VOICES FROM THE PAST The following excerpts are from letters York County residents and others sent to former Gov. Dick Thornburgh concerning the crisis at Three Mile Island. The letters are part of the Thornburgh Collection at the Pennsylvania State Archives. The excerpts are printed exactly as written, with no editing for spelling, grammar or style. Twenty-five years ago, Hersheypark Arena was used as an evacuation center for residents fleeing the accident at Three Mile Island. By DAVE SOTTILE Daily Record staff Friday, March 26, 2004 HERSHEY — It was just a typical weekly Hersheypark Arena staff meeting. Nothing special, as Gary Chubb recalls. “We met in the dining room known as the Bears Den,” Chubb said. “You could hear the team practicing down on the ice. It was the kind of meeting we had all the time, but this one was interrupted.” Chubb was an assistant to Hersheypark Arena general manager Bob Payne on March 30, 1979, when someone walked into the room with the news. “They said, ‘Because of the problem at Three Mile Island, the arena would be used as an evacuation center,’ ” Chubb said. “That pretty much ended the meeting.” And so Chubb and his co-workers found out the home of the AHL’s Hershey Bears would soon house women and children fleeing the most serious nuclear power plant accident in U.S. history. Bears president and general manager Frank Mathers got word to head coach Fred Stanfield. Players hustled off the ice as practice ended, and arena maintenance workers quickly put the utility floor down, covering the frozen playing surface in preparation for evacuees. After consulting with Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Joseph Hendrie, Pennsylvania Gov. Richard L. Thornburgh decided against a mass evacuation. Instead, he advised all pregnant women and pre-school-age children living within a five-mile radius of the plant leave the area. “We were told they could be there for day or be there for a month,” said J. Bruce McKinney, who was vice president of the Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Company’s sports and entertainment group, which included Hersheypark Arena and the Bears. “We didn’t know how many would arrive. We just had to be ready for them.” McKinney said the American Red Cross sprung into action and helped HERCO employees turn the arena into a home for what amounted to refugees from Middletown and its surrounding communities. “The Red Cross brought over cots, blankets and all the necessary support services and they deserve a great deal of the credit for making things happen,” McKinney said. “They swiftly turned Hersheypark Arena into a makeshift home for these women and children, many of whom had no where else to go under very scary circumstances.” McKinney remembers roughly 150 people staying at the arena the night of March 30. Only half stayed the next night. Some 30 Red Cross volunteers joined with nearly 100 HERCO employees to help take care of the displaced families. “It was an eerie feeling being there at night,” said Ken Hatt, who was HERCO’s president and chief operating officer at the time. “People were living in a hockey arena, sleeping on cots on the floor.” Hatt said he remembers Red Cross workers stacking cardboard boxes on the floor, which were used as walls to offer privacy for each family. “We all tried to help them any way we could,” Hatt said. While food was brought in by the Red Cross, Hersheypark Arena officials also opened up a lower-level concession stand, located just behind the hockey player benches. With the arena in use as evacuation center, a game between the Bears and Binghamton Dusters was postponed and never made up, since it would not impact the final Southern Division standings. “There was never a doubt about postponing that game,” Hatt said. “We weren’t about to chase people out so we could play hockey, or move them up into the seating arena and force them to watch a game before they were allowed back down. That was never an option.” Chubb said a Billy Joel concert was also postponed. “We tried to make the people as comfortable as possible,” Chubb said, “but there was a lot of anxiety among the evacuees and those of us who stayed to help run the operation. “There wasn’t much by way of official information. Pretty much everything we got came from the media.” And there were plenty of TV, radio and print journalists to be found. Hersheypark Arena also became somewhat of a media center. “While they worked over at TMI during the day, a lot of the press came into various Hershey hotels to stay overnight,” McKinney said. “The press spent a lot of time at the arena, focusing in on the displaced people sleeping there. “We found ourselves dealing with press from all over the state, the country and the world. And it was pretty much all around the clock, too. A lot of TV news spots were shot at the arena.” As for those who left their homes and sought shelter inside cavernous Hersheypark Arena, McKinney remembers the women and children as being grateful. “They were, like all of us, trying to figure out what would happen almost hour to hour,” McKinney said. “Rumors were floating around everywhere, but the parents had a quiet resolve to stay as long as they had to. They were there to take care of their kids and keep them safe.” McKinney, who lived in Hershey, sent his wife and children off to the Poconos, where other friends had already fled. He remained on the job, not knowing when — or if — he’d ever see them again. “How do you plan your life for the next couple of days with such an emergency situation hanging over your head?” McKinney said. “I wasn’t sure if I’d ever see my home again. “There were so many rumors floating around about what could happen if this took place and that took place. People were scared, the evacuees, the workers. Somehow, though, we all managed to get through it together.” Dave Sottile covers pro hockey for the York Daily Record. He can be reached by phone at (717) 771-2063 or by sending e-mail to dave@ydr.com [dave@ydr.com] . ***************************************************************** 23 YDR: Part of the scenery - (TMI) York Daily Record [ydr.com] VIDEO CLIPS The following five video clips are from historical tapes housed at the National Archives in College Park, Md. VOICES FROM THE PAST The following excerpts are from letters York County residents and others sent to former Gov. Dick Thornburgh concerning the crisis at Three Mile Island. The letters are part of the Thornburgh Collection at the Pennsylvania State Archives. The excerpts are printed exactly as written, with no editing for spelling, grammar or style. Many in Goldsboro accept the site of the nation’s worst nuclear accident as part of their daily lives. By MIKE ARGENTO Daily Record staff Friday, March 26, 2004 See also: Paul Kuehnel - YDR Jay Wilson, who lives across the river from Three Mile Island, boats around the east side of the island. The Pennsylvania Power &Light Co. equipment operator leases a cabin on Shelley Island, near TMI, and has been boating there for 24 years. Jay Wilson’s Corn Hill Road farm is your basic gentlemen’s farm. He has a barn, a couple of horses, some chickens, a few peacocks. His dogs have the run of the place. It’s small by working farm standards, just a handful of acres, but that’s how Wilson likes it. It’s manageable. East of his place, though, is a sight that distinguishes Wilson’s farm — the looming, parabolic, concrete cooling towers of Three Mile Island just across the Susquehanna River. The towers, once a symbol of progress and technological prowess, serve as a reminder of what has been called, since March 28, 1979, the nation’s worst nuclear accident, the partial meltdown of the plant’s Unit 2 reactor. To Wilson, they’re just part of the background. The Pennsylvania Power &Light Co. equipment operator moved to the farm about 16 years ago. He has a cabin even closer to TMI on Shelley Island. The proximity of the plant just doesn’t bother him. “You can see the towers, but that’s it,” Wilson, 45, said recently. “You know it’s there, but there’s not much concern about it.” Proximity That about sums up Goldsboro’s relationship with Three Mile Island. The sleepy river town is less than a mile across the water from the nuclear plant — the closest town to the island. Yet, it might as well be something that’s painted on the horizon. Sure, its presence is hard to miss, but to many of those in town, it blends into the scenery. It’s as if the accident happened in another lifetime. Some residents refuse to even talk about it. One of them, the proprietress of Reeser’s Store, a small grocery that sells sundries and staples, alongside live bait to fishermen, won’t talk to reporters who infrequently visit the town to talk about one of its claims to fame. (The town’s other claim to fame, as announced on the sign on Broadway welcoming visitors, is as the hometown of former Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Greg Gross.) The town has changed in the 25 years since the accident across the river. There used to be a tavern on the square and a restaurant and a sporting goods store. They’re all gone now. The only business left is Reeser’s Store. “We’re more of what you’d call a bedroom community now,” said borough manager Lee Fishel, who’s been running Goldsboro since 1972. A lot of residents work on the West Shore or in Harrisburg. In the winter, the town hibernates. In summer, it comes alive with boaters and fishermen using the town’s marina or one of the three state-run boat ramps nearby. The borough is far from dead. At the time of the accident, some predicted Goldsboro wouldn’t survive. Either the accident would clear it out or the fear of another catastrophe would. Fishel heard those predictions, but he didn’t put much stock in them. It’d take more than a nuclear accident to scare off people in Goldsboro, he said. In the past In the days after March 28, 1979, Goldsboro was a ghost town. “I’d say ninety-nine percent of the town left,” Fishel said. It was a scary few days. Nobody knew what was happening across the river. Initial reports of the accident were confusing and, in some cases, just plain wrong. People left their homes not knowing whether they’d ever be able to return. Fishel jokes that he and local emergency management people were the only ones to stay in town. “After a few days, people started coming back,” he said. The years immediately after the accident were rough. Fishel said property values dipped slightly. As the years have passed, the values have rebounded. The accident had little effect on the town’s population. At the time of the event, the population was about 450; now, thanks in part to the 173-home Shelley’s Riverview development on the north side of town, it’s 940. Three Mile Island is part of the town’s history, he said. “If it weren’t for (reporters) coming around, we’d never talk about it,” Fishel said. “Most people here have just went about their lives.” He has more important things to worry about, running the town. He had a telephone pole come down during a recent storm and was working with the crew to replace it. And he was working on plans for new curbs and sidewalks on Railroad Street. Those things are more vital to the town — at least right now — than something that happened across the river a quarter century ago. ‘Still here’ Down on Broadway, Galen Krone, a 52-year-old UPS workers, and his girlfriend, Tanya Rider, are renovating a house they hope to rent. Krone has lived in Goldsboro all his life, most of it on South York Street. He left town during the accident. But he knew he’d be coming back. “I didn’t mind it much,” he said. “I’m still here.” Three Mile Island is part of the town’s history, and like a lot of history, not many people pay much attention to it. It’s something that’s far away in the rear-view mirror, he said. “I don’t think anyone really thinks about it much anymore,” he said. Given the record and the extraordinary cost of cleaning up after the accident, he said, a lot of people in Goldsboro believe that TMI has to be among the safest nuclear power plants in the nation. “I’m sure they watch really closely,” he said. If something happens, it happens. “One way or another,” Rider said, “if something’s gonna get you, it’s gonna get you. Why worry about it?” Vacation spot Jay Wilson wasn’t concerned about TMI when he bought his farm on Corn Hill Road. He’s even less concerned that he spends a good number of his weekends on Shelley Island. Shelley Island is next to Beech Island, which is next to Three Mile Island. He’s not alone. Before the power company dammed up the river to create Lake Frederick at Goldsboro, the Shelley family — which owned a good deal of what became Goldsboro in 1850 — farmed Shelley Island, fording the river on horseback to work the land. Since then, the island has been popular with weekend fishermen and others seeking a getaway that’s close to home. Wilson’s cabin is among dozens of cabins and trailers on the island. Not long ago, the island’s owner, Met-Ed, placed a moratorium on new development there. It was starting to get crowded, Wilson said. He loves his island retreat. When the weather’s nice, he can boat out there, spend the weekend fishing and relaxing and then, come Sunday night, he’s home in 15 minutes. “It’s like vacationing at home,” he said. “I can go on vacation every weekend.” And the fact that he’s vacationing in the shadow of the site of America’s worst nuclear accident doesn’t bother him. “You know it’s there,” he said, “but I don’t have any big concerns about it.” Copyright © York Daily Record 2004 122 S. George St., P.O. Box 15122 York, PA 17405, (717) 771-2000 ***************************************************************** 24 AFP: New Russian nuclear reactor a danger to 4.5 mln people - ecologists TERRA.WIRE
[http://www.terradaily.com/] MOSCOW (AFP) Mar 25, 2004 Russian ecologists on Thursday denounced the construction of a new nuclear reactor in the Urals region of Sverdlovsk as a danger to the surrounding region's 4.5 million inhabitants. "The construction of the fourth reactor of the Beloyarsk power plant could provoke radioactive leaks of plutonium which could affect 4.5 million people," the Ecodefense green lobbying group said in a statement. Russia is currently looking for foreign capital to finance the construction of the fast neutron reactor, which is due to be opened at the end of 2009. Sources in Rosenergoatom, the state-run body that is responsible for nuclear facilities in Russia, said Wednesday that China and Japan and possibly the United States were ready to participate in the 1.2-billion-dollar project. Ecodefense denied assertions by Rosenergoatom that the Beloyarsk nuclear power station had an exemplary safety record, saying that there had been 27 leaks -- including radioactive -- and 14 fires over the past 24 years. In September 2000, the station's automatic shutdown system did not function because of a short circuit. "The reactor would have exploded if the staff had not shut it down manually," the organisation said, citing the local Federal Security Service (FSB, ex-KGB). TERRA.WIRE ***************************************************************** 25 YDR: TMI incident spurs changes - York Daily Record [ydr.com] State agency improves communication, presence and testing. By MICHELLE STARR Daily Record staff Friday, March 26, 2004 Tom Gerusky was in his Cumberland County home, drinking a cup of coffee before work at the Bureau of Radiation Protection when a 7 a.m. call altered his routine. Something had gone wrong at the Three Mile Island power plant in Dauphin County that Wednesday, March 28, 1979. “He said ‘this is a biggie’,” said Gerusky, then director of the bureau, “and he told me what little bit he knew.” Within 20 minutes, Gerusky was at his downtown Harrisburg office, part of the Department of Environmental Resources at the time, to establish communications for his staff. Emergency plans were limited. They had run mainly phone drills and had few field cars to transport samples. Kits were stocked with rolls of dimes, the cost of a pay phone call, to transmit information from the field, Gerusky said. “You couldn’t get anyone interested in doing any more,” he said. Someone had to talk into the receiver to prevent the line with the power plant’s control room from disconnecting after a period of silence. At least, Gerusky said, having someone in the corner humming into a receiver or repeating “hello” provided a light moment. And Saturday night, when group members gathered at the capital to discuss the accident, they began talking about the movie “The China Syndrome,” and speculated who would be cast in a TV movie about TMI. The humor balanced the gravity of those the first five days when reports on radiation levels and what might happen were unclear. Gerusky was most concerned on Friday with news of a possible explosion, and on Sunday when President Jimmy Carter and Gov. Dick Thornburg toured the plant despite the uncertainty. “The problem was, no one seemed to know what was going on,” Gerusky said. Gerusky said he remembered being frustrated with the utility, Met-Ed. “They weren’t being honest with themselves or the public,” he said. Before the accident, people were apathetic about the threat of nuclear power, Gerusky said. That has changed, said Ron Ruman, information specialist at the Department of Environmental Protection. The bureau established a line with TMI and employed a nuclear safety inspector in each plant to allow for an independent assessment. Teams from the bureau check different sites daily to monitor the effects of power plants like Three Mile Island. Air samples are captured in a fiberglass filter and collected each week to be analyzed for iodine, said Tonda Lewis, radiation protection program supervisor. Environmental dosimeters around TMI measure the amount of radiation in one location and are processed at an external lab four times a year. Each DEP radiation section worker wears a personal dosimeter. Environmental readings can fluctuate with sunspots, changes of natural radon and lingering fallout from nuclear testing. “We don’t want to measure what’s here to begin with,” Lewis said, “we want to measure what we’re worried about.” At their Harrisburg lab, they test milk samples from area farmers to see what happens when an animal processes air and food. Tom Matukaitis, a chemist at DEP’s bureau of laboratories radiation measurement section, tests 3½ liters of milk at a time for gamma radiation. After placing the samples inside a 3,000-pound lead drum, liquid nitrogen flows into the upright drum to bring the temperature down to minus 300 degrees. A computer counts the components within the milk for 1,000 minutes, or about 16 hours and 40 minutes. “Anything positive, I wouldn’t be happy about,” Lewis said. “Our air sampling program should tell us long before the milk.” The samples go through 200 more minutes of inspection to look for yttrium 90, which is born from Strontium 90, a radioactive cancer-causing component that masks itself as calcium. Pete Feil, chemist at DEP’s bureau of laboratory radiation measurement section, isolates specific ions through a screening process. Then he lines up four milk samples with positive and negative controls. Samples are placed on a disk and analyzed by a computer. The department also tests water samples up- and down-stream of the plant. While the idea of radiation is scary for some, scientists say their work isn’t dangerous. Gerusky said his friends watched to see if he would evacuate his family 25 years ago, and if so, they would follow. He stayed. In 1991, he retired from the bureau to work at the U.S. Department of Energy. After five years, he moved back to New Cumberland. Gerusky had planned on medical school during general science studies at Union College in Schenectady, but he accepted a fellowship with the Atomic Energy Commission at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Some days, he regrets the decision. Today, Gerusky said, “I really don’t know” what to think of nuclear power. Reach Michelle Starr at 771-2045 or mstarr@ydr.com [mstarr@ydr.com] . Copyright © York Daily Record 2004 122 S. George St., P.O. Box 15122 York, PA 17405, (717) 771-2000 ***************************************************************** 26 YDR: Recalling TMI - York Daily Record [ydr.com] Editorial A look back at the TMI incident in excerpts from the York Daily Record’s editorials from 1979. Friday, March 26, 2004 Marking the anniversary of the TMI accident is always an odd exercise. Looking over yellowed images of those massive concrete stacks, it’s tough to imagine those fleeting moments of early terror that occurred inside and out. The stacks just stand there stoically against an empty Pennsylvania sky. It’s hard to hear the sirens. It’s hard to recreate the rush of panic. And it’s hard to imagine those moments when no one knew what might happen next. Those in the York Daily Record newsroom were smack in the middle of it. In the days before the accident, the staff produced a series about safety defects at the plant. The work fueled editorials on these pages about the need to “Fix Three Mile Island Now.” Utility and governmental officials controverted both the series and editorials, however. Then on March 28, 1979, the accident occurred and opinion-makers here expressed fresh urgency about the nuclear plant’s operations and the lack of a clear emergency plan for York County. Excerpts from those editorials are offered today as an effort to recall, reflect and remember that what happened here must not happen again. · · · “The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has discovered serious safety defects at Three Mile Island atomic power plant. A simple fire, NRC found, could wipe out all the safety systems designed to protect us from a nuclear accident. . . . If the NRC can’t find the conscience to order a temporary shutdown for repairs, then GPU should shut it down on its own accord. It should show its concern for the lives and welfare of its customers.” — “Fix Three Mile Island Now,” YDR, March 19, 1979 “Wednesday’s accident proved once again that accidents can happen, even when the odds say they are unlikely. The power companies, which have invested billions of dollars in nuclear generation, will quickly point out that all the safeguards worked, that the reactor shut itself down and that only a minimal amount of radiation was released into the atmosphere. Thank God. . . . Nuclear power may be a solution to our energy woes for the remainder of this century. But is it the only solution or even the best one? If it is, shouldn’t we take every step at the earliest possible time to ensure our safety? . . . It should be even more apparent that the plant should be repaired now.” — “Repair nuclear plant,” YDR, March 29, 1979 “For many people, the last five days have been a harrowing experience. Uncertainty. Confusion. Fear of the unknown. . . . Many have fled their homes to visit friends or relatives “just in case” something happens. Nobody can predict. . . . It’s been a time of great stress. “While Civil Defense people take the brunt of the responsibility, it should be noted that the power companies themselves have a vital stake in seeing these plans are properly made, too. Why didn’t somebody from the utility know the public planning was so lacking?” — “Confusion reigns,” YDR, April 2, 1979 “It is easy to blame the utilities or the government or some anonymous ‘them’ for the failure at Three Mile Island and, as that memory fades, for the high cost of energy. . . . In fact, we are all responsible. We have demonstrated an insatiable demand for cheap and plentiful power — gas for cars, electricity for a thousand home gadgets, oil to keep homes at greenhouse temperatures winterlong, fuel to power factories to turn out cars, boats, appliances, plastic wrap and millions of other throwaway items we feel are necessary to the pursuit of happiness. We can now equally do our part to change this. We can insist that safety be put before cost. We can demonstrate a little imaginative thrift in our lives. We can reduce our appetite for energy. This is the debt we owe to the next generation . . .” — “Accident waiting to happen,” YDR, April 3, 1979 “The bubble. The brave and dedicated men who worked against time to find a way to eliminate the dangerous hydrogen bubble from the reactor deserve praise. Still, recalling all the assurances nuclear scientists have given us about the safety of reactors with their back-up systems, one wonders why there was a bubble at all. . . . Hundreds of thousands of Central Pennsylvania residents lived with anxiety, worry, fear during the whole Three Mile Island episode. . . . Is all that social tension worth an alternative energy source that can so disrupt an entire area of a state?” — “Thoughts on TMI,” YDR, April 5, 1979 “Earlier this week, we published a story about the still-developing evacuation plans in York County. In it, we reported that officials refused to release an emergency transportation line telephone number. That decision was at least irresponsible and at worst could result in the unnecessary deaths of persons unable to take care of evacuating themselves. . . . The officials said they would not give the number in advance because they feared it would produce evacuation requests before any evacuation was needed. In other words, it isn’t worth the trouble.” — “Irresponsible at best,” YDR, April 6, 1979 “As the praise is being spread about how these men worked tirelessly through the crisis to devise a plan, let us not forget that they had a responsibility to have a plan ready and did not. Let us not cast all of our anger at Harrisburg, Washington or Metropolitian Edison Co. We were let down at home, too.” — “Irresponsible at best,” YDR, April 6, 1979 Copyright © York Daily Record 2004 122 S. George St., P.O. Box 15122 York, PA 17405, (717) 771-2000 ***************************************************************** 27 YDR: Echoes of disaster - York Daily Record [ydr.com] VOICES FROM THE PAST The following excerpts are from letters York County residents and others sent to former Gov. Dick Thornburgh concerning the crisis at Three Mile Island. The letters are part of the Thornburgh Collection at the Pennsylvania State Archives. Those who helped avert a meltdown recall the day that changed nuclear power in America. By SEAN ADKINS and SHARON SMITH Daily Record staff Friday, March 26, 2004 At bottom: · FIRSTENERGY RESPONDS · THIS WEEK’S EVENTS · TROUBLE AT TMI order photo reprint Paul Kuehnel - YDR The cooling towers of Three Mile Island's Unit 2 reactor have served only as reminders of disaster since the moment trouble began on the morning of March 28, 1979. This week, reporters and photographers were allowed inside one of the defunct towers aspart of the commemorations of the worst accident in the history of American nuclear power generation. Around 4 a.m. March 28, 1979, workers in Three Mile Island’s control room realized something wasn’t right with Unit 2. A signal on the control panel alerted them that the nuclear power plant had stopped feeding electricity to the grid. Eight seconds later, another signal warned that the Unit 2 reactor was down. Something was wrong. Unbeknownst to TMI Met-Ed workers at the control room, a pressure-operated relief valve had opened and failed to close, spilling thousands of gallons of coolant from around the reactor’s core. No instrument alerted them to the fact that the core was losing coolant. The core had become exposed. The reactor was well on its way to a meltdown. Workers at the Londonderry Township plant scrambled to figure out the problem. They didn’t know that Unit 2’s core was losing water or that if they didn’t act, they faced a possible release of radiation into the atmosphere. Although a large-scale nuclear crisis was avoided, a partial meltdown did occur inside TMI’s Unit 2 in Dauphin County. Sunday marks the 25th anniversary of the event that changed the United States’ nuclear power industry. Since the crisis, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not ordered any new nuclear plants. After the accident, the nuclear industry took several steps to ensure that plants were better prepared to deal with major problems. While plant workers could not immediately identify the problem, they knew enough from their training to keep the core cool. Two hours would pass before they were able to stop the core from melting down. It would be days before they knew the extent of the damage, and several more days before residents believed they were out of harm’s way. While the accident was caused by a mixture of mechanical failure and human error, it would take a combination of workers, state officials and federal regulators to restore normalcy. The following is a behind-the-scenes look at the stories of the men who worked feverishly to bring the crisis under control. Recently, these key players spoke with the York Daily Record about their experiences. Sound the alarms Dick Dubiel was getting ready for work when his telephone rang at 5 a.m. TMI’s Unit 2 control room was on the line. George Kunder, the second unit’s superintendent for technical support, needed Dubiel at the plant. Right away. The plant’s supervisor for radiation, protection and chemistry grabbed his lunch and headed for TMI. About 20 minutes later, he traded his lunch for a hard hat and headed from his office to the Unit 2 control room. Three-way discussions buzzed throughout the control room as operators huddled over various instruments. For Dubiel, the mood revealed nothing more had happened than an unscheduled reactor shutdown. Over the heads of workers, Kunder caught sight of Dubiel and gave immediate orders to prepare a team to venture into the containment building. “I looked at the radiation monitoring panel before leaving the control room,” Dubiel said. “It looked normal.” Kunder, like the rest of the crew, wanted to fix the problem and get the plant back online. Dubiel headed for the health physics section. He spotted two technicians and told them to get ready to enter the containment building, but they never made it there. A radiation alarm sounded. The radiation monitor was connected to the alarm in TMI’s Unit 1 machine shop. “That didn’t make a lick of sense,” Dubiel said. He grabbed a hand-held radiation