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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 Xinhuanet: US, Japan, South Korea hold talks on DPRK nuclear issue
2 US: Japan Times: Report condemns Bush's corruption of science
3 US: TCS: The Case of Suitcase Nukes
4 SF Chronicle: An atomic bargain hampers hunt for illicit weapons
5 Pakistan News: Detention of another nuclear scientist challenged in
6 asahi.com: Utilities delaying expansion plans
NUCLEAR REACTORS
7 US: [NukeNet] NJ DEP fines Oyster Creek nuke 1 million for fish
8 Chernobyl+18: Woman's MC Trip Thru Ghost Towns
9 US: StarNewsOnline.com:
10 Chicago Sun-Times: Iran has nuke reactor on drawing board
11 Daily Times: China quiet on whether N-plant discussed
12 US: NRC: DPR-65 Millstone 123 licenses
13 US: NRC: NRC Staff Proposes $88,000 Civil Penalty Against Progress E
14 US: NRC: Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant; Environmental Assessmen
15 US: NRC: Duke Energy Corporation, McGuire Nuclear Station, Units 1 a
16 US: Newsday: Oyster Creek to pay $1 million for September fish kill
17 Expatica: Belgium 'needs nuclear to beat global warming'
18 US: WHOI: Nuclear Safety Study
NUCLEAR SAFETY
19 [DU-WATCH] photos of children from US bombing
20 US: [RADFOOD] NY School District Bans Irradiated Food!
21 US: [DU-WATCH] FW: Organizing Iraq War Vets
22 US: [DU-WATCH] 9/11: Urgent letter from Prof. Weston
23 [DU-WATCH] Cleaning Up after War
24 [du-list] An urgent news from Japan DU activities crisis of
25 [DU-WATCH] An urgent news from Japan DU activities crisis of
26 US: Norco Hills Calif-Wyle Labs poison w/DU testing/missiles/warhead
27 [du-list] Call for Guam to be included in Radiation
28 US: [FOODIRRADIATIONCA] Support AB 1988 Keep Irradiated Meat out
29 US: [EMMAS] Exclusive: U.S. Soldiers Contaminated With Depleted
30 [DU-WATCH] Report from Hell - Students back from Iraq
31 US: [DU-WATCH] Poisoned
32 US: [DU-WATCH] Army to test NY guard unit
33 US: [DU-WATCH] soldiers demand to know health risks
34 US: [DU-WATCH] Inside camp of troubles
35 [du-list] Crimes in Iraq - Lest We Forget
36 [DU-WATCH] hear multi-various shocking revelations on D.U.
37 US: NRC: NRC to Meet with Honeywell Officials in Illinois on April 2
38 PuertoRicoWOW!: Viequenses ask for depleted uranium tests
39 US: YDR: Hospital runs radiation drill -
40 BBC: City prepares for nuclear submarine berthing
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
41 GCG: Sellafield clean-up backed
42 DOE: Record of Decision on Mode of Transportation and Nevada Rail
43 US: AU ABC: NT mining companies put on notice after water contaminat
44 Irish Echo Online: EC rules for Ireland on Sellafield
45 The Whitehaven News: ‘SCOTS CAN LOOK AFTER THEIR OWN N-WASTE’
46 DOE: Proposal to build build rail lines to Yucca
47 US: Deseretnews: Waste firm accepts denial of permit
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
48 Colorado Daily: Council, Udall tackling Flats future
49 lamonitor.com: Headline News LANL exempted on sealed source disposal
50 Oak Ridger: $2.5B UT-Battelle, lab deal nears end
51 Tri-City Herald: River cleanup proposal changed
OTHER NUCLEAR
52 Google News Alert - nuclear
53 [DU-WATCH] number of new articles on DU
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 Xinhuanet: US, Japan, South Korea hold talks on DPRK nuclear issue
www.xinhuanet.com
www.chinaview.cn 2004-04-08 09:53:01
WASHINGTON, April 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Diplomats of the United
States,Japan and South Korea held private talks in San Francisco,
California Wednesday on the nuclear issue of Democratic People's
Republic of Korea (DPRK), US officials said.
The talks among the three allies, which were held at a San
Francisco water front hotel, were not openly mentioned.
During the two-day talks beginning on Wednesday, the
diplomats from the three countries will discuss ways to quickly
start lower-level working groups that were agreed upon during the
last round of six-way nuclear talks among China, the United
States, Russia, Japan, South Korea and the DPRK.
Diplomats taking part in Wednesday's talks are US Assistant
Secretary of State James Kelly, South Korean Deputy Foreign
Minister Lee Soo-Hyuck and Japanese Foreign Ministry Director
General Mitoji Yabunaka.
The second round of six-nation talks were held in Beijing on
Feb. 25-28 and they agreed to meet again before July and decided
to create working groups to resolve obstacles to future
high-leveltalks.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said that the second
round of six-party talks held in Beijing achieved "a good deal of
progress" in seeking a solution to the nuclear issue of the
Koreanpeninsula.
The United States has demanded a "complete, certifiable and
irreversible dismantlement" of the DPRK nuclear programs. Enditem
Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
2 Japan Times: Report condemns Bush's corruption of science
Thursday, April 8, 2004
OUR PLANET EARTH
By STEPHEN HESSE
Kurt Gottfried, professor emeritus of physics at Cornell
University and Chairman of the Union of Concerned Scientists
(UCS), is very concerned about the Bush administration.
"Across a broad range of issues, the administration has
undermined the quality of the scientific advisory system and the
morale of the government's outstanding scientific personnel.
Whether the issue is lead paint, clean air or climate change,
this behavior has serious consequences for all Americans," he
told the media in February.
Gottfried is not alone. Over the past three years, U.S.
scientists have been increasingly alarmed by the depth and
breadth of harm being wreaked on America's health and welfare by
the corporate-friendly policies of the Bush administration.
"We are not simply raising warning flags about an academic
subject of interest only to scientists and doctors. In case after
case, scientific input to policymaking is being censored and
distorted. This will have serious consequences for public
health," warns Neal Lane, a UCS member and former director of the
National Science Foundation who once served as a presidential
science adviser.
In mid-February, deeply worried about political manipulation of
science in decision-making, the UCS issued a statement and a
report calling on the Bush administration to restore scientific
integrity to federal policymaking. The statement was signed by
more than 60 top scientists, including Nobel laureates, National
Medal of Science winners, leading medical experts, former
federal-agency directors, and university presidents. The UCS is
an independent American nonprofit, nongovernment organization
that focuses on issues of scientific interest.
"Given the myriad pressing problems involving complex scientific
information -- from the AIDS pandemic to the threat of nuclear
proliferation -- the American public expects government experts
and researchers to provide more data and analysis than ever
before, and to do so in an impartial and accurate way," states
the Executive Summary of the UCS report, titled "Scientific
Integrity in Policymaking."
"At a time when one might expect the federal government to
increasingly rely on impartial researchers for the critical role
they play in gathering and analyzing specialized data, there are
numerous indications that the opposite is occurring. A growing
number of scientists, policymakers and technical specialists both
inside and outside the government allege that the current Bush
administration has suppressed or distorted the scientific
analyses of federal agencies to bring these results in line with
administration policy," the Executive Summary asserts.
The report looks into these allegations, and is the result of a
yearlong investigation of the public record and internal
government documents, as well as interviews with government
officials, past and present.
The UCS findings are disturbing and unambiguous, and while a
sound-bite summary might suffice, sometime it's best to read the
fine print, especially when, as the saying goes, the devil is in
the details. So here are the four main findings of the
scientists' investigation:
"1) There is a well-established pattern of suppression and
distortion of scientific findings by high-ranking Bush
administration political appointees across numerous federal
agencies. These actions have consequences for human health,
public safety and community well-being. Incidents involve air
pollutants, heat-trapping emissions, reproductive health,
drug-resistant bacteria, endangered species, forest health and
military intelligence.
"2) There is strong documentation of a wide-ranging effort to
manipulate the government's scientific advisory system to prevent
the appearance of advice that might run counter to the
administration's political agenda.
These actions include: appointing under-qualified individuals to
important advisory roles, including childhood lead poisoning
prevention and reproductive health; applying political litmus
tests that have no bearing on a nominee's expertise or advisory
role; appointing a nonscientist to a senior position in the
president's scientific advisory staff; and dismissing highly
qualified scientific advisers.
There is evidence that the administration often imposes
restrictions on what government scientists can say or write about
'sensitive' topics. In this context, 'sensitive' applies to
issues that might provoke opposition from the administration's
political and ideological supporters.
There is significant evidence that the scope and scale of the
manipulation, suppression, and misrepresentation of science by
the Bush administration is unprecedented."
Based on these findings, the UCS has called for the president,
Congress, scientists and the public to act to restore scientific
integrity in government policymaking.
The report encourages Americans to contact elected
representatives, and to let them know that "censorship and
distortion of scientific knowledge are unacceptable in the
federal government and must be halted."
With the presidential election looming in November, a strong
public reaction offers perhaps the greatest potential for a
positive response from the White House.
Just as the work of scientists must be free from political
manipulation, though, the call for sound science must also be
objective and come from both Democrats and Republicans.
As Bush enters the stormy seas of the November presidential
election will he heed public concerns and the sage advice of
scientists, steering a course that puts the health and welfare of
Americans above politics? Or will he continue his tack of
corporate obeisance?
Considering the Bush penchant for cronyism, there is little
reason for optimism. Still, one can hope that he will give some
thought to the words of one of his White House predecessors:
"Science, like any field of endeavor, relies on freedom of
inquiry; and one of the hallmarks of that freedom is objectivity.
Now more than ever, on issues ranging from climate change to AIDS
research to genetic engineering to food additives, government
relies on the impartial perspective of science for guidance."
Wise words spoken in 1990 by the President's father, George Bush
Sr.
The UCS report is available at: www.ucsu sa.orgContact Stephen
Hesse at: stevehesse@hotmail.com
The Japan Times: April 8, 2004 (C) All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
3 TCS: The Case of Suitcase Nukes
Tech Central Station -
By Stephen Schwartz Published 04/08/2004
Recently, two fascinating topics have grabbed the attention of
the Western public: speculation that Russians had sold "suitcase
nuclear bombs" to al-Qaida terrorists -- based on a claim by a
biographer of Osama bin Laden's factotum, Ayman al-Zawahiri --
and an outbreak of terrorist incidents in the Central Asian
ex-Soviet republic of Uzbekistan.
These two matters are linked, for as I previously wrote in TCS,
Uzbekistan sits in the middle of a dangerous nest of nuclear,
ex-nuclear, and aspiring nuclear powers, including its former
ruler, Russia; its neighbor Kazakhstan; nearby Pakistan, and
China. In addition, the problem of Wahhabi terrorism, backed by
the extremist religio-ideological bureaucracy in Saudi Arabia, is
as undeniably deadly as the explosions carried out by suicide
bombers in the streets of Tashkent in the past few weeks.
As for al-Zawahiri's threats, the Egyptian
surgeon-turned-murderer is a notorious and hysterical loudmouth
who will say anything for effect.
But are "suitcase nukes" a serious danger for global security?
To emphasize arguments I have made previously and elsewhere,
handling of nuclear explosives is no work for amateurs. The
specter of "suitcase nukes" has elicited extensive and
authoritative comment from experts in the field, such as Nikolai
Sokov and William C. Potter, who are published by the Monterey
Institute for International Studies (see, for example,
http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/week/020923.htm).
These knowledgeable figures remind us that rumors about "suitcase
nukes" first began circulating in the late 1990s. Particularly in
Islamic circles, it became common to hear that Al-Qaida or the
Taliban had purchased "suitcase nukes" from rogue Russians. The
hubbub was fed by Alexander Lebed, the late Russian politician,
who claimed some 100 such devices had gone missing on ex-Soviet
territory. Lebed added the inflammatory detail that Chechen
separatists had come into possession of nuclear weapons. And
Lebed issued the charge during an election campaign in which he
was a candidate for a local governorship.
But evidence available from open sources suggests, first, that
the probability that "suitcase nukes" were indeed stolen or sold
to terrorists is low, and that if they were, their effectiveness
has become diminished by the passage of time.
"Suitcase nukes" are not something one can store in a basement
and use whenever one feels like it. They require regular
maintenance and replacement of components, and in the absence of
their handling by technicians, they would probably have little or
no effectiveness, aside from providing evildoers with small
quantities of weapons-grade radioactive materials, which
unfortunately could be used to fabricate a "dirty bomb" -- i.e. a
radioactive substance wrapped around a conventional explosive.
A "dirty bomb" would spray radioactivity, and while it might not
destroy major structures or kill many people outright, would
cause contamination leading to illness and death. A "suitcase
nuke" could devastate a significant area and kill many people.
But one does not set off a real, live nuke, whatever the size,
just by throwing a switch. All nuclear weapons are protected from
"casual" misuse by fail-safe systems that can only be overridden
by trained personnel.
Russian accusations against the Chechens are so frequent and
exaggerated -- notwithstanding the very real and lethal
infiltration of Saudi/Wahhabi agents into the Chechen national
movement -- that the association of the "suitcase nukes" scenario
with the Chechens almost appears as evidence against taking it
seriously.
In addition, solid information on the possibility that "suitcase
nukes" were ever produced in the former USSR has not advanced
significantly beyond the publicity uproar of the late 1990s. If
such weapons really existed, more would be known about them, and
they would probably have been used.
Nevertheless, at the end of March a Russian newspaper, Moscow
News printed a claimby a military officer, Colonel-General Victor
Yesin, described as former head of the Russian Strategic Forces,
that miniaturized nuclear weapons had been developed in both the
U.S. and the former Soviet Union. Yesin described these items as
"nuclear mines." But this was also an old story. At the time of
the Lebed allegations, a Russian scientist, Alexei Yablokov,
stated that 700 "nuclear mines" had been held in Soviet arsenals.
Yablokov appeared confused about the difference between "nuclear
mines" and "suitcase nukes."
The existence of nuclear mines, as well as an American product
known as the "small atomic demolition munitions" has long been
admitted. The Russians planted such mines along their borders
with China… which, for those concerned about Central Asia, is no
source of comfort. Wahhabi agitators have made the millions of
Muslims living in Chinese-ruled Eastern Turkestan another of
their major targets.
Even if "suitcase nukes" do not represent an immediate and
dramatic menace, the global coalition against terror must
exercise every possible measure to guard against such weapons
falling into the hands of extremists. That means reinforcing
controls inside the U.S., compelling the Russians to clean up
their nuke-strewn landscape, and standing by Uzbekistan and other
countries that are in the front rank of struggle to curb the
spread of Wahhabism.
Stephen Schwartz recently wrote for TCS about "Nuclear Technology
Proliferation: The Central Asian Connection."
*****************************************************************
4 SF Chronicle: An atomic bargain hampers hunt for illicit weapons
CARLA ANNE ROBBINS, The Wall Street Journal
Thursday, April 8, 2004
(04-08) 06:01 PDT (AP) --
VIENNA -- The International Atomic Energy Agency is the world's
nuclear watchdog, charged with stopping the spread of nuclear
weaponry. But it's a watchdog with a split personality: The IAEA
is also charged with promoting the benefits of peaceful nuclear
energy.
At its headquarters here, Russ Clark, head of the
nuclear-power-engineering section, is helping Romanians extend
the life of their Cernavoda nuclear plant and the Mexicans update
the preventive-maintenance program at Laguna Verde. Down the
hall, experts prepare energy assessments for states as far afield
as Indonesia, which might be a good candidate for nuclear power,
and Haiti, which isn't.
Why is the world's premier nonproliferation organization helping
countries with their nuclear programs? The answer goes back to
the "Atoms for Peace" bargain on which the agency was founded in
the late 1950s: Any state that forswears the pursuit of nuclear
weapons is allowed to buy or build all of the nuclear technology
it wants, from medical isotopes to power plants to equipment that
can produce atomic fuel for those plants -- or bombs, if
countries decide to cheat. Today, the bargain looks increasingly
flawed, leaving the agency struggling to stanch the proliferation
crisis.
When President Eisenhower outlined the bargain in 1953, there was
unlimited optimism about nuclear energy but also growing fear of
a spiraling arms race. Hoping to dissuade others from joining in,
he proposed sharing peaceful nuclear technology. Soon the U.S.
and Soviet Union were in a new race: providing equipment and
know-how to client states.
The IAEA was founded in 1957 to provide technical aid to civilian
programs while making sure they weren't diverted to military use.
But it was given only limited policing powers. In many countries,
the IAEA still can inspect only openly "declared" nuclear sites,
not suspected ones. Its new antiterrorism security standards,
designed to thwart attacks on nuclear plants or the theft of
nuclear materials, are recommendations, not requirements. And
there's no clear punishment for a state that pulls out of the
nuclear nonproliferation treaty.
The flaws in the bargain have become frighteningly clear of late,
after the discovery that a black market led by Pakistani
scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan sold plans and sophisticated
equipment to clandestine nuclear programs in Libya, Iran and
North Korea. At the time of the sales, Libya and Iran were under
IAEA monitoring. Tripoli has since agreed to abandon its weapons
efforts, but Tehran is going ahead with what it insists is a
civilian power program. North Korea has pulled out of the
nonproliferation treaty and declared that it has nuclear weapons.
Now the IAEA's director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, is calling
for a rethinking of the nuclear bargain, starting with
restricting access to sensitive nuclear-fuel technology. Facing a
picture of Edvard Munch's "The Scream" on his office wall, he
warns that the system for stopping proliferation is in "crisis."
"The fact that every country now can say, I have the right ... to
sit on enough plutonium or enough highly enriched uranium that
they can use, should they decide, to make a bomb within a month
or two is too close for comfort," he said in a recent interview.
The IAEA has taken a lot of knocks for missing so much illicit
nuclear activity. In part, the criticism is unfair: U.S. and
British intelligence agencies missed much of it as well. And, as
IAEA officials are quick to point out, the agency was right when
it said before last year's Iraq war that it found no sign of an
active nuclear-weapons program there.
Still, the agency's board -- a rotating group of 35 states who
almost never act without consensus -- can be painfully slow to
move. At last month's meeting, talk of Dr. Khan and proliferation
was almost drowned out by complaints about cuts in the fund that
finances technical-cooperation programs, including Mr. Clark's.
And Mr. ElBaradei often appears to be conflict-averse. Despite
nearly two decades of concealment by Iran and its repeated
failures to come clean to IAEA inspectors, he insists that he's
seen no evidence of a weapons program. It "could be that this is
a weapons program," he says. "But I cannot read intentions. I'm
not God. I really have to work on specific evidence, on specific
facts." He says he has no intention of "letting the Iranians off
the hook," but he is also worried that pushing too hard could
lead Tehran to oust inspectors and pull out of the
nonproliferation treaty.
U.S. officials say that Iran is using that threat to manipulate
the agency while the country moves ahead with what Washington
claims is a clandestine weapons program. Mr. ElBaradei visited
Iran this week to urge improved cooperation, and the Iranians
agreed to address a host of outstanding questions. According to a
person with knowledge of the trip, the Iranians also said they
would soon start construction on a long-planned reactor for
nuclear research that would be under agency monitoring. Experts
say the reactor could also produce enough plutonium for at least
one nuclear weapon a year.
U.S. officials say they wouldn't be disappointed if Mr. ElBaradei
left when his term runs out next year. Mr. ElBaradei has made
clear his discomfort with President Bush's decision to tear up
arms-control treaties and pursue research into new nuclear
weapons. But the two men, who met at the White House last month,
agree that there need to be major fixes in the nonproliferation
system.
The Atoms for Peace bargain was enthusiastically embraced by the
two superpowers and their nuclear industries. U.S. officials had
become convinced "that the technology was going to spread
anyway," says Jon Wolfsthal, a proliferation expert at the
Carnegie Endowment in Washington. "They decided they'd much
rather have some leverage and some ability to monitor" new
nuclear programs as well as receive political credit from client
states.
Until then, U.S. law prescribed the death penalty for sharing
nuclear secrets. In 1954 the U.S. Atomic Energy Act was written
to allow the U.S. to export peaceful technology and information
to friendly countries that pledged not to pursue weapons. The
following year, the U.S. sponsored a U.N. conference, where more
than 20,000 scientists from around the world showed up to learn
the secrets of nuclear power. Homi J. Bhabha, the father of
India's nuclear-weapons program, was chairman of the meeting.
At IAEA headquarters, the Atoms-for-Peace deal -- the slogan
decorates agency business cards and stationery -- is never far
away. Outside the paneled boardroom sits a bust of President
Eisenhower, flanked, with no apparent irony, by India's Mr.
Bhabha.
But there is still a fierce debate about the Atoms for Peace
legacy. There is no doubt that the bargain, and the
nonproliferation treaty that followed, helped dissuade a lot more
countries from pursuing nuclear weapons. Fifty years later, there
are nine likely nuclear powers, rather than the dozens many
analysts feared. But the bargain also helped scientists in India,
Pakistan, Israel, South Africa, North Korea, Iraq, Libya and
perhaps Iran to develop the skills for illicit nuclear-weapons
programs.
The U.S. and Russia are now trying to clean up some of the mess,
helping former clients dispose of spent fuel left over from their
small Atoms for Peace research reactors, although the effort is
moving slowly and the amount of weapons-usable nuclear fuel still
out there is frighteningly large. The IAEA -- unusually, with
some financing from a U.S. nonprofit, Ted Turner's Nuclear Threat
Initiative -- is providing technical assistance for the
transfers.
IAEA officials note that more than 90 percent of their budget for
sharing nuclear expertise goes to noncontroversial programs that
aren't related to nuclear power: improving agriculture with
irradiated seeds and human health with radiation treatment;
mapping sources of underground water in drought-stricken areas;
and sterilizing Tse Tse flies to wipe out sleeping sickness.
"We're not out selling nuclear power to anyone," says Mr. Clark.
But for countries "that make that choice ... we're here to help
make it run smoother, safer and better."
Still, some IAEA critics argue that the program may be helping
suspect states improve their skills. Testifying on Capitol Hill
last week, Undersecretary of State John Bolton, a fierce critic
of traditional arms-control treaties, warned that Syria was using
the IAEA's technical cooperation fund to obtain "dual-use
technologies" -- civilian equipment that can also be used for
making weapons.
U.S. officials privately say they're more concerned that Syria
may have been another of Dr. Khan's customers. But officials
point to two IAEA programs they say could help determined
scientists. The IAEA helped the Syrians buy concrete structures,
known as hot cells, to package radioactive isotopes used for
medical imaging. The agency also helped build a small plant to
produce high-purity phosphoric acid, a common food additive, by
extracting uranium, a basis of nuclear fuel, from phosphate.
An agency official involved says that there's no danger since the
hot cells were specially built to handle only medical isotopes,
while the plant produces only small amounts of uranium. But David
Albright, head of the Washington-based Institute for Science and
International Security, says that the hot cells are larger than
the Syrians need and could help them learn how to handle other,
more dangerous isotopes, and any natural uranium extracted won't
be under IAEA monitoring. "It's a long shot ... but it raises
questions about the Syrians' intentions."
On the watchdog side, the agency says its most urgent priority is
trying to figure out the Khan network -- and especially who else
might have gotten his wares. Investigators acknowledge that with
a safeguards budget of $100 million, they have far fewer
resources than U.S. or U.K. intelligence agencies. What the
agency can sometimes bring to the hunt is access in places the
U.S. or U.K. can't go. Its work in Iran shows how it can use that
access -- but also the limits of its powers.
Last year, after months of international pressure, agency
inspectors were allowed to do environmental testing -- looking
for traces of nuclear materials -- at two sites in Iran where
centrifuges were being assembled and tested. Centrifuges are used
to increase the concentration of uranium-235, a uranium isotope
that can be split to provide the energy for nuclear reactors --
or, at higher concentrations, weapons. The Iranians said the
centrifuges are being used for their power program.
Between the time the inspectors first asked to do testing and
when they were allowed in, workers had completely remodeled one
of the sites, pulling up the floor, repainting and retiling the
walls. When the results from both sites came back, they still
showed traces of highly enriched uranium, some up to weapons
grade.
Until then, the Iranians had insisted that they'd built all their
own centrifuges and never used them. Now they admitted to
enriching a small amount of uranium -- but none to weapons grade.
They also told inspectors they had imported centrifuges, which
must have arrived contaminated with enriched uranium. By late
October, with international pressure mounting, Tehran offered up
a list of nuclear middlemen, some of whom would be traced back to
the Khan network.
Then, in December, Libya agreed to give up its weapons and come
clean about its suppliers. The IAEA's inspectors were invited in
to see a remarkable array of nuclear technology, including
weapons plans, parts for two types of centrifuges -- P-1s and
more sophisticated P-2s -- and instructions and materials for
building more.
U.S. and British weapons experts had already been through. But
the IAEA inspectors also had worked in Iran, and they immediately
began comparing the two programs. Examining a stack of crates
filled with P-1 centrifuge parts, they found a few stickers with
the names of some of Iran's suppliers. The P-1 components were
identical to the ones the inspectors had seen in Iran, even down
to the red and blue plastic containers. The inspectors began to
ask themselves: If Iran was using the same suppliers as Libya,
did it get as broad a nuclear package? When pressed, Iranian
officials conceded that they'd bought plans for the more
sophisticated P-2 centrifuges and showed inspectors a small
number of P-2 parts. Inspectors are now eager to find out what
else Iran may have bought and not owned up to.
The problem with that success story is that it took crisis-level
pressure -- mainly from the U.S. and its allies -- to get the
inspectors into the Iranian and Libyan sites. In many other
countries the agency is hobbled by its original rules, which
limit inspectors not only to "declared" nuclear sites but to
agreed-to "measurement points" inside those sites. Broader
access, states argued, would be too costly to nuclear industries
or could jeopardize proprietary secrets. The rules were "a
political compromise" that also reflected the "naivete" of the
times, says Pierre Goldschmidt, the IAEA's deputy director
general in charge of safeguards.
The IAEA has been trying to change those rules since the end of
the first Gulf War when, after giving Iraq a clean bill of
health, inspectors discovered that Baghdad was secretly
developing a nuclear-weapons program separate from its declared
civilian research program. In 1997 the board adopted the
Additional Protocol, which gives inspectors much wider access,
and at shorter notice. But the protocol is optional for member
states.
Officials in Washington and Vienna now are weighing how to fix
the system. President Bush has called on members of the nuclear
suppliers' group -- a loose alliance of most countries that
produce nuclear technology -- to cut off all sales to states that
haven't signed up to the more intrusive inspections. He also
wants the group to deny fuel-production technology to any country
that doesn't already have those capabilities.
Mr. ElBaradei is calling for a moratorium on building new
nuclear-fuel plants, and ultimately for such plants to be placed
under multinational control. He also wants the nuclear suppliers'
group membership broadened -- Malaysia, where some of Dr. Khan's
equipment was manufactured, isn't a member -- and transformed
from a "gentlemen's agreement" to a more binding commitment with
clear sanctions for anyone who sells to an illicit weapons
program.
Mr. ElBaradei opened last week's board meeting warning of the
dangers of the Khan network and the need for change. But the
board's 35 members devoted most of their energy to wrangling over
the technical cooperation budget and how to word resolutions on
Libya and Iran. (The U.S. is one of 10 members always on the
board because of their advanced nuclear-energy technology.)
Diplomats acknowledged that a lot of the debate was a surrogate
for deeper divisions about Israel or Iraq or the U.S. and
Russia's failure to give up more nuclear weapons.
For many states, the Atoms for Peace bargain won't be easily
amended. "What worries a lot of us is that the concept of
nonproliferation is being reduced to what constraints will be
placed on the developing countries," says Roberto Abdenur,
Brazil's ambassador.
Brazil has announced that it will open a uranium-enrichment
facility to produce reactor fuel later this year. It's also
refusing so far to sign the Additional Protocol and it's been
frustrating IAEA inspectors for years by walling off its
centrifuges from view, saying it's protecting commercial secrets.
U.S. officials say they don't believe that Brazil has weapons
ambitions.
David Crawford contributed to this article.
*****************************************************************
5 Pakistan News: Detention of another nuclear scientist challenged in SC
PakTribune.Com
Thursday April 08, 2004 (1634 PST)
ISLAMABAD, April 09 (Online): Detention of nuclear scientist Dr
Nazir Ahmed was challenged before the Supreme Court here on
Thursday.
Mrs. Tahira Nazir spouse of Dr Nazir challenged detention
through Ch. Mohammed Ikram Advocate.
She made federation and Director General ISI as respondents in
her petition.
Petitioner lady prayed the apex court that detention of her
spouse be declared as illegal and unconstitutional.
She pleaded for production of her detained spouse in the court.
She also prayed the SC to order registration of case against
respondents for violation of law and constitution.
She prayed the apex court to restrict respondents from removing
Dr Nazir from Islamabad and handing over to the FBI or any
foreign country.
End.
Pakistan News Service © PakTribune.com Pvt Ltd
*****************************************************************
6 asahi.com: Utilities delaying expansion plans
[asahi.com]
The Asahi Shimbun
Expansion plans at electric power companies have effectively been
short-circuited by an expected slowing of demand for electricity
in the coming decade.
According to their electricity supply plans for fiscal 2004, the
nation's 10 power companies expect sales to increase by an
average of 1.1 percent a year until fiscal 2013-the lowest rate
of increase ever.
The same rate of increase is projected even for August, the peak
period for electricity consumption.
As a result, plans to develop new sources of electricity,
including nuclear energy, have been postponed.
With the exception of four reactors already under construction,
all other nuclear-related work has been deferred.
The delays are also getting longer. In the past, projects were
typically postponed for no more than a year. Now, some are
delayed by two to three years.
For example, the expected start-up dates of two new reactors in
Higashidori, Aomori Prefecture-one planned by Tokyo Electric
Power Co., the other by Tohoku Electric Power Co.-and Japan
Atomic Power Co.'s Tsuruga No. 4 reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui
Prefecture, have been postponed by three years from the
companies' fiscal 2003 plans.
In addition, plans to build two reactors have been scrapped.
Slowing demand has also reduced capital expenditures. The 10
electric companies, for example, invested 1.8 trillion yen in
fiscal 2003, the first time in 27 years the amount dropped below
2 trillion yen.
Capital expenditures have fallen to about one-third of the level
of fiscal 1993, when they peaked at about 4.9 trillion yen.
In addition to demand worries, industry liberalization is
intensifying competition as newcomers join the fray.
This month, the retail electricity market was further
liberalized, enabling users whose electricity consumption stands
at 500 kilowatts or more-an amount typically needed to power a
midsized building or factory-to choose their electricity
provider.
In April 2005, the threshold, which until March 31 stood at 2,000
kilowatts, will again be lowered, extending the same privilege to
users whose consumption stands at 50 kilowatts or
more.(IHT/Asahi: April 8,2004) (04/08)
[Copyright Asahi Shimbun. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
7 [NukeNet] NJ DEP fines Oyster Creek nuke 1 million for fish
Date: Thu, 08 Apr 2004 16:00:13 -0700
--
-------Original Message-------
From:
do_not_reply@highpoint.state.nj.us
Date: Thursday, April 08, 2004 13:36:12
To: depnews@listserv.state.nj.us
Subject: DEP NEWS
Peter C. Harvey, Attorney General
For Immediate Release: For Further Information
Contact:
April 8, 2004 Peter
Aseltine, OAG (609) 292-4791
Erin Phalon,
DEP (609) 984-1795
New Jersey Reaches $1 Million Settlement with Owner of Oyster Creek
Nuclear Power Plant Regarding Fish Kill Caused by Thermal Discharge
Payments Will Fund Environmental Projects
TRENTON Attorney General Peter C. Harvey and Department of
Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell today
announced that the State has reached twin settlements totaling $1
million with AmerGen Energy Company, LLC (AmerGen), the owner and
operator of the Oyster Creek Generating Station, to resolve criminal and
civil actions against the company in connection with a thermal discharge
that violated its water pollution discharge permit and caused at least
5,876 fish to die from heat shock. More than two-thirds of AmerGens
$1 million settlement payment will be used to fund environmental
projects.
"This settlement should send a clear message that New Jersey will hold
polluters and those who damage our natural resources accountable for
their actions,said Governor James E. McGreevey. Although AmerGen
caused critical damage to New Jerseys marine life and water
resources, I am pleased that the company has agreed to fund
environmental projects important to the community most affected,
including improvements to the park and educational facilities at the
Lighthouse Center in Waretown."
The fish kill occurred on September 23, 2002 when AmerGen shut down a
transformer to perform maintenance work. The transformer provides power
to the plant's three thermal dilution pumps, which serve to lower the
temperature of water heated within the plant before it is discharged
into Oyster Creek. The State alleged that the fish kill occurred
because the company violated specific requirements concerning operation
of the pumps contained in its water pollution discharge permit, issued
by DEP.
"This is a fair and appropriate settlement to address the company's
permit violations," said Attorney General Harvey. "We conducted a
thorough investigation that uncovered weaknesses in the company's
procedures and training relative to compliance with its water pollution
permit. The $1 million in payments required under this settlement will
provide the company with a strong incentive to maintain compliance going
forward and will send a strong message to others as well."
- more-
- 2-
AmerGens permit violations inflicted serious damage to marine
life, and revealed a disregard for environmental safeguards,said DEP
Commissioner Campbell. The successful enforcement and settlement of
AmerGens water pollution discharge permit violations illustrate the
McGreevey Administrations commitment to the protection of marine life
and water resources.
AmerGen will pay $500,000 under a civil settlement agreement with DEP
and $500,000 under a settlement agreement with the Division of Criminal
Justice. AmerGens settlement with the Division of Criminal Justice
consists of a $250,000 penalty to be paid to the Clean Water Enforcement
Fund to support enforcement activities of the Division's Environmental
Crimes Bureau and $250,000 for the Lighthouse Center for Natural
Resource Education in Waretown. The civil settlement includes an
additional $52,088 to be used to improve the Lighthouse Center.
Under the civil settlement, AmerGen will pay an administrative penalty
of $190,000 in addition to funds for natural resource damages and
environmental projects. AmerGen will submit $182,912 to settle the
State's demand for reimbursement for damage to natural resources. These
funds will be used to restore injured natural resources or habitat in
the Barnegat Bay area.
The company also will pay $75,000 under the civil settlement for the
purchase of two EMM-550 Environmental Monitoring Modules to be used by
the Barnegat Bay Estuary Program. The modules will monitor water
temperature, conductivity, pH, dissolved oxygen and turbidity at
specific locations in the Barnegat Bay estuary. The modules will
increase public understanding of water quality in Barnegat Bay by
automatically transmitting continuous data to be posted in real time on
the Internet.
The environmental monitors will be placed at sites in Manahawkin and
Waretown where U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) equipment is currently set
up. The monitors will operate in conjunction with USGS equipment in an
effort to conserve resources. Both module sites are located near
important submerged aquatic vegetation beds and vital resource species
of fish and shellfish.
AmerGens $302,088 payment to the Lighthouse Center, under the two
settlements, will be used to make physical improvements to the
Lighthouse Center property, which is located adjacent to Barnegat Bay.
The Lighthouse Center is a 95-acre, multipurpose environmental
educational facility that is owned by the State and used by the public
and various environmental organizations. The improvements may include
the rehabilitation of an existing fishing pier, reconstruction of water
control structures to enhance fisheries habitat, lagoon dredging to
improve access to the site by boaters, and other general site upgrades.
-more-
-3-
AmerGen's water pollution discharge permit includes provisions that are
intended to protect marine life from exposure to harmful thermal release
by regulating thermal dilution pumps. One provision prohibits
maintenance work that impacts the dilution pumps from the start of June
through the end of September. A second stipulates that at least one of
the plants dilution pumps must be in operation at any time when the
water temperature of Oyster Creek at the Route 9 bridge exceeds 87
degrees Fahrenheit.
The State alleged that AmerGen violated the conditions of its permit by
shutting down the pumps during September, when it was prohibited to do
so, and failing to monitor the temperature in the creek. AmerGen also
allegedly violated a requirement that it notify DEP within two hours of
the discovery of the fish kill. Although AmerGen employees discovered
dead fish within an hour of the time at which the pumps were taken out
of service, the company allegedly failed to contact DEP until five hours
after the discovery.
A thorough investigation by the Division of Criminal Justice revealed
that the company failed to implement adequate procedures to ensure that
employees fully appreciated the connection between their actions and the
requirements of the plant's water pollution permit. Investigators also
identified incidents of miscommunication at key points leading to the
discharge. AmerGen has voluntarily taken steps to prevent the
reoccurrence of water pollution permit violations by improving its
procedures and employee training.
The case was handled for the Division of Criminal Justice by
Supervising Deputy Attorney General Edward Bonanno, head of the
Environmental Crimes Bureau, and Investigator Stephen Politowski. Deputy
Attorney General Charles Licata handled the civil case for the Division
of Law.
# # #
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
This message has been sent by the New Jersey Department of
Environmental Protection. To unsubscribe from this list, please go
to:
http://www.nj.gov/dep/newsrel/unsub.htm
.
____________________________________________________
[NukeNet] NJ DEP
fines Oyster C.gif IncrediMail - Email has finally evolved -
Click Here
--
Coalition for Peace and Justice
(http://www.coalitionforpeaceandjustice.org);
and the UNPLUG Salem Campaign
(http://www.unplugsalem.org); 321 Barr Ave.,
Linwood, NJ 08221; 609-601-8583/37;
ncohen12@comcast.net. The Coalition for Peace
and Justice is a chapter of Peace Action
(http://www.peace-action.org). "You can say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one" (Lennon). "Don't be late for your
life" (Mary Chapin Carpenter).
Peter C. Harvey, Attorney General
For Immediate Release: For Further Information
Contact:
April 8, 2004 Peter
Aseltine, OAG (609) 292-4791
Erin Phalon,
DEP (609) 984-1795
New Jersey Reaches $1 Million Settlement with Owner of Oyster Creek
Nuclear Power Plant Regarding Fish Kill Caused by Thermal Discharge
Payments Will Fund Environmental Projects
TRENTON Attorney General Peter C. Harvey and Department of
Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell today
announced that the State has reached twin settlements totaling $1
million with AmerGen Energy Company, LLC (AmerGen), the owner and
operator of the Oyster Creek Generating Station, to resolve criminal and
civil actions against the company in connection with a thermal discharge
that violated its water pollution discharge permit and caused at least
5,876 fish to die from heat shock. More than two-thirds of AmerGen’s
$1 million settlement payment will be used to fund environmental
projects.
"This settlement should send a clear message that New Jersey will hold
polluters and those who damage our natural resources accountable for
their actions,” said Governor James E. McGreevey. “Although AmerGen
caused critical damage to New Jersey’s marine life and water
resources, I am pleased that the company has agreed to fund
environmental projects important to the community most affected,including
improvements to the park and educational facilities at the
Lighthouse Center in Waretown."
The fish kill occurred on September 23, 2002 when AmerGen shut down a
transformer to perform maintenance work. The transformer provides power
to the plant's three thermal dilution pumps, which serve to lower the
temperature of water heated within the plant before it is discharged
into Oyster Creek. The State alleged that the fish kill occurred
because the company violated specific requirements concerning operation
of the pumps contained in its water pollution discharge permit, issued
by DEP.
"This is a fair and appropriate settlement to address the company's
permit violations," said Attorney General Harvey. "We conducted a
thorough investigation that uncovered weaknesses in the company's
procedures and training relative to compliance with its water pollution
permit. The $1 million in payments required under this settlement will
provide the company with a strong incentive to maintain compliance going
forward and will send a strong message to others as well."
- more-
- 2-
“AmerGen’s permit violations inflicted serious damage to marine
life, and revealed a disregard for environmental safeguards,” said DEP
Commissioner Campbell. “The successful enforcement and settlement of
AmerGen’s water pollution discharge permit violations illustrate the
McGreevey Administration’s commitment to the protection of marine life
and water resources.”
AmerGen will pay $500,000 under a civil settlement agreement with DEP
and $500,000 under a settlement agreement with the Division of Criminal
Justice. AmerGen’s settlement with the Division of Criminal Justice
consists of a $250,000 penalty to be paid to the Clean Water Enforcement
Fund to support enforcement activities of the Division's Environmental
Crimes Bureau and $250,000 for the Lighthouse Center for Natural
Resource Education in Waretown. The civil settlement includes an
additional $52,088 to be used to improve the Lighthouse Center.
Under the civil settlement, AmerGen will pay an administrative penalty
of $190,000 in addition to funds for natural resource damages and
environmental projects. AmerGen will submit $182,912 to settle the
State's demand for reimbursement for damage to natural resources. These
funds will be used to restore injured natural resources or habitat in
the Barnegat Bay area.
The company also will pay $75,000 under the civil settlement for the
purchase of two EMM-550 Environmental Monitoring Modules to be used by
the Barnegat Bay Estuary Program. The modules will monitor water
temperature, conductivity, pH, dissolved oxygen and turbidity at
specific locations in the Barnegat Bay estuary. The modules will
increase public understanding of water quality in Barnegat Bay by
automatically transmitting continuous data to be posted in real time on
the Internet.
The environmental monitors will be placed at sites in Manahawkin and
Waretown where U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) equipment is currently set
up. The monitors will operate in conjunction with USGS equipment in an
effort to conserve resources. Both module sites are located near
important submerged aquatic vegetation beds and vital resource species
of fish and shellfish.
AmerGen’s $302,088 payment to the Lighthouse Center, under the two
settlements, will be used to make physical improvements to the
Lighthouse Center property, which is located adjacent to Barnegat Bay.
The Lighthouse Center is a 95-acre, multipurpose environmental
educational facility that is owned by the State and used by the public
and various environmental organizations. The improvements may include
the rehabilitation of an existing fishing pier, reconstruction of water
control structures to enhance fisheries habitat, lagoon dredging to
improve access to the site by boaters, and other general site upgrades.
-more-
-3-
AmerGen's water pollution discharge permit includes provisions that are
intended to protect marine life from exposure to harmful thermal release
by regulating thermal dilution pumps. One provision prohibits
maintenance work that impacts the dilution pumps from the start of June
through the end of September. A second stipulates that at least one of
the plant’s dilution pumps must be in operation at any time when the
water temperature of Oyster Creek at the Route 9 bridge exceeds 87
degrees Fahrenheit.
The State alleged that AmerGen violated the conditions of its permit by
shutting down the pumps during September, when it was prohibited to do
so, and failing to monitor the temperature in the creek. AmerGen also
allegedly violated a requirement that it notify DEP within two hours of
the discovery of the fish kill. Although AmerGen employees discovered
dead fish within an hour of the time at which the pumps were taken out
of service, the company allegedly failed to contact DEP until five hours
after the discovery.
A thorough investigation by the Division of Criminal Justice revealed
that the company failed to implement adequate procedures to ensure that
employees fully appreciated the connection between their actions and the
requirements of the plant's water pollution permit. Investigators also
identified incidents of miscommunication at key points leading to the
discharge. AmerGen has voluntarily taken steps to prevent the
reoccurrence of water pollution permit violations by improving its
procedures and employee training.
The case was handled for the Division of Criminal Justice by
Supervising Deputy Attorney General Edward Bonanno, head of the
Environmental Crimes Bureau, and Investigator Stephen Politowski. Deputy
Attorney General Charles Licata handled the civil case for the Division
of Law.
# # #
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
This message has been sent by the New Jersey Department of
Environmental Protection. To unsubscribe from this list, please go
to:
http://www.nj.gov/dep/newsrel/unsub.htm
.
_______________________________________________________________________
Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/
Change your settings at:
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Attachment Converted: [NukeNet] NJ DEP fines Oyster C.gif: 00000001,31c7c615,00000000,00000000
*****************************************************************
8 Chernobyl+18: Woman's MC Trip Thru Ghost Towns
Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 01:38:29 -0500 (CDT)
Chernobyl +18: A Woman's MC Trip Thru Ghost Towns
http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/
Strong argument for banning nukes: hundreds of square miles of the
world's richest farmland with outlying villages and a modern city
metropolis devastated, rendered an uninhabitable dead-zone, a
potently-eerie radioactive wasteland that will remain deadly to human
life for at least the next 300 to 1000 years. This photojournalistic
odyssey by an inveterate motorcyclist, daughter of a Soviet nuclear
scientist, provides a haunting retrospective and sensitive commentary
on the awful consequences of the Soviet Union's nuclear nightmare, in
which an estimated 3000 to 400,000 people were killed and an entire
region was utterly devastated when the world's most serious nuclear
reactor accident occurred in 1986, a catastrophic explosion and
meltdown that caused a widespread release of radiation. Her story and
photographic record is a sensitive and compelling behind-the-scenes
visual narrative that, in cataloging the tragic tomb that the entire
region has become, warns us all of the potential horrors and dangers
that are latent in the problem-plauged nuclear industry.
Excerpts:
Time to go for a ride. This is our road. There won't be many cars on
those roads. This place has ill fame and people try not to settle
here. The farther we go, the cheaper the land, the less the people and
the better the roads.. quite the reverse of everywhere else in the
world - and a forecast of things to come.
. . .
As I pass through the check point, I feel that I have entered an
unreal world. In the dead zone, the silence of the villages, roads,
and woods seem to scream something at me....something that I strain to
hear....something that attracts and repels me both at the same time.
It is divinely eerie - like stepping into that Salvador Dali painting
with the dripping clocks.
. . .
The day after the accident, this place on the bridge provided a good
view of the gaping crack in the nuclear containment vessel that was
ruptured by the explosion. Many curious people came here to have a
look and were bathed in a flood of deadly x-rays emanating directly
from the glowing.
*****
fwd//Starman
*****************************************************************
9 StarNewsOnline.com:
The Voice of Southeastern North Carolina
Last updated: April 07. 2004 11:38PM
The Associated Press
Progress Energy faces an $88,000 civil penalty for allegedly
firing a former security chief because he told federal regulators
how he handled a security breach at the company's nuclear power
plants.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recommended the fine on
Wednesday for terminating "a former Carolina Power &Light Company
employee engaged in activity protected by federal regulations."
Progress Energy reached an undisclosed settlement in late March
to a lawsuit filed by Richard M. Kester.
Kester started working in security for Progress Energy in 1996.
By 1998 he was leading the division in charge of background
investigations and approving clearances for employees and
contractors who needed access to three of the company's four
nuclear power plants.
In 1999, a supervisor asked Kester to take blame for the
falsified clearances of three contract employees, according to
documents filed with the Administrative Review Board of the Labor
Department. Kester refused and told NRC investigators what he
knew about the incident.
He was fired in April 1999 after returning from medical leave.
Kester sought nearly $150,000 in back pay and benefits through
the administrative review process.
The NRC said Progress Energy has taken "adequate" corrective
action to prevent similar problems from taking place in the
future.
All material ©2004 Wilmington Star-News
*****************************************************************
10 Chicago Sun-Times: Iran has nuke reactor on drawing board
April 8, 2004
BY GEORGE JAHN
VIENNA, Austria -- Iran will start building a nuclear reactor in
June that can produce weapons-grade plutonium, diplomats said
Wednesday. Although Tehran insists the heavy water facility is
for research, the decision heightens concern about its nuclear
ambitions.
One diplomat said the planned 40-megawatt reactor could produce
enough plutonium for a nuclear weapon each year.
The diplomats told The Associated Press that Iran informed the
U.N. nuclear watchdog agency last year of its plans to build a
reactor, and Iranian officials have previously suggested the
reactor was already being built.
But the diplomats said construction had not yet begun and that
Iranian officials announced the June start date for the first
time during talks Tuesday in Tehran with Mohamed ElBaradei,
director general of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy
Agency.
Iran's desire to build the facility ''sends a bad signal at a
time all eyes are on Iran,'' one of the diplomats said, speaking
on condition of anonymity.
AP
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
*****************************************************************
11 Daily Times: China quiet on whether N-plant discussed
Friday, April 09, 2004
BEIJING: Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing in talks with his
Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Kasuri on Thursday urged
reconciliation efforts between Pakistan and India, while also
calling for greater bilateral economic and trade ties.
They also signed an agreement to increase cooperation between
their foreign ministries, pledging to deepen already-strong
relations and “keep up the momentum” between the two sides.
“Mr Li has especially stressed the question of relations between
India and Pakistan,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan
told journalists.
He refused to say if the two ministers discussed plans for a
second Chinese nuclear power plant to be built in Pakistan, but
said that the two sides were actively engaged in discussions on
the issue.
Mr Li met Mr Kasuri at the Diaoyutai State Guest House in Beijing
for almost an hour before signing the agreement. Officials did
not immediately provide details of the accord. Mr Kasuri also met
with Premier Wen Jiabao at the Zhongnanhai compound, where
Chinese leaders live and work. No details were available on the
meeting.
The visiting diplomat arrived in China on Tuesday, but spent his
first two days in Shanghai. He departs on Friday. Pakistani
President Pervez Musharraf discussed the nuclear plant during a
visit to China in November, but there has been no subsequent
announcement. Meanwhile, the US has reportedly urged Beijing not
to allow the deal.
Mr Kasuri and Mr Li also pledged to improve already close
relations between their countries.
“We are very happy that our all-weather friendship has been going
well and growing stronger each day,” Mr Li told his guest. “We
want to keep up the momentum. Your visit is another indication
that this momentum has been kept up.”
Mr Kasuri said, “I also share your sentiment. I have no doubt
that this meeting will bring us closer, if it is at all
possible.”
Also on Thursday, Chinese and Pakistani officials pledged to
increase defence cooperation at a meeting near Islamabad. The
Pakistani Defence Ministry said the two countries discussed joint
projects on tanks and fighter jets, as well as “many new areas
for continued cooperation in the fields of defence and defence
industry”. The ministry did not give any other details. —Agencies
Daily Times - All Rights Reserved
*****************************************************************
12 NRC: DPR-65 Millstone 123 licenses
FR Doc E4-780
[Federal Register: April 8, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 68)]
[Notices] [Page 18653-18654] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr08ap04-96]
and NPF-49]
In the Matter of Dominion Nuclear Connecticut, Inc., Millstone
Power Station, Unit Nos. 1, 2, and 3; Order Approving Indirect
Transfer of Control of Licenses Dominion Nuclear Connecticut,
Inc. (DNC or the licensee) is licensed by the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC or Commission) to possess and
maintain, but not operate, Millstone Power Station, Unit No. 1,
and possess, maintain, and operate (in conjunction with certain
unaffiliated owners of Millstone, Unit No. 3) Millstone Power
Station, Unit Nos. 2 and 3 (Millstone Units or the facilities)
under Facility Operating License Nos. DPR-21, DPR-65, and NPF-49,
issued by the Commission on October 7, 1970, September 26, 1975,
and January 31, 1986, respectively. The Millstone Units are
located at the licensee's site in New London County, Connecticut.
By application dated October 8, 2003, as supplemented November 7,
2003, DNC requested that the Commission consent, to the extent
that proposed corporate restructuring results in an indirect
transfer, to the indirect transfer of control of these facility
operating licenses for the Millstone Units. The indirect transfer
would result from the planned corporate restructuring involving
certain intermediate subsidiaries of DNC's parent company,
Dominion Resources, Inc.
(DRI). DNC is a wholly-owned, indirect subsidiary of DRI.
DRI directly owns Virginia Electric & Power Company (VEPCO),
Dominion Energy, Inc. (DEI), and Consolidated Natural Gas Company
(CNG). DEI owns 100% of Dominion Nuclear, Inc. (DNI), and CNG
owns 100% of Dominion Retail, Inc. (Retail). DNI is the parent
company of Dominion Nuclear Holdings, Inc. (DNH), Dominion
Nuclear Marketing I, Inc. (DNMI), Dominion Nuclear Marketing II,
Inc. (DNMII), and Dominion Nuclear Marketing III, LLC (DNMIII).
DNH and Retail also have part ownership of DNMIII. DNMI, DNMII,
and DNMIII are the direct parent companies of DNC, the holder of
the licenses of the Millstone Units. This corporate structure can
be graphically seen as Exhibit B, ``Current Corporate Ownership
of Dominion Nuclear Connecticut,'' in the October 8, 2003,
Application.
The proposed corporate restructuring will have DRI continue to
own VEPCO, DEI and CNG. Dominion Energy Marketing, Inc. (DEM)
will be formed by merging DNMI and DNMII, and will be the direct
subsidiary of DEI and a parent company of DNC. DNI will be
eliminated and, therefore, will no longer be a subsidiary of DEI,
and DNH will become a direct subsidiary of DEI. CNG will continue
to be the direct parent company of Retail, and Retail will
continue to be a direct parent company of DNMIII. Thus, only DEM
and DNMIII will be the direct parent companies of DNC. This
proposed corporate restructuring can be graphically seen as
Exhibit C, ``Corporate Ownership of Dominion Nuclear Connecticut,
After Proposed Realignment,'' in the October 8, 2003,
Application.
DNC would continue to own (in the case of Millstone, Unit No. 3,
along with certain unaffiliated co-owners) the Millstone Units
following approval of the proposed indirect transfer of the
license, and would continue to be exclusively responsible for the
operation (except for Millstone Power Station, Unit No. 1),
maintenance and eventual decommissioning of the facilities. No
physical changes to the facilities or operational changes were
proposed in the application.
Approval of the indirect transfer of the operating licenses was
requested by DNC pursuant to title 10 of the Code of Federal
Regulations (10 CFR), section 50.80. Notice of the request for
approval and an opportunity for a hearing was published in the
Federal Register on November 12, 2003 (68 FR 64132). No hearing
requests or written comments were received.
Pursuant to 10 CFR 50.80, no license, or any right thereunder,
shall be transferred, directly or indirectly, through transfer of
control of the license, unless the Commission gives its consent
in writing. After reviewing the information in the application
from DNC and other information before the Commission, the NRC
staff has determined that the corporate restructuring involving
certain intermediate subsidiaries of DRI will not affect the
qualifications of DNC as the holder of the licenses and that the
indirect transfer of control of the licenses, to the extent
effected by the foregoing transaction, is otherwise consistent
with applicable provisions of law, regulations, and orders issued
by the Commission, subject to the conditions set forth below. The
foregoing findings are supported by a Safety Evaluation (SE)
dated April 2, 2004.
Accordingly, pursuant to sections 161b, 161i, 161o, and 184 of
the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 2201(b),
2201(i), 2201(o), and 2234, and 10 CFR 50.80, it is hereby
ordered that the application regarding the indirect transfer of
the control of Facility Operating License Nos. DPR-21, DPR-65 and
NPF-49 referenced above is approved, subject to the following
condition: should the planned restructuring by DRI not be
completed by December 31, 2004, this Order shall become null and
void, provided that upon written application and for good cause
shown, such date may be extended.
[[Page 18654]] This Order is effective upon issuance.
For further details with respect to this action, see the
application dated October 8, 2003, as supplemented on November 7,
2003, and the SE dated April 2, 2004, which are available for
public inspection at the Commission's Public Document Room,
located at One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike (first
floor), Rockville, Maryland, and accessible from the Agencywide
Documents Access and Management Systems (ADAMS) Public Electronic
Reading Room on the Internet at the NRC Web site,
http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/ADAMS/index.html. Dated in Rockville,
Maryland, this 2nd day of April, 2004.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Herbert N. Berkow, Acting Director, Division of Licensing Project
Management, Office of Nuclear Reactor.
[FR Doc. E4-780 Filed 4-7-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
13 NRC: NRC Staff Proposes $88,000 Civil Penalty Against Progress Energy for Terminating CP
Employee Engaged in Protected Activity
News Release - Region II - 2004-02
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs, Region II
No. II-04-025 April 7, 2004
CONTACT: Ken Clark (404) 562-4416
Roger D. Hannah (404) 562-4417 E-mail:
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has proposed an $88,000
civil penalty against Progress Energy for violation of NRC
regulatory requirements due to termination of a former Carolina
Power & Light Company employee engaged in activity protected by
federal regulations.
NRC officials said the action is based upon a Department of
Labor Administrative Review Board Final Decision and Order of
Remand, dated September 30, 2003, which found that protected
activity was a contributing factor when CP&L terminated the
employment of its former Superintendent of Site Access
Authorization in April of 1999.
The NRC staff determined that CP&L, now Progress Energy,
discriminated against the former employee by terminating his
employment, in part, for engaging in protected activity.
The matter was fully litigated during DOL proceedings, and the
NRC has adopted the review boards Final Decision and Order of
Remand.
NRC officials said Progress Energy (formerly CP&L) has taken
adequate corrective action to prevent recurrence of similar
problems.
Last revised Thursday, April 08, 2004
*****************************************************************
14 NRC: Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant; Environmental Assessment and
FR Doc E4-781
[Federal Register: April 8, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 68)]
[Notices] [Page 18654-18655] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr08ap04-97]
Finding of No Significant Impact The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) is considering issuance of an amendment to
Facility Operating License No.
DPR-53, issued to Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, Inc. (the
licensee), for operation of the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power
Plant, Unit No. 1 (CCNPP1), located in Calvert County, MD.
Therefore, as required by 10 CFR 51.21, the NRC is issuing this
environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact.
Environmental Assessment Identification of the Proposed Action
The proposed action would increase the maximum enrichment limit
of fuel assemblies stored in the CCNPP1 spent fuel pool from 4.52
weight percent U 235 to 5.00 weight percent U 235. This would be
accomplished by the licensee taking credit for soluble boron in
maintaining acceptable margins of subcriticality. The proposed
action only relates to Unit 1 because the storage racks in the
Unit 2 spent fuel pool are of a different design, and require
different controls. The Unit 2 spent fuel pool will remain at the
current enrichment level of 4.52 weight percent U 235. The
proposed action will result in modification of Technical
Specification (TS) Section 4.3.1, ``Criticality,'' addition of a
new Section 3.7.16, ``Spent Fuel Pool Boron Concentration,'' and
addition of a license condition to require the development of a
long-term coupon surveillance program for the Carborundum
samples.
The proposed action is in accordance with the licensee's
application dated May 1, 2003, as supplemented September 25,
2003, November 3, 2003, and February 25, 2004.
The Need for the Proposed Action The proposed action would allow
the number of fresh fuel assemblies per cycle to be decreased,
through allowing the maximum enrichment for fresh fuel to be
increased to 5.00 weight percent U 235 and allowing credit for
soluble boron in the spent fuel pool.
Through decreasing the number of fresh fuel assemblies per cycle,
Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation storage requirements
will decrease, permanent Department of Energy storage
requirements will decrease, and fuel cycle costs will decrease.
Currently, TS Section 4.3.1, ``Criticality'', limits the maximum
enrichment for fuel assemblies to 4.52 weight percent U 235, and
does not allow the licensee to take credit for soluble boron in
the spent fuel pool. Thus, the proposed changes to the TSs were
requested.
Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action The NRC has
completed its safety evaluation of the proposed action and
concludes that the storage and use of fuel enriched with U 235 up
to 5.00 weight percent at CCNPP1, is acceptable. The staff's
safety evaluation addresses safety considerations at the higher
enrichment level, and the staff has concluded that the proposed
action will not adversely effect plant safety.
The proposed action will not significantly increase the
probability or consequences of accidents. Even though there will
be a higher enrichment of U 235 in the fuel rods, accident
consequences will not increase. According to the TSs, the spent
fuel pool will contain enough soluble boron to ensure both
subcriticality in the event of a dropped rod or accidental
misloading, and significant negative reactivity in the event of a
loss of normal spent fuel pool cooling.
No changes are being made in the types of effluents that may be
released off site. Water and soluble boron will continue to be
the materials used to ensure subcriticality in the spent fuel
pool.
There is no significant increase in the amount of any effluent
released off site. Due to the higher enrichment of fuel, the
boron concentration in the spent fuel pool will increase from the
current value of 300 ppm to 350 ppm to safely store the higher
enrichment fuel in the spent fuel pool. The addition of 50 ppm
boron is approximately a 15-percent increase in boron
concentration, but this is not a significant increase in the
amount of radioactive waste. Boron will continue to be collected
on the spent fuel pool filters as the water in the spent fuel
pool is purified. The filters are replaced periodically and
treated as low- level waste. There is no significant increase in
occupational or public radiation exposure. Doses to workers will
not increase from their current level due to the increased
soluble boron concentration absorbing neutrons from the higher
enrichment fuel rods in the spent fuel pool. Therefore, there are
no significant radiological environmental impacts associated with
the proposed action.
With regard to potential non-radiological impacts, the proposed
action does not have a potential to affect any historic sites.
It does not affect non-radiological plant effluents and has no
other environmental impact. Therefore, there are no significant
non- radiological environmental impacts associated with the
proposed action.
Accordingly, the NRC concludes that there are no significant
environmental impacts associated with the proposed action.
Environmental Impacts of the Alternatives to the Proposed Action
As an alternative to the proposed action, the staff considered
denial of the proposed action (i.e., the ``no-action''
alternative). Denial of the application would result in no change
in current environmental impacts. The environmental impacts of
the proposed action and the alternative action are similar.
Alternative Use of Resources The action does not involve the use
of any different resources than those previously considered in
the Final Environmental Impact Statement for CCNPP1 dated April
1973, and the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement
(NUREG-1437, Supplement 1) dated October 1999.
Agencies and Persons Consulted On August 21, 2003, the staff
consulted with the Maryland State official, Richard McLean of the
Department of the Environment, regarding the environmental impact
of the proposed action. The State official had no comments.
[[Page 18655]] Finding of No Significant Impact On the basis of
the environmental assessment, the NRC concludes that the proposed
action will not have a significant effect on the quality of the
human environment. Accordingly, the NRC has determined not to
prepare an environmental impact statement for the proposed
action.
For further details with respect to the proposed action, see the
licensee's letters dated May 1, 2003, September 23, 2003,
November 3, 2003, and February 25, 2004. Documents may be
examined, and/or copied for a fee, at the NRC's Public Document
Room (PDR), located at One White Flint North, Public File Area O1
F21, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland.
Publicly available records will be accessible electronically from
the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS)
Public Electronic Reading Room on the NRC Web site,
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Persons who do not have
access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the
documents located in ADAMS should contact the NRC PDR Reference
staff at 1-800- 397-4209, or 301-415-4737, or send an e-mail to
pdr@nrc.gov. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 2nd day of April,
2004.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Guy S. Vissing, Senior Project Manager, Section I, Project
Directorate I, Division of Licensing Project Management, Office
of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. E4-781 Filed 4-7-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
15 NRC: Duke Energy Corporation, McGuire Nuclear Station, Units 1 and 2;
FR Doc E4-782
[Federal Register: April 8, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 68)]
[Notices] [Page 18655] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr08ap04-98]
Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact The
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering issuance
of an exemption from title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations
(10 CFR) part 73, Appendix B, section I.B.b(1), ``Vision,'' for
Renewed Facility Operating License Nos. NPF-9 and NPF-17, issued
to Duke Energy Corporation (the licensee), for operation of the
McGuire Nuclear Station, Units 1, and 2, (McGuire) located in
Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Therefore, as required by 10
CFR 51.21, the NRC is issuing this environmental assessment and
finding of no significant impact.