meter and headed with the two technicians to the machine shop. Then it came to him. Sample lines from Unit 2 ran above the machine shop. Dubiel raised the radiation monitor toward the sample lines and saw the levels rise the higher he went. “I knew that there was something drastically wrong with the power plant at that time,” he said. “All the radiation alarms started to go off.” The two technicians hurried workers out of the plant. Dubiel rushed to the health physics office to get Kunder on the line. “I told Kunder, ‘We’re failing fuel,’” he said. “I told him to inject as much boron into the coolant as he could.” Boron-laced water helps slow or stop nuclear chain reactions. When shift supervisor Brian Mehler entered TMI’s control room at about 6 a.m., workers had already been struggling for hours to fix the problem. Mehler had little idea what was going on with the core. But the loss of pressure pushed the shift supervisor to order the block valve, a back-up to the pressure-operated relief valve, to be closed. “There was nothing to be lost by closing the block valve,” Mehler said before a U.S. Senate subcommittee investigating the accident. “Upon closing the block valve, pressure did recover.” “To me, it was obvious when I walked in,” he said during his 1979 testimony. “I can’t say what they were looking at.” Unit 2’s core had already lost 32,000 gallons of water, but it stopped losing water after workers closed the block valve. A complete meltdown had been averted. But the political fallout was about to begin. PEMA is on the line At 7:50 a.m., nearly four hours after things began to go awry at TMI, someone stopped Gov. Dick Thornburgh in the hallway of the governor’s residence. The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency was on the line. There had been some sort of accident at TMI. Thornburgh had been on his way to a breakfast meeting to discuss his first budget when the call came in. The meeting would have to wait. Seventy-two days into his first term as governor, Thornburgh had to deal with a major crisis. The new governor knew little about nuclear power. “I knew enough to know we had a substantial challenge on our hands,” he said. Thornburgh contacted Lt. Gov. Bill Scranton, his chief of staff, and his press secretary. “My whole effort was just trying to elicit what the whole situation was,” Thornburgh said. “We had been led to believe it was safe. I think one of the things the Three Mile Island accident did was provide a wake-up call to everybody that that assumption was not well-grounded.” From the beginning, the governor fielded conflicting information about what was happening at the plant. Opinions on what should be done to protect the public from its aftermath also were in disagreement. “It was pretty frustrating trying to get a handle on the facts,” he said. “The utility very early on squandered their credibility somewhat. Some of the people we dealt with in the federal government were giving us advice that didn’t make much sense to us.” After picking up high levels of radiation on sampling equipment, the NRC urged Thornburgh to order an evacuation. Thornburgh and his team couldn’t figure out how the federal government arrived at its opinion. Thornburgh had state officials chase down the information he needed. It turned out that the federal government’s samples were wrong. There was no need to evacuate. “You don’t take the evacuation of a couple hundred thousand people lightly,” Thornburgh said. “We wanted to make absolutely sure what we were doing was grounded in fact.” Thornburgh’s background as a prosecutor helped him distinguish between the facts and falsehoods. His beliefs in the truth and a higher power saw him through the ordeal. “I did a lot of praying,” he said. “When you’re the decision-maker, you want to make sure you have a firm grip on the facts.” Wake-up call Thomas Gerusky was drinking his first cup of coffee when the telephone rang around 7 a.m. March 28. One of his employees at the state’s Bureau of Radiation Protection told him TMI called. There was a situation at the plant. “I can remember him saying, ‘It’s a biggie,’” Gerusky said. “This didn’t look like it was going to be resolved in a few hours.” Gerusky, director of the Bureau of Radiation Protection, sent a radiation team to monitor the plant’s west shore, including Goldsboro in York County. Soon, the team was conducting radiation field tests of the air, water and soil around-the-clock. Meanwhile, Scranton’s job was to find out what was going on inside the plant. Early reports coming out of Met-Ed’s headquarters in Reading said no radiation had been released from the plant. The state’s own testing showed otherwise. Readings taken later that day by the state showed small levels of radiation as far away as Harrisburg, which is about nine miles north from the plant. Back in his office, Scranton became agitated with Met-Ed over inaccurate information the company had fed to the commonwealth. Scranton directed his anger toward a Met-Ed official who arrived at the lieutenant governor’s office that morning. “I read him the riot act,” he said. “Their credibility went out the window.” The next day the lieutenant governor drove to TMI. “The control room appeared to be filled with professionals who were not panicked,” he said. “They were determined to work out the problem.” Scranton donned a white full-body suit and yellow boots — gear designed to protect against radiation. Along with a team of plant workers, Scranton walked into TMI’s Unit 2 auxiliary building. The lieutenant governor crossed a catwalk over what looked like a flooded basement. With a hand-held monitor, Scranton detected radiation coming from the water in Unit 2’s auxiliary building. “It was very unnerving,” he said. “But I got to see the dimensions of the problem.” Soon, a team from the NRC’s headquarters in Bethesda, Md., led by Harold Denton, would descend on Three Mile Island to assist in the aftermath of the accident. COMING SATURDAY: Federal officials come to TMI Reach Sean Adkins at 771-2047 or sadkins@ydr.com [sadkins@ydr.com] , and Sharon Smith at 771-2029 or ssmith@ydr.com [ssmith@ydr.com] . FIRSTENERGY RESPONDS In November 2001, FirstEnergy took over GPU and all the company’s holdings, including Three Mile Island Unit 2. Met-Ed, a division of GPU, operated TMI in 1979. When asked to comment about the 25th anniversary, Scott Shields, spokesman for FirstEnergy, said that since the 1979 partial meltdown, the Unit 2 reactor has been in a state of long-term monitored storage. In the years following the accident, GPU workers removed 300,000 pounds of core material from TMI Unit 2 before the project was completed in December 1993. The job required 3.6 million man-hours and cost $1 billion. “It was an unprecedented undertaking,” Shields said. “It’s a site that has been put to bed.” Aside from a couple of FirstEnergy workers stationed at TMI, AmerGen, which owns and operates Unit 1, holds a contract to monitor TMI Unit 2. THIS WEEK’S EVENTS A sampling of events planned for the 25th anniversary of the accident at Three Mile Island: · TMI Alert, in conjunction with the City of Harrisburg, is showing a photo exhibit called “The People of TMI” at City Hall. For details, http://www.tmia.com [http://www.tmia.com] . · The Midtown Cinema, 250 Reily St. in Harrisburg, will show “The China Syndrome” at 6 p.m. today. The drama about an accident at a nuclear power plant had been released in theaters nationwide shortly before the accident at TMI. A question-and-answer period on nuclear issues is planned with today’s showing. · TMI Alert is sponsoring a community dinner at 6 p.m. Saturday at the American Legion in Middletown, 137 East High St. The cost is $20, plus a cash bar. For details, http://www.tmia.com [http://www.tmia.com] . · TMI Alert and Dickinson College are holding a taping from 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday to record personal experiences for the Dickinson Oral Histories Project. For details, http://www.tmia.com [http://www.tmia.com] . · No Nukes Pennsylvania is sponsoring a vigil at 3 a.m. Sunday at the power plant’s north gate. The vigil is in honor of all victims of radiation exposure. The group plans to put up a historical marker commemorating the 25th anniversary. · Unplug Salem Campaign will hold a protest from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, outside of the Salem Nuclear Generating Station in southern New Jersey. Norm Cohen, group coordinator, expects about 100 people to attend. · Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch, which opposes the Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant in New Jersey, will hold two public meetings Monday to coincide with the anniversary of the Three Mile Island accident. The topic is “What Happens If Oyster Creek Shuts Down Now?” TROUBLE AT TMI THE CAUSE: When a pump malfunction triggered a shutdown of the TMI Unit 2 reactor, a relief valve stuck open, allowing coolant to drain undetected from the hot reactor. A series of human errors and misunderstandings followed, compounding the trouble. THE EFFECT: Half of the radioactive core melted in temperatures exceeding 4,000 degrees. The reactor vessel contained the deadly material, but total meltdown was only narrowly averted. THE SOLUTION: Two hours after the crisis began, a control room supervisor ordered a backup valve to be shut, preventing the entire core from melting. THE STUMBLES: Plant owner Met-Ed was assailed for not alerting the community to risks more quickly and for releasing inaccurate information. Public officials also realized that plans for evacuation, detection of radiation and communication were inadequate. THE RESULTS: Unit 2 was shut down and dismantled. The Unit 1 reactor sustained no damage and went on to set industry standards for safety and efficiency. No death or injury has ever been tied to the accident. THE INDUSTRY: No new nuclear power plants have been ordered in the United States since the accident at TMI. Nuclear power generates about 20 percent of all electricity used in the nation, and many power plants have received extensions on their operating licences. Copyright © York Daily Record 2004 122 S. George St., P.O. Box 15122 York, PA 17405, (717) 771-2000 ***************************************************************** 28 YDR: Trinkets show humor in time of crisis - TMI York Daily Record [ydr.com] VOICES FROM THE PAST The following excerpts are from letters York County residents and others sent to former Gov. Dick Thornburgh concerning the crisis at Three Mile Island. The letters are part of the Thornburgh Collection at the Pennsylvania State Archives. The excerpts are printed exactly as written, with no editing for spelling, grammar or style. By JENNIFER VOGELSONG Daily Record staff Friday, March 26, 2004 Carrie Fite still has the canned “radiation” she purchased after the partial meltdown at the TMI nuclear power plant 25 years ago. Just the other day, the Delaware County woman dug it out to show her teenage sons after a trip back to Central Pennsylvania — and past the huge cooling towers in the middle of the Susquehanna River — sparked questions. “They wanted to know why TMI is so well-known and why everybody keeps talking about it,” she said. Fite was a senior at Greenwood High School in Millerstown, Perry County, when the partial meltdown occurred. She guesses she bought the spoof “radiation” at the local five-and-ten store for a couple of bucks. The can, which claims it can be used for an “ever glowing smile” or as an “energy free nightlight,” lists “1 hydrogen gas bubble” among the ingredients. “I thought it was really funny,” she recalled. It was also a way for her to prove to her three sons — or anyone else, for that matter — that she was in the area when the historic event took place. “It’s like a ticket stub,” she said. “How else would you get something like that?” At Dickinson College in Carlisle, Robert Cavenagh, director of instructional technology, held a contest to find the best T-shirt slogan during the crisis. Many students and faculty members had already left the campus, and the atmosphere was tense among those who remained. “We were looking at things we could do to keep people engaged and lively,” he said. “There was a certain amount of black humor circulating about TMI, so we suggested the contest.” Four slogans stood out among the submissions, so Cavenagh set up a makeshift silk-screening workshop in the student union building to make T-shirts of whichever design people wanted, for $1 each. “People had to bring their own T-shirts though because we didn’t have any real money for this,” he recalled. The most popular design was one with “I survived TMI” sprawled across the front in big, bold letters, with a smaller, shakily-written “I think” in the bottom corner. Others included “Hell no, we won’t blow,” and “Visit Harrisburg, have 2.3 children.” “That was tacky,” Cavenagh said of the last one. He guessed he made hundreds of the T-shirts, 80 of which were ordered by ABC news crews in the area to cover the disaster. Cavenagh said the shirts were typical gallows humor — a way for students and faculty at the college to deal with the uncertain times. “I think anytime people are under stress, humor is one of the ways they cope,” he said. “You make a joke of it so you can kind of bring it out and confront it without actually saying, ‘I wonder if this reactor is going to go “whoof!”’” Dick Smyser took the roundabout way from his home in Tennessee to a newspaper editor’s conference in New York a couple of weeks after the partial meltdown so he could stop by his hometown of York to see the aftershocks. While there, he stopped in Goldsboro and bought five or six cans of the canned “radiation” at a bar on the town square. He sent them to each of his five siblings, who also grew up in York. “I thought they were kind of hilarious,” he said. “It would probably go for something big on eBay now.” Reach Jennifer Vogelsong at 771-2034 or jvogelsong@ydr.com [jvogelsong@ydr.com] . Copyright © York Daily Record 2004 122 S. George St., P.O. Box 15122 York, PA 17405, (717) 771-2000 ***************************************************************** 29 MSNBC - Nuclear power, 25 years after Three Mile Island Bush administration wants it to grow, but obstacles remain The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant sits on an island in the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, Penn. http://www.reuters.com/] Updated: March26, 2004 WASHINGTON - Sunday marks the 25th anniversary of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident, and 25 years later the nation’s aging fleet of 103 reactors still face nagging questions about their ability to prevent mishaps. These concerns, worsened by recent findings of massive corrosion at a nuclear power plant in Ohio, have so far kept utilities away from pursuing new nuclear plants for over two decades despite their potential to replace aging, air-polluting coal units. In a bid to change that trend, the Bush administration has promoted incentives to build new nuclear plants. But the outlook is uncertain because a Republican-written energy bill with some of the administration’s proposals has long been stalled in the U.S. Senate. Stepping back into past On March 28, 1979, Walter Cronkite opened his nightly news broadcast for CBS television, calling the accident at the Pennsylvania plant “the first step in a nuclear nightmare.†That was the first time that many Americans heard of the mishap, the most serious accident in U.S. nuclear history. Early that morning, pumps feeding cooling water to the plant’s reactor failed, and 32,000 gallons of radioactive, superheated water spewed from a dodgy valve into the domed concrete reactor housing. Without water to cool them, over half of the reactor’s 36,000 nuclear fuel rods ruptured. Government scientists said that the 636,000 people living within 20 miles of the plant got only minor radiation doses. A string of mechanical failures and human errors caused the Three Mile Island accident after operators with Metropolitan Edison Co. switched off crucial equipment that could have lessened the severity of the partial meltdown. Industry froze The near-catastrophe at the plant, perched on an island in the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, Penn., effectively halted any expansion in the U.S. nuclear energy industry, which generates about 20 percent of the nation’s electricity. The resulting cancellation of dozens of planned nuclear plants forced utilities to rely on decades-old nuclear and coal-burning plants for growing electric power demands. For the last decade, utilities have looked almost exclusively to natural gas plants to fill the gap, which has exacerbated the nation’s shortage of that clean-burning fuel. And two years ago, massive corrosion found at an Ohio nuclear plant points to lingering safety questions. “With plants aging and the number of checks dwindling, this is a troubling trend,†said David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists. Activist groups also worry that current security measures cannot prevent a terrorist attack on a U.S. nuclear plant, but the industry counters it has spent millions of dollars to upgrade security since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Corrosion scare Safety concerns continue to plague the industry. [CORRODED REACTOR LID] NRCThe corroded part of the Davis-Besse reactor lid is seen here after it was cut out from the rest of the hull. Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors in early 2002 found massive corrosion at an Ohio nuclear plant owned by FirstEnergy. Leaking boric acid used as a coolant ate a football-sized hole in the steel outer hull protecting the company’s Davis-Besse plant’s reactor core. No radiation was released, and the NRC allowed FirstEnergy to begin reviving the unit this month after the utility agreed to change its “safety culture.†NRC Chairman Nils Diaz said the NRC “dropped the ball†by not spotting the corrosion sooner. â€It was no way to do business, either on the part of operators or regulators,†Diaz said. Nuclear industry officials bristle at any connection between the Three Mile Island and Davis-Besse incidents, and point to advances in operator training and plant design. “For critics to use (Davis-Besse) as an example to support claims about aging reflects either the fact that they’re ignorant about how that phenomenon played out or they just don’t want to apply it correctly,†said a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, a lobbying group. But industry watchdogs say the aging U.S. nuclear utility fleet could be nearing the end of its trouble-free life, with incidents like Davis-Besse foreshadowing mishaps to come. “We haven’t seen a lot of near-misses in this country since (Three Mile Island),†Lochbaum said. “But the other end of the curve is what we’re approaching, if we’re not there already.†Bush wants new plant by 2010 The Bush administration, meanwhile, wants to jump-start the U.S. nuclear industry with an energy plan aimed at building at least one new nuclear power plant in the United States by 2010. One version of the energy bill stalled in the Senate would give tax incentives to build new plants, with a cost of $10 billion. The incentives could be stripped from the bill to appease budget concerns from the administration and others. Nuclear advocates say such incentives can make nuclear generation competitive with coal and natural gas, and allow utilities to shift from their heavy reliance on fossil fuels. Utilities have relied on squeezing more megawatts from existing nuclear plants. Capacity factors went from 58 percent in 1980 to 92 percent in 2002, forestalling the need to build new plants, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute. The industry says that the NRC carefully reviews capacity increases to ensure safety. Jim Riccio, an anti-nuclear advocate at Greenpeace, doesn't buy that. “After Three Mile Island, the pendulum definitely swung in the direction of safety,†he said. “In the last 25 years, it has swung in the other direction. They’re running these plants to the verge of breakdown.†400 interviews on Web site Back at Three Mile Island, the reactor that failed was long ago shut down and defueled, while a sister reactor still runs and is owned by Exelon. Local residents have a new archive to mark the 25th anniversary: Social scientists at nearby Dickinson College have launched a Web site --  www.threemileisland.org [http://www.threemileisland.org/] -- 400 interviews taken in the accident's aftermath. Social scientist Lonna Malmsheimer led a few colleagues and about 20 students fanned out into the community to do what social scientists do—field work. The researchers said they are not trying to pass judgment, just pass along information about what they call a  "history-changing event." The point, they say on their Web site, is to make available interviews, some of them audio, "that will enrich our understanding of the emergency and its aftermath."Copyright 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. © 2004 MSNBC.com ***************************************************************** 30 YDR: Readers remember - TMI York Daily Record [ydr.com] Schools closed, mothers gave birth and some families prepared to evacuate By JENNIFER VOGELSONG Daily Record staff Friday, March 26, 2004 While the rest of York County was wondering what to do should a disaster take place at nearby Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, Brenda Kemper of Red Lion gave birth to her first baby, a boy, on Wednesday, March 28, 1979, at York Hospital. The next morning, Sheryll Ewell of Windsor Township gave birth to her first child, a girl. She and her husband were so happy about their new child that they didn’t pay much attention to news reports. On Saturday, March 31, a phone call from her sister in Hallam alerted Patt Smith, a single mother of three young children in York, to news of a possible meltdown at TMI. She called another sister, who also lived in York, and they discussed what they should do. Finally, they decided to pack their three cars and drive through the night to sister Margaret Weber’s home in Olean, N.Y. The four sisters and their 10 children chaotically coexisted in Weber’s house for a week until they felt it was safe to return to York County. That same day, Anna Mae Wineholt was gathering provisions inside her New Freedom home and sent her husband to fill up their car’s gas tank, in case her family would have to evacuate in the middle of the night. The next morning, when she felt the danger had passed, she stepped out into the garage to go to church, only to find the car had a flat tire. “Not very conducive to a ‘quick getaway,’” she writes. The last week of March 1979 was a scary time for many York County residents. Some people packed up cars, took their children out of school, filled up the gas tank and headed for the homes of relatives living far from TMI. Some never returned. Others decided to stick around until the threat of a disaster was more certain. No matter what they did, most of those living near TMI at that time will never forget what life was like then. Below, more than 20 readers share their memories of that historic week. * * * My boyfriend taught me how to cross-country ski during the winter of 1978-79. Spring came early in March of ’79. On Friday night, we went to the movies to see “The China Syndrome” — a newly released film about a crisis in a nuclear energy plant. Sunday afternoon, we took his father’s motorcycle for a ride just above York to a place called Three Mile Island. By Wednesday, TMI had begun. My boyfriend packed his camping gear and drove to the western part of Pennsylvania to get away and “meditate.” I stayed in Loganville. I figured if anything happened, I would have to be thousands of miles away to be safe, and I didn’t think I could get that far away that fast. The situation felt hopeless. By the end of the next weekend, I had the keys to five of my panicked friends’ houses — to feed the fish and check on things. My parents were in Texas and my brother lived in California. My chemistry classes at Franklin &Marshall were canceled because the professor had left the area. It was a very lonely time — so many people had left and there was no one close to share my fears with. The weather was so warm and beautiful that I went on a walk and scattered flower seeds. I thought if there was radiation in the air that all the flowers would be mutant giants — if and when they finally bloomed. A week later, I still hadn’t heard from my boyfriend. He finally showed up on April 7, my birthday. He had met a girl while he was camping in the woods and they really liked each other. I told him to “go for it” and they later got married and still are to this day. The next day we got 8 inches of snow, enough to ski on. It was the first time I ever went cross-country skiing without that boyfriend. And the flowers never did grow. — JEANI KISER LOGANVILLE * * * The TMI event was a defining moment in my life. It was the first time I truly understood how important my father was to his parishioners and the community. We were living off of South Queen Street (in York), one street over from First Baptist Church of York, my father’s church. My sister, brother and I were public school students, which was important to my parents, who opted out of sending us to the new Christian School of York to show their support for the city schools. I was in class at Vo-Tech when an announcement came over the public address system, “Sit on the floor against any wall that (does) not have a window. No one is to leave their classroom for any reason. Buses are on the way to take you home.” When I got home, Dad was on the phone. He and Mom had a quiet discussion before sitting down with us. Dad, as clergy, had been asked to remain, as had other pastors. Dad wanted us to go to Philadelphia to stay with family, but it was decided that we would remain together as a family. Schools were closed for two weeks. Many people left the area for at least that long. We stayed and watched Dad comfort and encourage others who chose to stay. I had always known that Dad was an important part of people’s lives, but I never knew their total trust in his leadership until this incident. — BONNIE (RAUGHT) CHARBONNIER MOUNT WOLF * * * How well I remember March 28, 1979. I was the school secretary at Devers Elementary School (in York). Hearing the news and knowing there were a couple hundred children in the school building was frightening. The thought went through my mind, “What will we do if the children must stay here overnight, or even longer?” At times like that you think the worst. The telephones rang continuously. I had the outside phone at one ear and the intercom at the other. Parents were calling to pick up their children as soon as possible. To add to our worries, a gentleman came into the office and told about a similar experience he had in Germany years ago. Thank God, by the end of the day everyone was able to leave and arrive home safely. — SHIRLEY MONROE SPRINGETTSBURY TOWNSHIP * * * I had just opened up a dental lab in the basement of my (York) home. Scared and hoping I would have a dentist to work for, I had a wife and three children to support. I was coaching Little League baseball when Rubin Zeager, a policeman and friend, came up to me and said to send all the boys home because the National Guard was forming down in Glen Rock and might be getting everybody out of York. I went home and told my wife and kids to go to the mountains, where I had a cabin. I told her I just opened up the business and I didn’t know if I should go. Then a dentist called and said he wanted dentures finished within the next few days. So I stayed home and did the work. I told (my wife) I might see her in the mountains if they get everybody out. — AL MUNCHEL WEST MANCHESTER TOWNSHIP * * * The news about TMI came while I was teaching a class of adults. I don’t know if I was too young or too stupid to be afraid, but I really never felt fearful throughout the event. However, I was angry. I had lived in York since 1976, but my family had never visited. Of course, this was to be the big weekend. I had obtained tickets for a local passion play and planned other fun activities for my parents. Since many people were evacuating York, we felt it wise for my family not to come into town. My fiance and I briefly considered leaving the York area but decided if it was our time to see Jesus, so be it. — KATIE BLOUGH DALLASTOWN * * * “Attention, teachers, please close off all outside air vents” was the initial warning I received over the public address system at Red Lion Junior High School. It was my first year of teaching in Red Lion and we wondered what event had triggered that request. During the days that followed, I recall my concern over my children Michael, 8, and Stacie, 7, who attended school in another district. How would I get to them? Could I protect them? After sleeping with the television on all night and expecting to be directed to evacuate the Dallastown/Red Lion area, I was tired and terrified. I finally convinced my husband to take us all to Gettysburg to get away from the tension. I remember frustration and mistrust about the information we heard from the media. Having watched the recent special on TMI, I was probably better off not knowing that a meltdown was only 30 minutes away. — PEGGIE FREE RED LION * * * My husband and I were house parents at the Milton Hershey School in Derry Township when we received word that there was an emergency at Three Mile Island on Wednesday, the 28th. Thursday was a normal day and we were looking forward to our weekend off. Friday, we were preparing for our trip to our travel trailer. Also, we had been invited to another house parents’ home for a birthday luncheon. We remember the weather as being very muggy. We were informed of a house parent meeting at 2 p.m. Friday at Founders’ Hall. The students were due to leave the next Friday for Easter vacation. However, we were to notify their sponsor they could leave immediately. We had 12 students in our care. Some were picked up that evening and the rest bused out at 5:30 a.m. Saturday. We were informed each day at our meetings about the stabilization of the situation at TMI. We were in a sense of disbelief, but the calmness of Mr. Harold Denton from the NRC gave us assurance, by way of television, that all would be well. Also, seeing President Carter and Gov. Dick Thornburgh walking through the plant was all we needed. — CLYDE AND AGNES STOUGH DOVER TOWNSHIP * * * On the morning of March 28, 1979, I was in the York Hospital in labor. I had my first baby, a boy, around 11:30. Then I was given a room with a television that had no sound. Even though I could see pictures, I couldn’t hear what was going on. By the time anyone told me, half the day was gone. I realized I had been too involved (giving birth) to even be aware of the potential disaster. However, year after year I remember the day, glad my son came into this world when he did. — BRENDA KEMPER RED LION * * * It was the final weekend before 20 boys and girls would be confirmed. Our overnight retreat would be some 20 miles away. We had big plans. We would bed down on the floor in Mount Pisgah Church near Sam Lewis Park overlooking the Susquehanna River. The morning of our departure, Friday, we learned of the potential meltdown of the core of one of the towers at Three Mile Island nuclear facility. After many inquiries for our safety, we gathered in the parking lot, giving parents an opportunity to bow out. Only one (teen), a dentist’s son, and his family joined what we learned later was a stream of cars leaving via southern and western routes . . . Our small caravan headed east. We would be safe inside the little white church. God was with us. Only one teen was fearful that she could not reach her grandmother. There was no phone. The night was peaceful. When (Saturday) morning came, we cautiously pushed open the door and with a deep sigh of relief looked out on a bright sunny morning. We would end our retreat with a cookout at the park. After lunch we gathered to talk. We had sensed in a small way the possible tragedy that could occur. We shared thoughts on life and death and new life. I remember one boy’s prayer: “Please God, don’t let anything happen to the fish!” Sunday morning, after the retreat, one teen came into my office with a picture he had drawn, showing me what was going on inside one of the cooling towers at TMI . . . I wonder what they remember now of our trip in the opposite direction. — LAURA R. HESS YORK TOWNSHIP * * * In March 1979, I was stationed in Iceland while serving in the U.S. Navy. My parents and sisters were living in Dover. After finishing working for the day, I went to the USO building to get a meal and meet a few friends. While there, I picked up an airmen’s local newspaper from Altoona. The paper was two weeks old and had articles about what was happening in my hometown. That is how I found out about TMI. Being a typical young person, I did not write home periodically. You must realize this is before the computer age and e-mail. While serving in the military, we depended on the mail for any news from home. It was not until all had calmed down a little that my mother finally wrote to me about Three Mile Island. And it wasn’t till December 1979, when I came home for a visit, that I fully realized what my family had experienced. It was quite a frightening time for them, especially for my littlest sister, Tina, who was only 10. She still finds the experience a little bit unnerving to talk about, even today. — TAMMY SEIGER DOVER TOWNSHIP * * * On March 27, 1979, 32 men went to Myrtle Beach golfing. About 25 of them were employed by Met-Ed. On March 28, at about 3 a.m. in a truck stop in South Carolina, one man spotted a newspaper in a rack with the headlines about TMI. No one thought much about it until we got to our motel in Myrtle Beach. A lot of their wives called and asked their husbands what to do. I think most told their wives not to worry about it. I don’t think many of us knew the consequences of this terrible thing that could have happened. I knew nothing about the problem. It did not change my life. — WILLIAM H. CRUMBLING YORKANA * * * When the sheriff ordered all residents to immediately leave the area, people brought their animals to our small animal boarding facility. I cannot recall a single owner who asked me on admission of their pet, “What will happen to my animals when you also vacate your premises?” The sheriff personally stopped to remind me that he expected me to vacate with all other York County residents. I actually stayed on the premises the whole time. This was a very panicky time for all. — HAROLD NEIBERT SPRINGETTSBURY TOWNSHIP * * * I was in Thule, Greenland, in March 1979, entertaining the troops with a musical group based out of Harrisburg. When we heard that a hydrogen explosion could occur (at TMI), we were too worried to practice. Meanwhile, Navy seals were attempting to recover a nuclear bomb on the ocean floor seven miles away (from where we were). It was lost in a 1968 B-52 crash which left the snow and ice contaminated. . . . The radiation tri-foil signs seemed to stand out like a sore thumb once we heard about TMI. I was able to telephone my girlfriend (in Harrisburg) via a special military line. All other lines were jammed. I thought she might need to evacuate. A week later I was back in Harrisburg. In one 24-hour period, I had gone from one nuclear accident scene to another. Both accidents have classified documents hidden from public view to this day. — SCOTT PORTZLINE HARRISBURG * * * We followed all the reports on the radio and did not feel any real danger until Saturday. That evening, I had my husband, Clifton, take our station wagon and have the gas tank filled in case we would have to evacuate during the night. When he came back from getting the gasoline, I started to get some essentials together — sleeping bags, toiletries, a small amount of non-perishable food, water, medicines, cash, checkbook, etc. Well, during the night, the threat of radiation spreading over the area posed no danger, so the next morning, which was Sunday, I decided to go to church. When I went in the garage to back the car out, we had a flat tire on the right rear wheel — not very conducive to a “quick getaway.” — ANNA MAE WINEHOLT NEW FREEDOM * * * I was a student at the York Academy of Art when the news first broke about TMI. Seven of us shared a house on Wallace Street (in York) and some of the guys left for the weekend. The rest of us were involved with a terrific group of people at Bethlehem United Methodist Church only one block from home. The entire church was preparing scenery, lighting, sound and an outside market for what was then one of York’s first full-production passion plays. However, most of us did not know what to expect in turnout from the cast, or even if there would be an audience. Later that day, most of the cast (more than 100 people) showed up for makeup. It was prearranged that a donkey would be waiting for us at a neighboring church. Each performance started with myself riding the donkey through the streets of York, surrounded by my closest friends, who portrayed Jesus’ disciples. We arrived at the market where a crowd waited excitedly. Everyone filed indoors for the remainder of the play. We had wondered whether or not people would come out at a time like this to hear about God’s love. Upon entering the sanctuary, I was amazed. There was no room left even to stand! — MARK P. REPKO NORTH YORK * * * I lived in Halifax in 1979. It was about 7:15 a.m. on March 28. I was on my way home from working all night at the Quaker Oats Co. in Shiremanstown. I rode with three other people. Our normal route each morning was to drive east on the Harvey Taylor bridge. Since I was not the driver that day, I looked out the window to see what shapes I could imagine from the plumes of steam that were always rising into the sky each morning from TMI. Usually there was not much wind early in the morning and the steam would just slowly rise up from the towers making odd shapes as it climbed into the air. Just the day before, the steam seemed to form the shape of an elephant. But this morning was different. I quickly told the other riders to look at the orange/brown haze which looked like a blanket of fog reaching from one side of the river to the other. It wasn’t as thick as fog, but it surely was an identifiable haze that spread over the area with an eerie look. The driver slowed down and we all saw this unusual sight. No steam was forming any shapes that day. We immediately turned the radio on in the car, and before long, we learned that there was a problem with TMI. For the next several days, we worried if we should have moved out of the area. We didn’t allow our children to play outside at all. We lived about 15 or 20 air miles from TMI, but still did not feel safe. The most important remembrance is the way you could actually see a haze with an orange/brown color. There is no doubt in my mind that this was actually the radiation in the air. — LINDA R. BILLET YORK TOWNSHIP * * * An amateur radio operator friend of mine, Doug Reed, was at a mobile home that NBC furnished, complete with HF gear, 2-meter rigs, etc. right across from the (TMI nuclear power) plant. He was up there with a few other hams from the area. When they found out the whole thing was . . . being done solely for NBC and not for emergency purposes, they all left. Doug called me. I am also a ham operator, so I got my 2-meter mobile and hand-held rigs and met Doug at North York High School. That was the shelter center for evacuated people from the Three Mile Island area. We provided communications between the Red Cross and the evacuation center. There was another ham with us, but neither Doug nor I can remember his name. We spent the rest of the afternoon and almost all night there, until conditions were declared under control. Not only did we provide public service information, as well as who was at the center and how many cots and other supplies were needed, but we kept our families in touch by using a phone patch provided through an amateur radio repeater owned by another ham in the east end of York. If I remember correctly, Harry McGlaughlin was there also, I believe in contact with the governor, and kept us informed of the latest news. — THOMAS CODORI YORK * * * When I heard of the accident at TMI Unit 2, my initial reaction was “What did GPU do now?” I was the part-time pastor of the Goldsboro Church of God and lived near York. I went to Goldsboro that evening to visit with members of the congregation. Some were preparing to leave; some decided to stay in their homes. By Sunday morning, most of the congregation found places to stay with friends some distance away. There were four members present, and four press people for the worship service. I was comfortable with atomic energy, knew something about the TMI facility and felt safe in the community. Fortunately, potential looters were fearful. During floods, the National Guard had to guard Goldsboro. But during this event, the town was completely quiet. Argon National Labs sent a team to Goldsboro to monitor any radiation. One of my friends asked how he would know if it was necessary to leave. The reply was, “When you see us in street clothes, there is no concern. If you see us in protective clothes, be concerned. And if you see us leaving with our lights flashing, follow us.” Yes, there were strange odors at some distance from the plant, but not in Goldsboro. One member of the congregation was working at a quarry near Mechanicsburg. He reported a metallic odor shortly after the accident. At a community meeting in Goldsboro (after the partial meltdown), I got a mixed understanding about the concerns of people. A lady gave a 20-minute speech about the dangers of nuclear energy, then sat down and chain-smoked at least six cigarettes during the rest of the evening. When there is concern about cancer, I feel that known, preventable causes should be stopped. Six months later, an elderly gentleman died and I conducted his funeral service. The cause of death was leukemia. I wondered if this was the beginning of a trend. It was the only similar illness experienced within the congregation. There were stories of deformed cows. Later, I learned that the farmer had many similar problems before 1979. He had a reputation for poor feeding and care for his herd. Later, I was invited to visit TMI Unit 2 with the borough council. We received a tour of the control room and generator. The stairway to the control room was adjacent to the reactor housing. There was an explanation of what happened, how the cleanup was progressing and the effectiveness of the building. There was very little radiation released. And when our radiation monitors were read and reports received, we learned that we did not have any radiation during the tour. — RICHARD DEARDORFF SPRINGETTSBURY TOWNSHIP * * * My firstborn daughter, Lora, was born at 6:35 a.m. on March 29, 1979. I remember all the news on the television in the York Hospital about TMI. My husband, David, and I were so happy to have our precious baby that we didn’t pay much attention to the news. Friends didn’t come to visit us in the hospital for fear they would contaminate our baby. I remember mothers taking their babies out of the York Hospital. Pregnant women and small children were told to leave the area. We were also told to keep the windows closed for fear of radiation. My mother-in-law wanted us to evacuate with our newborn, but I just wanted to bring her home. We brought Lora home April 1, the day President Carter toured TMI. We were told there would be sirens to tell us if we had to evacuate because of a meltdown. A few days later, I was nursing Lora in the middle of the night when I heard sirens and saw flashing lights. I was so scared, but it turned out to be a fire at the neighbor’s house; it was not an evacuation. It was a scary time. — SHERYLL EWELL WINDSOR TOWNSHIP * * * My Three Mile Island nuclear power plant partial meltdown experience began in San Bernadino, Calif., in the spring of 1979. I was an evening student at the University of Southern California and was taking a course in psychological factors in system management as part of a master’s program in system safety . . . My wife’s parents lived in York and supplied me with newspaper articles about the accident from the Daily Record and other newspapers. My wife also had cousins (now deceased) who lived in Goldsboro and were very tight-lipped about the nuclear power plant accident because, for one, they knew I worked in the industry. Prior to the accident at TMI, I planned to interview for a job there as an operator of the plant. With the (plant) shut down for some time, I took a job at Westinghouse Electric Corp. in the nuclear power division in Monroeville, near Pittsburgh . . . as a senior system engineer. The downfall of . . . nuclear power worldwide was starting. Westinghouse was not the prime contractor at TMI, but many corrective measures and trainers for other plants were developed while I worked there. York County and other surrounding counties have endured the loss of half of the electric generating capability at TMI, and it has taken many years to completely recover. . . . My family has enjoyed living here and we respected all who helped life move forward with electricity. — FRANK SHAFFER JR. MANCHESTER TOWNSHIP * * * I worked for Paper Distributors in Harrisburg and traveled (Interstate) 83 across the south bridge to work. Thursday morning, March 29 . . . I drove a 1968 Corvair convertible to work because my good car broke down. (I) went to Harrisburg (and) found lots of people leaving town, not showing up for work. Everyone was scared, some more than others. After lunch, my manager, Bud Paxton, asked me to make a delivery to the substation in Middletown, very near to TMI. They wanted extra heavy garbage bags and no one would deliver them. I thought Mr. Paxton was kidding, agreeing to go, because no one else would. In Middletown, I saw one teenager and a policeman looking astonished, for I had the convertible top down. The station receptionist was in tears. She was frantic. I delivered the bags and headed home, as fast as that Corvair would go. — RICHARD BRUMGARD YORK TOWNSHIP Copyright © York Daily Record 2004 122 S. George St., P.O. Box 15122 York, PA 17405, (717) 771-2000 ***************************************************************** 31 YDR: Putting TMI in perspective - York Daily Record [ydr.com] A newly published book details officials’ struggle to get the meltdown under control, while dealing with public safety. By SEAN ADKINS Daily Record staff Friday, March 26, 2004 'A Nuclear Crisis in Historical Perspective: Three Mile Island,' available at most area booksellers and www.amazon.com, documents the accident and the ongoing nuclear power debate. About two years ago, J. Samuel Walker got an idea for a history book. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission historian started to leaf through documents that focused on the history of nuclear power between 1970 and 1979. In his quest, Walker discovered a wealth of NRC–related information centering on the 1979 partial meltdown of Three Mile Island Unit 2 in Dauphin County. Those documents have led to Walker’s publication this month of “A Nuclear Crisis in Historical Perspective: Three Mile Island.” The non-fiction book spells out the events that led to the crisis, who was involved and the near-disaster’s aftermath. “It’s just such a fascinating story,” Walker said. “Doing my research, I realized it had been almost 25 years since the accident.” While Walker did not speak with any York County residents as part of his research, the historian relied on records archived in the NRC’s public document room, information on file at the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum, and other sources for his 303-page book. At the time of the accident, Walker, a native of Millersville in Lancaster County, held a job at the National Archives. His parents and brother lived within 20 miles of TMI the day of the accident, he said. Walker said the TMI Unit 2 reactor accident boiled down to a series of mechanical problems that were exacerbated by human error. “You have to be prepared for the worst,” he said. Since the accident, many myths have built up around what actually occurred at 4 a.m. March 28 at TMI, Walker said. “My book may work to correct those mistakes,” he said. “My hope is that this is a reference book that is accurate.” Copyright © York Daily Record 2004 122 S. George St., P.O. Box 15122 York, PA 17405, (717) 771-2000 ***************************************************************** 32 YDR: A refuge in Connecticut - York Daily Record [ydr.com] Daily Record staff Friday, March 26, 2004 Jason Plotkin - YDR The image of Dean and Norma Newhouse reflects in this 1977 photograph of the Fairview Township couple's three sons. In the days following the accident at TMI, the family - including, from left, Eric, Marty and Ben - went to Connecticut until the accident at Three Mile Island was under control. In his April 10, 1979, letter to Thornburgh, Dean Newhouse of Fairview Township praised the governor for his handling of TMI’s Unit 2 partial meltdown. “You have earned my respect and faith,” Newhouse wrote. Regardless of his appreciation, Newhouse urged the governor not to allow TMI back online. “For me, this plant mustn’t re-open,” he wrote. “It would be cruel to us to allow Met-Ed to reopen this plant.” A computer analyst for the New Cumberland Army Depot at the time, Newhouse wrote to Thornburgh that if the plant were to become operational, “I’d be compelled to leave this area.” “I would flee,” he wrote. Twenty-five years later, Newhouse and his wife, Norma, still live in the same house as on the day they did the day TMI’s Unit 2 core melted. On March 28, 1979, Newhouse drove his wife and their three children to a relative’s home in Malvern. Still not sure of the danger, Newhouse returned to the area the next day to go to work. He spent that evening taking disco lessons at Fishing Creek Elementary School. On Friday, March 30, Newhouse heard about the evacuation of pregnant women and small children. He decided to follow his family and leave the area with no plans to return. “I thought, ‘I’m cooked,’” Newhouse said. Once back in Malvern, Newhouse packed up his family and other relatives and headed for Connecticut. Two weeks later, Newhouse and his family returned to Fairview Township once it appeared officials had the partial meltdown under control. Years following the accident, Newhouse posted a sign outside his home that read “Shutdown TMI.” Copyright © York Daily Record 2004 122 S. George St., P.O. Box 15122 York, PA 17405, (717) 771-2000 ***************************************************************** 33 YDR: News reaches the White House - TMI York Daily Record [ydr.com] His experience as a nuclear engineer in the Navy gave President Carter additional insight. Friday, March 26, 2004 At bottom: · WHERE ARE THEY NOW? What follows is a transcript of a telephone conversation between President Jimmy Carter and Joseph Hendrie, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The conversation occurred at approximately 10:45 a.m. Friday, March 30, 1979, two days after the accident. Carter: I thought you ought to tell me what’s happening. Hendrie: At “three mile” there was a feedwater failing early yesterday morning. Supply generators and emergency system of feedwater got excessively curtailed. Not getting energy out of primary system fast enough. Release blew down to containment. Apparently primary relief valves were hung open. A lot of water in the primary. Pump from primary which later got turned off by operator who thought pressure was high. Carter: Temperature of 500 degrees? Hendrie: Yes. System pressure of 400 pounds. Later yesterday mid morning looked like established equilibrium temperature. Looking for it to get to normal shutdown cooling sequence. As long as make up going into primary for pump seal, make at minimum a few GPM. That let down going out to tanks in auxiliary building. Water has fairly good chunk of noble gas (blacked out). Some core damage — 1 percent or more. As primary water is let down into tanks in auxiliary building . . . there was release yesterday morning which occurred from that primary water. Auxiliary building water is filtered. Carter: Like krypton. Hendrie: Like krypton, actually xenon 123. Carter: What is the half-life of xenon? Hendrie: About five days. Carter: What happened this morning? Hendrie: This morning again a burst release. Apparently topped the letdown tanks to get EPM out of system. And were series of lifting of release valves of letdown tanks. Spillage again. Again outgassing from primary. Carter: Into the atmosphere? Hendrie: Into containment building atmosphere, but the containment building is not sealed. All goes through (blacked out) bank. Not tight seal. Carter: Any into atmosphere? Hendrie: Yes. Still sketchy reports. Readings of 20-25 millirems per hour is a report from aircraft.* Which is from the plume. Plume center line is 1 R per hour. Apparently released during one-hour period. What is worrisome. Let down tanks and auxiliary full. Must find way to pump water back to contain it and help volume down. At moment can’t be sure won’t have to retransfer again in a few hours. Carter: How long like to continue? Hendrie: Wish I knew. Communications with site aren’t good enough to be on top of. Carter: Can we provide communication for you? Hendrie: Let me come back to your staff if I can’t do it elsewhere. Carter: Need to have that. I’ll tell Dr. Brzezinski . . . I’ll tell White House communications to take care of for you. Hendrie: I talked to the Governor; just got off the phone with him. About the question of protective evacuation of limited area. Let down tanks got full and people didn’t understand or know what was going to happen until it was too late to do anything. If it looks like it will happen again, will ask the State police to move people out of a 5-mile radius downwind. Carter: Is someone there that knows what they’re doing? Hendrie: . . . yes . . . Carter: I notice you hesitate. Hendrie: I think so. I hesitate, one of the causes of hesitation is communications linkage poor. Carter: Who is the best in the country . . . Hendrie: In the process now of sending some of my senior people. Carter: Rickover? We have some problems of divided responsibility if it gets worse and worse? Hendrie: We’ll be glad to hear from the Admiral. Carter: Who’s legally in charge? Hendrie: At the plant site, the licensee. Evacuation, the state government. Carter: Suppose some people think a pump should be used to transfer; some disagree. Who decides? Hendrie: The plant operator. Carter: Who is that? Hendrie: Metropolitan Edison. I think if we want something done, licensees usually very cooperative. Carter: Seldom has been situation like this. Suppose Metropolitan Edison is trying to protect power company and not the people. Can license be revoked . . . if necessary? Hendrie: Yes. Director of Reactor Regulatory can provide effective choice. Carter: Who’s that? Hendrie: Harold Denton. Carter: Where is he? Hendrie: At this moment he’s at the response center in Bethesda. Will either go to site or send his senior staff. Carter: Can I suggest to you that he go directly? Hendrie: Yes sir. Carter: Then I suggest that he go directly to the site. When he gets there, I will also dispatch from here a communications system for me. I want to be able to pick up the phone and to talk directly with the site. This communication system will also be available to you. (gives an example of use of communications when in remote areas on trips) I think we need this. Hendrie: It would be very helpful. Carter: Assume would talk directly with Denton and you. Hendrie: D-e-n-t-o-n, Harold. Carter: And you have complete confidence in him. Tell him to get in touch with me, and I’ll send anything he needs. If doubtful about evacuating, I think it would be good to err on the side of safety. Your requirements are very stringent now. (Talks about President’s exposure to radioactivity.) Hendrie: Yes we have tightened the requirements. Rates are not rates I want to see people get. Reassure for surface area; can’t guarantee plume. Carter: Tell Denton that when he gets there I’d like him to talk to me personally. That anything he needs, to let you know and you let me know. (End of conversation, after goodbyes) *President Carter was later informed the 20 to 25 millirems figure was the report from the gate. Source: Jimmy Carter Library WHERE ARE THEY NOW? A look at key players involved in the Three Mile Island crisis, and where they are now: · Dick Thornburgh was governor of Pennsylvania when the crisis occurred at Three Mile Island. After serving two terms as Pennsylvania’s governor from 1979 to 1987, Thornburgh went on to serve as U.S. Attorney General from 1988 to 1991. He also served as Under-Secretary-General at the United Nations from 1992 to 1993. He is now working with the national law firm Kirkpatrick &Lockhart LLP in Washington, D.C. He recently published his autobiography, “Where the Evidence Leads.” · Bill Scranton III was the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania from 1979 to 1987. He is now on the board of Harleysville Mutual Insurance Co. and Harleysville Group Inc. He also oversees the Scranton Family Office, which is involved in investment management and civic initiatives. · Harold Denton was an official with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He was President Jimmy Carter’s personal representative at TMI during the crisis. He now lives in Knoxville, Tenn. · Jimmy Carter was the 39th president of the United States. Since leaving office, Carter has been involved with various peace and humanitarian pursuits worldwide, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. He is a distinguished professor at Emory University in Atlanta. · Joseph M. Hendrie was chairman of the NRC at the time of TMI’s Unit 2 partial meltdown. In June 1981, Hendrie left his commission post for a position as the special assistant to the director at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York. He now lives in Long Island, N.Y. Copyright © York Daily Record 2004 122 S. George St., P.O. Box 15122 York, PA 17405, (717) 771-2000 ***************************************************************** 34 YDR: His family opted to stay - TMI York Daily Record [ydr.com] Daily Record staff Friday, March 26, 2004 John Eyster III remembers vividly the day TMI had a near disaster. Eyster, 37 at the time, had a business and two small children in elementary school in Seven Valleys. The family lived outside a 20-mile radius of the plant, but that did little to soothe their fears. “We had plans,” Eyster said. If necessary, the family was prepared to visit his wife’s relatives down South. They also considered going to some property the family owned in Tioga County, but that would have meant driving past Harrisburg. That was something to avoid, if possible, at the time, he said. In the end, the family stayed. “We never did anything,” Eyster said. “I wouldn’t have been near as reluctant to leave if I lived up North,” he said. In his letter to then-Gov. Dick Thornburgh, though, he expressed his concerns over nuclear power generation’s effect on people and the environment. He also questioned the security at the plants and how nuclear waste is handled. Looking over the letter he wrote 25 years ago, Eyster said the points he raised are still valid. “Nobody wants this stuff,” he said. While Eyster still holds the same view on nuclear power that he had 25 years ago, his opinion on Thornburgh has changed. Thornburgh, Eyster said, turned out to be a pretty good governor. Copyright © York Daily Record 2004 122 S. George St., P.O. Box 15122 York, PA 17405, (717) 771-2000 ***************************************************************** 35 YDR: After family left area, he worked on crisis plans - TMI York Daily Record [ydr.com] Daily Record staff Friday, March 26, 2004 Paul O’Donnell’s letter to the governor focused on Middletown’s reaction to the TMI partial meltdown. At the time of the accident, O’Donnell worked at the New Cumberland Army Depot and held the position as the fire chief of Middletown in Dauphin County. On March 28, 1979, O’Donnell was at work when he received a