Environmental Assessment Identification of the Proposed Action
The proposed action would grant an exemption from the
requirements of 10 CFR part 73, Appendix B, section I.B.b(1),
``Vision.'' The proposed action is in accordance with the
licensee's application dated June 12, 2003, that is being
withheld from public disclosure pursuant to 10 CFR 2.390(a)(6).
It is being withheld from public disclosure because it contains
information about an employee's personnel and medical records, a
disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted
invasion of privacy.
The NRC staff's Safety Evaluation will be issued along with the
exemption; it will be withheld from public disclosure because it
also contains information about an employee's personnel and
medical records.
The Need for the Proposed Action The proposed action is needed so
that the licensee can institute some specified action for a
particular individual. Providing additional information
pertaining to the need for the proposed action would require
discussing information about the employee's personnel and medical
records. The NRC staff has determined that granting the exemption
will not jeopardize the health and safety of the public or
endanger security operations, and approval of the proposed
exemption not be inimical to the common defense and security or
to the health and safety of the public. The basis for this
determination will be provided in a Safety Evaluation that will
be an enclosure to the exemption. This Safety Evaluation will be
withheld from public disclosure because it contains information
about an employee's personnel and medical records.
Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action The NRC has
completed its evaluation of the proposed action and concludes
that there are no environmental impacts.
The proposed action will not significantly increase the
probability or consequences of accidents, no changes are being
made in the types of effluents that may be released off-site, and
there is no significant increase in occupational or public
radiation exposure.
Therefore, there are no significant radiological environmental
impacts associated with the proposed action.
With regard to potential nonradiological impacts, the proposed
action does not have a potential to affect any historic sites.
It does not affect nonradiological plant effluents and has no
other environmental impact. Therefore, there are no significant
nonradiological environmental impacts associated with the
proposed action.
Accordingly, the NRC concludes that there are no significant
environmental impacts associated with the proposed action.
Environmental Impacts of the Alternatives to the Proposed Action
As an alternative to the proposed action, the staff considered
denial of the proposed action (i.e., the ``no-action''
alternative). Denial of the application would result in no change
in current environmental impacts. The environmental impacts of
the proposed action and the alternative action are similar.
Alternative Use of Resources The action does not involve the use
of any different resource than those previously considered in
NUREG-0063, ``Final Environmental Statement Related to the
Operation of William B. McGuire Nuclear Station, Units 1 and 2,''
April 1976, and the Addendum to NUREG-0063 issued in January
1981; and in NUREG-1437, ``Generic Environmental Impact Statement
for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants, Supplement 8, Regarding
McGuire Nuclear Station, Units 1 and 2, Final Report,'' dated
December 2002.
Agencies and Persons Consulted On March 29, 2004, the NRC staff
consulted with the South Carolina State official, Mr. Virgil
Autry of the Department of Health and Environmental Controls,
regarding the environmental impact of the proposed action. The
State official had no comments. Finding of No Significant Impact
On the basis of the environmental assessment, the NRC concludes
that the proposed action will not have a significant effect on
the quality of the human environment. Accordingly, the NRC has
determined not to prepare an environmental impact statement for
the proposed action.
Dated in Rockville, Maryland, this 2nd day of April, 2004.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Edwin M. Hackett, Project Director, Project Directorate II,
Division of Licensing Project Management, Office of Nuclear
Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. E4-782 Filed 4-7-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
16 Newsday: Oyster Creek to pay $1 million for September fish kill
Newsday.com
[April 8, 2004]
LACEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. --
The operators of Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station have
agreed to pay $1 million for discharging hot water that killed
nearly 6,000 fish, state Attorney General Peter Harvey said
Thursday.
Two-thirds of the money will be used to fund environmental
projects.
Oyster Creek operator AmerGen Energy Co. will make two payments
of $500,000 each to settle civil and criminal complaints stemming
from the Sept. 23, 2002, accident.
In it, a transformer was shut down for maintenance and power was
lost to three thermal dilution pumps, which are used to cool
water that has been heated during electricity production before
its release into nearby Oyster Creek.
With no pump to cool the discharge, hot water was released into a
canal linking Oyster Creek itself with the nuclear plant,
boosting the creek's temperature to over 100 degrees and killing
at least 5,876 striped bass, white perch, croaker and menhaden.
The accident, and the plant's response to it, violated the
plant's water pollution discharge permit, which was issued by the
state Department of Environmental Protection.
Plant officials learned of the fish kill within an hour, but
didn't report it for five hours. They are required to report fish
kills within two hours.
Under the settlement, the state-owned Lighthouse Center for
Natural Resource Education will get $302,088 for physical
improvements at its 95-acre site in Waretown.
Other beneficiaries include the DEP's Clean Water Enforcement
Fund and the Barnegat Bay Estuary Program, which will get $75,000
to buy two monitoring modules to keep tabs on water temperature,
dissolved oxygen and turbidity at various locations in the
estuary.
"This settlement should send a clear message that New Jersey will
hold polluters and those who damage our natural resources
accountable for their actions," said Harvey.
Amergen spokeswoman Mary Ann Carley called the settlement
appropriate.
"It's a situation we take full responsibility for. We regret that
it ever occurred, but we do think we've reached _ after a
thorough investigation by two state agencies _ a fair settlement
for what actually happened," Carley said.
An environmental group welcomed the settlement, but called the
accident part of a larger pattern that neither Oyster Creek nor
the state is addressing.
"These sorts of events are not going to stop until they upgrade
their cooling technology," said Doug O'Malley, clean water
advocate for the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group. "I
know they've made a lot of earnest mea culpas about how it'll
never happen again, but it has failed in the past and it will
fail in the future because the technology it is using is not
adequate."
Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press | Article licensing and
Copyright © Newsday, Inc. Produced by Newsday Electronic
*****************************************************************
17 Expatica: Belgium 'needs nuclear to beat global warming'
Belgian news in English
8 April 2004
BRUSSELS - Belgium will not be able to honour a pledge to make
significant cuts in its greenhouse gas emissions if it scraps its
nuclear power stations, it was reported on Thursday.
Citing a report by a key government advisory body, the 'Bureau de
Plan', La Libre Belgique said nuclear power plants were a vital
part of the country's strategy to cap emissions of greenhouse
gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), which are strongly believed
to contribute to global warming.
Nuclear power stations produce no significant amounts of CO2, so
are considered good news as far as greenhouse gas emissions are
concerned, said the study.
But Belgium is planning to phase out its nuclear power stations
by 2015 and they are likely to be replaced by installations that
run on coal or other fossil fuels that do produce CO2 when
burned.
If the government pushes ahead with this policy, CO2 production
will go up, said the report.
This in turn will mean the country will not be able to reduce its
emissions of the greenhouse gas to 7.5 percent below 1990 levels,
as it promised at the 1997 climate change conference in Kyoto,
Japan.
Critics of nuclear energy production argue that no truly safe
long-term strategies have yet been developed for disposing of
nuclear waste.
They also point out that an accident at a nuclear power station
can have catastrophic results for the environment, as the 1986
disaster at the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine showed only too well.
[Copyright Expatica News 2004] Subject: Belgian news
*****************************************************************
18 WHOI: Nuclear Safety Study
Dewitt County
HOI-19 News
Officials with the Federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission are in
Clinton to talk about the safety of the nuclear power plant
there.
The group's annual study showed the plant did operate safely in
2003 and that is does not need NRC oversight beyond their routine
inspection.
Ann Marie Stone of the NRC says the evaluations are a continuous
process, but if something comes up in the future they will assess
and perform more inspections at that time.
Their results also explored the environmental issues surrounding
the proposal to build a second reactor and people living in the
area tell HOI 19 News they think the whole inspection process is
a good idea.
Passing the safety report puts the power plant in a good position
to get the go ahead to build an additional reactor at the site.
That plan could take three years for approval and if Okayed, it
could take up to 20 years before it is actually built.
Copyright © 2004 Chelsey Broadcasting
*****************************************************************
19 [DU-WATCH] photos of children from US bombing
Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 16:30:33 -0500 (CDT)
Please, view photos of Iraqi children killed in bombing in Falujah:
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/04/285247.shtml
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20 [RADFOOD] NY School District Bans Irradiated Food!
Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 00:43:38 -0500 (CDT)
*Morris, NY School District Bans Irradiated Food!*
On February 11, 2004, the Morris Central School District of Morris, NY
passed a policy banning irradiated meat from their school lunches! The
district Food Service Manager, Jenn Jacobsen, worked with the school
board to pass this policy to protect the district's 500 students, 71% of
which receive lunches from the National School Lunch Program each day.
Jacobsen has also instituted many forward-thinking policies to cut back
waste. They have a bulk milk machine for the students, bulk cereal, and
non-disposable dishware, which cuts down on large volumes of packaging
and waste.
The choice of whether or not to serve irradiated food to students is a
yearly decision for every single school district nationwide. The only
way to ensure that school children in your district won't be served
irradiated food is to pass a ban for your district. If you are
interested in working with your school board to pass a resolution
banning irradiated foods, call 202-454-5185.
Click on the following link to read the text of the Morris resolution:
http://www.citizen.org/documents/morrisresolution.pdf
Go to www.safelunch.org for more information on irradiated food in
school lunches or to download a copy of our National School Lunch
Program Organizing Kit.
********************
If you would like to be removed from the radfood list, send an email to listserv@listserver.citizen.org with the words "unsubscribe radfood" in the message.
If you would like to be added to the radfood list, send an email to listserv@listserver.citizen.org with the words "subscribe radfood" in the message.
To learn more about food irradiation, visit our website at http://www.citizen.org/cmep/
Questions about the radfood list can be directed to RADFOOD-request@LISTSERVER.CITIZEN.ORG
-Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program
*****************************************************************
21 [DU-WATCH] FW: Organizing Iraq War Vets
Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 01:37:09 -0500 (CDT)
My name is Michael Hoffman and I am a veteran of the recent war in Iraq. I
returned to the States in May of last year and have been speaking out
against the war as a member of Vets For Peace since November. I am emailing
all of you to inform you that I am now going to start organizing the
returning veterans of the war in Iraq. Please feel free to give my contact
info to any returning vets you have contact with. I hope to have an
official name and mission statement made up by early next week. I'll will
keep you up to date with more info as it comes.
Michael Hoffman, member VFP, chap. 31, Philadelphia, PA
484-995-9930
arti57@yahoo.com
63 N. Delmorr Ave.
Morrisville, PA 19067
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"
Who watches the watchmen?
-Juvenal, 347
Used as the epigraph to the Tower Commission Report, 1987
*************************************************************
Bush says "Bring 'Em On"
We Say: "Bring them home,NOW"
Veterans For Peace.Inc
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/
Military Families Speak Out
http://www.mfso.org/
http://www.bringthemhomenow.com/
Traveling Soldier
http://www.traveling-soldier.org/
*************************************************************
James Starowicz
USN '67-'71, GMG3, Vietnam-In Country:'70-'71
"We, having dutifully served our nation, do hereby
affirm our greater responsibility to serve the cause
of world peace by applying the concept of engaging
conflict peacefully, without violence."
Veterans for Peace, Inc.(www.veteransforpeace.org)
"We are a nation that postures as 'Morally Superior' but enjoys 'Sin'!"
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22 [DU-WATCH] 9/11: Urgent letter from Prof. Weston
Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 16:40:39 -0500 (CDT)
[I purchased a copy, recommended du-watch@yahoogroups.com for a 10%
discount. When ordering, give this address in order to get a discount on
Amazon purchases. - PB]
============================================
From: Burns H Weston
Sent: Apr 6, 2004 9:29 PM
To: UICHR-NEIGHBORS-EVERYWHERE@LIST.UIOWA.EDU
Subject: Urgent letter from Prof. Burns Weston (Modified by Elmas Davidsson)
Prof. Emeritus Burns Weston is Director of
UI Center for Human Rights (UICHR),
300 Communications Center,
The University of Iowa,
Iowa City, IA 52242 USA
Tel: + 1-319-335-3900;
Fax: + 1-319-335-1340
Web: http://www.uichr.org
Here is what he wrote today:
Colleagues:
I have just received from my co-author and friend, [Prof. Emeritus]
Richard Falk, a book by his friend, Professor David Ray Griffin,
entitled THE NEW PEARL HARBOR: DISTURBING QUESTIONS ABOUT THE BUSH
ADMINISTRATION AND 9/11 (Northhampton. MA: Olive Branch Press,
2004). Dick wrote the Foreword. Griffin, formerly a Professor of
Philosophy and Religion at the Claremont School of Theology in
California for over 30 years, is the author and editor of more than
30 books. He is, in short, and accomplished intellectual with
impeccable credentials.
Professor Griffin has written an extraordinary book that, in calm
and objective style, invites us to compare what the Bush Administration
has told us about 9/11 with the facts of 9/11 as he (Griffin) has
been able to unearth them via careful scholarly research of the
highest professional standards. Except to argue that there is
sufficient reason to insist upon a genuinely full and independent
investigation of 9/11, he does not reach any conclusion. Rather,
he suggests possible conclusions and leaves it to us, the reader,
to decide for ourselves what is fact and what is fiction. This is
in fact part of the power of the book. However, as I read the book,
the disparity between Administration spin and researched fact is
sufficiently glaring as to suggest a constitutional crisis unlike
anything our country has ever known.
I urge you to purchase and read this book as soon as possible.
Exclusive of endnotes, it is only 168 pages long and is available
in paperback from Amazon.com for only $10.50
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/ref=pd_kk_sr_1/
102-1646313-7424913?index=stripbooks&field-
keywords=david%20ray%20griffin.) Dick says in his Foreword, that
Griffin's book "has [the] potential to become a force of history."
It most certainly does. But this depends on each and every one of
us. And on all our friends and colleagues as well. Please recommend
it, especially to persons in positions of media and political
influence and power. Especially try to get it in to the hands of
the current 9/11 Commission.
Kind but nervous greetings,
Burns Weston
================================
The University of Iowa Center for Human Rights (UICHR) thanks you for
being part of its growing family worldwide. For UICHR details, please
visit our website at . If you live within 150 miles of
us (Iowa City, Iowa, USA), we invite you to subscribe also to our
automated UICHR-NEIGHBORS-REGIONAL listserv, restricted primarily to
information about local UICHR activities and events. Please join us
when you can. Also, kindly tell others about us, urge them to
subscribe to this listserv, and refer them to the following
instructions when you do:
To subscribe to our UICHR-NEIGHBORS-EVERYWHERE listserv:
(1) Email your request to mailto:listserv@list.uiowa.edu
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=========================
UI Center for Human Rights (UICHR),
300 Communications Center,
The University of Iowa,
Iowa City, IA 52242 USA
Tel: + 1-319-335-3900;
Fax: + 1-319-335-1340
Web: http://www.uichr.org
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23 [DU-WATCH] Cleaning Up after War
Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 01:52:18 -0500 (CDT)
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000254FC-AE57-1F57-905980A84189EE
DF&pageNumber=2&catID=2
April 06, 2004
Insights October 2003 issue
Cleaning Up after War Bombs and bullets can kill years after the
battles have ended, by leaving behind toxins and contaminants. It's
up to Pekka Haavisto to figure out how to handle the mess
Image: KATE BROOKS, Baghdad, August 11, 2003 PEKKA HAAVISTO:
POSTCONFLICT FIXING
During its springtime assault against Saddam Hussein, the Pentagon
played videos showing the deadly precision of U.S. weaponry. Guided
by satellites and lasers, missiles found their targets without
hitting nearby buildings. Yet even if civilians were spared, they
could face dangers from spent munitions. For many weapons, U.S.
forces have for the past two decades relied on depleted uranium,
which, being nearly twice as dense as lead, can penetrate materials
more effectively than conventional alloys can.
The metal, a by-product of uranium enrichment for nuclear power
plants and warheads, is toxic when ingested and slightly radioactive,
and that worries Pekka Haavisto. "Do you think that people in the
postconflict situation ar e somehow harder people and they can take
more burden?" Haavisto asks. "Or do you think that they are human
beings like us, and whatever you can avoid, you should avoid?"
It's clear what his answer would be. The 45-year-old Finn chairs
the Geneva-based Post-Conflict Assessment Unit (PCAU), a division
within the United Nations Environment Program. His team goes to
places where conflicts have just ceased, looks for environmental
trouble spots and sets priorities for cleanup and reconstruction.
The PCAU began in 1999 following the war in the Balkans (it was
known then as the Balkan Task Force). Some of the NATO bombings
resulted in the release of toxic chemicals. The executive director
of the U.N. Environment Program, Klaus Toepfer, needed someone to
determine the severity of the war pollution. He remembered that,
while serving as a German environmental official, he had met a young
environment minister from Finland who was enthusiastic and well
respected. "So I came to the conclusion that this would be a great
chance to bring Pekka Haavisto on board," Toepfer recalls.
Haavisto had recently finished his term in office and was considering
returning to environmental journalism when Toepfer called. "And of
course that was an opportunity to which you could not say no,"
Haavisto says. "And I arrived to an empty room with nobody to help
me that first day."
Image: COURTESY OF SPACE IMAGING SMOKE from oil fires around Baghdad
and other wartime pollution could create long-term health hazards
Haavisto, who cofounded the Green Party in Finland, pulled together
60 experts from around the world. Through that summer and fall, the
team searched for toxic or radioactive pollution in river sediments,
groundwater, soil and air. In the end, they concluded that the war
had not resulted in an environmental catastrophe. But they found
four "hot spots"--industrial sites where pollution posed a threat
to human health. Since then, most of the necessary cleanup has been
completed. "After Kosovo came the Serbia work and then the Bosnia
work," Haavisto says. "Then we were asked to do similar work in the
occupied Palestinian territories and Afghanistan and now just lately
in Iraq. I don't know when I'm returning home to Helsinki."
At first, U.N. member nations were skeptical about the need for
assessing a postconflict environment. "People were always saying,
'Well, why are you coming with the environmental portfolio? We have
a humanitarian crisis, we have the refugees, and we have social
issues and the schools,' and so on," recalls Haavisto, who talks
virtually nonstop at times. But if you don't take care of the
environment immediately, before reconstruction, Haavisto points
out, it will be much costlier later. Plus, contaminants may prolong
the suffering of people. "And I'm quite convinced that this is the
approach that the international community should have in each and
every region and after each and every conflict," he insists.
Larger, more chronic issues persist in places such as Afghanistan,
where more than 20 years of fighting has taken its toll. Land mines
continue to kill people and animals. Clean drinking water is in
short supply because of drought, contamination from poorly located
dump sites, past bombings and even simple neglect. Biodiversity
loss and deforestation add to the environmental woes.
Haavisto's latest project is an assessment of Iraq. In a perfectly
safe region, Haavisto and his PCAU team would need three months to
complete the fieldwork and another two months to analyze the samples.
Haavisto had hoped to be in Iraq by June, but frequent attacks on
U.S. troops have delayed his efforts until August. He says that
assessing Iraq will cost about $850,000, much of it from the
Humanitarian Flash Appeal, a relief fund to which U.N. countries
are asked to contribute. Of major concern is the depleted uranium
of some ammunition. When such a projectile makes impact, a bit of
the uranium gets pulverized, turning into airborne radioactive dust
that could be dangerous to breathe. Fragments of depleted-uranium
weapons sitting on the ground can corrode and leach into the soil
and groundwater. But the public health dangers of depleted uranium
in the environment are not fully known. Some argue that it causes
birth defects, cancers and Gulf War Syndrome. Military experts
counter that no conclusive evidence links it to disease. But that
may have more to do with the relatively recent use of the material
and the lack of actual studies.
In any case, the PCAU team has begun mapping the areas exposed to
the metal. Haavisto explains that the British government was
providing information on where depleted-uranium ammunition had been
used in southern Iraq. But the U.S. military was so far not helping
in this regard. Distinguishing which depleted-uranium contamination
resulted from this year's bombings and which from the 1991 Gulf War
may also be hard.
Uranium is just one of several hazards in postwar Iraq. Haavisto's
team will undoubtedly find that some industrial and military targets
released toxic chemicals into the air, soil and water. The black
smoke from burning oil trenches around Baghdad, meant to shroud
targets, contained many toxic substances that might affect the soil
and drinking water.
In addition, Haavisto expects to find a disaster in the Mesopotamian
marshes: the nourishing water that once made this area the Fertile
Crescent has been dammed up and siphoned off by the ousted regime.
"It has not only influenced or affected the biodiversity but also
the livelihoods and the situation of the marsh Arabs," he says.
Ironically, one of the biggest environmental problems in Iraq may
stem not from direct military conflict but from a decade of
U.N.-imposed sanctions. Haavisto explains that as replacement parts
became harder to acquire, proper maintenance of oil drilling and
production facilities became more difficult. When pipelines developed
leaks, they were simply ignored, paving the way for widespread
contamination of soil and groundwater.
Besides pointing out the problems, each assessment recommends
specific solutions. In certain cases, it might mean just removing
contaminants from soil in a certain place. In others, it might mean
creating an entirely new administrative infrastructure for monitoring
wildlife or habitats.
Other nations have begun seeing the value of environmental assessments.
Tanzania wants an evaluation of the impact of refugees on the
country. After years of civil strife, Somalia, Ivory Coast and
Congo badly need this kind of appraisal. There is no shortage of
work, yet "I still have a one-month contract," Haavisto remarks.
"People are always asking, 'When are you finished?' And I say that
I'm finishing every month on the 11th." For nearly five years, that
contract has been renewed, fortunately--or perhaps, unfortunately.
Remarks Klaus Toepfer: "We were still optimistic enough to believe
that postconflict assessment would not be something like a growing
market." ----------------------
PEKKA HAAVISTO toured Europe at age 15 via a 25-nation train pass.
"Traveling taught me to understand a country's culture and history.
When offering solutions to the environmental problems, different
traditions have to be understood."
On his job: "One third is lobbying, one third is fund-raising, and
one third is the real environmental work."
Depleted uranium used in battles against Iraq since 1991: 400 to
450 metric tons. (Estimate by Dan Fahey, an independent policy
analyst in Berkeley, Calif.) -----------------------------------
Marc Airhart is a producer for the Earth and Sky radio series in
Austin, Tex. Daniel Cho contributed to the reporting.
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24 [du-list] An urgent news from Japan DU activities crisis of
Date: Thu, 08 Apr 2004 14:29:13 -0700
April 8, 2004
Dear friends,
An urgent news from Japan.
In Iraq, three young Japanese, one woman and two men, are now captured
as hostages by an Islamist armed group which insists they will kill the
hostages if Japanese Self-Defence Forces currently stationed in Samawa,
southern Iraq, don't leave Iraq within three days.
One of three, Mr. Noriaki Imai, is a very enthusiastic young
journalist-in-making, just graduated from high school in March. He went
to Iraq to check over DU contaminations and radioactivity affected
illnesses.
Another woman, Naoko Takatoh, has been doing volunteer medical aide for
Iraqi children for some time. The third man, Sohichiro Kohriyama, is a
reporter from Asahi Shimbun, one of the major newspapers in Japan.
Many peace-loving and Constitution-respecting Japanese who have opposed
the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the deployment of JSDF
to occupied Iraq, are asking our government to engage in negotiations
with the Islamist group even if Japan needs to retreat its troops even
momentarily in order to save lives of the three hostages.
I sincerely plead you to do what you can, such as letting people know
what is happening in relation to JSDF in Iraq.
Thank you,
See Looked
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/08AE4283-9193-4564-9417-167B50B27BD7.
htm
04/4/9(Fri) 00:07am SDI00872@nifty.com yamasaki hisataka
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25 [DU-WATCH] An urgent news from Japan DU activities crisis of
Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 16:33:58 -0500 (CDT)
April 8, 2004
Dear friends,
An urgent news from Japan.
In Iraq, three young Japanese, one woman and two men, are now captured
as hostages by an Islamist armed group which insists they will kill the
hostages if Japanese Self-Defence Forces currently stationed in Samawa,
southern Iraq, don't leave Iraq within three days.
One of three, Mr. Noriaki Imai, is a very enthusiastic young
journalist-in-making, just graduated from high school in March. He went
to Iraq to check over DU contaminations and radioactivity affected
illnesses.
Another woman, Naoko Takatoh, has been doing volunteer medical aide for
Iraqi children for some time. The third man, Sohichiro Kohriyama, is a
reporter from Asahi Shimbun, one of the major newspapers in Japan.
Many peace-loving and Constitution-respecting Japanese who have opposed
the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the deployment of JSDF
to occupied Iraq, are asking our government to engage in negotiations
with the Islamist group even if Japan needs to retreat its troops even
momentarily in order to save lives of the three hostages.
I sincerely plead you to do what you can, such as letting people know
what is happening in relation to JSDF in Iraq.
Thank you,
See Looked
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/08AE4283-9193-4564-9417-167B50B27BD7.
htm
04/4/9(Fri) 00:07am SDI00872@nifty.com yamasaki hisataka
[Brought to you by HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
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26 Norco Hills Calif-Wyle Labs poison w/DU testing/missiles/warhead
Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 08:56:32 -0700 (PDT)
Keeping the crusade going
http://www.pe.com/localnews/corona/stories/PE_News_Local_csper04.e814.html
LeRae Spera has made a crusade of exposing the
activities of Wyle Labs, a Norco test sit
12:36 AM PST on Sunday, April 4, 2004
By PAIGE AUSTIN / The Press-Enterprise
Some days she's an honored speaker at symposiums and
community meetings. State lawmakers make time to meet
with her and reporters clamor for her quotes.
On other days, city staffers won't return her calls,
state officials e-mail each other back and forth on
whether she should be kept in the loop and Norco
residents she's never met grumble and whisper about
her at club meetings.
LeRae Spera's quest to expose activities and pollution
at Norco's Wyle Labs has made her an avenging angel to
some in the community and an alarmist and a nuisance
to others.
Silvia Flores / The Press-Enterprise
LeRae Spera has spent hundreds of dollars in
transportation and phone bills to get more testing
done at Wyle Labs, which is taking part in a
state-mandated cleanup effort.
A 43-year-old mother of four boys, Spera says she's
just a normal woman fighting for what she believes is
right.
Those first rumblings
The battle began three years ago shortly after she and
her family moved from Orange County to a new home in
the Norco hills.
The house was huge - big enough for her boys, her
husband and her aging mother. Most importantly, Spera,
a Santa Monica native, would finally be able to
realize her dream of owning horses.
"It was perfect," Spera said. "There was open space in
the hills for my kids to run and fly kites. It was
everything I'd always wanted."
Then one day, an explosion rocked the neighborhood,
setting off car and home burglary alarms. It wouldn't
be last to jolt the residents living around Wyle Labs,
a hazardous testing facility. Her children began
telling her about clouds of smoke they saw as they
played in the hills. Shortly after that, Spera said
she overheard two city officials discussing
contamination at the site.
She began researching the mysterious facility that
bordered her neighborhood and found that Wyle was a
defense contractor authorized to test missiles,
warheads and depleted-uranium projectiles. She also
discovered that the company had a history of spilling
hazardous waste in the soil and water.
It was an alarming discovery - enough for the Spera
family to pack up and move back to Orange County.
Spera and a small group of her former neighbors sued
housing developers Centex and Western Pacific,
claiming the developers failed to disclose the true
nature of activities at nearby Wyle Labs.
They began learning more about the cancer-causing
chemicals found in the ground and water at Wyle and
longtime residents started coming forward with cases
of cancer and thyroid disorders - and questions about
Wyle.
Her crusade
Over the past two years, Spera has worked nearly full
time purchasing and poring over thousands of
regulatory documents regarding Wyle. She and others in
INSIST, a resident watchdog group founded by Spera,
have lobbied elected officials at the city, county
state and federal government to pay attention to
pollution issues at Wyle.
She's spent hundreds on transportation and phone bills
battling with regulatory officials for more testing at
Wyle, more community input in the cleanup and more
community notification. She's hounded reporters for
media attention on Wyle. And she organizes meetings
with Wyle neighbors and students who have attended
schools around Wyle.
Her crusade earns her as much criticism as praise at
times.
"She is a two-sided coin," said Wyle neighbor Larry
Jenkins. "The work she did to make people aware of
Wyle has been very good. The other side is that she is
in it for the litigation. I think she is in it for the
money. Why else is she doing it? She doesn't live here
any more. Her kids don't go to the schools."
Norco City Councilman Harvey Sullivan said Spera has
drummed up scrutiny that slows down the process. "I
still think - even with all the ballyhoo about Wyle -
that the level of contamination is low and that Wyle
had preparations in place to get it cleaned up."
Sullivan cited a scathing grand jury report calling
for more city oversight of Wyle and businesses like it
as one of the divisive impacts of the scrutiny.
"Cities are not in the business of monitoring people's
businesses," he said. "We have no right to just go
onto their property and inspect them."
The criticism is to be expected, said Penny Newman, an
environmental activist who has gained national
recognition since battling pollution caused by the
Stringfellow acid pits, a hazardous-waste dumpsite
north of Glen Avon that is now a Superfund cleanup
site.
"When opponents can't find criticism with what she is
saying, they will find ways to discredit her," Newman
said.
*****************************************************************
27 [du-list] Call for Guam to be included in Radiation
Date: Thu, 08 Apr 2004 14:29:08 -0700
d3049.jpg
© 2004 Marianas Variety
Published by Younis Art Studio Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Email : mvariety@vzpacifica.net
Guam seeks radiation exposure compensation
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff
HAGÅTÑA — Guam has asked the U.S. Congress to include Guam in the Radiation
Exposure Compensation Program, which is based on a 1990 law that
established procedures to make partial compensation to individuals who
contracted serious diseases as a result of nuclear tests.
At the hearing held on March 24 by the Board of Radiation Effects Research
Committee in Washington, D.C., Sen. Carmen Fernandez, D-Yona, presented
Resolution 30 petitioning Congress to amend the Radiation Exposure
Compensation Act, or RECA, to identify Guam as a “downwinder/onsite
participant” so that the island can be covered by the compensation program.
The resolution, introduced by Fernandez, Sens. Rory Respicio, Chalan Pago,
and Mark Forbes, R-Sinajana, recalled that the U.S. conducted nuclear tests
on Enewitok Atoll in the Marshall Islands from 1946 to 1958. A total of 67
atomic and thermonuclear bombs were donated during those years, resulting
in fallout across the Pacific.
Testifying at the BREC hearing, Robert Celestial, president of the Pacific
Association of Radiation Survivors, urged committee members to hold a
meeting on Guam and get testimonies from residents who might be affected by
the nuclear tests.
“Studies show that in the North Pacific Equatorial Current System, there
was a major peak at Guam in Jan. 1959 and a minor peak in Palau in Aug.
1958,” Celestial said in his written testimony.
He submitted to the BREC committee documents relating to Guam’s possible
exposure to radiation fallout/decontamination of naval vessels at the
island’s harbors. “Would it be a health risk if radiation fallout were
detected on land other than the ocean? How long would it be a health risk?”
Congresswoman Madeleine Z. Bordallo, D-Guam, also testified at the BREC
hearing.
Drs. Chris Perez and Wesley Youngberg were supposed to testify on behalf of
Guam, but their travel fund requests were disapproved by the Guam State
Clearinghouse because they were not connected with the government of Guam.
The disapproval of these doctors’ travel funding requests prompted Gov.
Felix P. Camacho’s decision to fire Bertha Duenas as interim head of the
clearinghouse.
Celestial said Perez and Youngberg could have provided medical findings
that diseases on Guam “could have been a result (of the) nuclear testing in
the Pacific.”
“This nuclear test issue has been talked about for many years but this is
the first time that we’re ever given a chance to testify at the U.S.
Congress,” Celestial told Variety.
“The committee will be sending me a decision once they vote and confirm
their decision whether they will be coming out to Guam,” Celestial said.
----------
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28 [FOODIRRADIATIONCA] Support AB 1988 Keep Irradiated Meat out
Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 01:41:49 -0500 (CDT)
Support AB 1988, the California Safe School Lunch Act, and keep
irradiated meat out of California Schools!
AB 1988 passed through the Education Committee on March 30th and will
be heard by the Assembly Health Committee on April 20th. This landmark
legislation, authored by Assembly Member Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley),
prohibits the California Department of Education from ordering
irradiated ground beef for schools participating in federally subsidized
school meal programs and requires schools who purchase irradiated meat
privately to label it and provide a non-irradiated alternative.
TAKE ACTION!
****ORGANIZATIONS - please send a letter of support to Assembly Member
Rebecca Cohn, chair of the Assembly Health Committee!
Letters must arrive by Wednesday, April 14th, to be included in the
Committee Analysis!!
(If you already sent a letter of support to Assembly Member Jackie
Goldberg, thanks! Your letter will be submitted to the Health Committee
staff.)
Send letters to:
The Honorable Rebecca Cohn
Chair, Assembly Health Committee
State Capitol, Room 6005
Sacramento, CA 95814
Fax: 916-319-2197
(Please fax a copy to Tracy at 510-663-8569.)
****INDIVIDUALS - please contact Assembly Member Rebecca Cohn and your
Assembly Member, and urge them to support AB 1988! A sample letter is
provided below.
You can send a FREE FAX from our website to Rebecca Cohn at:
http://www.citizen.org/fax/background.cfm?ID=313&source=20
To find out who your Assembly Member is, visit www.assembly.ca.gov
If your Assembly Member is on the Health Committee, please send your
letter BEFORE April 20th!
Assembly Health Committee
Rebecca Cohn, Chair
Todd Spitzer, Vice-Chair
Keith Richman
Robert D. Dutton
Alan Nakanishi
George A. Plescia
Simon Salinas
Gloria Negrete-McLeod
George Nakano
Sally J. Lieber
Mark Ridley-Thomas
Lois Wolk
Mervyn M. Dymally
Paul Koretz
Cindy Montanez
Ed Chavez
Wilma Chan
Dario Frommer
Sample Letter
The Honorable ____________
California State Assembly
P.O. Box 942849
Sacramento, CA 94249
Dear Assembly Member ______________:
I am writing to ask you to support AB 1988, the California Safe School
Lunch Act.
As you know, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
recently lifted the prohibition on the use of irradiated ground beef in
the National School Lunch and National School Breakfast programs.
Irradiation controversial technology being marketed by the meat industry
and nuclear industry. I do not believe that enough research has been
conducted to evaluate the long-term health effects of consuming
irradiated food. Our children should not serve as laboratory
experiments for a technology that has not been successful in the
marketplace.
While USDA has encouraged school districts to provide information to
parents and students on irradiation, there is no actual requirement for
them to do so. In addition, there are no labeling requirements
currently in effect that would distinguish irradiated from non
irradiated meals in schools The California Safe School Lunch Act would
correct those problems. We should keep irradiated ground beef out of
subsidized school lunches, protect parents' right-to-know, and give
them the opportunity to make an informed choice on what their children
eat in school.
By passing this bill, California can lead the nation in providing
nutritious, wholesome food to schoolchildren. I urge you to support AB
1988 and work for its enactment.
Sincerely,
Background
In May of 2003, the US Department of Agriculture approved irradiated
foods for the National School Lunch Program, which is meant to provide
low income school children with free or subsidized school lunched.
Irradiation exposes food to extremely high doses of ionizing radiation,
in order to destroy bacteria. In the process, nutrients are destroyed
and toxic chemicals are formed. Consumption of irradiated foods is
linked to numerous health problems in humans and animals, including
reproductive dysfunction, fatal internal bleeding, and birth defects.
Irradiation also perpetuates the filthy and inhumane conditions in
factory farms, feedlots and slaughterhouses, where animals are crowded
together, pumped up with hormones and antibiotics, and slaughtered at
astonishing speeds.
To read the text of AB 1988 visit http://leginfo.ca.gov
For more information, please visit www.safelunch.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tracy Lerman
Senior Organizer
Public Citizen, California Office
1615 Broadway, 9th Floor
Oakland, CA 94612
ph: 510-663-0888 x 103 f: 510-663-8569
tlerman@citizen.org
www.citizen.org/california
Keep irradiated food out of your child's lunch!
Visit www.safelunch.org to find out more.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
**********
To unsubscribe, please send a email to tlerman@citizen.org with "unsubscribe foodirradiationca" in the subject line.
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29 [EMMAS] Exclusive: U.S. Soldiers Contaminated With Depleted
Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 01:27:19 -0500 (CDT)
http://www.democracynow.org/print.pl?sid=04/04/05/1356248 Broadcast
Exclusive:
U.S. Soldiers Contaminated With Depleted Uranium Speak Out Monday,
April 5th, 2004
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/04/05/1356248 A special
investigation by Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez of the New
York Daily News has found four of nine soldiers of the 442nd Military
Police Company of the New York Army National Guard returning from
Iraq tested positive for depleted uranium contamination. They are
the first confirmed cases of inhaled depleted uranium exposure from
the current Iraq conflict.
After repeatedly being denied testing for depleted uranium from
Army doctors, the soldiers contacted The News who paid to have them
tested as part of their investigation.
Testing for uranium isotopes in 24 hours' worth of urine samples
can cost as much as $1,000 each.
In a Democracy Now! broadcast exclusive, three of the contaminated
soldiers speak out.
Army officials at Fort Dix and Walter Reed Army Medical Center are
now rushing to test all returning members of the 442nd. More than
a dozen members are back in the U.S. but the rest of the company,
mostly comprised of New York City cops, firefighters and correction
officers, is not due to return from Iraq until later this month.
After learning of The News' investigation, Sen. Hillary Clinton
(D-NY) blasted Pentagon officials yesterday for not properly screening
soldiers returning from Iraq.
Clinton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said she
will write to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld demanding answers
and soon will introduce legislation to require health screenings
for all returning troops.
Depleted Uranium is considered to be the most effective anti-tank
weapon ever devised. It is made from nuclear waste left over from
the making nuclear weapons and fuel. The public first became aware
the US military was using DU weapons during the Persian Gulf War
in 1991. But it had been used as far back as the 1973 Yom Kippur
war in Israel.
Amid growing controversy in Europe and Japan, the European Parliament
called last year for a moratorium on its use.
a.. Sgt. Herbert Reed, assistant deputy warden at Rikers Island
with 442nd military police company of New York Army National Guard.
He did not test positive for depleted uranium, but has uranium 236,
a uranium isotope not found in nature.
b.. Sgt. Agustin Matos, was deployed in Iraq with the 442nd Military
Police.
He is among the first confirmed cases of inhaled depleted uranium
exposure from the current Iraq conflict.
c.. Sgt. Hector Vega, among the first confirmed cases of inhaled
depleted uranium exposure from the current Iraq conflict.
d.. Dr. Asaf Durakovic, colonel in army reserves who served in first
Gulf War. He is one of the first doctors to discover unusual radiation
levels in Gulf War veterans. He has since become a leading critic
of the use of depleted uranium in warfare. He tested the nine men
at the request of the Daily News.
e.. Leonard Dietz, retired physicist from Knolls Atomic Laboratory
in upstate New York. Pioneered the technology to isolate uranium
isotopes.
Read Juan Gonzalez' Exclusive Reports in the New York Daily News:
a.. Poisoned? Shocking report on troops
b.. Inside filthy camp where trouble began
c.. Soldiers demand to know health risks
d.. Army to test N.Y. Guard unit
Related Democracy Now! Coverage:
a.. Is Depleted Uranium Creating a New Nuclear Danger in Iraq?
b.. Radiation is 1,000 Times the Normal Levels Where US Troops Used
Depleted Uranium Shells in Baghdad
c.. U.S. Reportedly Fires DU Shells in Basra: Despite Evidence of
Health and Environmental Effects, Pentagon Denies DU Is Dangerous
d.. Part 2 of Our Discussion On Depleted Uranium, with the Scientific
Secretary with the European Committee On Radiation Risk, and a U.N.
Human Rights Lawyer
e.. Dr. Asaf Durakovic Gives a Rare Interview About Depleted Uranium
in Iraq: He Was the First Military Doctor to Test Gulf War Veterans
for Radiation Exposure and Was Terminated for His Work
www.democracynow.org
*****************************************************************
30 [DU-WATCH] Report from Hell - Students back from Iraq
Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 01:34:26 -0500 (CDT)
RE: DU - Special Note: CAN's East Coast Regional Conference 'condemned' the
use of DU by resolution on the vote of delegates from 21 campus
organizations. More research was called for in the context of remediation
and reparations, not to show that DU is harmful.
***
Students Mike Hoffman, returning Gulf War II veteran, and Khury
Petersen-Smith, RIT student and CAN representative on recently returned
delegation to Iraq, spoke to delegates from over 20 campus organizations at
the Campus Antiwar Network Northeast Regional Conference at Hunter College,
New York on April 3.
Hear and download their riveting presentations and see conference photos at
http://www.traprockpeace.org/can_northeast_3april04.html
Visit the CAN website - and PLEASE NOTE the new address - at
http://www.campusantiwar.net
For more information on CAN's rich history (with more photos and audio),
visit http://traprockpeace.org/student_activism.html
Charles Jenks, attorney at law
President of the Core Group
Traprock Peace Center
103A Keets Road
Deerfield, MA 01342
413-773-1633; Fax 413-773-7507
charles@mtdata.com
http://traprockpeace.org
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31 [DU-WATCH] Poisoned
Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 00:34:10 -0500 (CDT)
New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
Poisoned?
By JUAN GONZALEZ DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Saturday, April 3rd, 2004
Four soldiers from a New York Army National Guard company serving
in Iraq are contaminated with radiation likely caused by dust from
depleted uranium shells fired by U.S. troops, a Daily News investigation
has found.
They are among several members of the same company, the 442nd
Military Police, who say they have been battling persistent physical
ailments that began last summer in the Iraqi town of Samawah.
"I got sick instantly in June," said Staff Sgt. Ray Ramos, a Brooklyn
housing cop. "My health kept going downhill with daily headaches,
constant numbness in my hands and rashes on my stomach."
A nuclear medicine expert who examined and tested nine soldiers
from the company says that four "almost certainly" inhaled radioactive
dust from exploded American shells manufactured with depleted
uranium.
Laboratory tests conducted at the request of The News revealed
traces of two manmade forms of uranium in urine samples from four
of the soldiers.
If so, the men - Sgt. Hector Vega, Sgt. Ray Ramos, Sgt. Agustin
Matos and Cpl. Anthony Yonnone - are the first confirmed cases of
inhaled depleted uranium exposure from the current Iraq conflict.
The 442nd, made up for the most part of New York cops, firefighters
and correction officers, is based in Orangeburg, Rockland County.
Dispatched to Iraq last Easter, the unit's members have been providing
guard duty for convoys, running jails and training Iraqi police.
The entire company is due to return home later this month.
"These are amazing results, especially since these soldiers were
military police not exposed to the heat of battle,"
said Dr. Asaf Duracovic, who examined the G.I.s and performed the
testing that was funded by The News.
"Other American soldiers who were in combat must have more depleted
uranium exposure," said Duracovic, a colonel in the Army Reserves
who served in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
While working at a military hospital in Delaware, he was one of the
first doctors to discover unusual radiation levels in Gulf War
veterans. He has since become a leading critic of the use of depleted
uranium in warfare.
Depleted uranium, a waste product of the uranium enrichment process,
has been used by the U.S. and British military for more than 15
years in some artillery shells and as armor plating for tanks. It
is twice as heavy as lead.
Because of its density, "It is the superior heavy metal for armor
to protect tanks and to penetrate armor," Pentagon spokesman Michael
Kilpatrick said.
The Army and Air Force fired at least 127 tons of depleted uranium
shells in Iraq last year, Kilpatrick said. No figures have yet been
released for how much the Marines fired.
Kilpatrick said about 1,000 G.I.s back from the war have been tested
by the Pentagon for depleted uranium and only three have come up
positive - all as a result of shrapnel from DU shells.
But the test results for the New York guardsmen - four of nine
positives for DU - suggest the potential for more extensive radiation
exposure among coalition troops and Iraqi civilians.
Several Army studies in recent years have concluded that the low-level
radiation emitted when shells containing DU explode poses no
significant dangers. But some independent scientists and a few of
the -Army's own reports indicate otherwise.
As a result, depleted uranium weapons have sparked increasing
controversy around the world. In January 2003, the -European
Parliament called for a moratorium on their use after reports of
an unusual number of leukemia deaths among Italian soldiers who
served in Kosovo, where DU weapons were used.
I keep getting weaker. What is happening to me?
The Army says that only soldiers wounded by depleted uranium shrapnel
or who are inside tanks during an explosion face measurable radiation
exposure.
But as far back as 1979, Leonard Dietz, a physicist at the Knolls
Atomic Power Laboratory upstate, discovered that DU-contaminated
dust could travel for long distances.
Dietz, who pioneered the technology to isolate uranium isotopes,
accidentally discovered that air filters with which he was experimenting
had collected radioactive dust from a National Lead Industries Plant
that was producing DU 26 miles away.
His discovery led to a shutdown of the plant.
"The contamination was so heavy that they had to remove the topsoil
from 52 properties around the plant," Dietz said.
All humans have at least tiny amounts of natural uranium in their
bodies because it is found in water and in the food supply, Dietz
said.
But natural uranium is quickly and harmlessly excreted by the body.
Uranium oxide dust, which lodges in the lungs once inhaled and is
not very soluble, can emit radiation to the body for years.
"Anybody, civilian or soldier, who breathes these particles has a
permanent dose, and it's not going to decrease very much over time,"
said Dietz, who retired in 1983 after 33 years as nuclear physicist.
"In the long run ... veterans exposed to ceramic uranium oxide have
a major problem."
Critics of DU have noted that the Army's view of its dangers has
changed over time.
Before the 1991 Persian Gulf War, a 1990 Army report noted that
depleted uranium is "linked to cancer when exposures are internal,
[and] chemical toxicity causing kidney damage."
It was during the Gulf War that U.S. A-10 Warthog "tank buster"
planes and Abrams tanks first used DU artillery on a mass scale.
The Pentagon says it fired about 320 tons of DU in that war and
that smaller amounts were also used in the Serbian province of
Kosovo.
In the Gulf War, Army brass did not warn soldiers about any risks
from exploding DU shells. An unknown number of G.I.s were exposed
by shrapnel, inhalation or handling battlefield debris.
Some veterans groups blame DU contamination as a factor in Gulf War
syndrome, the term for a host of ailments that afflicted thousands
of vets from that war.
Under pressure from veterans groups, the Pentagon commissioned
several new studies. One of those, published in 2000, concluded
that DU, as a heavy metal, "could pose a chemical hazard" but that
Gulf War veterans "did not experience intakes high enough to affect
their health."
Pentagon spokesman Michael Kilpatrick said Army followup studies
of 70 DU-contaminated Gulf War veterans have not shown serious
health effects.
"For any heavy metal, there is no such thing as safe,"
Kilpatrick said.
"There is an issue of chemical toxicity, and for DU it is raised
as radiological toxicity as well."
But he said "the overwhelming conclusion" from studies of those who
work with uranium "show it has not produced any increase in cancers."
Several European studies, however, have linked DU to chromosome
damage and birth defects in mice. Many scientists say we still don't
know enough about the long-range effects of low-level radiation on
the body to say any amount is safe.
Britain's national science academy, the Royal Society, has called
for identifying where DU was used and is urging a cleanup of all
contaminated areas.
"A large number of American soldiers [in Iraq] may have had significant
exposure to uranium oxide dust," said Dr. Thomas Fasey, a pathologist
at Mount Sinai Medical Center and an expert on depleted uranium.
"And the health impact is worrisome for the future."
As for the soldiers of the 442nd, they're sick, frustrated and
confused. They say when they arrived in Iraq no one warned them
about depleted uranium and no one gave them dust masks.
Experts behind News probe
As part of the investigation by the Daily News, Dr.
Asaf Duracovic, a nuclear medicine expert who has conducted extensive
research on depleted uranium, examined the nine soldiers from the
442nd Military Police in late December and collected urine specimens
from each.
Another member of his team, Prof. Axel Gerdes, a geologist at Goethe
University in Frankfurt who specializes in analyzing uranium isotopes,
performed repeated tests on the samples over a week-long -period.
He used a state-of-the art procedure called multiple collector
inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry.
Only about 100 laboratories worldwide have the same capability to
identify and measure various uranium isotopes in minute quantities,
Gerdes said.
Gerdes concluded that four of the men had depleted uranium in their
bodies. Depleted uranium, which does not occur in nature, is created
as a waste product of uranium enrichment when some of the highly
radioactive isotopes in natural uranium, U-235 and U-234, are
extracted.
Several of the men, according to Duracovic, also had minute traces
of another uranium isotope, U-236, that is produced only in a nuclear
reaction process.
"These men were almost certainly exposed to radioactive weapons on
the battlefield," Duracovic said.
He and Gerdes plan to issue a scientific paper on their study of
the soldiers at the annual meeting of the European Association of
Nuclear Medicine in Finland this year.
When DU shells explode, they permanently contaminate their target
and the area immediately around it with low-level radioactivity.
________________________________________________________________________
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32 [DU-WATCH] Army to test NY guard unit
Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 00:34:37 -0500 (CDT)
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/180723p-156921c.html
Army to test N.Y. Guard unit
Hillary demands that all veterans of Iraq get checke
Sgt. Hector Vega, Age 48
Sgt. Agustin Matos, Age 37
Army officials at Fort Dix and Walter Reed Army Medical Center are
rushing to test all returning members of the 442nd Military Police
Company of the New York Army National Guard for depleted uranium
contamination.
Army brass acted after learning that four of nine soldiers from the
company tested by the Daily News showed signs of radiation exposure.
The soldiers, who returned from Iraq late last year, say they and
other members of their company have been suffering from unexplained
illnesses since last summer, when they were stationed in the Iraqi
town of Samawah.
Dr. Asaf Durakovic, a former Army doctor and nuclear medicine expert
who examined and tested the nine men at The News' request, concluded
four of them "almost certainly" inhaled radioactive dust from
exploded depleted uranium shells fired by U.S. troops.
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), after learning of The News'
investigation, blasted Pentagon officials yesterday for not properly
screening soldiers returning from Iraq.
"We can't have people coming back with undiagnosed illnesses,"
Clinton said. "We have to have a before-and-after testing program
for our soldiers."
Clinton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said she
will write to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld demanding answers
and soon will introduce legislation to require health screenings
for all returning troops.
During meetings with Pentagon officials last year, Clinton said
"one of the issues we raised was exposure to the depleted uranium
that was in the weapons, and how they were going to handle it."
She was assured then that troops would be properly screened.
But the soldiers from the 442nd contacted The News after becoming
frustrated with how the Army was handling their illnesses.
Six of them say they repeatedly sought testing for depleted uranium
from Army doctors but were denied.
Three who were tested in early November for DU said they had been
waiting months for the results. Two of those finally got their
results last week - both negative.
Testing for uranium isotopes in 24 hours' worth of urine samples
can cost as much as $1,000 each.
But late last week, after learning of The News' results, the Army
reversed course and ordered immediate testing for more than a dozen
members of the 442nd who are back in the U.S.
The rest of the company, comprising mostly New York City cops,
firefighters and correction officers, is not due to return from
Iraq until later this month.
"They ordered all of us who are here at Fort Dix to provide 24-hour
urine samples by 1 p.m. today," one soldier from the company said
Friday.
Late Friday, Pentagon spokesman Austin Camacho said he could not
confirm or deny that new tests had been ordered for the soldiers
of the 442nd.
"It's hard to imagine, theoretically, that these men could have
harmful exposures," Camacho said, because none of them had been
inside tanks during direct combat.
Army studies of depleted uranium have concluded that only soldiers
who suffer shrapnel wounds from DU shells or who were inside tanks
hit by DU shells and immediately breathe radioactive dust are at
risk.
Even then, Camacho said, studies of about 70 such cases from the
first Gulf War have shown no long-term health problems.
But medical experts critical of the use of DU weapons, as well as
some of the Army's own early studies of depleted uranium, say
exposure to it can cause kidney damage. Some studies have shown
that it causes cancer and chromosome damage in mice, according to
the experts.
Depleted uranium, a waste product of the uranium enrichment process,
has been used by the U.S. and British militaries for more than 15
years in some artillery shells and as armor-plating for tanks. It
is valued for its extreme density - it is twice as heavy as lead.
Amid growing controversy in Europe and Japan, the European Parliament
called last year for a moratorium on its use.
'Every time I ran I felt my throat burning and my chest tightening.'
Sgt. Agustin Matos, a member of the 442nd Military Police of the
New York National Guard and a city correction officer in civilian
life, has all-too-vivid memories of his stay in Samawah, Iraq.
"The place was filthy; most of the windows were broken; dirt, grease
and bird droppings were everywhere," he said. "I wouldn't house a
city prisoner in that place."
He recalled a mandated morning run of about 3 miles on a sandy track
near a train depot.
"Every time I ran I felt my throat burning and my chest tightening,"
he said.
Now, Matos, 37, believes his symptoms may be the result of radioactive
dust he inhaled from spent American shells made from depleted
uranium.
The Long Island man is one of four Iraq war veterans who tested
positive for DU contamination, according to a Daily News investigation.
The soldiers and other members of the 442nd say they are suffering
from physical ailments that began last summer while they were
stationed in Samawah.
Matos, who was assigned to the 4th platoon's 2nd squad, arrived in
Samawah last June, two weeks ahead of the rest of the company.
His advance team had orders from Capt. Sean O'Donnell, their
commander, to ready a huge depot in a train repair yard on the
outskirts of downtown Samawah as a barracks for the unit.
Once the entire company arrived, each platoon was assigned its own
space inside the depot, which was bigger than a football field.
A locomotive that straddled a repair pit and an empty train car sat
in the middle of the sleeping area, with two platoons assigned to
bed down along one side of the train and two others along the other
side.
Just outside the depot, two Iraqi tanks, one of them shot up, had
been hauled onto flatbed railroad cars.
The company was so short-handed, according to the soldiers, that
the commander would evacuate a G.I.
only if he could no longer physically function.
Matos was sent home last year for surgery for a shoulder injury
suffered in a jeep accident.
Since his return, he has had constant headaches, fatigue, shortness
of breath, nausea, dizziness, joint pain and excessive urination.
After he recently discovered blood in his urine, doctors at Walter
Reed Army Medical Center gave him a CAT scan and discovered a small
lesion on his liver.
A 1990 Army study linked DU to "chemical toxicity causing kidney
damage."
"Before I left for Iraq, they tested my eyes and I was fine," Matos
said. "Now my eyesight's gotten bad, on top of everything else."
Another member of the company who tested positive for DU is 2nd
platoon Sgt. Hector Vega, 48, a retired postal worker from the Bronx
who has been in the National Guard for 27 years.
Since being evacuated to Fort Dix for treatment for foot surgery,
Vega said he has endured insomnia and constant headaches. And like
many of the sick soldiers, Vega said, "I have uncontrollable urine,
every half hour."
One day, during a trip a few hours south of Samawah, he and another
soldier stopped on the side of the road to photograph and check out
two shot-up Iraqi tanks.
"We didn't think anything of walking right up to those tanks and
touching them," he said. "I didn't know anything about depleted
uranium."
As for the railroad depot where they slept, Vega recalls it as
"disgusting. Oil, dirt and bird droppings everywhere, insects
crawling all around us."
And then there were the frequent dust storms.
"They would blow all that dust inside the depot all over us when
we were sleeping or eating. It was so thick, you could see it."
Originally published on April 5, 2004
________________________________________________________________________
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33 [DU-WATCH] soldiers demand to know health risks
Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 00:34:24 -0500 (CDT)
http://www.nydailynews.com/04-04-2004/news/story/180339p-156686c.html
Soldiers demand to know health risks
By JUAN GONZALEZ DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center recently told Staff Sgt.
Ray Ramos that a biopsy revealed his rash comes from leishmaniasis,
a disease spread by sandflies and contracted by hundreds of G.I.s
in Iraq.
Until last week, however, Army doctors refused requests by Ramos
and a few others in the 442nd Military Police to have their urine
analyzed for depleted uranium, a procedure that can cost up to
$1,000.
Three of the nine tested in the Daily News investigation Sgt.
Herbert Reed, Spec. William Ruiz, and Spec. Anthony Phillip - also
were tested by the Army in November. But the results were withheld
for months despite repeated inquiries.
Last week, after Army officials received press inquiries about the
442nd and discovered that a group from the company had sought
independent testing, an administrator at Walter Reed told Reed and
Phillip that their tests from November had come back negative for
depleted uranium.
The News' tests also showed negative results for Reed and Phillip,
but Ramos tested positive. The soldiers of the 442nd are not the
only ones to raise questions about depleted uranium in Samawah.
In August, a contingent of Dutch soldiers arrived in the town to
replace the Americans. Press reports in the Netherlands revealed
that Dutch authorities questioned the U.S. beforehand about the
possible use of DU ammunition in Samawah. According to Sgt. Juan
Vega, senior medic for the 442nd, the Dutch swept the area around
the train depot with Geiger counters and their medics confided to
him they had found high radiation levels. The Dutch unit refused
to stay in the depot, Vega said, and pitched camp in the desert
instead.
And in February, after Japanese troops moved into the same town, a
Japanese journalist equipped with a Geiger counter reported finding
radiation readings 300 times higher than background levels.
"There'd been a lot of fighting in Samawah before we got there,"
said Staff Sgt. Ray Ramos, 41. "The place was dusty as hell, and
the sandstorms were hitting us pretty good."
Felled at first by what he thought was the sweltering Iraqi heat,
Ramos expected to recover quickly.
"My health just kept getting worse," he said. "I tried to work out
each day to get through it but I kept getting weaker. A numbing
sensation hit my hands and my face, and the migraine headaches
became constant. I was afraid I was having a stroke."
He was sent first to a Baghdad hospital for treatment, but with no
neurologist available, he was shipped out to Germany and eventually
to the U.S.
"I had rashes on my stomach for four months," Ramos said. "And now,
whenever I [lie] down, my hands fall asleep."
Doctors at Walter Reed have been stumped. They've given Ramos braces
to wear on his arms at night to try to prevent his hands from falling
asleep, and they've prescribed a host of muscle relaxants and
painkillers, but nothing seems to work.
"I have four kids. What happens to them now if I can't work?" said
Ramos, who was looking forward to a transfer from the NYPD Housing
Bureau to the robbery unit in Brooklyn's 75th Precinct once he
returns from active duty. "I need them to investigate what's going
on with my body."
Cpl. Anthony Yonnone, 35, a cop with the Veterans Administration
in Fishkill, N.Y., has the highest DU levels of the four soldiers
who tested positive, said Dr. Asaf Duracovic, who performed the
testing funded by The News.
Yonnone said his nausea, skin rashes and migraines began in Samawah.
"The headaches are constant and they don't want to stop," he said.
"The rashes seem to come and go.
"We were always passing blownout tanks when we were out doing
patrols."
He recalled that American units in the town burned trash and waste
each night in big drums near the train depot. "The combination of
smoke and sand when we lit those fires covered everybody," he said.
Evacuated from Iraq in August for minor surgery, Yonnone was sent
first to Germany.
"They gave us a questionnaire. I marked that I wasn't exposed to
depleted uranium because nobody had even told us what it was back
in Iraq," he said.
Originally published on April 3, 2004
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34 [DU-WATCH] Inside camp of troubles
Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 00:34:19 -0500 (CDT)
http://www.nydailynews.com/04-04-2004/news/story/180342p-156689c.html
Inside camp of troubles
By JUAN GONZALEZ DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Train shed at railway dept in Samawah where members of 442nd slept
from June to August last year.
The soldiers of the 442nd Military Police never heard of depleted
uranium before they went to Iraq.
They know only that inexplicable ailments have befallen them.
Last year, more than a dozen of the company's soldiers were transferred
back to Fort Dix for treatment of a variety of maladies. Frustrated
with how the military was handling their concerns, they gave extensive
interviews to the Daily News about their experiences, and nine of
them eventually volunteered to be tested by a team of experts headed
by Dr. Asaf Duracovic.
According to the soldiers, most of them became sick last summer
while stationed in -Samawah, a town 150 miles south of Baghdad that
was the scene of heavy combat in the first weeks of the war.
Their unit entered the town in June, following short stays in
Diwaniyah, Karbala and -Najaf. They pitched camp at a huge, dusty,
vermin-infested train depot on the outskirts of town.
That's where, they claim, their problems began.
"One night, I had 10 or 15 people with temperatures over 103,
unexplained night chills, all kinds of things," said Sgt. Juan Vega,
the company's principal medic. About a dozen of the 160 soldiers
in the company suddenly developed kidney stones, he said.
A 1990 Army study linked DU, to "chemical toxicity causing kidney
damage."
"I told our commander, 'We need to get the hell out of this place,
there's something wrong with it,'" said Vega, 34, an FDNY paramedic.
The soldiers recall that two Iraqi tanks, one all shot up, had been
hauled onto flatbed railroad cars less than 100 yards from where
the company slept.
Pentagon officials have confirmed that tanks hit by DU shells are
the biggest potential sources of battlefield radioactivity because
when DU penetrators hit a target and explode, a fine aerosol of
uranium oxide, or radioactive dust, is formed. The closer the tanks
are to people, the greater the danger of inhaling the dust.
In addition, a UN environmental report on Iraq warned last year of
a "high risk of inhaling DU dust" within 150 meters of any target
hit by DU shells "unless high-quality dust masks are worn." The
soldiers never received dust masks.
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35 [du-list] Crimes in Iraq - Lest We Forget
Date: Thu, 08 Apr 2004 14:29:11 -0700
Crimes in Iraq - Lest We Forget
Thirteen Years of Sanctions
By Felicity Arbuthnot
Freelance Journalist London
08/04/2004 Islam Online
http://www.islamonline.net/english/In_Depth/Iraq_Aftermath/2004/04/article_03.shtml
When Martti Ahtisaari, then Special Rapporteur to the UN,
visited Iraq in March 1991 just after the end of the Gulf
War, he wrote, “Nothing we had heard or read could have
prepared us for this particular devastation - a country
reduced to a pre-industrial age for a considerable time to
come.”
UN reports on Iraq’s water, electricity, health care, and
education in 1989 described Iraq as near First World
standards. The country was regarded as having the most
sophisticated medical facilities in the Middle East. The
embargo, implemented on Hiroshima Day 1990 to pressure Iraq
to withdraw from Kuwait, had an almost instant negative
impact. Iraq imported a broad range of items, 70 percent of
everything, from pharmaceuticals to film, educational
materials to parts for the electricity grid, water purifying
chemicals to everything necessary for waste management; and
at the consumer level also, almost everything that a
developed society takes for granted was imported.
With all trade denied, the Iraqi dinar (ID), worth US$
3in1989 , became virtually worthless: ID250 , formerly US$
750did not even buy a postage stamp in neighboring Jordan.