call from Donald Ryan, the Middletown emergency management director, that something had happened at the plant. “I could hear in his voice that there was something drastically wrong,” O’Donnell said. First, O’Donnell drove home and told his wife to grab their 10-year-old son and leave the area. From there, O’Donnell drove to the Middletown Communications Center and spent the next six days trying to come up with an evacuation plan for the area. “I hardly slept,” he said. To make matters worse, both of O’Donnell’s brothers worked at TMI and had been on site the day of the accident. About two days would go by before O’Donnell heard from his brothers. “I would say it was the most intense time in my life,” he said. Copyright © York Daily Record 2004 122 S. George St., P.O. Box 15122 York, PA 17405, (717) 771-2000 ***************************************************************** 36 YDR: TV coverage kept ties to home alive - TMI York Daily Record [ydr.com] Daily Record staff Friday, March 26, 2004 Jason Plotkin - YDR Annette Logan wrote a letter to then-Gov. Dick Thornburgh in 1979, voicing her anger over the accident at Three Mile Island. Twenty-five years later, Logan says she still doesn't trust TMI, despite living within 10 miles of it. At the time of the TMI’s Unit 2 partial meltdown, Annette Logan had returned to her Hellam Township home from a conference in Kentucky. That’s when the York College professor learned of the evacuation of children and pregnant women. While her home was 10 miles from the plant and out of evacuation range, Logan packed some camping gear and drove her dog to a friend’s home in southern York County. With her pet safe, Logan pointed her Saab toward Philadelphia and headed for the safety of a friend’s home. “Will I have a home to go back to?” Logan wrote in her letter to Thornburgh. “Or will the radiation make the entire area uninhabitable?” Logan said she spent her weeklong exile in Philadelphia “glued” to the television in hopes of hearing news that might allow her to go back home. She did take a break to go to the movies. The movie: “The China Syndrome.” “It didn’t do much for my mental health,” Logan said. “But I thought, ‘why not?’” Copyright © York Daily Record 2004 122 S. George St., P.O. Box 15122 York, PA 17405, (717) 771-2000 ***************************************************************** 37 YDR: His letter backed nuclear power - TMI York Daily Record [ydr.com] Daily Record staff Friday, March 26, 2004 On April 1, 1979, John Fuss was on his way home from church when the Hanover resident caught sight of a helicopter flying above his home. Once inside his house, Fuss switched on his television to see a local station’s news coverage of the helicopter’s flight to Harrisburg International Airport. The helicopter’s passenger: President Jimmy Carter, bound for TMI. “When I saw the president was coming,” Fuss said, “Well, I just knew they would not let the president get close to any danger. “That was a good feeling.” Ten days later, Fuss typed a letter to Gov. Dick Thornburgh laying out the benefits of nuclear power and that officials should consider keeping TMI Unit 1 online. “I am writing this letter to point out that hasty decisions should not be made due to one accident,” Fuss wrote in his April 11, 1979, letter. Fuss wrote from experience. In 1952, the U.S. Army veteran said, he was stationed at Eniwetok Atoll where he witnessed the first test of a hydrogen bomb. “I was educated,” he said. “I knew there would not be an explosion at TMI.” For example, Fuss said, he knew prevailing winds would push any large radiation release from the plant toward Lancaster rather than in the direction of Hanover. While Fuss’ letter to the governor urged tighter plant security, he pointed out that “nuclear power is definitely needed by this country and it should be expanded rather than retarded in order to reduce our dependence of foreign oil.” Fuss used his letter to state that he believed that, until March 28, 1979, the plant had operated without incident. “. . . Let us not hold up the generation of cheap power of a good unit just because of mistakes in another unit,” Fuss wrote in his letter. Copyright © York Daily Record 2004 122 S. George St., P.O. Box 15122 York, PA 17405, (717) 771-2000 ***************************************************************** 38 Wiscasset Newspaper: Panel To Get Update On Maine Yankee Thursday TOP [http://WiscassetNewspaper.Maine.Com/] | Mar 25 2004 |Browse Mar 25 2004 [http://Journal.Maine.Com/] Mar 25, 2004 "Serving Alna, Dresden, Edgecomb, Westport, Wiscasset and Woolwich" Vol. 35-No. 64 Charlotte Boynton With just a year to go before the decommissioning project is completed at Maine Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, company President Ted Feigenbaum has sent out a mailing to all 04578 zip code residents on the project's update, and will report the current status to the Community Advisory Committee (CAP) Thursday, March 25. According to Feigenbaum the decommissioning project is 85 percent complete, and all the spent nuclear fuel has been moved from the spent fuel pool to the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Facility (ISFSI) where it will stay until the federal government finds a place for its disposal. Maine Yankee will be responsible for the oversight and security of the ISFSI facility and will maintain personnel at the facility around the clock, according to the information sent out by Feigenbaum. Because of the demolition process resulting in large excavations the residents may notice an increase in truck traffic over the next few months. "We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause," Feigenbaum said. He also said the noise level right around the site will likely increase also, although the work will take place during the daytime. Currently Maine Yankee is in discussions with the town of Wiscasset to purchase 400 plus acres north of the Ferry Road. The company is in its final stages of negotiation to donate the 200 acre Eaton Farm property to the Chewonki Foundation for environmental education, conservation and public access. After the demolition of the remaining buildings and site restoration is completed in 2005, Maine Yankee "will consider future uses for the Bailey Point peninsula. Some restrictions for access and development will remain on the portion of the property adjacent to the ISFSI for security reasons." The containment dome demolition is scheduled to be completed this fall according to Feigenbaum CAP members will tour the site prior to their meeting. The agenda will include reports from Michael Meisner the Chief Nuclear Officer; Rocky Benner, Director of Decommissioning; Randy Ragland, Region 1, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Jim Connell, Radiation Protection Manager; and Eric Howes, Public and Government Affairs Director. [MaineStreet Communications, Inc.] editor@wiscassetnewspaper.maine.com [editor@wiscassetnewspaper.maine.com] Wiscasset Newspaper P.O. Box 429, Wiscasset, ME 04578 Tel: 207.882.6355 MaineStreet [http://WWW.MaineStreet.Com/publishing/] ***************************************************************** 39 Oak Ridger: Paper's coverage far-reaching (TMI) Story last updated at 12:37 p.m. on March 26, 2004 By: Paul Parson | Oak Ridger Staff paul.parson@oakridger.com [paul.parson@oakridger.com] The task of reporting on the Three Mile Island accident kind of fell into Joe Culver's lap. The person who was covering the science beat for The Oak Ridger had accepted another job, and left the day after the March 28, 1979, incident. Dick Smyser, the newspaper's editor, asked Culver, who was working as a general assignment reporter, to take over the beat. "I did so with great reluctance," Culver said. "Even though I had great interest in science and math as a high school student, I had done no work in the field nor had I covered the subject as a journalist. I agreed to take the beat until they could find someone to fill it." Joe Culver The accident, which Culver was tasked with covering, involved a series of events that led to a partial meltdown of a reactor core at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. "I imagine I wrote more than a hundred articles - sometimes three Page 1 stories a day - about Oak Ridge's role in controlling the accident and studying its aftermath," the former reporter said. Without a doubt, according to Culver, it was the most challenging period of his career as a reporter. "I was dealing with subject matter about which I knew next to nothing, while having to interview some of the great thinkers in that subject matter," Culver said. "I'm sure I asked foolish questions many times, but the people were gentle with me. I was not expecting them to be so articulate and so helpful and so open - especially to someone who wasn't versed in their jargon." Culver said there were days when he would spend all morning making telephone calls, usually just to leave messages. The return calls would begin to come in around mid-morning, and Culver started churning out some "fairly long" articles after getting off the phone. "I had the perception that The Oak Ridger's coverage was frequently a day or two ahead of other news media," Culver said. "That was, I believe, for three reasons: The Oak Ridge scientists and engineers were directly involved and among the most expert people who were involved; they were willing to be interviewed; The Oak Ridger was the only newspaper tapping into that expertise." According to Culver, he received calls about his coverage from people far outside the newspaper's circulation area. "I think some of those people were getting important information from our articles that they had not gotten from their own scientific and engineering colleagues," Culver said. "Some people apparently thought I was some kind of engineer or nuclear expert myself because of my articles; in fact, I was pretty well clueless and probably still am. "But I was able to acquire a lot of information and, apparently, write it up without major goofs. In a case like that, there's always a risk that a reporter and a newspaper can look foolish. I don't recall that we ever were seriously challenged on anything we published." While Smyser was also active in the Three Mile Island coverage, Culver said the editor's most important role was providing direction. "He kept me and the paper on track in what may to this day be an unprecedented level of coverage over a sustained period by The Oak Ridger," Culver said. "And it was good, competent coverage of a very technical situation." Culver, who went on to become The Oak Ridger's managing editor, worked at several newspapers during his journalism career, including The Lexington (Ky.) Leader, The Rhea County News, The Paducah Sun-Democrat and The Cairo (Ill.) Evening Citizen. He parlayed his science writing into DOE-related public affairs positions. ***************************************************************** 40 Oak Ridger: Behind the lens (TMI) Story last updated at 12:39 p.m. on March 26, 2004 By: Paul Parson | Oak Ridger Staff paul.parson@oakridger.com [paul.parson@oakridger.com] David Hawsey took countless photographs of the Three Mile Island site in Pennsylvania. "I can remember every single thing about my experience," said Hawsey, who joked that he can't always recall people he met a week ago. When the Three Mile Island accident occurred, Hawsey was actually serving overseas in the military. Three Mile Island Unit I at exactly the moment the reactor reached 'criticality,' according to photographer David Hawsey. "I was bored after serving in the Navy," he said. That would all change with his next assignment. Hawsey first served General Public Utilities Nuclear - the plant's owner - as an intern from 1983 to 1985, then as a staff photographer until 1987. The photographer's images, some of which he shared with The Oak Ridger, document a wide range of activities at Three Mile Island, including cleanup work that was a result of the 1979 partial meltdown of a reactor. He also captured the restart of another reactor at the nuclear plant. Not only did Hawsey's job allow him to learn a lot about the science of nuclear power, but he also got to dress up in what he described as "yellow-banana radioactive suits" and crawl around in the plant. These days, Hawsey serves as vice president for enrollment at Albion College in Michigan. ***************************************************************** 41 Oak Ridger: Communicating the situation (TMI) Story last updated at 1:00 p.m. on March 26, 2004 By: Paul Parson | Oak Ridger Staff [paul.parson@oakridger.com] For a few days in 1979, Jim Alexander faced what he called an "interesting challenge." It involved the partial meltdown of a reactor core at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Harrisburg, Pa. Several Oak Ridge scientists were dispatched to the site to help determine the cause and impact of the accident. However, Alexander's area of expertise pertained to communication. Early reports coming from the plant's operators were considered by many to be contradictory and confusing. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission ultimately took over the information distribution role. However, mounting public interest in the Three Mile Island situation resulted in extensive media coverage of the accident. All the attention quickly swamped the NRC, which sought communication assistance from the Department of Energy. "They were being worn to a nub," said Alexander, who was working as a public information officer for DOE's Oak Ridge Operations office when the incident occurred. So, about a week after the March 28, 1979, accident, Alexander arrived in makeshift press center in Middletown, Pa. "It was absolutely packed with media," he said. Hundreds of journalists - some understanding, others argumentative - representing all types of media outlets awaited press conferences, news releases and updates from NRC technical advisers. "We could never supply enough information," Alexander said. He said reporters asked a lot of technical questions about the accident. Alexander also admitted that he sometimes got frustrated when he couldn't provide answers to all the questions. Alexander's Three Mile Island stint lasted only three to four days. But, during that time, he was able to introduce journalists to someone who became almost a celebrity - a robot from Oak Ridge named "Herman." The NRC initially sought the assistance of Herman to do some work in a building believed to have a high level of radiation. Alexander said Herman ultimately didn't get to do the job he was brought in to do. All-in-all, Alexander described his Three Mile Island assignment as a "very memorable and indelible experience." ***************************************************************** 42 Oak Ridger: 25 years later - Three Mile Island Story last updated at 12:22 p.m. on March 26, 2004 By: Paul Parson | Oak Ridger Staff paul.parson@oakridger.com [paul.parson@oakridger.com] On the night of the Three Mile Island accident, CBS Evening News anchor Walter Cronkite opened his news broadcast by calling the event "the first step in a nuclear nightmare." Although the March 28, 1979, incident at the Pennsylvania nuclear power plant led to no deaths or injuries to workers or members of the nearby community, it is still considered the country's worst nuclear accident. Three Mile Island caused regulators to tighten and heighten their oversight and brought about sweeping changes in the area of nuclear power plant operations. David Hawsey/Staff This is a picture taken just north of the Three Mile Island plant. According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a series of events - including equipment malfunctions and design-related problems and worker errors - led to a partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island's Unit 2 reactor core but only very small off-site releases of radioactivity. In the days that followed the accident, the public's fear and interest in Three Mile Island mounted. And, the need to figure out what went wrong and deal with the situation resulted in Oak Ridge Department of Energy-related officials traveling to the plant, located near Harrisburg, Pa. On March 30, 1979, a six-man local radiation monitoring team was dispatched to the accident scene. A day later, four technicians from the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant accompanied a robot named "Herman" to the Three Mile Island site. Several other local scientists, technicians and mechanical experts followed, including Gilbert Zigler and Bob Kryter. Zigler, an employee of Science Applications Inc., assisted in measuring and figuring out how to relieve the large hydrogen bubble that had formed in the reactor. The concern was that the bubble might burn or even explode and rupture the pressure vessel - the container that held the reactor core. According to the NRC, the hydrogen bubble was a source of intense scrutiny and great anxiety, both among government authorities and the population, throughout the day on March 31, 1979. The crisis ended the next day when experts determined that the bubble could not burn or explode because of the absence of oxygen in the pressure vessel. David Hawsey/Staff Photographer David Hawsey says this image shows workers using high pressure sprayers that removed surface contamination from concrete at the Three Mile Island site. All waste material - including gloves, suits, rags and water - was removed, tagged and eventually properly disposed of according to federal regulations. Kryter of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Instrumentation and Controls Division was sent to the Pennsylvania plant on April 3, 1979, to investigate the status of several pieces of equipment. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission wanted the team Kryter was on to help decide what part of that instrumentation was still operational and how it could be monitored to bring the system down to a safe, cool shutdown. On April 5, 1979, a three-man task force left Oak Ridge to assist with the evaluation of the reactor core's status. Later on that month, some preliminary water tests conducted at ORNL indicated little or no uranium melted in the Three Mile Island reactor. The water samples were drawn from the plant's primary cooling system. In the long run, Three Mile Island permanently changed both the nuclear industry and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Major changes included upgrading and strengthening of plant design and equipment requirements, enhancement of emergency preparedness to include immediate NRC notification, and regular analysis of plant performance by senior NRC managers who identify those plants needing additional regulatory attention. Today, Three Mile Island's Unit 2 reactor is permanently shut down and defueled, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ***************************************************************** 43 [DU-WATCH] Gulf troops babies are 50pc more vulnerable Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 00:42:40 -0600 (CST) Gulf troops' babies 'are 50pc more vulnerable' By Nic Fleming (Filed: 24/03/2004) Babies whose fathers served in the first Gulf war are 50 per cent more likely to have physical abnormalities than those born to soldiers not sent to the region, according to a study published today. Increased risks of genital, urinary and renal abnormalities and deformed limbs, bones and muscles were found in the Ministry of Defence-funded survey. Of 13,191 pregnancies among the partners of male Gulf veterans, 686, or 5.2 per cent, had some form of physical abnormality, compared with 342, or 3.5 per cent, of the 9,758 non-Gulf pregnancies. Miscarriages were also 40 per cent more common in the pregnancies of wives and partners of male veterans deployed in the conflict. Female veterans were found to have no increased risk of suffering miscarriages. The six-year study, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, found no strong link between service in the Gulf and chromosome, heart and nervous system damage in the offspring of veterans or of stillbirths. Dr Pat Doyle, the epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who led the study, called for close monitoring of babies born to British troops sent to Iraq last year. Malcolm Hooper, the emeritus professor of medicinal chemistry at Sunderland University and an adviser to the veterans, said: "The findings will be very worrying for them. "I strongly endorse the call for further studies on those who served in Gulf war two. "There are grave concerns and significant anecdotal evidence about the inability to sustain normal pregnancies as a result of Gulf service." Dr Doyle said the study was important, but warned against reading too much into the findings. "I believe our findings on renal problems and miscarriages are important and need to be investigated in greater detail," she said. She added that although "associations were found between fathers' service in the Gulf war and increased risk of miscarriage and other malformations", the findings should be interpreted cautiously because of recall bias, the potential uncertainty of results based on people's memories. Terry English, of the Royal British Legion, said: "Anecdotal evidence from veterans has suggested a greater rate of miscarriage and this appears to be the first scientific evidence that confirms this." Of 53,000 British troops sent to the first Gulf war, about 630 have died and almost 6,000 have claimed war pensions. A range of causes for the illnesses have been suggested including depleted uranium fallout from munitions, vaccinations administered and tablets taken before the conflict. An MoD spokesman said: "It is important to note the researchers have cautioned that the findings may be susceptible to recall bias, and that it is a comparison with a control group in which miscarriage may have been under reported. "Independent researchers and the military medicine health advisory group of the Medical Research Council have said that overall there is a lack of evidence to link reproductive health problems to service in the Gulf." Mandy Duncan, from Clackmannanshire, has had three children since her husband Kenny returned from the Gulf. Kenneth, nine, was born with deformed ears, constant headaches and needs special shoes. Andrew, eight, wets his bed and has asthma. Heather, six, is partially deaf and suffers bowel and bladder problems. Mrs Duncan said last night: "I don't need a study to tell me my kids have been affected by Kenny's Gulf service. I want to know what the Government is going to do about it." Related reports MoD pays out after DNA test ________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Messenger - Communicate instantly..."Ping" your friends today! Download Messenger Now http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com/download/index.html ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/Sj.0lB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> [Brought to you by HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-watch/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-watch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 44 BBC: Attack clean-up service planned Last Updated: Friday, 26 March, 2004 [Rescuers simulate an attack at London's Bank station in ] The Home Office said the advice was not in response to a new threat The government is planning a new service to deal with the aftermath of a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear attack in the UK. The plans were disclosed in updated guidance from the Home Office-led Chemical, Biological, Radiological or Nuclear (CBRN) Resilience Programme. The National Decontamination and Recovery Service would advise and assist after release of CBRN material. The Home Office said the guidance update did not "signal any new threat". The guidance states: "The proposed National Decontamination and Recovery Service would, on request from the body co-ordinating the incident response, provide advice and support, including management of the decontamination process." Advice and assistance Environment Minister Elliot Morley said the government was "actively considering establishment of a new service to provide advice and assistance in decontamination and clean-up after a CBRN incident". He said further details would be released "as soon as practicable". Mr Morley said the guidance had been published to help local authorities and other agencies develop strategies for cleaning up the environment after a CBRN incident. The document outlines the different roles of agencies in crisis management and long term recovery from any deliberate or accidental release of CBRN material. It says local authorities would play a lead role in recovery with the assistance of central government with the Home Office initially taking control after a terrorist attack. Once the "crisis management phase" was over, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) would probably be the main government agency involved. ***************************************************************** 45 AxisofLogic: Silent Genocide: Depleted Uranium: The US and its Nuclear War in Iraq and Afghanistan src="http://www.axisoflogic.com By Robert C. Koehler Mar 26, 2004, 11:09 "After the Americans destroyed our village and killed many of us, we also lost our houses and have nothing to eat. However, we would have endured these miseries and even accepted them, if the Americans had not sentenced us all to death." This will not be easy to read, especially if you've projected evil out of your own heart, into some cave in Afghanistan or a spider hole in Iraq, and reduced the age-old question it inspires to this one: How can we bomb it off the face of the earth? Before the damage we inflict grows greater, before history's judgment gets worse, before we contaminate the whole world - even before we vote in the next election - we must stop what we're doing. We must stop now. It's time to listen for a moment not to defense analysts briefing officers, pols or pundits, but to people like Jooma Khan, a grandfather who lives in a village in Laghman Province, in northeastern Afghanistan, who is quoted above. Surely he deserves 30 seconds of our undivided attention. "When I saw my deformed grandson," he told an interviewer in March of 2003, "I realized that my hopes of the future have vanished for good. (This is) different from the hopelessness of the Russian barbarism, even though at that time I lost my older son Shafiqullah. This time, however, I know we are part of the invisible genocide brought on us by America, a silent death from which I know we will not escape." We're waging war-plus in Afghanistan and Iraq - in effect, nuclear war, with our widespread use of depleted-uranium-tipped shells and missiles. This is no secret. DU, with its extraordinary penetrating power and explode-on-impact capability, helps assure our military dominance everywhere we go. But people like Jooma Khan and his grandson reap its toxic legacy. So, of course, do our own troops. Kahn's words are only a sliver of the damning testimony contained in the documents of the International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan, a Japanese citizens' initiative that recently concluded its two-year inquiry into the first phase of the Bush Administration's war on terror. But they say everything that we cannot hear. If we could hear Jooma Khan, and others who are sounding the alarm about DU, such as former Livermore Labs geologist Leuren Moret, who testified at the tribunal, there would not be mere thousands of people in the streets of American cities demanding that we stop the war, but hundreds of thousands, or millions - the sort of numbers that turn out in other parts of the world. The use of DU weaponry is not the extent of our criminal irresponsibility in Afghanistan and Iraq, which led to the tribunal's guilty verdict against George Bush on charges of war crimes, but it's the most chilling. (You can check out the full report at, among other places, www.mindfully.org/Reform/2004/Afghanistan-Criminal-Tribunal10mar0 4.htm ) As Moret testified, depleted uranium turns into a infinitesimally fine dust after it explodes; individual particles are smaller than a virus or bacteria. And, "It is estimated that one millionth of a gram accumulating in a person's body would be fatal. There are no known methods of treatment." And DU dust is everywhere. A minimum of 500 or 600 tons now litter Afghanistan, and several times that amount are spread across Iraq. In terms of global atmospheric pollution, we've already released the equivalent of 400,000 Nagasaki bombs, Moret said. The numbers are overwhelming, but the potential horrors only get worse. DU dust does more than wreak havoc on the immune systems of those who breathe or touch it; the substance also alters one's genetic code. Thus, birth defects are way up in Afghanistan since the invasion: children "born with no eyes, no limbs, tumors protruding from their mouths ...deformed genitalia," according to the tribunal report. This ghastly toll on the unborn - on the future - has led investigators to coin the term "silent genocide" to describe the effects of this horrific weapon. The Pentagon's response to such charges is denial, denial, denial. And the American media is its moral co-conspirator. But blame is beside the point. Surely even those who still await "conclusive proof" that DU is the cause, or a factor, in the mystery illnesses and birth defects emanating from the war zones, can see the logic in halting its use now. Global terrorism? Listen to Jooma Khan. Then look in the mirror. - - - Robert Koehler, an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist, is an editor at Tribune Media Services and nationally syndicated writer. Tribune Media Services, Inc. © 2004 Tribune Media Services www.informationclearinghouse.info [http://www.informationclearinghouse.info] ***************************************************************** 46 The Age: Uranium leak 'more serious' - National - www.theage.com.au By Lindsay Murdoch March 27, 2004 A leak of uranium into workers' drinking water at the Ranger mine in Kakadu National Park this week was more serious than its owner, Energy Resources of Australia, first thought. Federal and Northern Territory government regulators yesterday went to the mine to investigate the leak that ERA said had caused six people to suffer "minor symptoms" with no one needing medical treatment. But efforts to reopen the mine were set back yesterday when investigators could not rule out that the cause of the leak, an erroneous pipe connection, had not occurred before. ERA said yesterday it had found that in a second incident on Tuesday night, contaminated water had overflowed from a holding tank. Investigations into both incidents were continuing yesterday and the mine remained shut. Environmentalists claimed yesterday the pipe leak at the mine, 230 kilometres east of Darwin on Tuesday night, revealed the company was in breach of its operating licence. Copyright © 2004. The Age Company Ltd ***************************************************************** 47 Las Vegas RJ: YUCCA MOUNTAIN PROJECT: DOE seeks funding increase Friday, March 26, 2004 But Nevada's representatives vow to stand in way By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department and supporters of the Yucca Mountain Project urged a House panel on Thursday to loosen the purse strings on the nuclear waste program, while Nevadans said Congress should, if anything, tighten its grip. Department Undersecretary Robert Card told lawmakers that a DOE plan to modify accounting for fees flowing into a special nuclear waste fund will ensure money is available for the government to build a repository in Nevada by a 2010 deadline. "The key to keeping this project on track is adequate funding," Card said. But Nevada's three House representatives said they will stand in the way. At the hearing of the House energy and air quality subcommittee, they renewed their efforts to sow doubt about Yucca Mountain. "At a time when Congress should be tightening its spending belt whenever and wherever possible, it would be irresponsible for us to allow funding to increase at an astronomical rate for a project that may very well be proven unfeasible before it is even licensed," said Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev. Given their questions about DOE performance and Yucca Mountain safety, Nevada lawmakers said Congress should slow down, not speed up, the repository effort. "Should this project go forward, the civil disobedience will be extraordinary," warned Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. "There are thousands of Nevadans who have already pledged to lay across the railroad tracks." Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., said the March 11 railway bombings in Madrid should give new pause to the idea of transporting nuclear waste. "We are concerned about the nation also," Porter said. "These trains will be passing your churches, schools and homes." On that point, Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., demanded the Nuclear Regulatory Commission devise regulations to protect against terrorism and sabotage of rail cars carrying spent nuclear fuel. But NRC chairman Nils Diaz told lawmakers that casks carrying nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain could withstand the impact of a large aircraft without releasing radiation. "We feel confident the present designs of casks will be resistent to terrorist attacks," said Nils Diaz, who said the agency reached the conclusion in recent classified studies. Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., said the selection of Yucca Mountain was finalized by Congress two years ago. "The debate now is not about the siting, it's about the funding," he said. The DOE accounting plan was well received by House energy committee leaders of both parties, although it has received mixed reviews from other influential lawmakers. Committee Chairman Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, said he expected to have a bill passed by the end of September but he added he did not have a timetable for action. The bill proposed by DOE would reclassify $749 million this year and similar sums in the future that nuclear utilities feed into a special account dedicated to the repository. The fund has collected $20.4 billion since 1983. About $6 billion has been spent so far. The problem, according to Yucca supporters, is that congressional accounting rules effectively restrict how much money is disbursed from the fund each year. Without a change in law, the repository program likely will starve financially, supporters said. Card said the DOE proposal will allow Congress to appropriate larger sums without running afoul of budget restrictions. Card's message was reinforced by Sam Ervin IV, a North Carolina utility commissioner, and by Angelina Howard, executive vice president of the Nuclear Energy Institute. Ervin said ratepayers expect the fees to be spent for their intended purpose. Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal ***************************************************************** 48 Bellona: Spent Nuclear Waste from Hungary: Legal Issues CHELYABINSK, Southern Urals—I decided to write this article because of a story concerning the visit of former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov to Hungary late last year. Aside from inter-state issues that the prime minister and his Hungarian colleagues discussed during the visit, the two countries also touched upon the collaboration in nuclear energy and concluded a contract on the reconstruction of an emergency power unit at the Hungarian nuclear power plant Paks. Environmentalist Natalia Mironova, of Dvizhenoe za Yadernuyu Bezopasnost, and the author of this article, lawer and director of Pradvoznaniye, Andrei Talevlin. Rashid Alimov/Bellona Andrei Talevlin, 2004-03-26 17:26 Talks on the imports of SNF from the Paks plant to Mayak Chemical Combine in the Chelyabinsk Region of Russia,were also negotiated. I would hardly have focused on these issues if it had not been for one peculiar fact. In 2001 Russia’s Supreme Court declared the import of Hungarian spent nuclear fuel, or SNF, to Russia to be illegal. History of the Issue The collaboration in nuclear power utilization between Hungary and Russia dates back to the era of socialist work camps controlled by the former Soviet Union. The construction of the Paks nuclear power plant began in 1966, immediately after an agreement on joint construction between Hungary and Russia had been signed. The first power unit at Paks which was based on the Soviet nuclear VVER-440 reactor was launched in 1983. The Paks plant has been online since then. Currently, four units, with a total power of 1760 megawatts, operate at the plant. An accident occurred on the second power unit of a VVER 440 reactor at the Hungarin nuclear plant in the early morning hours of April 12, 2003. It was a level 3 accident as per the INES scale, the most serious throughout the plant’s history. For comparison: An explosion at plutonium production at the Tomsk-7 plant in April of 1993 caused large-scale pollution of the territory around the plant and is also considered level 3 accident as per the INES scale. As in the Chernobyl case, the worst element of the Paks accident is that it was caused by human error and that it took long for the cause to be made public. According to IAEA specialists, the basic recommendations of Russian and IAEA specialists on all types of nuclear reactors operating at the Paks plant were not observed when spent uranium rods that were being loaded in cooling ponds were damaged, causing the spillage of radioactive substances. Moreover, according to an IAEA experts’ report, the accident at the power plant was reported very late, which impeded immediate actions to clean up and decontaminate the area. During the 31 years of its operation, a large amount of spent nuclear SNF has accumulated at the Paks plant. SNF is the Achilles' heel of the nuclear industry. In 1994 Hungary and Russia, as parties of the international agreement of 1966 on joint construction of the Paks nuclear power plant, adopted a protocol to this agreement. As per this protocol, Russia, as part of the former USSR, was to receive from Hungary SNF in the form of fuel assemblies and ship fresh nuclear fuel to Paks. It is curious that how this radioactive waste would be handled—via reprocessing or storage—was never stipulated in the agreement or the later protocol. By then, a bill entitled “On Environmental Protection” that banned the import of not only radioactive waste, but also of any other foreign radioactive materials to Russia, had taken force as legislation. The handling of radioactive waste as per the protocol conflicted with the proposed legislation. Then, on July 29, 1995, the Russian government issued a decree on the import of SNF for the purposes of reprocessing it and returning the radioactive waste and materials obtained from reprocessing. This meant that foreign SNF was imported to Russia to be reprocessed in order to extract plutonium and uranium for further use and to solidify fission products in Russia. The major condition for the SNF imports, stipulated in the decree, was the mandatory return to the exporting country of obtained radioactive waste and other reprocessing products which were not to be utilized in Russia. The decree’s requirements applied to all inter-governmental agreements on the import of foreign SNF to Russian reprocessing plants. At the time, that meant foreign SNF could only be reprocessed on the condition that the radioactive waste obtained from reprocessing—and of us to Russia—would be returned to the exporting country. In reality, radioactive waste has never been shipped back to Hungary—either before or after the decree was enacted. Russia’s disposal of the imported radioactive waste is the only significant condition attractive to foreign countries and the major reason for their collaboration with the Agency for Atomic Energy, which until early March was known as the Ministry of Atomic Energy, or Minatom. Eastern European countries—the majority of which have already entered NATO and the European Union—could have easily sent their SNF to France or Great Britain for reprocessing, firstly, because these countries are on average closer to Great Britain and France, and, secondly, because the collaboration within the EU is always welcome. Such multi-million dollar contracts allow for substantial economic cooperation between Eastern and Western Europe. But both France and Great Britain—two of the only three countries in the world that reprocess SNF—comply with the mandatory return of radioactive waste from reprocessed fuel to the exporting country. And their price tags are two or three times higher than Russia’s prices. Therefore, Hungary prefers to export its SNF to Russia on the cheap instead sending it to Western Europe. Furthermore, Russia will hold on to the highly radioactive by-products of reprocessing for them. Hungary is therefore saving a buck and giving Russia its radioactive headache. In a 1996 letter to the Russian government, Hungary requested a “transitional period” while the Hungarian government deliberated the construction of a radioactive waste repository on its own soil. Duriing this “transitional period” The Hungarian Minister of Industry and Trade asked the Russian government to accept Hungarian SNF and hold on to the reprocessed radioactive waste. ‘As an Exception’ While this request was being considered in Moscow, former Chelyabinsk Region Governer Pavel Sumin was stumping for the Hungarians and offering up his Region—where Mayak, Russia’s only working SSNF reprocessing facility is located—as a home for Hungary’s radioactive waste to the Russian government. An appeal he sent to the government made it plain that without the Hungarian contract, reprocessing at Mayak would grind to a halt. Following these events, the Russian Government commissioned various research and regulatory agencies to develop a plan for Hungarian SNF imports, which would, of course, provide for not returning the radioactive by-products of reprocessing. Three executive bodies worked on the project: Minatom, GosKomEkologia, (Russsia’s State Environmental Committee) and GosAtomNadzor, or GAN (Russsia’s Federal Nuclear and Radiation Safety Inspection). Heads of the executive bodies signed a one-page document titled “Resolution on the Organization of SNF Imports in Limited Amounts from the Paks Nuclear Power Plant Constructed in Hungary Jointly with the USSR.” As per the document, the agency heads “assuming the consent of the head of the Chelyabinsk Region Administration, in good will” accepted “the Hungarian Government’s request”, and that was why it was decided that, “as an exception” Russsia would receive Hungarian SNF without returning radioactive waste and other reprocessed products obtained Hungary. This resolution was signed by: Russia’s Minister of Atomic Energy Vladimir Mikhailov, Head of the State Environmental Committee Vladimir. Danilov-Danilyan, and GAN Chairman Yury Vishnevsky. The resolution was subsequently approved by Government Decree No. 1483-r of October 15, 1998 and signed of on by former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov. The government’s decree has been published in the “Compiled Laws of the Russian Federation,” and the original resolution signed by the three agency heads and ministers stipulating Hungarian SNF import procedures and terms has not. Then, with the legal grounds for Hungarian SNF imports lined up, a train with nuclear materials and radioactive substances left the Mayak for Hungary. In the opposite direction, approximately 30 tonnes of spent fuel was sent from Paks to Mayak, which was 10% of the entire SNF volume of the plant. The war in Yugoslavia frustrated the next train shipments and the imports had to be halted. Appeal to Supreme Court When the Balkan conflict was over, Russia planned on more SNF imports to Mayak from Paks. But the scenario did not unfold as Minatom had planned. Two Russian environmental NG)—Pravosoznanie (Legal Consciousness) and Dvizheniy za Yadernuyu Bezopasnost (Nuclear Safety Movement)—had in the meantime managed to get hold of the original resolution signed by the agency heads and ministers decree signed and found that a number of the document’s resolutions were in direct conflict with legislation. Natalya Mironova, director of Nuclear Safety Movement and myself, in my capacity as director of Legal Conscience, brought suit against the validity of the October 15, 1998 decree—signed by Primakov and based on the original resolution—in the Russian Supreme Court. The resolution violated a number of civil rights guaranteed by the Constitution and the Law of the Russian Federation, including : 1.) The right to a safe environment and credible information on the environmental condition as per article 42 of the Constitution; 2.) The right to health protection from environmental hazards caused by industrial or other activities as well as from accidents, catastrophes and natural disasters as per article 11 of the Law of the Russian Soviet Socialistic Republic (RSFSR) “On Environmental Protection”; 3.) The right to a safe environmental climate with no effect on humans as per article 8 of the Federal Law “On Sanitary and Epidemiologic Safety,” and, 4.) The right to radiation safety as per article 22 of the federal law “On Radiation Safety.” After a number of the Supreme Court hearings on this case, it turned out that neither the government’s decree nor the resolution in question had been examined by experts, despite the fact that such expert examination is mandatory. It also became known that the most of the SNF contracted to be moved to Mayak still remained in Hungary. The court, therefore, had to decide whether or not this 370-tonne portion of SNF remaining in Hungary would be imported as per the Primakov Decree of October 15, 1998. The NGOs based their arguments against fulfilling the decree on the violation of civil rights and the legislation created in regard to the resolution. As per Provision 3, Article 50 of the law “On Environmental Protection” in the former RSFSR, the import to Russia of foreign radioactive waste and materials for storage, burial, or disposal—as well as the launching by Russia of such material into space—was strictly forbidden. Resolution conflicts with existing legislation The resolution also conflicted with a government decree No. 773 of July 29, 1995, which disclosed a procedure for foreign SNF imports and reprocessing at Russian plants and, in particular, detailed provisions on the mandatory return of the radioactive substances obtained during reprocessing to the exporting country. The law “On Ecological Impact Studies” outlining the procedures of state environmental impact studies, which are mandatory because of the hazardous effects to humans caused by SNF and the environment, was also violated. Some Russian Government representatives stated that the imports of Hungarian SNF was beyond the control of Russian Law, since the liabilities on the storage of radioactive waste from reprocessed SNF in Russia were allegedly stipulated in the original 1994 international agreement between Hungary and the USSR to jointly build the Paks plant. Government representatives alluded to a Russian Constitution provision stipulating the priority of international law over national legislation. Government lawyers even insisted on the necessary ecological impact studies and tried to append a conclusion by Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources to the case. Legal ‘illiteracy’ brings down government’s case The government’s lawyers are worthy of special mention and they honestly worked off their their fees. When it was clear to everyone that the decision about the imports of Hungarian SNF signed by the Mikhailov, Danilov-Danilyan, and Vishnevksy had been approved by Primakov in contravention of the law, one of the government lawyer decided , as it were, to play an all-or nothing game. He claimed that Mikhailov, Danilov-Danilyan, and Vishnevksy were not quite well enough versed in Russian legislation and that this shortcoming led them to include in the resolution’s preamble an “entirely irrelevant” formulation, which read: “The inter-national agreement of December 28, 1966 on the joint construction of the Paks nuclear power plant and the Protocol of April 1, 1994 fail to clearly stipulate liabilities regarding the final imports of SNF in Russia without further return of radioactive waste and reprocessed products.” This single phrase practically destroyed the government’s case, which had insisted that Russia’s liability inherited from the collapse the USSR to keep radioactive wastes from reprocessed Hungarian SNF in Russia, was based in international agreements. Indeed, Mikhailov, Danilov-Danilyan, and Vishnevksy had signed the resolutions in a state of fundamental legislative illiteracy. A letter from the United Arab Emirates Embassy in Moscow impressed the Supreme Court considerably. We had found it with the help of Greenpeace, Russia, and I tried my best to append it to our case. Death penalty for radwaste imports helps persuade court The letter clarified provisions of the law on radioactive materials handling in the United Arab Emirates, or UAE. In particular, the letter stated that, per the UAE’s law “On Environmental Protection” the import of nuclear waste was punishable by death. The letter also explained the necessity of such a law: “If such a law with such a severe penalty did not exist, it would create perils not only for today’s generation but for posterity as well.” The Supreme Court agreed to include the letter in our case. On February 26, 2002 Russia’s Supreme Court declared the Government’s Decree of October 15, 1998 numbered 1483-r invalid and non-applicable. This is how the Cheliabinsk Region prevented the import of 370 tonnes of Hungarian SNF. The government tried to appeal the case with the Appeal Review Collegium of the Supreme Court on May 21, 2002. Government appeals—and loses Aside from the reasons presented at the previous hearing in the Supreme Court, government counsel added allegations of procedural irregularities. The court found against the appeal on Feb 26, 2002, and the decision has remained unchanged and in force ever since. The Russian Supreme Court’s fidelity to its priciples is worthy of special note. In Russia, the outcome of most trials depends largely on money. But it is my hope that not all of Russia’s courts are like that, least of all the Supreme Court and its Collegium. The Russia’s Prosecutor General’s support was also very important during the hearing. Prosecution representatives found the NGOs’ line reasonable and came to defend it. How can the damage be repaired? One would think the story was over and that NGO’s could have celebrated their victory. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Two more steps should be taken to allow the legal mechanism of civil rights protection work: First, violated rights should be restored and, second, violators of the Constitution should be held accountable. As for redressing violated rights, we should remember that the most of Hungarian SNF remains in Hungary. The Supreme Court’s decision, therefore, has hampered the imports of hundreds of tons of SNF under the then nuclear energy legislation. Approximately 30 tonnes of Hungarian SNF were imported into Russia, according to the chief engineer of the Mayak plant who had participated in the court hearing, have been reprocessed, and the radioactive waste has been discharged into the infamous lake Karachai and the Techa River Cascade. According to the chief engineer, the return of the radioactive waste to Hungary is impossible as it cannot be extracted from the rest waste accumulated at the Mayak plant. Aside from extraction problems, there is no proper infrastructure—no containers for radioactive waste and no special transportation for radioactive waste shipments. Additionally the Mayak plant was never conceived to deal with such issues. As for legal accountability, a special address disclosing the violations by legal officials and singled out by the Supreme Court has been sent to Russia’s Prosecutior General. Article 247 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation demands criminal responsibility for the transportation, storage, disposition and utilization or other handling of radioactive, bacteriological and chemical substances and [radioactive] waste if these acts present a danger and can cause considerable damage to humans and the environment. Thousands of cubic meters of radioactive waste spilled during the reprocessing of the Hungarian SNF remain in the Chelyabinsk Region. Thanks to the Supreme Court’s ruling, this radioactive waste has not been allowed to multiply. Even minor violations of radioactive and nuclear substance handling procedures should be punished by administrative responsibility. Articles 8.31, 9.6 KoAP RF of the Federal Law numbered 68-FZ “On Administrative Responsibility of Atomic Energy Utilization” of May 12, 2000—which went out of effect on July 1, 2002—stipulater grounds and sanctions of administrative responsibility for violatons. Russia’s Prosecutior General, however, has found no element of offense in the activity of the governor of the Chelyabinsk Region, former Prime Minister Kasyanov and the heads of Minatom, GosKovEkologia and GosAtomNadzor, and the Prosecutor General’s office stated that in its official response. Conclusions Reviewing the case on the Hungarian SNF import as a typical example of Minatom’s international economic activities, a number if conclusions about radioactive waste handling in Russia can be drawn: Russia is very attractive to the countries using nuclear energy that are trying to solve their own radioactive waste storage problems because Russia is the only country in the world that allows foreign radioactive waste to be stored on its territory. During its SNF-related foreign economic activities between 1991 and 2003, Minatom, as a rule, consistently violated the law of the Russian Federation. Russia fails to guarantee its people and its future generations the right to safe environment and safety from growing radiation hazards. Russia is facing an acute law enforcement problem. Legal responsibility is meant to restrain and prevent violations of law, which legally and socially speaking, is vital for Russian society. Thousands of wonderful laws can easily be approved, but if they are not executed, they cannot regulate public interaction. When high-ranking officials break the law and violate civil rights and easily get away with it, what are the average people to do? In some countries there is one more kind of responsibility beyond legal control which we have not yet mentioned in the article. This is moral responsibility of top officials before citizens. In a similar precedent, top officials in such countries would voluntarily resign. Russia is unique, and Russian leaders have a special way of ruling, abolutely different from those in Germany, Norway, France, the U.S and even the United Arab Emirates. The author of the article is the head of Cheliabinsk pubilc organization Pravosoznanie, or Legal Conscience. Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] , President: Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] Information: info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] , Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no [webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 49 BBC: Bid to allay Sellafield Last Updated: Friday, 26 March, 2004 [Sellafield] BNFL said it is an ongoing process to inform people about the site Safety officers from the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant say they hope to calm fears over the site at a meeting in the Irish Republic. Owners of the Cumbrian site, British Nuclear Fuels Ltd, have accepted an invitation to answer questions from people on the east coast of Ireland. There are fears that radiation from Sellafield may be responsible for poor health in some people there. BNFL head of safety John Clarke said he will listen to what people have to say. He said: "We have been invited over by Louth County Council as part of an ongoing programme of dialogue between ourselves and people in the Irish Republic generally and on the coast particularly. "They have concerns over Sellafield and the potential implications of Sellafield to them and we are very happy to come over and talk to them and try and provide some facts for them." 'Balance emotion' He said they were going to listen to concerns and provide facts on anything people wanted to raise. He said: "I think there is a tremendous amount of concern and fear. I think it is unfortunate that a lot of that has been whipped up by some really quite scaremongering stories that have been put about. "What we are trying to do is to come across and provide people with some facts hopefully so they can draw better informed conclusions." He said he accepted it was an emotional issue and the company was committed to the process of providing information for a long time. He said: "Emotion's at the heart of all of this. What we are trying to do is provide facts to try and balance up the emotion. "But we are not expecting to simply come across here say a few words and everyone one will say 'you're fine'. "It is a long process." ***************************************************************** 50 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada reps fight Yucca funds By Suzanne Struglinski WASHINGTON -- The annual battle for Yucca Mountain money continued in Congress Thursday, with the nuclear energy industry and the Energy Department pleading for $880 million and more control over the budget, while critics questioned the need. At an House energy and air quality subcommittee hearing Thursday, Nevada lawmakers insisted the project is a waste of time and money as they outlined numerous problems with the plan to ship and store 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel at Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. But Yucca supporters said continued delays will only cost the taxpayers more money as lawsuits pile up from utilities suing the Energy Department for its failure to pick up waste in 1998. The department pays $500 million a year to store waste destined for Yucca at former nuclear weapons plants and laboratories. Meanwhile, nuclear power companies want to see a return on their $20 billion investment for permanent nuclear waste storage, now six years overdue. "In all honesty, the biggest obstacle to the beginning of waste acceptance at the proposed repository in accordance with the Department of Energy's current schedule is the risk of inadequate funding during the next few years," Sam Ervin of the North Carolina Utilities Commission said. "Congress should act to ensure that adequate money is made available for the licensing, construction and operation of the proposed facility." The committee will have to evaluate two bills that would change how Congress allocated money to the program's budget. Subcommittee Chairman Ralph Hall and Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton, both Texas Republicans, did not have a timeline on when the panels would vote on the bills. Reps. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., Jon Porter, R-Nev., and Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said the project's estimated $60 billion price tag is more money than the utilities will ever pay into the fund, leaving taxpayers to pick up the rest of the tab. All three also mentioned the safety threat of moving the waste via truck and rail across the country to Nevada. Rep. Charles Norwood, R-Ga., said that to his knowledge there has never been an accident while moving nuclear waste, which is currently done between sites across the country. But Porter pointed out that the country had never seen an airplane used as a weapon before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. "It's not about yesterday, it's about tomorrow," Porter said. Hall also discounted Nevada's concerns by asking Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Nils Diaz about the chance and outcome of a "Sept. 11-style" attack hitting a transportation cask.08 ***************************************************************** 51 RGJ: Bill would lessen Congress oversight on Yucca [http://www.rgj.com/] Friday | Mar 26, 2004 [online@rgj.com] RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL WASHINGTON — Nevada lawmakers are battling legislation they say would take away some of Congress’ budget control and supervision over the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository project. A House energy subcommittee held a hearing Thursday on two bills that would guarantee that fees paid by electric utility consumers to build Yucca Mountain are used for that purpose and not for other government services. Proponents say the guarantee would speed up development of the project, which has been delayed because of past funding shortfalls. Even though the money has been collected, Congress must approve Yucca Mountain funds every year. The Energy Department has routinely not gotten as much as it has requested in large part because of efforts by U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and others to pare Yucca’s budget. “American consumers have contributed almost $23 billion into the nuclear waste fund,” said U.S. Rep. Ralph Hall, R-Texas, a supporter of the bills. “It’s time to make sure … that this project is funded adequately.” But Nevada’s lawmakers say the bills would remove congressional oversight on the controversial nuclear waste dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. U.S. Reps. Jim Gibbons, R-Reno, and Shelley Berkley, D-Las Vegas, fought off similar legislation in 2001. “Congress cannot provide for the squandering of our nation’s limited resources on a project that has been proven over and over again to be a disaster both scientifically and fiscally,” Gibbons said. “Congress should not and cannot abdicate its oversight responsibility of a billion-dollar project.” The Energy Department already has spent $9 billion on Yucca Mountain and has collected a total of $23 billion from utility consumers for the past two decades to pay for the disposal of nuclear waste. Robert Card, undersecretary of energy, said his department is on track to file an application in December with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build Yucca Mountain and start shipping nuclear waste to the site in 2010. But inadequate funding would delay the project, he said. The project could cost as much as $60 billion during the next several decades. Card said that Congress still would retain the right to appropriate money for Yucca Mountain if the bill passes. The Bush administration supports the legislation, he said. “You can count on our strong support of the bill,” Card told the subcommittee. Other House members, especially those from districts with nuclear power plants, were eager to pass the bills and move Yucca Mountain forward. “The debate is not about the siting (of Yucca Mountain.) It’s about the funding,” said U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill. “We made this promise to the nation.” But Gibbons questioned the wisdom of going forward with a nuclear waste dump that was planned starting in the 1970s and does not take into account new technology. “We are here today to make the wisest decisions today,” he said. “It is not one of going blindly down a path we have been going down for years.” © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a [http://www.gannett.com] ***************************************************************** 52 heraldtribune.com: Phosphate cleanup could tap land fund Friday, March 26 Money earmarked for parks and conservation may instead be spent on places like Piney Point. BY VICTOR HULL TALLAHASSEE BUREAU TALLAHASSEE -- Cleaning up Piney Point, the hazardous phosphate waste site in Manatee County, may suck millions of dollars from an account used to maintain state parks and conservation land. It could also siphon millions more that would otherwise be available for education, health care and other basic services. Lawmakers in the Florida House are considering diverting $140 million over the next seven years from the Conservation and Recreation Lands and general revenue funds to clean up Piney Point and another smaller phosphate waste site in Polk County, called Mulberry. The money would also replenish a state fund drained over the last three years by the Piney Point and Mulberry cleanup costs. That account was created to reclaim old phosphate mine land. "In my heart of hearts, I believe this is the right thing to do," said Rep. Joe Spratt, R-LaBelle, as the House's Natural Resources Committee unanimously approved the plan Thursday. The plan calls for taking $20 million annually in taxes collected on phosphate mining -- $10 million each from the conservation land program and general revenue -- for the waste cleanup and reimbursing the reclamation fund. It's scheduled to go before two more committees before reaching the full House. The Senate has not yet formally proposed a plan for paying for the rising costs of closing the waste sites left when the Mulberry Corp. abruptly abandoned them when it went bankrupt in 2001. But Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said the Senate would propose a different method of payment. Environmentalists said the loss of money from the conservation land program, commonly called CARL, could be devastating. The phosphate tax money helps the state manage 1.7 million acres of parks and environmentally sensitive preserves. It's used for expenses such as land clearing, salaries and building fences, boardwalks and parking lots. "We're already short of money," said Sue Mullins, who represents The Nature Conservancy and the Florida Wildlife Federation. "The CARL trust fund seems to be raided every year." The Florida Department of Environmental Protection estimates that $10 million pays for managing about 333,000 acres of land, or more than 10 times the size of the state's largest aquatic conservation area, around Charlotte Harbor. The DEP has spent about $69 million stabilizing and cleaning up the Mulberry Corp.'s waste sites -- $39 million for Piney Point and $30 million for Mulberry. Officials estimate that closing both sites will cost a total of $168 million. Some of the additional money is available in the old mine land reclamation account, called the Non-Mandatory Reclamation Trust Fund. But by next year, that account will run out of money, with an estimated $54.2 million still needed to finish the job. Closing the sites requires filtering and draining hundreds of millions of gallons of acidic water that is also slightly radioactive and contaminated with hazardous heavy metals. The water is in ponds atop huge mounds of phosphogypsum, a waste generated when fertilizer is manufactured from phosphate ore. Once drained, the phosphogypsum "stacks" must be covered with a plastic liner, soil, and vegetation. The state has been especially worried about Piney Point, which has posed a danger of overflowing or bursting. A spill from the site could be catastrophic for nearby Tampa Bay. One lawmaker said the state is relying too heavily on the phosphate industry, through a tax on every ton of ore excavated, to clean up the mess left by the Mulberry Corp. The tax was raised last year to pay for the cleanup. Rep. Dwight Stansel, R-Wellborn, said more of the money should come from the general revenue fund, which is supported through several sources, including the sales tax. "I don't think the industry owes it to totally be responsible for what happened," Stansel said. "The ball was dropped by DEP, Mulberry. There was a lot of mistakes made." The phosphate companies still in business "did not create Piney Point or Mulberry," he added. Southwest Florida lawmakers Rep. Lindsay Harrington, R-Punta Gorda, and Rep. Jerry Paul, R-Port Charlotte, did not attend the committee meeting. Alexander and the Senate are leaning toward using money that state officials only recently found would be available for this year's budget for the Piney Point and Mulberry costs. Alexander wants to use $25 million of the money -- called non-recurring revenue, because budget experts don't know whether the economy will perform as well next year -- on the cleanup costs this year. The remainder of the costs would be handled through future budget allocations. "I know a lot of people (senators) feel CARL is important to them," Alexander said. "We think using some non-recurring revenue is appropriate for a non-recurring problem." Last modified: March 26. 2004 6:49AM heraldtribune.com Serving the Herald-Tribune newspaper and SNN Channel 6 © Sarasota Herald-Tribune. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 53 Carlsbad Current-Argus: WIPP detects particles [http://www.currentargus.com/] Updated: March 25, 2004 - 10:40:56 By Victoria Parker-Stevens/Current-Argus Staff Writer CARLSBAD — A few plutonium particles were found in a group of air filter samples at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, but the amount was far lower than allowable dose limits, the federal Energy Department said Thursday. The samples were taken in June, and results recently became available, according to the Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring and Research Center, which notified other agencies in February. No plutonium was detected in air samples taken outside of the exhaust shaft, said Roger Nelson, chief scientist at the Energy Department’s Carlsbad Field Office. No incidents occurred in the underground during June, he said. The particles were likely on the outside of one of the waste drums when it was placed underground, although the exact source may never be known, Nelson said. The amount detected was 12,000 to 200,000 times lower than the Environmental Protection Agency’s annual individual dose limit, the DOE said in a press release. Since the exact day or days the plutonium was captured is not known, the number range signifies the possible period, up to a month. The dose to a member of the public is “well less than 1/3,000 of the annual dose from naturally occurring background radiation,” the Environmental Evaluation Group said in a fact sheet. The particles were detected by two oversight agencies, CEMRC and EEG, as well as by Washington TRU Solutions, which manages the site. This is the first time radioactive particles have been detected in air samples, the DOE said. “We expected to find some all along,” Nelson said, noting the sensitive detection equipment used and the site’s five years of operation. “The amounts detected are extremely small — well below regulatory limits that would raise concerns about worker, public or environmental exposure, or that would trigger changes in WIPP operations,” he said. The fact that all three organizations detected the plutonium means the oversight process is working, said Tom Klein, an EEG environmental scientist. “It shows the eyes on WIPP are sharp enough to see things on a microscopic level,” he said. “It’s been a so-to-speak theory that we would be able to catch something at this extremely low level.” The three organizations each receive air filter samples collected each day from the exhaust shaft. Regular radioactivity analysis didn’t detect the particles, but radiochemistry extraction processes done on a more infrequent basis did because they allow for the detection of even smaller particles, Nelson said. There have been no advances in the detection equipment used over the history of the project, Klein said. CEMRC was the first to detect the particles. The lab found the levels in the second quarter of 2003 were slightly above detectable limits. CEMRC representatives were not available for comment Thursday. The EEG analysis showed levels four to five times higher than the other two organizations’ analyses, Nelson said. The EEG analysis included primary and backup skids. There are three skids in the exhaust shaft that draw up air for sampling. The detection by the three agencies shows the value of WIPP oversight organizations, Klein said. The existence of the EEG has recently been questioned. Rep. John Heaton, D-Carlsbad, has said it appears to duplicate the work of others. “The more people who can show they’re getting the same result, the more you can prove health and the environment are not being affected,” Klein said, noting similar results also show analyses are being done correctly and the results are verifiable. “The more eyes that are on the project, the more chance of stopping an occurrence before it happens,” he said. The simultaneous detection also eased concerns about brine water affecting air-sampling skids, Klein said. The EEG began voicing them in 1995. There have been sampling changes due to those concerns, Nelson said. The skid that sustained the most brine encrustment is no longer the primary source of air sampling information, he said. In addition to the sampling, the site also has continuous air monitors in waste handling and underground disposal areas to alert workers to the presence of any airborne radioactivity, the DOE said. Those were not activated. Copyright © 2004 Carlsbad Current-Argus, a Gannett Co., Inc. ***************************************************************** 54 Japan Times: Kepco inks accord with COGEMA on MOX supply Saturday, March 27, 2004 By ERIC JOHNSTON Staff writer OSAKA -- Kansai Electric Power Co. reached an agreement Friday with COGEMA, France's state-owned nuclear fuel reprocessing company, to sign a contract possibly this summer for manufacturing mixed oxide-uranium fuel. The decision by Kepco came one week after Fukui Prefecture, where Kepco hopes to use the fuel in its Takahama nuclear plant, granted permission for the company to use MOX fuel. Details of the contract were not made public Friday. Kepco's MOX fuel program had been frozen since 1999, when data related to MOX fuel made by British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. was found to have been falsified after the fuel had arrived in Takahama. That fuel was returned to England in 2002. The government has demanded that manufacturers of MOX fuel bolster the management of production data before it would allow any utility to sign a MOX contract. Antinuclear activists warned that getting information about contract details related to the fuel was likely to be difficult. "COGEMA is an extremely secretive company. This may be because it is central to the French nuclear weapons program," said Kyoto-based antinuclear activist Aileen Mioko Smith, who played a key role in exposing the BNFL data falsification. "Kepco is on public record stating it will release information about the quality of its fuel if COGEMA is willing. We doubt COGEMA can meet these Japanese demands for transparency," she said. After finalizing the contract in the summer, Kepco hopes to begin burning MOX in its Fukui reactors from 2007. Reactor restart OK NIIGATA (Kyodo) Niigata Gov. Ikuo Hirayama indicated Friday that Tokyo Electric Power Co. may get its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station in the prefecture back to full operation next month. The utility was forced to shut down all of its reactors, including the seven at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, in April after its widespread practice of keeping nuclear reactor accidents secret came to light. The Japan Times: March 27, 2004 (C) All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 55 AU ABC: Second leak examined at Ranger mine. 26/03/2004. ABC News Online "Australian Broadcasting Corporation Online"> [http://www.abc.net.au/] Federal Government supervising scientist Arthur Johnston is assessing a second water contamination incident at the Ranger uranium mine in the Northern Territory. Dr Johnston says process water from the mine leaked into a nearby creek system. The Ranger mine, which is on a lease surrounded by Kakadu National Park, was shut down on Wednesday morning after it was discovered that drinking water had been contaminated by process water. Dr Johnston says his staff are now investigating the environmental impact of a related incident, in which process water overflowed into the creek. He says his primary concern is the health and safety of workers and the traditional owners. The operators of the mine have agreed not to resume operations until Dr Johnston is satisfied that there is no risk to the health of people and the environment. Dr Johnston is concerned about traditional owners living downstream from the Ranger Mine after the overflow into a creek near Jabiru Airport. He says his staff are now assessing the environmental impact of the contamination. "We are now concerned however about the traditional owners living downstream and we're concerned about any effects that could have taken place on the environment," Dr Johnston said. "But I want to stress that it's very early days in our assessment and because of this incident, I've now requested that the mining company does not resume operations." Meanwhile, the operators of the mine, Energy Resources Australia (ERA), say the overflow near the airport is believed to have contained uranium levels four times the safe drinking water guideline. ERA says it informed regulators and traditional owners about the overflow today. The company also told stakeholders of a separate contamination of the mine's drinking water prior to Tuesday. Dr Johnston said he believed the second water contamination incident happened near the Jabiru Airport. "That's the water that feeds the drinking water system for the supervising scientist's field station out there and also the airport," Dr Johnston said. "So some of this water overflowed from the header tank and it is likely, but we're looking at the issue. "But it's likely it may be reaching Kan Billabong and at some stage it may move into Magella Creek downstream." © 2004 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ***************************************************************** 56 AU ABC: Mine operator reveals third contamination case. 26/03/2004. ABC News Online "Australian Broadcasting Corporation Online"> [http://www.abc.net.au/] The operator of the Ranger uranium mine in the Northern Territory has now revealed three cases of water contamination. The mine, which is surrounded by the Kakadu National Park, was shut down on Wednesday after it was discovered that process water leaked into the mine's drinking water system. Energy Resources of Australia says the contamination appears to have been caused by a false connection between the mine's process water system and the drinking water system on Tuesday night. The company has revealed it cannot rule out the possibility that it has happened before. The Federal Government's supervising scientist is investigating the environmental impact of a third contamination incident. Dr Arthur Johnston says process water from the mine overflowed from a holding tank near the Jabiru Airport on Tuesday night. He is concerned about traditional owners downstream because of the possibility that contaminated water has entered the water table that feeds into Kakadu. © 2004 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ***************************************************************** 57 AU ABC: Mine contamination sparks Indigenous concerns. 27/03/2004. ABC News Online "Australian Broadcasting Corporation Online"> [http://www.abc.net.au/] The traditional owners of the Ranger uranium mine in the Northern Territory say a contamination incident has exposed Aboriginal communities to an unprecedented threat. Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) shut the mine on Wednesday after it was found the drinking water was contaminated. ERA says it cannot rule out the possibility that it has happened before. The Federal Government's supervising scientist is also investigating another incident where process water overflowed from a holding tank into a nearby creek. The Gundjehmi Aboriginal Corporation has issued a statement saying the spill puts Kakadu ecosystems at risk, along with the health of Aborigines who live and hunt nearby. Meanwhile, Dave Sweeney from the Australian Conservation Foundation says the situation at the Ranger mine is unacceptable. "We hear now of tens of thousands of litres of contaminated water flowing into areas and catchments for the feeder creeks for the wetlands of Kakadu, what we have is a horrible week for Energy Resources of Australia and a horrible week for the people and environment of Kakadu - it's completely unacceptable," he said. © 2004 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ***************************************************************** 58 Belfast Telegraph: EU urged to press UK on Sellafield clean-up [http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/search/search.jsp] By Gary Grattan ggrattan@belfasttelegraph.co.uk 26 March 2004 SOUTH Down MP Eddie McGrady today urged the EU Commission to press ahead with a directive to Britain to clean up the highly radioactive waste at the Sellafield plant Mr McGrady said that, according to restricted Commission documents, Britain may face a directive to state how much nuclear material is at the site and to allow EU inspectors access to verify it personally before May 30. The SDLP man said the Commission do not know: • how much nuclear material is at the Sellafield site; • how much plutonium waste lies in the open-air storage facility at Sellafield; and • when the British authorities will meet the safety controls. He added: "Further to the above serious concerns, it has come to light that EU inspectors have been denied full access to the Sellafield site and have only seen paper evidence of what lies beneath the surface of the water containment site. "Radioactivity is so high in parts of the plant that workers are only allowed in the vicinity of the concrete ponds for one hour per day in order to stay within the maximum dosage limits. "These concrete ponds hold an estimated 1.3 tonnes of waste from spent nuclear fuel, dating as far back as the 1950s." The MP said he understood that the Commissioners will make a decision on whether or not to proceed with a directive against Britain next week. "I would urge the Commission to proceed with this directive and act responsibly." www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk © 2004 Independent News and Media (NI) ***************************************************************** 59 Pahrump Valley Times: BY RAIL OR ROAD? THE TRANSPORTATION ISSUE March 26, 2004 By MARK WAITE PVT MIKE JOHNSON / SPECIAL TO THE PVT This map depicts Yucca Mountain's proximity 20 miles east of Beatty, 20 miles north of Amargosa Valley, and 50 miles northeast of Pahrump, a logistical fact largely ignored by other media outlets and the federal government. The next stage in the Yucca Mountain Project, scheduled to go on line in 2010, is the L.A. - in federal jargon - the license application. Allen Benson, spokesman for the Department of Energy, said the license application is expected to be submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in December. "The current status is there are what's called nine key technical issues, which are subdivided into 293 specifics. Of those, there are 213 which have complete or partial responses sent to the NRC and 90 are closed," Benson said. "We will respond to all of them and work with the NRC on that." The NRC review of the license application is expected to take three years. That could mean approval for the construction of Yucca Mountain to begin by December 2007. During the construction phase of Yucca Mountain, Benson said there would be several thousand construction jobs. Once it is built, there would be in the neighborhood of several hundred jobs in the operation of the repository, designed to hold 77,000 metric tons of nuclear waste. "We're going to certainly be using robotics," Benson said. "Spent fuel has to be removed from the transport cask to the disposal cask, using robotics will protect worker health and safety." While DOE works on resolving technical issues for the license application, much of the public discussion is now centering on the transportation of the nuclear waste. The DOE announced just before Christmas a preference for the Caliente rail corridor, traveling 318 miles from the Union Pacific rail line at Caliente, west to a point south of Tonopah, then south paralleling U.S. Highway 95 to Yucca Mountain. While the final environmental impact statement and the Nye County Community Protection Plan recommends shipping the high-level nuclear waste by rail, Benson said, "It's not going to be all rail, it's mostly rail. Our preferred mode of transport is rail." The DOE asked the Bureau of Land Management to withdraw a mile-wide corridor of land along that transportation route while it is being studied. Benson said if that corridor were chosen, much of the land would revert back to its former use, except a smaller strip for the rail line itself. "What we're going to do over the next couple of months or so is issue a record of decision on mode or corridor. If in fact we choose rail and we choose the Caliente corridor, then we will hold public meetings to scope out, get the public's input on what the corridor environmental impact statement should look like," Benson said. During a hearing held by the Nevada Legislative Commission on High-level Radioactive Waste in early December, Margaret Chu, director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, said there would be 174 shipments per year needed to transport the nuclear waste, 140 would go by rail. Nuclear waste from California, for example, could travel by truck, he said, as it would have to be shipped all the way back east then back through Nevada to go by rail from Caliente. Chu told the state legislative commission the federal government has already spent $14 billion on the Yucca Mountain Project, expected to cost a total of $56 billion when its completed. For comment or questions, please e-mail webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com [webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com] Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2003 ***************************************************************** 60 Pahrump Valley Times: YUCCA MOUNTAIN Boom or bust? March 26, 2004 OHIO CONGRESSMAN CALLS ON NEVADANS TO BACK OFF FROM YUCCA MOUNTAIN BATTLE By STEVE TETREAULT PVT WASHINGTON BUREAU Editor's note: Fighting to stay neutral in the face of overwhelming odds, Nye County prepares to take care of its own regarding the controversial nuclear waste repository project. In this issue, the Pahrump Valley Times tells readers what has happened in the past, and what to expect in an uncertain future. WASHINGTON - A key House chairman said Wednesday he plans to back full spending for the Yucca Mountain Project, and that Nevadans should reconsider their opposition "for the good of the country and the next generation." Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, said he intends to give the Energy Department the $880 million it requested this year to continue developing a nuclear waste repository, and may add more to compensate for shortfalls in recent years. "I think we will fully fund Yucca," he said. Hobson, who leads the subcommittee that helps set DOE annual spending, said he believes a repository can be made environmentally sound, and its time for Nevada opponents to "look at the future and what's good for the next generation." "I don't object to them questioning and making sure we do this in the right way," Hobson said. "I do have a problem with them just being negative and saying, not in my backyard. There is too much thought of 'my backyard' in this country and sometimes we need to look beyond that." "We're not out to hurt Las Vegas," he said. Hobson commented near the end of a budget hearing for the Yucca Mountain Project. The seven- term lawmaker from Springfield, Ohio, became a major proponent of the Yucca program soon after taking over subcommittee leadership last year. Hobson's subcommittee will write a 2005 spending bill in the next month. A move to fully fund the Yucca Mountain Project would renew an annual confrontation with the Senate, where Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has forced budget cuts in recent years. Last year, the Yucca project received $580 million, a record amount and most of what its managers requested. Hobson said the nation needs to find a solution to nuclear waste accumulating at commercial power plants, and that Congress has passed a law designating the Nevada site. "I feel duty-bound since it is the law of the land that we should support it," he said. "But more important, we need to have a solution for our children and grandchildren." Hobson's comments drew a scoff from Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. "If (Hobson) wants to talk about the next generation, he can talk about the next generation of Nevadans, who may be exposed to radioactive waste," Berkley said. "I invite him to start shipping nuclear waste to Ohio so he can be proud of doing his duty." At the subcommittee meeting Wednesday, Hobson and other lawmakers were told the Yucca program soon will require even larger sums for construction of the repository and a Nevada railroad line to the site situated in Nye County, 20 miles from Beatty and Amargosa Valley, respectively, and 50 miles from Pahrump. Margaret Chu, director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, said DOE would need $8 billion between 2005 and 2010 to keep the repository on schedule to begin accepting nuclear waste in 2010. Chu also announced that DOE has hired new legal counsel to shepherd its repository application through licensing hearings before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Hunton &Williams, based in Richmond, Va., was granted a five year contract that could pay as much as $45 million, according to department spokesman Joe Davis. Hunton &Williams replaces the Chicago firm of Winston and Strawn, which left the program in November 2001 amid conflict allegations. Davis said DOE conducted a "complete, in-depth review" of firms it interviewed. "Bottom line, we're satisfied (Hunton &Williams) can perform the work without any conflicts," he said. The department announced its new lawyers shortly after reaching a $4.5 million settlement with LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene and MacRae, a New York-based firm that was passed over for the legal contract in 1999. Hunton &Williams lists six attorneys in its nuclear section, headed by Donald P. Irwin, whose practice has focused on utility and nuclear issues, utility finances, product liability litigation and solid waste issues. The firm has worked on NRC licensing for 10 commercial nuclear reactors owned by Virginia Power and other utilities including the Long Island Lighting Company's Shoreham reactor, according to its website. It also has taken part in other major NRC rule-makings. For comment or questions, please e-mail webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com [webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com] Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2003 ***************************************************************** 61 Pahrump Valley Times: ENVIRONMENTAL CRITICISM - Yucca March 26, 2004 PVT WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON - Environmental organizations launched new criticism in late February directed at the Yucca Mountain Project, calling on Congress to investigate safety practices at the nuclear waste repository site and to reject a budget hike requested by the Energy Department. The groups urged lawmakers to decline the department's $880 million spending request for 2005, a 51 percent increase. They argued the investment was premature until the Nuclear Regulatory Commission determines whether the Nevada site should be licensed. They also called for investigations into worker health at the Yucca site following reports that workers may have developed silicosis from inhaling fibrous dusts during tunneling in the mid-1990s. "Congress should call for a federal investigation into the safety practices at Yucca Mountain and request that the tunnel and other portions of the work area be sealed off until it can be determined that it is safe for workers," the groups said. For comment or questions, please e-mail webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com [webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com] Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2003 ***************************************************************** 62 Pahrump Valley Times: DOE FUNDING PULLED NYE'S BACON FROM FIRE MORE THAN ONCE March 26, 2004 By MARK WAITE PVT As Nye County Commissioners were paying for a number of requests on the agenda at a meeting in Tonopah March 2, Commissioner Joni Eastley asked the budget director how they'd pay for 20 sheriff's patrol cars. "Fund 492," Nye County Budget Director Charlie Rodewald replied. "Big surprise," Eastley said jokingly. Fund 492 is one of four funds replenished by Payment Equal to Taxes the county receives from the U.S. Department of Energy every year for the Yucca Mountain project. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act requires the DOE to make grants equal to the state and local taxes that would be levied if the repository involved non-federal property and activity. It is intended as a grant, not as protection money, like the oversight program. In 1989, Nye County developed an appraisal methodology for PETT, concluding that the Yucca Mountain Project should be appraised as if it were a private utility engaged in interstate commerce. The funds are regularly tapped into by the county for capital improvements; without PETT, Nye County would be in a far worse financial situation. Last April, Nye County Commission Chairman Henry Neth announced the county would receive $53.75 million in PETT payments from the DOE over the next five years, an average of $10.75 million per year, relaying an announcement by the DOE. That followed $38 million in PETT payments for 1999-2003, which followed $30 million in PETT money the previous four years. Former Nye County Commissioner Cameron McRae touted the PETT payments as one of the three accomplishments he was most proud of, while running for a fourth term in May 2002. "I'm extremely proud that I led the way with the position we took with the Department of Energy and Yucca Mountain. We've been successful at getting not only the oversight money to make every effort to protect the health of the people as much as possible and to be there to validate or oppose what DOE was doing with regard to Yucca Mountain scientific work, but also Nye County has benefited from $78 million of PETT money. Without it, this county would be in extreme financial straits." School buses, the government complexes in Tonopah and Pahrump, the Beatty/Amargosa Valley sheriff's substation, and the Pahrump Valley High School track are just a few examples of the projects paid for by the U.S. Department of Energy fund. In April, 2000, Nye County Commissioners, by resolution, set up four funds for the money, the amounts to be deposited in each fund were later increased: an educational endowment fund, for which they would fund projects out of interest on the $10 million in principal; a capital projects endowment, also intended for interest off $10 million in principal; the emergency fund; and the most commonly cited resource, a special projects fund which may be drawn down to zero. A report by the Nye County budget office details $31.2 million in PETT spending from 1992 through 2003. The itemized list of expenditures shows $3.38 million for Nye Regional Medical Center in Tonopah from 1995-97; $6.15 million for the Nye County Government Complex in Pahrump from 1996-2000, then later $2.56 million in 2002-2003 for emergency mold repairs; $799,950 for Pahrump Medical Center, from 1995-1999; $403,449 for the Community College of Southern Nevada Pahrump Valley Center in 2000; and since 1999, $4.4 million for road projects. Other big-ticket items funded out of PETT include the Beatty Justice Complex, $2.9 million; communications equipment, $2.19 million; Nye County's conversion to the HTE computer software system, $876,773 and $588,181 for school buses, through 2003. The fund balances at the start of the 2003 fiscal year, last July 1, totaled $31.2 million, the largest chunk, $11 million, was sitting in the special projects fund, $9.24 million in the capital projects endowment, $9.25 million in the educational endowment fund and $1.635 million in the emergency fund. Last May, Bob Kasner, senior vice-president of Paragon Asset Management Company, told Nye County Commissioners the county has realized a rate of return of 7.55 percent on its investments since July 2000. Nye County Auditor Dan McArthur said the county realized interest of 4.4 percent on its PETT funds in the last fiscal year. Investments totaled $39.67 million, with $3.6 million of that interest, as of last May, Kasner said. The county had disposable income in PETT to invest in five-year securities at a more favorable rate, Kasner said. One of the more prominent projects underway using PETT money is the $400,000 for an all-weather track at Pahrump Valley High School. Last month, Nye County Commissioners passed an ordinance setting up a $1.25 million community development fund, a way of granting requests from towns in a more orderly fashion. Town boards will have to provide documentation in requests before the county commission for PETT projects. For comment or questions, please e-mail webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com [webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com] Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2003 ***************************************************************** 63 Pahrump Valley Times: NYE GETS INTO SISTER ACT WITH CARLSBAD N.M. March 26, 2004 By BREANNE HUBBARD PVT MARK WAITE / PVT Reporters in this photo taken the day a tunnel-boring machine broke through Yucca Mountain after years of drilling take a tour of the project. The Federal Impact Advisory Board, Nye County Board of Commissioners and members of the Pahrump Town Board will visit "family" at the end of June to discuss nuclear waste issues. Pahrump has recently adopted a sister city, Carlsbad, N.M., in hopes to educate the people involved in the Yucca Mountain Project on just what to do for preparation of a nuclear waste repository. According to Dale Schutte, chairman of the nuclear waste advisory board and a member of the federal impact advisory board, the approximately 22 people will travel to Carlsbad for five days. During that time, they will go through various workshops and tours with the mayor of the city, Bob Farse, along with his council. The party will fly from Las Vegas to El Paso, Texas and take a bus to Carlsbad. The county is funding the trip for the impact board and Nye County Commissioners. The town will pay for their board members. The cost of the trip is $600 per person. Originally, the impact board and county commissioners were going to take two separate trips to Carlsbad to gather information. About two months ago, they decided to collaborate. "It was more economical," Schutte said. Yucca Mountain has been eye candy to the White House for quite some time and could possibly house nuclear waste as early as 2010. Since the day is nearing, Pahrump and Nye County officials decided it was time to do their own research and find out just what the community is entitled to. Nye County decided to team up with Carlsbad for a number of reasons. The main issue is that Carlsbad has been the gateway to Waste Isolation Pilot Plant since 1999. According to the plant's website, it was the first underground repository in the U.S. to safely and permanently dispose nuclear waste. "The primary reason (for the trip) is to find out how Carlsbad got the services they did," Schutte said. According to Schutte, Carlsbad received quite a bit of assistance from the Department of Energy when their plant was first built. Schutte is hoping that Pahrump and the rest of the county can learn from Carlsbad's mistakes and triumphs, especially when it came to their relationship with the DOE. "We're going to see if we can get some type of benefits for Pahrump, or even for Nye County," Schutte said. "We really need to learn some stuff on how to deal with the DOE." The difference between Carlsbad and what Yucca Mountain could possibly be is the type of waste both places contain, or could soon contain. According to the plant's website, Carlsbad stores leftover research waste, which has gone through radioactivity testing. Yucca Mountain will be storing "hot" waste, meaning that it doesn't go through any stages of testing. Schutte said that Carlsbad "doesn't have an advisory board similar to what we have." Each member is neither anti- nor pro- nuclear and has a strong technical background. Although Yucca Mountain has gone through 20 years of research, the community of Pahrump is still concerned with the pros and cons of a nuclear waste plant so close to home. After spending almost a week in Carlsbad, representatives of the town and county hope to find the answers to difficult questions. Since the date is creeping up on the calendar, the three boards "have to make reservations here pretty quick." The decision to go to Carlsbad was a quick one. Representatives from Carlsbad came to Pahrump in the beginning of the year and "that's when the idea was broached," Schutte said. Once they take the trip and come back, Schutte is confident they will have a report ready for the town board roughly 30 days after the trip. For comment or questions, please e-mail webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com [webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com] Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2003 ***************************************************************** 64 Tri-City Herald: States want ruling on DOE wastes upheld This story was published Friday, March 26th, 2004 By John Stang Herald staff writer Six states asked an appellate court Thursday to uphold a federal judge's ruling that the Department of Energy cannot reclassify high-level radioactive wastes as a less dangerous category prior to treating it. Washington, Oregon, Idaho, South Carolina, New Mexico and New York sent a friend-of-the-court brief Thursday to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to oppose DOE's appeal of a July 3, 2003, decision by U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill. DOE says closing waste tanks at Hanford and elsewhere will stall if it loses this legal dispute. Stalled work could include removing some solid wastes from otherwise cleaned-out tanks, developing alternatives to conventional glassification and converting about 1 million gallons of waste into transuranic powder to be shipped to New Mexico. This dispute revolves around DOE's high-level radioactive wastes in underground tanks at Hanford, Idaho Falls, Savannah River, S.C., and West Valley, N.Y. Hanford has 53 million gallons of tank wastes, of which 11 million gallons are classified as high-level and 42 million gallons are classified as low-activity. DOE says it has the power to take wastes from a formally designated high-level waste tank, then designate whether the material has high-level or low-activity. But two environmental groups, two Indian tribes and the six states all contend DOE cannot legally do that. They contend DOE is trying to reclassify high-level wastes as low-activity wastes without treating the material. High-level wastes must be glassified and stored in special vaults to await eventual shipment to a proposed permanent storage site at Yucca Mountain, Nev. Low-activity wastes face less stringent and cheaper treatment requirements, and will be buried at their host sites, such as Hanford. "The problem of safely disposing of dangerous radioactive wastes cannot be solved by simply issuing an order redefining the problem," said Washington Attorney General Christine Gregoire in a news release. Her office is handling the friend-of-the court brief for the six states. Meanwhile, DOE spokesman Joe Davis said unless DOE gets the powers that it believes it is entitled to, "We can't legally spend (some) money on cleanup." DOE's fiscal 2005 budget request to Congress has $350 million, including $64 million for Hanford, set aside for tank farm matters nationwide, which can be used only when the reclassification issue is resolved to DOE's satisfaction. Some critics view that set-aside money as DOE pressuring the states to drop their opposition. Besides appealing Winmill's decision, DOE tried to get Congress to rewrite the 1982 law that the judge ruled it had violated. DOE tried to do that as a last-minute amendment to an appropriation bill in a closed-door House-Senate conference committee last fall. Both Republicans and Democrats rejected that attempt. In its appeal, DOE argued that Congress intentionally exempted it and plutonium-production wastes are exempt from the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act. Also, DOE argues that its tank wastes are "wastes incidental to reprocessing," rather than "wastes resulting from reprocessing." The second phrase is part to the legal definition of high-level radioactive wastes, while the first phrase is not part of that legal definition. Davis contends that if waste in a tank always had been treated a high-level radioactive waste, that does not necessarily mean it actually is high-level waste until DOE makes that determination. DOE contends if some tank wastes remain classified as "high-level" that will slow efforts to remove solid residues from the bottoms of tanks earmarked for early closure, and might stall efforts to deal with some wastes as low-activity wastes. DOE is looking at quickly converting some liquid wastes into dry transuranic wastes to ship to New Mexico. And it is looking at bulk vitrification and steam reforming as possible ways to treat low-activity wastes quicker and cheaper than possible with conventional glassification. DOE is supposed to decide by 2005 if those options are viable. The six states' friend-of-the-court brief disputes DOE legal arguments and definitions. The states' brief also contends that DOE is trying to sidetrack the law in order to avoid the expense and effort of treating wastes the legally correct way. © 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 65 Brattleboro Reformer: Coalition challenges VY uprate plan > [http://www.reformer.com/] March 26, 2004 Brattleboro, VT By CAROLYN LORIÉ Reformer Staff BRATTLEBORO -- The New England Coalition will file a motion for reconsideration with the Public Service Board regarding the board's order on the Vermont Yankee uprate. At a press conference on Thursday, executive director Peter Alexander and nuclear industry whistleblower Paul Blanch said the motion would be filed by the end of the day. Among the points that the coalition is asking the board to reconsider is the cost of decommissioning under the "uprate"; the failure of Entergy to notify the board about new information regarding uprate-related failure at other plants; and the board's description of the independent engineering assessment. According to testimony submitted by the coalition's expert witness, Arnie Gundersen, if Vermont Yankee increases its power output by 20 percent, the cost of decommissioning will increase by $25 million. In the sale agreement between Entergy Nuclear Corp. and the state, any money left over in the decommissioning fund will be split between the two. The coalition contends that under the uprate the state stands to lose a substantial amount of money, as there will be little left in the fund after the decommissioning process. Also in the motion for reconsideration is the allegation that Entergy was required to inform the board about the failure history of plants that had gone through extended power uprates and did not. "Entergy has a legal obligation to bring to the board's attention any information that has a bearing on hearing testimony," said Alexander. This issue, said Alexander, is directly related to the ratepayer protection program agreed upon between Entergy and the Department of Public Service. The plan calls for a $4.5 million fund that will be used to defray costs if the utilities that buy power from Vermont Yankee are forced to buy it elsewhere due to uprate-related failures. The plan would cover only the first three years following the uprate. According to the coalition, extended power uprates, such as requested by Entergy, have only been done since 2001, making it impossible to know whether problems will surface after three years. Alexander and Blanch also contend that the wording of the board's request for an independent engineering assessment is insufficient. They are calling on the board to recommend an assessment similar to what the Senate requested in a resolution passed earlier this month. The order as it stands calls for "a vertical slice review of two safety-related systems and two Maintenance Rule, non-safety systems affected by the uprate." It goes on to say that the assessment would include four experts for about four weeks. Although the order also makes reference to the independent safety assessment done at Maine Yankee in 1996, according to Alexander, that review involved 25 experts for six weeks. The coaltion is seeking a similar review at Vermont Yankee. The motion for reconsideration also calls for the following points to be reexamined: * the discharge of toxic chemical spray from the cooling towers without a permit for discharge; * the increase in emergency planning costs due to the potential for an uprate-related core melt accident; * compliance with the 1994 Vermont Energy Plan; * the testimony of William Sherman regarding projections of radiological accident fallout; * testimony by the Department of Public Safety and Entergy that the coalition claims exaggerated the similarities between and independent safety assessment and a standard Nuclear Regulatory review. ***************************************************************** 66 Las Vegas SUN: Book Alleges Rocky Flats Misconduct By ROBERT WELLER ASSOCIATED PRESS DENVER (AP) - Secret midnight burning of radioactive waste. An FBI spy flight with infrared cameras. An employee who claims she was contaminated by fellow workers for reporting safety violations. It sounds like something out of a paperback thriller. But the allegations are contained in a new book that says the Justice Department covered up environmental misconduct at the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant near Denver more than a decade ago. Federal and state health officials say they are looking into the claims raised by the book, "The Ambushed Grand Jury: How the Justice Department Covered Up Government Nuclear Crimes and How We Caught Them Red Handed." The book was written by Wes McKinley, the foreman of a grand jury that investigated activity at Rocky Flats, and attorney Caron Balkany. They said the book is worth the risk of jail for violating grand jury secrecy rules. "I am doing my patriotic duty," McKinley said. "These people are criminals." In addition to interviews with former plant workers and investigators, the authors relied on a journal McKinley kept during the grand jury sessions. They said they were able to independently confirm all the evidence discussed in the book. A former federal prosecutor dismissed the allegations, and the plant's former operator said all the claims have been investigated and found to be groundless. Rocky Flats, situated on the edge of the foothills outside Denver, made plutonium triggers from the 1950s until 1989. The Energy Department complex is being cleaned up and officials hope to turn it into a wildlife refuge by 2006. Tipped about potential safety violations, the FBI in 1988 used infrared cameras during flights over Rocky Flats and detected what agents claimed was a burning incinerator in Building 771, the plutonium-reprocessing facility. At that time, the building was supposed to be shut down after an employee was exposed to radiation. FBI and Environmental Protection Agency officials raided the plant in 1989 as part of an investigation called Operation Desert Glow. Investigators subsequently looked at whether Rockwell International, the plant's operator at the time, knowingly discharged chemicals into creeks that flowed into municipal water supplies, burned toxic waste and failed to adequately monitor groundwater. From 1989 to 1992, a federal grand jury heard testimony and reviewed evidence against Rockwell. The panel wanted to indict eight people and two corporations involved with Rocky Flats and recommended closing the plant. But then-U.S. Attorney Michael Norton refused to sign the indictments and worked out a plea bargain. Rockwell pleaded guilty to 10 hazardous waste and clean water violations in 1992 and was fined $18.5 million. The company admitted it stored hazardous waste without a permit, in containers that leaked, and that its actions caused hazardous waste to wind up in reservoirs that supplied drinking water to nearby cities. At the time, it was the biggest fine levied against a company in a hazardous-waste case. A Justice Department review of the plea bargain supported the prosecutors. The review said a charge of illegal burning had to be withdrawn because Allen Divers, a former military analyst who was working for Lockheed and reviewed the infrared photos, had changed his mind and could not be sure. However, the book's authors contacted Divers, who said he had never changed his opinion. Divers confirmed this in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. The grand jury's report remains sealed, and as recently as this month, U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch refused to allow grand jurors to break their oath and speak publicly about the case. Matsch did not respond to a request seeking comment. Jeff Dorschner, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Denver, would not comment on whether McKinley would be prosecuted for violating grand jury secrecy. In an interview with The AP, Norton said that the grand jurors let their emotions take control and that the most serious allegations were not borne out. "There was not the kind of mass conspiracy cover-up that was thought at the outset to have occurred," he said. Asked about Divers, Norton said, "I've never heard of him." Similarly, Rockwell spokesman Matthrew Gonring said the accusations were thoroughly investigated. The book includes material from interviews with FBI agent Jon Lipsky, who led a raid on the plant in 1989, and Jacque Brever, a Rockwell employee who worked in a building where processed plutonium was stored. "My superiors have ordered me to lie about a criminal investigation I headed in 1989. We were investigating the Department of Energy, but the U.S. Justice Department covered up the truth," Lipsky said in the book. He confirmed his statement in a brief telephone interview with the AP. Brever's account is more chilling. She said she is suffering from thyroid cancer she believes is the result of her fellow union workers deliberately damaging her protective gear because they feared her testimony would force the shutdown of the plant and cost them their jobs. Officials at the Energy Department did not return calls and an e-mail for comment. Representatives of the EPA and the Colorado health department said they are looking into the allegations in the book. -- ***************************************************************** 67 NMBW: NASA contracts could land at N.M. labs - 2004-03-26 - New Mexico Business Weekly NMBW Staff Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., announced Thursday that Los Alamos and Sandia National laboratories will likely be chosen to conduct two research projects now in contract negotiations with NASA. The contracts could be worth up to $600,000 for a two-year performance period. "Los Alamos and Sandia Labs continue to be at the top of the scientific and technological world," the senator said in a press release. " NASA research has been done time and time again at these facilities, and I am confident that if chosen, our labs will meet the challenge and do a great job on these projects." Domenici is a member of the Congressional Independent Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, which has funding jurisdiction for NASA and other federal science agencies. Under the proposed contracts, Los Alamos would work with AeroAstro Corp. of Virginia on the Autonomous Spacecraft Power Scheduling project. Sandia would conduct work on Refractory Open-Cell Foam Fuel for High-Efficiency Nuclear Space Propulsion, Phase II, in conjunction with Ultramet of California. The contracts are part of NASA's Small Business Technology transfer program. The program aims to stimulate technological innovation using small businesses, including those owned by women and minorities, to meet federal research and development needs and increase private sector commercialization of federally funded research results. The program includes partnerships with nonprofit institutions. All of the program's projects have a total of about $9 million and will be awarded to 17 companies in 13 states. © 2004 American City Business Journals Inc. ***************************************************************** 68 BJP: Engineer halts work at Hanford after incident - 2004-03-26 - The Business Journal of Portland CH2M Hill, the engineering firm working on the 177 buried storage tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, said it "has stopped all routine operations" after three workers were exposed to vapors and sent to the hospital Thursday. "Only essential workers will be in the field," CH2M Hill said in a statement. "These workers will have respiratory protection when entering tank farms. We are evaluating the situation and will determine the appropriate precautions moving forward." The workers were exposed to fumes vapors that seep from tanks holding radioactive and toxic chemicals. Dozens of incidents involving the vapors have occurred in the last two years, and critics have asked that the work be shut down until the fumes can be more fully studied. Officials with the company as well as with the U.S. Energy Department say that the workers are not being exposed to dangerous levels of chemicals. CH2M Hill said in its statement that the workers involved in the incident Thursday received complete medical evaluations and "were released without restrictions." © 2004 American City Business Journals Inc. ***************************************************************** 69 NRC: Notice of Issuance of Materials License SNM-2511; Diablo Canyon FR Doc E4-683 [Federal Register: March 26, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 59)] [Notices] [Page 15910-15911] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr26mr04-123] Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the Commission) has issued Materials License No. SNM-2511 to the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG) for the receipt, possession, storage, and transfer of spent fuel at the Diablo Canyon Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI), located in San Luis Obispo County, California. This Materials License is issued under the provisions of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations, part 72 (10 CFR part 72), and is effective as of the date of issuance. A license for an ISFSI under 10 CFR part 72 is issued for 20 years, but the licensee may seek to renew the license prior to its expiration. The Diablo Canyon ISFSI is licensed to provide interim storage in a dry cask storage system for up to 2100 metric tons of uranium contained in intact and damaged fuel assemblies and associated radioactive materials resulting from the operation of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant. The dry cask storage system authorized for use is a site- specific version of the HI-STORM 100 system designed by Holtec International. Following receipt of PG's application dated December 21, 2001, the NRC staff published a ``Notice of Docketing, Notice of Proposed Action, and Notice of Opportunity for Hearing for a Materials License for the Diablo Canyon Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation'' in the Federal Register on April 22, 2002 (67 FR 19600). The ``Notice of Issuance of Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact for the Diablo Canyon Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation,'' was published in the Federal Register on October 30, 2003 (68 FR 61838). The scope of the staff's Environmental Assessment (EA) [[Page 15911]] included the construction, operation and decommissioning of an ISFSI at the Diablo Canyon site, including impacts resulting from the use of the HI-STORM 100 dry cask storage system. The NRC staff has completed its environmental, safeguards, and safety reviews of the Diablo Canyon ISFSI license application and safety analysis report, as amended. The NRC staff issued Materials License No. SNM-2511 and its Safety Evaluation Report (SER) for the Diablo Canyon Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation on March 22, 2004. For further details with respect to this action, see the application dated December 21, 2001, the staff's EA dated October 24, 2003, Materials License SNM-2511 and the staff's SER, dated March 22, 2004, and other related documents, which are publicly available in the records component of NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS). The NRC maintains ADAMS, which provides text and image files of NRC's public documents. These documents may be accessed through the NRC's Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html] . If you do not have access to ADAMS or if there are problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, contact the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) Reference staff at 1- 800-397-4209, 301-415-4737 or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov [pdr@nrc.gov] . Dated in Rockville, Maryland, this 22nd day of March, 2004. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. James R. Hall, Senior Project Manager, Licensing Section, Spent Fuel Project Office, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards. [FR Doc. E4-683 Filed 3-25-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 70 Corvallis Gazette-Times: CH2M Hill halts work at Hanford tank farms [gazettetimes.com] Last modified Thursday, March 25, 2004 11:34 PM PST By SHANNON DININNY Associated Press writer YAKIMA, Wash. — The contractor hired to clean up underground tanks holding radioactive waste at the Hanford nuclear site halted routine work Thursday after three workers were taken to medical centers following a possible vapor exposure. Colorado-based CH2M Hill, which has offices in Corvallis, said only essential workers would be allowed into the so-called tank farms — and then only with respiratory protection. The three were working near a pit earlier Thursday when they noticed an odor, described as a "sweet smell." They initially declined medical evaluation, but co-workers called 911 when one of them reportedly developed a nosebleed. The three workers had been assigned to monitor for radioactivity or chemical vapors on the vast site that once made plutonium for nuclear weapons. Several investigations are under way to determine if Hanford workers are being exposed to toxic vapors from the 177 underground tanks, which hold 53 million gallons of radioactive waste. Last week, six workers sought medical attention after being exposed to tank vapors in three separate incidents. Copyright © 2004 • Lee ***************************************************************** 71 DOE: Notice of Renewal of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board FR Doc 04-6796 [Federal Register: March 26, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 59)] [Notices] [Page 15825] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr26mr04-65] Pursuant to section 14(a)(2)(A) of the Federal Advisory Committee Act and in accordance with title 41 of the Code of Federal Regulations, section 101-6.1015, and following consultation with the Committee Management Secretariat of the General Services Administration, notice is hereby given that the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (the Board) has been renewed for an additional two-year period, beginning in March 2004. The Board will continue to provide independent, balanced, and authoritative advice to the Secretary of Energy on matters concerning the Department's management, basic science, research, development and technology activities; energy and national security responsibilities, environmental cleanup activities; energy-related economic activities; the operations of the Department; and on any other activities and operations of the Department of Energy as the Secretary may direct. The Board members are selected to assure well-balanced representation in fields of importance to the Department of Energy, such as management, basic science, renewable energy, energy policy, environmental science, economics, business expertise and broad public policy interests. Membership of the Board will continue to be determined in accordance with the requirements of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (Public Law 92-463) and implementing regulations. The renewal of the Board has been determined to be in the public interest, important and vital to the conduct of the Department's business in connection with the performance of duties established by statute for the Department of Energy. The Board will operate in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (Public Law 92-463), the General Services Administration Final Rule on Federal Advisory Committee Management, and other directives and instructions issued in implementation of those acts. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Rachel M. Samuel, U.S. Department of Energy, ME-76, FORS, Washington, DC 20585, Telephone: (202) 586- 3279. Issued in Washington, DC on March 19, 2004. James N. Solit, Advisory Committee Management Officer. [FR Doc. 04-6796 Filed 3-25-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P ***************************************************************** 72 Oak Ridger: Nuclear research at ORNL Story last updated at 1:01 p.m. on March 26, 2004 By: Paul Parson | Oak Ridger Staff [paul.parson@oakridger.com] Oak Ridge National Laboratory's nuclear-related research involves everything from revolutionary reactor concepts to power sources for space missions. "We have the broadest base of nuclear work," said David Hill, associate laboratory director for Energy and Engineering Technologies. That's a good thing, especially if you pay attention to news reports that indicate the nuclear power industry is talking about revival and that the American reliance on nuclear energy is likely to grow significantly in coming decades. In the United States, there are just over 100 commercial nuclear power reactors, which generate about 20 percent of the nation's electrical use. The Tennessee Valley Authority operates two different types of nuclear power plants: Sequoyah and Watts Bar nuclear plants are based on a pressurized water reactor, while Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant has a boiling water reactor. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission serves as the watchdog of the nuclear power industry. And, the NRC's research program at ORNL addresses a wide range of "threats" to the industry, including electromagnetic interference from wireless technologies, terrorist attacks, human error and Mother Nature. In addition, ORNL has a key role in a new NASA program to construct a nuclear power reactor system for space exploration beyond Mars. The lab's work includes developing advanced materials to enable the reactor system to operate at high temperatures in addition to guiding the design of the reactor's nuclear shield. The Oak Ridge lab is also developing and selecting materials for the next generation of nuclear power plants, which would produce hydrogen as well as electricity. The materials in question will have to withstand harsh chemical conditions in addition to high temperatures, radiation levels and pressures. While ORNL is active in nuclear-related research, the federal government's new Idaho National Laboratory is expected to become the nation's preeminent nuclear research facility. ***************************************************************** 73 DOE: Tribal Leaders Summit: Solicitation of Comments FR Doc 04-6797 [Federal Register: March 26, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 59)] [Notices] [Page 15824-15825] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr26mr04-64] AGENCY: Department of Energy. ACTION: Notice of Comment Period. [[Page 15825]] SUMMARY: The Department of Energy is soliciting comments related to the implementation of its American Indian and Alaska Native Tribal Government Policy and its interactions with tribal governments. DATES: Interested parties should submit comments in writing on or before April 30, 2004. ADDRESSES: Fax comments to (202) 586-7314, attention Kristen Ellis. If you are unable to send your comments by fax, please contact Kristen Ellis, telephone (202) 586-5810, to make other arrangements. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kristen Ellis, (202) 586-5810. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Department of Energy hosted the first DOE/Tribal Leaders Summit on February 23, 2004 in Washington, DC. This event followed the government-to-government format required for interactions with tribal governments, and was therefore not open to the public. The goal of the Summit was to identify successes and barriers to communication between tribal entities and the Department, and to work towards developing a framework for future interactions. Various DOE Program Offices presented information of possible interest to tribes, including the offices of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Economic Impact and Diversity, Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology, Environmental Management, and the National Nuclear Security Administration. Tribal representatives from the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), Council for Energy Resource Tribes (CERT), the Southern Ute nation, and the DOE State and Tribal Government Working Group (STGWG) also addressed the participants with their individual, tribal and/or organizational perspective. At the Summit, the Department announced a period to solicit further comments from tribal participants. Comments might address future topical or regional summits, protocols, or departmental goals or procedures that affect tribes. With this notice, the Department is soliciting comments from all interested stakeholders, including state or local governments or those living or working near the Department's sites or who otherwise may be affected by the Department's activities related to tribes. Although the Department will accept comments from any source, it is primarily interested in comments from any interested Tribal leader or Tribal leader's representative, whether or not they attended the summit. These comments will be considered by the Department as it implements its policy. A copy of the comment form distributed at the Summit is available at http://www.ci.doe.gov [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.ci.doe.gov] . Rick A. Dearborn, Assistant Secretary, Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs. [FR Doc. 04-6797 Filed 3-25-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P ***************************************************************** 74 Oak Ridger: Our View: Spallation Neutron Source on target; attend open house Story last updated at 11:02 a.m. on March 26, 2004 Congratulations to all those associated with the Spallation Neutron Source for being on-target and at 80 percent completion. The SNS is an accelerator-based neutron source being built in Oak Ridge. This one-of-a-kind facility will be completed in 2006 and will provide the most intense pulsed neutron beams in the world for scientific research and industrial development. Remarkably, the SNS is being built via a partnership of six Department of Energy laboratories throughout the United States. SNS officials say that although most people don't know it, neutron-scattering has a lot to do with our everyday lives. Jets, credit cards, pocket calculators, compact discs, computer disks, magnetic recording tapes, shatter-proof windshields, adjustable seats and satellite weather information for forecasts have all been improved by neutron-scattering research, SNS officials report. Neutron research also helps researchers improve materials used in high-temperature superconductors, powerful lightweight magnets, aluminum bridge decks and stronger, lighter plastic products. More than $1 billion has been spent so far on the construction of the research facility, which is within budget and, as aforementioned, on target to meet its 2006 completion date. We would remind the public that an SNS open house is set for 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. April 2. The SNS building is located at 701 Scarboro Road and you can call (865) 574-0558 for more information. ***************************************************************** 75 DOE: Application To Export Electric Energy; Brascan Energy Marketing FR Doc 04-6798 [Federal Register: March 26, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 59)] [Notices] [Page 15825-15826] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr26mr04-66] Inc. AGENCY: Office of Fossil Energy, DOE. ACTION: Notice of application. SUMMARY: Brascan Energy Marketing Inc. (BEMI) has applied to renew its authority to transmit electric energy from the United States to Canada pursuant to section 202(e) of the Federal Power Act. DATES: Comments, protests or requests to intervene must be submitted on or before April 12, 2004. ADDRESSES: Comments, protests or requests to intervene should be addressed as follows: Office of Coal & Power Import/Export (FE-27), Office of Fossil Energy, U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20585-0350 (FAX 202-287-5736). FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Xavier Puslowski (Program Office) 202- 586-4608 or Michael Skinker (Program Attorney) 202-586-2793. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Exports of electricity from the United States to a foreign country are regulated and require authorization under section 202(e) of the Federal Power Act (FPA) (16 U.S.C. 824a(e)). On April 26, 2002, the Office of Fossil Energy (FE) of the Department of Energy (DOE) issued Order No. EA-258 authorizing Maclaren Energy, Inc. (now known as Brascan Energy Marketing Inc.) to transmit electric energy from the United States to Canada as a power marketer. That two-year authorization expires on April 26, 2004. On February 12, 2004, FE received an application from Brascan Energy Marketing Inc. (BEMI) to renew its authorization to transmit electric energy from the United States to Canada. BEMI is a power marketer that is incorporated under the laws of Ontario, Canada, with its principal place of business in [[Page 15826]] Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. BEMI does not own generation or transmission assets and does not have a franchised electric power service area. BEMI operates as a wholesale and retail marketer of electric power and arranges services in related areas such as fuel supplies and transmission services. BEMI proposes to arrange for the delivery of electric energy to Canada over the existing international transmission facilities owned by Basin Electric Power Cooperative, Bonneville Power Administration, Eastern Maine Electric Cooperative, International Transmission Company, Joint Owners of the Highgate Project, Long Sault, Inc., Maine Electric Power Company, Maine Public Service Company, Minnesota Power Inc., New York Power Authority, Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation, Northern States Power, and Vermont Electric Transmission Company. The construction, operation, maintenance, and connection of each of the international transmission facilities to be utilized by BEMI, as more fully described in the application, has previously been authorized by a Presidential permit issued pursuant to Executive Order 10485, as amended. Procedural Matters Any person desiring to become a party to this proceeding or to be heard by filing comments or protests to this application should file a petition to intervene, comment or protest at the address provided above in accordance with Sec. Sec. 385.211 or 385.214 of the FERC's Rules of Practice and Procedures (18 CFR 385.211, 385.214). Fifteen copies of each petition and protest should be filed with DOE on or before the date listed above. Comments on the BEMI application to export electric energy to Canada should be clearly marked with Docket EA-258-A. Additional copies are to be filed directly with Patricia Bood, General Counsel, Brascan Energy Marketing Inc., 480 de la Cite Blvd., Suite 200, Gatineau, Quebec J8T 8R3 and Amy S. Koch, Patton Boggs LLP, 2550 M Street, NW., Washington, DC 20037. A final decision will be made on this application after the environmental impacts have been evaluated pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, and a determination is made by the DOE that the proposed action will not adversely impact on the reliability of the U.S. electric power supply system. Copies of this application will be made available, upon request, for public inspection and copying at the address provided above or by accessing the Fossil Energy Home Page at http://www.fe.de.gov [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.fe.de.gov] . Upon reaching the Fossil Energy Home page, select ``Electricity Regulation,'' and then ``Pending Procedures'' from the options menus. Issued in Washington, DC, on March 18, 2004. Anthony J. Como, Deputy Director, Electric Power Regulation, Office of Coal & Power Import/Export, Office of Coal & Power Systems, Office of Fossil Energy. [FR Doc. 04-6798 Filed 3-25-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P ***************************************************************** 76 DOE: Innovative Energy Systems Pilot Project--Chemicals FR Doc 04-6799 [Federal Register: March 26, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 59)] [Notices] [Page 15826-15827] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr26mr04-67] AGENCY: Golden Field Office, U.S. Department of Energy. ACTION: Notice of issuance of a funding opportunity announcement. SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is announcing its intention to establish a five-year collaborative pilot project to jointly support the research, development, and demonstration of projects which will improve the energy efficiency and enhance the productivity of energy systems throughout the chemical industry that are integrated with the chemical processing and energy supply systems within plant boundaries. This pilot project was conceived by Vision 2020 (an organization representing the chemical industry's technology development interests) with the goal of commercializing one or more innovative energy systems that will have widespread application and yield significant energy savings to the chemical industry. Future technology demonstrations of successful research and development (R) are anticipated to be conducted by the U.S. chemical industry once the technology risks have been minimized and the costs associated with any technology have been validated by the Innovative Energy Systems Pilot Project. DATES: The Funding Opportunity Announcement was issued on March 16, 2004. ADDRESSES: To obtain a copy of the Announcement, interested parties should access the DOE Golden Field Office Home page at http://www.go.doe.gov/funding.html [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.go.doe.gov/funding.html] , click on the word ``access.'' The link will open the Industry Interactive Procurement System (IIPS) Web site and provide instructions on using IIPS. The Announcement can also be obtained directly through IIPS at http://e-center.doe.gov [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://e-center.doe.gov] by browsing opportunities by Contract Activity, for those Announcements issued by the Golden Field Office. DOE will not issue paper copies of the Announcement. IIPS provides the medium for disseminating Announcements, receiving financial assistance applications, and evaluating the applications in a paperless environment. The application may be submitted in the Industry Interactive Procurement System (IIPS) by the applicant or a designated representative that receives authorization from the applicant; however, the application documentation must reflect the name and title of the representative authorized to enter the applicant into a legally binding contract or agreement. The applicant or the designated representative must first register in IIPS, entering their first name and last name, and then entering the company name/address of the applicant. For questions regarding the operation of IIPS, contact the IIPS Help Desk at IIPS_HelpDesk@e-center.doe.gov [IIPS_HelpDesk@e-center.doe.gov] or at (800) 683-0751. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jean Siekerka, Contract Specialist, DOE Golden Field Office, 1617 Cole Boulevard, Golden, CO 80401-3393 or via facsimile to Jean at (303) 275-4788 or electronically to jean.siekerka@go.doe.gov [ jean.siekerka@go.doe.gov] . SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) employs a two-phased approach to achieve its objectives: Phase 1 involves selecting a Project Integrator with the expertise, resources, and project and contract management capabilities to solicit, review, select and manage contracts for innovative technology development projects addressing the aforementioned energy-saving opportunities in the chemical industry. Phase 2 involves the Project Integrator conducting a fair and open competitive Innovative Energy Systems Challenge (Challenge) solicitation (Request for Proposals, RFP) to attract potential innovative energy systems technology development projects that meet the following objectives: 1. Target the often overlooked areas of high-risk R in the areas of energy systems integrated with chemical processing and energy supply systems within chemical plant boundaries; 2. Through a fair and open competitive solicitation process, identify and facilitate development of innovative technologies that could cost-effectively achieve a significant (=30 percent) reduction in on-site and off-site energy losses in the chemical industry; [[Page 15827]] 3. Identify opportunities where energy efficiency and/or renewable energy technologies can support achievement of the =30 percent energy savings objective; 4. Lead to one or more innovative energy system designs ready for pilot-scale testing and/or computer models ready for beta-testing that address the aforementioned energy savings objective; and 5. Deliver a high-quality commercialization plan for the selected technology development projects. After obtaining DOE cost share approval, the Project Integrator will issue contracts for the individual technology development projects, manage the contracts, and provide required reports to DOE. Phase 1 funding: Approximately $500,000-$750,000 is expected to be available for the first two years to fund the Project Integrator organization. No cost share will be required under this phase. Phase 2 funding: Approximately $6,000,000 in DOE cost share funding is expected to be available for an estimated five to eight projects that would run for up to five years. Individual Phase 2 projects will require either a minimum of 20% Non-Federal cost share for applied research and/or development projects or a minimum of 50% Non-Federal cost share for projects involving commercial demonstration, as appropriate. The Project Integrator will make the determination to fund in whole or in part, any, all, or none of the applications submitted in response to its solicitation, subject to the availability of DOE funds. Issued in Golden, Colorado, on March 19, 2004. Jerry L. Zimmer, Director, Office of Acquisition and Financial Assistance. [FR Doc. 04-6799 Filed 3-25-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P ***************************************************************** 77 Google News Alert - nuclear Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 13:55:44 -0800 (PST) NUCLEAR research at ORNL Oak Ridger - Oak Ridge,TN,USA Oak Ridge National Laboratory's nuclear-related research involves everything from revolutionary reactor concepts to power sources for space missions. ... NRC: Nuclear Waste Casks Not Vulnerable Miami Herald - Miami,FL,USA ... would survive a Sept. 11 style airliner attack, the head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Thursday. NRC Chairman Nils Diaz ... See all stories on this topic: ANNIVERSARIES of the TMI & Chornobyl Nuclear Accidents Common Dreams - USA TAKOMA PARK, MD; RIVNE, UKRAINE - March 25 -March 28 is the 25th anniversary of the 1979 nuclear accident at the Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear power plant ... See all stories on this topic: US nuclear expansion under fire Sydney Morning Herald - Sydney,New South Wales,Australia Moscow: The Defence Minister, Sergei Ivanov, has warned that the US's development of new types of nuclear weapons may force Russia to adopt tougher defence ... See all stories on this topic: SILENT Genocide: Depleted Uranium: The US and its Nuclear War in ... Axis of Logic - United States ... We're waging war-plus in Afghanistan and Iraq - in effect, nuclear war, with our widespread use of depleted-uranium-tipped shells and missiles. ... See all stories on this topic: N Korea 'upbeat' on nuclear talks BBC News - London,England,UK North Korea has agreed to push towards a third round of international talks on the region's nuclear crisis, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing has said. ... See all stories on this topic: IAEA asks Pak to allow nuclear inspection NDTV.com - India UN nuclear agency has officially requested Pakistan to allow inspection of some its nuclear installations. The request came after ... See all stories on this topic: ANALYSIS - S . Korea to stick with nuclear as top power fuel Reuters AlertNet - London,England,UK SEOUL, March 26 (Reuters) - South Korea will push on with plans to build 10 more nuclear power reactors by 2015, despite mounting public pressure against its ... RUSSIA warns NATO with nuclear option SpaceDaily - USA Russia's defense minister Thursday repeated an earlier warning to NATO that he may order a build-up of the country's nuclear defenses should the US-led ... See all stories on this topic: 3 nuclear workers hospitalized after odor MLive.com - MI,USA RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — Three workers at the Hanford nuclear site were taken to a hospital Thursday after noticing a mysterious "sweet smell" near underground ... See all stories on this topic: This daily-once News Alert is brought to you by Google News (BETA)... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Remove this News Alert: http://www.google.com/newsalerts/remove?s=92d1672a1b037a07&hl=en Create another News Alert: http://www.google.com/newsalerts?hl=en Try Google News: http://news.google.com/ ***************************************************************** 78 CSIRO: Ancient sands key to cleaning up industrial pollution [http://www.innovations-report.com/home.php] CSIRO 26.03.2004 CSIRO research has found unusual properties in ilmenite sand from the Murray Basin that could be harnessed to remove heavy metal and radioactive pollution from mine drainage, industrial waste streams, and ground water. CSIRO scientists discovered the sand grains contains tiny holes, just nanometres across, but just the right size to potentially capture and filter out toxic pollutants from mining and other industrial wastes, as well as catalyse important industrial processes. Dr Ian Grey, a mineralogist from CSIRO Minerals who will tonight receive a Clunies Ross Award for his substantial contribution to Australia’s mineral sands industry, discovered the strongly weathered sands’ unusual properties whilst studying their chemical makeup. But it was the ilmenite grains’ unusual physical properties that captured Dr Grey’s interest. "The weathering has created nanoscale porosity in the sand grains," says Dr Grey. "This means the grains may act like molecular sieves, selectively adsorbing a variety of different chemicals within the nanopores." "Normally we process such sands to produce products such as titania pigment feedstocks and titanium metal, but the Murray Basin sands may have opened the door to new ways to prevent pollution reaching the environment and to clean up environments already polluted," he says. Nanoporous silicate materials became a commercial reality in 1992, and in recent years considerable effort has gone into attempts to synthesise nanoporous titanates. However, substantial obstacles to commercialisation remain, including high cost of reactants and lack of thermal stability. "The weathered mineral sands have a number of natural advantages over the synthetic versions," says Dr Grey, "They are mechanically strong and thermally stable to relatively high temperatures. And they exist naturally - hey provide a value-dded product with minimal processing required." The Murray Basin’s vast mineral sands deposits - rich in the economic minerals ilmenite, rutile and zircon - were formed along ancient coastlines, where the heavier minerals were concentrated by wave and wind action. Over millions of years, sea, sun and air have weathered these sands and changed their physical and chemical structures. Dr Grey is continuing to characterise these ancient weathered sands in order to further determine the potential applications of Murray Basin minerals sands. He plans to apply this knowledge to develop and test procedures for industrial uses of these natural minerals, and to aid the design of procedures for synthesising equivalent materials. Dr Grey is one of two CSIRO scientists to be presented with ATSE Clunies Ross Awards tonight in Melbourne. The other CSIRO winner is Dr Rob Evans of CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products who will receive an award for his research into the development of a wood imaging system. Scientific enquiries and contact with Dr Ian Grey: Meg Rive, CSIRO Minerals, (03) 9545 8614, mobile: 0438 007 301 Email: Meg.Rive@csiro.au Information about the ATSE Clunies Ross Awards: Niall Byrne, (03) 5253 1391, mobile: 0417 131 977 Email: niall@scienceinpublic.com Visit our website: http://www.scienceinpublic.com/ More information: www.csiro.au/index.asp?type=mediaRelease=Prmolecularsieve 26.03.2004 | Geoff Burchfield | Source: CSIRO | CMS by NETZGUT ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************