Staple foods multiplied up to11 ,000-fold in price. With no
trade, unemployment spiraled and many - in a country where
obesity had been a problem - faced hunger and deprivation.
The US and UK-driven UN sanctions, in fact, mirrored a
pitiless Middle Ages siege. With Iraq’s withdrawal from
Kuwait the embargo should have been lifted, but a further
relentless US and UK-driven “war of moving goal posts”
began, and the majority of children in Iraq - who are
fourteen years old now - have never known a normal
childhood. Even birthday parties,`eid celebrations - and
Christmas and Easter celebrations for Christians -became
victims; few had the money for the feast or the gifts.
In a country where obesity had been a problem, many faced
hunger and deprivation.
Ten months after the war, I stood in the pediatric intensive
care unit of Baghdad’s formerly flagship Pediatric Teaching
Hospital. A young couple stood, faces frozen with terror, as
a nurse tried frantically to clear the airway of their
perfect, tiny, premature baby. There was no suction
equipment. “It is at a time like this, all your training
becomes a reflex action,” remarked my companion, Dr. Janet
Cameron, from Glasgow, Scotland, “and in a unit like this,
you know exactly where everything will be - but there is
nothing here.” The fledgling life turned from pink to an
ethereal grey, to blue, flickered, and went out. Since then,
over a million lives have gone out due to “embargo related
causes,” a silent holocaust initiated on Hiroshima Day.
Doctors were remarking in bewilderment at the rise in
childhood cancers and in birth deformities, which they were
ironically comparing with those they had seen in textbooks
after the nuclear testing in the Pacific Islands in the1950
s. In1991 , only the United States’ and the United Kingdom’s
top military planners knew that they had used radioactive
and chemically toxic depleted uranium (DU) weapons against
the Iraqis. Just weeks later, the United Kingdom Atomic
Energy Agency wrote a “self initiated” report and sent it to
the UK government, warning that if “fifty tonnes of the
residual DU dust” had been left “in the region” there would,
they estimated, be half a million extra cancer deaths by the
end of the century (i.e., the year 2000 ).
The Pentagon eventually admitted to an estimate of 325 tons;
some independent analysts estimate as much as 900 tons.
Estimates of the added burden of last year's illegal
invasion are that up to a further2 , 000tons of the residual
dust remain to poison water, fauna, flora and to be inhaled
by the population and the occupiers, causing cancers and
genetic mutations in the yet-to-be-conceived. DU remains
radioactive for4 . 5billion years. Some scientists estimate
that it will still be poisoning the earth, the unborn, the
newborn “when the sun goes out.” Iraq, the land of ancient
Mesopotamia - like Afghanistan and the Balkans - has become
a silent potential weapon of mass destruction for the
population and geographical neighbors.
Ironically, as cancers spiraled, the UN Sanctions Committee
added to its limitless list of items denied to Iraq,
treatment for cancers (and heart disease) since they contain
minute amounts of radioactive materials. Iraqi scientists,
they argued, might extract the radioactive materials from
these medications and make weapons from them. One
exasperated expert commented, “Even were the technology
available - and it is not - one would probably need to
extract the radioactivity from every pill and intravenous
treatment on earth, to make one crude device.” So little
Iraqis, in their irradiated land, could only suffer the most
lethal effects of radiation but were denied all of the
therapeutic ones in the name of “we the people of the United
Nations” - a United Nations to which, incidentally, Iraq was
one of the first signatories.
In the West, 70 percent of cancers are now largely curable
or with long remissions. In Iraq they are almost always a
death sentence. On another early visit after the war, I went
to a ward where just two small boys, aged three and five lay
alone, in an attempt to isolate them. They had acute myeloid
leukemia and hopelessly compromised immune systems,
rendering them vulnerable to any infection. The
three-year-old, whose name translated as “the vital one,”
was covered with bruises from the leaking capillaries
bleeding internally and rigid with pain. There was not even
an aspirin available. His eyes were full of unshed tears and
I realized he had taught himself not to cry - sobs would
rack his agonized little body further.
“I now know it is actually possible to die of shame.”
Leaving, I stooped to stroke the face of the five-year-old,
who was in an identical condition. In a gesture that must
have cost more than could ever be imagined, he reached and
clutched my hand tightly, as do children everywhere,
responding to affection. I left the ward, leaned against a
wall and prayed that the ground would open and swallow me. I
wrote at the time, “I now know it is actually possible to
die of shame.”
Families would sell all they had to buy cancer and other
vital medication on the black market, and since hospitals no
longer had the requisite equipment to test it, could not
even check to ensure it was safe. I remember an enchanting
three-year-old, the bane of the doctors, his energy levels
and mischief belying his precarious health. As I was talking
to Dr. Selma Haddad, a man burst through the door and thrust
a small packet into her hand. She looked at it, then said to
me, “This is his uncle, he is the last one in the family
with anything left to sell. He has sold all he has for 500
milligrams of medication. This child needs 800 milligrams a
month, for a year.”
When, occasionally, pitiful amounts of medication came in,
doctors gave half the needed dose so the next patient would
have some, too - rendering effectiveness virtually nil. They
would meticulously write the patient's protocol (dosage,
medication, amount, time to administer) on used paper,
writing between the lines, and between the between, on
cardboard, on anything (paper was vetoed by the UN Sanctions
Committee) then solemnly write under each item, N/A, N/A,
N/A - not available. Sometimes just one would be available -
in half a dose.
I remember Ali, eighteen months, lying nearly unconscious in
his mother's arms in the packed child cancer clinic. “With
bone marrow transplant, we could do something, but there is
nothing,” said Dr. Haddad. The mother begged and pleaded,
but beds and even palliative care were for the glimmer of
chances, not for the small no-hopers, such was the total
destruction of a fine, free, sophisticated health service.
Leaving the hospital, I found Ali's mother sitting on the
ground, leaning against one of the great white entrance
pillars, in her black abaya, her tears streaming onto his
small, still face.
“How do you cope?” I asked Dr. Haddad on one visit: doctors
who have all the skills and knowledge yet no ability to
treat those they care so passionately about. She thought for
a moment, then said quietly, “I take them all home with me,
in my heart.” In a way, she said, the older children were
the hardest. She sat on Ezra’s bed, holding her hand and
stroking her hair. “They know they are going to die.” Ezra
was beautiful, 17 years old, and the cancer had paralyzed
her central nervous system. But it had not prevented her
crying. She had been crying for three weeks, because she
wanted to go home, to complete her studies, to go to
university and graduate. Most of all, she wanted to live. As
I left, her grandmother grabbed my hand, “Please,” she
begged, “take her with you, make her better.” Parents,
grandparents, made the same plea, again and again. They did
not ask where you were from, who you were, or for their
beloved back, just, Please, take him or her and make them
well again.
“I asked death, ‘What is greater than you?’ Death replied,
‘Separation of lovers is greater than me,’” was one of his
collected phrases. He was 13.
Then there was Jassim. In the same ward as Ezra, he lay with
his huge eyes and glossy hair, listlessly viewing the barren
ward. He had been selling cigarettes on the streets of Basra
to support his family until he became ill. “This is Felicity
and she writes for a living,” said Dr. Haddad. Jassim was
transformed; he glowed and showed me the poems he spent his
days writing, when he still had the energy. He collected
phrases, too, to incorporate where he thought appropriate. I
told him all writers collect words and phrases, they are our
tools. He glowed again, delighting that he was being
understood and that his instincts were guiding him correctly
along his passionate path. “I asked death, ‘What is greater
than you?’ Death replied, ‘Separation of lovers is greater
than me,’” was one of his collected phrases. He was13 .
One of his poems was called “The Identity Card.” In
translation, it reads:
The name is love,
The class is mindless,
The school is suffering,
The governorate is sadness,
The city is sighing,
The street is misery,
The home number is one thousand sighs.
He watched my face for reaction. Lost for words, eventually
I said, “Jassim, if you can write like this at thirteen,
think what you will do at twenty.” I asked him if I could
incorporate his poem in articles from that visit and said I
would send them back to him, so he would see it in print.
Some weeks later, I did just that and sent cuttings back to
him with a friend and imagined him glowing again. He had
fought and fought, but lost his battle just before my friend
arrived. He never saw his poem in print and became just
another statistic in the “collateral damage” of sanctions by
the most inhuman regime ever overseen by the United Nations,
which arguably condemned the UN Convention of the Rights of
the Child - the most widely signed convention in history -
to the dust, to the mass of graves of Iraq's children,
resulting from the embargo years.
Children that survived, wrote Professor Magne Raundalen,
possibly the world's foremost expert on children in war
zones, who heads the Centre for Crisis Studies, in Bergen,
Norway, were “amongst the most traumatised child Population”
on earth. And there was no chance of recovery. Count Hans
von Sponeck, who resigned as UN Co-ordinator in Iraq, like
his predecessor Denis Halliday (who had cited the sanctions
he was there to oversee as generating “the destruction of an
entire nation, it is as simple and terrifying as that”),
spoke of not only of medical and nutritional problems, but
“intellectual genocide.”
School books were vetoed. All professionals - doctors,
engineers, architects -qualified from 1989 course material.
An Iraqi doctor qualifying in 2003 was fourteen years behind
in clinical developments, though never in commitment.
Children, Iraq's future, were also marooned in the academia
of the1980 s. Isolation was searing. On one visit, this
writer was asked for a radio interview and the usual ground
rules were laid down: no politics. It was a pleasant
half-hour of history, culture - and only mildest current
politics. Then the presenter said that all guests were asked
to select a piece of music and dedicate it to whom they
wished. (“We like to think of ourselves as Baghdad's BBC
Radio3 .”) I chose Stevie Wonder's “I Just Called to Say I
Love You” and dedicated it to the children of Iraq.
Children that survived were “amongst the most traumatised
child Population” on earth.
The next day I had a crash course in human relations. I was
repeatedly stopped in the street, whispered to at a
conference, by people from all walks of life. Was I the lady
on the radio last night? On affirmation, the comment was
always virtually the same: “Thank you so much, we are so
isolated, my wife (or husband) was in tears, I was in tears,
my children…thank you.” And no, I know orchestration; this
was not.
Several years ago, I talked to the young who should have had
all before them - a social mixture, between 18 and 21 years
old - and asked them about their hopes, dreams and fears.
None had a dream. “I dream of having enough milk for my
baby,” said a young mother. “I am too tired to dream,” said
a youth who had dreamed of being a doctor, but was working
in a smelt, in the searing heat of a Baghdad summer, to help
support his family. A vibrant, beautiful young woman from a
formerly privileged family waited until her mother had left
the room and whispered, “Nothing awaits us, only death.” She
was18 .
And for much of the country there were the often daily,
ongoing bombings of the patrolling by the United States and
United Kingdom of the “no fly zones” or misnamed “safe
havens” in the north and south, an illegal exercise not
sanctioned by the United Nations. For reasons unknown,
aircraft returning to their bases in Turkey and Saudi Arabia
routinely bombed flocks of sheep - and with them the child
shepherds who minded them.
An abiding memory is of watching a tiny illiterate woman,
who had lost her three children -the youngest 5 and the
oldest 13 - her husband and father-in-law to one of these
bombings, as she walked with leaden feet to their graves in
a tiny dusty cemetery near the northern city of Mosul. She
sat hunched, fetal, on the smallest grave, that of
five-year-old Sulaiman. Their flock of nearly 200 sheep were
also blasted to pieces on a barren plain where they would
have been visible for exactly what they were. “We searched
all day for parts to bury,” said a villager who had rushed
down to help, on hearing the bombing. Then he lowered his
eyes and whispered, “There was so little recognizable, we
still don't know whether the graves contain all human or
some sheep remains.”
Asked why flocks of sheep were being bombed, the British
Ministry of Defence - surreally - responded, “We reserve the
right to take robust action, when threatened.” At St.
Matthew's Monastery on Mount Maqloub, which overlooks the
plain, the priest in charge commented of the bombings,
“Every day, there are new widows, new widowers, new
orphans.” Then he said solemnly, “Please, will you tell your
Mr. Tony Blair that he is a very, very bad man.” The ancient
monastery is Iraq's Lourdes, where people of all religious
beliefs bring their sick to the site of the saint's believed
burial, to benefit from the healing powers legend holds he
still possesses from the grave. The ongoing grief and
carnage on the plains below were in contrast to all the
monks and monastery stood for. The gentle, sorrowful
admonition from a spiritual soul was especially poignant.
Forgotten, too, are the major bombing blitzes over the
years. In 1993 there were two massive attacks on Baghdad:
one a good-bye from outgoing George Bush Senior and the
other a hello from incoming William Jefferson Clinton. The
second one killed, among others, the talented artist Laila
Al-Attar. Days later I stood by the crater that had been her
home. “When they lifted her out, she looked like a beautiful
broken doll,” a friend said quietly. Al-Attar ran the Museum
of Modern Art. She was also the artist responsible for the
mosaic face of George Bush Senior on the steps of the
Al-Rashid Hotel. The death of her and her family by a
precision guided missile can, of course, only be a freak
coincidence.
The year 1996 saw further bombings, as did1998 . All the
planners predicted the ' 98bombing would begin on February23
, “the darkest night”: maximum cloud cover for the planes.
That day I went to interview Leila, yet another of the
embargo’s victims with a tragic tale to tell. Her large
front room was empty: she had sold all her furniture to
survive and provide. As we talked, the room filled up with
neighborhood children, creeping in, quiet as proverbial
mice, sitting on the floor, watching my every move - a
stranger and foreigner was a treat in isolated
Iraq. When I left, dusk was falling, and they followed me
out to the battered car (spare parts vetoed), about 50 of
them, between maybe 3 and 13 years old.
In 1993there were two massive attacks on Baghdad: one a
good-bye from outgoing Bush Senior and the other a hello
from incoming Clinton.
As we pulled away, they ran beside the car in a joyous wave,
laughing, waving, and blowing kisses. When they could no
longer keep up, I looked back: they had formed a little
group in the center of the road, still laughing, waving, and
blowing kisses. Photographer Karen Robinson and I looked at
each other, stricken, and said in unison, “We are going to
bomb them tonight…” I went back to my hotel, lay on the bed,
and wept.
In the event, public protest halted a February blitz. In
December, Prime Minister Blair stood in front of a
resplendent Christmas tree outside 10 Downing Street and
announced a seasonal gift for Iraq: a four-day onslaught on
a decimated country, where nearly half the population were
under 16 years and the average nutritional values were below
those of Eritrea.
February 2000 saw another attack, another hello, from
another George Bush. An elegant school principal broke down
in front of me, encapsulating the pain and desperation: “My
son is a doctor in Washington, why are they doing this to
us?” She sobbed. Earlier, a10 -year-old pupil had told me,
poignantly, “When there is a bombing, my father goes and
stands outside the gate to protect us and our home.”
“When there is a bombing, my father goes and stands outside
the gate to protect us and our home.”
In July 2001, a shameful admission was extracted from Benon
Sevan, head of the United Nations Iraq Program: the money
allotted for food for Iraqis was US$ 100per capita per year,
less than that allotted for the United Nation’s sniffer dogs
used in de-mining in northern Iraq.
In spite of the grinding misery for most of the embargo
years, one event changed the national psyche. In1999 ,
Baghdad International Airport re-opened, with the those of
Mosul and Basra, rebuilt with creativity and inventiveness.
The United Nations, under pressure from the United States,
did all it could to prevent international flights. Lloyd's
of London mysteriously withdrew insurance; airlines were
threatened that if they flew to Baghdad, they would be
denied landing rights in the United States. In one case - a
flight from Athens to Baghdad, arranged by former Greek
First Lady, Margarita Papandreou - the United nations
demanded the names and occupations of all passengers.
Assured by the United Nations that it was entirely
confidential to them, the passengers agreed. In less than
three minutes, Madam Papandreou's phone rang: It was the US
Embassy complaining about some names on the passenger list.
Like others, though, the flight finally arrived. “There are
tears in our eyes, every time a plane lands,” remarked an
Iraqi friend. Isolation had been as grinding as deprivation.
Iraqi Airways was integral to the national psyche. Many of
its offices stayed open during the embargo years, even
though its aircraft were stranded throughout the Middle
East. International flight manuals, too, were vetoed, so
courteous staff perused August 1990 schedules and then
solemnly said it might be more accurate to telephone Jordan.
With the airports opening, and a single proud Iraqi Airways
plane again flying between Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra, the
collective consciousness visibly changed, pride and hope
returned. Shop windows began to sparkle again, traders rose
at dawn and hosed the pavements, stock was dusted and
rearranged, shutters, blinds, and buildings were repainted
and refurbished, and the arts again flourished.
Francois Dubois, heading the UN Development Program, had a
passion for Iraq equaling that of Halliday and von Sponeck.
A fluent Arabic speaker, he had spent the years of the
Lebanese civil war there, then headed for the complexities
of Iraq. Almost single-handed, he encouraged, funded, and
advised the restoration of art galleries, sculpture
exhibits, music, and theater. Where artistic life had sunk
under the weight of everyday living, it was rekindled and
nourished, and it flourished. Few could afford to buy
exhibits, but the spirit grew again and haunting beauty was
born again. Creativity flourished at every level - inventive
architecture, superb woodwork. Iraqis were looking forward
and outward again.
A week before last year's invasion, in Mosul, I watched the
joyous flocks of birds sweep and sing across the corniche in
peach-streaked dawns and dusks. As I left for Baghdad, I
jumped at the sound of a bird of a different kind, the roar
of a low-flying aircraft, having come within minutes of
annihilation from the US and UK bombings on several
occasions. The driver and translator laughed and pointed
skywards with a tangible pride. “It is ours, ours,” they
said as the sun glinted on the great white form with its
green Iraqi Airways insignia.
Less than a month later, I sat in London with a sociology
professor from Mosul University as she drew her breath in
horror as Saddam's statue toppled, his head pulled along the
street. It was not the destruction of Saddam's image, but of
what - like many statues and monuments built in the mists of
time - made Mesopotamia. It was destruction of future
history. Flicking channels, we watched as Mosul University,
Museum, and Library were looted, ransacked, burned. “No, no,
not my university, not my home…” She was inconsolable and
incredulous. Then came the scenes of Baghdad Airport:
“secured,” destroyed, with a great white broken bird, the
green insignia just visible, lying on the runway. The
airport immediately became a symbol of repression, not
freedom, Iraq's own Guantanamo, with the imprisoned largely
unaccounted for. Reports are that 300 people are also buried
there, equally unaccounted for. The great, regal, centuries-
old palm groves that fringed the road and perimeters have
been bulldozed, like Palestine's olives.
There is a memorial in Basra to Iraq Airways. It reads,
“Iraqi Airways -1947 -1990.” Iraqi Airways rose from the
ashes, like Iraq itself has done after so many invasions.
Both surely will again. In the phoenix year of Iraqi
Airways, I gained an interview with Tareq Aziz on behalf of
Middle East International. It included a modern history
lesson: “Iraqis are very quick to revolt, as they did in1921
,1931 , 1947 , 1957 and1968 ,” he said (neatly omitting the
US-encouraged uprising of1991 ). Watching ominous recent
“liberation”-linked events, one is tempted to add “and 2004 .”
Ironically, it is the residents of Sadr City, who were
bribed by the Americans to fill the square as the statue
fell, who are now leading the uprising against them. Viceroy
Bremer and the planners of this dangerous, feckless oil grab
would have done well to have read up on Iraq's modern history.
Felicity Arbuthnot is a journalist and activist who has
visited Iraq on numerous occasions since the1991 Gulf War.
She has written and broadcast widely on Iraq, her coverage
of which was nominated for several awards. She was also
Senior Researcher for John Pilger's award-winning
documentary - Paying the Price Killing the Children of Iraq
http://pilger.carlton.com/iraq/film
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36 [DU-WATCH] hear multi-various shocking revelations on D.U.
Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 00:45:48 -0500 (CDT)
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/04/05/1356248
Monday, April 5th, 2004 Broadcast Exclusive: U.S. Soldiers Contaminated
With Depleted Uranium Speak Out
Listen to: Segment || Show Watch 128k stream Watch 256k stream
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--------------------------------- A special investigation by Democracy
Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez of the New York Daily News has found
four of nine soldiers of the 442nd Military Police Company of the
New York Army National Guard returning from Iraq tested positive
for depleted uranium contamination. They are the first confirmed
cases of inhaled depleted uranium exposure from the current Iraq
conflict.
After repeatedly being denied testing for depleted uranium from
Army doctors, the soldiers contacted The News who paid to have them
tested as part of their investigation.
Testing for uranium isotopes in 24 hours' worth of urine samples
can cost as much as $1,000 each.
In a Democracy Now! broadcast exclusive, three of the contaminated
soldiers speak out.
Army officials at Fort Dix and Walter Reed Army Medical Center are
now rushing to test all returning members of the 442nd. More than
a dozen members are back in the U.S. but the rest of the company,
mostly comprised of New York City cops, firefighters and correction
officers, is not due to return from Iraq until later this month.
After learning of The News' investigation, Sen. Hillary Clinton
(D-NY) blasted Pentagon officials yesterday for not properly screening
soldiers returning from Iraq.
Clinton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said she
will write to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld demanding answers
and soon will introduce legislation to require health screenings
for all returning troops.
Depleted Uranium is considered to be the most effective anti-tank
weapon ever devised. It is made from nuclear waste left over from
the making nuclear weapons and fuel. The public first became aware
the US military was using DU weapons during the Persian Gulf War
in 1991. But it had been used as far back as the 1973 Yom Kippur
war in Israel.
Amid growing controversy in Europe and Japan, the European Parliament
called last year for a moratorium on its use.
Sgt. Herbert Reed, assistant deputy warden at Rikers Island with
442nd military police company of New York Army National Guard. He
did not test positive for depleted uranium, but has uranium 236, a
uranium isotope not found in nature.
Sgt. Agustin Matos, was deployed in Iraq with the 442nd Military
Police. He is among the first confirmed cases of inhaled depleted
uranium exposure from the current Iraq conflict.
Sgt. Hector Vega, among the first confirmed cases of inhaled depleted
uranium exposure from the current Iraq conflict.
Dr. Asaf Durakovic, colonel in army reserves who served in first
Gulf War. He is one of the first doctors to discover unusual radiation
levels in Gulf War veterans. He has since become a leading critic
of the use of depleted uranium in warfare. He tested the nine men
at the request of the Daily News.
Leonard Dietz, retired physicist from Knolls Atomic Laboratory in
upstate New York. Pioneered the technology to isolate uranium
isotopes.
Read Juan Gonzalez' Exclusive Reports in the New York Daily News:
Poisoned? Shocking report on troops
Inside filthy camp where trouble began
Soldiers demand to know health risks
Army to test N.Y. Guard unit
Related Democracy Now! Coverage:
Is Depleted Uranium Creating a New Nuclear Danger in Iraq?
Radiation is 1,000 Times the Normal Levels Where US Troops Used
Depleted Uranium Shells in Baghdad
U.S. Reportedly Fires DU Shells in Basra: Despite Evidence of Health
and Environmental Effects, Pentagon Denies DU Is Dangerous
Part 2 of Our Discussion On Depleted Uranium, with the Scientific
Secretary with the European Committee On Radiation Risk, and a U.N.
Human Rights Lawyer
Dr. Asaf Durakovic Gives a Rare Interview About Depleted Uranium
in Iraq: He Was the First Military Doctor to Test Gulf War Veterans
for Radiation Exposure and Was Terminated for His Work
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37 NRC: NRC to Meet with Honeywell Officials in Illinois on April 21 to Discuss
Improvement Efforts since December Event
News Release - Region II - 2004-02
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs, Region II
No. II-04-024 April 7, 2004
CONTACT: Ken Clark (404) 562-4416
Roger D. Hannah (404) 562-4417 E-mail: opa2@nrc.gov
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with officials
of Honeywell International on April 21 to discuss the companys
efforts to improve operational safety performance and emergency
preparedness since a December 22 release of uranium hexafluoride
at the companys uranium processing plant near Metropolis,
Illinois.
The meeting will begin at 6:00 p.m. in the Second Floor Large
Courtroom at the Massac County Courthouse at 1 Superman Square
in Metropolis. The public is invited to observe and NRC staff
members will be available to answer questions from members of
the public before the close of the meeting.
The Honeywell plants uranium hexafluoride production has been
shut down since December. The NRC has asked the company to
specifically address actions to improve safety performance and
emergency preparedness. No decision on restarting the facility
will be made by NRC officials at the meeting.
Last revised Thursday, April 08, 2004
*****************************************************************
38 PuertoRicoWOW!: Viequenses ask for depleted uranium tests
SAN JUAN (AP) – The recent controversy regarding soldiers
alleging to have been contaminated in Iraq with depleted uranium
has prompted the Committee for the Rescue &Development of Vieques
to demand that the government test Viequenses for that specific
pollutant.
At least two soldiers of Puerto Rico descent who are members of
the New York National Guard stationed in Iraq have claimed to
have been contaminated with depleted uranium found in U.S. armed
forces’ weapons.
The U.S. Navy has confirmed the use of uranium capped bullets in
the military practices it used to conduct in Vieques.
"The local Health Department has been completely negligent in not
developing a comprehensive program to test our population for
depleted uranium,” said committee spokeswoman Nilda Medina.
The group demanded that the Health Department conduct a study
promised several years ago and to test for traces of heavy
metals.
"We have no doubt that the high cancer rate among our people is
directly related to bullets capped with depleted uranium and
other toxic material accumulated here after decades of military
training,” Medina said in a prepared statement. -->
Copyright © 2000-2003 Casiano Communications Inc. All rights
reserved.
--> Casiano Communications Inc, the largest Hispanic publisher
*****************************************************************
39 YDR: Hospital runs radiation drill -
York Daily Record [ydr.com]
York Hospital staff went through the motions to ensure they knew
proper procedures.
By JENNIFER NEJMAN Daily Record staff Thursday, April 8, 2004
Jason Plotkin - YDR
During a drill at York Hospital on Wednesday, hospital
employees, the Manchester Ambulance Club and the York County
Emergency Management Agency practiced responding to a situation
in which patients had been exposed to radiation. Above in chair,
Cyndi Brewer, a nursing student at Messiah College, volunteers
in the role of patient.
If a nuclear accident at the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station
releases radiation into the area, York Hospital has to be ready.
So staff practice.
On Wednesday, medical staff, ambulance crews and York
County Emergency Management Agency — about 40 people in total —
ran through a drill to check their readiness and keep medical
crews and hospital staff well-trained.
This was the pretend scenario:
About 4 p.m., the county's emergency management agency
called the hospital's emergency room, alerting them of an
accident. They called back 30 minutes later, telling the hospital
that the governor had called for an evacuation of a 10-mile area
near the plant.
Meanwhile, Manchester Ambulance Club came to the hospital
with victims of a car accident. The victims had left Fawn
Township — they hadn't gone to proper areas as instructed — they
just starting driving north on Interstate 83, in fear.
They were brought to the hospital. One of the volunteer
patients, Grace Nehiley, 21, a Messiah College student, had a cut
on her forehead and a fractured leg.
The county emergency management agency's nuclear planner
and trainer, Jim Welty, acted the part of a good Samaritan who
helped the car crash victims and came to the hospital.
All of the accident victims and Welty had to be checked
for radiation.
After medical staff used equipment to measure radiation
on Nehiley, they transferred her from the gurney that ambulance
crews had used to a new gurney.
"Stop!" someone shouted. He asked if anyone had checked
the feet of the ambulance crew and others for radiation
contamination. They hadn't.
After the proper checks, the patient was moved to the
decontamination tents set up outside the hospital's emergency
room.
That's the purpose of having a drill: to learn proper
procedures, preparing for the maybes and what ifs.
Seventeen hospitals are designated to service 10-mile
emergency planning zones around nuclear power plants in the
state, said David Sanko, director of the Pennsylvania Emergency
Management Agency.
York Hospital would be the go-to place for a Peach Bottom
accident, Sanko said. For an accident at Three Mile Island, the
hospital would act as a secondary facility, he added.
Once a year PEMA observes York Hospital staff and other
first responders to the hospital to see how they perform. The
drill also is designed to let the public know that medical staff
are trained for disaster situations. The drills started in 1986,
Sanko said.
York Hospital and others also participate in other
disaster simulation drills throughout the year.
"They know exactly what to do when bad things happen,"
Sanko said. "These drills allow us to practice so when these
things happen (hospital staff and crews) aren't meeting for the
first time."
He recalls a conversation with the mayor of Littleton,
Colo., where two students at Columbine High School killed 12
students and a teacher before turning the weapons on themselves
in 1999. The mayor said parents arrived at the scene and watched
first-time responders introduce themselves to each other as they
tried to deal with the school shooting.
That isn't the way it should be, Sanko said.
Kevin Arthur, manager of disaster response for York
Hospital, said Wednesday's drill went well.
During each practice, they find more areas to improve.
"Communication always is a big issue," Arthur said. He
pointed to the importance of the ambulance crews and medial staff
at set-up decontamination tents connecting with each other
better.
The goal is to stop people who are contaminated from
entering the hospital before they are cleaned so they can either
be released or moved into the hospital for treatment, Arthur
said. The hospital needs to be protected, so it is safe for
patients.
"A hospital is a very important part of the community
infrastructure," Arthur said. "When anything happens, people go
to the hospital."
Reach Jennifer Nejman at 771-2026 or jnejman@ydr.com.
Copyright © York Daily Record 2004 122 S. George St., P.O. Box
15122 York, PA 17405, (717) 771-2000
*****************************************************************
40 BBC: City prepares for nuclear submarine berthing
Last Updated: Thursday, 8 April, 2004
Campaigners are angry a nuclear vesse may be berthed near the city
Emergency planners have given a clear signal that nuclear
submarines are to return to Southampton, after preparing a
radiation disaster action plan.
The emergency guidelines advise residents on what to do if a
visiting submarine is involved in an accident, releasing
radioactive material.
Advice will be sent to residents within a 2km radius of
Southampton's nuclear berth, prior to a visit.
Campaigners are furious nuclear vessels could be berthed so near
a major city.
Tablets handed out
The Royal Navy has used the so-called Z-berth twice in the last
six years, according to the city council, which has no say over
whether nuclear-powered vessels visit Southampton.
It is the last remaining Z-berth based in a commercial UK port.
In the event of a nuclear accident, residents in the 2km zone
will be issued with potassium iodate tablets (Pits), told not to
collect their children from school, to stay inside and not use
the telephone.
Di McDonald, of the Southampton-based Nuclear Information
Service, says the plan, called Sotonsafe, will fail in the event
of a disaster.
People are told not collect their children from school and that's
very alarming for parents Di McDonald
She told BBC News Online: "The council's position is that they do
not want nuclear submarines in the docks, but if they have no
choice, they want to protect people.
"If you have a plume of radiation coming over a town then that's
very hard to do. It really isn't doable for real, ordinary
people. It's bound to fail.
"People are told not to collect their children from school and
that's very alarming for parents; teachers might have to
administer tablets to children, which they are not qualified to
do.
"It's irresponsible of the Navy to insist on bringing a nuclear
reactor into the middle of a major city."
'Visit possibly sometime next year'
She said campaigners are also angry the full plan - which took
the city council two years to put together after safety
responsibilities were passed to them from the Navy - is only
available at present in public libraries.
A Navy spokesman told BBC News Online: "There are no plans at the
moment to bring a nuclear-powered vessel into Southampton - and
there won't be a visit until the council plan has been exercised
and approved by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate.
"We have never had an accident involving the release of
radioactive material into the environment in any of our nuclear
subs during the 40 to 50 years we've been operating them.
"In any event, we don't discuss movements of subs much before
about a week ahead. There are no plans for that kind of vessel at
all at the minute. There may be a visit possibly sometime next
year."
*****************************************************************
41 GCG: Sellafield clean-up backed
Green Consumer Guide
Fri 02 Apr 2004
Thursday 08 April 2004
[Sellafield] Greenpeace is backing the European Commission’s
recent call for a more efficient clean-up at a facility of the
Sellafield nuclear plant, but criticised the authority for not
acting earlier. The Commission has asked for a full assessment of
the B30 spent nuclear fuel storage pond at the Cumbrian plant,
along with improvements in access to the site for inspectors.
Record-keeping at the aging B30 facility does not clarify exactly
what materials are held at the site, which is another concern for
the Commission.
The Commission is likely to take action against the UK government
if a suitable response isn’t received by early May.
"Although we welcome the Commission's push to get B30 cleaned up
it's vital to remember that neither the Commission, the UK nor
BNFL come out of this with any credibility," said Greenpeace
nuclear campaigner Jean McSorley. "The UK Government and BNFL
have prevaricated for years about this waste, despite the fact
that they knew there was a huge problem. The Commission has also
failed to act on this for the past fourteen years, and during
that time has repeatedly told the European Parliament and the
Council that the situation at Sellafield was fine," she added.
© 2004 Greenmedia Publishing Ltd.
*****************************************************************
42 DOE: Record of Decision on Mode of Transportation and Nevada Rail
FR Doc 04-7949
[Federal Register: April 8, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 68)]
[Notices] [Page 18557-18565] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr08ap04-44]
Corridor for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level
Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, NV AGENCY:
Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, U.S. Department
of Energy.
ACTION: Record of decision.
SUMMARY: On July 23, 2002, the President signed into law (Pub.
L. 107- 200) a joint resolution of the U.S. House of
Representatives and the U.S. Senate designating the Yucca
Mountain site in Nye County, Nevada, for development as a
geologic repository for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel and
high-level radioactive waste. In the event the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) authorizes construction of the repository and
receipt and possession of spent nuclear fuel and high-level
radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, the Department of Energy
(Department or DOE) would be responsible for transporting these
materials to the Yucca Mountain Repository as part of its
obligations under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA). Pursuant
to the NWPA and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), DOE
issued the ``Final Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic
Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level
Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada''
(DOE/EIS-0250F, February 2002) (Final EIS). That document
analyzed the environmental impacts of the proposed action of
constructing, operating and monitoring, and eventually closing a
geologic repository for the disposal of 70,000 metric tons of
heavy metal (MTHM) of spent nuclear fuel and high-level
radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, as well as of transporting
spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste from
commercial and DOE sites to the Yucca Mountain site.
In preparing the Final EIS, DOE initiated public scoping in 1995,
and subsequently issued for public comment a Draft EIS in 1999
and a Supplement to the Draft EIS in 2000. During the 199-day
public comment period on the Draft EIS, DOE held public hearings
in 21
[[Page 18558]] locations across the country, 10 of which were
held throughout the State of Nevada. An additional hearing was
convened in Las Vegas for members of Native American Tribes in
the region. During the 56-day public comment period on the
Supplement to the Draft EIS, DOE held three public hearings in
Nevada. The Department received more than 13,000 comments on the
Draft EIS and the Supplement to the Draft EIS; about 3,600 of
these comments addressed transportation related matters.
DOE is now in the process of preparing an application to the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) seeking authorization to
construct the repository. In addition, in order to be in a
position to transport waste to the repository should the NRC
approve construction and waste receipt, DOE must proceed with
certain decisions relating to the transportation of this
material. In particular, the Department has decided to select the
mostly rail scenario analyzed in the Final EIS as the
transportation mode both on a national basis and in the State of
Nevada. Under the mostly rail scenario, the Department would rely
on a combination of rail, truck and possibly barge to transport
to the repository site at Yucca Mountain up to 70,000 MTHM of
spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, with most of
the spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste being
transported by rail.
This will ultimately require construction of a rail line in
Nevada to the repository. In addition, the Department has decided
to select the Caliente rail corridor \1\ in which to examine
potential alignments within which to construct that rail line.
Should the Department select an alignment within that corridor,
it will obtain all necessary regulatory approvals before
beginning construction.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- \1\ A corridor is a strip of land, approximately 0.25
miles (400 meters) wide, that encompasses one of several possible
routes through which DOE could build a rail line. An alignment is
the specific location of a rail line in a corridor.
ADDRESSES: Copies of the Final EIS and this Record of Decision
may be obtained by calling or mailing a request to: Ms. Robin
Sweeney, Office of National Transportation, Office of Civilian
Radioactive Waste Management, U.S. Department of Energy, 1551
Hillshire Drive, M/S 011, Las Vegas, NV 89134, Telephone
1-800-967-3477. The Final EIS, including the Readers Guide and
Summary, is available via the Internet at
http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/ documents/feis--a/index.htm. This
Record of Decision is available at http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov under
``What's New''. Questions regarding the Final EIS or this Record
of Decision can be submitted by calling or mailing them to Ms.
Robin Sweeney at the above
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- phone number or address.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For general information
regarding the DOE National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
process contact: Ms. Carol M. Borgstrom, Director, Office of NEPA
Policy and Compliance (EH-42), U.S. Department of Energy, 1000
Independence Ave., SW., Washington, DC 20585, Telephone
202-586-4600, or leave a message at 1-800-472-2756.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Transportation-Related Decisions The
analyses in the Final EIS provide the bases for the following
three decisions under NEPA related to the establishment of a
transportation program under which the Department would transport
spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste to a
repository at Yucca Mountain: 1. Outside Nevada, the selection of
a national mode of transportation scenario (mostly rail or mostly
legal-weight truck), 2. In Nevada, the selection among
transportation mode scenarios (mostly rail, mostly legal-weight
truck, or mostly heavy-haul truck with an associated intermodal
transfer station), and 3. In Nevada, if the mostly rail scenario
or mostly heavy-haul truck scenario were selected, the selection
among rail corridor implementing alternatives, or heavy-haul
truck route implementing alternatives with use of an associated
intermodal transfer station.
See Figure 2-5 on page 2-7 of the Final EIS for a graphical
depiction of the different transportation scenarios and
implementing alternatives.
Part I. Record of Decision for Mode of Transportation Proposed
Action and Transportation Mode Scenarios Considered in the Final
EIS The Final EIS examines a Proposed Action under which DOE
would ship spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste
from 72 commercial and 5 DOE sites \2\ to the Yucca Mountain
Repository. The Final EIS considers the potential environmental
impacts of transporting spent nuclear fuel and high-level
radioactive waste to the repository under a variety of modes,
including legal-weight truck, rail, heavy-haul truck, and
possibly barge. The Final EIS also considers the environmental
impacts of two No-Action Alternatives, one under which spent
nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste would remain at the
72 commercial and five DOE sites under institutional control for
at least 10,000 years, and one under which these materials would
remain at the 77 sites in perpetuity, but under institutional
control for only 100 years.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- \2\ Fifty-four additional sites (primarily domestic
research reactors) were expected to ship spent nuclear fuel to
two DOE sites prior to disposal at the repository. DOE plans to
consolidate these materials at the two DOE sites are independent
of the decisions relating to a repository at Yucca Mountain.
Shipments from these sites to DOE sites were analyzed in the
``Programmatic Spent Nuclear Fuel Management and Idaho National
Engineering Laboratory Environmental Restoration and Waste
Management Programs Environmental Impact Statement'' (PEIS)
(DOE/EIS-0202-F; April 1995), and associated Records of Decision
(June 1, 1995; 60 FR 28680 and March 8, 1996; 61 FR 9441). The
direct impacts of this consolidation are not included in the
analysis of the alternatives analyzed in the Final EIS for the
repository, because they would occur whether or not DOE proceeds
with the repository at Yucca Mountain. Since the PEIS was
published, three research reactors have closed. As provided for
in the Record of Decision (ROD) for the PEIS, spent nuclear fuel
from one reactor was sent to the Savannah River Site and fuel
from another reactor was sent to the Idaho National Engineering
and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). Fuel from the third
reactor, which the ROD for the PEIS anticipated would be
consolidated at INEEL, was sent on an interim basis to the United
States Geological Survey (USGS) site in Lakewood, Colorado (which
also was one of the fifty-four sites analyzed in the PEIS). It is
still ultimately expected to be consolidated at INEEL as provided
in the ROD for the PEIS, whence it will be shipped to the
repository. The fuel that went to USGS is within the amounts
analyzed by the PEIS as going from USGS to INEEL. Moreover, since
the change in interim storage plans does not affect the shipment
of fuel to Yucca Mountain, it does not affect the transportation
analysis in the Final EIS for the repository.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- At the outset, we note that over the past 30 years,
more than 2,700 shipments of spent nuclear fuel have been
completed, none of which has resulted in an identified injury
caused by the release of radioactive material. That basic fact
provides important context for our decisionmaking today.
The Final EIS examines various national transportation scenarios
and Nevada transportation implementing alternatives to reflect
the range of potential environmental impacts that could occur.
Two national transportation scenarios, referred to as the
``mostly legal-weight truck'' scenario and the ``mostly rail''
scenario, and three Nevada scenarios, referred to as the
legal-weight truck scenario, the rail scenario, and the
heavy-haul truck scenario, were evaluated. The three broad
scenarios discussed below represent the combinations of the
scenarios and implementing alternatives as analyzed in the Final
EIS.
[[Page 18559]] Mostly Rail to the Yucca Mountain
Repository--Preferred Mode of Transportation Under the preferred
mode of transportation as analyzed in the Final EIS (the mostly
rail scenario), DOE would ship most of the spent nuclear fuel and
high-level radioactive waste from the 77 sites to the Yucca
Mountain Repository by rail. DOE would construct a rail line in
one of five rail corridors considered in the Final EIS to connect
the repository at Yucca Mountain to an existing main rail line in
Nevada.
Under the mostly rail scenario analyzed in the Final EIS,
radioactive materials from certain commercial nuclear sites that
do not have the capability to load rail-shipping casks would be
shipped by legal-weight truck to the repository. For other
commercial sites that have the capability to load rail shipping
casks, but do not have rail access, materials would be shipped
either by heavy-haul truck or possibly barge to a nearby railhead
outside Nevada for shipment by rail to the repository at Yucca
Mountain.
Under the mostly rail alternative, about 9,000 to 10,000 train
shipments (assuming one cask per train \3\) of spent nuclear fuel
and high-level radioactive waste would travel on the nation's
rail network over the anticipated 24-year period (DOE's current
plan calls for three casks per train shipment, about 3,000 to
3,300 total shipments).
In addition, there would be about 1,000 legal-weight truck
shipments from commercial sites that do not have the capability
to load rail-shipping casks to the repository at Yucca Mountain.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- \3\ The final EIS stated that DOE anticipated as many
as 5 casks per train. However, DOE conservatively estimated 1
cask per train for analytical purposes to ensure that it
considered routine and accident transportation risks that could
result from a larger number of train shipments (9,000 to 10,000).
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- Mostly Rail to Nevada With Transfer to Heavy-Haul
Truck for Shipment to the Repository Under this scenario as
analyzed in the Final EIS, DOE would ship most spent nuclear fuel
and high-level radioactive waste from the 77 sites to Nevada by
rail. Rail shipments would terminate in Nevada at an intermodal
transfer station where shipping casks would be transferred from
rail cars to heavy-haul trucks for shipment to the Yucca Mountain
Repository. DOE would construct an intermodal transfer station at
one of three locations analyzed in the Final EIS. One of the five
heavy- haul routes analyzed in the Final EIS would be upgraded to
improve transportation operations, reduce traffic congestion, and
enable year- round shipments to the repository.
Under this scenario, radioactive materials from certain
commercial nuclear sites that do not have the capability to load
rail-shipping casks would be shipped by legal-weight truck
directly to the repository.
Under this alternative, about 9,000 to 10,000 train shipments
(assuming one cask per train) of spent nuclear fuel and
high-level radioactive waste would travel on the nation's rail
network to Nevada over the 24-year period. There also would be
about 9,000 to 10,000 heavy-haul truck shipments in Nevada from
the intermodal transfer station to the repository. In addition,
there would be about 1,000 legal-weight truck shipments from
commercial sites that do not have the capability to load
rail-shipping casks to the repository at Yucca Mountain.
Mostly Legal-Weight Truck to the Yucca Mountain Repository Under
the mostly legal-weight truck scenario, as analyzed in the Final
EIS, DOE would ship most spent nuclear fuel and high-level
radioactive waste from the 77 sites to the repository by
legal-weight truck. About 53,000 legal-weight trucks carrying
these materials would travel primarily on the nation's interstate
highway system during the 24-year period. About 300 shipments of
naval spent nuclear fuel would travel from the Idaho National
Engineering and Environmental Laboratory to Nevada by rail, where
the rail casks would be transferred to heavy- haul trucks for
shipment to the repository.
Environmentally Preferable Transportation Mode Alternative In
making this determination, DOE considered human health and
environmental impacts that could occur from shipping spent
nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste from the 77 sites
to the repository at Yucca Mountain. DOE also considered the
human health and environmental impacts that could occur from the
construction of a rail line and from any upgrades to existing
highways (the heavy-haul truck routes) in Nevada.
The Final EIS indicates that some potential non-radiological
fatalities could occur as a result of traffic accidents during
the transportation of spent nuclear fuel and high-level
radioactive waste to the repository at Yucca Mountain. The Final
EIS indicates that the highest number of potential traffic
fatalities (about five) could occur under the mostly legal-weight
truck scenario, whereas the mostly rail scenario could result in
about three potential traffic fatalities during the 24-year
period of shipping spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive
waste to the repository at Yucca Mountain.
The Final EIS also considers the potential health effects that
could result from radiation exposure to workers during shipping
and from cask loading and unloading, and to the general
population along the transportation routes to the repository.
Under the mostly legal- weight truck scenario, the Final EIS
indicates that about 12 worker and three general public latent
cancer fatalities could occur from routine (incident-free)
exposures during the 24-year period of shipping spent nuclear
fuel and high-level radioactive waste to the repository.
Under the mostly rail scenario, about three worker and one
general public latent cancer fatalities could occur during the
24-year period.
The radiation dose to any one individual would be extremely
small.
DOE also estimated the potential health effects to the general
public that could result from a severe transportation accident
during shipments to the repository (referred to in the Final EIS
as a maximum reasonably foreseeable accident). The probability
that this accident could occur is extremely unlikely--about three
chances in 10 million per year. If such an accident were to occur
in an urban population setting, less than one latent cancer
fatality could be expected under the mostly legal-weight truck
scenario, whereas about five latent cancer fatalities could be
expected under the mostly rail scenario, primarily because of the
greater amounts of radioactive materials that could be released
from a rail cask in such an accident.
In Nevada, construction of a rail line, regardless of the rail
corridor selected, would involve the disturbance of land (and
associated impacts, although low, to natural resources such as
biological and cultural resources) in amounts greater than those
associated with any heavy-haul truck alternative. For example,
construction of a rail line in the shortest rail corridor (Valley
Modified) would result in the disturbance of about 1,240 acres;
rail line construction in the longest corridor (Carlin) would
disturb about 4,900 acres. Construction of an intermodal transfer
station and the upgrade of the longest heavy-haul route would
result in the disturbance of about 1,000 acres. Furthermore, the
construction of any rail line would involve various land use
conflicts that, for the most part, would not occur with the
limited construction required to improve any of the heavy-haul
truck routes. No land disturbances
[[Page 18560]] would occur under the legal-weight truck
alternative.
The Department also evaluated the risk of sabotage, including
terrorism. For reasons the NRC has carefully explained, this
analysis is most likely not required by NEPA.\4\ It is not
possible to predict whether such acts would occur and, if they
did, the nature of such acts. Moreover, such analysis does not
advance the public participation purpose of NEPA, since there are
serious limits on what information can responsibly be
disseminated on these issues without risking disclosure of
information that might be used in planning or carrying out such
an act.\5\ Nevertheless, the Final EIS includes the consequences
of a potentially successful attempt on a cask during shipment via
rail or legal-weight truck. In both instances, a successful
attack would result in the release of contaminants into the
environment. The consequences estimated for a rail shipment would
be less than those estimated for a legal-weight truck shipment,
mostly because the thicker shield wall of the heavier rail cask
would tend to mitigate the effects of the sabotage event when
compared to the lighter, legal-weight truck transportation cask.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- \4\ See Duke Cogema Stone & Webster, 56 N.R.C. 335
(2002); Private Fuel Storage, L.L.C., 56 N.R.C. 340 (2002); Duke
Energy Corp., 56 N.R.C. 358 (2002); Dominion Nuclear Connecticut,
Inc., 56 N.R.C. 367 (2002); Pacific Gas & Electric Company, 57
N.R.C. 1 (2003); and Pacific Gas & Electric Company, 58 N.R.C.
185 (2003), appeal docketed, No. 03-74628 (9th Cir. Dec. 12,
2003). \5\ See materials cited in footnote 4
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- None of the three transportation scenarios analyzed in
the Final EIS is clearly environmentally preferable. Each would
result in some impact to the environment, and public health and
safety, although all impacts would be small. For example,
transporting by either rail or heavy-haul truck in Nevada would
result in some land disturbance, although the impacts would be
greater for rail because more land would be disturbed during the
construction of a rail line than during the upgrading of existing
highways to accommodate heavy-haul trucks. Radiation exposure to
workers and the public from either routine rail or truck
shipments to the repository at Yucca Mountain would be very
small, and the differences among the different modes of
transportation also would be very small. Similarly, accident
risks under each alternative would be very small, and associated
differences among alternatives also very small. The Department
does not consider the differences among modes to be sufficiently
distinct to make any of them clearly environmentally preferable.
Although the potential impacts of any of the transportation
alternatives would be small, they would be greater than the
transportation-related impacts of the No-Action Alternatives.
Overall however, as analyzed in the Final EIS, the impacts of
proceeding with construction and operation of a repository at
Yucca Mountain, including transportation, would cause relatively
small public health impacts through the period 10,000 years after
repository closure and would cause fewer public health impacts
than the No-Action Alternative. For the No-Action Alternative
with institutional controls for 10,000 years, the potential
long-term environmental impacts also would be small, but
significantly greater than the proposed action because the
potential for nonradiological fatalities to workers under this
alternative is significantly greater. Additional information may
be found on pages S- 82 through S-88 and Chapters 2 and 7 of the
Final EIS. The cost of this No-Action Alternative is also
significantly greater than that of the proposed action ($42.7
billion to $57.3 billion (in 2001 dollars) for the proposed
action versus $167 billion to $184 billion for the first 300
years of institutional control and $519 million to $572 million
per year thereafter). Additionally, the public health and safety
impacts of the No-Action Alternative without effective
institutional control are significantly greater than the proposed
action. Likewise, in the long run, securing these materials by
consolidating them and disposing of them in a secure, remote
location, better protects against terrorist attack than leaving
them at 72 commercial and 5 DOE sites in 35 states within 75
miles of more than 161 million Americans.\6\ Moreover, for the
reasons expressed by the Secretary and the President in their
site recommendations and by the Congress in passing the joint
resolution, it is in the national interest to move forward with
this project.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- \6\ As explained in footnote 2, some additional
materials are currently stored at 50 additional sites (54 at the
time of site recommendation), consisting primarily of research
reactors, in four additional states, but DOE plans to consolidate
these materials at two DOE sites for reasons unrelated to its
repository plans.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- In any event, in the Yucca Mountain Development Act,
Pub. L. 107- 200, Congress directed DOE to proceed with the
development of a license application for a repository for the
disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.
DOE believes that this statute and the NWPA make it incumbent on
DOE to proceed with appropriate transportation planning so the
Department will be in a position to fulfill its responsibility
under the NWPA to begin disposal of this material promptly,
should the NRC grant the necessary authorizations for it to do
so.
Transportation-Related Comments on the Final EIS DOE distributed
about 6,200 copies of the Final EIS and has received written
comments on the Final EIS from the White Pine County Nuclear
Waste Project Office, White Pine County Board of County
Commissioners, Board of County Commissioners Lincoln County,
Board of Mineral County Commissioners, and a member of the
public.
Although comments were received on a variety of issues, the
following summation addresses only those few comments related to
the transportation of spent nuclear fuel and high-level
radioactive waste to a Yucca Mountain repository.
Commenters stated that DOE should develop specific
transportation- related mitigation measures, and encouraged DOE
to do so in a cooperative manner. Commenters also stated that
additional, more detailed and community-specific transportation
analyses are needed for purposes of mitigation planning, as well
as to support DOE in its transportation decisionmaking, such as
the decision on the mode of transportation. Commenters also
encouraged DOE to develop plans for transportation, such as route
selection for shipments of spent nuclear fuel and high-level
radioactive waste, and emergency planning and response.
Commenters also requested clarification of the roles of the NRC
and DOE's transportation services contractors, and whether
counties are eligible for technical assistance and funding under
Section 180(c) of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA).
As discussed below in Use of All Practicable Means to Avoid or
Minimize Harm (Parts I and II), DOE has already adopted measures
to avoid or minimize environmental harm that could result from
the transportation of spent nuclear fuel and high-level
radioactive waste. Additional potential mitigation measures
associated with the construction of a rail line will be
identified during preparation of an environmental impact
statement that considers alternative alignments within the
Caliente corridor for construction of the rail line (see PART II
of this ROD). DOE also will consult with states, Native American
tribes, local governments, utilities, the transportation industry
and other interested parties in a cooperative
[[Page 18561]] manner to refine the transportation system as it
is developed. Furthermore, DOE must comply with the
transportation-related provisions of the NWPA. Spent nuclear fuel
and high-level radioactive waste will be shipped to Yucca
Mountain in casks that have been certified by the NRC (Section
180(a)). Prior to these shipments, DOE will comply with the
regulations of the NRC regarding advanced notification of state
and local governments (Section 180(b)).
Transportation Mode Decision Under the NWPA, the Department is
responsible for planning that will allow for the transportation
of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste in the
event the NRC authorizes receipt and possession of these
materials at Yucca Mountain. Accordingly, as the next step in
fulfilling that responsibility, the Department is issuing this
Record of Decision to select a transportation mode. The
Department has decided to select the preferred mode of
transportation analyzed in the Final EIS, the mostly rail
scenario, both on a national basis and in the State of Nevada.
Under this decision, the Department would rely on a combination
of rail, truck and possibly barge to transport to the repository
up to 70,000 MTHM of spent nuclear fuel and high-level
radioactive waste. Most of the spent nuclear fuel and high-level
radioactive waste would be transported by rail. The Department
would use truck transport where necessary, depending on certain
factors such as the timing of the completion of the rail line
proposed to be constructed in Nevada. This could include building
an intermodal capability at a rail line in Nevada to take
legal-weight truck casks from rail cars and transport them the
rest of the way to the repository via highway, should the rail
system be unavailable at the time of the opening of the
repository \7\. In addition, since some commercial utilities are
not able to accommodate rail casks, they would ship by
legal-weight truck to the repository. Additionally, the
Department would use heavy-haul truck and possibly barge as
needed to ship spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear sites
to nearby railheads outside Nevada for shipment to the
repository.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- \7\ In March 2004, DOE issued a Supplement Analysis
and determined, in accordance with 10 CFR 1021.314, that this
rail/ legal-weight truck scenario would not constitute a
substantial change to the proposal previously analyzed in the
Final EIS or significant new circumstances or information
relevant to environmental concerns, as discussed in 40 CFR
1502.9(c)(1).
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- Basis for Transportation Mode Decision As we explain
below, the Department has concluded that it should use mostly
rail nationwide and in Nevada based, in large part, on the
analyses of the Final EIS. The Department also considered the
preferences for rail transportation expressed by the State of
Nevada and other factors described below.
The analyses in the Final EIS demonstrate that the potential
radiation doses to workers and the general public from rail,
truck or barge transportation would be very small, and that the
differences in resulting potential impacts from such exposures
among the different modes of transportation also would be very
small. Nevertheless, using mostly rail tends to minimize the
potential environmental impacts that could occur. The decision to
rely primarily on the nation's rail system to ship these
materials would result in fewer shipments than would occur if
legal-weight trucks were the primary mode of transportation. This
in turn would result in fewer trucks on public highways.
The lower number of rail shipments as compared to truck shipments
is estimated to result in fewer potential traffic fatalities and,
under routine conditions, slightly fewer latent cancer fatalities
to workers and the general public relative to mostly legal-weight
truck shipments.
In reaching its decision, DOE also considered the number of
commercial nuclear sites having, or expected to have, the
capability to handle rail casks, the distances to suitable
railheads near the commercial nuclear sites, and historical
experience using rail to ship spent nuclear fuel and other large
reactor-related components.
The Department found that the preponderance of commercial sites
have the capability and experience to ship to nearby railheads.
The Department also considered preferences expressed by the State
of Nevada in its comments on the Draft EIS. In these comments,
the state indicated that DOE should plan its transportation
system to maximize the use of rail.
The Department also considered irreversible and irretrievable
commitments of resources and cumulative impacts in making its
decision. There would be an irreversible and irretrievable
commitment of resources, such as land, electric power, fossil
fuels and construction materials, associated with the
construction of a rail line in Nevada, although this commitment
of resources would not significantly diminish these resources,
either nationwide or in Nevada. DOE also recognizes that for all
alternatives involving transportation of spent nuclear fuel and
high-level radioactive waste, there could be cumulative impacts
from past, present and reasonably foreseeable future activities
involving transportation of other radioactive materials. Based on
the analyses in the Final EIS, DOE does not expect that any
cumulative impacts would be significant over the duration of
shipping spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste to
the repository.
Based on these various considerations, DOE concludes that
shipping by mostly rail, both nationally and in the State of
Nevada, would be preferable to shipping by mostly truck or using
heavy-haul trucks in Nevada.
Use of All Practicable Means To Avoid or Minimize
Harm--Transportation Mode The shipment of spent nuclear fuel and
radioactive waste is highly regulated and subject to the utmost
scrutiny. DOE carefully follows the Department of Transportation
(DOT) and NRC transportation rules now and will follow or exceed
any others that may be established in the future whether by the
Congress or by DOT or NRC. DOE also will consult with states,
Native American tribes, local governments, utilities, the
transportation industry and other interested parties in a
cooperative manner to refine the transportation system as it is
developed.
Measures DOE will implement to avoid or minimize harm include the
following \8\: prior to the shipment of spent nuclear fuel, the
shipper or carrier must select routes and prepare a written plan
listing origin and destination of the shipment, scheduled route,
all planned stops, estimated time of departure and arrival, and
emergency telephone numbers; advance notice must be provided to
State and local governments prior to shipping irradiated reactor
fuel through their states; anyone involved in the preparation or
transport of radioactive materials will be required to have
proper training; carriers must be provided with shipping papers
containing emergency information, including contacts and
telephone numbers, readily available during transport for
inspection by appropriate officials; clearly identifiable
markings, labels, and placards of hazardous contents must be
provided; and all spent nuclear fuel and high-level
[[Page 18562]] radioactive waste shipments would be in the most
rugged casks (Type B, which range from small containers of sealed
radioactive sources to heavily shielded steel casks that
sometimes weigh as much as 150 tons).
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- \8\ Application of these measures to national security
activities may, in some respects, be subject to section 7 of the
Nuclear Waste Policy Act, 42 U.S.C. section 10106.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- The NRC has promulgated rules (10 CFR 73.37) and
interim compensatory measures (March 4, 2002; 67 FR 9792)
specifically aimed at protecting the public from harm that could
result from sabotage of spent nuclear fuel casks. These security
rules are designed to minimize the possibility of sabotage and
facilitate recovery of spent nuclear fuel shipments that could
come under the control of unauthorized persons. The use of armed
escorts for all shipments; safeguarding the detailed shipping
schedule information, monitoring of shipments through satellite
tracking and a communication center with 24-hour staffing; and
coordinating logistics with state and local law enforcement
agencies all contribute to shipment security. Additionally, the
cask safety features that provide containment, shielding, and
thermal protection provide protection against sabotage. The
Department and other agencies continue to examine the protections
built into their physical security and safeguards systems for
transportation shipments.
DOE is now developing its transportation security plan and its
design basis threat for transportation. The transportation
security plan will be developed in cooperation with other Federal
agencies, including the NRC, DOT, and the Department of Homeland
Security.
The Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management is exploring
the use of armed Federal agents as escorts for all shipments and
other operational techniques employed by the National Nuclear
Security Administration's Office of Secure Transportation as well
as the design of special security cars for rail transport, to
further mitigate the potential threat of a terrorist act. In
addition to its domestic efforts, the Department is a member of
the International Working Group on Sabotage for Transport and
Storage Casks, which is investigating the consequences of a
potential act of sabotage and is exploring opportunities to
enhance the physical protection of casks. As a result of the
above efforts, DOE will modify its methods and systems as
appropriate between now and the time shipments start.
In compliance with section 180(c) of the NWPA, DOE will provide
technical assistance and funds to states for training public
safety officials of appropriate units of local government and
Native American tribes through whose jurisdictions the Department
plans to ship spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive
waste. The training of public safety officials will cover
procedures required for safe routine transportation of these
materials and for dealing with emergency response situations.
Pursuant to the NWPA, spent nuclear fuel and high-level
radioactive waste will be transported in casks certified by the
NRC. The NRC regulates and certifies the design, manufacture,
testing and use of these casks. Additionally, the NWPA requires
that DOE comply with NRC regulations regarding advance
notification of State and local governments prior to
transportation of spent nuclear fuel or high-level radioactive
waste.
At this stage in the decision-making, the Department believes it
has incorporated all practicable mitigation measures. The
Department will continue to identify and evaluate potential
mitigation measures as the transportation system develops and as
a result of the lessons learned from the shipping of spent
nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.
Part II. Record of Decision for Nevada Rail Corridor Background
As noted above, the mostly rail scenario assumes that DOE will
ultimately construct a rail line in Nevada to ship spent nuclear
fuel and high-level radioactive waste to the repository. To
implement that scenario, DOE therefore needs to select among
alternative rail corridors within which to study possible
alignments in which it will pursue construction of a rail line
that would connect the repository at Yucca Mountain to an
existing main rail line in Nevada in the event the NRC authorizes
construction of a repository at Yucca Mountain.
In the Final EIS, DOE analyzed five potential rail
corridors--Caliente, Carlin, Caliente-Chalk Mountain, Jean and
Valley Modified--for this potential rail line. Additional
descriptive information, including variations associated with
each corridor, may be found in section 2.1.3.3 and Appendix J,
section J.3.1.2, of the Final EIS. The Final EIS did not specify
a corridor preference, but in December 2003, DOE announced its
preference for the Caliente corridor (Notice of Preferred Nevada
Rail Corridor; 68 FR 74951; December 29, 2003.
Proposed Action and Nevada Rail Corridors Considered in the Final
EIS A. Caliente Rail Corridor--Preferred Alternative The Caliente
corridor originates at an existing siding to the mainline
railroad near Caliente, Nevada. The corridor extends in a
westerly direction to the northwest corner of the Nevada Test and
Training Range (previously known as Nellis Air Force Range),
before turning south-southeast to the repository at Yucca
Mountain. The corridor ranges between 318 miles (512 kilometers)
and 344 miles (553 kilometers), depending on the variations to
the corridor considered in the Final EIS. Construction of a rail
line within the Caliente corridor would take about 46 months. The
total life-cycle cost for construction and operation of the rail
line is estimated to be $880 million (2001 dollars).
B. Carlin Rail Corridor The Carlin corridor originates at the
mainline railroad near Beowawe in north central Nevada. The
Carlin and Caliente corridors converge near the northwest
boundary of the Nevada Test and Training Range. Past this point,
they are identical. The Carlin corridor ranges between 319 miles
(513 kilometers) and 338 miles (544 kilometers) long, depending
on the variations to the corridor. Construction of a rail line
within the Carlin corridor would take about 46 months. The total
life-cycle cost for construction and operation of the rail line
is estimated to be $821 million (2001 dollars).
C. Caliente-Chalk Mountain Rail Corridor The Caliente-Chalk
Mountain corridor is identical to the Caliente corridor until it
approaches the northern boundary of the Nevada Test and Training
Range. At that point the Caliente-Chalk Mountain corridor turns
south through the Nevada Test and Training Range and the Nevada
Test Site to the Yucca Mountain site. Depending on the
variations, the corridor is between 214 miles (344 kilometers)
and 242 miles (382 kilometers) long from the tie-in at the
mainline near Caliente to the Yucca Mountain site. Construction
of a rail line within the Caliente- Chalk Mountain corridor would
take about 43 months. The total life- cycle cost for construction
and operation of the rail line is estimated to be $622 million
(2001 dollars). The Department designated the Caliente-Chalk
Mountain alternative as non-preferred in the Final EIS due to
national security concerns raised by the U.S. Air Force.
[[Page 18563]] D. Jean Rail Corridor The Jean corridor originates
at the existing mainline railroad near Jean, Nevada. The corridor
ranges between 112 miles (181 kilometers) and 127 miles (204
kilometers) long from the tie-in with the mainline to the Yucca
Mountain site. Construction of a rail line within the Jean
corridor would take about 43 months. The total life-cycle cost
for construction and operation of the rail line is estimated to
be $462 million (2001 dollars).
E. Valley Modified Rail Corridor The Valley Modified corridor
originates at an existing rail siding off the mainline railroad
northeast of Las Vegas. Depending on the variations, the corridor
is between 98 miles (157 kilometers) and 101 miles (163
kilometers) long from the tie-in with the mainline to the Yucca
Mountain site. Construction of a rail line within the Valley
Modified corridor would take about 40 months. The total
life-cycle cost for construction and operation of the rail line
is estimated to be $283 million (2001 dollars).
Environmentally Preferable Rail Corridor Alternative DOE
considered human health and environmental impacts that could
occur from the construction of a rail line, as well as from
shipping spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste in
Nevada.
Construction of a rail line, regardless of the rail corridor
selected, would involve the disturbance of land and associated
impacts, although low, to natural resources such as biological
and cultural resources. For example, construction of a rail line
in the Valley Modified corridor (shortest) would result in the
disturbance of about 1,240 acres; rail line construction in the
Carlin corridor (longest) would disturb about 4,900 acres.
Construction of any rail line in Nevada also would conflict with
existing land uses. Depending on the variations considered,
privately- owned lands occur on less than one percent of the
lands analyzed under the Caliente (ranges from 222 to 618 acres),
Caliente-Chalk Mountain (ranges from 198 to 272 acres) and Valley
Modified (ranges from 0 to 44 acres) corridors, but up to about
five and seven percent of the lands analyzed under the Jean
(ranges from 32 to 865 acres) and Carlin (ranges from 1,804 to
3,756 acres) corridors, respectively. The Caliente and Carlin
corridors cross Timbisha-Shoshone trust lands, and a relatively
short distance on the Nevada Test and Training Range, although
variations are available that would avoid these lands.
The Caliente corridor crosses two wilderness study areas, and the
Valley Modified corridor passes through the Desert National
Wildlife Range, although variations may be available to avoid
these lands. The Caliente-Chalk Mountain corridor crosses land
dedicated to testing and training activities of the U.S. Air
Force and Department of Defense on the Nevada Test and Training
Range; no variations are available that would avoid the Range
under this corridor alternative.
Under any rail corridor alternative, water would be used for
compaction of the rail bed and dust suppression, and by workers
during construction. Water consumption would vary, primarily
because of the length of the corridor, ranging from 320 acre-feet
for the Valley Modified corridor to 710 acre-feet for the
Caliente corridor.
During the 24-year shipping period, assuming standard nationwide
rail routing practices, the incident-free (routine) collective
dose to members of the public from the transportation of spent
nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste by rail would
result in less than one latent cancer fatality regardless of
which corridor is selected.
The difference in impacts among the corridors is minimal.
Similarly, less than one latent cancer fatality would occur in
the exposed worker population, and that is not affected by the
Nevada corridor selection.
DOE also estimated the potential health effects to the general
public that could result from a severe transportation accident
during shipments to the repository (referred to in the Final EIS
as a maximum reasonably foreseeable accident). If such an
accident were to occur in a rural population setting, the
collective radiological dose to members of the public would
result in less than one latent cancer fatality. The probability
that this accident could occur is extremely unlikely--about 2
chances in 1 million per year.
The environmental impacts identified in the Final EIS do not
provide a clear basis for discriminating among alternative rail
corridors in Nevada. Each of these alternatives would result in
some impact to the environment and public health and safety.
Construction of a rail line within any rail corridor would
involve certain land use conflicts, and land disturbance with
attendant impacts (although small, the impacts tend to increase
with increasing corridor length). Radiation exposure to workers
and the public in Nevada would be small, and the differences
among the rail corridor alternatives also would be very small.
For these reasons, DOE does not consider the differences among
the corridor alternatives to be sufficient to make any of them
clearly environmentally preferable.
Finally, although the potential impacts of any of the five
potential rail corridors would be small, they would be greater
than the potential transportation-related impacts of the
No-Action Alternatives. Nevertheless, as explained above, the
impacts of proceeding with construction and operation of a
repository at Yucca Mountain, including transportation, are
relatively small and less than either of the No- Action
Alternative scenarios. Part I (of this ROD) provides further
comparison of the proposed action and the No-Action Alternative
scenarios. In any event, given DOE's responsibilities under the
Yucca Mountain Development Act and the NWPA, DOE believes it is
obligated to proceed with appropriate transportation planning,
including, given its selection of the mostly rail scenario in
Nevada, the selection of a corridor in which to study possible
alignments for the Nevada rail line, in preference to either
No-Action Alternative scenario.
Comments on Preferred Rail Corridor DOE noticed its preference
for the Caliente corridor in the Federal Register (December 29,
2003; 68 FR 74951). The Carlin corridor was identified as a
secondary preference. The Department has received comments on the
preference announcement. Concerns expressed in these comments
included the need for a comprehensive programmatic EIS covering
all aspects of nuclear waste transportation to Yucca Mountain,
avoidance of all major population centers with transportation
routes, and provision of documentation supporting the preference
decision. Other comments addressed the need for adequate
opportunities for public participation and comment on the
corridor preference announcement, including a request for
cooperating agency status for any future rail alignment EIS.
Selection of a corridor preference prior to having a mode of
transportation decision was raised as a concern. In addition,
there was confusion regarding the designation of the Carlin
corridor as a secondary preference and its relationship to the
upcoming rail alignment EIS process. Furthermore, commenters
indicated that a rail line in the Caliente corridor would have
significant negative impacts on cultural, socioeconomic, and
wildlife resources, as well as a massive modern
[[Page 18564]] sculpture project. Others raised the potential for
impacts to ranchers living in proximity to the proposed Caliente
corridor, including questions regarding the design and operation
of a rail line and the nature of measures that could mitigate
resulting adverse impacts. Finally, several commenters thanked
DOE for announcing its corridor preference, recognizing the
challenges and opportunities and associated need to coordinate
closely as DOE proceeds with transportation planning.
Comments calling for DOE to prepare a programmatic transportation
EIS and the need to avoid all major Nevada population centers
with transportation routes were addressed in the response to
comments in the Final EIS. DOE believes a programmatic EIS to be
unnecessary as its Final EIS provides the environmental impact
information necessary to make certain broad
transportation-related decisions (as described above in
Transportation-Related Decisions).
With regard to avoiding population centers, the analyses of the
Final EIS illustrate that potential public health and safety
impacts would be so low for individuals who lived and worked
along any route that individual impacts would not be discernible,
even if the corresponding doses could be measured.
Although some commenters stated that DOE's intent in identifying
the Carlin corridor as a secondary preference was unclear, the
decision to select the Caliente corridor also represents DOE's
intent to no longer consider the Carlin corridor for development
of a rail line. This decision and the basis for not selecting the
Carlin corridor are discussed below in Rail Corridor Decision and
Basis for Rail Corridor Decision.
The remaining concerns and issues regarding potential
environmental impacts associated with the development of a rail
line, potential mitigation measures, and opportunities for public
involvement and project participation will be addressed during
the future preparation of a rail alignment EIS. As part of
developing this documentation, DOE will identify and adopt
measures to avoid or minimize environmental harm that could
result from the construction and operation of a rail line within
the Caliente corridor.
Rail Corridor Decision In Part I of this Record of Decision, the
Department selected, both on a national basis and in the State of
Nevada, the mostly rail scenario. That decision is premised on
the assumption that DOE will ultimately construct a rail line to
connect the repository site to an existing rail line in the State
of Nevada. To that end, the Department has decided to select the
preferred rail corridor alternative, the Caliente corridor, in
which to evaluate alignments for a rail line.
Basis for Rail Corridor Decision The Department decided to
evaluate alignments within the Caliente corridor for possible
construction of a rail line based, in large part, on the analyses
of the Final EIS. The Department, however, also considered other
factors discussed below, such as potential for construction
delay, direct and indirect costs of each alternative, and
comments received from the public.
The Department considered irreversible and irretrievable
commitments of resources and cumulative impacts in making its
decision. There would be an irreversible and irretrievable
commitment of resources, such as electric power, fossil fuels,
construction materials, and water associated with the
construction of a rail line in Nevada, although this commitment
of resources would not significantly diminish the resources in
question in Nevada. DOE recognizes that for all rail corridors
there could be cumulative impacts from past, present and
reasonably foreseeable future activities.
The Department considered potential land use conflicts and their
potential to affect adversely construction of a rail line, as
analyzed in the Final EIS in making this decision. If the
Department were to select the Valley Modified rail corridor there
may be conflicts with the Desert National Wildlife Range and
local community plans for development in the greater Las Vegas
metropolitan area. If the Department were to select the
Caliente-Chalk Mountain corridor there would be conflicts with
U.S. Air Force and Department of Defense testing and training
activities directly related to national security interests on the
Nevada Test and Training Range. If the Department were to select
the Jean corridor it may require crossing relatively greater
amounts of private land, and would pose greater potential land
use conflicts because of its proximity to the greater Las Vegas
metropolitan area. If the Department were to select the Carlin
corridor it would also require crossing relatively greater
amounts of private land. Moreover, little infrastructure, such as
roads and electric power, is available over long segments, which
would tend to make logistics during construction as well as
emergency response capabilities more challenging. Overall, the
Caliente rail corridor appears to have the fewest land use or
other conflicts that could lead to substantial delays in
acquiring the necessary land and rights-of- way, or in beginning
construction.
DOE also considered concerns expressed by the public in Nevada.
In these comments, the public stated that DOE should avoid rail
corridors in the Las Vegas Valley.
The Department also considered the direct costs of constructing
and operating a rail line, and the indirect costs resulting from
potential delays in the availability of the rail line. The Jean
and Valley Modified corridors are the shortest and have the
lowest estimated construction costs. The Carlin and Caliente
corridors are the longest and on the basis of construction cost
alone would be more expensive to develop. However, delays in the
construction of the rail line because of land use or other
conflicts and the resulting inability to accept large amounts of
spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste transported
by a railroad to the repository in a timely manner could add to
both the liability costs for delayed acceptance of commercial
spent nuclear fuel and the costs of continued storage of DOE
wastes.
Based on all of the above, DOE concludes that the Caliente
corridor is preferable to the other corridors it evaluated as a
potential corridor in which to construct a rail line. Therefore,
DOE has decided to select the Caliente corridor as the one within
which to evaluate possible alignments for the rail line
connecting the repository to an existing main rail line in
Nevada.
Use of All Practicable Means To Avoid or Minimize Harm--Rail
Corridor In the Final EIS, DOE identified transportation-related
measures that would be implemented, and other measures that would
require further consideration and refinement before adoption to
avoid or minimize environmental harm. As described in Part I,
this decision adopts all practicable measures to avoid or
minimize adverse environmental impact that could result from the
transportation of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive
wastes to a repository at Yucca Mountain appropriate at this
stage of decision-making.
Construction of a rail line will be consistent with applicable
Federal, state and Native American tribal requirements. In
addition to these measures, other potential mitigation measures
associated with the construction of a rail line will be
identified and evaluated during preparation of future NEPA
documentation.
[[Page 18565]] Issued in Washington, DC April 2, 2004.
Margaret S. Y. Chu, Director, Office of Civilian Radioactive
Waste Management.
[FR Doc. 04-7949 Filed 4-7-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
*****************************************************************
43 AU ABC: NT mining companies put on notice after water contamination.
08/04/2004. ABC News Online
Australian Broadcasting Corporation Online
Mining companies in the Northern Territory have been put on
notice to review the way they manage drinking water resources.
The call comes as the Federal Government investigates an
incident at the Ranger uranium mine near Kakadu, where workers
drank and showered in water carrying four hundred times the
legal limit of uranium.
The Territory's Director of Mines, Tony Magill, says companies
in the mining sector must ensure their potable water systems are
separate from processed water systems.
"The fact that this happened to be a uranium mine that was
being supervised by a large number of people is a real wake up
to regulators and the industry," he said.
"But my mining officers will be looking at the potential for
cross contamination on all mine sites, just to make sure that we
have well and truly learnt this lesson."
© 2004 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
*****************************************************************
44 Irish Echo Online: EC rules for Ireland on Sellafield
Est. 1928 • April 7-13, 2004 • Vol 77 No. 14 •
BRUSSELS -- The European Commission this week ordered the British
government to bring the storage of nuclear waste at the
Sellafield complex in England, across the Irish Sea from County
Louth, into compliance with Euratom treaty rules, under threat of
penalties, the Irish Times has reported.
The minister for the environment, Martin Cullen, welcomed the
commission's decision as a "hugely significant development" that
vindicated the Irish government's "robust approach."
The European commissioner for energy, Loyola de Palacio, said
that British Nuclear Fuel, which manages the Sellafield plant,
had failed to comply with the rules on accounting for nuclear
material and giving Commission inspectors access to nuclear
material.
One of the Sellafield storage sites, a pond containing spent
Magnox fuel, was in such poor condition, with high levels of
radiation and low visibility, that inspectors could not determine
the quantity of spent fuel it held, the Commission concluded.
Ordering the British government to submit a plan of
remedial action by the beginning of June, de Palacio said: "This
problem has been known for a long time, but no concrete
initiative has been taken by the operator to rectify it. The
situation had therefore become untenable for the Commission. It
calls into question the credibility of our safeguards."
A spokesman for the UK government expressed surprise that
the Commission had brought action under Article 82 of the Euratom
Treaty, the rules on safeguards. It was hardly likely that the UK
would be supplying the material to rogue states or terrorists, he
pointed out.
"Yes, there is a problem. We know that. We are trying to
deal with it. But there is no suggestion that there is any
leakage or any immediate danger," he said.
"We are not going to allow ourselves to be rushed into a
plan that could cause problems. Safety and environmental concerns
will be at the top of our list," he said.
The spokesman pointed out that the Commission was
familiar with the problem since it had been inspecting the site
regularly and writing reports about it for the last 15 years.
Cullen said his concern had been to press the UK
government over access to information about Sellafield. That, he
said, had been the central approach of Ireland's two legal
challenges to the UN Court of Arbitration.
The recourse to international arbitration has in turn
provoked a legal action by the European Commission, which has
brought a case against Ireland at the European Court of Justice.
The Commission argued that the government was wrong to go outside
the provisions of the Euratom Treaty.
EU sources in Brussels suggested that the Commission was
embarrassed at having to take Ireland, the complainant, to court
and so was provoked into stepping up its action against the UK.
This story appeared in the issue of April 7-13, 2004
[Top of Current Page] (c) 2004 Irish Echo Newspaper Corp.
*****************************************************************
45 The Whitehaven News: ‘SCOTS CAN LOOK AFTER THEIR OWN N-WASTE’
Published on 08/04/2004
SCOTLAND is “capable of looking after its own nuclear waste,”
according to Copeland honorary alderman, Marjorie Higham, who
continues to protest at the plans to bring Tartan nuclear waste
from Dounreay, in Scotland, to the Drigg low level nuclear dump.
Mrs Higham, who lives not far from the Drigg nuclear dump, had
previously raised concerns about plans by the UK Atomic Energy
Authority to ship low-level nuclear waste to Drigg, despite the
fact that there is an existing low-level nuclear dump at
Dounreay.
She says the transhipment of the so-called Tartan Waste will cost
taxpayers £6 million a year. In the House of Commons Copeland MP,
Dr Jack Cunningham, tabled questions on the issue and was told by
DEFRA that the Scottish plan did not need to be advertised for
consultation in England.
This prompted Mrs Higham to state: “It may not be necessary to
Mrs Margaret Becket but it seems to me to be undemocratic,
discourteous and arrogant not to inform the people in another
country that they can receive rubbish from elsewhere without
notice or a chance to put their opinions on the matter forward.”
*****************************************************************
46 DOE: Proposal to build build rail lines to Yucca
Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement
FR Doc 04-7950
[Federal Register: April 8, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 68)]
[Notices] [Page 18565-18569] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr08ap04-45]
for the Alignment, Construction, and Operation of a Rail Line to
a Geologic Repository at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, NV AGENCY:
U.S. Department of Energy. ACTION: Notice of intent.
SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE or the Department)
announces its intent to prepare an environmental impact statement
(EIS) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for the
alignment, construction, and operation of a rail line for
shipments of spent nuclear fuel, high-level radioactive waste,
and other materials from a site near Caliente, Lincoln County,
Nevada, to a geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nye County,
Nevada. On April 2, 2004, the Department signed a Record of
Decision announcing its selection, both nationally and in the
State of Nevada, of the mostly rail scenario analyzed in the
``Final Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic Repository
for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive
Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada'' (DOE/EIS-0250F,
February 2002) (Repository Final EIS). This decision will
ultimately require the construction of a rail line to connect the
repository site at Yucca Mountain to an existing rail line in the
State of Nevada for the shipment of spent nuclear fuel and
high-level radioactive waste, in the event that the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission authorizes construction of the repository
and receipt and possession of these materials at Yucca Mountain.
To that end, the Department also decided to select the Caliente
rail corridor \1\ in which to examine possible alignments for
construction of a rail line that would connect the repository at
Yucca Mountain to an existing main rail line in Nevada. DOE is
now announcing its intent to prepare this Rail Alignment EIS to
assist in selecting this alignment. The EIS also would consider
the potential construction and operation of a rail-to-truck
intermodal transfer facility, proposed to be located at the
confluence of an existing mainline railroad and a highway, to
support legal-weight truck transportation until the rail system
is fully operational.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- \1\ A corridor is a strip of land 0.25 miles (400
meters) wide that encompasses one of several possible routes
through which DOE could build a rail line. An alignment is the
specific location of a rail line in a corridor.
DATES: The Department invites and encourages comments on the
scope of the EIS (hereafter referred to as the Rail Alignment
EIS) to ensure that all relevant environmental issues and
reasonable alternatives are addressed. Public scoping meetings
are discussed below in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section. DOE
will consider all comments received during the 45-day public
scoping period, which starts with the publication of this Notice
of Intent and ends May 24, 2004.
Comments received after the close of the public scoping period
will be
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- considered to the extent practicable.
ADDRESSES: Written comments on the scope of this Rail Alignment
EIS, questions concerning the proposed action and alternatives,
requests for maps that illustrate the Caliente corridor and
alternatives, or requests for additional information on the Rail
Alignment EIS or transportation planning in general should be
directed to: Ms.
Robin Sweeney, EIS Document Manager, Office of National
Transportation, Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management,
U.S. Department of Energy, 1551 Hillshire Drive, M/S 011, Las
Vegas, NV 89134, Telephone 1-800-967-3477, or via the Internet at
http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov under ``What's New.'' FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT: For general information regarding the DOE
NEPA process contact: Ms. Carol M. Borgstrom, Director, Office of
NEPA Policy and Compliance (EH-42), U.S. Department of Energy,
1000 Independence Ave., SW., Washington, DC 20585, Telephone
202-586-4600, or leave a message at 1-800-472-2756.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Background On July 23, 2002, the
President signed into law (Pub. L. 107-200) a joint resolution of
the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate designating
the Yucca Mountain site in Nye County, Nevada, for development as
a geologic repository for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel and
high-level radioactive waste. Subsequently, the Department issued
a Record of Decision (April 2, 2004) to announce its selection,
both nationally and in the State of Nevada, of the mostly rail
scenario analyzed in the Repository Final EIS as the mode of
transportation of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive
waste to the repository. Under the mostly rail scenario, the
Department would rely on a combination of rail, truck and
possibly barge to transport to the repository site at Yucca
Mountain up to 70,000 metric tons of heavy metal (MTHM) of spent
nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Most of the spent
nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, however, would be
transported by rail.
The Department's decision to select the mostly rail scenario in
Nevada will ultimately require the construction of a rail line to
connect the repository site at Yucca Mountain to an existing rail
line in the State of Nevada for the shipment of spent nuclear
fuel and high- level radioactive waste in the event that the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission authorizes construction of the
repository and receipt and possession of these materials at Yucca
Mountain. To that end, in the same Record of Decision, the
Department also decided to select the Caliente rail corridor to
study possible alignments for this rail line.
In the Repository Final EIS, DOE defined a rail corridor as a
0.25 miles (400-meter) wide strip of land that encompasses one of
several possible alignments or specific locations within which
DOE could build a rail line. The Caliente rail corridor was
described as originating at an existing siding to the mainline
railroad near Caliente, Nevada, and extending in a westerly
direction to the northwest corner of the Nevada Test and Training
Range, before turning south-southeast to the repository at Yucca
Mountain.
In the Repository Final EIS, DOE also identified eight variations
along the Caliente corridor that may minimize or avoid
environmental impacts and/or mitigate construction complexities.
Variations were defined as a strip of land 0.25 miles
(400-meters) wide that describes a different route, from one
point along the corridor to another point on the corridor. Thus,
the Caliente corridor ranges between 318 miles (512 kilometers)
and 344 miles (553 kilometers) in length, depending on the
variations considered. In the Repository Final EIS, DOE did not
identify variations for about 55 percent of the length of the
corridor (hereafter these areas are referred to as ``common
segments'').
DOE proposes to consider the common segments and the eight
variations as preliminary alternatives to be evaluated in the
Rail Alignment EIS. These alternatives are described in the
Preliminary Alternatives section. In addition, DOE will consider
other potential variations outside of the 0.25
[[Page 18566]] mile wide corridor that might minimize, avoid or
mitigate adverse environmental impacts.
For purposes of analysis in the Rail Alignment EIS, a rail line
alignment is defined as a strip of land 100 feet (30 meters) on
either side of the centerline of the track within the Caliente
corridor, passing through the common segments and variations. DOE
will define regions of influence for each environmental resource
(for example, biological or cultural resources) that will extend
beyond the dimensions of the alignment and allow DOE to estimate
environmental impacts over the geographic area in which the
impact is likely to be realized. Within these regions of
influence, DOE will estimate environmental impacts of the common
segments and alternatives, both separately and in aggregate. In
this way, the analyses of the Rail Alignment EIS will offer DOE
flexibility to minimize, avoid or otherwise mitigate potential
environmental impacts of the final alignment chosen for
construction.
Proposed Action In the Rail Alignment EIS, the Proposed Action is
to determine a rail alignment, and to construct and operate a
rail line for shipments of spent nuclear fuel, high-level
radioactive waste, and other materials \2\ from a site near
Caliente, Lincoln County, Nevada to a geologic repository at
Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada. Under the Proposed Action,
the Caliente rail line would be designed and built consistent
with Federal Railroad Administration safety standards.
Construction would take between three and four years.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- \2\ Other materials refer to materials related to the
construction (e.g., reinforcing steel, cement) and operation
(e.g., waste packages, fuel oil) of the repository.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- Construction activities would include the development
of construction support areas; construction of access roads to
the rail line construction initiation points \3\ and to major
structures to be built, such as bridges and culverts; and
movement of materials and equipment to the construction
initiation points. The number and location of construction
initiation points would be based on such variables as the length
of the rail line, the construction schedule, the number of
contractors used for construction, the number of structures to be
built, the supply of materials, and the locations of existing
access roads adjacent to the rail line.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- \3\ DOE anticipates that construction of the rail line
may occur at several locations simultaneously along the
alignment.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- The construction of the rail line would require the
clearing and excavation of previously undisturbed lands, and the
establishment of borrow and spoils \4\ areas. To establish a
stable base for the rail track, construction crews would excavate
some areas and fill (add more soil to) others, as determined by
terrain features. To the extent possible, material excavated from
one area would be used in areas that required fill material.
However, if the distance to an area requiring fill material were
excessive, the excavated material would be disposed of in spoils
areas, and a borrow area would be established adjacent to the
area requiring fill material. Access roads to spoils and borrow
areas would be built during the track base construction work.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- \4\ Borrow areas are areas outside of the rail
alignment where construction personnel could obtain earthen
materials such as aggregate for construction of the rail line.
Spoil areas are areas outside of the alignment for the deposition
of excess earthern materials excavated during construction of the
rail line.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- Under the Proposed Action, DOE would construct a
secure railyard and facilities at the operational interface with
the mainline railroad near Caliente, Nevada. The facilities would
include sidings connected to the mainline, and buildings and
associated equipment for track and equipment maintenance,
locomotive refueling, and train crew quarters.
DOE also will consider the potential construction and operation
of a rail-to-truck intermodal transfer facility to support
limited legal- weight truck transportation until the rail system
is fully operational. This intermodal transfer facility could be
constructed at the confluence of an existing mainline railroad
and a highway.
Typical construction equipment (front-end loaders, power shovels,
and other diesel-powered support equipment) would be used for
clearing and excavation work. Trucks would spray water along
graded areas for dust control and soil compaction. The fill
material used along the rail line to establish a stable base for
the track would be compacted to meet design requirements. Water
could be shipped from other locations or obtained from wells
drilled along the rail line.
Railroad track construction would consist of the placement of
railbed material (sub-ballast), ballast (support and stabilizing
materials for the rail ties), ties and rail over the completed
railbed base. Other activities would include: installation of
at-grade crossings, fencing as needed, train monitoring and
signals and communication equipment, and final grading of slopes,
rock-fall protection devices, and restoration of disturbed areas.
Operation of the Caliente rail line would be consistent with
Federal Railroad Administration standards for maintenance,
operations, and safety. A typical spent nuclear fuel and
high-level radioactive waste train would consist of two
diesel-electric locomotives; three or more rail cars containing
spent nuclear fuel or high-level radioactive waste; buffer cars;
and an escort car. A typical train carrying construction
materials would not have buffer cars or an escort car.
At the Yucca Mountain repository, rail cars containing casks of
spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste would move
through a security check into the radiologically controlled area.
The casks would be inspected and protective barriers removed, in
preparation for waste handling at the repository. Rail cars
carrying construction materials would be offloaded and the
materials stockpiled on site.
Preliminary Alternatives As required by the Council on
Environmental Quality and Department regulations that implement
NEPA, the Rail Alignment EIS will analyze and present the
environmental impacts associated with the range of reasonable
alternatives to meet DOE's purpose and need for a rail line, and
a no action alternative. The preliminary alternatives for the
alignment comprise a series of common segments and alternatives
(maps may be obtained as described above in ADDRESSES). The
Department is particularly interested in identifying and
subsequently evaluating any additional reasonable alternatives
that would reduce or avoid known or potential adverse
environmental impacts, national security activities, features
having aesthetic values, and land-use conflicts, or alternatives
that should be eliminated from detailed consideration. This could
include identifying alternatives that could avoid wilderness
study areas or other land use conflicts. The preliminary
alternatives include: Interface With Mainline Railroad Three
alternatives are available to connect to the existing mainline
railroad, each of which would intersect the common segment of the
rail alignment about 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) southwest of
Panaca, Nevada, along U.S. 93 in the Meadow Valley area. The
Caliente Alternative would begin at the town of Caliente, enter
Meadow Valley at Indian Cove and extend north
[[Page 18567]] through Meadow Valley to converge with the common
segment. This alternative is about 10.5 miles (17 kilometers) in
length. The Eccles Alternative would begin at the Eccles siding
along Clover Creek about 5 miles (8 kilometers) east of Caliente,
trend generally north entering Meadow Valley on the southeast,
and would then trend northward to converge with the common
segment. This alternative is about 11 miles (18 kilometers) in
length.
The Crestline Alternative would begin north of the Crestline
siding in Sheep Spring Draw, extend west after crossing Lincoln
County Road 75, and pass north of the Cedar Range. It would then
veer northwesterly just north of Miller Spring Wash and converge
with the common segment just south of the Big Hogback. This
alternative is about 23 miles (38 kilometers) in length.
White River The two White River Alternatives would depart from
the common segment about 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) west of its
crossing of the White River immediately west of State Route 318.
The northern White River Alternative (WR1) would follow the White
River, curve around the northern end of the Seaman Range, and
then turn southwest entering Coal Valley. This alternative is
about 25 miles (40 kilometers) in length.
The southern White River Alternative (WR2) would depart the same
common segment but would extend westerly along the flanks of
Timber Mountain, proceed through Timber Mountain Pass, and then
enter Coal Valley. This alternative is about 18.5 miles (30
kilometers) in length.
Once in Coal Valley, both alternatives would merge with the
Garden Valley Alternatives. Several options are available to
merge the White River Alternatives with the Garden Valley
Alternatives.
Garden Valley The southern Garden Valley Alternative (GV2) would
start about 2 miles (3 kilometers) east of the water gap located
along Seaman Wash Road, proceed westward through the Golden Gate
Mountains, and turn southwesterly through Garden Valley to
reconnect to a common segment about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers)
northeast of the pass between the Worthington Mountains and the
Quinn Canyon Range. This alternative is about 17 miles (27.5
kilometers) in length. The northern Garden Valley Alternative
(GV1) would diverge from the same common segment as Alternative
GV2, but would pass through the Golden Gate Mountains about 4
miles (6.5 kilometers) further north of the Alternative GV2
location. Alternative GV1 would then continue southwesterly
through Garden Valley to reconnect with the common segment
described for Alternative GV2. This alternative is about 19 miles
(31 kilometers) in length.
Mud Lake The Mud Lake Alternatives would depart a common segment
located near the northwest corner of the Nevada Test and Training
Range (previously known as Nellis Air Force Range) immediately
north of Mud Lake. The western Mud Lake Alternative (ML1) would
pass about 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) northwest of Mud Lake
avoiding its western shoreline, and would extend southward to
reconnect with a common segment.
This alternative is about 3 miles (5 kilometers) in length.
The eastern Mud Lake Alternative (ML2) also would skirt Mud Lake
to avoid its western shoreline and would reconnect with the same
common segment as the western Mud Lake Alternative. This
alternative is about 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) in length.
Goldfield There are two alternatives associated with Goldfield.
The western Goldfield Alternative (GF1), from its connection to
Alternative ML1, would extend southward into the Goldfield Hills
area passing about 1 mile (1.5 kilometers) east of Black Butte.
This alternative would then turn east to pass about 1 mile (1.5
kilometers) northeast of Espina Hill and then would bear south to
pass about 1 mile (1.5 kilometers) east of Blackcap Mountain.
Alternative GF1 would then continue in a southerly direction
following an abandoned rail line to reconnect to a common segment
located about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) north-northeast of
Ralston, Nevada. This alternative is about 25 miles (41
kilometers) in length.
From its connection with Alternative ML2, the eastern Goldfield
Alternative (GF2) would extend south-southeast into the Nevada
Test and Training Range, and then would emerge from the Range
turning southwest to converge with the western Goldfield
Alternative (GF1) as it enters Stonewall Flat. This alternative
is about 22 miles (35.5 kilometers) in length.
DOE is aware of concerns raised by the Department of Defense and
the U.S. Air Force regarding the alternatives that intersect the
Nevada Test and Training Range lands, and will consult with the
Department of Defense and the U.S. Air Force during the Rail
Alignment EIS process to ensure the transportation alignment
selected does not compromise public safety, national security
interests, or training and testing at the Nevada Test and
Training Range.
Bonnie Claire Bonnie Claire comprises two alternatives that would
depart a common segment located about 3.3 miles (5.5 kilometers)
southeast of Lida Junction, Nevada. The western Bonnie Claire
Alternative (BC1) would follow an abandoned rail line to cross
U.S. 95 about 1 mile (1.5 kilometers) south of Stonewall Pass,
and would then trend southeast paralleling U.S. 95 on the west
across Sarcobatus Flat. This alternative would then cross State
Route 267 about 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) southwest of Scotty's
Junction, continuing southeasterly until crossing U.S. 95 again
on the eastern edge of Sarcobatus Flat about 14 miles (22.5
kilometers) northwest of Springdale, Nevada. This alternative is
about 22 miles (35.5 kilometers) in length. The eastern Bonnie
Claire Alternative (BC2) would parallel the contours of Stonewall
Mountain to the southeast and would then extend south, adjacent
to the western edge of Pahute Mesa. This alternative would then
parallel the northern side of U.S. 95 about 1 mile (1.5
kilometers) until it converges with the western Bonnie Claire
Alternative (BC1) on the eastern edge of Sarcobatus Flat. This
alternative is about 25.5 miles (41 kilometers) in length. DOE is
aware of concerns raised by the Department of Defense and the
U.S. Air Force regarding the alternatives that intersect the
Nevada Test and Training Range lands, and will consult with the
Department of Defense and the U.S. Air Force during the Rail
Alignment EIS process to ensure the transportation alignment
selected does not compromise public safety, national security
interests, or training and testing at the Nevada Test and
Training Range.
Oasis Valley Oasis Valley includes two alternatives that would
avoid naturally- occurring springs. Both alternatives would
depart a common segment about 2 miles (3 kilometers)
east-northeast of Oasis Mountain. Alternative OV1 is about 3
miles (5 kilometers) in length.
Alternative OV2, which is about 3.5 miles (5.5 kilometers) in
length, would cross Oasis Valley further to the east of
Alternative OV1, thereby increasing the distance to the springs.
Beatty Wash The Beatty Wash alternatives would depart from a
common segment about 3
[[Page 18568]] miles (5 kilometers) east-northeast of the hot
springs north of Beatty and about 2 miles (3 kilometers)
north-northeast of Beatty Wash.
The eastern Beatty Wash Alternative (BW2) would extend east for
about 5 miles (8 kilometers), then turn southward crossing a pass
about 1 mile (1.5 kilometers) east of the Silicon and Thompson
Mines. Alternative BW2 would then turn south to converge with
Alternative BW1 about 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) east-northeast of
Merklejoho Peak. This alternative is about 14 miles (22
kilometers) in length.
The western Beatty Wash Alternative (BW1) would extend south from
the common segment described for Alternative BW2, crossing Beatty
Wash and proceeding to the west of the Silicon and Thompson Mines
before reconnecting with a common segment. This alternative is
about 8 miles (13 kilometers) in length.
No Action Alternative The No Action Alternative would evaluate
the consequences of not constructing a rail line in Nevada for
the transportation of spent nuclear fuel, high-level radioactive
waste and other materials.
Under the No Action Alternative, these materials would be shipped
by legal- weight and heavy-haul truck within the State of Nevada
to a repository at Yucca Mountain. About 53,000 legal-weight
truck and 300 heavy-haul truck shipments of spent nuclear fuel
and high-level radioactive waste would be required.
Environmental Issues and Resources To Be Examined To facilitate
the scoping process, DOE has identified a preliminary list of
issues and environmental resources that it may consider in the
Rail Alignment EIS. The list is not intended to be all-inclusive
or to predetermine the scope or alternatives of the Rail
Alignment EIS, but should be used as a starting point from which
the public can help DOE define the scope of the EIS. DOE
anticipates incorporating by reference the relevant analyses of
the Repository Final EIS, supplemented as appropriate.
Potential impacts to the concept of multiple use as it applies to
public land use planning and management specified by the Federal
Land Policy and Management Act of 1976.
Potential impacts to land use and ownership.
Potential impacts to plants, animals and their habitats,
including impacts to wetlands, and threatened and endangered and
other sensitive species.
Potential impacts to cultural and Native American resources.
Potential impacts to paleontological resources.
Potential impacts to the public from noise and vibration.
Potential impacts to the general public and workers from
radiological exposures during incident-free operations of the
rail line in Nevada.
Potential impacts to the general public and workers from
radiological exposures from potential accidents during operations
of the rail line in Nevada.
Potential impacts to water resources and floodplains.
Potential impacts to aesthetic values.
Potential disproportionately high and adverse impacts to
low-income and minority populations (environmental justice).
Irretrievable and irreversible commitment of resources.
Compliance with applicable Federal, state and local requirements.
The Department specifically invites comments on the following: 1.
Should additional alternatives be considered that might minimize,
avoid or mitigate adverse environmental impacts (for example,
looking beyond the 0.25 mile wide corridor, avoiding wilderness
study areas, Native American Trust Lands, or encroachment on the
Nevada Test and Training Range)? 2. Should any of the preliminary
alternatives be eliminated from detailed consideration? 3. Should
additional environmental resources be considered? 4. Should DOE
allow private entities to ship commercial commodities on its rail
line? 5. What mitigation measures should be considered? 6. Are
there national security issues that should be addressed? Schedule
The DOE intends to issue the Draft Rail Alignment EIS early in
2005 at which time its availability will be announced in the
Federal Register and local media. A public comment period will
start upon publication of the Environmental Protection Agency's
Notice of Availability in the Federal Register. The Department
will consider and respond to comments received on the Draft Rail
Alignment EIS in preparing the Final Rail Alignment EIS.
Other Agency Involvement The Department expects to invite the
following agencies to be cooperating agencies in the preparation
of the Rail Alignment EIS: U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the
U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Surface Transportation Board. These
agencies were selected because they have management and
regulatory authority over lands traversed by an alternative rail
alignment within the Caliente rail corridor, or special expertise
germane to the construction and operation of a rail line. DOE
will consult with the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Native American Tribal organizations, the
State of Nevada, and Nye, Lincoln and Esmeralda Counties
regarding the environmental and regulatory issues germane to the
Proposed Action. DOE invites comments on its identification of
cooperating and consulting agencies and organizations.
Public Scoping Meetings DOE will hold public scoping meetings on
the Rail Alignment EIS. The meetings will be held at the
following locations and times: Amargosa Valley, Nevada.
Longstreet Inn and Casino, Highway 373, May 3, 2004 from 4-8 p.m.
Goldfield, Nevada. Goldfield Community Center, 301 Crook Street,
May 4, 2004 from 4-8 p.m. Caliente, Nevada. Caliente Youth
Center, U.S. Highway 93, Caliente, Nevada, May 5, 2004 from 4-8
p.m. The public scoping meetings will be an open meeting format
without a formal presentation by DOE. Members of the public are
invited to attend the meetings at their convenience any time
during meeting hours and submit their comments in writing at the
meeting, or in person to a court reporter who will be available
throughout the meeting.
This open meeting format increases the opportunity for public
comment and provides for one-on-one discussions with DOE
representatives involved with the Rail Alignment EIS and Nevada
transportation project.
The public scoping meetings will be held during the public
scoping comment period. The comment period begins with
publication of this NOI in the Federal Register and closes May
24, 2004. Comments received after this date will be considered to
the extent practicable.
Written comments may be provided in writing, facsimile, or by
email to Ms. Robin Sweeney, EIS Document Manager (see ADDRESSES
above).
Public Reading Rooms Documents referenced in this Notice of
Intent and related information are available at the following
locations: Beatty Yucca Mountain Information Center, 100 North E.
Avenue, Beatty, NV
[[Page 18569]] 89003, (775) 553-2130; Yucca Mountain Information
Center, 105 S.
Main Street, Goldfield, NV 89013, (775) 485-3419; Las Vegas Yucca
Mountain Information Center, 4101-B Meadows Lane, Las Vegas, NV
89107, (702) 295-1312; Lincoln County Nuclear Waste Project
Office, 100 Depot Avenue, Caliente, NV 89008, (775) 726-3511; Nye
County Department of Natural Resources and Federal Facilities,
1210 E. Basin Road, Suite 6, Pahrump, NV 89060 (775) 727-7727;
Pahrump Yucca Mountain Information Center, 1141 S. Highway 160,
Suite 3, Pahrump, NV 89041, (775) 727-0896; University of Nevada,
Reno, The University of Nevada Libraries, Business and Government
Information Center, M/S 322, 1664 N. Virginia Street, Reno, NV
89557, (775) 784-6500, Ext. 309; and the U.S. Department of
Energy Headquarters Office Public Reading Room, 1000 Independence
Avenue SW., Room 1E-190 (ME-74) FORS, Washington, DC 20585,
202-586-3142.
Issued in Washington, DC, on April 2, 2004.
Beverly A. Cook, Assistant Secretary, Environment, Safety and
Health.
[FR Doc. 04-7950 Filed 4-7-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
*****************************************************************
47 Deseretnews: Waste firm accepts denial of permit
[deseretnews.com]
Thursday, April 8, 2004
Cedar Mountain Environmental Inc.
announced Wednesday it will not appeal Tooele County's decision
denying the company a permit to built a low-level radioactive
waste facility on 500 acres next to Envirocare of Utah.
Instead, the company owned by former Envirocare president
Charles Judd stated in a press release it will reapply for a
temporary conditional use permit for a facility to be located in
what was described only as within the county's hazardous waste
corridor in the western desert.
The three-member Tooele County Commission denied a request
last month from Charles Judd, a former Envirocare president, for
a permit to build what would have been the county's second such
facility.
Commissioners said at the time that Judd did not
demonstrate a need for another facility. Envirocare has said
there is not enough low-level radioactive waste available to
make both companies profitable.
Judd has said his company could boost county coffers by
$2 million, nearly half of what Envirocare provides annually in
gross receipts tax revenue.
"We think there's a need for another waste facility and
that there is plenty of waste out there," he said in March.
© 2004 Deseret News Publishing Company
*****************************************************************
48 Colorado Daily: Council, Udall tackling Flats future
By RICHARD VALENTY Colorado
Daily Staff Writer
The former Rocky Flats plutonium-trigger manufacturing site is
currently in the midst of a $7 billion cleanup effort with a goal
of creating a Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge that could be
safe for human activity.
The key word is "safe." Since the Flats weapons operation dealt
with large quantities of plutonium, which has a half-life of some
24,000 years, some local leaders think the federal government
should wait for a small fraction of that half-life before
allowing recreational activities at the refuge.
Tonight Boulder's City Council will review a letter that could be
sent to the U.S. Fish &Wildlife Service explaining the city's
position on possible recreation at the site.
Upon completion of the Flats cleanup, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) and the Colorado Department of Public
Health and Environment (CDPHE) will evaluate the site. If deemed
safe, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) would transfer parts of
the site to Fish &Wildlife Service for operation as a wildlife
refuge.
Fish Wildlife has prepared a draft Comprehensive Conservation
Plan and Environmental Impact Statement for the future refuge.
Two of the four alternative plans outlined could allow human
recreation. Alternative "B," the preferred choice of Fish
&Wildlife, would phase in public access over a period of five
years, while Alternative "D" might allow human access within 6-12
months.
Council member Shaun McGrath will be explaining the city's
preferred Alternative "C" tonight, which would restrict access
for 15 years and direct Fish &Wildlife to restore the site to
"pre-settlement conditions."
McGrath is the city representative to Rocky Flats Coalition of
Local Governments (RFCLOG). The RFCLOG cities of Broomfield,
Arvada and Westminster as well as Jefferson County favor "B" or
"D," while Boulder, Boulder County and Superior favor a longer
period of testing before opening the site to visitors.
"We're dealing with a lot of unknowns," said McGrath. "One group
(of RFCLOG entities) is fairly certain it will be safe, but we
believe potential problems could possibly arise. We would rather
approach it cautiously."
If DOE and Kaiser-Hill Company are doing a careful site cleanup,
what could go wrong? According to the city's letter to Fish
&Wildlife, the former Rocky Mountain Arsenal site is also being
managed as a wildlife refuge, and sarin (a deadly nerve gas)
bombs were found on site in 2001, about 14 years after cleanup
began.
In other words, a simple human error like missing a radioactive
"hot spot" could be deadly.
Recently, authors Wes McKinley and Caron Balkany published a
book, "The Ambushed Grand Jury," which accused the U.S.
Department of Justice of covering up potential environmental
crimes at Rocky Flats.
In particular, former Flats employee Jacque Brever was depicted
in the book as informing the FBI that the plant was performing
illegal midnight plutonium incineration at Flats Building 771 in
1988 and 1989.
Congressman Mark Udall, D-Boulder, sent a letter to the CDPHE and
the EPA on March 16, asking if the agencies had examined and
addressed allegations made in "Ambushed."
Douglas Benavento, CDPHE executive director, sent a three-page
response to Udall March 26. Benavento said 771 is "slated for
demolition later this year," and soil sampling on site would
"identify any dispersed environmental contamination from an
incinerator in this building."
Robert E. Roberts, EPA regional administrator, replied to Udall
March 30. Roberts said EPA and CDPHE are requiring additional
sampling of Flats soils, but not "because of the alleged illegal
incineration activities discussed in the ("Ambushed") book."
According to Roberts, the sampling results will be available in
late 2004.
Doug Young, Udall's district policy director, said the letters
from EPA and CDPHE indicate that there is an "aggressive" cleanup
being performed, yet citizens should still speak out if they know
of unsolved problems.
"People who believe the regulatory agencies are missing something
can come forward right now, and I think ought to come forward and
let us know, so the EPA and CDPHE can go out and do an
investigation," said Young.
Citizens can comment to Fish &Wildlife on the comprehensive
conservation plan-environmental impact statement before April 26.
Also, a draft of the city's letter to Fish &Wildlife can be found
at www.ci.boulder.co.us. Go to "City Council," then "Agendas,"
and click item 7C on the April 8 agenda.
*****************************************************************
49 lamonitor.com: Headline News LANL exempted on sealed source disposal
The Online News Source for Los Alamos
2004/04/08
ROGER SNODGRASS, roger@lamonitor.com, Monitor Assistant Editor
The New Mexico Environment Department has exempted radioactive
wastes in the form of sealed sources from complicated procedures
that have hindered disposal of encapsulated nuclear materials
potentially attractive to terrorists. NMED quietly approved the
decision to modify its Hazardous Waste Facility Permit for the
Waste Isolation Pilot Project in Carlsbad in a letter to
managers.
"The sealed source program is very important to homeland security
requirements," said Dennis Hurt, a DOE spokesperson by telephone
from Carlsbad on Wednesday.
The testing for headspace gas sampling for sealed sources, is no
longer considered necessary, he said. It slows the process down
and, because it involves breeching a double-wrapped and secure
container, is considered more dangerous for workers.
DOE said in a statement Wednesday, that they had "demonstrated to
NMED's satisfaction that the possibility of hazardous gases
inside sealed sources is insignificant." Sealed sources
containing by-products from nuclear reactors have been used for a
variety of industrial and research purposes throughout the
country. They were scattered around in a relatively unregulated
environment until 1979 when Los Alamos National Laboratory began
accepting and storing them on a temporary basis.
Over time, LANL's off-site recovery program (OSRP) has collected
thousands of sealed sources, including plutonium-239 materials
that were defense related or no longer used by universities.
These materials meet one of the criteria for storage at WIPP, but
until recently have not been accepted there because they were not
defense related. After 9/11 that changed, said Lee Leonard, Los
Alamos manager of OSRP.
"It's really a national security program now," he said, noting
Congress tasked OSRP to recover 5,000 sources between Oct. 2002
and April 2004. He said the program has exceeded the goal by 500
items.
A number of sealed sources have been authorized to b e discarded
at WIPP because they contain weapons-grade materials and the list
may be expanded.
"Since we've become a national security program, we've been asked
to get into other kinds of sources - not just transuranic
materials - but any source that has the potential to be used by a
terrorist, like cobalt or cesium," Leonard said.
Relief from procedures that were routine, but not necessarily
applicable, to these materials is considered a milestone in the
recovery project.
"It would allow us to move these sources more quickly through
LANL and off the Hill and get them where they belong," Leonard
said.
Jon Goldstein, communications director for NMED, acknowledged the
department had authorized the modification. From Las Cruces,
Wednesday, he referred questions to the department's WIPP
Information Page on the web,
http://www.nmenv.state.nm.us/wipp/index.html, where the letter of
determination can be found along with public comments regarding
the change.
Among concerns expressed by the public was that the exemption was
to be allowed based on the reliability of the documentation,
known as "Acceptable Knowledge."
"All waste streams going to WIPP require an AK," Leonard said.
"That's a document that explains that you really know what you're
throwing away. We already know what these things are in a very
exact way, unlike the normal WIPP waste."
He compared it to throwing away a car part with a part number and
complete information about its manufacture and origin, as opposed
to "normal WIPP waste," which is more like throwing away a bag of
garbage whose contents is highly variable diverse and more
difficult to characterize. The recorded contents of a sealed
source can be verified by a non-destructive assay that would
verify the characterization of the radioactive material.
He said the lab would be in a position to ship sources by
mid-summer, but because of delays in shipping another lab waste
stream, the Quick-to-WIPP drums, the sealed sources might not be
shipped first.
© 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
50 Oak Ridger: $2.5B UT-Battelle, lab deal nears end
Story last updated at 11:23 a.m. on April 8, 2004
OAK RIDGE MAYOR: 'I can't imagine any reason - reasonable or not
- why that contract would not be extended.'
By: Paul Parson | Oak Ridger Staff paul.parson@oakridger.com
With UT-Battelle now on the last year of its contract to manage
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the inevitable question is whether
or not the company will continue to manage the federal research
facility.
While some observers speculate the deal will be renewed, as of
this morning, there was no answer to that question.
"I can't imagine any reason - reasonable or not - why that
contract would not be extended," said Oak Ridge Mayor David
Bradshaw.
At least two Department of Energy officials said the federal
agency typically notifies its contractors about the fate of a
contract about 18 months to a year before a deal ends.
UT-Battelle's $2.5 billion, five-year contract is set to expire
at the end of March 2005.
However, Billy Stair, a spokesman for UT-Battelle, responded "no"
when asked this morning if the company's contract had been
extended or if the contract was being put out for rebid.
In fact, he said UT-Battelle has had no conversation with DOE
about the contract.
"If there was a serious problem, they would've talked to us,"
Stair said.
In making a decision on the contract, Stair said DOE will be
looking for a record of accomplishment by UT-Battelle. As
examples to support that record, Stair noted the construction of
the Spallation Neutron Source, which is on time and on budget, as
well as the modernization work that's been done at ORNL and the
safety improvements the company has made at the lab.
Bradshaw said UT-Battelle's record of accomplishment doesn't just
involve ORNL.
"From the very beginning, UT-Battelle raised the bar on community
involvement," Bradshaw said. "Their involvement in the community
is huge."
As examples, the mayor noted the company's efforts to help
modernize the aging Oak Ridge High School, its contributions to
science labs at various area high schools and its work to get a
finish-line tower for the Oak Ridge Rowing Association - among
other things.
When The Oak Ridger initially asked DOE spokesman Joe Davis about
the fate of UT-Battelle's contract on Wednesday, he responded via
e-mail: "What's your deadline? Can you be flexible? Can we talk
about it on Friday? I would really appreciate it."
Asked if that meant an announcement was pending, Davis stated in
a second e-mail that it would be inappropriate for him to comment
on the contract. However, he stated: "DOE is satisfied with the
job UT-Battelle has done managing ORNL."
Since taking over as ORNL's manager, UT-Battelle has received
high marks on annual performance reviews by DOE. UT-Battelle is a
partnership between Battelle and the University of Tennessee.
*****************************************************************
51 Tri-City Herald: River cleanup proposal changed
This story was published Thursday, April 8th, 2004
By Annette Cary
Two changes to the final contract proposal to clean up Hanford
land along the river corridor should ease some Tri-City concerns.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will have more time to
relocate offices and labs from the 300 Area just north of
Richland, said Energy Deputy Secretary Kyle McSlarrow in a phone
interview Wednesday.
"Potentially 1,000 highly skilled workers would have been on the
street," said Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., who negotiated for
changes in the proposal.
In addition, in the final proposal the winning contractor will be
required to "really involve small business," McSlarrow said.
The final River Corridor Contract proposal will be released in
about a month, with the award of the contract likely in the fall.
The contract will include the demolition and sealing of old
reactor complexes along the Columbia River at the northern end of
Hanford and the cleanup of the industrial 300 Area along the
river at the south end of the Hanford complex.
Many of the laboratories and offices in the 300 Area were built
in the 1950s. In many cases, processes were tested at pilot scale
in the 300 Area before being transferred to full-scale production
of plutonium for weapons at Hanford.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory continues to use 19
buildings, including two that date from the 1970s. About 900
employees, or nearly a quarter of its work force, have offices in
the 300 Area.
Under the draft proposal for the River Corridor Contract released
last year, national lab officials understood that they needed to
be out of the 300 Area by 2007. Having replacement offices and
labs available on the accelerated cleanup schedule would have
been difficult, if not impossible, even though they were being
used for critical research for the departments of Energy, Defense
and Homeland Security.
The final proposal will push that date back to 2009, McSlarrow
said.
"We want to make sure activities at Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory -- it's a jewel in the crown -- are protected,"
McSlarrow said.
The new proposal should prevent work at the lab from being
disrupted but still allow DOE to continue cleanup progress at the
300 Area and meet accelerated goals, he said.
PNNL is estimating that replacing the 700,000 square feet of
office and lab space it is using in the 300 Area will cost $250
million. Although not all buildings are contaminated, the ground
and waste utility system beneath much of the site are
contaminated.
The two-year delay in vacating the 300 Area is "very, very good
for us," said PNNL Director Len Peters. "It gives us adequate
time to work through the DOE budgetary process."
The lab will need preliminary engineering and design funds in
2005 and 2006. Some construction will be done in 2007 and 2008,
allowing workers to begin moving to the replacement campus in
2008, Peters said. All workers could be out of the 300 Area by
2009.
The move will give DOE and PNNL the opportunity to create a
modern and consolidated campus, said PNNL spokesman Greg Koller.
Little information is available yet on how the new office and lab
space will be paid for, but Peters said federal government and
third-party financing are likely.
Hastings has supported accelerated cleanup of Hanford but was
concerned about the conflict between cleanup and maintaining
facilities for a national laboratory in the Tri-Cities that will
continue to be a major force in the Tri-City economy after
cleanup is completed.
"In a conflict like that you have to have common sense prevail,"
he said. He's been meeting with McSlarrow, the second-highest
ranking official in DOE, and other DOE officials about the
problem for several months.
Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both D-Wash., also
supported changes to the contract proposal that would give the
national lab in Richland more time to vacate the 300 Area.
"Sen. Murray is glad to see (deadlines) being pushed back, but
still needs to see what the plan for replacement is going to be,"
said her spokeswoman, Alex Glass.
Hastings also is continuing to work to get other provisions
changed in the final River Corridor Contract proposal, including
providing a larger role for small businesses and addressing
concerns about curtailed pension benefits.
McSlarrow said the final proposal will address small business
concerns, while still naming a main contractor to manage the
large and complicated project.
The president has made extending federal contract opportunities
to small businesses a priority, McSlarrow said.
The Tri-Cities Local Business Association had complained that the
draft proposal required no small business participation unless
the main contractor hired subcontractors. Then half that work
would have had to been done by small businesses.
The association believes that the River Corridor Contract is
essentially many smaller contracts for diverse projects bundled
together. It has asked that the contract be broken into five to
10 individual contracts that small businesses would be more
likely to bid on and win.
It persuaded the Small Business Administration to look into the
matter. In addition the General Accounting Office is conducting a
nationwide review of small business contracting at DOE sites.
If the final River Corridor Contract proposal "forces the
contractors to utilize small and local contractors, it is a step
in the right direction," said Sid Morrison of the Tri-Cities
Local Business Association.
But he cautioned, "I've got to read the fine print."
The association has argued that the contract proposal includes
work that is not highly technical or hazardous that local
businesses could perform. It believes making it easier for small
businesses to do the work would save overhead costs and help them
grow into stronger, more experienced companies that would remain
after Hanford cleanup dollars are gone.
"We'd just like to have the chance to compete," Morrison said.
DOE is expected to release a statement today on changes made so
far to the final River Corridor Contract proposal.
© 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
52 Google News Alert - nuclear
Date: Thu, 08 Apr 2004 14:30:28 -0700 (PDT)
BRAZIL'S nuclear plans worry its neighbors, US
Miami Herald - Miami,FL,USA
What? A Latin American nuclear power? A Brazilian ... unfair. Later, he
said Brazil has no intentions of developing a nuclear program. But ...
See all stories on this topic:
PROTESTS filed against proposed nuclear fuel factory near Eunice
KOB-TV - Albuquerque,NM,USA
The founder of Citizens Nuclear Information Center in Hobbs , Lee Cheney,
says a key issue for opponents is the nuclear waste that the factory would
produce. ...
See all stories on this topic:
ENERGY Dept. threatens to withhold $350 million for nuclear ...
The Olympian - Olympia,WA,USA
... Sen. Patty Murray reminded her that some people have characterized
the department's strategy as "blackmail" in an attempt to get the federal
nuclear waste law ...
See all stories on this topic:
'N. Korea keen to resolve nuclear, abduction issues'
Daily Yomiuri - Tokyo,Japan
... Liberal Democratic Party Vice President Taku Yamasaki told Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi on Wednesday that Pyongyang aims to resolve the nuclear
arms and ...
See all stories on this topic:
US, Japan, South Korea hold talks on DPRK nuclear issue
Xinhua - China
... April 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Diplomats of the United States,Japan and South
Korea held private talks in San Francisco, California Wednesday on the
nuclear issue of ...
See all stories on this topic:
NEW SEIU Report Details Multiple Security Problems at US Nuclear ...
Yahoo News (press release) - USA
WASHINGTON, April 8 /PRNewswire/ -- The single largest supplier of private
security guards to sensitive US nuclear facilities is a private firm --
the ...
BELGIUM 'needs nuclear to beat global warming'
Expatica - Netherlands
BRUSSELS - Belgium will not be able to honour a pledge to make significant
cuts in its greenhouse gas emissions if it scraps its nuclear power stations,
it was ...
IRAN to build nuclear reactor, diplomats say
Billings Gazette - Billings,MT,USA
VIENNA, Austria - Iran will start building a nuclear reactor in June that
can produce weapons-grade plutonium, diplomats said Wednesday. ...
See all stories on this topic:
CITY prepares nuclear sub drill
BBC News - London,England,UK
Emergency planners have given a clear signal that nuclear submarines are
to return to Southampton, after preparing a radiation disaster action
plan. ...
NUCLEAR politics
Pahrump Valley Times - Pahrump,NV,USA
I attended the recent railroad subcommittee field hearing in Las Vegas
and it was politics at its best or worst. First, the hearing ...
See all stories on this topic:
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53 [DU-WATCH] number of new articles on DU
Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 01:31:08 -0500 (CDT)
TESTING of possible uranium contamination urged
Puerto Rico Wow - Puerto Rico,USA
. called on Monday for the testing of Puerto Rican
military personnel
returning from Kosovo and Iraq to ascertain if they
are contaminated with
depleted uranium. ...
THE Hidden Unseen War: The Reality of Bush's Iraq
Scoop.co.nz (press release) - New Zealand
. not we forget, thousands of these brave and young
men and women will
carry with them back to their homes the pulverized
remnants of depleted
uranium from our ...
WORLD / Nation Briefs
Newsday - Long Island,NY,USA
. GIs TESTED FOR URANIUM EXPOSURE. The Army is
testing a handful of GIs
who complained of illnesses after reported exposure to
depleted uranium
in Iraq. ...
US soldiers could be contaminated
Granma International, Cuba - 3 hours ago
WASHINGTON (PL).Around 20 soldiers from the New York
National Guard have undergone medical checks on their
return from Iraq to see if they have been ...
Health Highlights: April 6, 2004
Health Day, United States - 5 hours ago
The US Army has begun testing members of the New York
National Guard returning from Iraq for possible
depleted uranium contamination. ...
Pataki urges Pentagon to tend to soldiers' health
Kansas City Star (subscription), MO - 18 hours ago
BY JUAN GONZALEZ. NEW YORK - (KRT) - New York Gov.
George E. Pataki joined the growing list of local
leaders yesterday calling on ...
Army to Test New York National Guard Unit Returning
from Iraq for ...
Miami Herald, FL - 18 hours ago
By Juan Gonzalez, Daily News, New York Knight
Ridder/Tribune Business News. Apr. 5 - Army officials
at Fort Dix and Walter Reed Army ...
GIs tested for depleted uranium exposure
Seattle Post Intelligencer, WA - 22 hours ago
FORT DIX, NJ -- The US Army is conducting medical
tests on a handful of GIs who complained of illnesses
after reported exposure to depleted uranium in Iraq.
.
Soldiers home from Iraq being tested for uranium
contamination
Kansas City Star (subscription), MO - Apr 4, 2004
BY JUAN GONZALEZ. NEW YORK - (KRT) - Army officials at
Fort Dix and Walter Reed Army Medical Center are
rushing to test all returning ...
Military is testing for exposure to uranium
The Journal News.com, NY - 13 hours ago
By JANE LERNER. Army reservist Thomas Bicknell
telephoned his parents in West Haverstraw from Iraq a
week ago and told them they ...
Returning GIs tested for exposure to depleted uranium
in Iraq
KPLC-TV, LA - 17 hours ago
Fort Dix, New Jersey-AP -- The US Army is conducting
medical tests on a handful of soldiers who complained
of illnesses after reported exposure to depleted ...
Broadcast Exclusive: US Soldiers Contaminated With
Depleted ...
Democracy Now - Apr 5, 2004
A special investigation by Democracy Now! co-host Juan
Gonzalez of the New York Daily News has found four of
nine soldiers of the ...
Soldiers tested for uranium exposure
Springfield News Leader, MO - Apr 4, 2004
By New York Daily News. New York Army officials are
rushing to test all returning members of the 442nd
Military Police Company ...
GIs Tested for Depleted Uranium Exposure
Guardian, UK - 18 hours ago
FORT DIX, NJ (AP) - The US Army is conducting medical
tests on a handful of GIs who complained of illnesses
after reported exposure to depleted uranium in Iraq
.
Thanks to David Broach for compiling all these
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